Education as a ‘risky business’: Theorising student and teacher learning in complex times

Abstract

This paper employs sociological literature on risk and the commodification of education to explain current schooling practices in a context of increased concerns about students’ behaviour and results on standardised tests of achievement. Drawing upon teacher and student learning practices in three school sites in south-east Queensland, Australia, the article reveals how specific tests, packages and programmes have been employed as technologies of governance to minimise the risk of adverse student behaviour, maximise student outcomes on standardised tests, and provide teachers with discrete learning experiences construed as improving such outcomes. The sum total of these foci is the construction of education as an increasingly ‘risky business’ which employs a myriad of products and tests to manage perceived and actual risks. The paper also reveals how these products and processes constitute student misbehaviour and inadequate teacher and student learning as ‘risk objects’ requiring constant intervention, but which also inhibit inclusion in schooling settings, and challenge teachers’ professionalism.

Keywords:

• risk
• commodification of education
• student behaviour
• testing
• teacher learning

Notes

1. RTR – Responsible Thinking Room – a separate room to which students were sent to reflect upon their behaviour, and determine how to improve problematic behaviours.

2. Administration staff – typically a deputy principal within the school.

3. All names are pseudonyms.

4. Teachers and principals typically referred to NAPLAN results as ‘external data’ during the course of the project.

5. Test of Reading Comprehension.

6. Progressive Assessment Tests – a range of tests produced and sold by the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER).

7. Typically referred to as ‘PAT-M’ and ‘PAT-R’ tests by teachers.

8. A raft of commericially produced literacy resources.

9. Special Education Programme – A dedicated programme for students ascertained as requiring additional support because of identified learning needs and disabilities.

10. Education Queensland.

11. Professional development/continuing professional development.

12. Queensland Comparable Assessment Tasks (QCATs) – a state-wide initiative in Queensland to help promote improved assessment practices through focused teacher discussions about the quality of student work-samples across school sites. QCATs were undertaken in Years 4, 6 and 8 in Queensland – alternate year levels to those engaged in NAPLAN testing (Years 3, 5, 7 and 9).