Politics and school education in Australia: a case of shifting purposes

Abstract

PurposeThe paper aims to argue that there has been a privileging of the private (social mobility) and economic (social efficiency) purposes of schooling at the expense of the public (democratic equality) purposes of schooling.Design/methodology/approachThe paper employs a literature review, policy and document analysis.FindingsSince the late 1980s, the schooling agenda in Australia has been narrowed to one that gives primacy to purposes of schooling that highlight economic orientations (social efficiency) and private purposes (social mobility).Practical implicationsThe findings have wider relevance beyond Australia, as similar policy agendas are evident in many other countries raising the question as to how the shift in purposes of education in those countries might mirror those in Australia.Originality/valueWhile earlier writers have examined schooling policies in Australia and noted the implications of managerialism in relation to these policies, no study has analysed these policies from the perspective of the purposes of schooling. Conceptualising schooling, and its purposes in particular, in this way refocuses attention on how societies use their educational systems to promote (or otherwise) the public good.

Towards a Good Education in Very Remote Australia: Is it Just a Case of Moving the Desks Around?

“…(Cranston, Kimber, Mulford, Reid, & Keating, 2010). Economic independence is no doubt a core value of mainstream Australian culture and tends to take precedence over socialisation and equity values.…”

Impact of school management on legally adequate content of a budget plan: The evidence from Slovenia

“…According to Radzi, Ghani, andSiraj (2015, p. 1679), educational management with awareness of financial knowledge is a vital part of educational administration among the state's strategies focused on upgrading education and curriculum delivery in order to improve effectiveness and efficiency. Since the late 1980s, the schooling agenda for example in Australia has been narrowed to one, giving primacy to purposes of schooling that highlight economic orientations (Cranston, Kimber, Mulford, Reid, & Keating, 2010).…”

Managerial Rhetoric, Accountability, and School Leadership in Contemporary Australia

“…Data are generated in such a way that they are based on the rather vacuous notion of comparability between schools and/or systems-one that aggregates schools to the point of being somewhat meaningless for all except politicians/ policymakers. With the increasing political intervention in education in Australia (Cranston, Kimber, Mulford, Reid, & Keating, 2010;Lingard, 2000;Lingard, Porter, Bartlett, & Knight, 1995), which is not to suggest that education has not been and always will be a political act, accountability has reached a point where it no longer operates on the game of school leadership (an overlay of sorts), but rather has become the game. While there remain critique and nostalgia for a period with less accountability, the experience of accountability is no longer separate to the contemporary rhetoric of school leadership and education in general, but a central discourse.…”