Making Sense of Mass Education

Making Sense of Mass Education provides contemporary analysis of the ideas and issues that have traditionally dominated education research.

Gordon Tait (Author), Nerida Spina (Author), Jenna Gillett-Swan (Author), Peter O'Brien (Author)

9781009105323, Cambridge University Press

Multiple-component retail product, published 10 January 2023

440 pages, 5 b/w illus. 5 tables
25.5 x 20.3 x 2.5 cm, 1.2 kg

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a contemporary analysis of the ideas and issues that have traditionally dominated education research, challenging outdated preconceptions with fundamental theory and discussion.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.

Introduction
Part I. Re-assessing the Pillars: Modern and Postmodern Sociologies of Education
1. Social class
2. Race, ethnicity and indigeneity
3. Gender
4. Sexualities
Part II. The Foundations of an Alternative Approach: Education and Governance
5. Governance
6. Subjectivity
7. Neoliberalism and Marketisation
8. Pre-adulthood
9. Datafication
Part III. Cultural Contexts of Contemporary Education
10. The media
11. Popular culture
12. Technology
13. Globalisation
Part IV. Philosophy and Mass Education
14. Philosophy
15. Ethics and the law
16. Children's rights
17. Truth and postcolonialism
18. Alternative education
Conclusion: the central aims of this book.

Subject Areas: Organization & management of education [JNK], Inclusive education / mainstreaming [JNFN], Moral & social purpose of education [JNAM], Philosophy & theory of education [JNA], Education [JN], Society & social sciences [J]