Competing locals in an autonomous schooling system: The fracturing of the ‘social’ in social justice

Abstract

This paper troubles notions of ‘social justice’ as being compromised and fractured by the autonomous school agenda. Drawing on interviews with 13 autonomous school principals in Australia, it demonstrates how the devolution of schooling simultaneously rips the seams of the ‘social’ fabric that makes collective justice possible. The stories of these principals signal a fracturing of the social cohesion that is necessary for creating a just and equal society. We aim to distinguish between individual efforts to create socially just conditions at the local level versus collective projects to create socially just conditions at the system level. We argue that, on the one hand, school autonomy affords individual principals opportunities to exercise what might be considered socially just discretion; on the other hand, this sometimes occurs at the expense of fracturing the cohesion of the greater public education system. In doing so, we challenge the extent to which social justice can be realised within a decentralised schooling system.