Problematising “World Class” public education policy in South Australia: Insights for education policy makers

Ashby, W. R. (2004/1962). Principles of the self-organizing system. Emergence, Complexity and Organization, 6, 102–126. [Reprinted from H. von Foerster and G. W. Zopf (Eds.) Principles of self-organization: Transactions of the University of Illinois symposium. Pergamon Press (pp. 255–278).] Search in Google Scholar

Auld, E., & Morris, P. (2016). PISA, policy and persuasion: Translating complex conditions into education ‘best practice’. Comparative Education, 52(2), 202–229. Search in Google Scholar

Bacchi, C. (2009). Analysing policy. Pearson Higher Education AU. Search in Google Scholar

Bacchi, C. & Bonham, J. (2014) Reclaiming discursive practices as an analytical focus: political implications, Foucault Studies, 17, 173–92. Search in Google Scholar

Ball, S. J. (Ed.). (2018). Governing by numbers: Education, governance, and the tyranny of numbers. Routledge. Search in Google Scholar

Ball, S. J. (2015). What is policy? 21 years later: Reflections on the possibilities of policy research. Discourse: Studies in the cultural politics of education, 36(3), 306–313. Search in Google Scholar

Ball, S. J. (2009). Privatising education, privatising education policy, privatising educational research: Network governance and the ‘competition state’. Journal of Education Policy, 24(1), 83–99. Search in Google Scholar

Barber, M., & Mourshed, M. (2007). How the world’s best-performing school systems come out on top. McKinsey & Company. Search in Google Scholar

Biesta, G. J. (2015). Good education in an age of measurement: Ethics, politics, democracy. Routledge. Search in Google Scholar

Biesta, G. J. (2010). Why ‘what works’ still won’t work: From evidence-based education to value-based education. Studies in Philosophy and Education, 29(5), 491–503. Search in Google Scholar

Bills, A., & Howard, N. (2023). “How the roadmap to World Class failed”. Australian Education Union Journal - SA Branch, 55(2). Retrieved from https://www.aeusa.asn.au/Public/News/roadmap_to_world_class_failed.aspx Search in Google Scholar

Bills, A., Howard, N., & Bell, M. (2022). Changing and challenging dimensions of principal autonomy in South Australia: A lived experience phenomenological analysis of the courage to care. Journal of Educational Leadership, Policy and Practice 36(1), 78–95. Search in Google Scholar

Bills, A., & Howard, N. (2021). It’s time to act: Making the case for a cross sectoral response to school disengagement and detachment in South Australia. CEPSW Report No. 1; Flinders University of South Australia. Adelaide. Search in Google Scholar

Bonnor, C. & Shepherd, B. (2017). Losing the game: State of our schools in 2017. Centre for Policy Development https://cpd.org.au/2017/06/losing-the-game/ Search in Google Scholar

Burke, P. J., Stevenson, J., & Whelan, P. (2015). Teaching ‘Excellence’ and pedagogic stratification in Higher Education. International Studies in Widening Participation, 2(2), 29–43. Search in Google Scholar

Coffield, F. (2012). Why the McKinsey reports will not improve school systems. Journal of Education Policy, 27(1), 131–149. Search in Google Scholar

Collins, C., & Yates, L. (2009). Curriculum policy in South Australia since the 1970s: The quest for commonality. Australian Journal of Education, 53(2), 125–140. Search in Google Scholar

Connell, R. (2013). The neoliberal cascade and education: An essay on the market agenda and its consequences. Critical Studies in Education, 54(2), 99–112. Search in Google Scholar

Connell, R. (2009). Good teachers on dangerous ground: Towards a new view of teacher quality and professionalism. Critical Studies in Education, 50(3), 213–229. doi:10.1080/17508480902998421. Search in Google Scholar

Connell, R. (1993). Schools & social justice (No. 12). James Lorimer & Company. Search in Google Scholar

