A student centred sociology of australian education, 1st ed , tiffany jones, 2020 2841

Critical Studies of Education 13 Tiffany Jones A Student-centred Sociology of Australian Education Voices of Experience Critical Studies of Education Volume 13 Series Editor Shirley R. Steinberg, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB, Canada Editorial Board Rochelle Brock, University of North Carolina, Greensboro, USA Annette Coburn, University of the West of Scotland, Hamilton, UK Barry Down, Murdoch University, Rockingham, Australia Henry A. Giroux, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON, Canada Bronwen Low, McGill University, Montreal, QC, Canada Tanya Merriman, University of Southern California, California, USA Marta Soler, University of Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain John Willinsky, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA We live in an era where forms of education designed to win the consent of students, teachers, and the public to the inevitability of a neo-liberal, market-driven process of globalization are being developed around the world In these hegemonic modes of pedagogy questions about issues of race, class, gender, sexuality, colonialism, religion, and other social dynamics are simply not asked Indeed, questions about the social spaces where pedagogy takes place—in schools, media, corporate think tanks, etc.—are not raised When these concerns are connected with queries such as the following, we begin to move into a serious study of pedagogy: What knowledge is of the most worth? Whose knowledge should be taught? What role does power play in the educational process? How are new media re-shaping as well as perpetuating what happens in education? How is knowledge produced in a corporatized politics of knowledge? What socio-political role schools play in the twenty-first century? What is an educated person? What is intelligence? How important are socio-cultural contextual factors in shaping what goes on in education? Can schools be more than a tool of the new American (and its Western allies’) twenty-first century empire? How we educate well-informed, creative teachers? What roles should schools play in a democratic society? What roles should media play in a democratic society? Is education in a democratic society different than in a totalitarian society? What is a democratic society? How is globalization affecting education? How does our view of mind shape the way we think of education? How does affect and emotion shape the educational process? What are the forces that shape educational purpose in different societies? These, of course, are just a few examples of the questions that need to be asked in relation to our exploration of educational purpose This series of books can help establish a renewed interest in such questions and their centrality in the larger study of education and the preparation of teachers and other educational professionals More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/13431 Tiffany Jones A Student-centred Sociology of Australian Education Voices of Experience Tiffany Jones Department of Educational Studies Macquarie University Sydney, NSW, Australia Critical Studies of Education ISBN 978-3-030-36862-3    ISBN 978-3-030-36863-0 (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-36863-0 © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020 This work is subject to copyright All rights are reserved by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use The publisher, the authors, and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, expressed or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations This Springer imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Switzerland AG The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland Contents 1 Introducing Sociology of Education ������������������������������������������������������    1 2 Designing a Comparative Sociological Education Study���������������������   17 3 Basic Demographics for Voices of Experience Participants ����������������   25 4 Paradigm: Australia’s Largely Liberal and Conservative Schools ����   39 5 Age: Australia’s Staging of Ageing via Spiral Curricula����������������������   63 6 Sex and Gender: Australian Schools Shout Sex and Whisper Gender������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������   95 7 Sexuality: Australian Schools’ Sexuality Wars��������������������������������������  129 8 Social Class: Australian Schools Won’t Merit the Need ����������������������  185 9 Race: Australia’s Critical Racial and Cultural Curricula ������������������  213 10 News Media: Australian Schools on Fake News and Media Objectivity������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������  245 11 Popular Culture: Teaching Traditional Canons vs Playing with Post-­Modern Pastiche���������������������������������������������������������������������  275 12 Technology: Australia’s Phone Bans and Educational Use������������������  301 13 Conclusion and Recommendations��������������������������������������������������������  329 Index������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������  341 v Chapter Introducing Sociology of Education I am attending an all-girls Catholic high school, the rules are extremely strict Both in the class room, and outside in the playground A lot of teachers prefer the students working in silence and loud classes are frowned upon; even during group tasks ‘whispering to each-­ other’ is encouraged Despite being in year 10, some (rarely any but still present) teachers believe that seating plans are necessary even if only a small selection of girls aren’t acting how the school would prefer Self-expression is also frowned upon which is portrayed through the rules of no jewellery, hair tied back and specifically off the face, and skirt lengths below the knees – any of these broken result in being sent home until the issue is addressed and fixed The school clearly prioritises their reputation on how the girls look over our actual education which we pay for through our school fees (Alice, 15 years old, on her conservative school)1 Key Points • The sociology of education is the study of social elements of education including the experiences and representations of individuals, groups, contexts and policy trends • There are four main orientations to social elements of education: conservative, liberal, critical and post-modern • The conservative orientation has been historically dominant prior to modern history • The Voices of Experience study focused on understanding students’ experiences of conservative, liberal, critical and post-modern approaches to social phenomena in education • Research questions broadly considered the dominant approaches to education for different identity-based social issues; the approaches most useful for different types of students; and how students imagined improving schools  Participants were not asked their name and were only asked to select from an age range of a few years Pseudonyms and ages within the age range selected have been randomly applied by the researcher to humanise anonymous quotes © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020 T Jones, A Student-centred Sociology of Australian