Social Justice and Educational Action: Reflections from Critical Social Education in Contexts of Structural Inequality

Abstract

This article proposes a critical review of the implications of social justice as an ethical, political and educational horizon in the field of social education. Based on the analysis of Montané's (2015) base text, the main theoretical approaches that support the idea of justice beyond its legal dimension are systematized, linking it to processes of recognition, participation, and human capacities. The discussion is contextualized in the tensions generated by the globalized neoliberal model, which has weakened the role of the State as a guarantor of rights, deepening inequalities and limiting the real possibilities of subjects to access dignified living conditions. In this framework, it is proposed that social education must recover its transformative role, articulating knowledge, practices and resistances that contribute to emancipation and the strengthening of individual and collective capacities. The urgency of rethinking socio-educational interventions from a relational logic, situated and committed to equity, is emphasized, as well as the need to promote forms of cognitive and cultural justice in the educational field. This reflection provides conceptual and practical elements to strengthen the impact of social education in the construction of more democratic and just societies.