The Researching Inclusion and Social Justice in and through Education (RISE) Centre is concerned with social, epistemic, spatial and ecological justice and inclusion in education at all levels, and the ways in which education might contribute to shaping just and inclusive societies. 

Researchers in the centre integrate expertise in educational research, methodological and theoretical advancement, policy and practice and ask questions such as:

• how is power exercised to engender, sustain and legitimise exclusion and injustice?
• how do various discursive and knowledge practices enable or constrain inclusion and social justice?
• what theoretical, material and conceptual resources advance inclusion and social justice and promote an understanding of historical and current processes of marginalisation?
• how might education research(ers) support ongoing struggles for inclusion, social justice, and liberation?

To answer these questions we research the transformative acts of educational inclusion that are necessary to build future societies, which can disrupt marginalisation caused by socio-ecological, economic, and civil instability across the globe. Working at different scales, and traversing disciplinary boundaries, our work develops collaborative local and international networks. 

We seek to understand how policies and practices enable and/or constrain inclusion and social justice globally, nationally, and locally. We draw on diverse theories and engage robustly with novel, complex and uncomfortable ideas that help advance transformative thinking about education and its relationship with societies.

Researchers use a range of methodologies, and we are particularly (though not exclusively) interested in participatory methods, methods that foreground voices of young and marginalised people, arts-based methods, critical, indigenous, and decolonial and postqualiative approaches, in keeping with the emancipatory orientation of work in the centre.

RISE aims to support the development of researchers at all career stages, to develop research and scholarship activity which promotes intellectual curiosity and scholarly debate, and to embed inclusion and social justice within our work and relationships.  

Areas of focus

1. Critical exploration of issues of diversity, inclusion and equity at all levels of the education system, and in life wide learning, and in everyday lives.
2. Constructions and representations of educational inclusion and social justice.
3. Education for marginalised groups, including but not limited to refugee education, disability education, girls’ education, LGBTQIA+ education, and the experiences at the intersections of these groups.
4. The interaction between education and key social and environmental issues, including but not limited to language, literacy, oracy and creative meaning making practices, migration, class, religion, human rights and the climate crisis.