Rethinking School-to-Work Transitions in Australia

Abstract

We live in an era where forms of education designed to win the consent of students, teachers, and the public to the inevitability of a neo-liberal, market-driven process of globalization are being developed around the world. In these hegemonic modes of pedagogy questions about issues of race, class, gender, sexuality, colonialism, religion, and other social dynamics are simply not asked. Indeed, questions about the social spaces where pedagogy takes place-in schools, media, corporate think tanks, etc.-are not raised. When these concerns are connected with queries such as the following, we begin to move into a serious study of pedagogy: What knowledge is of the most worth? Whose knowledge should be taught? What role does power play in the educational process? How are new media re-shaping as well as perpetuating what happens in education? How is knowledge produced in a corporatized politics of knowledge? What socio-political role do schools play in the twenty-first century? What is an educated person? What is intelligence? How important are socio-cultural contextual factors in shaping what goes on in education? Can schools be more than a tool of the new American (and its Western allies') twenty-first century empire? How do we educate well-informed, creative teachers? What roles should schools play in a democratic society? What roles should media play in a democratic society? Is education in a democratic society different than in a totalitarian society? What is a democratic society? How is globalization affecting education? How does our view of mind shape the way we think of education? How does affect and emotion shape the educational process? What are the forces that shape educational purpose in different societies? These, of course, are just a few examples of the questions that need to be asked in relation to our exploration of educational purpose. This series of books can help establish a renewed interest in such questions and their centrality in the larger study of education and the preparation of teachers and other educational professionals.More information about this series at

‘Looking to the Future and the University in an Inclusive and Sustainable Way’: A Career Intervention for High School Students

“…The neoliberalist socioeconomic perspective, along with adversities and complicated living situations in larger and larger groups of the population, promoted an ethic of disengagement towards the community, leading to individualization, which does not take into account the risks of exclusion and vulnerability [13]. The disappearance of a democratic 'socio-political community' within which citizens can support each other and share problems and successes increases competition among individuals rather than mutual solidarity, and this also contributes to feelings of distrust in the younger generations, as well as high levels of uncertainty associated with the future [1,14].…”

"Looking To the Future and the University in an Inclusive and Sustainable Way": A Career Intervention for High School Students

“…By moving toward the future and thinking about the challenges that young people would like to face, their attention and their worries will shift to intentions, to desired perspectives, to the things that must be acquired and reinforced, to the circumstances that have to be encouraged and looked for, to the occasions to be discovered with insatiable curiosity, to the goals to be pursued with perseverance. These goals will have to be relevant and meaningful to those who intend to pursue them (Down, Smyth, & Robinson, 2018).…”

“…The neoliberalist socio-economic perspective, along with adversities and complicated living situations in larger and larger groups of the population, promoted an ethic of disengagement towards the community, leading to individualisation, which does not take into account the risks of exclusion and vulnerability (Down, Smyth, Robinson, 2018). The disappearance of a democratic "socio-political community" within which citizens can support each other and share problems and successes, increases competition among individuals rather than mutual solidarity and this also contributes to feelings of distrust in the younger generations with high levels of uncertainty associated with the future (Hooley, et al, 2018;Alietti, 2013).…”

Cooperation theory

“…To summarise, aligning the world of education to the world of work has proven to be a Gordnian knot in education (cf. Down, Smyth & Robinson 2018), which no national education system could succeed in getting untied, even less so in modern times of complicated society and advanced economies. But what is certain is that a narrow vocational education has proven not to be the answer, and will be even less so in the unfolding 21st century.…”