Education, Critical Studies of Education 13, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-36863-0_1 1  Introducing Sociology of Education 1.1  What Is the Sociology of Education? Sociology means the study (ology) of the social (interaction within a collective) Applied to education, it covers the study of social elements of education Sometimes pre-service teachers first assume this means: • The relationships between students • The relationships between students and their teachers These would be very small visions for the sociology of education, though they are certainly important components of the larger picture! The sociology of education also includes the study of: • Social factors in student, staff and education-focused political actors’ experiences • Identity traits impacting learning • Learning around identities and social engagement • Social elements within official and unofficial curricula • The social context of the classroom • The social context of the school • The social context of broader society and its impact on schools • The social assumptions informing school features (such as the gender assumptions behind the provision of ‘female’ and ‘male’ uniforms) • Comparative social factors across different education systems and their policies and practices • The political factors and trends in social policies influencing national education movements • Transnational education movements, trends and debates • Social conceptualisations and representations of schooling in media, art, literature, philosophy and daily conversation and much more In contemporary civil societies, one dominant view of education is as ‘a basic human right’ for all people, recognised in the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights (United Nations, 1948) This right is enshrined in the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (United Nations, 1996) and the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (United Nations, 1989) The importance of ensuring that this education occurs within safe, secure and non-violent learning environments has been emphasised in these and other treaty bodies and conventions including in CRC General Comments, in the UNESCO Convention on Discrimination in Education and in ongoing resource provision by UN bodies (UNESCO, 2016) However, education has not always been conceived in this way The current assumption of classroom-based mass education only emerged in the last few hundred years (Tait, 2012) Historically, education was many different things, including: • A privilege offered only to elite boys in ancient Egypt • A way to refine citizens with knowledge of the arts, science, math and politics in ancient Greek city-states save Sparta 1.2  Why Is the Sociology of Education Useful? • A way to produce a military in Sparta where boys endured harsh military schooling and girls learned to kill people and defend their homes when the military was away • Formed as individualised tutoring for noble children or a combination of petty/ dame schooling (in the local housewives’ homes) and grammar schooling with literary and religious teachings mostly just for boys (run by masters and local guilds) in European history Even in a single country like Australia, different versions of education are in operation with different goals: • Some Indigenous groups’ distinct education discourses on country or in both-­ ways learning • International entities’ provisions sometimes taught in multiple languages • National and/or state governments’ provisions • Denominational and non-denominational religious organisations’ provisions • Independent bodies’ own philosophies for provisions (e.g Steiner, Montessori etc.) • Home-schooling provisions and so on As different visions for education have emerged, risen in popularity and competed with other visions, past conceptualisations have not ‘died out’ completely They continued influencing, and battling with, other education discourses 1.2  Why Is the Sociology of Education Useful? Sociology of education is particularly useful in understanding why goals for, and experiences of, education are so wildly different across times, places and individuals It explains why different groups and individuals experience their different goals for and assessments of education as obvious truths yet struggle to understand the goals and assessments of education offered by people different to themselves Foucault’s anti-humanist archaeology of human sciences from sociology and psychology through to sex education showed that all eras, histories and research programmes have specific central conditions of so-called truth (Foucault, 1969a, 1969b, 1970, 1979, 1980, 1981) These conditions change in relatively sudden major shifts, from period to period, showing truth and meaning as relative, temporal and contextual productions (Caputo & Yount, 2006; Foucault, 1972) Foucault analysed the way we talk about and research histories of education and educational discursive formations comprising a vast organised dispersion of statement events in particular paradigms Such paradigms have been tied to concepts of learning For example, Gilbert (2004) agree that any curriculum in any school is a selection from a particular culture, and the values of that culture are central to understanding and participating in it (p.93) These sorts of paradigms translate loosely into earlier models of ‘orientations to education’ which actually present ideas from older and more funda- 1  Introducing Sociology of Education mental philosophies in education that warrant revisiting and revision in light of newer appropriations In the 1980s, the influential booklet Orientations to Curriculum (Kemmis, Cole, & Suggett, 1983) proposed three particular ‘education orientations’ that appear in wide use: vocational neo-classical, liberal-progressive and socially critical Each can be seen as a different valuing process, based on different beliefs about the aim of education, and aligning with different pedagogical approaches Hoepper and McDonald discuss these three orientations as they apply to education and values, shortening them to ‘conservative, liberal and critical’ (Gilbert, 2004, pp. 24–26) In discussing ideological orientations to the school subject area of history (Hoepper, Henderson, Hennessey, Hutton, & Mitchell, 1996), historians note an additional fourth category: ‘post-modern’ (pp. 197–214) The post-modern orientation is now a widely acknowledged and commonly used term (Bryson & De Castell, 1993; Morton & Zavarzadeh, 1991) This orientation was included in the author’s summaries of how the four education orientations were used in a previous study of values education discourses (Jones, 2007, 2009, 2013) This section describes how dramatically the goals and processes of the four orientations to education differ (see Table 1.1) These approaches have competing ideals for education and help us understand the ‘education wars’ in staffrooms, ongoing curriculum revisions, policy debates and media stories in the Australian and international press 1.2.1  Conservative Education Whilst it still manifests throughout the field of education today, the conservative orientation to education strongly reigned prior to the 1960s in modern history Researchers have discussed the dominance of