The constitution of school autonomy in Australian public education: areas of paradox for social justice

ABSTRACT

School autonomy policies have circulated through various modes of educational governance internationally, endorsing the view that more autonomy will improve schools and their systems. When subject to the discourses and practices of marketization, however, school ‘autonomy’ has been mobilized in ways that generate injustice. These injustices are the focus of this paper. We draw on preliminary findings from a three-year study that is exploring the social justice implications of school autonomy reform across four Australian states. Drawing on interviews with 42 stakeholders, the paper identifies four key areas of paradox for social justice currently confronting public schools and school systems. The language of paradox is drawn on to narrate the oppositional politics between the discourses and practices constituting school autonomy and the pursuit of social justice. Such narration raises important questions for Australian public education. It highlights how these discourses are changing what is meant by the public in public education. Engaging with the language of paradox in thinking about school autonomy reform, we argue, is important given the broader landscape where public schooling is being reconstituted and where traditional links to social justice and the common good are under threat.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Australian Research Council [DP190100190].

Notes on contributors

Amanda Keddie

Amanda Keddie is a Professor of Education at Deakin University within REDI (Research for Educational Impact). Her published work examines the schooling processes, practices and conditions that can impact on the pursuit of social justice in schools. Amanda’s qualitative research has been based within the Australian, English and American schooling contexts and is strongly informed by feminist theory with a particular focus on gender. Her recent book with Routledge is Autonomy, Accountability and Social Justice: Stories of English Schooling (2019).

Katrina MacDonald

Katrina MacDonald is a Post-Doctoral Research Fellow in the School of Education, Deakin University, Australia. Her research and teaching interests are in educational leadership, social justice, educational research history, and the sociology of education through a practice lens (feminist, Bourdieu, practice architectures). Katrina is a former anthropologist, archaeologist and primary and secondary teacher in Victoria, Australia.

Jill Blackmore

Jill Blackmore is Alfred Deakin Professor in the Faculty of Arts and Education, Deakin University, and former Director of the Centre for Research in Educational Futures and Innovation and Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences Australia. Her research interests include, from a feminist perspective: globalisation, education policy and governance; international and intercultural education; educational restructuring, leadership and organisational change; spatial redesign and innovative pedagogies; teachers’ and academics’ work, all with a focus on equity. Recent higher education research has focused on disengagement with and lack of diversity in leadership, international education and graduate employability. Her research has focused in particular on the re/constitution of the social relations of gender in and through education in the early 21st century.

Jane Wilkinson

Jane Wilkinson is a Professor of Educational Leadership at Monash University, Australia. Jane's research interests are in educational leadership for social justice and practice theory (feminist, Bourdieuian and practical philosophy). Jane has conducted extensive research with refugee studentsinschools and universities in regional and urban Australia. Jane’s books include: Challenges for public education: Reconceptualising educational leadership, policy and social justice as resources for hope (with Richard Niesche and Scott Eacott, Routledge, 2019) and Educational leadership as a culturally-constructed practice: New directions and possibilities (with Laurette Bristol, Routledge, 2018). Jane is co-editor (with Amanda Heffernan) of the Journal of Educational Administration and History.

Brad Gobby

Brad Gobby is a senior lecturer in the School of Education at Curtin University, Western Australia. He has published widely on the topics of education policy, politics and school autonomy in international journals and edited books, and is an editorial board member of the Journal of Educational Administration and History.

Richard Niesche

Richard Niesche is an Associate Professor in the School of Education at the University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia. His research interests are in the areas of educational leadership, the principalship and social justice in education. He has published his research in a number of peer reviewed journal and books. His latest book (co-edited with Dr Amanda Heffernan) is “Theorising Identity and Subjectivity in Educational Leadership Research” published with Routledge in 2020.

Scott Eacott

Scott Eacott is Associate Professor and Deputy Head of School, Research in the School of Education at UNSW Sydney and Adjunct Professor in the Department of Educational Administration at the University of Saskatchewan. He has developed a distinctive relational approach and further details can be found at www.scott.eacott.com You can connect with him on Twitter @ScottEacott

Caroline Mahoney

Caroline Mahoney is a lecturer in the School of Education at Deakin University, Australia. Her research employs a sociology of education/youth perspective alongside theories of interculturality to generate knowledge about how young people engage with issues of difference and diversity in their everyday lives. Both Caroline’s doctoral and post-doctoral research has been undertaken in partnership with cross-institutional teams, schools and industry partners in projects funded by the Australian Research Council.