Access to academic curriculum in Australian secondary schools: a case study of a highly marketised education system

Abstract

This study examines how access to academic curriculum differs between secondary schools in Australia, a country whose education system is marked by high levels of choice, privatisation and competition. Equitable access to academic curriculum is important for both individual students and their families as well as the larger society. Previous research has shown that students from lower socio-economic backgrounds are less likely to study academic curriculum than their more advantaged peers. Less is known, however, about the extent to which this pattern is related to differential provision of curriculum between schools. We found that low socio-economic schools offer students less access to the core academic curriculum subjects that are important for university entry. We also found that the breadth and depth of courses offered is related to school sector (private or public) and socio-economic context. Previous research has shown that choice and competition are inequitable because they frequently increase school social segregation and ‘cream-skimming’. Our findings show another inequitable consequence, namely that choice and competition limit access to high-status academic curriculum in working-class communities.

Keywords:

• academic curriculum
• educational inequalities
• Australia
• marketisation
• private schools
• school socio-economic context

Notes

1. The Mathematics course covers the main principles related to number and algebra, space and measurement, and chance and data. The course is offered at three levels, with calculus included at the Stage 3 (advanced) level (School Curriculum and Standards Authority, Government of Western Australia 2012).

2. The Mathematics: Specialist course prepares students for ‘for university entry to specialist courses such as engineering, physical sciences and mathematics and is usually studied in conjunction with the Mathematics course...s[with an] emphasis on pattern recognition, recursion, mathematical reasoning, modelling, and the use of technology (School Curriculum and Standards Authority, Government of Western Australia 2012). The course is only offered at the advanced (Stage 3) level.

This study was supported by a grant from the Australian Research Council’s Discovery Projects funding scheme [project number 1097057] awarded to Laura Perry.