Effects of Policy on Society - Essay Example

Effects of Policy in Society Name Course Instructor Date Social-political and economic factors influence schools.The underachievement of social justice of understanding human rights and dignity is due to policy changes. A policy is a system of principles that governs actions and fulfills the interest of the community. A policy-making does not reflect majority views. Education in the whole world has been affected by the policy changes. The primary objective of education is to produce a creative practice that focuses on to the future. The change in policies due to the competition of global and political influence has affected students, teachers and in Australia and the whole world. The paper seeks to discuss the social position of people in the society in context to macro and micro levels of social settings (Ballantine and Hammack 2012). The introduction of my school website by the federal government of Australia in January 2010 has brought standardized testing of year 3, 5, 7 and 9 called NAPLAN (National Assessment Program: Literacy and Numeracy). The importance of NAPLAN is making schools accountable for their performance. Parents and students compare and know how their school is performing against the agreed standards (Preston 2010). My school website enables parents to choose their preferred schools according to performance. However, not all parents in the society are capable of choosing schools due to lack of economic resources. The parents in disadvantaged communities are are limited to the choice and thus unhappy with my school website. The limitation of choice is due to school fees, transportation costs and relocation costs (Reid 2010). The other use of information on my school information is the removal of children from underperforming schools. Schools underperforming can become unsustainable due to a chain reaction of parents and students (Cooper 2009/2010). The students with more advantaged background are likely to move to better-performing schools. School fees play a crucial role in discrimination enrolments of students to schools. The independent and selective schools are enrolled in advantaged societies while disadvantaged students join less performing schools with low social, economic status. There is a high concentration of students from impoverished background many who have fallen way behind academically before joining the schools. The system forms a hierarchy of classes from good ones all the way to the failures. The strict hierarchy of my school creates advantages and disadvantages to different people in society. The differences in education outcomes reflect directly on differences in wealth and income in society ( Deewr, 2010). The well selective schools have a market to companies, unlike the marginalized ones. The inequality of people in society promotes a significant gap between the rich and the poor. Capital is any resource active in a social setting that enable one to gain particular profits arising from participation. Thus, cultural capital involves the expected behaviours and language competencies, values, attitudes and cultures in relationship to the required culture required for success in schools. Schools assume all students to have middle-class culture, beliefs and values. The other backgrounds whether rich in experiences results to be a liability. My school shows the continuous profitability of student’s capital gifts in education. The educational difference is misrecognized due to one’s giftedness instead of class-based differences. As a result, the ability of students measuring scholastic criteria such as NAPLAN is ignored. The misrecognition forms symbolic violence in the context of through transformation of social to the academic classification of the curriculum (Grenfell and James 1998). A policy is influenced by neo-liberalism and neo-conservatism. Neo-liberalism views education as a business of creating the skills and attitudes required for a productive workforce. Australia and the developed countries have adopted neo-liberalism agenda. The production of high ever-growing profit for the market is critical. These seek to create new and expand already existing markets. Privatization of public assets globally is being embraced and selling of services that were previously thought not to be commodities (Reid 2010). In 1988-89, Australia re-introduced university fees. The higher education was made to be a commodity and no longer a human right. The higher education was made an export industry thus extracting income from students overseas. Competition grew from various universities as entrepreneurs looked for take over markets. The effect of that to present is the rise of managerialism in the universities. Managerialism has weakened the academic democracy as powers to deans’ rise. The power in departments of decision-making declines and the students are seen as customers now. Universities are seeking cheaper and more flexible labour workforce. Therefore, there is insecure workforce to the teachers as neoliberal politics tries to provide private contracts thus weakening trade unions. My school data league tables from the website put pressure to principals to improve the performance of the school. The national testing regime (NAPLAN) policy changes turns schools into firms with a competitive nature. The teachers are pressed to teach and test. The testing system access teacher’s performance in relation to student tests outcome. Unavoidable tension is created by managers to the teachers as they can’t act for the interest of students as much as they want to. The high-pressure results in narrowing of curriculum and further disadvantaging the non-dominant groups in the society. The teacher’s professionalism is undermined by the remote control systems, testing systems and surveillance mechanism(Habibis and Walter 2011). On a positive side, neo-liberalism promotes efficiency and accountability in the society. There is an improvement in academic outcomes as the curriculum taught produces ready for market youth. The neo-liberal approach achieves high economic growth as there is stiff competition that enhances maximisation of profits. Competition also promotes innovation. The system keeps teachers up