New book from the research is published

Our book School Autonomy Reform and Social Justice in Australian Public Education has been recently published by Routledge in the series Local/Global Issues in Education.

This book explores the social justice implications of school autonomy reform within the context of public education in Australia. It is situated within and framed by global concerns about how public schools are navigating their ‘autonomy’ within increasingly marketised education systems. Drawing on extensive interviews with stakeholders and five in-depth case study schools, the book calls attention to the ways in which the intentions of school autonomy reform to offer schools more freedom to make their own decisions and manage their own responsibilities have become increasingly contained by the market imperatives of economic efficiency, competition and public accountability driving state and national education systems. We build on and enrich existing research in this area that highlights how market imperatives continue to exacerbate inequality within and between schools and their systems. An essential read for researchers, policy makers, principals and teachers worldwide, the book provides insight into how education systems can better support public schools to mobilise their autonomy in socially just ways.

The book launch will be held at the AARE conference in Newcastle on December 2, 2025 at 4.15pm. We would love to see you there!

SCHOOL AUTONOMY AND SOCIAL JUSTICE

How does school autonomy or decentralisation promote or undermine social justice? Watch this video to learn about some of the findings from our study

Public education and the 2022 federal election

In the lead up to the 2022 federal election, our team members Jill Blackmore, Amanda Keddie and Katrina MacDonald offered some thoughts on the misrecognition of 'problems' in Australian public education published on the Australian Association for Research in Education blog: EduResearch Matters:

Education has been politicised over the last three decades, yet it has not been a key feature of the current election campaign. To be sure, we have heard public statements from Federal Education Minister (acting) Stuart Robert about ‘dud’ teachers in our public education system as well as his approval of increasing student demand for private sector schooling. Amid both parties’ support for parental choice in education and concerns about Australia’s under-performance on standardised international and national tests such as PISA and NAPLAN, the focus in this election campaign has largely been on how teacher quality might be improved through attracting and retaining better teachers. While quality teaching is important, this focus misrecognises the ‘problems’ of Australian education in a number of ways....

https://www.aare.edu.au/blog/?p=13067