The Corporatisation of Education in Australia: A Western Australian Study

Abstract

Australia's public education systems have long been notorious for their bureaucratic nature. In the 1980s many of these education departments restructured and implemented corporate organisational structures. The government of Western Australia in particular argued that these reforms would enhance efficiency and effectiveness of public schools. This paper examines the philosophical and political assumptions of these polity reforms. I argue that although such an initiative should be understood in a state control perspective, we should also examine what happens when such policies are imposed on the “wild profusion of local practice” (Ball, 1994, 10).