this orientation in education as a field generally (Kemmis et al., 1983; Ladson-Billings, 1998); in education policies produced in places such as Singapore, England, South Africa and the United States as tied to particular administrations (Bee Bee, 2001; Deacon, Osman, & Buchler, 2010; Gillborn, 2005; Haffner, 1992; Irvine, 2002); and in particular policies such as the Australian National Framework for Values Education in Schools (Jones, 2009) Within this orientation, schools and teachers take an authoritarian approach and inculcate students with the dominant values, beliefs and practices of the time Students are merely passive recipients of this knowledge and constructed as the ‘empty vessel’ or ‘blank slate’ to be filled with knowledge, a perspective in use in seventeenth- and eighteenth-century educational philosophers John Locke and Jean-Jacque Rousseau’s work on human learning and ‘tabula rasa’ (Bell, 1979; Bennett, 1971) Education is understood as preparation for work (Kemmis et al., 1983) Thus, the education discourses within policies stemming from this orientation focus on shaping students to fit current social, civic, religious and vocational conventions Centralised leadership-led sweeping and prescriptive top-down policies and pass/fail benchmarking processes protect internal strengths of the focal education institution and ban or rescind perceived threats to the institution and the dominant traditions and group it serves (Dale, 1989; Gillborn, 2005; Kenyon, 2007; 332 13  Conclusion and Recommendations conservative schools were two to three times more likely to take approaches seen as having contributed to social class division than each of the other school types and significantly less likely to fight social division by social class and ensure equal outcomes compared to the liberal, critical and post-modern schools Critical and post-­ modern schools were most likely to expose students to complex ideas about social classes, challenging the social order The dominance of liberal approaches to elements of social identity carried through to approaches taken to culture Over half of all schools took a liberal approach to news media encouraging the viewing of more than one type of news media and identifying facts vs opinions This remained true whether the schools were conservative, liberal, critical or post-modern However conservative schools were significantly more likely to only mention one type of news media, accepting its authority over ‘the truth’ (almost a quarter compared to under a tenth of other types) More participants in liberal and critical schools said their school encouraged critical approaches to fake news targeting marginalised groups, and more critical and post-modern schools (around a fifth) said school thoroughly challenged the norms of a diverse range of media Around a third of Australians reported that their school used liberal culture approaches based on luring young people to learning about high culture for assessments through minimal class use of low culture (pop music, modern movies, teen celebrities) – this was about on par with those promoting culture in a more critical lens, the other dominant approach Liberal approaches to technology – allowing technology (e.g phones) in the classroom if students had it often in a BYOD model for learning purposes – were dominant in liberal, critical and post-modern schools Over half of conservative schools mainly banned technology from the classroom or restricted access to it More critical schools than other types supplied technology for all, encouraged technology skills and supported the right to technology More post-modern schools than other types interrogated the pros and cons of many technologies real and imagined, in philosophical debates Thus, overall the liberal approach was dominant paradigmatically and for most specific social and cultural issues covered in this book The book has limitations in that it did not consider school approaches to disability or religion directly or other themes that might show different patterns; however, it did garner indirect information on the intersectional relevance of school approaches to these issues with the themes examined here 13.3  D  ifferent Dominant Approaches on Specific Issues or in Specific Schools The second research question explored considered what approaches Australians experienced as the dominant approaches to education (of conservative, liberal, critical and post-modern) for different identity-based social issues (age, gender, sexual- 13.3  Different Dominant Approaches on Specific Issues or in Specific Schools 333 ity, social class, race and new media) Mostly the liberal approach dominated as discussed above There were however some specific social issues on which the critical approach dominated or was more strongly represented, including: • Race • Popular culture The critical approach was dominant on issues of race across Australian schools, except in conservative schools A potential influence on this difference is that the critical approach to race in education is promoted in international human rights law and policies, in Australian curriculum and in critical religious perspectives Thus, this critical approach has been promoted in many different high-level guiding bodies and documents, for an arguably longer time in some cases than the critical approach to other topics (such as sexuality) Post-modern schools were most likely to teach complex ideas about race, challenging simplistic human biology Critical approaches to popular culture – embracing ‘low culture’ even in assessments, especially if it represented marginalised groups – were also strong in most school types, except in conservative schools Girls were more often exposed to this approach, and this book argued that this was perhaps due to their higher enrolments in humanities subjects with critical elements A significantly smaller portion of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and trans-spectrum participants reported that their school embraced low culture overall; revealing identity impacted one’s sensitivity to and awareness of the absence of particular cultural artefacts and also how marginal cultural offerings are undervalued White and cisgender people are not always well positioned to judge coverage of racial, cultural and gender diversity themes; these were the survey’s majority participants; it is possible their assessment of acceptable ‘coverage’ on such themes can be overblown Just over a fifth of liberal, critical and post-­ modern schools interrogated the systems of privilege behind why some culture is cast as ‘high’ and some as ‘low’ Conservative schools were most likely to take an approach that only used a little ‘low culture’ or an approach which only encouraged ‘high culture’ – classical music, canonical literature and historical figures It is again likely that this area of strength for the critical approach was in part pushed by changes in Australian curricula and the academic disciplinary research (in English and History curricula particularly) over time Australian schools arguably are divided most strongly in their treatment of gender, reflecting the more recent debates on this topic since 2015 in Australian media coverage of schooling and globally (Correa, 