Schooling the Rustbelt Kids: Making the difference in changing times

246 Pages·2002·2.813 MB·English

by  Pat Thomson

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Pat Thomson, PSM, is Associate Professor in the School of Education at
the University of South Australia. She is well-known for her innovative
work as principal of disadvantaged schools in Adelaide. She has also worked
in education policy and speaks regularly at conferences in Australia,
North America and the UK.
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STUDIES IN EDUCATION
General editor: Bob Lingard
Answering Back: Girls, Boys and Feminism in Schools
Jane Kenway and Sue Willis with Jill Blackmore and
Léonie Rennie
Australian Education: Reform or Crisis?
Anthony Welch
Constructing Critical Literacies: Teaching and Learning
Textual Practice
Sandy Muspratt, Allan Luke and Peter Freebody
Markets in Education
Simon Marginson
The New Work Order: Behind the Language of the New
Capitalism
James Paul Gee, Glynda Hull and Colin Lankshear
Page to Screen: Taking Literacy into the Electronic Era
Edited by Ilana Snyder
Masculinity Goes to School
Rob Gilbert and Pam Gilbert
Rethinking Gender in Early Childhood Education
Glenda MacNaughton
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SCHOOLING
THE RUSTBELT
KIDS
Making the difference in changing times
Pat Thomson
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First published 2002 by Allen & Unwin
Published 2020 by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
Copyright © P. Thomson 2002
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or
utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known
or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information
storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.
Notice:
Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are
used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.
National Library of Australia
Cataloguing–in–Publication entry:
Thomson, Pat.
Schooling the rustbelt kids: making the difference in
changing times.
Bibliography.
Includes index.
ISBN 1 86508 685 1.
1.Socially handicapped children—Education—Australia.
2.Educational equalization—Australia. I. Title.
379.260994
Typeset by Midland Typesetters, Maryborough, Victoria
ISBN-13: 9781865086859 (pbk)
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for the Paralowie mob, 1985–1997
and in memory of Jean Blackburn,
mother of the Disadvantaged Schools Programme.

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1
Contents
Series editor’s foreword ix
First words xiii
11 Vicki and Thanh 1
12 The city 19
Photo essay 37
13 Place of trouble/troubled places 41
14 Bringing particularity into site 71
15 Rhetoric and resources 94
16 Staffing matters 110
17 The policy terrain 124
18 Principal acts/acts of principle 136
19 Discourses of equity 164
10 Doing justice 180
Appendix 191
Notes 196
References 201
Last words 222
Index 223
vii

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1
Series editor’s foreword
There is something remarkably different about the transformations
the world is currently experiencing. Theorists such as Stuart Hall use
the term ‘New Times’ to refer to these social, economic, political and
cultural changes, characterised by simultaneous differentiation and frag-
mentation and homogeneity and standardisation. Others speak of
globalisation to capture the essence of these changes. Globalisation
refers to the increased interdependence of nation-states and to the
more porous boundaries between them. It also refers to the compres-
sion of time and space resulting from the information technology
revolution and the availability of rapid transportation. We also see more
flows of ideas, peoples, monies, images and so on around the globe. In
many ways, and certainly for the more privileged, the world is now
experienced as one place. Politically, globalisation has witnessed the
dominance of neo-liberal economic policies. No one is able to escape
the impact of these changes because they shape the material and
cultural conditions of existence within which we must now interpret
our lives and construct our futures. No study of education can afford
to overlook the ways in which globalisation might serve to define the
conditions of pedagogic work and the possibilities for doing justice
through schooling. The challenge facing educational systems and
educators is to understand these New Times and to respond ethically,
strategically, effectively and pedagogically. It is these educational chal-
lenges that form the basic premise of the books in this series.
ix