Public Schools in Australia from the Late 1970s to the Late 1980s: The Seeds of Change

Abstract

The period from the late 1970s to the late 1980s were transition years for most public (government) school systems in Australia. A reaction was developing against the neo-progressive and radical (neo-Marxist) innovations of the late 1960s and 1970s such as school-based curricula, activity methods, and “open education”. By the early 1980s the emerging economic rationalist, neo-liberal ideas favoured devolution of administrative responsibilities to schools (“the entrepreneurial school”), central control of the curriculum, and an emphasis on vocational training. This change was facilitated by a new form of political control of the administration: ministers for education, premiers and prime ministers and their political advisers determined policy, no longer relying heavily on the advice of educational professionals. A new senior executive level in Departments was staffed by politically-approved administrators. Neo-liberal education was enthusiastically adopted in New South Wales and at the Commonwealth level. Victoria soon joined in; Tasmania and Queensland lagged behind.