Post‐compulsory education in Australia and the domination of truth

Abstract

Since the mid‐1980s in Australia national economic planning has dictated to public policies concerning post‐compulsory education and training. Education is being conceptualized within an economic framework which owes its existence to problematic disjunctures between policy and practice which are now ‘mirrored’ in the educational sector. Despite progressive elements in the formulation and implementation of policies, the meaning of both participation and outcomes in educational terms is problematic. The relationship between the centralization of the power of the state and its devolution has changed, with the role of the state increasingly that of policy formation for predetermined outcomes coupled with a shift of accountability to the local level in the new ‘education market’. Foucault's imagery of the ‘game of truth’ is useful here. The redefinition of the centralist/devolution dyad and the new managerial control of education performance has changed the rules of the educational game and established a new form of ‘domination of truth’.