Thinking the 'yet to be thought': an international cross-sector seminar series exploring socially just education and inequalities in education

This seminar series seeks to explore the idea of a socially just education system and how such a system might address inequalities in society. The seminars and mini-conferences will explore alternative and innovative examples and ideas from schools and universities across a range of countries and consider whether these alternatives may reduce social and educational inequality. Do they offer an insight into how to improve education for all?
Political, organisational and cultural pressures make it challenging for people to consider alternatives to the mainstream. We want to be able to reflect on our own educational assumptions, practices, and systems so as to be open to possibilities of doing things differently. In order to challenge ourselves as much as possible, it is important that we invite contributors who are able to focus our attention on radical alternatives in education. We will therefore invite researchers and practitioners who focus on innovative and new ways of operating. These examples are not being showcased as ideal models to emulate but as a means of envisioning alternatives to the systems that dominate in society. By doing this, we want to start thinking in ways that have 'yet to be thought', to transform education for the future.
This seminar series will bring together a range of eminent international researchers and practitioners to share their work and to enable the development of new networks of researchers and practitioners working in different fields. Through the face to face meetings and the use of our interactive site, teachers, parents and academic researchers from Denmark, India, Mexico, Australia and the USA, for example, can share their experiences of working in innovative schools, colleges, universities and community settings. Researchers from leading international universities will talk about their decades of work studying the impact of different educational practices on inequalities. Students who have had the freedom to take a lead in designing their own education will explain what they have learnt from being able to do this. Postgraduate students will talk about their research into educational alternatives. Universities and schools will learn together. Teachers and students will listen to one another. Researchers and practitioners will work together. Through collaborating with all of these people, we will ask searching questions about whether organising education in radically different ways, actually makes a positive difference to the lived experiences of students.
The practice of freedom will be a particular focus of the seminars and this freedom can take many forms: freedom in terms of curriculum and pedagogy; freedom in assessment; freedom to make decisions. To mirror this, we will make sure that all events operate in a spirit of freedom, so that all participants can get involved in setting the direction and focus of sessions.
The seminar series will be organised as seven open events. Each will have a specific focus which will draw attention to a different facet of socially just education and inequalities (Outlining the challenge; Pedagogy and Curriculum; Assessment; Freedom, Autonomy and Democracy; Systems, Structures and Governance; Education of the Future, The Ways Forward). Each will be organised to be of interest to a wide audience and to encourage communication and the building of professional and academic networks.
Each seminar will be free to attend and they will take place in a variety of venues across the UK, including Cardiff, Edinburgh, Leeds, London, Newcastle, and Oxford.

The beneficiaries of the research will grow as our knowledge of this new field develops.
Academics: The seminar series benefits academics across a range of disciplines (for example, Education, Sociology, Youth and Community Work, Geography, Philosophy, Social Policy). Of particular significance is the development of new connections between international fields of research in socially just education, social inequalities and counter-hegemonic educational practices. The series will link academic contexts with independent organisations through the work of the selected project team.
Practitioners in examples of socially just and counter-hegemonic educational organisations: These organisations are, by their definition, unusual within their social, political and educational contexts and practitioners may often feel isolated. The seminar series provides the opportunity for these practitioners to form networks, either in person at the mini-conferences, or virtually through the web-based provision. There are key opportunities for these practitioners to reflect on their practice and in particular, on its role in relation to addressing inequalities.
Practitioners in more traditional educational organisations: Although practitioners in traditional educational organisations may be given time to reflect, it is likely that the space for them to choose what to reflect upon is limited (Au, 2008). In particular, the performativity discourse which is dominant, particularly in the UK and USA, places constraints on innovation and creativity and limits thinking (Bernstein, 1996). The seminar series, with its emphasis on studying examples of autonomous, alternative or counter-hegemonic systems, provides opportunities for all practitioners to reflect upon their own environments and what might be learnt from these alternatives.
Trade Unions: Teaching Unions which represent schools (for example, NUT, NASUWT, ASCL, NAHT), further education (ATL), universities (UCU) and the community sector (UNISON) will be included in the detailed planning and organisation this seminar series. Through attending, participating and sharing their perspectives, they will offer and gain valuable insights into this field.
Policy makers: The seminar series has a clear and overarching connection with policy in that it is underpinned by a critique of the structures, processes and cultures of conventional educational organisations which, as researchers have shown, have done little to reduce inequalities and much to exacerbate them (Reay, 2012). By studying educational alternatives and their potential impact upon inequalities, especially those in an international arena, policy-makers have the opportunity to reflect upon and reconsider their assumptions about educational practice. Connections will be made with policy institutes such as the IPPR (Institute for Public Policy Research), PSI (Policy Studies Institute), NEF (New Economics Foundation), as well as campaigning bodies including Compass (Together for a Good Society), CASE (Council for Advancement and Support of Education whose commissioning editor and a founder member of CASE will be invited to the seminars), Phoenix Education Trust and EUDEC (European Democratic Education Community). They will be invited to the seminars and publicity material will be created for them as part of the portfolio of publications.
Parents and students: There will be opportunities for parents and students to be involved with the planning of the events and the sharing their experiences of being part of alternative and counter-hegemonic organisations. The format for this will be carefully negotiated so as to ensure that these groups serve to personally benefit from attending these events, rather than to simply 'use' them in a tokenistic manner. The use of World Cafe Forums and Open Space Technology are ideal ways of ensuring that discussions are open and equitable.