This project proposes that the links between education and sustainable development are premised on complex manifestations of justice in and through education, and they should be researched as such.

Attending to both the lived experiences of secondary education and the complex trajectories between content and learning outcomes, we aim to explore the degree to which experiences of (in)justice through schooling and learning about (in)justice in schools can drive the intended actions of secondary school learners to meet Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 13 and 16.

JustEd video series

We have created a series of videos to introduce JustEd’s approach to transitional justice, environmental justice and epistemic justice. We also introduce the contexts where we are researching in Uganda and Peru.

Explore these videos.

Research focus

Types of justice and the relationships

We focus on three specific types of justice (and the relationships between them) that have been underexplored in education and international development to date. These include:

• environmental justice - which seeks to balance human and environmental rights in order that both might exist sustainably, recognising the unfair distribution of the effects of climate change
• epistemic justice - which values different knowledges and the peoples who hold them, working against the exclusion of multiple ways of understanding the world
• transitional justice - which repairs wrongs of the past, acknowledging the importance of responsibility and reconciliation for possibilities of future peacebuilding

Explore the linkages 

Using an exploratory mixed methods research design, we will explore linkages between:

• justice and injustice in education policy and decision-making processes, curricula and textbooks
• learners’ lived experiences of justice in secondary schools
• learners’ knowledge of justice as an outcome of schooling, and
• learners’ intended actions for contributing towards SDG 13 and 16

Work regionally

We work in three regions affected by environmental, epistemic and transitional injustice:

• Western Nepal, where the legacies of conflict and risk of natural disaster disproportionately affect rural, indigenous communities
• Andean Peru, where natural resource extraction exacerbates poverty for indigenous communities who were disproportionately victims of Peru’s armed conflict
• Northern Uganda, where conflict has led to unsustainable livelihood strategies (such as charcoal production) and economic marginalisation

Team members

Principal Investigator

• Lizzi Milligan, University of Bath, UK

Nepal

• Ganesh Singh, Tribhuvan University
• Mrigendra Karki, Tribhuvan University
• Mohan Paudel, Trubhuvan University
• Srijana Ranabhat, Trubhuvan University
• Ashik Singh, Trubhuvan University

Peru

• Maria Balarin, Group for the Analysis of Development (GRADE)
• Carlos Monge, GRADE
• Paola Sarmiento, GRADE

Uganda

• Daniel Komakech, Gulu University
• Expedito Nuwategeka, Gulu University
• Patricia Ajok, Gulu University

UK

• Julia Paulson, University of Bristol
• Robin Shields, University of Bristol
• Rachel Wilder, University of Bath

Social media

The JustEd research team are active on social media, sharing updates on the project and engaging with current issues. Follow JustEd on Twitter

Funding provider

This project is funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF).

Research outputs

Discussion papers

• Balarin, M., Paudel, M., Sarmiento, P., Singh, G. B., & Wilder, R. 2021. Exploring epistemic justice in educational research
• Paulson, J., Espinal, S., Karki, M., Komakech, D., Kurawa, G., & Ranabhat, S. 2021. Exploring transitional justice in educational research
• Nuwategeka, E., Monge, C., Shields, R., & Singh, A. 2021. Exploring environmental justice in educational research
• Milligan, L.O., Ajok, P., Espinal, S., Balarin, M., Karki, M., Komakech, D., Kurawa, G., Monge, C., Nuwategeka, E., Paudel, M., Paulson, J., Ranabhat, S., Sarmiento, P., Shields, R., Singh, A., Singh, G.B. and R. Wilder. 2021. Education at the intersection of environmental, epistemic and transitional justices.

If you have any further questions about our discussion papers, please contact emam25@bath.ac.uk or rw2031@bath.ac.uk

Policy-oriented outputs

We will create a series of focused policy briefs and stakeholder impact events in each country, including at sub-national and national levels at the beginning and end of the project.

Researcher-oriented outputs

• New qualitative and quantitative datasets
• Innovative qualitative data collection tools (for example, the classroom observation schedule for identifying forms of justice in lived experience and classroom practice) and the app-based questionnaire
• Journal articles and conference presentations related to both the substantive and methodological contributions to knowledge

Background papers

• Singh, G. B., Karki, M., Paudel, M., Ranabhat, S. and Singh, A. 2021. Country profile: Nepal: JustEd: Education as and for environmental, epistemic and transitional justice.

• Balarin, M., Monge, C., & Sarmiento, P. 2021. Country profile: Peru: JustEd: Education as and for environmental, epistemic and transitional justice.

• Nuwategeka, E., Komakech, D., & Ajok, P. 2021. Country profile: Uganda: JustEd: Education as and for environmental, epistemic and transitional justice.