ABSTRACT
This paper considers the relationship between professional learning and action research for justice. We recognise, as was already stated in the introduction to this special issue, that a right to education requires an analysis of the ‘mechanisms in the daily thinking and actions of teacher educators, teachers and pupils’ which lead to just educational actions (Ponte and Smit 2013, p. 457). For many, the emergence of social justice is embedded within political dilemmas that shape the manifestation of equity, equality and opportunity. Very often social justice is thought to be a concern for those who in some way or another are marginalised as a result of their race/ethnicity, class, gender, age or perceived cognitive ability. As the world is characterised by a multiplicity of experiences and forms of interaction, there is a growing professional demand for teachers to engage in socially just practices – but what are these really? How are they constructed? How are they taught? Are they processes of engagement, products of a professional learning session or the results of a way of investigating/ experiencing and therefore addressing particular educational problems?
