Introduction

Are city schools primarily a site for social injustice compounded by environmental ills, where the best we can do is ameliorate the problems in an attempt to close the gap between the achievement of rich and poor? Or could the school in the city spearhead community-based justice?

This chapter opens by considering the potential problems faced by the school in the city, particularly where schools are located in economically disadvantaged urban areas and serving poorer communities. Initially the focus is on the difficulties of the physical school environment, investigating the impact these issues can be expected to have on learning, teaching and, ultimately, on student outcomes. Although limiting the negative impact of these problems, most obviously by distributing these ills of city living more equitably, would seem a reasonable aim, the chapter then explores how we might move beyond this conception of the city school as a problem. The author presents and discusses the potential for the school in the city to be part of the solution to environmental, and perhaps social, injustice: efforts rooted in improving the school space begin to create a centre for sustainable living and an environmental resource for the wider community. As will be demonstrated, it is notable how this broadened understanding of the role of the school in the city parallels reconceptions of environmental justice that go beyond simple distributive justice to consider the importance of participation and recognition (for example Schlosberg, 2004; Davoudi and Brooks, 2012).

Challenges and consequences

There are many aspects of the physical school space that may make it awkward or unsuitable for educational use, which include teaching and learning but also social activities. A coherent body of mainly correlational evidence attests to a relationship between the quality of the school environment and student outcomes, where those in poorer environments tend to have poorer attitudes and behaviour as well as lower attainment (Durán-Narucki, 2008; Kumar et al, 2008). The diversity of the school community, range of outcomes that might be desired and the complexity of the relationships between setting, use and actors, however, tends to scupper any attempt at simple prescriptions or reliable causal relationships (Woolner et al, 2007; Uline et al, 2009). Yet it is possible to discern elements of school space where evidence has accumulated of direct and indirect effects, generally negative, on student learning and educational achievement.