to the task thus eliminate laziness. Parents in society can determine the best schools or their children. There is increased transparency on public and private schools. The overseas students bring more income to the country as they come for higher learning. Globalisation involves range interconnections of cultural, social, political and economic terms across boundaries. The practice of international education promotes the spread of hegemonic practices like marketisation of the education. The international education addresses the issue of nationalism, race and ethnicity. The reinforcement of old ethnic affiliations and formation of new racial formations improves the welfare of overseas students. However, international education does not provide conditions necessary to solve ethnocultural practices and national influence. According to Bohler (2008), there is a need to develop citizenship through a commitment by all nations. Markets do not address concerns for social justice nor solve global problems such as inequality. The market expressions in the world do not serve global public good. In the Australian context, the embracement of neo-liberal agenda promotes the international education system based on commercial and self-interest. Nation states like Australia require educators to understand international education as more than a competitive edge in trade markets. According to Mathews and Sidhu (2005) there is a lack of proper social contact between Australia and international students. The language and cultural barrier further puts the difference in the local and international students. The schools are more based on national centred identities rather than focusing on the international subject. On the other hand, neo-conservatism views that the value, norms and past practices were ideal but now there are in danger of disappearing. The real knowledge and morality of the past enabled people to know their place and guided the society by natural order that protected them from ravage groups. Youth have lost morals and values. According to Apple, (2006) schools are colonized by the market and people have forgotten the traditional common culture. The developed countries are reshaping the institutions and social practices around economic instead of social democratic imperatives. The youths turn into capital value instead of facilitating the social good f education. The conservatives feel that globalisation risks the loose of national identity internally. There are also external threats from other nations. (Connell et al.2011). Australia convention of rights of children protects them from discrimination regardless of parents’ beliefs. However since 1991, there was a strict policy of detention for those who entered the country illegally. The children seeking asylum in Australia have also been detained thus prompting to limited or no access to education.The rights of children seeking asylum have been rendered invisible by a democratic government. After fleeing the violent environments in places they have left, children violence and symbolic in the new places they have come to asylum. The educator’s engagement of the issues by Foucault concept of ethics is essential to changing lives of refugees. Foucault notion views ethics as a relationship of the self to the self. The fearless speech according to Foucault involved knowing the truth and informing others. The view to addressing the odds in the society like disturbed families without the involvement of political nature was an important ethical action for asylum seekers for education. The second principle outlined is that citizens to hold government accountable for suffering and negligence actions. Speaking of suffering whether members of the state thus including the refugees. The third principle of Foucault proposes people to act instead of waiting for actions by the government. The challenge is to engage in truth in our society with a little domination (Mathews and Sidhu 2005). In conclusion, the world is a competitive arena, and there is the pressure of measuring Australia education compared to other nation through Program for international students’ assessment (PISA). The average ranking of Australia has declined recently being outperformed by many countries around Asia-pacific region. According to PISA, there is a significant gap between the highest performing student and the lowest (Gonski Report, 2012). Schools need to develop an environment that values and more importantly appreciates the cultural differences. There is recognition of Student’s cultural symbols by transparent links between the classroom and the world. Cultural experiences assist students to develop academically. The low NAPLAN results can act as a catalyst for education shift. The confrontation of data on my school web site to face up its challenges to disadvantaged schools can improve the learning outcomes. References Apple, M. 2006. Educating the ‘right’ way. 2nd ed. New York: RoutledgeFalmer. Ballantine, J.H. & Hammack, F,M. (2012). The Sociology of Education: A Systematic Analysis. Boston: Pearson. Bohler T (2008)The broadening compass of Education for democracic Citizenship, International school journal Connell et al. (2011). Education, Change and Society. South Melbourne: Oxford University Press Cooper, S. (2009/2010). Antisocial education. Arena Magazine, D. James (Eds.), Bourdieu and education: Acts of practical theory. London: Falmer Press. DEEWR (Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations). (2010). Review of funding for schooling: Emerging issues paper. Retrievedfrom:http://www.deewr.gov.au/ Schooling/ReviewofFunding/Documents/EmergingIssuesPaper.pdf. Foucault, M. (2002) Confronting governments: human rights, in: J. D. Faubion (Ed.) essential works of Foucault.. Grenfell, M., & James, D. (1998a). Theory, practice and pedagogic research. In M. Grenfell Reid, A. (2010). Accountability and the public purposes of education. QTU Professional Magazine. Habibis, D. & Walter, M. (2011). Social Inequality in Australia. South Melbourne: Oxford University Press Matthews, J. & Sidhu, R. (2005). Desperately seekig the global subject: International education, citizenship and cosmopollitanism. Globalisation, Societies and Education. Read More