2018; Jones, 2017; Rosenberg & Balingit, 2018) Conservative schools were more likely than the others to focus on binarised sex/gender; liberal schools were more likely than others to focus on tolerating some choice in gender expression and equal opportunity of provisions; critical schools were more likely than the others to take an activist approach to gender diversity and stereotyping; and post-modern schools were more likely than any other to reject the centrality of notions of gender For most social issues overall, 334 13  Conclusion and Recommendations conservative schools stood out for taking the most consistently different approach to all other school types, most often a conservative approach In this sense, conservative schools represented the most distinct type of schools These schools appeared to be less readily influenced by research from constructivist, feminist, critical humanities, LGBTIQ+, de-colonising and many other education movements progressing other system provisions They also appeared less responsive to aspects of national curricula change that have introduced more provisions around sex, gender and sexuality; ethnic diversity; and use of media, popular culture and ICTs, for example They not seem to be changing as much as other school types in relation to Australia’s shifting student and community demographics It is likely that this tendency towards distinctiveness will only increase over time, unless leaders in the most conservative education quarters strongly question the purpose of their institutions, as these schools are driven first and foremost by institutional goals As with the change that has been seen on race, change in other areas for such schools will likely take action from many different high-level guiding bodies and documents Government systems by comparison will likely slowly move further away from education’s past conservative leanings on a range of key social issues given increasing student and broader social activism They will likely continue to so in response to research-based best-practice findings; market considerations; and the needs and values of Australia’s changing, more diverse population Further research could better understand the discourses in conservative schools and which types and features of conservative schools mostly enhance their ideological exclusivity The religious features of many these schools are likely of influence as these are less often changed by educational and legal trends This is particularly so in Australia given religious schools are treated differently in law and afforded more protection for discriminatory treatment of Australians than other educational, cultural and business organisations 13.4  U  seful Approaches for Educational Engagement, Wellbeing and Resilience Outcomes The third research question of the study asked which approaches were useful for different types of students, including in relation to social impacts like bullying and wellbeing It is important to note that bullying and its impacts can be found in all schools, regardless of their orientations, as can issues of educational disengagement and negative wellbeing for some students However, these phenomena are not found across all school types in the same proportions Specifically, participants at critical schools experienced half the amount of social abuse from students than those at any other school type and were most unaffected by any abuse they did experience Both the critical approach to age and the liberal approach to age had benefits in terms of reduced social harms and a range of benefits, with the liberal constructionist and 13.5  Harmful Approaches for Educational Engagement, Wellbeing and Resilience… 335 developmental visions of youth as informed or developing decision-makers best approached via staged curricula (dominant across Australian schools) associated with decreased suicidality Participants whose school took a critical approach to genders actively supporting gender diversity and overcoming stereotypes were more likely to say that the abuse experienced at school did not affect them and least likely to report all other negative educational impacts Thus a critical approach to gender may contribute to educational engagement and resilience, and this was especially important for those assigned female at birth who were more likely to say they couldn’t concentrate in class on the basis of abuse and were more likely to hide at recess/lunch or face a range of educational deficits than those assigned male, when bullied This critical gender approach was also especially important also for participants who were on the trans-spectrum (whether they were transgender, non-binary or had another gender identity) who were more likely to report social abuse from teachers and other members of the school and were more likely to be impacted by abuse in terms of educational and wellbeing outcomes than those who were cisgender The critical (and to a lesser extent some combination of liberal and post-­modern) approaches to sexuality education – most especially messages endorsing pleasure and gender diversity – were associated with reduced negative wellbeing impacts Participants rated comprehensive and rights-based sexuality approaches as useful Critical approaches to social class (promoting broadly applied aid and supports) received positive comments; however it was participants whose school took a questioning post-modern approach to social class that were least likely to experience the impacts of bullying or abuse at school overall on this comparative issue – though they were slightly more likely to have moved schools because of it and to be of higher wealth and resource backgrounds Exposure to critical anti-racist and post-­ modern complexifying race approaches at school, being born overseas or coming from language-diverse households appeared to enhance resilience Critical expositional and post-modern norm-challenging approaches to news media were associated with significantly less negative educational impacts from abuse and may be protective factors for student wellbeing and resilience Participants exposed to liberal and critical approaches to culture (where some amount of low culture was used as an engaging or assessable content tool) were less exposed to electronic abuse by teachers; and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders particularly responded well to affirming inclusion of their cultures’ representations or considerations Whilst there were some good elements to liberal and post-modern orientations, they also were associated with some clear problems Overall, the critical approach to education consistently seemed the best and most protective approach (where well applied and resourced) for students’ educational and wellbeing outcomes on a range of social issues, with some exceptions (such as age-staging of curricula, where liberal thinking may be most useful) This is not to say it was perfect or never resisted by students but that research more often suggested the critical approach had associations with educational and wellbeing benefits for students 336 13  Conclusion and Recommendations 13.5  H  armful Approaches for Educational Engagement, Wellbeing and Resilience Outcomes The study this book reported on