This thesis presents the argument that the World Bank’s education policies are discursively inconsistent due to the concurrent adoption of conceptual frameworks – namely the neoliberal and global public goods frameworks – which are arguably in conflict with one another. More specifically, the World Bank presents education as both a public and a private good. This assessment is reached via a critical analysis of the Bank’s education policy discourse. The Bank’s policies are furthermore argued to be grounded in market economics and therefore are in tension with the notion of education as a human right – a legal and political framework, advocated by other development organizations, but neglected by the Bank. Over the course of this thesis, neoliberal influences on the World Bank’s education policies are critiqued on several levels, including potential ethical ramifications concerning equity, discursive logic and questionable use of evidence. This dissertation furthermore suggests that the Bank can re-conceptualize education in a light that does not engender these critiques, by embracing a rights-based vision of education. It is argued that it is not necessary for the Bank to relinquish an economic conceptualization of education, and that it is possible for the human rights and economic discourses to go hand-in-hand. Despite some tensions, education can be supported by both a public goods and rights-based framework, and that via such measures as collaboration with organizations that conceive of education as a right and reducing the dominance of economists within the organization, the Bank’s policies will become aligned with this rights-based vision. This thesis argues that World Bank education policies can take steps toward improvement if the neoliberal notion of education as an exclusive, private good is abandoned in favour of education as a non-exclusive, public good, and a right.

This thesis presents the argument that the World Bank’s education policies are discursively inconsistent due to the concurrent adoption of conceptual frameworks – namely the neoliberal and global public goods frameworks – which are arguably in conflict with one another. More specifically, the World Bank presents education as both a public and a private good. This assessment is reached via a critical analysis of the Bank’s education policy discourse. The Bank’s policies are furthermore argued to be grounded in market economics and therefore are in tension with the notion of education as a human right – a legal and political framework, advocated by other development organizations, but neglected by the Bank. Over the course of this thesis, neoliberal influences on the World Bank’s education policies are critiqued on several levels, including potential ethical ramifications concerning equity, discursive logic and questionable use of evidence. This dissertation furthermore suggests that the Bank can re-conceptualize education in a light that does not engender these critiques, by embracing a rights-based vision of education. It is argued that it is not necessary for the Bank to relinquish an economic conceptualization of education, and that it is possible for the human rights and economic discourses to go hand-in-hand. Despite some tensions, education can be supported by both a public goods and rights-based framework, and that via such measures as collaboration with organizations that conceive of education as a right and reducing the dominance of economists within the organization, the Bank’s policies will become aligned with this rights-based vision. This thesis argues that World Bank education policies can take steps toward improvement if the neoliberal notion of education as an exclusive, private good is abandoned in favour of education as a non-exclusive, public good, and a right.

<p> This quasi-experimental value-added study provided evidence for the predictive validity of the Massachusetts MTEL General Curriculum Mathematics Subtest by finding an association between the licensure test results of 130 teachers and the growth of their 2640 grade 4 and 5 students. The study took advantage of a natural experiment that arose due to a policy change made by the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (MADESE) in response to the initial administration of a new highly rigorous math-specific licensure subtest for elementary and special education teachers in March, 2008. The emergency amendment allowed test takers to conditionally pass the licensure test based upon a lower, temporary cut score, therefore providing a comparison group of teachers who received conditional licensure without fully passing the licensure test. The study sample used a cross-sectional data set acquired from MADESE for the 2010-11 school year, the first year for which data was available that linked individual teachers to their students. The dependent variable of students' mathematics Student Growth Percentile (SGP) score on the statewide test, the MCAS, incorporated prior achievement and was calculated by comparing each student to his or her academic peers. OLS regression analyses including student background variables, classroom variables, and teacher characteristic variables showed that teacher results on the MTEL math test were positively associated with student math SGP scores. The strength of the association found in this study was substantial relative to the research literature and comparable in magnitude with established factors such as student low-income status. The predictive power of the MTEL math test was strongest at the lower range of test scores, suggesting that policymakers should consider lowering the permanent cut score to the level set by the emergency amendment in order to avoid screening effective teachers out of the workforce and potentially decreasing student achievement.</p>

