This post is a part of a series being written for my EDUC6352 online masters students.
The above picture appeared in my twitter feed and links to the SMH story ‘Homework, technology, smaller classes: what works in NSW classrooms‘. Continue reading
Month: March 2017
On policy evaluation
This post is a part of a series being written for my EDUC6352 online masters students.
Policy analysis and evaluation seems like a straight forward and obvious requirement for school leaders and government departments. Basically if you implement policy one might assume that you would wish to evaluate said policy. However, in the frenetic pace of schools which, in Australia at least, have been in a policy reform cycle for at least two decades there is little chance to analyse nor evaluate policy as the next policy-cycle is upon leaders. Policy makers themselves are beholden to Australia’s short election cycle and the have to design policy to differentiate one government from the next with new policies and policy foci.
Examining the education policy context in Australia by looking closely at the Melbourne Declaration
This post is a part of a series being written for my EDUC6352 online masters students.
One of the themes of policy in Australia (over the past 40 years or so) is the increasing influence of neoliberalism. This is particularly apparent in education, which has become increasingly marketised. Teachers’ work is increasingly subject to economic principles – made visible through the focus on accountability and standardisation; and performance pay which is perennially proffered as the a means of increasing teacher quality.
Nearly ten years after its signing, the 2008 Melbourne Declaration remains a useful case study which illustrates some of the ways that neoliberalism is manifest in Australian schooling. Continue reading
Dr Rachel Buchanan 