Undemocratic Schooling Equity and Quality in Mass Secondary Education in Australia

by Polesel, John; Teese, Richard

• ISBN13: 9780522850482
• ISBN10: 0522850480
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1999-03-02
• Publisher: Melbourne University Press

Summary

Based on the largest social survey of secondary education ever undertaken in Australia, this book presents a national picture of who succeeds and who fails at school, offering valuable angles on many topical issues such as retention and dropout rates, the relation between poverty and achievement, the gender debate, private versus public schools, and which universities serve which social groups. This survey also sheds light on the inequalities within the Australian education system and presents new information on students' achievements in relation to their attitudes and values, students' destinations in relation to their backgrounds, and student's perspectives on issues from jobs to discrimination. Students' larger views on matters such as careers, marriage and family, the political system, and social justice are also revealed.

Author Biography

Richard Teese is Professor of Post-Compulsory Education and Training, and Director of the Educational Outcomes Research Unit, at the University of Melbourne.
John Polesel is a Senior Research Fellow at the Educational Outcomes Research Unit at the University of Melbourne.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements	vii
Abbreviations	viii
1 Economy and School
The Machine of the Curriculum
2 The Hierarchy of the Curriculum in Historical Perspective	17	(15)
3 Creating a Working-Class Space in the Curriculum, 1985-1998	32	(17)
Historical progress
4 Social Progress in Access to Mathematics	49	(12)
5 Social Progress in Access to the Sciences	61	(13)
6 Progress or Regression in the Social Sciences and Humanities?	74	(21)
Hierarchical Curriculum, Stratified School System
7 What Makes the Hard Options Hard, and for Whom?	95	(23)
8 Selective Schooling and the Curriculum	118	(15)
Results of School
9 Early Leaving	133	(18)
10 Finishing School and Getting a Job	151	(14)
11 Going on to Further Study	165	(20)
Lines of Reform
12 School Effectiveness and Structural Inequality	185	(14)
13 Vocational Education and Training in Schools	199	(11)
14 From Mass to Democratic Secondary Education	210	(19)
Notes	229	(9)
Bibliography	238	(13)
List of Figures	251	(5)
Index	256