Student engagement has been identified as an important precursor to student learning. Engagement, especially in the so-called problematic middle years, is now at the centre of mainstream education discussion and debate. Each discourse produces its own distinct understanding of what really defines student engagement. Three contesting epistemological constructions of student engagement are identified, seeking to answer three linked questions: whose conception of engagement is most worthwhile; what actually are the purposes of engagement and who benefits (and gets excluded) from these purposes; and finally how might we conceive of student engagement in order to achieve the twin goals of social justice and academic achievement?