Public education and democracy: a changing relationship in a globalizing world

Public education matters: Reclaiming public education for the common good in a global era

“…There is now a need to recommit to values such as reciprocity, altruism, social and economic equality and inclusivity to govern the education system. In suggesting that we need to reclaim public education I would agree with others (Stewart, 2005;Vickers, 2005;Lawton, 2005;Ball, 2003;Reid, 2002;Whitty, 2002) who argue that the role of the state is being dismantled and the public nature of education is diminishing. What then are the factors that have been responsible for this decline?…”

“…Financial responsibility and accountability are devolved to individual schools and the competition that does arise from the establishment of quasi-markets encourages schools to differentiate themselves from one another. An outcome of such policies of choice does result in diversity but such differentiation is organised around socio-economic status, ethnicity, religion and race (Reid, 2002). As Dempster, Freakley, & Parry (2001) emphasise market theory is not concerned with the degree to which "satisfaction of collective values" is met.…”

“…So that by the mid-1990s responsibility for education was shared between state-owned, and state-regulated schools, and publicly subsidised private schools. When the conservative Liberal/National party coalition was elected in 1996 public choice theory dominated policy and the shift of students away from public schools to the private sector continued (Vickers, 2005;Reid, 2002) so that in 2007 private schools had increased their share of enrolments to 33.5% of the total. This increase it is argued is illustrative of parents' support for the individual purposes of education.…”

The Erosion of the Public Good: The Implications of Neo-Liberalism for Education for Democracy

“…They develop social-bonding capital -that is, social bonding that is exclusionary and links only a few to each other (Putnam, 2000). This reinforces exclusion and means that private school students are limited in their exposure to multiple points of view and to the necessary processes of conflict resolution that develop awareness of the meaning of 'public' (Reid, 2002). As students may have a narrow view of goods as private, students may be less likely to understand, support and work for the concept of the public good.…”

“…It is eroding the public good by failing to see that private goods only exist and have meaning within the public good, and by removing curricular content and activities from schools that aim to develop students' understanding and awareness of the public good. Instead, teaching is narrowed to individualistic and competitive market ideology, and encased in the value of consumption and competition (Reid, 2002;Grimmett & Shaker, 2004;Power et al, 2008;Virag, 2010). Putnam (2000) provides much empirical evidence illustrating how community-mindednessan essential element for developing the public good and a key element of social capital -has been eroded over the twentieth century.…”