Alternative messages of hope : pedagogies, consensus and a fairer go

The Global Education Reform Movement—education’s version of neoliberalism - is characterized by the marketization of education: that is, increasing competition between schools through consumer choice, which, in turn, is enabled by testing regimes and accompanying league tables. Australian governments have largely adopted this direction. The losers in marketization are families who cannot afford the “choices,” and schools where concentrations of disadvantage reap potent consequences of impoverished curricula and poorer academic outcomes. Some countries manage the inequality gap in education through careful systemic action. In tension with the determinism of socioeconomic status is the ongoing debate about teaching quality. Tensions between teacher practice in student outcomes and socioeconomic status can be productive if recognized, rather than ignored. We discuss a project in which teacher development in high-poverty schools focuses on mentored, collaborative, teacher action research. We see these voices containing messages of hope for education, even within the “neoliberal imaginary.”