How can education help young people understand injustice, participate democratically and believe they can shape the world around them? This graduate/advanced undergraduate textbook develops a coherent framework for Social Justice-Orientated Citizenship Education (SJCE), organised around four interconnected commitments: agency, dialogue, criticality and emancipatory knowledge.

Drawing on critical pedagogy, democratic education and contemporary research, the author examines how these commitments can be enacted across school culture, curriculum, pedagogy and assessment. Rather than presenting SJCE as a fixed programme, the book offers a practical orientation for educators seeking to create inclusive spaces in which young people can question assumptions, engage with complex social issues, listen across difference and take meaningful action.

Combining conceptual discussion with practical strategies and case studies from diverse educational settings, the book provides students and educators with a grounded and hopeful account of how education can support young people to become active, critical and socially responsible citizens.

Daryn Egan-Simon is Senior Lecturer in Education at the University of Chester, UK.