Abstract:
In 1988 the Liberal-National Coalition Government was elected in NSW after a long period of time in opposition, with Dr Terry Metherell being appointed education minister by Premier Nick Greiner. What followed was a period of intense and unprecedented reform as Metherell implemented an “avalanche of policy” (Gavin, 2019 p.135) in an effort to radically restructure the NSW public education system.
Discourses of ‘choice’, ‘equity’ and ‘excellence’ were central to the way the Coalition framed this reform agenda, which notably touched upon every aspect of schooling in NSW from industrial relations, school infrastructure, curriculum and assessment (Riordan and Weller, 2000). The aggressive pace and scale of reform and resulting widespread opposition drew comparisons with Thatcherism in the United Kingdom (Collins, 2000) and is considered to have set the tone for similar neoliberal education reform agendas in other Australian jurisdictions (Sherington, 1995). In response to these reform efforts, an unprecedented coalition was established to protest the proposed reforms, bringing together teacher unions across all sectors, mobilising parent lobby groups and inspiring the creation of student unions.
The extent to which this coordinated opposition was successful is a question ripe for debate and further research. This paper ‘remembers’ this period of educational history through looking at the print media’s reporting on public education in the Metherell era. Using a corpus-assisted approach (Mockler, 2022), we look at how this period of education reform was understood and reported on in the popular press, and analyse the critical role of the print media in the mobilisation of the broad coalition in opposition to the reforms. Whilst Metherell was ultimately a desperately unpopular and arguably unsuccessful Minister, most of the Coalition’ s reform agenda was successfully implemented, heralding a discursive shift towards choice and quality that have become enduring mainstays of both contemporary education policy and media discourse around schooling.
Discourses of ‘choice’, ‘equity’ and ‘excellence’ were central to the way the Coalition framed this reform agenda, which notably touched upon every aspect of schooling in NSW from industrial relations, school infrastructure, curriculum and assessment (Riordan and Weller, 2000). The aggressive pace and scale of reform and resulting widespread opposition drew comparisons with Thatcherism in the United Kingdom (Collins, 2000) and is considered to have set the tone for similar neoliberal education reform agendas in other Australian jurisdictions (Sherington, 1995). In response to these reform efforts, an unprecedented coalition was established to protest the proposed reforms, bringing together teacher unions across all sectors, mobilising parent lobby groups and inspiring the creation of student unions.
The extent to which this coordinated opposition was successful is a question ripe for debate and further research. This paper ‘remembers’ this period of educational history through looking at the print media’s reporting on public education in the Metherell era. Using a corpus-assisted approach (Mockler, 2022), we look at how this period of education reform was understood and reported on in the popular press, and analyse the critical role of the print media in the mobilisation of the broad coalition in opposition to the reforms. Whilst Metherell was ultimately a desperately unpopular and arguably unsuccessful Minister, most of the Coalition’ s reform agenda was successfully implemented, heralding a discursive shift towards choice and quality that have become enduring mainstays of both contemporary education policy and media discourse around schooling.