ABSTRACT
This chapter starts by exploring some of the challenges encountered by those who strive to offer freedom in education, challenges for teachers, students and schools in themselves. Some radical free schools, or some teachers with them, might argue that students must always be in control, that offering freedom means entirely trusting that students can decide what they want to engage with and learn. In order to play a role in advancing social justice, radical free schools need to find the balance between offering freedom and challenging social inequalities. There are three central ways in which freedom can be established and maintained within education. These are: developing more egalitarian and democratic structures, practices and processes; utilising liberating pedagogies and reforming curricula to enable personalised learning and the acknowledgement of multiple perspectives and outlooks; and creating smaller communities in which all are known and can belong.
