Rethinking Care in Education: Performativity and Exclusion in the Era of Neoliberal Schooling

This book examines some of the most pressing challenges facing care, equity, and inclusion in education in the age of globalising neoliberal capitalism. Drawing on empirical data collected using a case study of a government secondary school in a low socio-economic status suburb in Melbourne, Australia, this book interrogates the impacts of dominant performative policies and practices on students who have more complex needs, or are from socio-economically marginalised backgrounds. It reviews these policies and practices, which are increasingly driven by the discourses of learning achievement and outcomes measured via high-stakes testing. This book examines how these developments have created (in)visible geographies of exclusion for marginalised students in mainstream schools. It uses notions of belonging, ethics of care and emotional labour as theoretical tools to provide critical analyses of the practices that differentiate and divide among students. This book’s narrative approach is built around recounting ‘deep stories’ of the participants, their dilemmas and predicaments; it synthesises intimate narrative accounts with research-informed analysis and discussions.
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