ABSTRACT
This chapter considers a role for education in improving social justice and reducing inequality. While the issues that are explored here are relevant for education systems across the world, this chapter has a particular focus on what is happening at present in the UK; a country which, in 2010, has a new government with a new agenda for educational change and along with this a new ideology for how a fairer and more equitable society might be achieved. The discussion which follows considers two ways in which schools might reduce inequalities and enhance social justice. It begins by looking at the outcomes of schooling in terms of examination success at age 16 before considering the role of schools as micro-societies in their own right and at the function they may have in promoting a fair and just society.
