Social Justice in a Global Context: Education Queensland’s 2010 Strategy

Introduction The concerns of this paper are encapsulated in two events which took place in Australia in 2000: the protests in Melbourne at the World Economic Forum and the Olympic Games opening extravaganza. The World Economic Forum exemplified the tensions between the efficiency imperatives of economic globalisation and political imperatives for equity and social cohesion. The egalitarian representation of Australia at the Olympic Games opening with a strong Indigenous presence proclaimed 'difference' as a descriptor of Australian society; while more structural concerns with equality, such as those raised by the Aboriginal 'tent embassy' at Redfern during the Games, were diffused. While these two sets of tensions, between equity and efficiency and between equality and difference, are not new, in the context of globalisation they have become particularly potent, with significant implications for educational policy framings.