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Policies and Politics of Contemporary Schooling

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Book cover Alternative Schooling, Social Justice and Marginalised Students

Part of the book series: Palgrave Studies in Alternative Education ((PSAE))

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Abstract

This chapter expands on the philosophy of inclusive, democratic education that infuses the pedagogical landscape at Music Industry College. It also further develops the complex policy context of alternative schooling in an era of neoliberalism, performance metrics and teacher accountability and performativity. It connects to contemporary research on global education reform and educational philosophy, in order to make a compelling case for more socially just schooling.

The system didn’t work for me. They weren’t very accommodating. They just let me slip through the cracks.

Student, at a focus group interview

We have like a farewell day for the year twelves and there’s a bit of live music that happens and we stand around and there’s tears and hugs and all of that. One girl who’d had a very difficult life—had been fostered I think twelve times by the time we met her—she was crying and she said, “If not for here I would be dead”, and she meant every word of it.

Kristin, Mathematics teacher

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Teacher Education and Early Childhood, University of Southern Queensland, Springfield Central, Queensland, Australia

    Stewart Riddle

  2. School of Linguistics, Adult and Specialist Education, University of Southern Queensland, Springfield Central, Queensland, Australia

    David Cleaver

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  1. Stewart Riddle
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  2. David Cleaver
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Correspondence to Stewart Riddle or David Cleaver .

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Riddle, S., Cleaver, D. (2017). Policies and Politics of Contemporary Schooling. In: Alternative Schooling, Social Justice and Marginalised Students. Palgrave Studies in Alternative Education. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-58990-9_2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-58990-9_2

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  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-58989-3

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