Rural Teaching and Learning in Neoliberal Times

Abstract

This chapter analyzes the impact of neoliberal policies on education policy, the work of teachers, and the learning of young people. The chapter begins by examining the shift in Australian education policy from a strong social justice focus on schooling in the 1970s to a shift toward ideas of efficiency and excellence in education processes and outcomes that are underpinned by the need to increase national productivity and skill-up the workforce in recent times. This latter overarching theoretical and ideological framework has been commonly referred to as the neoliberal education project. The chapter continues by examining the impact of some of the policy technologies arising from this neoliberal project on teachers’ work and subjectivities, including the perennial problem of staffing for rural schools. Finally, it looks at students’ opportunities of further education and work in local spaces, including the normative imperative of mobility that appears to circumscribe their future.