Whose public, which public? The challenge for public education

Datos Bibliográficos

ID12905752
AutoresJessica Gerrard (0000-0001-9011-6055, The University of Melbourne, autor de correspondencia)
Año2016
Volumen59
Número2
Páginas204-217
Fecha de publicación2016-05-24
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessNo
TipoARTICLE
RevistaCritical Studies in Education (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 1750-8487 • E-ISSN: 1750-8495
EditorialTaylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/17508487.2016.1186711
OpenAlexW2398029013
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas23
Referencias citadas27

Contemporary campaigns for public education rest upon an assumption that public schools are fundamental to an equitable and inclusive society. In this paper, I reflect on this presumption by exploring the inherent tensions of the meaning and practice of ‘public’ education, especially when the ‘public’ in public schooling is linked to political contestation and change in relation to the nation state. In particular, this discussion considers the ways in which the contemporary heightened racial politics of fear of ‘Muslim radicalisation’ structures the ways in which the state creates boundaries surrounding ‘public’ schooling. Here, analysis of recent governmental attempts to addresses the concern of ‘radicalisation’ in schools reveals the difficulties the nation state faces in defining what exactly is the ‘public’, and demonstrates how the politics of race and fear become overarching logics in the constitution of the Australian ‘public’. These logics risk creating exclusions and boundaries in public schooling, which, I argue here, have repercussions for the defence and claim to public education more broadly

Constitution · Epistemology · Meaning (existential · Political science · Politics · Presumption · Public education · Sociology · State (computer science · Education and experiences of immigrants and refugees · Law · Migration, Refugees, and Integration · Peace and Human Rights Education · Public Administration