Changing Australian Education How Policy is Taking Us Backwards and What Can Be Done About It

Changing Australian Education : How Policy is Taking Us Backwards and What Can Be Done About It
ISBN: 9781760875206
Publication Date: 1 October 2019

A critique of the current state of Australian education and a proposal for a new direction in policy and practice.

Public education in Australia faces challenges as never before. While politicians and media pundits agonise over the latest NAPLAN results, lamenting falling standards, teachers are leaving the profession in record numbers, disillusioned with the pressures of their working environment and the lack of trust in their work by policy makers. What is the answer How should Australian education change to better meet the needs of students, teachers and our complex, rapidly changing society

Professor Alan Reid argues that it is time for a new narrative in Australian education policy and practice. He states that for too long education has been dominated by a standardisation discourse with its origins in neoliberalism and an emphasis on education as a private commodity rather than as a public good. He presents detailed research to show that the standardisation approach, particularly its market-oriented emphasis on high stakes testing, competition between schools and uniformity has, over the past thirty years of its dominance of the policy agenda, made the work of schools more difficult and failed to address the challenges of the future.

The book offers instead a new vision of education that is futures-focused and prizes flexibility, adaptability, collaboration and agility. Its policy features include student-centred teaching approaches, integrated and project-based learning, inquiry, formative assessment and teacher autonomy. The book uses a case study of the fourth industrial revolution to model the features of this approach, including new directions for curriculum, pedagogy, and school and system cultures. Importantly it s...