Changing Australian Education. How policy is taking us backwards and what can be done about it
            <b>Changing Australian Education. How policy is taking us backwards and what can be done about it</b>
            , by Alan Reid, Sydney, Allen &amp; Unwin, 2019, 368 pp., $41.98 (paperback), ISBN 9781760875206

Uptin, Jonnell

doi:10.1080/00220620.2020.1834363

Cited by 5 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 1 publication

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“…However, there is little evidence of educational outcomes improving through increasing school choice (Academies Commission, 2013;Ravitch, 2016;Smyth, 2011). What has occurred is increasing workload and stress for school principals because they fear losing status and students in a competitive marketplace along with increased inequity in education systems (Hutchings et al, 2015;Reid, 2019). The overall workload is intensifying, as evidenced by comments from all of the participants in this project.…”

Section: Workload Health and Well-beingmentioning

confidence: 98%

“…These comments about the importance of maintaining the public system, the effects of competition and choice as well as the inequities of school autonomy, particularly for disadvantaged schools, has been explored in previous research (see Darling-Hammond 2010;Ravitch, 2016;Reid, 2019;Smyth, 2011;Wilkinson et al, 2018).…”

Section: Differing Perceptions Of Autonomymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This has resulted in shifts to the workloads, and practices of educational leaders in schools as they seek to negotiate the tensions within different modes of decentralised (and in some cases concurrent re-centralising of structures) decision-making, resourcing and support from education authorities. In Australia, these reforms have not necessarily led to improved student achievement, better outcomes for social justice nor particularly improved workloads or decision-making across the board for school principals (see Reid, 2019;Smyth, 2011). While there has been broad support for these reforms, school principals have been experiencing increased workloads, stress, anxiety and poor health and poorer wellbeing outcomes for a number of years (for example, Heffernan and Pierpoint, 2020;Oplatka, 2017;Riley et al, 2020;Thomson and Hillman, 2019).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Principals’ perceptions of school autonomy and educational leadership

Niesche¹,

Eacott²,

Keddie³

et al. 2021

Educational Management Administration & Leadership

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This paper examines principals’ perceptions of school autonomy and leadership as part of a 3-year research project looking at the implications of school autonomy on social justice across four states of Australia (Victoria, New South Wales, Western Australia and Queensland). Drawing on interviews with principals and representatives from principal stakeholder organisations in these four state jurisdictions, the paper identifies a number of key issues for school principals and the implications for understandings and practices of educational leadership. These include varied understandings of autonomy, practices of leadership and implications for health, workload and well-being. The paper argues that while principals have mixed perceptions of school autonomy policies, there has been a narrowing of leadership experiences by principals in the form of managerialism and compliance. Furthermore, principals continue to experience high levels of workload, and some principals, depending on career stage and experience level, feel better able to work within and sometimes against these policies in their schools and communities. These practices are sometimes felt to be despite the system and not due to school autonomy policies themselves. The implication of these findings is that principals are inequitably able to respond to and implement school autonomy policies, an issue often glossed over in educational leadership research.

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Section: Workload Health and Well-beingmentioning

confidence: 98%

Section: Differing Perceptions Of Autonomymentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Principals’ perceptions of school autonomy and educational leadership

Niesche¹,

Eacott²,

Keddie³

et al. 2021

Educational Management Administration & Leadership

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…Over the past twenty years, what has continued to dominate education aims are neoliberal policies that privilege academic performance and accountability measures (Biesta, 2008;Glithero, 2018;Hannon & Peterson, 2021). In Australia more specifically, standardised tests, such as the National Assessment Program Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) and the worldwide Program for International Student Assessment (PISA), have come to define the education system's underlying purpose (Reid, 2019). However, the current unprecedented ecological and societal challenges demand renewed consideration of the purposes of education (Hannon & Peterson, 2021;Reid, 2019).…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In Australia more specifically, standardised tests, such as the National Assessment Program Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) and the worldwide Program for International Student Assessment (PISA), have come to define the education system's underlying purpose (Reid, 2019). However, the current unprecedented ecological and societal challenges demand renewed consideration of the purposes of education (Hannon & Peterson, 2021;Reid, 2019).…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

‘Over to you’: considering the purpose of education through a student-centred sustainability project

Jackson

2022

Aust. J. environ. educ.

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The school strikes for climate action that began with Greta Thunberg in 2018 and spread worldwide in 2019, left many young people to ponder ‘what is the point of education if we have no future?’ In this investigation of a student-centred project on sustainability conducted with Year 4 students in Brisbane, the point of education was framed by Biesta’s three domains of purpose; Qualification, Socialisation and Subjectification. Sustainability education requires attention to each domain, that is, increasing children’s knowledge of sustainability (Qualification), facilitating their critical awareness of social practices related to sustainability (Socialisation), and expanding their capacity to act in response to the challenges of living sustainably (Subjectification). The project was designed using an action research model where children co-created the topic (reducing plastic usage) and then decided on how it would be investigated and reported. Interviews during and after the project, and episodes recorded in a research journal revealed changes in each of the three domains, with changes in the Subjectification domain being the focus of this study. The overall positive and multifaceted learning outcomes that occurred highlight what is possible when addressing issues of sustainability and the point of education in ways that matter to children.

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The value of comparative research in an era of standards-based reforms

Doecke,

Parr,

Owen

2024

L1-ESLL

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The impact of standards-based reforms on the professional practice of English teachers in Anglophone settings has been well documented. Such reforms typically foreground the importance of a particular form of English and standardised formulations of curriculum, pedagogy, and assessment, which facilitate easy measurement and comparisons between educational settings. In Australia, the impact has intensified to such an extent that traditional framings of English teacher practice, which emphasize responsiveness to the cultural and linguistic diversity of students, begin to look like a discourse of a bygone era. From an historical perspective, how has this come about? And what does English teacher practice look like in the current policy environment? Can comparative inquiry into language education, such as has been conducted under the auspices of the International Mother Tongue Education Network (IMEN) over the past four decades, provide intellectual resources to resist relentless pressures towards standardisation and measurement? The collaborative inquiry into the professional practice of one author at the heart of this essay arises out of our attempts to explore the potential of IMEN protocols to render the familiar strange and to see her practice with new eyes. In this way we seek to resist the ways standards-based reforms are radically reshaping the praxis of English educators in Australia.

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Changing Australian Education. How policy is taking us backwards and what can be done about it Changing Australian Education. How policy is taking us backwards and what can be done about it , by Alan Reid, Sydney, Allen & Unwin, 2019, 368 pp., $41.98 (paperback), ISBN 9781760875206

Cited by 5 publications

References 1 publication

Principals’ perceptions of school autonomy and educational leadership

Principals’ perceptions of school autonomy and educational leadership

‘Over to you’: considering the purpose of education through a student-centred sustainability project

The value of comparative research in an era of standards-based reforms

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