conversely found that participants who attended a conservative school experienced more verbal abuse from teachers and were at greater risk of educational disengagement and wellbeing impacts from any abuse they experienced than those attending other school types The participants at conservative schools associated their schools with strict approaches to time, curricula focus and rules; traditional religious perspectives; and the controlled appearance of uniforms which in many ways explained some (but not all) teacher abuse Drilling down into the treatment of specific social issues highlighted other factors to be wary of and perhaps address in a systematic way For example, the conservative approach to age which specifically involved not covering serious topics at all for students was harmful and associated with increased suicidality for participants who experienced it The post-modern approach to age (specifically) was also notably problematic (covering serious topics randomly as they arose regardless of age or without age-­ appropriate supports); and both conservative and post-modern approaches to age were associated with greater social abuse of the students from teachers and higher wellbeing risks for students Conservative approaches to gender in schools received strong negativity from especially those participants assigned female and those on the trans-spectrum Conservative gay conversion and censorship of sexuality education messages had a highly significant association with increased suicide attempts, regardless of one’s sexual orientation Participants also strongly negated sexuality education approaches lacking early coverage, factual details on real-world problems (protection from STIs, addressing rape and child abuse) or inclusion Conservative approaches to social class in which stratification was accepted with one-off charitable acts only were problematic Students from ‘low level’ wealth and resources household were more than twice as likely to be targeted for abuse by teachers than those from a ‘high level’ wealth and resources household – and this may be another reason conservative approaches are associated with teacher abuse of students The issues were particularly around uniform and resource lacks/access problems  – which cannot be expected to be fixed without aid Participants whose school took a conservative stratified charitable approach to social class were most likely to experience impacts from bullying in their educational life  – particularly missing sport/ extra-curricular activities Conservative segregationist approaches to race were associated with negative educational and wellbeing outcomes and the view that non-­ white identities were ‘disruptive’; there were also some problems with the liberal approaches which sometimes made whiteness itself and related cultures invisible with resulting difficulties in cultural awareness for some students Conservative acritical authorisation approaches to news media (accepting one news media form as truth) were associated with increases to all negative educational impacts from abuse at school tested in the study this book focuses on; verbal and social abuse by students and particularly by teachers; and significantly increased negative wellbeing impacts from abuse including self-harm and suicide Participants whose school took 13.6  Rethinking Teacher Education, Educational Advocacy and Research 337 a conservative canonical classics approach to culture were significantly more likely to experience most negative educational impacts from abuse at school, most likely to be electronically abused by ‘others’ at school and least likely to say abuse did not affect them They were most likely to experience a range of negative educational impacts Participants whose school took a post-modern pastiche approach to culture were significantly less likely to experience electronic abuse from other students, yet more likely to experience electronic abuse from teachers – perhaps this may have related to the interrogative devil’s advocate approach  – this was not a simplistic result, and it was hard to see it as overall a good or bad approach Both those who experienced conservative and post-modern approaches to technology were at greater risk of considering self-harm, which was problematic Conservative restrictive approaches to technology were associated with a range of increased negative impacts to concentration, marks, educational engagement, drop out, self-harm, and engaging in suicide Overall, the conservative approach to education consistently seemed the most problematic and least protective approach for students’ educational and wellbeing outcomes on a range of social issues Whilst all approaches can potentially be off-putting for some students and must be treated with care, educators need to be especially watchful around conservative approaches and to try to embrace values in addition to those of historic traditions and dominant institutions Educational leadership must realise that the very real gaps in conservative schools’ educational and wellbeing provisions for students, compared to those seen in most Australian schools, will only widen over time without strong intervention All religious schools could, for example, be held to the same standards under law and in education policy provisions as other Australian schools on issues of discrimination in particular  – remembering the Australian government forces children to attend such schools by law (if they are the choice of the child’s guardians) and therefore has a duty of care towards them Students will also have a role in this change In schools taking the most harmful approaches, there was an increased amount of student activism in response to bullying; a diverse range of students should be consulted with and included on educational and social issue committees taking action on these issues Students should be given a voice in planning school-wide interventions and improvements 13.6  R  ethinking Teacher Education, Educational Advocacy and Research The final research question considered whether Australians wanted schools to improve their responses to social issues: which and how? Sexuality education approaches are the social area of Australian schooling needing the most improvement according to survey participants Sexual shaming features strongly in the terms used to bully people at schools (gay, slut, faggot, whore), and Australians clearly wanted schools to improve education on issues of sexuality the most The 338 13  Conclusion and Recommendations critical (and to a lesser extent some combination of liberal and post-modern) approaches to sexuality education – most especially messages endorsing pleasure and gender diversity, alongside comprehensive and rights-based sexuality approaches – should be widely encouraged in schools Teachers and school sexuality education providers need to read about and, where possible, apply these approaches in practice, using and expanding the available resources Part of this will involve removing exemptions for religious schools that allow them to endorse gay conversion approaches in some extreme cases, in Australia or any countries with similar social and legal contexts This sexuality education improvement focus was followed by a strong need to