Academic access and attainment in urban schools are inextricably linked to more general social structures that reinscribe inequality along lines of gender, race, and class. This paper critically analyzes how these intersecting identities inform students’ educational paths within settings characterized by structural disadvantage. Employing critical theory and intersectionality approaches, the research challenges institutional practices, policy regimes, and socio-cultural norms that reinscribe unequal outcomes. Using an ethical mixed-method approach combining secondary data analysis with document analysis and qualitative interviews, the research puts marginalized students’ lives in the center while maintaining high standards of consent, confidentiality, and reflexivity. Findings show deeply embedded inequalities in resource allocations, teacher expectations, discipline policies, and inclusion in the curriculum—each piling iteratively upon systemic barriers to achievement and inclusion. The study emphasizes that education inequalities cannot be addressed through fragmented reforms but can be obtained by pedagogy- and policy-reform-based structural transformation that is grounded in justice. Lastly, the paper contributes to the growing literature on social justice in education by illuminating how gender, race, and class continue to set the limits and possibilities of schooling in cities.
Keywords: Critical Pedagogy, Social Justice, educational access, intersectionality, structural inequality, urban education
