This article is an attempt to make an empirical contribution to a more grounded model of thinking about justice. It focuses on the work of one practitioner working in an inner-London local education authority with a remit relating to the achievement of "African-Caribbean" students. In describing the challenges that she faces in the course of her work and how she responds to them, we want to illuminate the contribution that this kind of practice-focused analysis can make to understandings of what social justice is, how tensions in social justice arise, and how they might be responded to. (Contains 7 notes.)