A sociological analysis of Australia’s NAPLAN and My School Senate Inquiry submissions: the adultification of childhood?

Abstract

Growing consensus in popular and academic commentary suggests the lived reality of Western childhood differs considerably from its dominant cultural construction as an innocent period free from adult responsibilities. Sociologically, this disjuncture is conceptualised as adultification. Adopting a critical theoretical lens, we question if Australian high-stakes standardised testing and reporting, National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) and My School, evidences adultification of childhood experience in primary and secondary schools. Qualitative critical analysis of 270 submissions to NAPLAN’s 2010 Senate Inquiry demonstrates adultification in Australian schools, with children subjected to developmentally inappropriate expectations, pressure, stress and precocious knowledge in response to NAPLAN testing and reporting. Adultification, we argue, is a side-effect of individualisation, managerialism and neo-liberal government policy played out in Australian schools and exposing children to the harsh realities of political, economic and social life. De-politicalisation and de-marketisation of children is argued as urgently needed to foreground a critically considered ‘best practice’ when promoting or measuring educational progress and performance.

Keywords:

• adultification
• childhood
• educational policy
• NAPLAN
• neo-liberalism
• standardised testing

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Kellie Bousfield

Kellie Bousfield is a sessional lecturer and academic in Sociology and Education, a PhD candidate at Charles Sturt University and editorial assistant for the journal Rural Society in Australia. She is the recipient of an APA scholarship. Research interests include the sociology of education, childhood, and issues of social justice in education contexts.

Angela T. Ragusa

Angela T. Ragusa, PhD, is a senior lecturer in Sociology at Charles Sturt University and Editor-In-Chief of the journal Rural Society in Australia. She has over 50 academic publications, including the forthcoming (2014) edited book, Rural Lifestyles, Community Wellbeing, and Social Change. Current funded research projects include examination of the role social interaction, communication and technologies play in mitigating social isolation for distance education; environmental sustainability, and health literacy in tertiary educational institutions and rural communities; and migration and the commodification of Western lifestyles.