Within the broad landscape of early childhood education and care politics and policies, calling quality reform into question is a political act. As numerous scholars have pointed out, policy structures that measure and identify what constitutes quality (and what does not) are not value-free and reflect neoliberal human capital economic agenda…

This article is a commentary on the seven articles in this special issue of EJTE on teacher quality from international perspectives. In the article, Marilyn Cochran-Smith points to differences as well as common themes and details across the articles in the issue. The article discusses the emergence of teacher quality as a global concern, including…

This paper reports on the findings of an in-depth genealogical study of the discourse of quality in Australian Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) policy. Quality reform has become the foremost global policy agenda for ECEC due to assumptions about the economic potentials of quality services. In Australia, the recent National Quality…

This book explores new and distinctive forms of higher vocational education across the globe, and asks how the sector is changing in response to the demands of the 21st century. These new forms of education respond to two key policy concerns: an emphasis on high skills as a means to achieve economic competitiveness, and the promise of open access…

Neoliberalism is often understood as being both an epoch of capitalism and a zealous ideological commitment to the primacy of private property and free markets. In practice, it has tended towards mobilising state power in the interests of capital, remaking societies and individuals in this process. Perhaps inevitably, education systems, the world…

The last two decades have seen the emergence of a global education paradigm that has reimagined education through the lens of neo-liberal ideology. Education policy agendas and discourses in current times are globally governed through transnational networks, which have increased the opaqueness of education policymaking. For critical policy…

This paper explores the proposition that modern universities have been changed radically by globalization not least of which has been the erosion of "public scholarship". The paper argues that whatever the kind or scale of changes which have occurred in the past few decades, "globalization" does not provide an explanation of…

The "Australian Curriculum: History" has emerged out of a neoliberal federal education policy landscape. This is a policy landscape where pragmatic and performative, rather than pedagogic concerns are clearly foregrounded, and this has implications for curriculum development and implementation. A useful way to conceptualise the features,…

In 2009, the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) set a target to lift Australia's Year 12 or equivalent attainment rate from 83.5 to 90% by 2015. In the context of global financial uncertainty, the target was rationalised as a means for boosting national productivity and developing human capital to help Australia compete in the global…

In the past few decades, especially since the 2008-09 economic downturn, the faculty of American colleges and universities has undergone a far-reaching transformation. Multiple factors, mainly extraneous to the campus itself, are reshaping higher education, and as a result a reprioritizing of the internal allocation of resources is occurring. The…

Across Australia a combined government effort is underway to reform early childhood education and care (ECEC) provision. A National Law Bill passed in 2010 heralds a new legal, regulatory and accountability framework that embraces all types ECEC provision. As a result, service providers face rapid change to address a new orientation and higher…

This article addresses the cultural significance of the Australian Early Development Index (AEDI) and discusses changes that the discourse of this instrument makes to the way in which the child is conceptualised. It analyses the technological function of the AEDI to examine how it makes the child a universal resource for human capital. The article…

Currently, the decline in teacher numbers has become an important topic for discussion in the field of teachers' work in Australia. The purpose of this article is to discuss current initiatives being implemented by both the Australian federal government and the South Australian state government to retain and attract prospective teachers and some…

As part of an overall massification of higher education, enrollments in doctoral programs are expanding. At the same time, doctoral studies are subject to much scrutiny and reform in Australia, the UK and the United States. This work examines policy documents related to doctoral reform from these countries in order to offer a critique of their…

Although ideas about digital media and learning have become an important area for educational research, little attention has been given to the practical and conceptual implications for the school curriculum. In this book, Ben Williamson examines a series of contemporary curriculum innovations in the United States, Great Britain, and Australia that…