Neo-Liberal Reforms in NSW Public Secondary Education

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Neo-Liberal Reforms in NSW Public Secondary Education Neo-liberal reforms in NSW public secondary education: what has happened to teachers’ work? A thesis submitted to the University of Sydney in fulfilment of the requirements of a Doctor of Philosophy Gillian Considine July 2012 Statement of Originality This is to certify that to the best of my knowledge, the content of this thesis is my own work. This thesis has not been submitted for any degree or other purposes. I certify that the intellectual content of this thesis is the product of my own work and that all the assistance received in preparing this thesis and sources have been acknowledged. Gillian Considine ii Acknowledgements As with any PhD thesis, a debt of gratitude is owed to many people. First and foremost the wisdom, guidance, ongoing support and encouragement from my supervisors Professor Richard Hall (2006 to 2011) and Dr Ian Watson (2001 to 2005) and from my co-supervisor, Associate Professor John Buchanan (2006 to 2011) has both enriched my learning and enabled me to complete this thesis. In addition, I am forever grateful for the ongoing advice and support Dr Watson graciously provided while I was conducting the data modelling throughout 2009. My sincere gratitude goes to the NSW Teachers Federation who provided financial support and, in particular, to John Irving and Sally Edsall who provided advice during the development of the research tools and administrative support during data collection. The empirical core of this thesis would not have been possible without the participation of the 1,314 NSW public secondary school teachers and four union officials who gave me their time and invaluable insights into their working lives. I am grateful to the multitude of friends and colleagues who provided me with encouragement, support and reality checks along the way. Special thanks go to Dr Maree Murray, Dr Tanya Bretherton and Professor Paul Thompson for their advice, practical support and theory discussions. I also owe a debt of gratitude to Peggy Trompf, Melinda Clarke and Melissa Phillips whose unfailing capacity to listen, discuss punctuation and formatting, and spot typos saw me through until the end. Finally, my love and appreciation go to my partner Tom Spillane, who has been infinitely patient and supportive while pending the arrival of the ‘post- PhD’ me. iii Abstract As the neo-liberal public sector reform agenda took hold in the late 1980s an ideology of choice began to dominate education policy in many western countries, including Australia (Gewirtz 1997; Helsby 1999; Marginson 1997a). This thesis focuses on the specific range of market mechanisms that have been used in the NSW public secondary school system to introduce competition between schools and facilitate parental choice. One of the key characteristics of the reform agenda in NSW has been the diversification and expansion of a differentiated public secondary school system (Esson, Johnston & Vinson 2002). The differentiated system is now characterised by five different types of public secondary schools: 1) comprehensive schools; 2) selective schools; 3) specialist schools; 4) junior campuses; and, 5) senior campuses. The main aim of this thesis is to explore how teachers’ work has changed as a result of this differentiation and to examine the extent to which teachers’ work differs between the different types of schools. Through the analysis of original quantitative and qualitative data this thesis demonstrates that school differentiation has dramatically transformed teachers’ work in NSW and that the experiences of teachers differ depending on the type of public secondary school iv in which they work. In addition, the experiences of teachers provide insights into the effect of these changes on the secondary system more broadly and on the experiences of students within the system. The implications of these findings are discussed with reference to the effect of neo-liberal reforms on educational equality and on the sustainability of a system that has exacerbated staffing challenges and issues of teacher retention within particular types of schools. v Table of contents Chapter 1 – Introduction ................................................................................................ 1 Neo-liberalism................................................................................................................. 2 The changing environment in public secondary education ......................................... 3 Research focus – policy and literature ............................................................................ 6 Policy .......................................................................................................................... 6 Literature ..................................................................................................................... 8 The significance of this study ....................................................................................... 11 Aims of this project ................................................................................................... 12 Approach taken ......................................................................................................... 13 Chapter 2 – Secondary education in NSW: beyond a comprehensive secondary school system ................................................................................................................. 15 NSW public education system – 1940s to 1960s .......................................................... 16 Comprehensive school experiment – 1960s to 1970s ................................................... 27 Neo-liberal public sector reform – 1970s to 1980s ....................................................... 29 Social change and the growth of meritocracy ............................................................... 33 Education funding and increasing choice ..................................................................... 36 Increased demand for private schooling in the 1980s ................................................... 42 Rising perceptions of insecurity.................................................................................... 46 NSW inquiries into secondary education – early 1980s ............................................... 50 McGowan Report - 1981 .......................................................................................... 50 The Swan Reports – 1983, 1984 ............................................................................... 59 The Winder Report - 1984 ........................................................................................ 66 Education Commission of NSW reports – 1985 and 1986 ....................................... 67 An overview of these inquiries ................................................................................. 69 Neo-liberal reforms in NSW education – late 1980s to 2010 ....................................... 71 Public sector reform in NSW .................................................................................... 71 The Metherell reforms .............................................................................................. 74 Fragmenting the comprehensive system ................................................................... 87 The potential effect of these reforms on the teachers’ labour market ........................... 90 Conclusion .................................................................................................................... 93 Chapter 3 – The effect of policy reform on teachers’ work ................................... 96 Systemic change - markets in education through school-based management .............. 98 vi Centralised curriculum and assessment .................................................................. 103 Teacher autonomy and control................................................................................ 109 School-level change – teachers’ work and school-based management ...................... 118 Market-based reforms at the school level ............................................................... 123 Teacher reactions to change ........................................................................................ 143 Factors related to teacher attrition........................................................................... 144 Conclusion .................................................................................................................. 146 The significance of this project ............................................................................... 148 Chapter 4 – Methodology .......................................................................................... 151 Research design .......................................................................................................... 152 Strengths and limitations......................................................................................... 153 Grounded theory ..................................................................................................... 156 Conceptualising schools and regions .......................................................................... 157 Stages 1 to 4: Qualitative research design .................................................................. 158 Stage 1: Exploratory focus groups .......................................................................... 161 Stage 2: Participant interviews ................................................................................ 164 Stage 3: Key informant
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