EducationSocial Justice, Culture, and Policy

Our research theme Social Justice, Culture, and Policy investigates the relationships between education as a fundamental human right and various social justice issues, such as poverty and multiple disadvantages, disability, ethnicity, race, diversity, gender, sexuality, environmental justice, digital inequalities, and global citizenship. It uses interdisciplinary approaches to connect education to cultural, political, social, and economic contexts.

The core of our research theme lies in the development of social justice pedagogies and policies. These are designed to not only enable children, young people, and adult learners facing multiple disadvantages to succeed in education and the labour market, but also to empower them. We strive to give them the agency to shape their own futures, both individually and collectively. Our research has already influenced policy and pedagogical reforms, promoting educational equity and inclusion for all, both locally and globally. 

Co-leads

Subthemes

As a persistent feature of the Scottish, UK and international education systems, educational inequality has been understood and addressed in different ways. Policy initiatives have tended to focus on institutional, predominantly school-based interventions. Underpinning much of this work is the intention to find and deliver interventions that will develop measurable impact and so provide ‘scalable’ responses. Research informing this landscape has sought to inform this ambition. However, it has grappled with finding suitable interventions within the complex social, cultural and economic environments that shape the lives of those experiencing poverty, from working-class backgrounds or other marginalised groups. The result? Not a lot of change.

The work of this sub-theme is focused on exploring how our understanding of different aspects of educational inequality can usefully inform new forms of policy and practice. It explores how educational inequality has been addressed, the strengths and weaknesses of new forms of practice and the potential for significant systems change. The work is collaborative and blends research with innovative forms of practice that are present in schools and communities.

As a potential new member of this subtheme, you will be unhappy, discontent and preferably angry at the extent and persistence of the different aspects of educational inequality. But you will be interested in educational inequality, how it is created, and experienced and, most importantly, how it can be more effectively addressed. While current members reflect a core focus on aspects of social class and poverty the research designs, intended collaborative approaches and theoretical positionings will be of interest to those researching and shaping interventions with other marginalised groups.

Subtheme members

Engaged Scholarship allows university staff to work from within the local community. Rather than visiting communities to collect data or to share the work of the university, this kind of scholarship positions marginalised communities at the heart of the partnership process. Research, knowledge exchange and teaching can all take place in Engaged Scholarship hubs. However, there is a strong ethical element to this engagement where the gain from projects must be bi-directional.

Strathclyde Institute of Education currently hosts an Engaged Scholarship Hub in the East End of Glasgow. Within walking distance of the university, the hub sits in an area of the city where life expectancy is lower than the city average and where residents face many challenges related to deprivation. Yet this hub focuses on the assets and strengths of this community rather than on its deficits. It allows community members and university staff to work together to explore issues, to learn together, and to create new opportunities for the community.

Leads
Subtheme members
Projects

The Glasgow Street Games Project

The community-led Glasgow Street Games project allowed different staff from the university to participate at the hub. Dr. Catriona Ellis (Humanities) started this work as an oral history project, encouraging the community to share the games they played in childhood. Dr. Cara Lamb then supported the women working on the project to teach these games to local children. Partnering with the children at Royston Primary School, the women in the community took on the role of teacher as they introduced and taught the games. In turn, the children took the games back to their playground to share with the other classes in the school.

Learning about the Lungs

A second community-led learning project focused on the lungs. Working with Amanda Corrigan for four weeks, the women in the community built up their own knowledge and understanding of how the lungs work. Working alongside scientists and a physical education specialist allowed the women to think about how they would teach about the lungs in an interesting and engaging way when working with local children. Partnering with Royston Primary School again, the women were able to put their teaching into action.

These learning activities and teaching opportunities empower the people who participate. They place learning at the heart of the community and encourage members of the Engaged Scholarship Hub to see themselves as both learners and teachers. Partnering with the community in meaningful ways allows the university to widen its reach and to extend the scope of its aim to be a place of useful learning that is socially progressive. This work contributes to Goal 1, Goal 4 and Goal 17 of the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

Activities

This work has allowed us to bring science into the community and to bring members of the hub into the university to learn more about science. Working alongside Dr. Iain Moore and Laura Gray, science activities are created to be both interesting and accessible.

