Interrogating Common Sense: Teaching for Social Justice

Abstract

'Interrogating Commons Sense' deals with the social context of education including critical aspects of critical and social theory and their application to curriculum policy and practice. Its purpose is to introduce students in teacher education to critical discourses and to engage them in employing these in the critical enquiry of curriculum policies and practices. As the discursive and symbolic representation of values and beliefs, institutional practices, structures and experiences, curriculum policy and practice can be analysed through multiple frameworks. The policies of concern are those formulated at both the system and school levels, and linked to the curriculum. The book's title, 'Interrogating Common Sense' alludes to the assumption that education is not just about training students to perform effectively within an existing system, but to also question accepted values, beliefs and assumptions that are held in common, the dominant world views, the practices that are considered neutral or value free, and those which are marginalised or excluded. This text encourages students to analyse and to explain social relations that lead to educational privilege and disadvantage; to identify the power relationships in school contexts; and the reflect upon the education aims and values they uphold. They are also challenged to examine the relationship between their educational concerns and the wider socio-political-cultural context, and to develop strategies for the advancement of equity and equality in education.