Social justice in education in 'new times'

This thesis considers social justice in education in ‘new times’. To facilitate the investigation a number of research questions were pursued. These questions were: • What is meant by the label ‘social justice’? • How is social justice to be understood in contemporary terms? • Are there tensions between traditional and contemporary views of social justice? • How effective are policy developments in delivering social justice via education? • What difference do such policies make at the local level? To answer these questions a critical case analysis of a country community and one of its primary schools was carried out. Data were gathered using a variety of methods. As a researcher who was also a teacher in the school I kept a personal professional journal during 1993 and 1994. During this period I was the teacher in the school with responsibility for curriculum development related to issues of social justice. In 1994 I conducted interviews with twenty students, parents and teachers at the school in relation to social justice issues. I also interviewed the CEO of the town’s Council. A number of relevant Federal and State Government and school policy documents were consulted and an archival search of the local newspaper from 1956 to 1994 was undertaken. Statistical information from the Australian Bureau of Statistics as well as from school records was used. A number of local history books were consulted as well as the minutes of relevant school committee meetings. Contemporary social theory, more specifically the work of Anthony Giddens, provided the major methodological tool. Giddens structuration theory was selected as it provided a way of interpreting society from both macro and micro perspectives, it provided a way of studying the interconnectedness of the individual and society. In addition to this, a metaphor was used as a way of developing an understanding of the data. The river was chosen as the metaphor as it has significance to the case study community and it also provides a way of understanding interconnectedness. At an interpretive level, both social theory and moral philosophy were drawn on, including the work of Geoffrey Sharp, Anthony Giddens and Alisdair MacIntyre. A review of selected literature indicated three main areas of concern in relation to this thesis. We live in a time of constant and ongoing change, understanding how this change impacts on the lives of individuals and society is important. Such an understanding relates directly to issues of ontology. In addition it was necessary to consider schools in these ‘new times’. The literature revealed that the changes occurring in the wider society were related to the changes currently being seen in schools. Specifically this related to the increasing emphasis on economics and on individualism, emphases also reflected in the findings of this thesis. Finally the literature related to social justice was discussed, the focus here was on distributive theories of justice and the way these are reflected in programs such as the DSP. The data, as expressed in the metaphor of the flowing river, revealed dominant and marginal currents in social justice in education in ‘new times’. The dominant social group are the intellectually trained and the dominant issues were related to technology, globalisation and economic and bureaucratic rationalism. In the marginal currents we find the under-employed and the unemployed and marginal issues relating to housing, the black economy, poverty and the survival of rural communities. The data also revealed a marginal tributary running into the river. This tributary shows that social cohesion is still a part of life in ‘new times’, albeit a marginalised part. The dominant and marginal currents in social justice in ‘new times’ reveal changes at a deep cultural level. Social justice in ‘new times’ is set within the limits provided by economic rationalism. Such a position is closely linked to the rise of liberal democracy as a political ideology. A rise which has been on a global scale. This valorizes the individual as compared with the group, and the family as compared to the social whole, within the context of expanded economic groupings and markets. Such an ideological position sees the role of the state as providing the ‘legitimising muscle’ to advance the cause of individuals and their families as compared to larger social groupings. These perceptions were applied in Australia, even under a Labor Government. In this sense social justice policies in ‘new times’ are ideological, they act as a political lever to legitimate economic restructuring. They are policies designed to carry disparate groups forward and together on a common wave of economic reform. They are used to ‘sell’ economic reform as being ‘good’ for all of society. Against the backdrop of economic rationalism and liberal democratic ideals there emerges a language geared to the production of an economically viable self, self image, self identity, self esteem and self confidence. As a result, the sense of identity as ‘social’ is lost from view. This thesis argues that what is needed is a new way of looking at social justice in education. A way that reaches beyond the solutions forwarded by the political Left and the Right. It is about the development of an understanding of the way in which an assimilation of the hyper individual and the social group can result in the emergence of the socially responsible individual. This is a cultural shift that sees the individual/society dualism presented in a new way. The categories enter into a new relationship where the balance shifts away from the individual towards society. A shift to a culture where the individual’s rights and responsibilities are respected within a social whole. Such a cultural shift would result in a curriculum which would build social identity, promoted socially responsible independent thought and make space for creativity and the aesthetic. A ‘curriculum for social responsibility’ would be a socially just curriculum.

