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The launch in Australia of a government website that compares all schools on the basis of student performance in standardized tests illustrates the extent to which neoliberal policies have been entrenched. This paper examines the problematic nature of choosing schools within the powerful political context of neoliberalism. It illustrates how key elements of the neoliberal worldview are normalized in the day-to-day practices of schooling and how certain norms and values that characterize neoliberalism are shaped and reinforced in the education system and also in personal, family and social imaginaries. The task for educational sociology, therefore, is to problematize and 're-imagine' the prevailing neoliberal imaginary.

In order to critique the notion of "learner voice" in vocational education and training (VET) policy, this paper draws from a project conducted by the authors on behalf of the Australian National VET Equity Advisory Council (NVEAC). The term "learner voice" is used extensively throughout NVEAC documentation to describe the engagement of "disadvantaged" students within the VET system. However, the concept of "voice" being advocated, we argue, is a particularly "thin" one which is linked to notions of client feedback, managed participation and the commodification of training rather than any broad sense of democracy, equity or social transformation. The paper critically examines current practices in relation to learner voice within the VET policy framework and their implications for the contested role of VET in contributing to social equity and redress of social and economic disadvantage.

Three decades of neo-liberal education in western countries, particularly English-speaking countries, have not served most children well. The evidence is mounting that the neo-liberal experiment has been a failure on many grounds, not least because of its deprofessionalizing effect on teachers. The disciplinary effects of neo-liberal policy frameworks on education remain powerful, but there are numerous teachers and schools who have resisted the regime of managerialism and accountability. This paper celebrates such activists. It argues that the internal focus on the delivery of instruction and test-taking inside schools ignores the point that the major influences on the school performance of children exist outside rather than inside the school. The paper argues that young people who have been "othered" and put at a disadvantage by the neo-liberal education system deserve to be treated in a more dignified, engaged and respectful manner than seems to be the case within the ideology of accountability and top-down managerialism. (Contains 6 notes.)

In this paper I argue that values of democracy and social justice in education would seem to have been displaced in recent decades by managerialist norms that are linked to the presumed needs of business and the economy of the nation. I am concerned that conceptualizations of the nature and purpose of education, and of the roles of teachers, are restricted in this neoliberal climate and policy framework. I argue that there is an urgent need to restore notions of educational and social responsibility to the forefront of educational policy making. In particular, I argue, if educational success for all students is to be a key aim of education (and surely most commentators would claim it should be), then schools will have to ensure that they reach out to all students and their communities, welcome them, and engage them in learning that is relevant and meaningful to their lives within their particular social, cultural and economic circumstances. (Contains 2 notes.)

Smyth introduces this special issue with the claim that the question of "how to pursue forms of leadership that listen to and attend to the voices of...young people" is the "most urgent issue of our times". Dana Mitra's article describes what seem to be serious and elaborate attempts to involve students in school decision-making and, more pointedly, school reform. Cook-Sather writes in her article how pre-service teachers who, as part of a Teaching and Learning Together (TLT) project, are encouraged to explicitly challenge the traditional hierarchy of teacher/leader-student, which, she argues, restricts student-teacher collegiality and promotes impersonal, individualistic education. Fielding introduces readers to a framework in which four ideal types (in the Weberian sense) of school are described. Of the four, the main ones that he deals with are schools of "the high performance learning organization" type and the "person-centred learning community" type. In this paper, the author provides his opinions on these articles.

The tendency in education writing on globalization has been to examine the congruence of educational policies in western societies and the international effects of global governance of education by powerful transnational institutions such as the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development and the European Union. The authors tend to identify massive changes in approaches to educational governance, including the establishment of a broadly common policy and management agenda that is characterized by 'new managerialism', devolution, and rigid accountability structures, entrepreneurialism, and school effectiveness, that have been imposed largely as a result of globalization. These measures are often seen as being directly related to the 'hollowing out' of the state, and the emergence of neo-liberalism as the informing ideology of both international capitalism and residual nation-states. There are few studies, however, of the dynamics of educational life and micro-political activities that enable or challenge or bring about the kinds of educational reshaping and renorming that are typically associated with globalization. This study attempts to analyse such micro-shaping, which, through reporting an ethnographic study in a site of educational practice, examines how school managers and teachers dealt with government policy intervention and, in the process, both willingly and unwillingly implemented significant educational change.

Concentrates on cases of family engagement with information communication technologies (ICTs) at a very local level. (EV)

Examines the complex connections among literacy practices, the use of information, and communication technologies (ICTs) and disadvantage. Reports findings of a year-long Australian study, which investigated ways that four families use ICTs to engage in formal and informal literacy learning in home and school settings. (BT)

Reports findings from an ethnographic study of educational restructuring at an institute of technical and further education in Australia. Documents Australian governments' adoption of hyperrational educational-improvement strategies by reworking institutional roles framing daily practices. Countersteering geared to other values and priorities often interrupts governmental steering. (Contains 30 references.) (MLH)

Analyzes the 1990s conservative reform agenda in Australia. Examines the relationship between education, the economy, and the state, particularly the marketplace analogy and the concept of quality schooling. Current policies emphasize a return to managerialism and a direct education-work connection. Discusses implications of the conservative agenda for teachers, curriculum, accountability, and community-school relations. (73 references) (MLH)

In this paper I attempt to fill partially a gap identified by Mills (1988) who claims that, despite the emergence of a strong body of literature on organizational culture, gender has remained 'at best' a marginal theme in this literature. Drawing upon notions of agency and structure, I report a case study of aspects of the construction of masculine subjectivities in a Catholic boys' school, and of the encounter of women teachers with its organizational culture. Such a focus is particularly revealing of the institution's gender regime. I examine a gender as an aspect of background rules and hegemonic culture as they are mediated within the institutional context of the school. Finally, I consider the responses of the women to their encounter with the institution in terms of feminist possibilities for organizational reform. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.), working to widen the options of women's lives in male-dominated society. Such change will require changes on the part of men as much as, if not more than, women. In [...]

Although conventional ethnography within the interpretivist research tradition offers certain advances upon positivist research, it is not without its own limitations. On the basis of a critique of the theoretical and ideological bases of these research traditions, the use of critical ethnography in the study of schools is advocated. (JD)

Recent arguments for democratization of schools ignore students' contribution to school organization. This ethnographic study of an Australian Catholic high school for boys advances a case for more democratic classroom relationships and for recognizing and encouraging the active role that students can play in constructing such relationships. Includes 45 references. (MLH)