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A image to illustrate Social justice, equity and equality: inclusive practice for all module
This module examines issues of social justice from various perspectives and how inclusive practices can effect change across a range of educational settings. It focuses on two globally recognised challenges in education – literacy and assessment – highlighting the universally applicable issues that relate to social justice, equity, and inclusion. You'll be introduced to theorists Pierre Bourdieu, Amartya Sen, and Barbara Rogoff, who provide tools for investigating social justice, before exploring contemporary challenges in education, including gender, language use, and poverty. Finally, you'll examine how researchers have addressed social justice in education and appraise your own position on these issues.
Section 1: Introduction
This section presents an overview of the support available to you, and strategies you will need to develop when studying this module. You will examine different ways of looking at learners and the implications for how teachers interact with them using the examples of autism and dyslexia.
Section 2: Problematising literacy for all
You will explore the global agenda for inclusion and literacy for all, and examine different understandings of what constitutes ‘a literate person' and the implications of these understandings for educational and inclusive practice; the distinction between ‘functional’ and ‘critical’ literacy; and the interaction between ‘the individual’ and ‘the social’, which is a recurrent theme throughout the module. In Section 2, you will also examine the debates about reading, and their social historical development and implications for inclusive practice and explore other emerging educational dilemmas and their implications for establishing effective practice for all.
Section 3: Issues of Assessment
This section considers issues of assessment applicable internationally and central to the consideration of social justice, equity and inclusive practice in education. These issues challenge the dominance of systems of assessment that treat learners and their learning in isolation from their social worlds in which the possibilities for their learning are made available. You will explore literacy as an individual, social, and sociocultural attribute as it is understood and used within assessment. These understandings are problematised in terms of who is included/excluded, and whose learning is recognised and valued.
Section 4: Introduction to theorists and application of their lenses
After considering what theory represents and why it is needed, this section introduces you to three theorists relevant to the exploration of social justice in education – Bourdieu, Sen and Rogoff. Each of these writers not only exemplifies a distinct way of perceiving social activity but also provides conceptual tools for use by those undertaking an investigation of issues of social justice in education. You will also explore three areas of concern within education – gender, language use and poverty.
Section 5: Researching social justice, equity and inclusion
In this section, you will consider how issues of social justice, equity and inclusion are investigated and how this knowledge is produced and furthered by researchers. You will begin to think about a problem in your own practice setting or a setting with which you are familiar, and explore how it relates to the issues of equity and social justice, drawing on theories and tools you have studied in this module.

Section 6: Concluding observations
This single unit presents three articles which challenge the approaches studied in this module.
At the end of each section, there will be a consolidatory activity week during which you will work collaboratively with other learners on a specified activity.
You will have a tutor who will help you with the study material and mark and comment on your written work, and whom you can ask for advice and guidance. You and your tutor will primarily communicate with each other through email and tutorials. Tutorials are offered via online meeting rooms and support is also facilitated asynchronously in online tutor group forums.
If you have a learning difficulty or disability that could impact on studying online please do speak with us and your tutor so that where possible reasonable adjustments can be made to facilitate your participation.
Working with other students
Peer interaction, collaboration and support are of great importance. While these are not formally assessed and there is no compulsory requirement for you to interact or collaborate with others in your tutor group, we strongly encourage the sharing of ideas and experiences with your peers through asynchronous forums. There may also be some activities that ask you to work with other students as this is a critical way in which you can broaden your knowledge and understanding of children, young people and education across different contexts, and challenge your own and others’ ideas. If you choose not to collaborate with peers then you will miss out on a valuable experience and may have difficulty executing an assignment.
Contact us if you want to know more about study with The Open University before you register.
Course work includes:
All study materials are provided on the module website. This includes the module study guide and activities, audio/video material and a range of tools to support your study, including real-time conferencing and online forums.
You can study this module on its own or use the credits you gain towards an Open University qualification.
EE845 is an option module in our:
Sometimes you cannot count a module towards a qualification if you have already counted another module with similar content. To verify any excluded combinations with this module, check with an adviser before registering.
Social justice, equity and equality: inclusive practice for all (EE845) starts once a year – in October.
This page describes the module that will start in October 2026.
We expect it to start for the last time in October 2030.
As a student of The Open University, you should be aware of the content of the academic regulations, which are available on our Student Policies and Regulations website.
You should be prepared for study at postgraduate level and have the minimum of a bachelors degree (in any subject) from a UK University or an equivalent professional qualification. We warmly welcome applications from students who have an undergraduate degree level qualification from universities outside the UK and which is deemed equivalent to a UK higher education degree.
This module is designed to follow Equity, inclusion and social justice in educational practice (EE844)  To study EE845, you must have passed this or one of the other Stage 1 modules in F70, Learning and teaching: educating the next generation (EE830) or Educational leadership: concepts, change and challenges (EE841) or one of the discontinued modules EE811, EE814 or EE817 or if you have successfully completed EE806, you may also count this module towards Stage 1.
In some cases, students may be able to use credit transfer from relevant prior postgraduate study to meet the entry requirements for this module. For more details and how to apply, please see the Credit Transfer website.
Your spoken and written English must be of an adequate standard for postgraduate study. If English is not your first language, we recommend that you will need a minimum overall score of 7 under the International English Language Testing System (IELTS). Please see the IELTS website for details.
You do not need to be employed in an educational setting to study this module. However, it is important that you have some experience of engaging or working with children, young people or adult learners, as our pathway disciplines (Childhood and Youth Studies, Learning and Teaching, Inclusive Practice, Applied Linguistics, and Leadership and Management) are all explored through the lens of education. Therefore, you will need to be able to apply your learning to an educational setting with which you are familiar: this could be as a parent/carer, a volunteer or a learner yourself.
You need to be able to spend approximately 12-15 hours per week studying for this module.
If you have any doubt about the suitability of the module, please speak to an adviser.
Written transcripts of any audio components and Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF) versions of printed material are available. Some Adobe PDF components may not be available or fully accessible using a screen reader (and where applicable: musical notation and mathematical, scientific, and foreign language materials may be particularly difficult to read in this way). Other alternative formats of the module materials may be available in the future.
StartEndRegister byEngland fee
03 Oct 202631 Oct 202717 Sep 2026Not yet available*
*This start date is open for pre-booking, which means you can reserve your place ahead of the fees being confirmed. We’ll publish updated 2026/27 fees and funding information on the 25th of March.
If you study this module as part of an eligible qualification, you can apply for a postgraduate loan to support your study costs. To find out more, see Postgraduate loans in England.
Studying with The Open University can boost your employability. OU courses are recognised and respected by employers for their excellence and the commitment they take to complete. They also value the skills that students learn and can apply in the workplace.
Over 30,000 employers have used the OU to develop staff so far. If the module you’ve chosen is geared towards your job or developing your career, you could approach your employer to see if they will sponsor you by paying some or all of the fees.
You can pay part or all of your tuition fees upfront with a debit or credit card when you register for each module.
We accept American Express, Mastercard, Visa and Visa Electron.
Please note: your permanent address/domicile will affect your fee status and, therefore, the fees you are charged and any financial support available to you. The fee information provided here is valid for modules starting before 31 July 2026. Fees typically increase annually. For further information about the University's fee policy, visit our Fee Rules.
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