The imposition of a schooled habitus

Drawing on policy text analyses, interviews with teachers, principals and other educators, and a survey of youth, this paper develops the argument that contemporary forms of educational governance in Australia are narrowing and circumscribing acceptable forms of 'habitus'. Despite a rhetorical embrace of diversity, it is demonstrated that a particular set of dispositions and ways of being a 'teacher', 'student', or 'citizen' are currently deemed acceptable. The (always) normalising effects of schooling have significant consequences for who is included and who is excluded with respect to social institutions and future possibilities. Implications of this argument for educational policy, teacher education, and schooling are examined in relation to analyses of schooling as a world-cultural institution, policy debates on the effects of economic rationalism in education and contemporary forms of school restructuring and reform.