Vulnerability, social justice and inclusive education: working the intersections

Our starting point was the idea that social justice and inclusive education approach key socio-economic factors like poverty, equality, and disadvantage as they affect children and young people very differently. After examining briefly how social justice and inclusive education address these factors, we propose a third perspective, vulnerability, as a way of highlighting and potentially reconciling some of the tensions created by social justice and inclusive education policy and practice. This theoretical discussion is followed by a narrative vignette distilled from one of 13 narratives created in a participatory research study, which aimed to understand the experiences of a number of families and young people living in Birmingham in the UK and regarded as ‘vulnerable’. The approach developed in-depth narratives of their experiences, drawing on interviews, drawings, photographs, and journal entries. The focus of the narratives was determined by the participants and each was co-produced with a researcher. The vignette is followed by a discussion of three key issues it raises in relation to vulnerability, social justice and inclusive education and concludes by suggesting that an intersectional vulnerability perspective might help us to access and understand more effectively the experiences of children and young people, particularly, who experience disadvantage or extreme vulnerability.