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Upcoming event

Defining ‘Social Justice’ in Education and Educational Research: what do we, as practitioners and academics, mean?

This 2-part event will provide a forum to engage in important discussions, reflections and debate on ‘social justice’ in education and development of next steps with attendees in terms of action steps, which may include a Blog and symposium.

Both parts 1 & 2 will discuss: What do we mean, as researchers, educators, policymakers, students, when we use the term ‘social justice’? What does this entail? Who’s scholarly work do we cite and why? What does social justice look like in terms of actions in educational settings? How do we know if we are enacting our social justice principles in our work, teaching, research and interactions with others? Is there a universal definition of social justice? And more importantly, should there be, or does context matter?

These and other questions will be raised in this event through engaging short talks or provocations from four academics. They will share the challenges they have faced when defining and enacting social justice in their professional work/research and engage attendees in discussions on these issues.

The four speakers will include academic, practitioner and policy experts with specialisms in race/ethnicity and education, educational leadership, inclusive education and  early childhood education from the UK and the US.

The aims of the sessions are to:

  • Challenge pre-conceived and assumed notions of ‘social justice’
  • Unpack/unpick commonalities and divergences in our collective beliefs about what social justice ‘is’, ‘means’, how we ‘enact’ social justice principles and what it looks like in action/practice
  • Develop individual and collective action steps to enact social justice principles in our professional and personal contexts

The 2-part event will close with a discussion of next steps and events for the SIG, a blog submission and opportunities to engage in further refinement of what we as a community mean and interpret as ‘social justice’.

You do not need to attend both sessions.

Draft Programme

15:30 Welcome and Introduction
John Parkin, Gigi Chi Ying Lam, Liliana Belkin
15:35 How do we define ‘social justice’ 
15:45 Speaker(s) Presentation
16:10 Discussion and questions
16:20 Speaker(s) Presentation
16:45 Discussion and questions
16:55 Closing remarks and next steps
John Parkin, Gigi Chi Ying Lam, Liliana Belkin
17:00 Close of Event

Register for part 2

Chairs & Speakers

Profile picture of John Parkin
John Parkin, Mr

Academic Employability Consultant at Anglia Ruskin University

John Parkin is an Academic Employability Consultant at Anglia Ruskin University where he works with academics and external partners to embed employability into courses. John Parkin was also a Senior Lecturer Practitioner in Education and a Course...

Profile picture of Gigi Chi Ying Lam
Gigi Chi Ying Lam, Dr

Lecturer of Community Music and Social Justice at University of Southampton

Chiying Lam is a Lecturer in Community Music and Social Justice at the University of Southampton. She also serves as the Deputy Director of Southampton Centre for Music Education and Social Justice. Born and raised in Hong Kong, Chiying completed...

Profile picture of Liliana Belkin
Liliana Belkin, Dr

Senior Lecturer at University of Roehampton

Dr Liliana Belkin has a PhD in Educational Leadership, Administration and Policy from New York University and earned a US-UK Fulbright Core Scholar Fellowship in 2019-2020. She is a Senior Lecturer at the University of Roehampton in the School...