Since the early 1990s, there has been an increasing focus on the education of boys in the media, impacting more recently on education policy processes. Some previous research has documented the background to this focus, including the impact on earlier policies and programs addressing the education of girls. However, the ways in which discourses about masculinity have informed gender equity policies in education have not been analysed at a fine-grained level. This study identifies the major perspectives involved in debates about the education of boys, and the various discourses informing them 1) advocates for boys' perspectives informed by discourses including biological essentialism and anti-feminism; 2) feminist and profeminist perspectives and discourses; and 3) social psychological perspectives and discourses. A theoretical framework for understanding discourse and policy, as well as gender and masculinities is developed, drawing on critical discourse theory and theories about gender relations. Using critical discourse analysis, drawing on the work of Fairclough, I analyse the discourses about masculinity informing two recent policy documents: Gender Equity: A Framework for Australian Schools and Education Queensland's Boys Education Strategy. The study found that the Gender Equity Framework was primarily informed by (pro)feminist discourses, although advocates for boys discourses informed the Framework in significant ways as well. The Boys Education Strategy, while primarily framed by advocates for boys' discourses, was largely informed by (pro)feminist discourses at the micro level. In both cases, discourses marginalised in the broader culture and in the debates generally, such as those associated with marginal sexualities or minority cultural groups, were found to be marginal. These findings have implications for policy and policy processes, gender equity policy and for teacher education. In particular there is a need for further research on the role of the media in policy processes as well as work on developing teacher understanding of and responses to policy processes and the construction of gender and masculinities.

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This thesis is primarily an historical examination of how neo-classic economics influenced WA education policy formation from the mid 1980s until the release of the Curriculum Framework (1998). It first aims to examine and explain the context and origins of neo-classic economic influences globally, and then explores the process and impact of its introduction to WA policy-making in general, and to education policy in particular. Within the thesis some fundamental propositions put forward by other theorists are built upon. The most significant is the view that between 1983 and 1998, there has been a distinct and well documented shift in the primary ideological forces driving education policy throughout the western world. This is attributable to a strengthened link between education and national economic goals which has resulted in an economic imperative and the use of an economic discourse to describe educational aims. From these understandings this thesis explores whether neo-classic economics has played a significant influence in shaping education policy in WA, as it has done in many parts of the world. The methodological approach principally involves the textual analysis of major policy documents preceding and including the Curriculum Framework (1998). The focus is on primary and secondary sources, essentially to discover, analyze, and demonstrate how neo-classic economics had influenced education policy in WA by 1998. Taking a pragmatic approach, this professional doctorate makes a specific contribution to research through synthesizing the impact of neo-classic economics on WA schools policy via a range of principally secondary sources. In particular, it explores how neo-classic economics influenced WA education policy by seeking to answer four fundamental research questions: 1. Was the influence of neo-classic economics evident internationally, and if so did it impact on education policy? 2. How did neo-classic economics influence Australian Commonwealth Government schools policy? 3. Were there clear neo-classic economic influences evident within other Australian states, and, if so, did they influence schools policy? 4. In whose interests were neo-classic economic education policies? Neo-classic economic approaches were espoused widely as a solution to the apparent failure of in economics from the early 1970s onwards. Beare (1995) argued that in many countries policy perspectives for education and other welfare services changed in a number of 'profound' ways, the most significant was the use of an economic rationale to justify almost every significant policy initiative. Within the Anglo-democracies, specifically the US and UK, the pursuit of neo-classic economic policies involved the adoption of initiatives allowing the 'market' to dictate what should or should not occur within the economy. As a part of the neo-classic economic drive, governments endeavoured to improve efficiency within the public services. Consequently, education policy became driven by an economic imperative often to the detriment of educational aims. This study demonstrates that neo-classic economic policy came to dominate government decision making in Australia following the election of the Hawke Labor Government in 1983 (Dudley and Vidovich 1995).This was similar to neo-classic economic patterns in the US and UK. By 1985 neo-classic economic trends at the Commonwealth level were clearly evident and become overt and robust with the passage of time. Under Minister Dawkins Commonwealth education policy was fumy linked to national economic goals. An examination of the Victorian context demonstrates neo-classic economic trends within the other Australian states' education policies. Under the Kennett Liberal Government the shift to neo-classic economic education policy resulted in reductions in educational spending, staffing cuts and school closures. The prime motivation for the reforms was the reduction of costs and the aligning of education through a focus on vocational subjects and employment related skills. Concomitant with the rise of neo-classic economics was a commensurate growth in the attention of Australian business and industry to education policy. Business and industry groups increasingly promoted the notion of human capital theory by linking education and economic growth. This can be partly attributed to employers' growing interest in having schools produce individuals suitably prepared for positions in the workplace, a phenomenon which has been reflected in WA secondary schools through a shift to a vocationalised curriculum (Browning 1977). In effect business was able to defray expending capital on training workers through hiring school leavers tailored for workplace positions. From at least the early 1980s there was accelerating evidence of a more active and open involvement of business in the major education inquiries which also contributed to policy formation dominated by neo-classic economics. The exploration of the global and national context of neo-classic economics confirms that neo-classis economic influences within WA Qd not occur in isolation. From at least 1987 it is evident that neo-classic economics influenced WA education policy. The consequence was a curriculum shaped predominantly by economic interests as opposed to educational concerns.