Marketization is the development of quasi-markets on the systemic level, which promote choice, competition, accountability, and devolution in public schooling. Marketing is a strategy that individual school leaders employ to respond to these logics. This paper argues that education marketization has led to an increase in school-based marketing…

Global narratives of educational philanthropy tend to emphasise the significant influence donors have in shaping public school policy and practice. In Australia, however, tax laws work to narrow the possibilities for philanthropy to exert influence over public schooling. Indeed, public schools (unlike private schools and Higher Education…

In Anglophone countries, narratives of public schooling tend to emphasise generic hopes about schooling as central to the idea of a public good, including fostering community, delivering equality and protecting broad notions of democracy. However, as public systems become more open to privatised logics, these hopes sit alongside fears for the…

The paper explores the policy logics of privatisation through service provision for students with English as an Additional language or dialect (EAL/D) in the state education system of Queensland, Australia. In the context of EAL/D, specifically targeted policy has been subsumed by a broader umbrella or meta-policy of inclusion, whilst at the same…

This paper explores perceptions of work intensification around the world. Underpinning this analysis is C. Wright Mills' (1959) argument that many personal troubles are public issues, and the notion that a significant dimension of the privatisation of public education, a concern of public education advocates worldwide, is the ways in which school…

This article examines attempts to professionalize the teaching workforce in the Pacific Islands (PI) in response to the United Nation Sustainable Development Goal 4c -- "Increase the Supply of Qualified Teachers in Developing Countries." The experience of PI educators provides insight into the clash between global standard agendas,…

Youth sport policies are increasingly driven by health concerns and social issues, and focus on broad participation outcomes. Given the significant financial investment in, and critique of, such policies internationally, this study aimed to examine the implementation of Sporting Schools (SS), a $100 million programme intended to increase…

Since the 1990s, public schooling in Australia has been shaped by quasi-marketization that has incentivized competition between schools and installed a business logic to school governance. In this paper we argue that it is timely to consider how teachers and school leaders are understanding and responding to the affordances and challenges of this…

This paper provides a critical policy analysis of "The Learning Curve" (TLC) (2012), an initiative developed by the multinational edu-business, Pearson, in conjunction with the Economist Intelligence Unit. "TLC" exemplifies the commercialising of comparison and the efforts of edu-businesses to strategically position themselves…

This article explores the uptake of so-called fast policy solutions to problems in different education policy contexts and highlights the potential impacts that can arise from such policymaking approaches. We draw upon recent literature and theorising around notions of fast policy and evidence-informed policymaking, which suggests that, in an…

This paper provides a critical analysis of the edu-businesses currently working in partnership with the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority to deliver the Commonwealth government policy initiative of the National Assessment Program--Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN). These emerging public--private partnerships (PPPs) exemplify…

This paper investigates the commercialisation of Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) in Australian schools. Specifically, it focuses on understanding why teachers value commercial resources, and how they enact these in their classrooms. Theorising around teacher agency suggests teachers are now choosing to use a range of commercial resources and…

This paper makes the argument that new global spatialities and new governance structures in education have important implications for how we think about education policy and do education policy analysis. This context necessitates that researchers engage in new methodologies to ensure that there is a suitable link between their research problem and…