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The gap between the demands placed on education in Australia and the resources allocated to it by government has increased dramatically in recent years. The education system is expected to absorb youth unemployment and play a key role in the modernisation of the economy, yet education spending as a proportion of GDP has declined. The notion of education as being important for its own sake and a key to equality in society seems to have been set aside, and economics now dominates debate on education policy. This book summarises and analyses the major issues in Australian education policy today: the relationship between education and work; the reform of higher education and vocational training; outputs, resources and class sizes; the role of government and the public/private debate in schooling. It also examines the main economic theories about education, including human capital theory and free market theory, and finds them seriously inadequate as a basis for policy. The author argues that economic rationalism has installed a free market agenda at the heart of public education policy, with deep consequences for the academic and democratic development of Australia's citizens

SUMMARY: The provision of parenting education in Australia has increased dramatically in recent years in response to the rapid changes in contemporary society and the involvement of professionals in family life and relationships. Informed by a critical perspective which highlights the impact of individuals and society upon each other, the paper argues that the value base of parenting education programmes needs to be made clear. Parents need to be helped to consider their personal experiences of mothering and fathering in relation to the under structural tensions shaping their individual responses which impact in turn on the broader situation. A study being undertaken in Melbourne, Australia is drawn on to illustrate certain aspects of parenting education, and ways in which programmes can perpetuate dominant ideologies which can disadvantage parents, but especially mothers, are noted.

Intro -- Acknowledgements -- Contents -- List of Figures -- List of Tables -- 1: Introduction -- 1.1 Resistance -- 1.2 Histories of Neoliberalism -- 1.3 Social Neoliberalism and Education Policy -- 1.4 Auditing -- 1.5 Who Cares About My School and What Do We Know About It? -- References -- 2: Why Did the ALP Introduce the My School Website? -- 2.1 How was My School Implemented? -- 2.2 Julia Gillard's Own Explanations -- 2.3 The Influence of News Corp -- 2.4 History Matters -- 2.5 A History of Public Funding for Private Schools in Australia -- 2.6 Conclusions -- References -- 3: Is Professional Unionism a Model for Teachers? -- 3.1 The Rise of 'Professional Unionism' Among Teachers -- 3.2 Research About Professional Unionism -- 3.3 Reviewing Research About Professional Unionism -- 3.4 Conclusions -- References -- 4: Australian Education Union Responses to the GERM -- 4.1 Social Democracy and Labourism -- 4.2 A Brief History of the AEU -- 4.3 Conclusions -- References -- 5: Two Schools -- 5.1 Two Schools in Their Time and Place -- 5.2 What Can My School Tell Us About the Two Schools? -- 5.3 Opinions About My School at the Two Schools -- 5.4 Opinions About the Debate Over My School -- 5.5 Conclusions -- References -- 6: Conclusions -- References -- References -- Index.

A number of major studies of social stratification have been conducted since the Second World War. Focusing on societal openness, or equality of opportunity, these studies have ranged from investigations of individual status attainment and mobility processes to the analysis of class closure and class conflict among groups. What these studies have mostly in common, however, is that the form of stratification within which mobility or class closure is considered is occupational. Also, they have almost entirely concentrated on the male population. Openness, or equality of opportunity, is usually assessed in terms of the association between fathers' and sons' occupations, or the relative chances a son has to inherit his father's class or status position (Dale et al, 1985). Low rates of inheritance, or a lack of association in class position across generations, are interpreted as indicating weak tendencies towards social closure between strata and classes. Strong associations, or low rates of class interchange, are taken as evidence of greater structuration.