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An introduction to the journal is presented in which the editors discuss various topics within the issue including non-violence, critical reflection and alternative education.

Opportunities for students to speak and to be heard are important elements of democratic schooling processes but research into student voice has shown that a culture of silence is a more common feature of schooling. Efforts to re-engage young people in learning often recognise the importance of schooling processes that provide them with opportunities to participate meaningfully in schooling dialogues. This paper describes attempts to provide such opportunities for young people in an alternative school, who had been marginalised in mainstream schooling. Research was conducted over a period of 18 months, utilising a range of data collection methods, including interviews, observations, photography and the collection of artefacts, such as school documents. Drawing particularly on data related to a daily community forum, the paper explores how this routine afforded opportunities for student voice. The three-part structure of the forum produced a range of effects, including: a discussion of issues related to local and wider community news as well as college announcements; a check-in where each member of the community voiced their readiness (or otherwise) for the day's learning; and a sign-up process that incorporated informed decision making about the day's learning sessions. It is argued that the intentions that underpin the community forum are important and relevant in all forms of schooling, not just alternative programmes, but these intentions can produce unintended effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we are concerned with the notion of ‘pedagogic voice’ as it relates to the presence of student ‘voice’ in teaching, learning and curriculum matters at an alternative, or second chance, school in Australia. This school draws upon many of the principles of democratic schooling via its utilisation of student voice in respect of the curriculum and pedagogy. We recognise that within the schooling context, voice can represent many things. Drawing on interview data, we outline two key areas of student voice: community membership associated with the ownership of practices and decision-making related to the young people’s learning and improved engagement; and encouraging curricular choice and the inclusion of personal interests and strengths within a school environment that is flexible and encourages individual freedom while balancing these with a young person’s required progress at school. Given that a lack of voice in schools has been attributed to many marginalised students’ alienation from mainstream schooling, we demonstrate how attention to pedagogic voice can not only work to engage students in learning, but also improve civic engagement. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article considers the ways in which three alternative education sites in Australia support socially just education for their students and how injustice is addressed within these schools. The article begins with recognition of the importance of Nancy Fraser’s work to understandings of social justice. It then goes on to argue that her framework is insufficient for understanding the particularly complex set of injustices that are faced by many highly marginalised young people who have rejected or been rejected by mainstream education systems. We argue here for the need to consider the importance of ‘affective’ and ‘contributive’ aspects of justice in schools. Using interview data from the alternative schools, we highlight issues of affective justice raised by students in relation to their educational journeys, as well as foregrounding teachers’ affective work in schools. We also consider curricular choices and pedagogical practices in respect of matters of contributive justice. Our contention is that the affective and contributive fields are central to the achievement of social justice for the young people attending these sites. Whilst mainstream schools are not the focus of this article, we suggest that the lessons here have salience for all forms of schooling. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]