Sketching alternative visions of schooling

In many nations, neo-liberal discourses shape education systems in ways that privilege a business model of numerical educational 'outcomes' and individualised responsibility for success or failure. Within the framework created by these discourses, concerns with social justice have been displaced from the educational agenda. This article focuses on the alternative 'second-chance' schools offering choices to those young people for whom such a paradigm of mainstream schooling has failed. The authors suggest that these 'alternatives' provide a vision of what a socially just school might look like. However, whilst these schools clearly offer considerable social and educational support to the young people who attend them, the authors are concerned that their very existence may continue to foster social injustice and inequality