In this symposium, we discuss our researching practices in coming to know and explore educational research problems concerning equity diversity and social justice within and across different cultural settings. We share our mutual relatings which have generated further understanding about our own and each other’s researching practices. We then share empirical work through the lens of practice architectures (Kemmis et al, 2014). The research questions underscoring the 4 papers presented in this symposium include:

1) What is considered to be an educational equity or social justice problem across international or cross-cultural sites?

2) What are considered acceptable forms of evidence of coming to understand educational inequity or injustice in its diverse forms in different sites?

3) How are taken-for-granted research practices enabling and/or constraining different forms of understandings about educational inequity or injustice, including the issues to be researched and/or the direction of the research project?

Building healthy connections is a key premise of the double purpose of education, that is, “to prepare people to live well in a world worth living in” (Kemmis et al., 2014, p. 27). However, what constitutes living well in a world worth living in is highly contested and subject to much debate. We illuminate the roles that educational researchers play in contributing to these debates, particularly in a global environment riven by heightened economic, social, and environmental precarities and volatilities. We also highlight the responsibilities we bear as researchers to produce forms of understanding, modes of action, and ways of relating to one another and the world (Kemmis et al., 2014, p. 26) that foster this double purpose of education.

Kemmis, S., Wilkinson, J., Edwards-Groves, C., Hardy, I., Grootenboer, P., & Hardy, I. (2014). Changing practices, changing education. Singapore: Springer.