Social justice dispositions informing teachers’ pedagogy in advantaged and disadvantaged secondary schools
The teaching profession is known for its altruism. Many become teachers because they want to make a difference in the lives of their students, and many become this difference for students from disadvantaged backgrounds. Social justice is a strongly held belief among teachers and yet through their practices, they can also unwittingly act in ways that undermine social justice values and beliefs. The classic example is of teachers who allow students of one gender to flout classroom rules even when they believe in gender equality.
In this research project we drew on Pierre Bourdieu’s concept of ‘the habitus’ – the inclinations, tendencies and leanings that provide guidance for social practice – to help us understand the relationship between teachers’ beliefs and practice. Specifically, we sought to uncover the dispositions of teachers in advantaged and disadvantaged secondary schools towards social justice. Drawing on ethnographic methods and deliberately challenging interview strategies, we worked with teachers to uncover their dispositions towards social justice, which are pre-thought or unthought but nonetheless inform their pedagogies.
Working in 10 school sites spread across two large Australian cities, with 10 headteachers and 16 teachers, the research identified five dispositions towards social justice, read off teachers’ practices contextualized within advantaged and disadvantaged settings. The research identified two dispositions (activist and deliberative) as positively disposed towards social justice. A further three (indifferent, resigned and egocentric) were negatively disposed. The research produced new concepts and methods for researching educational inequalities and resources to better enable teachers to act in more socially just ways.
PI and Co-Is - International Collaborators
Professor Trevor Gale – University of Glasgow, School of Education
Associate Professor Russell Cross – University of Melbourne, Australia
Associate Professor Carmen Mills – University of Queensland, Australia
The project team also included:
Dr Stephen Parker (Research Fellow) – University of Glasgow, School of Education
Dr Tebeje Molla Mekonnen (Research Fellow) – Deakin University, Australia
Start and End Date
1 January 2013 to 31 December 2015
Funder and Funding Amount
Australian Research Council, $AU452,501
Related Publications
Articles and chapters
Gale, T., Cross, R. and Mills, C. (2020) Researching teacher practice: social justice dispositions revealed in activity. In: Lynch, J., Rowlands, J., Gale, T. and Parker, S. (eds.) Practice Methodologies in Education Research. Routledge: Abingdon, Oxon ; New York, NY, pp. 48-62. ISBN 9780367193829 (doi:10.4324/9780429202063-3)
Cross, R., Mills, C. and Gale, T. (2019) Thinking with Bourdieu about teachers’ pedagogies and their dispositions for social justice: unthinkingness in aspiration formation. In: Stahl, G., Wallace, D., Burke, C. and Threadgold, S. (eds.) International Perspectives on Theorizing Aspirations: Applying Bourdieu’s Tools. Bloomsbury, pp. 130-144. ISBN 9781350040335
Mills, C., Gale, T., Parker, S., Smith, C. and Cross, R. (2019) Activist dispositions for social justice in advantaged and disadvantaged contexts of schooling. British Journal of Sociology of Education, 40(5), pp. 614-630. (doi: 10.1080/01425692.2019.1582322)
Molla, T. and Gale, T. (2019) Positional matters: school leaders engaging with national equity agendas. Journal of Education Policy, 34(6), pp. 858-876. (doi: 10.1080/02680939.2018.1556811)
Gale, T., Mills, C. and Cross, R. (2017) Socially inclusive teaching: belief, design, action as pedagogic work. Journal of Teacher Education, 68(3), pp. 345-356. (doi: 10.1177/0022487116685754)
Mills, C., Molla, T., Gale, T., Cross, R., Parker, S. and Smith, C. (2017) Metaphor as a methodological tool: identifying teachers’ social justice dispositions across diverse secondary school settings. British Journal of Sociology of Education, 38(6), pp. 856-871. (doi: 10.1080/01425692.2016.1182009)
Gale, T. and Molla, T. (2015) Social justice intents in policy: an analysis of capability for and through education. Journal of Education Policy, 30(6), pp. 810-830. (doi: 10.1080/02680939.2014.987828)
Conference papers:
Gale, T., Cross, R. & Mills, C. (2016) Researching Teachers’ Social Justice Dispositions Through Pedagogic Activity. Paper presented at the American Education Research Association (AERA) Conference, Washington DC, USA, 8-12 April 2016.