Cordero, J. M., Cristóbal, V., & Santín, D. (2018). Causal inference on education policies: A survey of empirical studies using PISA, TIMSS and PIRLS. Journal of Economic Surveys, 32(3), 878-915. Search in Google Scholar

Department for Education. (2021). Copy of the current departmental statistics and modelling used to identify the shift towards becoming a world class education system by 2028. Provided by the Education Department’s Freedom of Information Unit on February 24th 2022 [9 pages]. Search in Google Scholar

Department for Education. (2021). McKinsey & Company – Towards world class education – SEG Offsite, SA DFE Workshop Documents, May 2019. Government of South Australia, Adelaide. Search in Google Scholar

Dolan, C. (2020). Paradox and the school leader. Springer. Search in Google Scholar

Eacott, S. (2022). Building education systems for equity and inclusion. Gonski Institute for Education. Search in Google Scholar

Education Council. (2019). Alice Springs (Mparntwe) Education Declaration. Education Services Australia. Retrieved from https://docs.education.gov.au/documents/alice-springs-mparntwe-education-declaration. Search in Google Scholar

Edwards Jr, B., & Loucel Urquilla, C. E. (2016). The EDUCO Program, impact evaluations, and the political economy of global education reform. Education Policy Analysis Archives, 24(92), n92. Search in Google Scholar

Gale, T. (2001). Critical policy sociology: Historiography, archaeology and genealogy as methods of policy analysis. Journal of Education Policy, 16(5), 379-393. Search in Google Scholar

Gorur, R. (2016). Seeing like PISA: A cautionary tale about the performativity of international assessments. European Educational Research Journal, 15(5), 598–616. Search in Google Scholar

Government of South Australia. (2018). Department for Education Strategic Plan | Toward 2028. Retrieved from https://www.education.sa.gov.au/world-class-education-south-australian-schools. Accessed 6th September 2022. Search in Google Scholar

Government of South Australia. (2018). Department for Education Annual Report. Retrieved from https://www.education.sa.gov.au/department/about-department/annual-reports-department/annual-report-2018. Accessed 18th May, 2023. Search in Google Scholar

Government of South Australia. (2017). Department for Education Annual Report. Retrieved from https://www.education.sa.gov.au/department/about-department/annual-reports-department/annual-report-2017. Accessed 18th May, 2023. Search in Google Scholar

Hanushek, E. A., & Woessmann, L. (2010). The high cost of low educational performance: The long-run economic impact of improving PISA outcomes. OECD Publishing. Search in Google Scholar

Hanushek, E. A., & Woessmann, L. (2007). Education quality and economic growth. The World Bank. Search in Google Scholar

Hanushek, E. A., & Woessmann, L. (2015). Universal Basic Skills: What countries stand to gain. OECD. Search in Google Scholar

Hillman, K., O’Grady, E., Rodrigues, S., Schmid, M., & Thomson, S. (2023). Progress in International Reading Literacy Study: Australia’s results from PIRLS 2021. Australian Council for Educational Research. https://doi.org/10.37517/978-1-74286-693-2 Search in Google Scholar

Hope, A. (2022). Retooling school surveillance research: Foucault and (post) panopticism. In Social Theory and Education Research (pp. 65–83). Routledge. Search in Google Scholar

Labuschagne, A. (2003). Qualitative research - airy fairy or fundamental? The Qualitative Report, 8(1), 100–103. Search in Google Scholar

Larner, W. (2000). Neo-liberalism: Policy, ideology and governmentality. Studies in Political Economy, 63, 5-–25. Search in Google Scholar

Lingard, B., Sellar, S., & Savage, G. C. (2014). Re-articulating social justice as equity in schooling policy: The effects of testing and data infrastructures. British Journal of Sociology of Education, 35(5), 71–730. Search in Google Scholar

O’Mahoney, J., & Sturdy, A. (2016). Power and the diffusion of management ideas: The case of McKinsey & Co. Management Learning, 47(3), 24–265. Search in Google Scholar

