Imagining Anti-oppressive Education Futures

Schools, universities and education more broadly are at the centre of multiple contestations over the past, present and future. In the urgency of climate change, artificial intelligence, threats to the rights of marginalised groups, the rise of war, and ongoing colonial and capitalist dominance, challenges for education abound. In addition, with increased state repression, there is a pressing need to rethink the strategies of activism and agitation for just societies.

This collection brings together scholars across a range of contexts who are grappling with these challenges and engaging a radical imagination through theorisation, experimentation and speculation, to transform education into a site of justice and possibility. The authors in this book speak back to dominant discourses and methods in education policy and practice, offering alternative ways of approaching and addressing policy dilemmas in areas such as LGBTQ, climate change and indigenous issues. Based on on-the-ground research, it collates a range of conceptual resources and tools, working to theorise, experiment and speculate as to how schools and education might address harm and inequality, envisioning and enacting different futures.

An essential read for scholars, undergraduate and postgraduate students, as well as those engaged in education in schools and universities – including teachers, school leaders and parents – who are interested in the role of education in addressing issues of social justice in contemporary societies.

Sophie Rudolph is an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Education at the University of Melbourne, Australia. Her teaching and research is concerned with the impact of settler colonialism on education and is informed by historical and sociological perspectives and critical theories.

Bonita S. Cabiles is a Lecturer at RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia. Her current work examines schooling, as a social practice, in contexts of diversity and disadvantage to illuminate socially just possibilities through education.

Stephen Chatelier is Senior Lecturer in International Education in the Faculty of Education, University of Melbourne, Australia. His research draws on postcolonial, social and critical theory to examine educational theory, policy, and practice.

Elisa Di Gregorio is a Lecturer at Adelaide University, Australia. Elisa’s work critically examines schooling systems and the politics of educational inequality. She holds expertise in Australian school funding architectures and formulas, school choice, and equity funding for students with disabilities.

Aleryk Fricker is a proud Dja Dja Wurrung Early Career Researcher in the NIKERI Institute at Deakin University on unceded Wadawurrung Country, Australia. His research focuses on decolonising education and Indigenous education in Australia so all students can benefit from the oldest knowledges in the world.

Archie Thomas is a Chancellors’ Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of Technology Sydney, Australia. His research explores how pedagogical institutions, like schools and the media, can change to service the aspirations of historically marginalised groups.