ABSTRACT
The previous chapter discussed examples of democratic progress through education towards achieving societies based on equality and respect for diversity. And we have seen ways in which education is critical to both awareness of (in)justice and to providing the space and skills to do something about this, and that there are multiple stakeholders in this process. However, history has shown us that when freedom, inclusion and identity are in short supply and when the ideological and structural cracks that open up possibilities for change are not investigated democratically, social change is achieved instead through violent collision between powerful and grass-roots actors. In such scenarios, it is possible to see particular ways that grass-roots use of education is re-shaping society, for good and ill, opening up awareness of both the nature and possibility of social justice, and providing opportunities and skills to recognise, exploit and challenge the cracks in dominant narratives and structures.