improve approaches to gender in schools and to rethink any approach which could be seen as encouraging harsh requirements of (rather than just additive allowance and space for) sex segregation, stereotypical gender performance or certain body ‘norms’ People often experienced bullying on the way they did not conform to body or gender norms, and this was not addressed enough by conservative or liberal approaches  – a critical approach to gender or a post-­ modern approach to gender appeared to offer more promise here The study this book reports on shows that there are some errant approaches currently being promoted in Australian schools that not achieve their aim For example, bans on technology can add to educational and wellbeing problems, rather than fixing electronic bullying Poignantly, a school’s technology approach had absolutely no bearing on or relationship to attendees’ experiences of electronic abuse (e.g cyberbullying, harassed online or by phone) The idea that if schools allow students to use technology in their work they will be more often bullied by technology is a myth – or at least unsupported by the 2018 Voices of Experience study as a reason to ban technology in schools Not every technology facilitates bullying, and kids can be taught about bullying especially if inclusive education settings provide system-wide examples in which they don’t bully or segregate off subsets of the community themselves There are also some potential wonderful educational approaches being promoted in Australian schools but not to the right populations or to broad enough populations – such as the lack of take up of critical approaches in general Another example can be seen specifically in the lack of broad up-take of the critical equitable use approach for technology, which is applied much more for people of higher wealth backgrounds and much less for those of lower wealth and resources most in need of it Due to the intersectionality of all issues with resourcing concerns, improvement of school equity in funding and resourcing must be recognised as a core component of the equation for improving the strongly identified issues like sexuality, gender and other social issues such as access to technology and promotion of a diversity of news media We need to move towards a vision of Australian schooling in which the best resourced, best educational and most inclusive school for any child in Australia could as easily be whichever school is most local to them as a school anywhere else in the country This vision would require governments and school leaders to lose any view of schools as places where portions of the community are segregated or not allowed It would require a vision of not only education access for all but equitable resourcing and outcomes for all (differentiated by need) as the driving force in policy and practice Educational advo- 13.6  Rethinking Teacher Education, Educational Advocacy and Research 339 cacy and teacher education must also concentrate on the need to make educational engagement and student wellbeing a priority in Australian schools, by responding to the full intersection of issues affecting wellbeing This study showed achieving these goals demands a greater focus on critical education in general, above other ideological phenomena that ‘cost’ us these goals I say this as someone more excited by post-modern than critical approaches: we can’t let our educational biases hold us back from delivery using what research supports as the best approaches in schools Education advocacy and teacher education should heed this call whilst also responding to contextually specific issues if these have greater (local) relevance and taking note of the best approaches by issue in consultation with groups particularly affected in those areas There is no doubt that for some schools the issues of race, disability, climate change or religious discrimination will be even more urgent to their particular communities than the broad data here reflects – the provinciality of individual schools and school types and students’ needs must be attended to Further research is encouraged on how the most useful approaches can be spread, and further promotion of these approaches in policy and programming is strongly encouraged based on the research data reported here The leadership of the extremes of conservative schooling in Australia is encouraged to rethink how their schooling could better serve Australian populations, rather than institutional goals and positions How can support for religions or for traditional thinking be done in additive supportive models, rather than punitive models? Could these models better allow for student achievement, diversity and wellbeing in conservative schools alongside supports for conservative and traditional expressions? Similarly, university pre-service teacher educators need to question positions on education that were also challenged and complicated by the findings of the study reported in this book I (the author) will myself question my own thinking, teaching and how it affects students – this may be less important in how I approach pedagogical practices in a university setting but more important in terms of refining the pedagogical best-­ practice ideals I promote to pre-service teachers for school settings, where young people really appear to benefit from the liberal age-appropriate models of learning and a range of critical approaches to other social and cultural issues that offer more in supporting their wellbeing We don’t have to completely abandon our individual positions and beliefs However, asking ‘Is my own educational approach or conceptual bias useful or harmful in this professional situation, and can it be improved?’ is important work for us all to engage with especially where our work indirectly or directly impacts students’ outcomes Moreover, education systems themselves should have the very best approaches at their core Future theorists, researchers, sociologists, education providers, school psychologists and teachers of all kinds are called on to help make this happen Though we may find the answers provided by student voices complicated or confronting, we should experience them as a challenge to move towards critically reforming education so that a range of better outcomes are evident in the voicing of future students’ experiences 340 13  Conclusion and Recommendations Tutorial Questions • What did the research in this book suggest was the dominant education orientation in Australian schools? • What did the research in this book suggest was the dominant education orientation in Australian schools on most social issues (age, gender, sexuality etc.)? Why is it so dominant? • Which approach was least popular in schools overall? Why is it less popular? • Which approaches were best for reinforcing students’ wellbeing? • Does the research change your opinion on what approaches can be useful and harmful? • Does the research make you prefer any type of school more than the others (public, private, religious, secular, critical, conservative, single- or mixed-­ sex schools etc.)? Why or why not? Compare with your peers • What you personally think is the biggest social or cultural problem schools must tackle, having read the research and also considered it in light of other sources (peers, family, experiences you have had at schools, news etc.)