Reviewed by Rama Gaind.
Edited by Ashley Hay, Griffith University, $27.99.
Griffith Review 75 sets out to – widely – explore the different facets of education, a sector with so many moveable parts.
As editor Ashley Hay writes in ‘Prismatic perspectives’, one of the core narratives of Australia’s education landscape remains the introduction of fee-free tertiary education.
“Like everything in Australia’s colonial project, the speed with which education systems have been introduced, designed, imposed and reformed since the late eighteenth century is terrific…”
There’s a lot we can learn about learning. Australians have one of the highest levels of educational attainment in the world, but not every Australian has access to a world-class education.
Also explored is the full spectrum of educational experiences from preschool to postgrad, from private to public and from sandstone to the school of life. Learning Curves traverses a range of life-long learning paths and investigates the necessity of rupture and change along the way.
Griffith Review has assembled a kaleidoscope of pictures where several anchor points emerge. One of them is the power of voices from the frontlines – teachers, students, policymakers and researchers.
GR75 also has a selection of new fiction by Brendan Colley and Raeden Richardson, Miriam Sved, Winnie Dunn and Ellen Vickerman.
Another focus is on the importance of care and collaboration, from the earliest moments of engagement to the student-teacher relationship – and beyond.