Members of the hub have worked together to open a lending library and have worked hard to encourage parents to borrow books to read at home with their children.

Kandi Higgins from the Strathclyde Institute of Education worked with members of the community to explore why uptake for language learning is poor in the local area. This information was used to inform the teaching on the PGDE course at the University of Strathclyde.

Paul Wickham led a creative music session that allowed community members to have a go, to make some noise and to learn together. This activity attracted a number of people who do not normally participate and extended the process of sharing and creating in collaborative ways.

Overview:

The Gender and Sexuality sub-theme brings together interdisciplinary research, teaching, and knowledge exchange across the SIoE on gender and sexual inequalities, as well as gendered, sexualised, racialised and classed inequalities in education, work, policy and social life. It provides a clear intellectual home for critical, creative, and affective scholarship, practice, and social action informed by intersectional, queer, trans, feminist, decolonial and social justice-oriented approaches, with attention to racialised and global perspectives.

Research in this area explores how gendered and sexual inequalities intersect with race, ethnicity, faith, migration, disability and neurodiversity, class, transnationality, nationality, and geopolitics, shaping experiences of education, labour, citizenship, belonging, EDI discourses, policy and institutional life. The sub-theme includes a broad range of research approaches and methodologies, including qualitative, quantitative, mixed-methods, creative and participatory approaches, and is characterised by critical and engaged scholarship connecting theory and research with policy, practice, institutions, communities and public debate.

The sub-theme aims to strengthen cross-sector collaboration,  and external funding bids, and enhance the visibility of gender- and sexuality-related research across the SIoE and beyond. It also contributes to wider debates on equality, inclusion and social justice within education and related social sciences.

Co-Leads: Navan Govender (navan.govender@strath.ac.uk), Siqi Zhang (siqi.zhang@strath.ac.uk)

Current sub-theme members: Clare Binning, Emma Bodig, Kayleigh Charlton, Claire Dohert, Diana (D.) Flemming (she/they), Suzanne Gallacher-Graham, Navan Govender (he/they), Mariya Ivancheva, Susan Ingram, Graeme McAvoy, Owen McGill, Jack McKinlay, Jiayu Shi, Yvette Taylor, Siqi Zhang

Selected Publications

  • Govender, N., & Andrews, G. (2021). Queer critical literacies. In The handbook of critical literacies (pp. 82-93). London & New York: Routledge.
  • Govender, N., & Banegas, D. L. (2022). Gender diversity and sexuality in English language education: New transnational Voices. London: Bloomsbury.
  • Govender, N., & Andrews, G. (2026). Pronouns as Orientation Devices: Critical-Affective Reflections on Language and Cisheteronormativity in Higher Education. South African Review of Sociology, 56(1), 51–71.
  • Peticca-Harris, A., Murgia, A., Alberti, G., & Ivancheva, M. (2025). Intersectionality and precarious subjectivities: within and beyond labour and organisational perspectives. Organization, 32(7), 933-953. 
  • Taylor, Y. (2023) Working-Class Queers: Time, Place and Politics. London and New York: Pluto
  • Taylor, Y. (Ed.) (2026). Queer in a Wee Place: Small Nations, Sexuality & Scotland. Bloomsbury Open Access 
  • Zhang, S., & Mittelmeier, J. (2023). Bringing gender into research with international students. In J. Mittelmeier, S. Lomer, & K. Unkule (Eds.), Research with International Students: Critical Conceptual and Methodological Considerations (pp. 126-135). Routledge. 

