BOOK REVIEW Cooper, Gormally & Hughes: Socially Just, Radical Alternatives

Abstract

In setting the context for this book Cooper, Gormally and Hughes offer the well-evidenced proposition that policy and discourse about young people perpetuates a deficit model of youth.  Citing various reports that talk about the youth “crisis†and describing young people who engaged in the recent England riots as lacking in character, resilience and employability skills, they draw our attention to the view that according to the Riots, Communities and Victims Panel report (2012) these are problems that need to be addressed by schools. Even when discussing issues of disengagement from education they assert that “… the lens remains one of blame†(p. 2).  So, in a context of such negative discourse, the scope of the book, as they say, is to draw on a range of pedagogical and critical theories in order to “offer a reframing of how we think about working with young people†(p. 2)...