This presentation is focused on discussing how schools and communities from rural border regions of mainland Portugal enact social justice to counterbalance spatialized disadvantages (Cuervo, 2020a). We agree with Soja (2010) in suggesting that there are unfair geographies that result from the unequal distribution of economic resources and from limited representations of rural areas that lead to misrecognitions. Schools and their communities are affected differently by educational policies that often focus on standard answers and are usually blind to issues of spatiality (Green & Letts, 2007). These last authors had drawn attention to the danger of a "geographic blindness" that leads not only to a social representation of disadvantage in rural settings, but also to an investment in solutions in terms of redistribution, rather than of recognition, to promote convergence with metrocentric models and references (Roberts & Green, 2013; Farrugia, 2014). This understanding of non-urban areas has impact on regional young people's school experiences and aspirations, and on how they interpret their opportunities and limitations.

Several studies of education in rural contexts have shown that prevailing approaches to social justice have been unable to account for place-based characteristics (Hargreaves, Kvalsund & Galton, 2009; Beach et al., 2018; 2019). Rural areas tend to be viewed as contexts to be saved and analysed with cosmopolitan areas as the benchmark normalizing the concept of equity, social justice, and the provision of quality education against which all are measured and labelled (Roberts & Green, 2003; Young, 2006). Moreover, along this line of justice through redistribution, concerns often fall into concepts of equality confused with effectiveness and efficiency. On the other hand, it leads to compensatory approaches to resource distribution, to policies that place the state in the line of duty fulfillment and reinforce the narrative of individual freedom and choice, as it has endowed contexts with resources aimed at providing them with the same conditions as others, namely urban ones.

Although redistributive policies are necessary, they tend not to recognize the relevance of spatiality in considering politics, social justice, and equity. Contexts such as rural and many border regions have less claim to recognition of their distinctiveness and are therefore less able to represent themselves (Roberts & Green, 2013) as they are reduced to peripheralization.

In this intention of understanding how schools and communities of 38 municipalities located in the border to Spain develop responses to spatialized disadvantages that affects young people educational pathways, we will analyse approaches to enact social justice, either more focused on redistribution policies or aligned with recognition policies. For this analysis, we will focus on the contributions of Cuervo (2020a,b), Young (2000a, b; 2006), and Fraser (2005, 2008).

We will end up discussing the value of school, especially in terms of fostering inclusion and social justice among disadvantage groups, which is relevant to consider a situated approach to the concept of social justice in education.

This presentation is based on a larger quantitative and qualitative study in development in the 38 borderland municipalities of the mainland Portugal, funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), through the Northern Regional Operational Programme (Compete/NORTE 2020) and Science and Technology Foundation, IP (FCT) [reference: PTDC/CED-EDG/29943/2017]. For this presentation, we use quantitative data from a questionnaire answered by young people (n=3968) from 9th to 12th grade and semi-structured interviews with representatives of schools (n=38) and communities (n=36). Quantitative data will provide information on how young people perceive their schools' and communities' actions to promote social inclusion and social justice, particularly aspects related to resource allocation, but also opportunities for participation and spaces for recognition. Qualitative data will provide information on the approaches developed by schools and communities to promote inclusion and social justice, taking into consideration structural disadvantages and context-based priorities. For the quantitative data, the analysis included descriptive analysis (mean, standard deviation, frequencies, percentages) and student's t-test for independent samples. For the qualitative data, content analysis was performed. From the category tree, we selected for this proposal the category containing indicators of narratives and actions developed by schools and communties to promote social inclusion and social justice.

Schools and communities are in general fully committed to investing in the education of their students developing situated approaches to central policies, identifying context-based priorities and tailoring responses. They are aware of the structural disadvantages in these regions and how spatial conditions affect their students' opportunities and choices. They are aware that schools in these regions not only are quality education providers in a narrow sense (academic success) but are also fundamental in their social role in supporting individuals’ trajectories and the development of the region. If on the one hand we find narratives and practices that focus on the redistribution of benefits and resources to compensate for inequalities arising from socioeconomic issues, approaches that tend to be governed by a cosmopolitan understanding of education, quality, or development, we also find responses that place cultural distinctions at the center of their actions, perhaps indicating regional configurations of educational policy that integrate situated priorities and local specificities. These last proposals seem to be counter-proposals against oversimplifying the cultural ecologies of these regions. However, these two types of approaches to social justice are not mutually exclusive. Young people recognize their schools as a fundamental place that supports their global education and prepares them for higher education or a job. They tend to agree with the idea that their schools are spaces of inclusion that offer them the opportunity to be recognized as young people. They have high expectations for their further education while being aware of the disadvantages of growing up in their region. The discourse and practices of schools and communities meet and align with these expectations. Moreover, schools and communities from these regions share an understanding of social justice through schooling that benefits the entire region and not just the individual.

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