Constructing productive post‐school transitions: an analysis of Australian schooling policies

The odyssey: school to work transitions, serendipity and position in the field

“…Such neoliberal economic (and lifelong learning) policies also articulate two dissonant models of youth (Billett et al 2010): as a problem and as a resource. Both objectify youth and define them as a homogenised 'other' failing to acknowledge individual selves and lives.…”

“…It also assumes that young people follow 'ladder-like' (Hodkinson, Sparkes, and Hodkinson 1996), planned trajectories, and there is an absence of consideration of those transitions which are variously extended, fractured, difficult, troubled and/or precarious. As well as 'othering' and homogenising certain (working-class) groups of young people, the deficit model of youth holds them personally responsible for their failure to participate in a neoliberal knowledge economy (see, for example, Atkins 2009;Billett et al 2010;Clarke and Willis 1984) and applies particular characterisations to them, such as disengaged and disaffected, which, as well as being disproportionately applied to 'the poor and ethnic minorities, confers an inferior status on those [so] labelled, viewing them as being morally inferior' (Apple 2013, 50-51), thus problematising the individual and not the system. The unchanging tenor of policy discourse over time, not to mention the failure of governments to secure social justice and a high-functioning economy, would seem to suggest either that youth is a problem beyond the resources of generations of policy-makers, or that the self-same policy-makers are suffering from a global failure of 'policy memory' (Higham and Yeomans 2007) at the highest levels or possibly seeking to divert attention from any critical consideration of a VET system which obscures the existence of systemic and structural hegemonies confining young people to an allotted place in life, constraining their individual agency and replicating social class and other social inequities.…”

The new compulsory schooling age policy in NSW, Australia: ethnicity, ability and gender considerations

“…(481) These policies and assumptions have a clear neoliberal framework as they emphasise the role of the individual in managing successful education-work transitions, reducing or even removing the role of the government in supporting future success or stability. Billett et al (2010) argue that 'at-risk students' are most likely to be in need of support managing their education and transition to work, and that: the cost of providing high levels of support may fall most heavily on the school that need to address disadvantage most strongly, as it may be available for other schools gratuitously through families' social and cultural capital (484).…”

“…In their review of Australian education policies on youth transition, Billett et al (2010), identified three major curriculum goals: (1) improving students' awareness of post-school options and their requirements; (2) enhancing retention of at-risk school students to the senior years through more effective engagement; and (3) increasing student aspirations for their post-school lives (481). They argue that two assumptions underpin these policies: that individuals have access to information about the purposes to which they should direct their efforts as they seek pathways to post-school life … [and] that students are empowered to then act as unconstrained, critical consumers to enact decisions based on that information.…”

Discourses of the good parent in attributing school success

“…The first two extracts (extracts 1 and 2) were produced at two different secondary schoolsone a state school and the other a private school. The second set of data (extracts 3-5) was collected as part of an ARC Discovery Project, 1 investigating students', teachers' and parents' experiences of programmes designed to manage students' school to work transitions (see Billett et al, 2010;Thomas & Hay, 2012). The data set from this project used for this paper was taken from a parent-focus group interview.…”