McKinsey & Co. (2021). Improving schools: Reflections from education leaders in South Australia. McKinsey Global Publishing. Retrieved from https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/education/our-insights/improving-schools-reflections-from-education-leaders-in-south-australia. Accessed 18th May, 2023. Search in Google Scholar

McDonald, D. (2014). Firm: The inside story of McKinsey, the world’s most controversial management consultancy. Simon and Schuster. Search in Google Scholar

Meeres, P. (2021). Research Insights: Building strategic policy capability for the SA Education Department. Retrieved from https://anzsog.edu.au/news/research-insights-building-strategic-policy-capability-for-the-sa-education-department/. Accessed 6th September 2022. Search in Google Scholar

Morley, L. (2003). Quality and power in higher education. McGraw-Hill Education (UK). Search in Google Scholar

Mourshed, M., Chijioke, C., & Barber, M. (2010). How the world’s most improved school systems keep getting better. McKinsey & Company. Retrieved from https://www.afn.ca/uploads/files/education2/how_the_world_most_improved_school_systems_mckinsey,_2010.pdf. Accessed 18th May, 2023. Search in Google Scholar

Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. (2023) OECD’s Programme for International Student Assessment PISA - PISA (oecd.org) Search in Google Scholar

Rabinow, P., & Rose, N. (2003). Thoughts on the concept of biopower today. Unpublished paper. Retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/profile/NikolasRose/publication/228606732_Thoughts_on_a_Concept_of_Biopower_Today/links/00b7d5217881ad8536000000/Thoughts-on-a-Concept-of-Biopower-Today.pdf. Accessed 18th May, 2023. Search in Google Scholar

Raffe, D., & Semple, S. (2011). Policy borrowing or policy learning? How (not) to improve education systems. University of Edinburgh Centre for Educational Sociology. Search in Google Scholar

Reid, A. (2020). Changing Australian education: How policy is taking us backwards and what can be done about it. Routledge. Search in Google Scholar

Reid, A. (2011). Curriculum pasts and curriculum futures. In L. Yates, C. Collins, & K. O’Connor (Eds.), Australia’s curriculum dilemmas: State cultures and the big issues. Melbourne University Publishing. Search in Google Scholar

Sahlberg, P. (2006). Education reform for raising economic competitiveness. Journal of Educational Change, 7(4), 25–287. Search in Google Scholar

Sahlberg, P. (2016). The global educational reform movement and its impact on schooling. The Handbook of Global Education Policy, 128–144. Search in Google Scholar

Smith, C., Parr, N., & Muhidin, S. (2019). Mapping schools’ NAPLAN results: A spatial inequality of school outcomes in Australia. Geographical Research, 57(2), 13–150. Search in Google Scholar

Teese, R. (2006). Condemned to innovate: policy. [There is a need to rethink the role of disadvantaged schools. An edited version of a speech delivered to the NSW Priority Schools Funding Program Conference in August 2005. Paper in: Getting Smart: The Battle for Ideas in Education. Schultz, Julianne (ed.).]. Griffith Review, (11), 149–159. Search in Google Scholar

Thomson, P. (2010). Headteacher autonomy: A sketch of a Bourdieuian field analysis of position and practice. Critical Studies in Education, 51(1), 5–20. Search in Google Scholar

Thrupp, M. (2014). At the eye of the storm: Researching schools and their communities enacting National Standards. New Zealand Journal of Educational Studies, 49(1), 6–20. Search in Google Scholar

Wilby, P. (2011). Mad professor goes global. The Guardian, June 14, 2011. Search in Google Scholar

Williams. T. (2018). New system rates SA public schools. The Advertiser, September 1, 2018. Search in Google Scholar

Wrigley, T. (2018). The power of ‘evidence’: Reliable science or a set of blunt tools? British Educational Research Journal, 44(3), 359–376 Search in Google Scholar

Zhao, Y. (2017). What works may hurt: Side effects in education. Journal of Educational Change, 18(1), 1–19 Search in Google Scholar