Gordon Tait

Making Sense of Mass Education gives a comprehensive overview of the cultural contexts of education, addressing and debunking important myths in the field. This book is an approachable text for undergraduate and postgraduate readers studying the Sociology and Philosophy of Education. The text covers the rise of mass schooling as a disciplinary institution, including the governance of subjectivity and the regulation of childhood and youth. It examines cultural forces on the field of education and addresses the influence of philosophical thought. In the landscape of mass education, change is constant. New topics covered in the fifth edition include education policy, teachers' work, place, online spaces and artificial intelligence. Each chapter features margin definitions and boxes exploring a range of myths, encouraging teachers to think critically. Making Sense of Mass Education continues to be pertinent for pre-service and practising teachers in Australian contexts.

Making Sense of Mass Education provides a contemporary analysis of the ideas and issues that have traditionally dominated education research, challenging outdated preconceptions with fundamental theory and discussion. It takes a demythologising approach in assessing these issues and their relevance to schooling and education in Australia. This text examines the cultural context of education and the influence of external media and new technologies, and highlights the many forms of discrimination in education, including social class, race and gender. It looks at alternative approaches to education, including the repercussions of gathering data to measure school performance, and considers the intersection of ethics and philosophy in classroom teaching. The fourth edition expands on these issues with three new chapters: on sexuality, children's rights, and neoliberalism and the marketisation of education. Each chapter challenges and breaks down common myths surrounding these topics, encouraging pre-service teachers to think critically and reflect on their own beliefs.

This book reveals the entanglement of ethics, rights and justice in education. It aims to develop everyday philosophy to guide choices as we continue to attempt to make schools places for all comers. The authors offer education as a social good, a building block for inclusive communities. This assumes an ethical predisposition. Ethics and inclusive education takes the reader on a journey through the conceptual foundations of ethics, rights and justice to assist us to build a formulation of the fair or just society and the way ethical approaches to schooling may support or unravel that.

This book reveals the entanglement of ethics, rights and justice in education. It aims to develop everyday philosophy to guide choices as we continue to attempt to make schools places for all comers. The authors offer education as a social good, a building block for inclusive communities. This assumes an ethical predisposition. Ethics and inclusive education takes the reader on a journey through the conceptual foundations of ethics, rights and justice to assist us to build a formulation of the fair or just society and the way ethical approaches to schooling may support or unravel that.

Originally published in 2004. The essays in this engaging book catalogue a wide and varied range of instances where 'things go wrong' in the practices of criminal justice. The contributions document instances where laws, policies and practices have produced unintended consequences of the most deleterious kind, drawing attention to the prison system, 'boot camps', detention centres and specific penal policies such as the 'short, sharp shock', parental penalty and 'three strikes and you're out'. Also examined are policing practices such as 'zero tolerance', 'saturation policing' and punitive laws in the areas of drug use, sex offences and prostitution. It is demonstrated that in each of these cases the objectives of government resulted in the creation of new and unforeseen problems requiring further reform of the criminal justice system. This is a familiar tale characteristic of the modernist impulses of contemporary government based on the notion that crime can be identified, managed and controlled through the application and administration of institutionalised polices and practices. The present culture of 'high crime' - despite a top-heavy apparatus of crime control - appears to indicate the very opposite.

Originally published in 2004. The essays in this engaging book catalogue a wide and varied range of instances where 'things go wrong' in the practices of criminal justice. The contributions document instances where laws, policies and practices have produced unintended consequences of the most deleterious kind, drawing attention to the prison system, 'boot camps', detention centres and specific penal policies such as the 'short, sharp shock', parental penalty and 'three strikes and you're out'. Also examined are policing practices such as 'zero tolerance', 'saturation policing' and punitive laws in the areas of drug use, sex offences and prostitution. It is demonstrated that in each of these cases the objectives of government resulted in the creation of new and unforeseen problems requiring further reform of the criminal justice system. This is a familiar tale characteristic of the modernist impulses of contemporary government based on the notion that crime can be identified, managed and controlled through the application and administration of institutionalised polices and practices. The present culture of 'high crime' - despite a top-heavy apparatus of crime control - appears to indicate the very opposite.

Making Sense of Mass Education provides an engaging and accessible analysis of traditional issues associated with mass education. The book challenges preconceptions about social class, gender and ethnicity discrimination; highlights the interplay between technology, media, popular culture and schooling; and inspects the relevance of ethics and philosophy in the modern classroom. The third edition has been comprehensively updated to include the latest research, statistics and legal policies. Each chapter challenges and breaks down common myths surrounding each topic, encouraging pre-service teachers to think critically and reflect on their own beliefs. The inclusion of a new chapter on alternative education reflects the ever-changing Australian educational landscape. In Making Sense of Mass Education, Gordon Tait expertly blurs disciplinary boundaries, drawing on sociology, cultural studies, history, philosophy, ethics and jurisprudence to provide a comprehensive understanding of the fundamental concepts of mass education.

This new book is a wide-ranging, contemporary and accessible analysis of familiar and recurring myths about mass education in the United Kingdom. Looking at a variety of important issues and problems, each chapter begins by dispelling myths and assumptions about the classroom, going beyond class, race and gender, to offer analysis of topics such as discipline, youth cultures, information technology and globalisation. Utilising an interdisciplinary lens, this book offers knowledge from disciplines as diverse as sociology, philosophy, jurisprudence and cultural studies. Gordon Tait examines the strengths and weaknesses of different theoretical approaches to education, from critical theory to postmodernism, and Foucaultian governance to post-colonialism. Analysing the many assumptions about education taken for granted in British public discourse, important conclusions are drawn about which of these assumptions are fair and reasonable, and which we should challenge. This book is an essential resource for advanced undergraduate and postgraduate courses on the sociology of education, culture and education, and the philosophy of education.

This new book is a wide-ranging, contemporary and accessible analysis of familiar and recurring myths about mass education in the United Kingdom. Looking at a variety of important issues and problems, each chapter begins by dispelling myths and assumptions about the classroom, going beyond class, race and gender, to offer analysis of topics such as discipline, youth cultures, information technology and globalisation. Utilising an interdisciplinary lens, this book offers knowledge from disciplines as diverse as sociology, philosophy, jurisprudence and cultural studies. Gordon Tait examines the strengths and weaknesses of different theoretical approaches to education, from critical theory to postmodernism, and Foucaultian governance to post-colonialism. Analysing the many assumptions about education taken for granted in British public discourse, important conclusions are drawn about which of these assumptions are fair and reasonable, and which we should challenge. This book is an essential resource for advanced undergraduate and postgraduate courses on the sociology of education, culture and education, and the philosophy of education.