From socially just care to socially just distributed ecosystems of care

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.47408/jldhe.vi35.1333

Keywords:

social justice, care, pedagogy of care, ecosystems, autoethnography

Abstract

Actions or interventions intended to redress systemic injustice necessitate centring the values of equity and care. We have pursued work on the complex interrelation of these two important concepts and how they manifest in practice in education, for institutions, for networks and communities, and for people. This article builds on our work on ‘socially just care’, a term we coined while developing our Equity/Care Matrix (Bali and Zamora, 2022). This paper extends that work using a duoautoethnography, building upon our personal experiences. We elaborate and extend the work into a more complex picture: in order to have impact, socially just care must be enacted in a Socially Just Distributed Care ecosystem. This paper articulates our model and uses examples from our duoautoethnography to demonstrate a wide variety of multi-country contexts within education where equity and care work are enacted and theorised. We will analyse the places where some work falls short of our ideals, highlight contexts that give us hope, and share our aspirations for socially just distributed ecosystems of care.

Author Biographies

Mia Zamora, Kean University

Mia Zamora is Professor of English and Director of the Masters of Arts in Writing Studies Program at Kean University in NJ, USA. Dr Zamora is a faculty leader, a digital humanist, and scholar of electronic literature. Her current research focuses on care and equity, social justice, and intercultural learning. As a leading voice for the practice of open and networked education, Dr Zamora is a two-time Fulbright award winner, and she is co-founder of the global Equity Unbound community. She is on Bluesky: @miazamoraphd.bsky.social.

Maha Bali, The American University in Cairo

Maha Bali is a professor of practice at the Center for Learning and Teaching at the American University in Cairo, Egypt. She holds a PhD in Education from the University of Sheffield. She is co-founder of https://virtuallyconnecting.org (a grassroots movement that challenges academic gatekeeping at conferences) and co-facilitator of Equity Unbound https://equityunbound.org (an equity-focused, open, connected intercultural learning curriculum, which has branched into academic community activities Continuity with Care, Socially Just Academia, a collaboration with OneHE: Community-building Resources, and MYFest, an innovative three-month professional learning journey). She writes and speaks about social justice, critical pedagogy, and open and online education. She blogs at https://blog.mahabali.me, mahabali on Bluesky, @bali_maha on Twitter/X.

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Published

27-03-2025

How to Cite

Zamora, M., & Bali, M. (2025). From socially just care to socially just distributed ecosystems of care . Journal of Learning Development in Higher Education, (35). https://doi.org/10.47408/jldhe.vi35.1333

Issue

No. 35 (2025): Special Edition, Liberating Learning

Section

Caring and compassionate pedagogies

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