? The problem may not be directly covered in this book • What should sociologists of education study next to help schools? Can you as a burgeoning sociologist of education and education stakeholder contribute to this work in your studies or perhaps in your future jobs? How? References Correa, S (2018) Gender ideology: Tracking its origins and meanings in current gender politics Sexuality Policy Watch, 2018(5), Retrieved 1.1.19 from http://sxpolitics.org/18443-2/18443 Jones, T (2017) Trump, trans students and trans-national education polity Sex Education, 18(4), 1–16 Retrieved 12.12.18 from https://doi.org/10.1080/14681811.2017.1409620 Rosenberg, E., & Balingit, M (2018) A teacher refused to use transgender students’ names His resignation was just approved Washington Post, June, (11) Retrieved 15.07.19 from https:// www.washingtonpost.com/news/education/wp/2018/06/11/a-teacher-refused-to-use-transgender-students-names-his-resignation-was-just-approved/?utm_term=.69538dcd6ae6 Index A Age-staging ACARA, 64 approaches data, 68, 69, 81 child, 64, 66, 67 conservative approaches, 65 conservative education, 83 critical approaches, 66, 67, 87–89 educational outcomes, 64 grade, 85 HPE curriculum, 64 Leximancer concept map, 84, 87, 89, 91 Leximancer key themes, 84, 87, 89, 91 liberal approaches, 66, 85, 86 liberal education, 66 post-modern approaches, 67, 68, 89–91 ranked concepts, 84, 87, 89, 91 reproductive futurism, 64 school, 64, 84, 85, 88 spiral curricula, 66, 85 years, 66, 81, 83, 85, 91 American Psychological Association (APA), 131 Australia’s Sex Discrimination Amendment Act 2013, 100 Australian Aboriginal, 28 Australian and international data, 30 Australian Curriculum, 217 Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA), 64 Australian Family Courts, 100 Australian School age-based approaches, 331 ‘best-fit’ descriptions, 68, 69 school vs other cultural phenomena, 70–77 school vs social wellbeing impacts, 78–80 self-harm, 81 violence, 69, 81, 82 culture-based approaches, 332 gender-based approaches ‘best-fit’ descriptions, 103 body and gender differences, 103 bullying, 112, 113 gender-diverse expression, 102 school vs other cultural phenomena, 102, 104–112 school vs social wellbeing impacts, 114–116 self-harm, 113 transgender, 113 news media-based approaches, 248, 332 ‘best-fit’ descriptions, 249 conservative schools, 249, 258 liberal neutral objective approach, 249 school vs other cultural phenomena, 250–258 school vs social wellbeing impacts, 259–261 schools, 258 popular culture-based approaches, 333 ‘best-fit’ descriptions, 279 conservative schools, 278, 279 low culture, 278, 290 school vs other cultural phenomena, 280–287 school vs social wellbeing impacts, 288–289 social difference, 290 race-based approaches, 333 ‘best-fit’ descriptions, 219 © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020 T Jones, A Student-centred Sociology of Australian Education, Critical Studies of Education 13, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-36863-0 341 342 Australian School (cont.) Aboriginal languages, 229 conservative schools, 219 critical anti-racism, 218 cultural elements, 229 different cultural heritages vs backgrounds, 228 liberal educational, 218 school vs other cultural phenomena, 219–225 school vs social wellbeing impacts, 219, 226–227 schools, 228 treatment of culture, 228, 229 sexuality-based approaches, 140, 165, 331 age, 169 bullying, 169 messages, 145 school, 169, 170 school vs other cultural phenomena, 146–164 school vs social wellbeing impacts, 166–168 social issues, schools, 165 social class-based approaches, 332 ‘best-fit’ descriptions, 190 resources, 189 school vs other cultural phenomena, 190–201 school vs social wellbeing impacts, 202–203 wealth, 189 technology-based approaches, 332 ‘best-fit’ descriptions, 305 educational risk, 317 school, 317 school vs other cultural phenomena, 306–314, 317 school vs social wellbeing impacts, 315–316 Australian school education orientations data ‘best-fit’ descriptions, 42 participants’ school orientation vs approaches, 42–48 participants’ school type vs social wellbeing impacts, 49–51 Australian Schools educational and wellbeing, 337 B Bisexual, 31 Bring Your Own Device (BYOD), 321, 332 Index C Catholic school, 52 Cisgender, 19 Civil societies, Classroom pedagogy, 7–10 Conservative approaches age, 336 knowing child, 83 romantic child, 81 gender, 114, 117 knowing child, 65 news media, 262, 263 popular culture, 290–292 race, 230, 232 romantic child, 65 sexuality, 170–172 social class, 204, 205 technology bans, 319 laptops, 318–320 off and away’ rule, 318 phones, 318 PornHub, 320 verbal abuse, 336 Conservative Australian schools, 49, 52, 53 Conservative education, 4, Conservative schools best-practice, 334 Critical anti-racism approach, 218, 235, 236, 238, 239 Critical approaches age global citizen, 87–89 local citizen, 87–89 gender, 120, 121 global citizen, 67 local citizen, 67 news media, 266–268 outcomes, 335 popular culture, 294–296 race, 235, 237, 238 sexuality, 175, 176, 178 social class, 208, 209 technology, 323–325 wellbeing outcomes, 335 Critical Australian schools, 56–58 Critical education, 8, Cultural and Language Diversity (CALD), 26, 27 Cultural pollution, Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CALD), 217 Index Culture critical approaches, 335 educational impacts, 337 post-modern approaches, 337 D Data analysis, 22, 23 Data collection tool, 18, 19 Demographics age, 26, 27 Australian Aboriginal, 28 birth country, participants, 27 CALD, 26–28 disabilities, 32, 33 gender identity, 29–31 intersex variations, 30 participants, number, 26 sector/type, school, 35, 36 sex marker, 29 sexual orientation, 31, 32 state/territory, school, 35 Torres Strait Islander descent, 28 wealth/level, resources, 33, 34 The Developing Decision-Maker, 66 Disabilities, 32, 33 E Education comparison, 334 Education wars, Educational engagement, 339 Emancipatory approach, 18 Ethical approval, 20, 21 F Facebook website, 21 Fake news media education, 247, 248 social media, 247 Soviet power-building techniques, 246 weapons, international warfare, 246 Feminist education reform, G Gender approaches data, 102–114 boys, 116, 119, 120 conservative approaches, 114, 117, 333, 336 critical approaches, 120, 121, 333, 335 343 diverse students, 97, 99 education, 97, 98 girls, 114, 116, 117, 119, 120, 122 intersex variance, 99–102 Leximancer concept map, 118, 120, 122, 124 Leximancer key themes, 120, 122, 124 liberal approaches, 117, 119, 333 post-modern approaches, 121, 123, 333 ranked concepts, 118, 120, 122, 124 school, 114, 117, 120 sexuality education, 96 SRGBV, 97 transgender, 97 violence, 96 Gender identity, 29–31, 99 Gender whisperers, 101 The Global Citizen, 67 Government systems, 334 H Heterosexual, 131, 171 Homosexuality, 130 Human capital theory, I The Informed Decision-Maker, 66 Insider’ experiences, 18 Intersex, 101, 102 Intersex variance ACPPS07, 101 Australia’s Sex Discrimination Amendment Act 2013, 100 Australian Family Courts, 100 characteristics, 99 gender diverse, definition, 100, 101 South Australian policy, 100 transgender, 101, 102 Intersex variations, 19, 30 K The Knowing child, 65 L Languages, 28 