Politics Of Education

When Community Control Meets Privatization: The Search for Empowerment in African American Charter Schools

by Janelle Scott

Constructing 'common sense'policies for schools: the role of journalists

by Michelle Stack

Stack, M. (2007). Constructing "common-sense" policies for schools: The role of journalists in the construction of "mainstream" stories about education. International Journal of Leadership in Education, 10 (3), 247 - 264.

(Dis) continuity and the Coalition: primary pedagogy as craft and primary pedagogy as performance

by Paul Adams

Published in Educational Review

Shortly after taking power following the May 2010 UK general election, the Conservative/Liberal Democrat government... more Shortly after taking power following the May 2010 UK general election, the Conservative/Liberal Democrat government published its education white paper, The Importance of Teaching. In this, certain features for primary school pedagogy can be discerned. Using the lens of the “position call”, this article examines the discourses implicated in the white paper to highlight the position calls offered to the primary profession concerning pedagogy. These are compared to those made by New Labour in its previous 13 years in power. Accordingly, the article proposes that whilst the previous administration offered the position calls for primary education of pedagogy as collective craft and pedagogy as collective performance, continuity and discontinuity can be seen in the recent white paper, namely that the position calls now being made are for pedagogy as individual craft and pedagogy as individual performance.

The California reading situation: Rhetoric and reality

by Jeff McQuillan

Premier degré différencié et École de la réussite: les effets pervers de deux réformes

by Miguel Souto Lopez

The Hegemony of Accountability: The Corporate—Political Alliance for Control of Schools (2004)

by E. Wayne Ross

Mathison, S., & Ross, E. W. (2004). The hegemony of accountability: The corporate—political alliance for control of schools. In D. A. Gabbard & E. W. Ross (Eds.), Defending public schools: Education and the rise of the security state (pp. 91-100). Westport CT: Praeger. [Revised version of  Mathison & Ross (2002).]

Goodbye conflict, hello development? Curriculum reform in Timor-Leste

by Ritesh Shah

Masters or servants? Power and discourse in Serbian higher education reform

by Jana Bacevic

Published in Social Anthropology (special issue: Anthropologies of University Reform), January 2010.

"Pogled unazad": antropoloska kritika uvodjenja usmerenog obrazovanja u SFRJ

by Jana Bacevic

published in Antropologija, Vol. 1, No.1, 2006.

Stop Liberalisasi Pendidikan!

by David Efendi

ASET bangsa yang berupa pendidikan adalah aset yang kira-kira disebut penghuni terakhir bangsa ini. Setelah kebijakan... more ASET bangsa yang berupa pendidikan adalah aset yang kira-kira disebut penghuni terakhir bangsa ini. Setelah kebijakan liberalisasi ekonomi marak dilakukan semenjak Orde Baru sampai sekarang. Kini aset bangsa yang paling berharga ini sedang berada di ujung tanduk. Serius, benar-benar under attack.

Public Education, America's Civil Relgion, Introduction & Chapter 1

by Carl L Bankston

Co-authored with Stephen J. Caldas

Sphères de vie et stigmatisation : de la situation de classe aux réformes politiques 1

by Miguel Souto Lopez

Forum des jeunes chercheurs, colloque international « Les politiques de lutte contre les inégalités et les exclusions éducatives en Europe et au-delà. De la compensation à l'inclusion ? » Lyon, du 29/11/2010 au 01/12/2010.

Paradox, Promise and Public Pedagogy: Implications of the Federal Government’s Digital Education Revolution

by Rachel Buchanan

The use of digital technology in the classroom is a significant issue for teachers as they are under increasing... more The use of digital technology in the classroom is a significant issue for teachers as they are under increasing pressure to teach in technologically mediated ways. This ‘digital turn’ in education has culminated in the Australian federal government’s Digital Education Revolution, which represents a multi-billion dollar commitment to putting computers in schools and the implementation of technological pedagogical practice. This paper focuses on the confluence between globalised economic process, the Digital Education Revolution, and the discourse of the digital native; and describes the way in which students’ use of digital technologies is identity forming. I examine the Digital Education Revolution policy and related discourse in order to sketch out some of the educational implications. Drawing upon Giroux’s (2004) notion of ‘public pedagogy’ I argue that using digital technologies could potentially open up an educative space to allow students to author their own digital identity. While the Digital Education Revolution is a product of the influence of globalisation upon education, it, nonetheless, contains contradictory prohibitions and possibilities that can be utilised to take the use of digital technology beyond that of preparing students for work in a globalised information economy.

(If Social Studies is Wrong) I Don't Want to be Right

by E. Wayne Ross

Ross, E. W., & Marker, P. M. (2005). (If social studies is wrong) I don't want to be right. Theory and Research in Social Education, 33(1), 142-151

Social Studies: Wrong, Right, or Left? A Critical Response to the Fordham Institute's Where Did Social Studies Go Wrong? (Part 2)

by E. Wayne Ross

Ross, E. W., & Marker, P. M. (2005, September/October). Social studies: Wrong, right or left? A Critical Analysis of the Fordham Foundation’s Where Did Social Studies Go Wrong? (Part II)". The Social Studies, 96(5),187 - 188.

