Contemporary campaigns for public education rest upon an assumption that public schools are fundamental to an equitable and inclusive society. In this paper, I reflect on this presumption by exploring the inherent tensions of the meaning and practice of 'public' education, especially when the 'public' in public schooling is linked to political…

An essential requirement for supporting the activist literacies of adolescents is a critical understanding of the purposes, practices and roles of engaged citizens and of the linguistic and broader semiotic resources they deploy in response to their multi-layered contexts. Drawing on theories from social semiotic and rhetorical traditions as well…

Sexuality education has been the cause of much dissension in the Western Muslim community. Delivering sexuality education that is both Islamically inclusive and reflective of the real world of Muslim youth remains a challenge for many school communities. Through the eyes of Muslim teachers, students, and members of wider Islamic communities, this…

Often labelled as "problematic" within health and physical education (HPE) and sporting literature, young Muslim women's participation is frequently understood through both cultural and religious limitations seen to be placed upon them. Although these factors are negotiated by many young Muslim women, and contribute to the way in which…

The latter part of the twentieth century saw huge movements of people across many areas of the globe through government-organized migration programs, through extended career pathways, and through the growing numbers of refugees and displaced persons as a result of war, famine, drought and other devastating scenarios. This has led to the rise of…

This autoethnography focuses on a study undertaken during the writers 15 month employment in a Muslim girls' school in the United Arab Emirates. The paper outlines a school improvement project in the Abu Dhabi Emirate and the imposition of an Australian curriculum on the schools involved in this program. The teachers in these schools were exposed…

Presents census data on the Muslim population in Australia and overviews full-time independent Islamic schools offering a comprehensive education across the curriculum. Argues that these schools offer great potential for the successful development of Arabic language and cultural literacy skills required by Australian exporters and diplomats in the…

Finds Protestant fundamentalists and Muslims in England, Australia, and the United States turning away from government schools, finding official policies antithetical to their beliefs. Argues that traditional Judaeo-Christian beliefs have been replaced by the antinomianism of those opposed to any universal moral law. Suggests that the present…