In the name of social justice

This presentation examines the ways in which school autonomy reform in Australia from its ‘genesis’ in 1973 with the Karmel report to the most recent national Independent Public Schools initiative has been rationalised in the name of social justice. Our focus here will be a tracking of the key changes in the political and economic landscape that have rearticulated equity and the idea of school autonomy for social justice. We will explore different possibilities and limitations of various social justice theories and ideas that we bring to our current project (School Autonomy Reform and Social Justice in Australian Public Schooling) to think about these key changes.