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.

This book provides a history of three decades of Australian education systems, programs and policies. Drawing on economic and sociological data, key texts and political events, it traces the shift from universal public provision to market systems and examines the implications of this change for the labour market and the economy. An important focus of the book is the discussion of the extension of citizenship through education.

This book seeks to critically examine the impacts of 'grand designs' in public policy through a detailed historical analysis of Australian schooling reforms since the 'education revolution' agenda was introduced by the federal government in the late 2000s. Combining policy analyses and interviews with senior policy makers and ministerial advisors centrally involved in the reforms, it offers a detailed interpretive analysis of the complexities of policy evolution and assemblage. The book argues that the education revolution sought to impose a new order on Australian schooling by aligning state and territory systems to common policies and processes in areas including curriculum, assessment, funding, reporting and teaching. Using a theory and critique of 'alignment thinking' in public policy, Savage shows how the education revolution and subsequent reforms have been underpinned by uncritical faith in the power of nationally aligned data, evidence and standards to improve policies and unite systems around practices 'proven to work'. The result is a new national policy assemblage that has deeply reshaped the making and doing of schooling policy in the nation, generating complex questions about who is steering the ship of education into the future. The Quest for Revolution in Australian Schooling Policy is a must read for education policy researchers, policy makers, education ministers and school leaders, and will appeal to anyone with an interest in the complex power dynamics that underpin schooling reforms.