Abstract:
This presentation is based on PhD research into the 2006/2008 raised compulsory school leaving age policy in Western Australia. The change in legislation was argued on several grounds; however, part of the official reasoning for lifting the compulsory school leaving age was to address social and economic risks that are said to beset young people who do not complete a minimum of 12 years of education. Thus, ideas about risk formed the basis for establishing the form and function of the policy to increase the school leaving age in Western Australia by intervening in problems of early school leaving and attrition. A methodology informed by governmentality theory was used to examine the policy development and implementation. This presentation focusses specifically on the way that risk operates in the raised school leaving age policy thinking and practice. Risk is a very salient and pervasive idea that was used to level judgments and assessments about young people and their obligations to participate and remain engaged in school. However, it operated to further entrench negative ideas about some young people and created a moral division between those groups of young people deemed ‘at risk’ and ‘disengaged’ and those who were classified as completers and ‘on track’. This presentation will cover three areas. First, it will situate the concept of risk in theoretical terms and demonstrate its place in the policy discourse and practice. Second, it will show how risk is used in an actuarial sense to classify and categorise some groups of young people. Finally, it will show the implications of this, which is a narrow and confused policy logic unable to fully tackle the issues of early school leaving and attrition that it seeks to address.