Lesbian, gay and bisexual (LGB), 130–132 Leximancer analyses, 22 LGBTI, 131, 132, 170, 172, 174, 175 LGBTI sexuality education, 11 344 Liberal approaches age developing decision-maker, 85, 86 informed decision-maker, 85, 86 developing decision-maker, 66 gender, 117, 119 informed decision-maker, 66 news media, 263, 265, 266 popular culture, 293, 294 race add-ons, 232, 233, 235 assimilation, 232, 233, 235 sexuality knowledge, 173–175 teaching sexuality skills, 173–175 social class, 206, 207 technology, 320–322 Liberal Australian schools, 53–55 Liberal education, 7, M Media education, 248 N Neo-conservativism, Neo-liberalism, News media approaches data, 248, 258 biases, 265–268, 270 conservative approaches, 262, 263 critical approaches, 266–268 early childhood educators, 248 facts vs opinions, 332 fake, 246 (see also Fake news) Leximancer concept map, 264, 266, 269, 271 Leximancer key themes, 264, 266, 269, 271 liberal approaches, 263, 265, 266 opinion, 265 post-modern approaches, 268, 270 ranked concepts, 264, 266, 269, 271 security experts, 248 tribalism, 247 O Online advertisement, 21 Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), 64 Orientation, 40–42, 49 Index P Pansexual, 31 Paradigms of Australian school conservative, 40, 41, 49, 52, 53 critical, 56–58 liberal, 40, 41, 53–55 orientations data, 42, 49 post-modern, 58–60 Policy, 8–10 Policy-based/political paradigmatic education analyses, 11 Popular culture approaches data, 278, 290 assessments, 290, 293, 295–297 Australian Curriculum, 277 Australian literature, 277 canon, 290 classic, 278, 279, 291 conservative approaches, 277, 290–292 critical approaches, 277, 278, 294–296 education, 277, 279, 290, 291 Leximancer concept map, 292, 294, 296, 298 Leximancer key themes, 293, 295, 297, 299 liberal approaches, 293, 294 post-modern approaches, 277, 297, 298 ranked concepts, 292, 294, 296, 298 schools, 277 society, 276 status high, 276 low, 276, 277 trend, 276 Population, 28, 30, 32, 35, 36 Post-modern approaches age cultural subject, 89–91 social construct, 89–91 cultural subject, 68 gender, 121, 123 news media, 268, 270 popular culture, 297, 298 race, 239–241 sexuality, 178, 180 social class, 210, 211 social construct, 67 technology, 325–327 Post-modern Australian schools, 58–60 Post-modern education, 4, 9, 10 Power relationship model, 186 Pre-service teachers, 339 Index Q Queer theory, 10 R Race Aboriginal, 216 approaches data, 218, 219, 228, 229 Australia’s colonisation, 215 Australian cross-curriculum priorities, 217 Australian Curriculum, 217 colonies, 215 conservative approaches, 230, 232 critical approaches, 235, 237, 238 curricula, 215, 217, 229, 236–238 ethnicity, 214, 215, 240 General Assembly Statement, South Africa, 215 Indigenous, 216 international, 236, 240 Leximancer concept map, 232, 235, 238, 241 Leximancer key themes, 233, 236, 239, 241 liberal approaches, 217, 232, 234, 235 non-Indigenous, 216 post-modern approaches, 217, 239–241 ranked concepts, 232, 235, 238, 241 UNESCO, 215 Whitlam Government, 216 Racial Discrimination Act, 216 Racism, 215, 217, 219, 228, 230, 231, 233, 234, 237–240 Reference group, 18 Reproductive futurism, 64 Research design best fit, 19 data analysis, 22, 23 data collection tool, 18, 19 emancipatory approach, 18 ethical approval, 20, 21 intersex variations, 19 method, 21 online advertisement, 21 reference group, 17, 18 social class, 20 social groups, 19 Revolutionise society, The Romantic child, 65 Russian Internet Research Agency (IRA), 247 S School, 3, 4, 7, 9–11 sector/type, 35, 36 state/territiory, 35 345 School reform, 339 School-related gender-based violence (SRGBV), 97 Secondary School Experiences Survey, 21 Self-harm, 81 Sex marker, 29 Sexual orientation, 31, 32 critical, 140 homosexuality, 130 LGBTI education, 131, 132, 140 liberal discourses, 140 post-modern theorists, 140 Sexuality approaches data, 140, 165, 169, 170 conservative approaches, 170–172 critical approaches, 175, 176, 178 discourses, 141–144 education, 130, 133–139 heterosexual, 131 Leximancer concept map, 173, 176, 177, 180 Leximancer key themes, 173, 176, 177, 180 LGB, 130 liberal approaches, 173–175 messages, 145 post-modern approaches, 178, 180 ranked concepts, 173, 176, 177, 180 sexual orientation variance, 130–132, 140 Sexuality education, 10, 96, 337, 338 Social abuse, 334–336 Social activism, 334 Social class, 20 approaches data, 189 bullying, 336 conservative approaches, 204, 205, 336 critical approaches, 208, 209, 335 disadvantaged students (low SES), 188 educational inequality, 189 funding, 188, 189, 212 independent schools, 188 Leximancer concept map, 206, 208, 210, 211 Leximancer key themes, 207, 209, 210, 212 liberal approaches, 206, 207 post-modern approaches, 210, 211, 335 poverty, 187, 188, 205, 211 power relationship, 186 private schools, 188, 204, 205 public schools, 188, 204, 209 ranked concepts, 206, 208, 210, 211 resources, 186–189, 205, 206, 208–210 schools, 187 SES quartile enrolments, 188 Index 346 Social class (cont.) social division, 332 social stratification, 186 teaching approaches, 189 wealth, 186, 204–210 The Social construct, 67 Social harms, 330, 334 Social media, 247 Social segregation, 231 Social stratification model, 186 Social wellbeing, 330 Socio-economic status (SES), 188 Sociology of education aims, 10, 11 assessments, classroom-based mass education, conservative, 4, critical, 8, elements, liberal, 7, orientations, 3, 5–6 post-modern, 9, 10 research, 10, 11 visions, wars, South Australian policy, 100 Spiral Curricula ageing (see Age-staging) Stakeholders, 17 Student, 28, 33, 35, 36, 339 Survey, 18, 21, 26 T Teacher, 4, 7, 9–11 Technology approaches, 305 Australia’s NSW Government, 304 bans, 338 children and adolescents learn, 302, 303 China, 303 computers, 303, 321, 325 conservative approaches, 318–320, 337 critical approaches, 323–325 curriculum officers, 304 digital solutions, 304 high schools, 304 impacts, 337 innovations, machinery and equipment, 302 laptops, 321, 323 Learning Area, 304 Leximancer concept map, 319, 322, 324, 326 Leximancer key themes, 320, 323, 325, 327 liberal approaches, 320–322 online, 302 pay-for-play gaming applications, 303 post-modern approaches, 325–327 ranked concepts, 322, 324, 326 surveillance, 303 ‘Turnitin’ software, 303 young people, 303 YouTube Kids, 303 Torres Strait Islander descent, 28 Traditional authorities, Transgender, 19, 97 Tribalism, 247 2011 census data, 26 U UN Human Rights Council, 131 United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), 215 V Violence, 69, 96 Voices of Experience– Australian Secondary Schools Survey project, 25 Voices of Experience logo, 21 W Whole-school reform approaches, ... was offered a combination of face-to-face meetings, phone and Skype calls and emails as media for making contact and offering feedback and ideas for the project All of the media were used, and... Sociology of Australian Education Voices of Experience Tiffany Jones Department of Educational Studies Macquarie University Sydney, NSW, Australia Critical Studies of Education ISBN 97 8-3 -0 3 0-3 686 2-3     ISBN... Australians experienced as the dominant approaches to education (of conservative, liberal, critical and post-modern) overall? What have Australians experienced as the dominant approaches to education