Description:
By whatever indicators we choose to use, the bold neoliberal experiment embarked upon by developed Western countries has been an unqualified disaster for young people. Far from them being ‘included’ as the shrill policy rhetoric argues, increasing numbers of young people, especially those who are pushed into the increasing social gradient that labels them as being ‘disadvantaged’, are finding schools to be inhospitable places that do not connect with their communities, lives or aspirations for rewarding futures. This particular social group are rejecting the institution of schooling in unprecedented numbers, and are switching off emotionally, relationally and intellectually.
Description:
This special issue focuses on a controversial topic that has been kept off the official agenda for far too long in educational circles. The question of how to pursue forms of leadership that listen to and attend to the voices of the most informed, yet marginalized witnesses of schooling, young people, has to be the most urgent issue of our times.
Description:
The educational landscape is changing dramatically and profoundly for schools and communities across Australia and other western countries. It is no longer the case that children automatically do not attend their local neighbourhood school, nor can it be assumed that within public schools that there is a heterogenous social mix. What we have is an increasingly segregated, stratified and residualised system of education in Australia as neo-liberal policies of so-called 'choice' do their pock-marking with those who can afford it 'opting out' to private education, leaving behind those without the resources to exercise choice.
Description:
This paper argues that we are currently experiencing a debilitating overload of political interference and media hyperbole in respect of teaching and teacher education, and that much of this blitzkrieg amounts to a 'political spectacle' and blatant neo-liberal ideology dressed up as rational analysis. The politics of disparagement being unleashed on public education, and by association teacher education, is intended to laminate over the real issue, which is a cultural war over what is officially allowed to constitute teaching and learning.