Leading for social cohesion: The key role of schools

The authors argue it is in the daily encounters of playgrounds, classrooms, corridors and assemblies that children and young people’s social values and attitudes, beliefs and stereotypes are shaped, reproduced and reinforced; or alternatively challenged and interrogated. Drawing on their research with some Melbourne schools, they explore how the practice of school leaders and educators plays a key role in building the necessary conditions for fostering social cohesion, so young people feel like they belong. They discuss what these practices look like in the realpolitik of schools, how they can be realised, and the implications for future policy as part of a whole-of- government suite of economic and social policies.