In this paper I bring historical research on conservative parental activism in the 1970s and 1980s in conversation with the present-day rising tide of distrust, populism, and anti-state sentiments. Focusing on the case of Australia, this paper explores how schooling knowledge and culture has animated conservative politics, with particular focus on sex, sexuality, gender and the family; notions of common-sense ‘basics’ and intelligence; and lastly, cultural traditions that call forth an Anglo colonial basis of Australian nationhood in connection to England in particular. I suggest that scholarly focus on these conservative interventions can assist to re-think – and challenge – taken-for-granted liberal assumptions that surround education policy and practice.

About the speaker

https://findanexpert.unimelb.edu.au/profile/487634-jessica-gerrard

Jessica Gerrard researches the changing formations, and lived experiences, of social inequalities in relation to education, activism, work and unemployment. She works across the disciplines of sociology, history and policy studies with an interest in critical methodologies and theories.

Jessica holds two Australian Research Council (ARC) Discovery Projects. First, she is co-leading an investigation of the shifting practices of public schooling, school governance and parental citizenship in disadvantaged contexts (with Glenn Savage). Second, she is researching community activism and education policy reform across Australia in the 1970s and 1980s (with Helen Proctor and Sue Goodwin).