'Of course I didn't work … only when I had to': narratives of women's working lives and what really counted

There was a long-held belief, that, prior to the 1970s, women were no longer involved in paid labour once they were married or began to have children. Official statistics also supported this particular national narrative. This paper argues that this narrative did not accurately reflect the historical situation because the methods used to determine who worked and when did not fully capture all of women's paid labour at the time. This is reflected in a small study of older women and their recollections of paid employment. Some women initially claimed that they did no paid work after marriage, but with low key, in-depth and persistent questioning, it became clear that many women did work in an unofficial capacity (in the black economy) or alongside their husbands in their paid employment. This is a preliminary study that underlines the importance of life-course narratives in the social sciences to delve deeply into women's memories and thus their experiences.

Mapping the Australian archaic: reflections on black medea

Wesley Enoch’s Black Medea is explicit about what is, and what is not, its project: the chorus implores the audience not to read the narrative of its infanticidal heroine as one that demonises black women. Instead, the play affirms that its narrative can be understood differently and in a way that has a wider social significance. Taking my cue from the claim that the story is somehow ‘about everyone,’ I would like to begin unravelling the play’s relevance to contemporary contentions of Australian and indeed ‘Unaustralian’ subjectivity, particularly in relation to the discourses that seek to construct ‘Australian’ identity through an appeal to antiquity and what I describe as ‘the archaic.’ It seems to me that Black Medea presents an opportunity for thinking about the ways in which the discourses of aboriginal and classical antiquity operate to inform contemporary, contesting definitions of Australian identity. Regardless of whether these discourses of antiquity are claimed as ‘Australian’ or abjected as Other or ‘Unaustralian’ – and they have been used in both ways – they remain, I argue, formative to current conceptions of Australian identity and are positioned in the economy of discourses that comprise that arena. As will be seen, the mixed reception or ambivalence with which these complementary discourses of antiquity are treated in Australian culture gives Black Medea the potential to be situated among them in subversive and questioning ways, and in ways that may highlight the reasons for their ambivalent status.

Representing Fijian bodies and the economy of war

This paper traces representations of the black body, which I have related to contemporary masculine identities in Fiji. I have linked historical representations to what I perceive as the ongoing commodification of the Fijian body and argue that opportunities that have arisen from conflict in the Middle East have had a significant impact on employment opportunities for Fijians. I have framed the discussion around a description and analysis of my own photographic and installation artworks produced between 2007 and 2009.

Export quality : representing Fijian bodies and the economy of war

Fijian bodies have become a valuable commodity in the economy of war. Remittances from workers overseas are Fiji’s largest income – exceeding that of tourism and sugar export. This essay examines historical and contemporary representations of the black male body that perpetuate the exploitation of Fijians by inscribing the Fijian male body as warrior, criminal and protector. Taking a multidisciplinary approach informed by sociology, cultural theory, Pacific studies, visual culture, feminist and post-colonial theory, my practice is the vehicle through which I address issues of neocolonial commodification of Fijian bodies. Through an analysis of my own staged photographs and vernacular images taken by Fijians working for private security military companies and British and US armies, I hope to challenge audiences to consider their own perceptions of Fijian agency and subjectivity. By theorising the politicisation of the black body and interrogating colonial representations of blackness, I argue that we can begin to create links between the historical and contemporary exploitation of Fijians and that at the essence of both is an underlying racial hierarchy and economic requirement for cheap and, arguably, expendable labour.