- 2012 Gough Whitlam Oration
- 2012 What Matters? Competition
- Impacts of High Stakes Testing
- 2012 Behind the Lines Exhibition
- Forum: Australia's Population Challenge
- Perspectives
- Young People and Democracy
- Federalism and Australian Schooling
- The Impact of Government Contracts
- 2011 Labour Market Evolution Symposium
- 2011 Gough Whitlam Oration
- Archives
Federalism and Australian Schooling
This project seeks to investigate the impact of federalism on Australia’s system of schooling and to investigate changes in the federal arrangements that would potentially increase the capacity of schooling to deliver better quality and more equitable outcomes.
The research being undertaken in this project addresses how federalism has influenced the structures and processes of school system governance in Australia.
The specific issues being investigated include:
- How federal barriers and blockages impede sound education policy and reform strategies: e.g. whether there is wasteful overlap and duplication; overly complicated administrative arrangements; responsibility shifting; veto points.
- What opportunities federalism provides for improved policy: e.g. flexibility and innovation; greater policy scope from multiple governments; access for stakeholders and disadvantaged groups.
- How Commonwealth and state governments have operated - through coordinated, cooperative, competition strategies - and how successful these have been.
The project aims to use these findings to construct an alternative model of governance, including funding, within the federalist framework, and to test this model within the education policy community.
The first phase of the project is focusing on an historical analysis.
Seminar Series
In developing the analysis, this project seeks to combine the research with a discursive process, a central part of which is an exciting seminar series. Read a one-page summary of the seminar series here.
The project was launched at a very successful inaugural seminar at the Whitlam Institute in February 2010, with Mr John Dawkins, former Treasurer and Employment, Education and Training Minister. Information from the seminars is available via the seminar pages where you can listen to and watch some of the presentations.
Exploring the Federal Contours of Australian Schooling
The Australian Schools Commission and School Funding
Why is Education Reform So Hard?
Canada and Australia: Comparing the impact of federalism
Federalism in the real world: Implications for education
Related articles
Education in the real world, September 2011
A background paper written by Professor Jack Keating, the Chief Investigator of the Federalism in Australian Schooling project, which examines the impacts of Australia's federalist system of government upon school education.
'The Schools Commission and school funding', Professional Educator
For those who subscribe to the Professional Educator journal, you will find an article written by Professor Jack Keating and Kira Clarke in Volume 9, Issue 4, pp. 40-44.
"This sense of crisis within the government school sector, and memories of the long-term struggle to achieve public funding within the non-government sector, have ensured that the debate over school funding remains very much alive in Australia". (pp. 42)
'Early childhood education neglected', SMH, 18 Feb 2010
"It would indeed be an educational revolution to fundamentally restructure school resourcing systems and in doing so restructure the respective roles of the two levels of government in schooling and re-cast the concept of school autonomy within a frame of public purpose, or public good."
'Back to the drawing board', Voice, University of Melbourne, Volume 6, Number 12
"Professor Keating says federalism has cemented these segregated governance and funding arrangements, but that little work has been done to date to map the extent of the impact, or propose a solution."
