1st Edition

Power, Politics, and the Playground Perspectives on Power and Authority in Education

By Don Carter, Adrian Piccoli Copyright 2024
204 Pages 1 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

204 Pages 1 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

204 Pages 1 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

Presented as a series of case studies, this book offers the reader an insider’s account of the power dynamics in Australian education and how the application of that power influences education policymaking. The authors, Adrian Piccoli and Don Carter, have been in the room when some of the biggest decisions in Australian education have been made. This book traverses various theories of power and... Read more

Introduction  1. Case study as a research methodology  2. Why getting schools right matters  3. Some observations on power and authority  4. The role of Parliament and politics in education  5. Schools, power and books  6. Being an education leader and acting like a dictator doesn’t work  7. The power that comes with experience  8. Accumulating, keeping and renewing power  9. Having clear guiding principles generates its own power  10. The two faces of education

Biography

Don Carter is an associate professor at the University of Technology Sydney and has worked in a range of positions including teaching English (government and nongovernment schools), head of department, ESL consultant, inspector of schools and teacher education academic. He has published widely on education issues including literacy, curriculum history and teacher workload.

Adrian Piccoli was the New South Wales Minister for Education (2011–2017) and a member of the NSW Legislative Assembly for 19 years. As the former director of University of New South Wales’s Gonski Institute for Education, Adrian led a team of researchers to address inequality in Australian education and improve access to high-quality education for school students. In 2017, Adrian was made a fellow of the Australian Council of Educational Leaders.