Mills, C., Cross, R. & Gale, T. (2018) Pedagogic activity: Situating teachers’ social justice dispositions in context. Paper presented at the Australian Association for Research in Education (AARE) conference, Sydney, 2-6 December.
Cross, R., Mills, C. & Gale, T. (2017) Unthinking-ness, pedagogy, and aspiration formation: Bourdieu’s tool-kit for researching teachers’ pedagogies and the dispositions that guide socially just practice. Paper presented at the Australian Association for Research in Education (AARE) conference, Canberra, 26-30 November.
Mills, C., Smith, C., Gale, T., & Cross, R. (2016) Activist dispositions towards social justice in advantaged and disadvantaged contexts of schooling. Paper presented at the Australian Association for Research in Education (AARE) conference, Melbourne, 27 November – 1 December.
Cross, R., Mills, C., Gale, T., & Smith, C. (2016) An activity theoretical analysis of how socially just pedagogic work is authorized in advantaged and disadvantaged schools. Paper presented at the Australian Association for Research in Education (AARE) conference, Melbourne, 27 November - 1 December.
Gale, T., Cross, R., & Mills, C. (2016) A methodological technique for exploring unspoken dispositions that guide teacher action. Paper presented at the Australian Association for Research in Education (AARE) conference, Melbourne, 27 November - 1 December.
Molla, T., Gale, T., Mills, C., Cross, R., Parker, S. & Smith, C. (2016) Doing social justice in schools: moments of policy compliance, adjustment and contestation. Paper presented at the Annual International Conference of the Australian Association for Research in Education (AARE), Melbourne, Australia, 27 November – 1 December.
Mills, C., Molla, T., Gale, T., Cross, R., Parker, P., & Smith, C. (2015) Metaphors for social justice: Conceptualisations of teachers located at the extremes of education advantage and disadvantage. Paper presented at the Australian Association for Research in Education (AARE) annual international conference, Fremantle, Australia, 29 November – 3 December.
Cross, R., Mills, C., Gale, T., Smith, C., Parker, S., & Molla, T. (2015) Pedagogic authority, action, and power: The distribution of labour in the activity of pedagogic work. Paper presented at the Annual International Conference of the Australian Association for Research in Education (AARE), Fremantle, Australia, 29 November – 3 December.
Cross, R., Gale, T., & Mills, C. (2015) From pedagogic action to pedagogic activity: Reading social justice dispositions from the practice of teachers’ work. Paper presented at the British Educational Research Association (BERA) Conference, Queen’s University Belfast, UK, 15-17 September.
Gale, T., Mills, C., Molla, T., Cross, R., Parker, S., & Smith, S. (2015) Metaphors as framing devices for social justice work in schools. Paper presented at the British Educational Research Association (BERA) Conference, Queen’s University Belfast, UK, 15-17 September.
Gale, T., Mills, C., Molla, T., Cross, R., Parker, S., & Smith, C. (2015) Teachers’ metaphors of social justice: A Bourdieuian investigation of the logics of practice informing social justice work in secondary schools. Paper presented at the European Conference on Educational Research (ECER), Conference of the European Educational Research Association (EERA), Budapest, Hungary, 8-11 September.
Cross, R., Gale, T., & Mills, C. (2015) From pedagogic action to pedagogic activity: Reading social justice dispositions from the practice of teachers’ work. Paper presented at the European Conference on Educational Research (ECER), Conference of the European Educational Research Association (EERA), Budapest, Hungary, 8-11 September.
Gale, T. & Molla, T. (2014) Leading social justice in schools: Prescriptive and descriptive principal dispositions. Paper presented at the Australian Association for Research in Education (AARE) annual international conference, Brisbane, Australia, 30 November - 4 December 2014.
Parker, S., Gale, T. and Molla, T. (2014) Leading Social Justice in Education: Emerging Issues from Australian Schools. British Educational Research Association (BERA) Annual Conference, London, UK, 23-25 Sep 2014.
Parker, S., Gale, T. , Mills, C. and Cross, R. (2014) Teachers’ Social Justice Dispositions, Pedagogic Authority and Classroom Practice in Advantaged and Disadvantaged Contexts. Inaugural Conference of the Melbourne Social Equity Institute: Imagining Social Equity, Melbourne, Australia, 28 Feb - 01 Mar 2014.