Abstract:
Schools are one of the major producers of cognitive categories of perception regarding education. Although the way schools discursively construct and display educational reality constitutes a symbolic act, this act is both grounded in material reality and the source of very real outcomes. Families’ and students’ representations are generally based on these mental categories, which act as matrixes for educational decisions and practices. Thus, it is the dialectics of material and symbolic practices which can explain social reality.
The present paper focuses on the way Australian schools present and represent their educational being. It uses the case of Australian schools offering the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme (DP) to illustrate the mechanisms of construction of educational reality in a neoliberal context.
The Diploma Programme is a curriculum for Year 11 and 12 students developed internationally to provide a standardized credential accepted for university entrance in most countries. For two of its essential properties, the DP has been strategically chosen to reveal underlying processes through which schools make educational reality. On the one hand, the DP is the ‘number one’ alternative high school offer in Australia, making it perfectly fitting to unravel the competitive struggles for educational existence. On the other hand, the DP takes place at the peak years of competitive schooling in a student’s career. This makes it ideal for grasping the effect of the race for university admittance on the making of education reality.
Analyzing all the relevant public traces deployed by schools (school websites, annual reports, policy documents, information booklets, and curriculum handbooks) with both hermeneutic and statistical methods, we unearthed two central processes of the manufacture of educational reality.
First, for Australian schools offering the DP, producing educational reality is a twofold process. These schools do not build one educational reality but two educational realities that are distinctive yet related: the ‘school reality’ as well as the ‘DP reality’. The discursive labor of creation performed by these schools forges the DP reality as much as their own.
Second, the process of reality construction is a complex practice engaging two main principles. Taking the case of the DP, we show that educational reality can involve both existing through identity, where one exists by being distinctive, and existing through hierarchy, where one exists by being superior.
Combining empirical and theoretical work, this research can prove insightful for studying the implications of the construction of educational reality in neoliberal times.
The present paper focuses on the way Australian schools present and represent their educational being. It uses the case of Australian schools offering the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme (DP) to illustrate the mechanisms of construction of educational reality in a neoliberal context.
The Diploma Programme is a curriculum for Year 11 and 12 students developed internationally to provide a standardized credential accepted for university entrance in most countries. For two of its essential properties, the DP has been strategically chosen to reveal underlying processes through which schools make educational reality. On the one hand, the DP is the ‘number one’ alternative high school offer in Australia, making it perfectly fitting to unravel the competitive struggles for educational existence. On the other hand, the DP takes place at the peak years of competitive schooling in a student’s career. This makes it ideal for grasping the effect of the race for university admittance on the making of education reality.
Analyzing all the relevant public traces deployed by schools (school websites, annual reports, policy documents, information booklets, and curriculum handbooks) with both hermeneutic and statistical methods, we unearthed two central processes of the manufacture of educational reality.
First, for Australian schools offering the DP, producing educational reality is a twofold process. These schools do not build one educational reality but two educational realities that are distinctive yet related: the ‘school reality’ as well as the ‘DP reality’. The discursive labor of creation performed by these schools forges the DP reality as much as their own.
Second, the process of reality construction is a complex practice engaging two main principles. Taking the case of the DP, we show that educational reality can involve both existing through identity, where one exists by being distinctive, and existing through hierarchy, where one exists by being superior.
Combining empirical and theoretical work, this research can prove insightful for studying the implications of the construction of educational reality in neoliberal times.