1st Edition
Education Policy and the Political Right The Burning Fuse beneath Schooling in the US, UK and Australia
This work attempts a comparative description and analysis, focusing on the US, the UK, and Australia on the topic of the Right, educational policy, and schooling. It adopts as its underlying theme the burning fuse in tracing the topic back to Joseph de Maistre a Rightist who fled revolutionary France to seek safety in the company of Tsar Alexander I’s Russian Empire. Here, he had much to say about school education, not for all, but rather the “deserving” social elite.
During the past three or four decades in the US, the UK, and Australia, the Right has been remarkably successful in amassing political power. And in doing so, the right of politics in these countries has reshaped school educational policy and practice, a necessary step in securing the future of the Right as a political force. Moreover, even during the years the Right has been on the opposition benches in these countries, such has been the strength of their political force that governments of the Left have acquiesced to much of their school educational policy.
A pioneering effort, this book asserts that to understand school educational policy in the third decade of the 21st century, we need to comprehend the politics of the Right. This book will be of interest to researchers and postgraduate students interested in Education Studies, Theory and Policy, and International and Comparative Education.
1: Defining and describing the Right 2: The Right, the rise of the influence of neoliberalism and globalisation in school education policy 3: The Right, government school fiscal austerity and school education policy 4: The Right and the privatization of school education 5: The rise of the Christian Right and its role in school education 6: The Right and the media shaping school education policy 7: The Right and religious freedom in schools Conclusions: Bringing it all together
Biography
Grant Rodwell was a school principal in Tasmania (1980–87). From 1987 he has lectured, researched, and held various administrative roles in Australian universities in Education and in Arts and Social Sciences. Holding five PhDs, he is currently an Adjunct Senior Lecturer in the School of Education at The University of Newcastle. This is his fifth book published by Routledge.
"This book considers the damaging changes that have occurred in the academy and in schools, particularly in the US, the UK and Australia, as a result of the influence of various right-wing forces. In it, Rodwell provides an insightful and penetrating analysis of how the situation has emerged and developed, and of the damage done. He draws attention also to how, unlike in previous eras, the Left has acquiesced to much of the associated policy. The book should be essential reading for students and researchers in the fields of education, politics and sociology."
Tom O’Donoghue, Visiting Full Professor, University College Dublin; Graduate School of Education, The University of Western Australia, Australia
