Session Information
23 SES 03 C, Policies for Inclusive and Democratic Education
Paper Session
Contribution
Sandel (2012) argues that elements of civic life that have been marketised – those traditionally governed by what Sandel refers to as non-market norms (social security, education, health) are structurally changed through the ‘economising process’. Moreover, markets he suggests are far from inert as economists might argue - they ‘leave their mark’ (Sandel, 2012) and market values may well ‘crowd out’ non-market values that emphasize the human qualities of our communities and societies. It is reasonable to suggest that the marketization of education can today be considered as a global phenomenon. As such, it has received attention and critique from policy sociologists. However, neoliberal policy making shows no sign of changing and an early reading of Donald Trump’s cabinet suggests that such policy making will intensify especially in education.
‘Networks’ (Ball, 2012) can be considered as a trope or metaphor that acts as a key analytic device whereby social relations emphasize what Urry (2003: 157) calls the ‘mobility turn’, by which he means the movement of cultural, social political and economic capital flows ‘frictionless’ across the porous conceptualisation of ‘community’. Governance tends to be “accomplished through the ‘informal authority’ of diverse and flexible networks, and government... is carried out through hierarchies specifically within administrations and by bureaucratic methods” (Ball and Junemann 2012: 3). It was the governance of health through ‘issue networks’ that was of particular interest in this research, where, following Rhodes (1997), the term network describes the interdependence between actors involved in service delivery whereby the networks are made up of different organisations seeking to exchange resources to reach their objectives. Network governance brings new solutions to bear upon problems by ‘catalyzing all sectors – public, private and voluntary – into action’ (Osborne and Gaebler 1992 in Ball and Junemann, 2012: 6). In this project we were interested in how the ‘new solutions’ interface with the educative intent of the curriculum.
The field of Health (within and in addition to Physical Education) is ripe for the external provision of educational resources oriented or associated with programs and products that already exist including various fitness tests, monitoring of body parameters such as height and weight, physical activity interventions, nutrition programs and so on, with the reporting of this information in succinct and performative forms.
This three-year Australian Research Council study, involved partners across the globe and focused on the international arena associated with health within and beyond the curriculum structures of Physical Education (Health and Physical Education in Australia). The study was shaped by four key concerns:
- The appeal and opportunities for external providers in relation to health work and curricula;
- The nature, extent and effects of networks that exist between external providers and other agencies;
- The intellectual authority or knowledge bases that external providers use to frame their products and services; and
- How national and international curricula are shaped by agents and agencies whose remit is generally understood to lie outside education.
To address these key concerns we posed the following research questions:
- What is the nature and extent of health issue networks that interface with school curricula?
2. How are the products and services of external providers shaped and designed, and on what knowledge are they based?
3. How do external providers talk about their services in relation to young people, schooling and the curriculum?
4. How do schools/teachers make the ‘choices’ to take up the resources/services of external providers?
5. To what extent are the external providers’ resources compatible with schooling’s educative and inclusive mandates?
The analytical focus points for this research were two key global health concerns; obesity and mental ill-health.
Method
Expected Outcomes
References
Ball, S. (2012). Global education Inc. New policy networks and the neo-liberal imaginary. London: Routledge. Ball, S. & Junemann, C. (2012). Networks, the new governance and education. London: Routledge. Fairclough, N. (2003). Analysing discourse: Textual analysis for social research. London: Routledge. Rhodes, R.A.W. (1997). Understanding Governance: Policy networks, governance, reflexivity and accountability. Maidenhead: OUP. Rossi, T., Tinning, R., McCuaig, L., Sirna, K. & lisahunter. (2009). With the best of intentions: A critical discourse analysis of HPE curriculum materials. Journal of Teaching Physical Education, 28, 75-89. Sandel, M. (2012). What money can’t buy – the moral limits of markets. London: Penguin Books.
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