"Risk Society and School Educational Policy" explores the impact of risk society on policy in the US, UK and Australia through both practical and theoretical perspectives. The book develops an in-depth understanding of risk society itself, and guides the reader in applying this knowledge to the problem of how this impacts policy and…

In this paper, we offer a critique of neoliberal power from the perspective of the gendered, sexualised, raced and classed politics of motherhood in English universities. By using dialogical auto-ethnographic methods to examine our own past experiences as full-time employed mother-academics, we demonstrate how feminist academic praxis can not only…

The most attractive thing in queer theory is the social movement energy that's been in it, the sense of excitement and boundary-breaking, the sense of new perspectives. Given the social anxieties and manipulated fear and right-wing triumphalism around today, people need that excitement and boldness--in education and in society at large. In this…

This paper poses methodological questions about the role and limits of Foucault's concept of governmentality in education research. Firstly, it argues for the utility of governmentality as a means of exploring questions of power regardless of domain or scale. Secondly, it explores the boundary between the tasks of formulating critique and…

In this paper, we investigate primary school teachers' reflections on addressing the topic of same-sex families and relationships in their classrooms. Informed by queer theoretical and Foucauldian analytic approaches, we examine teachers' potential use of texts, such as picture storybooks, which introduce representations of same-sex relationships…

In this article, the author tells the story of her search for appropriate tools to conceptualise policy work. She had set out to explore the relationship between the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and Australia's education policy, but early interview data…

Early years policy increasingly uses the concept of "citizenship" in relation to children in Australia and worldwide. This concept is used as a taken-for-granted idea; however, there is no singularly agreed-upon answer to the question of what "citizenship" means when used in relation to children, and what practical…

The Australian State of Queensland's "Smart State" policy is the Government's response to global conditions that require a new type of worker and citizen for a new knowledge economy. As a result the Government has produced a plethora of documents and papers in every aspect of its operation to progress Queensland as a "Smart…

This paper examines the Australian government's Indigenous policy by interrogating the concept of partnership between governments and Indigenous communities through three examples. Increasingly, the Australian federal government is focusing attention on the poor literacy and numeracy outcomes for Indigenous children in remote and very remote…

The theme and topic of students with special needs should be examined from social theoretical platforms, rather than special education frameworks; a sociopolitical approach based on discourse theorizing is especially useful. Recent research shows that the students with special needs concept is an invalid approach to educational equity. Includes 63…

This monograph, one in a series on theory and educational issues in Australia, explores links between education and political and economic structures. Two sections provide an analysis of an education-work program and five readings. The Transition Education Program is described as a government response to the 1979 economic crisis. The policy and…