Now in its fourth edition, Education, Change and Society continues to help readers situate educational activity in its broad social and policy contexts. The study of education can do more than help us understand how individuals may learn and how teachers should teach. It helps us understand what is valued in that society, and how ‘winners and losers’ are created. We only have to look at the life outcomes of the results gained by young people at various points in their education to see that the way our society organises the education of young people has broad consequences at both a social and an individual level.

This book encourages discussion and debate, and points to issues that are highly significant for an understanding of Australian education today. Questions raised in this book include:

• What impact has globalisation had on Australian schools?
• How do Aboriginal students experience Australian schools? Why are Australian schools funded in such peculiar ways?
• Why did state, private and corporate schools emerge as they did in Australia? How do social class and gender differences affect schooling and its outcomes?
• How do cultural differences affect the schooling of students and their communities?
• How does the world of education in cities differ from that in regional, rural and remote schools?
• How does what is taught in schools—the curriculum—relate to the preceding questions?  
• What constitutes the work of teachers, and can teachers ‘make a difference’?

It has never been more important for students of education to be able to understand the connections between the local and the global in explaining contemporary educational change. But it is not enough to understand the connection between local and international events: This book will help students appreciate how the Australian system has been shaped over time, and how this has influenced the current institutions and policies that comprise the state of education today.

New to this Edition

• New authors – Nicole Mockler, Susan Groundwater-Smith, Kellie Burns, Remy Low have joined the team and revised select chapters to ensure contemporary relevance
• Updated introductory vignettes open each chapter with a scenario that illustrates one or more of the key themes of the chapter – designed to demonstrate how the chapter contents might be relevant to situations teachers may face
• Increased attentionto the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers
• Increased content on Assessment including critical responses to modes of assessment
• More content on Early Years and the educational contexts of young children
• Introduction expanded to incorporate more on Ways of Seeing in sociological terms to help students learn how to think in sociological ways
• Updated Further Reading and websites to help students explore the wealth of research.
• Completely revised chapter 14 exploring ways to conduct research, and the implications of adopting one research framework or another – an important tool for any contemporary teacher

Anthony Welch , Professor of Education, University of Sydney

Raewyn Connell , Emeritus Professor, University of Sydney

Nicole Mockler , Senior Lecturer, University of Sydney

Arathi Sriprakash , Lecturer, Cambridge University

Helen Proctor , Associate Professor, University of Sydney

Debra Hayes , Associate Professor, University of Sydney

Dennis Foley , Professor, School of Management, University of Canberra

Margaret Vickers , Emeritus Professor of Education, University of Western Sydney

Nigel Bagnall , Associate Professor, University of Sydney

Kellie Burns , Senior Lecturer, University of Sydney

Remy Low , Lecturer, University of Sydney

Susan Groundwater-Smith , Honorary Professor, University of Sydney

The following resource is available for lecturers prescribing Education, Change and Society 4e for their course:

• Craig Campbell's chapter 'Doing a Research Project', which has been revised from the third edition.