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.