Introduction to the second of a special two-issue series of articles in The Social Studies examining the... more Introduction to the second of a special two-issue series of articles in The Social Studies examining the neo-conservative attacks on K-12 social studies curriculum and teaching, by guest editors Ross and Marker.

Social Studies: Wrong, Right, or Left? A Critical Response to the Fordham Institute's Where Did Social Studies Go Wrong? (Part 1)

by E. Wayne Ross

Ross, E. W., & Marker, P. M. (2005, July/August). Social studies: Wrong, right or left? A Critical Analysis of the Fordham Foundation’s Where Did Social Studies Go Wrong? (Part I). The Social Studies, 96(4), 139-142.

Introduction to the first of a special two-issue series of articles in The Social Studies examining the... more Introduction to the first of a special two-issue series of articles in The Social Studies examining the neo-conservative attacks on K-12 social studies curriculum and teaching, guest edited by Ross and Marker.

Citizens and/or Consumers: Mutations in the Construction of Meanings and Practices of School Choice

by Andrew Wilkins

Wilkins, A. 2010. Citizens and/or Consumers: Mutations in the Construction of Meanings and Practices of School Choice. Journal of Education Policy, 25 (2), pp. 171-189

Recent research on school choice highlights the tendency among some White, middle-class parents to engage with... more Recent research on school choice highlights the tendency among some White, middle-class parents to engage with discourses of community responsibility and ethnic diversity as part of their responsibility and duty as choosers and who therefore exercise choice in ways that undercut the individualistic and self-interested character framing governmental discourses and rationalities around choice. This paper contributes to these debates through making visible the ways in which some mothers articulate and combine meanings and practices of choice that register contrasting and sometimes contradictory notions of active and responsible parenting. Drawing on data from a group of mothers of diverse social class and racial backgrounds, I explore how some mothers negotiate their school choice around a number of intersecting positions and relations that work across, as well as within, formulations of public-private, collective-individual, citizen-consumer, political-commercial. Through a consideration of the relationships in practice between these diverse elements, this paper questions the analytic value of distinctions between citizen and consumer, community and individual as framings for understanding the motivations and aspirations shaping some mothers’ school choices.

Push and Pull in the Classroom: Gender, Competition and the Neoliberal Subject

by Andrew Wilkins

Gender and Education. iFirst article. Forthcoming.

In this paper I explore how learning strategies based on competition and zero-sum thinking are inscribed into the... more In this paper I explore how learning strategies based on competition and zero-sum thinking are inscribed into the dynamics of classroom interaction shaping relations between high-achieving pupils, and link elements of these practices to market trends in British education policy discourse. A detour through the politico-historical negotiations shaping relations between neo-liberal governance and education is initially sketched out, bringing into focus how the proliferation of policy discourses of consumerism and marketization aim to facilitate and shape the conduct of persons in classroom settings. Drawing on ethnographic observation data taken from a study of two London comprehensive secondary schools, I then outline how pupils are incited to behave as competitive strategists in the classroom and reflect on the gender constructions underpinning these performances and their slippery dynamics.

The Spectre of Neoliberalism: Pedagogy, Gender and the Construction of Learner Identities

by Andrew Wilkins

Critical Studies in Education, 53 (2), 197-210

In this paper I draw on ethnographic observation data taken from a school-based study of two groups of 12-13 year old... more In this paper I draw on ethnographic observation data taken from a school-based study of two groups of 12-13 year old pupils identified as high achieving and popular to explore how relations between teachers and pupils are mediated and constituted through the spectre of neoliberal values and sensibilities – zero-sum thinking, individualism and competition. Specifically, I demonstrate how certain high-achieving male and female pupils respond to and negotiate competing challenges summoned through the classroom – pushes to be competitive, autonomous and achieve academically, and pulls to court the acceptance of others and become or remain popular. This highlights the deep interconnections between neoliberalism and pedagogy and school-based orientations to learning. At the same time, it draws attention to resistance and the efficacy of the interpellating demands of neoliberal discourses in the context of intersecting dynamics of gender, friendship and popularity. I conclude the paper by considering how neoliberal styles, rhetoric and cultural forms impact on ideas of social justice and possibilities for a ‘critical’ or ‘transformative’ pedagogy that takes seriously the positive contribution of learners to education discourses and practices.

School Choice, Consumerism and the Ethical Strand in Talk

by Andrew Wilkins

Wilkins, A. (2011) Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education, 32 (3), pp. 357-370

Research on school choice highlights the extent to which a communitarian impulse informs the way some parents engage... more Research on school choice highlights the extent to which a communitarian impulse informs the way some parents engage with their role as chooser. This suggests that the responsibilities of parents as consumers are often negotiated in collective as well as individualising terms. Drawing on data from a group of mothers of diverse social class and racial backgrounds, this paper builds on some of these perspectives through deploying elements of a critical discursive analytic approach. Its aim is to explore how some mothers engage with the meaning and practice of school choice. Focusing on the emotional labouring that often underpins mothers’ rationalisations of choice, this paper examines the discursive role of emotion in these contexts as a form of social action geared towards achieving certain ends. In turn I discuss the implications of this for thinking through choice as a framing, function and discourse inhabited and performed by mothers.