Social Class: Australian Schools Won’t Merit the Need (original) (raw)
This chapter explores the sociology of education theme ‘social class’ and presents related findings. Australians once claimed an ‘egalitarian’ nation. This claim appeared rather thin, when the Gonski Report raised awareness of national schooling funding and outcome divides – showing funding models privileged private schools over public schools. Subsequent PISA results further emphasised the comparative educational deficits this divide creates for Australia. Voices of Experience survey data shows students from ‘low-level wealth and resources’ households were over twice as likely to be abused by teachers, than those from ‘high-level wealth and resources’ households. Over half the participants attended schools taking a liberal meritocratic approach to social class. In this approach, aid ‘rewarded’ competitive achievement only. Under a fifth of participants reported that their school took a critical approach actively creating equal outcomes by addressing systemic inequality. This portio...
Loading Preview
Sorry, preview is currently unavailable. You can download the paper by clicking the button above.