Projects

  • Taylor, Y. (PI) Royal Society of Edinburgh (RSE) Personal Fellowship: Queer Social Justice (2023-2025)
  • Andrews, G. & Govender, N. (Eds.) (forthcoming). Queer Critical Literacies in Global Contexts: Transnational voices on queer(ing) languages and literacies in education. London: Bloomsbury (Queer linguistics Series).
  • Gallacher-Graham, S. : PhD project provisionally entitled “Sexual Consent and Sex Education: Capturing the Living Realities of Young People in Scotland Negotiating Sexual Consent”
  • Ogunsakin, O.: PhD project provisionally entitled “Data Justice and Sustainability in International Student Recruitment: Navigating Institutional Logics in Public-Private Partnerships Between EdTech Agencies and UK Universities”

Activities

  • The Strathclyde Feminist Research Network, which has provided a sustained forum for interdisciplinary feminist scholarship, seminars, reading groups, and collaborations across career stages, established by Yvette Taylor in 2016, now co-organised by Mariya Ivancheva.
  • The IAA-ESRC funded Queer Social Justice Pop-Ups (2023–2025) and the RSE funded Queer and the Cost of Living Crisis (2023–2025) fed into the publication of the open access collection Queer in A Wee Place: Small Nations, Sexuality and Scotland (2026), launched at community bookshops, including Lighthouse and Category Is, with a Special Events Panel at the British Sociological Association.
  • Ongoing publication activity by staff associated with the sub-theme, including monographs, edited collections, and journal articles in leading outlets on gender, sexuality, education, labour, and inequality.
  • Supervision of a significant number of PhD students whose research aligns with feminist, queer, and intersectional approaches, contributing to the vitality and future growth of the field within SIoE.
  • Active involvement of PhD students in sub-theme activities, including as presenters, organisers and participants in seminars, workshops, public engagement events and International Women’s Day activities
  • Public engagement, policy-facing work, invited talks, workshops, and collaborations with community organisations and activist groups addressing gender and sexual justice.
  • SGSSS Spring into Methods workshops
  • LGBT History Month activities

These activities demonstrate that Gender and Sexuality research within SIoE is not project-dependent, but represents a continuous, embedded and generative area 

This subtheme is concerned with disability studies and inclusive education. We aim to take an asset-based approach by celebrating diversity, fostering belonging, advocating for dignity, agency, and children's rights.

Researchers in this sub-theme are interested in listening to, affirming and amplifying the ‘voices’ and lived experiences of children, families and communities who experience disability.

The research vision is to facilitate evidence-based approaches to inclusion whilst working towards dismantling ableism and barriers in environments, systems, curricula, pedagogies, policies, research and practice.

Leads
Subtheme members
Recent Publications
  • Cantali, D., Darling-McQuistan, K., Dey, D., Foley, Y., Graham, A., Priestley, A., & Wang, Y. (2025). Inclusion: Every Teacher’s Responsibility: Reflecting on Developing the National Framework for Inclusion 3rd Edition. Scottish Educational Review, 56(1-2), 48-67.
  • Essex, J., & Hendry, M. (2025). Interactions across boundaries: insights into the effect of Scottish policy on a STEM outreach project. Scottish Educational Review, 56(1-2), 92-114.
  • Robinson, D. (2024). Effective Teacher Education for Inclusion: Critical Perspectives on the Role of Higher Education. Routledge.
  • Webber, C., Santi, E., Crompton, C. J., Fletcher-Watson, S., & McGeown, S. (2024). Representation in fiction books: Neurodivergent young people's perceptions of the benefits and potential harms. Neurodiversity, 2, 27546330241237881. Conner, L. C.,
  • Essex, J., Teal Sullivan, P., & Catlin, J. (2024). Embracing materiality as a core element of Arctic pedagogy: Education in transactions across boundaries—Insights into the effect of Scottish policy on a STEM outreach project. The North, 30(2), 50–64.
Projects
  • Roxburgh, D., & Wang, Y. (2024-2026). Going Global Partnership: Co-developing transnational, innovative and culturally sensitive approaches for quality and equitable inclusive education (British Council, £39, 537).
  • Robinson, D. (2025). How can lesson study support the development of individual and collective self-efficacy for inclusive practice for ASN in Scotland’s schools? (Internal New Professor Funding, £24, 500).
Recent Activities

