This book – the finale in a trilogy by the authors – traces the way in which a number of disadvantaged schools and communities were able to move beyond deficit, victim-blaming and pathologizing approaches and access resources of trust, relationships, connectedness and hope. It describes how these Australian schools and communities were able to benefit from working with ‘street-level’ bureaucrats who had reinvented themselves around notions of socially just forms of capacity-building. The book provides a set of insights into what is possible from a critical engagement for school and community renewal perspective, by working with the resources that exist within disadvantaged contexts, even in damaging neoliberal policy times. Critically Engaged Learning breaks new and important ground across urgent and fractured boundaries.

The Authors: John Smyth is Research Professor of Education, School of Education, University of Ballarat, Victoria, Australia. His research interests are in policy sociology, policy ethnography, and school and community capacity-building. Lawrence Angus is Professor of Education and Head, School of Education, University of Ballarat. His research interests are in critical ethnography and policy analysis, and aspects of social and educational inequality. Barry Down is City of Rockingham Chair in Education, School of Education, Murdoch University, Western Australia. His research interests are in forms of action research in schools and social injustice around vocational education youth and culture. Peter McInerney is a Research Associate, School of Education, University of Ballarat, Victoria, Australia. His research interests are around forms of school reform that promote social justice.