This thesis examines the general problem of how social justice in education initiatives are translated into empirical reality for targeted populations. The empirical grounding of the thesis is the set of concepts in Queensland Education Department social justice initiatives and activities. The thesis argues that social justice in education initiatives and the 'Social Justice Strategy, 1994-1998' in particular, are associated with the production and reproduction of social inequalities. The thesis identifies the state as the central concept in social justice in education discourse. It shows that advocates of social justice in education rather than target populations are invariably associated with the purposes of the state, and argues the proposition that the primary beneficiaries of social justice in education initiatives are advocates of social justice in education. Based on this presupposition, the thesis investigates the relation between the state and its agents, the production and reproduction of social justice in educational practice and differential benefits. It shows that the social justice in education field lacks an adequate theory of associations between its own practices and the realisation of differential outcomes. The thesis shows that the practices of social justice in education produce and reproduce 'protector' and 'victim' circumstances. Building on this contradiction, the thesis develops the argument that the relation between the state, social justice initiatives and the realisation of benefits, is a market relation. Data analyses show that, despite some reservations, teacher-practitioners conform to and carry out policy rhetoric. Also, policy-making practices are shown to be driven by mass persuasive techniques that are beneficial to advocates of social justice in education. Again, policy evaluation practices are shown as diverting attention from the failure of policy to deliver promised policy outcomes for target populations. Further, social justice in education policy is shown to further the power and influence of the state and its associated agencies and agents by the use of circular and self-referential texts. Finally, departmental restructuring charts demonstrate the symbolic and material expansion of channels for the distribution and supply of social justice in education goods, services and opportunities over time. In short, the counter-intuitive hypothesis that the practice of social justice in education is a target market in the production and reproduction of victim circumstances is upheld.