Overview

In this book [the author] explores how the 'politics of possibility' can be brought to bear in creating a more socially just society in, and through, public schooling. The account is based on research conducted as part of a doctoral study that combined a critical policy analysis with an ethnographic account of school reform at Wattle Plains School, the pseudonym for a culturally diverse, working-class community in an Australian city.

The book describes the ways in which teachers at Wattle Plains are working to develop socially just curriculum through a whole school reform process that is attuned to the struggles of the local community; that offers a critical interpretation of contemporary culture and the life-world of students; and, that attempts to redress educational inequalities stemming from the classed, gendered and racialised experiences of students. However, the path to theses goals is cluttered with numerous impediments, and in the final analysis these teachers have to live with a high degree of ambiguity in their efforts to sustain an alternatives discourse on schooling.

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Table of Contents

Acknowledgements
Glossary

Introduction

• A 'politics of possibility'
• Situating the self
• A personal investment
• Making hope practical
• This book

Chapter One: Social Justice and Schooling in 'New Times' - Dilemmas and Possibilities

• Schooling: The ladder to success
• Why must social justice remain an issue for schooling?
• What are the social justice research issues today?
• What is the research issue in this study?
• Why a socially critical orientation?
• Wither social justice: new contexts and new agendas
• Contemporary school reform
• A language of possibility
• Conclusions

Chapter Two: An Orientation to Wattle Plains School

• An ethnographic study
• Mapping the physical and cultural terrain of the community
• A pedagogical encounter
• Organisational features and amenities
• The school/community interface
• The curriculum
• Committees and decision-making processes
• The participants
• Conclusions

Chapter Three: Social Justice and Schooling - Charting a Path Through Competing Discourses

• Schooling for social justice
• What is social justice?
• Liberalism: A search for universal principles
• A critique of liberalism
• Marxism and social democratic traditions of social justice
• Justice beyond redistribution
• Postmodernist readings
• Towards a politics of difference
• From inequality to difference: 'What about the workers?'
• Sustaining a metanarrative of liberation
• Paulo Freire: A pedagogy of hope and practice
• Conclusions

Chapter Four: The Educational Reform Agenda - Where is Social Justice?

• 'Cascading' policies
• Framing the analysis
• What is policy?
• The role of the state: Educational settlements
• Social justice and school reform
• Political responses to social justice
• Social justice and educational reform under Labor
• The Disadvantaged School Program
• The march towards economic rationalism
• Globalisation and the drive for economic efficiency
• Corporate federalism and the broadbanding of equity
• Social justice under Labor in South Australia
• Social justice under the Coalition
• Reframing educational disadvantaged: Literacy and individual deficits
• The South Australian experience: The collapse of social justice
• Foundations for the future?
• Conclusions

Chapter Five: Keeping Social Justice on the Agenda - Whole School Reform at Wattle Plains

• Moving beyond the rhetoric of social justice
• Acquiring a social justice headset
• A legacy of reform for social justice
• Whole school reform for social justice
• Educative dialogues
• School leadership at Wattle Plains
• Evaluation and whole school reform at Wattle Plains
• Conclusions

Chapter Six: Enacting Socially Just Curriculum at Wattle Plains - The Classroom Connection

• Schooling for domestication or liberation?
• Broad and balanced curriculum
• Success-oriented learning
• The arts curriculum
• Multicultural education at Wattle Plains
• Racism and antiracist education
• Beyond functional literacy: Critical literacies at Wattle Plains
• How do you know you're succeeding?
• Conclusions

Chapter Seven: 'Living with Ambiguities' - The Problematic Aspects of School Reform for Social Justice

• Introduction
• 'Not everyone is in step': Localized resistance to school reform
• The basic Skills Tests: 'Please Miss, what's a muffin?'
• Marketisation, enterprise education and vocationalism
• Keeping gender on the agenda
• Sustaining critically reflective practices
• Sustaining educative leadership
• Grassroots reform: 'Romantic localism'?
• Conclusions

Chapter Eight: 'Resources of Hope': Reinventing Schooling for Social Justice

• A journey of discovery
• Sustaining school reform for social justice
• What does it mean to educate in socially just ways?
• Reconfiguring a commitment to social justice in public education
• 'Speaking out': A critique of the existing situation
• Reimaging schooling: A vision of the alternative
• A language of possibility: Strategic action
• Conclusions

Afterword
References
Index

Reviews

This book is a 'must read' for anybody concerned about the plight of our schools, and how to pursue a socially just agenda in a hostile educational policy climate.

Emiteritus Professor John Smyth
Roy F and Joann Cole Mitte Endowed Chair in School Improvement
Texas State University

Illustrations of the actual work of teachers in Wattle Plains School provides a politics of hope as well as a set of ideas worthy of serious consideration by educational scholars around the world.

Professor Jesse Goodman
Indiana University

Making Hope Practical adds to our knowledge of social justice in disadvantaged schools and makes a significant contribution to an understanding of educational policy, pedagogical knowledge and whole school reform in the context of a neo-liberal reform agenda.

Professor Bob Lingard
Sheffield University