Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore the reform of initial teacher education (ITE) policy in Australia over a 25-year period from 1998 to 2023. It examines policy shifts and movements over this timeframe and aims to better understand the ongoing reforms in the changing contexts of their times. Design/Methodology/Approach: The paper…

This short reflection explores both the challenges and potentials of teacher professional learning in contemporary times. It argues that the neoliberal logics of professional development as deployed in many contexts around the world limit and curtail the potential for teachers to engage in generative professional learning that fosters growth and…

This paper provides an overview of the policies of school autonomy in Australian public education from the Karmel report in 1973 to the present day. The key focus is on the social justice implications of this reform. It tracks the tensions between policy moves to both grant schools greater autonomy and rein in this autonomy with the increasing…

This paper examines the openings for educational change enabled by framing inequality through the concept of rights, considering how variations of this framing have emerged historically and in current debates. Taking as our starting point the 1970 publication Rights and Inequality in Australian Education, we suggest that it is important to pay…

In this theoretical article, we respond to a common education policy discourse that represents community participation in educational policy-making as an essentially rational solution to policy problems and as inherently progressive and democratic. We propose that conceptualising participatory politics as 'publics' challenges this discourse and…

This essay considers the usefulness of history of education, first, through the history of Australian university-based teacher education and then through the history of how, in the postwar period of schooling expansion, the provision of public schooling was transformed discursively from a policy solution into a policy problem--with opposing…

The concept of policy 'success' has been subject to much contestation. In the Indigenous higher education setting, Indigenous (and non-Indigenous) scholars have brought attention to the relevance of experiential knowledge to understanding the effects of power and race on policy, including how success is theorised. This paper aims to interrogate…

VET researchers and policy-makers have historically displayed a keen interest in the future. Two assumptions link VET to the future. The first is that there is a singular object called VET and, secondly, that it can influence a forthcoming state of reality. This relationship is investigated through a rarely utilised post-structuralist discourse…

In Australia, the recognition of the importance of induction for beginning teachers has been present for over three decades. In 2016, the first set of guidelines was introduced to implement beginning teacher induction: "Graduate to proficient: Australian Guidelines for teacher induction into the profession." However, reports of…

Much historical scholarship on Indigenous education policy focuses on attempts to assimilate Indigenous peoples. Meanwhile, educational policy debates tend to focus on achievement, framed by deficit. Rarely considered are strategic political actions by Indigenous groups to remodel schooling. This paper examines how Indigenous groups have embraced…

This article considers selected Australian and international theories, policies, and practices of open and distance education, since ODLAA (formerly the Australian and South Pacific External Studies Association) was formed in 1973, through to the current post-pandemic period. It considers the shifting conceptualization of open education as…

'Global citizenship' has gained traction as a policy objective across school systems in recent decades. It has been defined as education for the development of a sense of cosmopolitan moral virtue, planetary identification and 'global competencies'. In this paper, I argue that historical sociology can help explain why this goal has gained…

There have been at least 100 governmental inquiries into teacher education in Australia since the 1970s, making thousands of recommendations, the majority of which have never been fully actioned or realised. Additionally, there is minimal evidence about the efficacy of this continuous review cycle. Here, we problematise these issues by conducting…

This paper argues for the need to better understand the role of mothers and schooling in shaping modern conservative cultural politics. Arguing that 1970s-1980s was a critical period for anti-progressive politics surrounding schooling, the paper examines the activism of Australian Christian morals campaigner Rona Joyner. Joyner's successful…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate the ending of fee-free higher education in Australia for overseas students in the 1980s, and the ways in which the government managed the diplomatic relationships that were affected by this policy shift. The introduction of fee-free higher education in Australia in 1974 was incredibly popular,…