Answering Back exposes the volatility of gender reform in many different schools and classrooms. ... more Answering Back exposes the volatility of gender reform in many different schools and classrooms. It tells stories in close up and from below, allowing everyone to talk: anxious boys, naughty girls, cantankerous teachers, pontificating principals and feisty feminists. This book challenges many sacred ideas about gender reform in schools and will surprise and unsettle teachers and researchers. It draws on a deep knowledge of gender issues in schools and of feminist theories, policies and practices. It is compelling and provocative reading at the leading edge.
The series of responses in this article were gathered as part of an online mini conference held i... more The series of responses in this article were gathered as part of an online mini conference held in September 2021 that sought to explore different ideas and articulations of school autonomy reform across the world (Australia, Canada, England, Ireland, the USA, Norway, Sweden and New Zealand). It centred upon an important question: what needs to happen for school autonomy to be mobilised to create more equitable public schools and systems of education? There was consensus across the group that school autonomy reform creates further inequities at school and system levels when driven by the logics of marketisation, competition, economic efficiency and public accountability. Against the backdrop of these themes, the conference generated discussion and debate where provocations and points of agreement and disagreement about issues of social justice and the mobilisation of school autonomy reform were raised. As an important output of this discussion, we asked participants to write a short...
Journal of Educational Administration and History, 2017
ABSTRACT This paper examines school principal responses to the policy discourse of widening parti... more ABSTRACT This paper examines school principal responses to the policy discourse of widening participation in higher education. As a critical analysis of how policy is produced, read and responded to by principals [Bacchi, C., 2009. Analysing policy: what's the problem represented to be? New York: Pearson], the paper questions the assumptions underpinning policies aiming to widen participation of young people in schools where families have traditionally not viewed higher education as a possible or desirable option [e.g. Bok, J., 2010. The capacity to aspire to higher education: ‘It's like making them do a play without a script’. Critical studies in education, 51 (2), 163–178]. Policy is adopted, adapted, ignored or countered by principals and teachers due to ‘situated necessity’ resulting from the history, location, pupil and parental social mix, staffing, material and economic conditions of the school and community infrastructure [Braun, A., et al., 2011. Taking context seriously: towards explaining policy enactments in the secondary school. Discourse: studies in the cultural politics of education, 32 (4), 585–596]. The data are drawn from principal interviews undertaken when researching a Year 8 Mentoring and Tutoring programme, one component of a three-year Access Express programme, a federally funded Higher Education and Partnership and Participation Programme, developed by a collaboration between a Victorian university and 7 secondary schools. Access Express’ focus on university-school partnerships captured the trend in Australia, the UK and USA during the 2000s to facilitate transitioning out-of-school through long-term university-school partnerships [Armstrong, D. and Cairnduff, A., 2011. Building university-school partnerships. In: D. Bottrell and S. Goodwin, eds. Schools, communities and social inclusion. South Yarra: Palgrave Macmillan, 268–279].
This chapter explores interactions between children and iPads in a primary classroom in England. ... more This chapter explores interactions between children and iPads in a primary classroom in England. Focusing on iPads as artefacts rather than on use of specific apps, it highlights the ‘fluid materiality’ of iPads, which become different things as they are ‘actor-enabled’ within a mess of bodies, texts and other objects. It explores how interactions between bodies and devices are significant to the different ways children take up iPads. Drawing on Law’s (2008) work on complexity, it asks What does a tablet ‘become’ in a classroom? And what kinds of relationships and meaning-making opportunities are associated with its use?
Answering Back exposes the volatility of gender reform in many different schools and classrooms. ... more Answering Back exposes the volatility of gender reform in many different schools and classrooms. It tells stories in close up and from below, allowing everyone to talk: anxious boys, naughty girls, cantankerous teachers, pontificating principals and feisty feminists. This book challenges many sacred ideas about gender reform in schools and will surprise and unsettle teachers and researchers. It draws on a deep knowledge of gender issues in schools and of feminist theories, policies and practices. It is compelling and provocative reading at the leading edge.
The series of responses in this article were gathered as part of an online mini conference held i... more The series of responses in this article were gathered as part of an online mini conference held in September 2021 that sought to explore different ideas and articulations of school autonomy reform across the world (Australia, Canada, England, Ireland, the USA, Norway, Sweden and New Zealand). It centred upon an important question: what needs to happen for school autonomy to be mobilised to create more equitable public schools and systems of education? There was consensus across the group that school autonomy reform creates further inequities at school and system levels when driven by the logics of marketisation, competition, economic efficiency and public accountability. Against the backdrop of these themes, the conference generated discussion and debate where provocations and points of agreement and disagreement about issues of social justice and the mobilisation of school autonomy reform were raised. As an important output of this discussion, we asked participants to write a short...
Journal of Educational Administration and History, 2017
ABSTRACT This paper examines school principal responses to the policy discourse of widening parti... more ABSTRACT This paper examines school principal responses to the policy discourse of widening participation in higher education. As a critical analysis of how policy is produced, read and responded to by principals [Bacchi, C., 2009. Analysing policy: what's the problem represented to be? New York: Pearson], the paper questions the assumptions underpinning policies aiming to widen participation of young people in schools where families have traditionally not viewed higher education as a possible or desirable option [e.g. Bok, J., 2010. The capacity to aspire to higher education: ‘It's like making them do a play without a script’. Critical studies in education, 51 (2), 163–178]. Policy is adopted, adapted, ignored or countered by principals and teachers due to ‘situated necessity’ resulting from the history, location, pupil and parental social mix, staffing, material and economic conditions of the school and community infrastructure [Braun, A., et al., 2011. Taking context seriously: towards explaining policy enactments in the secondary school. Discourse: studies in the cultural politics of education, 32 (4), 585–596]. The data are drawn from principal interviews undertaken when researching a Year 8 Mentoring and Tutoring programme, one component of a three-year Access Express programme, a federally funded Higher Education and Partnership and Participation Programme, developed by a collaboration between a Victorian university and 7 secondary schools. Access Express’ focus on university-school partnerships captured the trend in Australia, the UK and USA during the 2000s to facilitate transitioning out-of-school through long-term university-school partnerships [Armstrong, D. and Cairnduff, A., 2011. Building university-school partnerships. In: D. Bottrell and S. Goodwin, eds. Schools, communities and social inclusion. South Yarra: Palgrave Macmillan, 268–279].
This chapter explores interactions between children and iPads in a primary classroom in England. ... more This chapter explores interactions between children and iPads in a primary classroom in England. Focusing on iPads as artefacts rather than on use of specific apps, it highlights the ‘fluid materiality’ of iPads, which become different things as they are ‘actor-enabled’ within a mess of bodies, texts and other objects. It explores how interactions between bodies and devices are significant to the different ways children take up iPads. Drawing on Law’s (2008) work on complexity, it asks What does a tablet ‘become’ in a classroom? And what kinds of relationships and meaning-making opportunities are associated with its use?
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Papers by Jill Blackmore