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Australian Education: Reform or Crisis
232 pages, Paperback
First published October 1, 1998
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October 5, 2016
I enjoyed this book albeit little of the information was completely new to me (some of the details of what went down in the 60s, 70s and 80s in Australian education did fill in gaps in my knowledge). It's pretty dated but sadly the issues it outlines are still the main issues that need grappling with (gender, race, the education system's lack of relevance for many Indigenous, class, and how inequality is worsened under neoliberal "reforms").
Some of the language used to speak of Indigenous people and to a lesser degree some ethnic groups were less than satisfactory (that's the dated part I suspect) it was clear that there was a anglocentric Australian view in there but to be fair Welch worked hard to push the boundaries of that and was committed to a more just vision. Suprisingly for a male writer I felt he tackled gender reasonably well, especially in that he referenced pro-feminist observations at just about every turn in his arguments. I didn't feel he fulfilled his promise to unpick the boys' situation as well as the girls but he did talk briefly about "other" masculinities and how hegemonic masculinit/ies (not his term for it) disadvantage a lot of males as well as females.
The analysis tended to be fairly in depth and one thing that was fantastic was the way he referenced back and forth throughout the book. I like it when they do that because it shows how the arguments strengthen each other, also I think there was a good discussion of intersectionality, which was also acknowledged in every breakdown of particular categories. There were a lot of references used throughout so that things were backed up, not a lot of it seemed to be original as such more that he was doing a massive literature review like thing to illustrate what the (at the time) current scene was.
So the three (and a half) stars are mainly because this is dated and didn't really change my view all that much but to be fair when it was new it was probably more exciting. My (library) copy had snide remarks written in by a previous reader and I have to say next to this idiot of a reader Welch comes off pretty good! It's a book people ought to read if they haven't already done a lot of thinking and reading about social justice in education and the effect of neoliberalisation. I particularly liked the fact that it was a book that advised hope and action (agency) not just depression (fatalism) in the face of it all.
Some of the language used to speak of Indigenous people and to a lesser degree some ethnic groups were less than satisfactory (that's the dated part I suspect) it was clear that there was a anglocentric Australian view in there but to be fair Welch worked hard to push the boundaries of that and was committed to a more just vision. Suprisingly for a male writer I felt he tackled gender reasonably well, especially in that he referenced pro-feminist observations at just about every turn in his arguments. I didn't feel he fulfilled his promise to unpick the boys' situation as well as the girls but he did talk briefly about "other" masculinities and how hegemonic masculinit/ies (not his term for it) disadvantage a lot of males as well as females.
The analysis tended to be fairly in depth and one thing that was fantastic was the way he referenced back and forth throughout the book. I like it when they do that because it shows how the arguments strengthen each other, also I think there was a good discussion of intersectionality, which was also acknowledged in every breakdown of particular categories. There were a lot of references used throughout so that things were backed up, not a lot of it seemed to be original as such more that he was doing a massive literature review like thing to illustrate what the (at the time) current scene was.
So the three (and a half) stars are mainly because this is dated and didn't really change my view all that much but to be fair when it was new it was probably more exciting. My (library) copy had snide remarks written in by a previous reader and I have to say next to this idiot of a reader Welch comes off pretty good! It's a book people ought to read if they haven't already done a lot of thinking and reading about social justice in education and the effect of neoliberalisation. I particularly liked the fact that it was a book that advised hope and action (agency) not just depression (fatalism) in the face of it all.
Displaying 1 of 1 review