Politics and school education in Australia : a case of shifting purposes

Purpose ��� The paper aims to argue that there has been a privileging of the private (social mobility) and economic (social efficiency) purposes of schooling at the expense of the public (democratic equality) purposes of schooling. Design/methodology/approach ��� The paper employs a literature review, policy and document analysis. Findings ��� Since the late 1980s, the schooling agenda in Australia has been narrowed to one that gives primacy to purposes of schooling that highlight economic orientations (social efficiency) and private purposes (social mobility). Practical implications ��� The findings have wider relevance beyond Australia, as similar policy agendas are evident in many other countries raising the question as to how the shift in purposes of education in those countries might mirror those in Australia. Originality/value ��� While earlier writers have examined schooling policies in Australia and noted the implications of managerialism in relation to these policies, no study has analysed these policies from the perspective of the purposes of schooling. Conceptualising schooling, and its purposes in particular, in this way refocuses attention on how societies use their educational systems to promote (or otherwise) the public good.

The influence of Britain's Margaret Thatcher on Australian politics and Australia's influence on her, 1972-1983

This thesis examines the relationship between leading British conservative politician, Margaret Thatcher and Australia, from her first visit in 1972 to the defeat of the Liberal Party or ‘Conservative’ government led by Malcolm Fraser in the 1983 Australian elections and shows that Australia played a significant role in Thatcher’s career.

What determines Australia's response to emergency and natural disasters

This article examines the determinants of Australia's response to emergencies and natural disasters. It examines the response from the Australian public by examining contributions made to the appeals of the country's largest Non-Governmental Organisation: World Vision of Australia. It also examines the response of the Australian Government. The data include 43 emergencies and natural disasters since 1998. Results suggest that the responses from both the public and government are positively associated with the number of people affected, media coverage, and the level of political and civil freedom in the country where the event occurred. The type and location of the emergency or disaster are important for the public's response. Differences between public and government donations exist: support from the Australian Government is positively associated with smaller countries and there is some evidence that the public donates more to events occurring in larger and poorer countries.<br />

Threats, fear, politics and the shaping of insecurity 1946-1955

Governments use fear to promote political objectives. Through the exaggeration of external threats, fear as conceptualised in the writings of Hobbes, Barry Buzan, David Campbell and others, became a major factor in shaping Australia's post-war foreign and defence policies which were also intended to serve the government's domestic political agenda.

Politics of language practices in deaf education

Argues that issues of power, control and legitimacy are central to language practices in deaf education. Documents the competing beliefs and attitudes about language practices held by teachers of the deaf, policy-makers and other stakeholders in deaf education. Barriers at the system, school, and staff level perpetuate instruction through English and restrict the introduction of Auslan, the language of the deaf community.

Poetry, politics and place : black and white perceptions of landscape in modern Australian poetry 1965-1990

Argues that the most influential landscape poetry deals with landscape as an aesthetic concept, and also with the politics of land ownership. Several &quot;landscape poets&quot;. Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal, have given voice to some of the most compelling social currents in society, and their work has an important place in contemporary political debate.

Monitoring the Australian Blogosphere through the 2007 Australian Federal Election

This paper examines the observable patterns of content creation by Australian political bloggers dur���ing the 2007 election and its aftermath, thereby providing insight into the level and nature of activity in the Australian political blogosphere during that time. The performance indicators which are identi���fied through this process enable us to target for further in���depth research, to be reported in subse���quent papers, those individual blogs and blog clusters showing especially high or unusual activity as compared to the overall baseline. This research forms the first stage in a larger project to investigate the shape and internal dynamics of the Australian political blogosphere. In this first stage, we tracked the activities of some 230 political blogs and related Websites in Australia from 2 November 2007 (the final month of the federal election campaign, with the election itself taking place on 24 Novem���ber) to 24 January 2008. We harvested more than 65,000 articles for this study.

Social Media in the Media: How Australian Media Perceive Social Media as Political Tools

Social media are becoming increasingly integrated into political practices around the world. Politicians, citizens and journalists employ new media tools to support and supplement their political goals. This report examines the way in which social media are portrayed as political tools in Australian mainstream media in order to establish what the relations are between social media and mainstream media in political news reporting. Through the close content-analysis of 93 articles sampled from the years 2008, 2010 and 2012, we provide a longitudinal insight into how the perception by Australian journalists and news media organisations of social media as political tools has changed over time. As the mainstream media remain crucial in framing the public understanding of new technologies and practices, this enhances our understanding of the positioning of social media tools for political communication.