School Autonomy Reform and Social Justice in Australian Public Education by Keddie, Amanda; MacDonald, Katrina; Gobby, Brad;

Short description:

This book explores the social justice implications of school autonomy reform within the context of public education in Australia. An essential read for researchers and policymakers worldwide, it provides insight into how education systems can better support public schools to mobilise their autonomy in socially just ways.

Long description:

This book explores the social justice implications of school autonomy reform within the context of public education in Australia. It is situated within and framed by global concerns about how public schools are navigating their ‘autonomy’ within increasingly marketised education systems.

Drawing on extensive interviews with stakeholders and five in-depth case study schools, the book calls attention to the ways in which the intentions of school autonomy reform to offer schools more freedom to make their own decisions and manage their own responsibilities have become increasingly contained by the market imperatives of economic efficiency, competition and public accountability driving state and national education systems. We build on and enrich existing research in this area that highlights how market imperatives continue to exacerbate inequality within and between schools and their systems.

An essential read for researchers, policy makers, principals and teachers worldwide, the book provides insight into how education systems can better support public schools to mobilise their autonomy in socially just ways.

This book provides a comprehensive and nuanced account of the realities of leading Australian schools today under autonomy reforms. The social justice lens within this book provides an important and often overlooked perspective on issues of equity affecting students, communities, and educators. This book, while focused on Australia, is an important resource for educators and researchers worldwide who are interested in global issues of school autonomy, social justice, and equity in education.

- Amanda McKay, Griffith University, Australia

Table of Contents:

1. Introduction: School autonomy reform and social justice in Australian public education 2. School autonomy reform in Australia: A policy history 3. School autonomy, marketisation and social justice: The plight of principals and schools 4. ‘It’s like we’re in two different schools’: Contrasting stories of teacher and leader autonomy within a distributed approach to leadership 5. Teacher professional autonomy in an atypical government school: Matters of relationality and context 6. Competition, enterprising leadership and the effect on schools 7. Educational leadership and the contradictions of care in performative education systems 8. ‘Does distance trump autonomy?’: A case study of school autonomy in a mining town 9. Devolving labour relations, work conditions and employment standards: A focus on school services staff 10. Election or selection? School autonomy reform, governance and the politics of school councils 11. The systemic effects of school autonomy on social justice 12. The constitution of school autonomy in Australian public education: Areas of paradox for social justice 13. Responses from across the globe 14. Where to from here? Putting the public back into education