Commercialising Public Schooling Practices of Profit-Making

0. Introduction: Defining commercialisation 1. A brief history of education commercialisation 2. An audit of public school commercialisation 3. Teachers’ agency in curriculum commercialisation 4. The commercialisation of teachers and teaching 5. The commercial EdTech boom 6. Commercial sponsorships in schools 7. Schools as commercial entities 8. Conclusion: Beyond profit making

Biography

Anna Hogan is an Associate Professor in the School of Education at the Queensland University of Technology, Australia. Her research interests focus on issues of marketisation, and how related concepts of privatisation, commercialisation, and philanthropy affect public schools and those in them.

Schools have long been viewed as sources of profit-making, and Anna Hogan is the most astute and critical observer of commercial and private sector involvement working in education today. Commercialising Public Schooling provides a compelling and timely analysis of how contemporary schools have become thoroughly penetrated by commercial vendors – from companies selling well-being services, textbook publishers and corporate fast food sponsors to the EdTech industry. This book is an essential guide to the complexities of commercialisation in education and its consequences for the future of public schooling itself.

Ben Williamson, Professor, University of Edinburgh, UK

 

This book is an excellent, thoughtful, and much needed exploration of a complex and evolving phenomenon in education. Synthesising a decade of research, it offers a rich and balanced analysis of commercialisation in public schooling, with valuable perspectives on its implications for teachers, curriculum, and the education system more broadly. It makes a compelling case for a nuanced understanding of commercialisation and its many forms. By providing important insights on a topic critical to the future of public education, it is a vital resource for educators, policymakers, and researchers.

Linda Rönnberg, Professor, Umeå University, Sweden

Drawing on a decade of focused research, Anna Hogan’s Commercialising Public Schooling proffers much-needed clarity, nuanced analyses and history of this significant and growing contemporary phenomena challenging the ‘publicness’ of public schools. As such, this book is essential reading for policy makers, teachers, teacher unions and researchers, indeed all those seeking to understand the nature, extent and effects of these developments and striving to maintain the principles of equity, inclusion and fairness as important to the public character of government schools.

Bob Lingard, Emeritus Professor, The University of Queensland, Australia