Knowledge Exchange

  • Catlin, J., Mevawalla, Z., & Wang, Y. (23 Sept 2025). ASN and Inclusion: Here and now, co-creating everyday possibilities for the inclusion of every child. CLPL Session, Glasgow, University of Strathclyde.
  • Macaskill, M. (2025). ‘Visible Voices’. A partnership between first year HASS students and ASN schools to advance the understanding of children with complex needs, their voices and educational experiences.
  • Macaskill, M. (2025). Being Together project. Institute for Inspiring Children's Futures: Children and Young People- Celebrating Innovation at Strathclyde (Being Together project).
  • Mevawalla, Z., Fulton, J., Catlin, J., Cologon, K., Harper-Abdullah, M., McConnell, G., & Wang, Y. (2025). The Changing Hearts and Minds Programme (CHAMP) for Inclusive Education in the Early Years.
  • Roxburgh, D., Wang, Y., MacAskill, M., McConnell, G., Mevawalla, Z., Essex, J., Robb, C. (2025). Inclusive education across borders: a collaborative summer school for global sustainable development.
  • Webber, C. (Feb 2025). Education Scotland (Literacy Education Curriculum Network) Invited talk: Diversity and representation in fiction: Neurodivergent perspectives.
  • Webber C., (Jan 2025) Hampshire School Library Service, Annual Secondary Seminar Invited talk: Neurodiversity and the Secondary School Library

This subtheme brings together researchers and scholars with an interest in language(s) in education and explores what is required for education in multilingual contexts to be considered ‘socially just’.

The multilingual contexts in which we work include school and university classrooms in Scotland and other parts of the UK where learners are increasingly diverse and multilingual, and education in multilingual societies around the world where decisions about language-in-education policy and practice are shaped by complex historical, political, and economic forces (e.g. postcolonial countries in Africa and Asia).

We investigate the intersections of education, social justice, and multiple forms of diversity. We believe that, for education to be ‘socially just’, there must be a space in which all aspects of learners’ identities, experiences and knowledge can be included. In multilingual contexts, we believe this requires approaches to curriculum and pedagogy that explicitly acknowledge and celebrate the multilingual resources of learners, including through multilingual practices. In this subtheme, we research and develop these approaches in ways that are relevant to their contexts, and with a range of groups of learners, practitioners and policy-makers.

Leads
Subtheme members
Selected Publications
Projects
Activities
  • September 2025 Symposium: Language(s)-in-(Higher) Education for Sustainable Development
  • Co-hosted with the Strathclyde Centre for Sustainable Development, this event brought together researchers, HE practitioners and community partners to explore the role of language(s) in our work. This conversation was inspired by research from the Global South and was led by Dr Ntimi Mtawa, University of Dar es Salaam (Tanzania) and Dr Larry Ndivo, Machakos University (Kenya), with Dr Laela Adamson, University of Strathclyde.
  • June 2025 Engagement: Nature’s Language activities at Glasgow Science Festival at the Botanics
  • Colleagues from SCILT led table-top activities that explored languages, art and nature – all of which tie in with the AHRC funded project: Sustainable Designs for Living and Learning (SDLL): Embedding Multilingualism into Learning for Sustainability.
  • February 2025 Workshop: Rethinking our teaching and support with international students
    As a sub-theme we had the privilege of hosting Dr. Jenna Mittelmeier from the University of Manchester for an insightful workshop on rethinking our work with international students.
  • February 2025 – Ingeborg Birnie was an invited speaker at the UNESCO Languages Matter: Silver Jubilee of the Mother Tongue Conference
  • February 2025 – The Multilingualism through Art (MtA) project, whose team includes Jane Caitlin (SIoE), Karen Faulds (SCILT) and other colleagues from SCILT and University of Glasgow were featured and celebrated in the Stories from Strathclyde showcase event, with a case study included in the related Report.