Jessica Gerrard
I am Senior Lecturer in Education, Equity and Politics at the University of Melbourne.
My research is interdisciplinary, and traverses social theory, sociology, history and policy analysis. Broadly speaking, my research interests surround the relationship of education to social change and politics, the shifting - but persistent - experiences of inequality and injustice, and critical theories and methodologies.
In 2012-2015 I was awarded the McKenzie Postdoctoral Research Fellowship, which enabled me to lead a three-year interdisciplinary study on the meaning and experience of learning, in relationship to work, for vendors of homeless street press.
In 2012 I completed my doctorate at the University of Cambridge, which examined the histories of community-based radical education in Britain, including the Socialist Sunday Schools and Black Saturday/Supplementary School movements. This research formed the basis for my book, 'Radical Childhoods: Schooling and the Struggle for Social Change', published by Manchester University Press in 2014.
My current research includes social theory, sociology and history, and includes:
- the history and sociology of education
- educational policy and politics
- curriculum reform and teachers' work
- the educational dimensions of social welfare
- youth and childhood studies
- working-class histories
- the history and sociology of poverty
- critical theory
- class, race, and gender identities and inequalities
My research is interdisciplinary, and traverses social theory, sociology, history and policy analysis. Broadly speaking, my research interests surround the relationship of education to social change and politics, the shifting - but persistent - experiences of inequality and injustice, and critical theories and methodologies.
In 2012-2015 I was awarded the McKenzie Postdoctoral Research Fellowship, which enabled me to lead a three-year interdisciplinary study on the meaning and experience of learning, in relationship to work, for vendors of homeless street press.
In 2012 I completed my doctorate at the University of Cambridge, which examined the histories of community-based radical education in Britain, including the Socialist Sunday Schools and Black Saturday/Supplementary School movements. This research formed the basis for my book, 'Radical Childhoods: Schooling and the Struggle for Social Change', published by Manchester University Press in 2014.
My current research includes social theory, sociology and history, and includes:
- the history and sociology of education
- educational policy and politics
- curriculum reform and teachers' work
- the educational dimensions of social welfare
- youth and childhood studies
- working-class histories
- the history and sociology of poverty
- critical theory
- class, race, and gender identities and inequalities
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Books by Jessica Gerrard
Analysing across time, the author explores the ways in which these two very different schooling movements incorporated large numbers of women, challenged class and race inequality, and attempted to create spaces of ‘emancipatory’ education independent to the state. It argues that despite appearing to be on the ‘margins’ of the public sphere these schools were important, if contested and complex, sites of political struggle.
Book Chapters by Jessica Gerrard
Policies saturate educational practices. From international inter-agency and government white papers, to the institutional policies of schools, universities, libraries, workplaces, welfare services, and community centres: educational policy documentation proliferates. In many ways, policies represent official instantiations of meaning and intent. Governments and institutions use policies as a means to shape and direct practice, and to indicate particular positions or meanings. Notwithstanding diverse interpretations and enactments (and even rejections) of policies in practice, policies are governing mechanisms. However, policies are also influenced by – and products of – wider social, cultural, and political struggles over the purpose, practice and meaning of education. In this chapter, I outline an approach to analysing policy in relation to these wider struggles. I suggest the value in researching policy reform within the context of crises in, and critique of, capitalism – past and present. To do this I draw primarily upon contemporary political philosopher Nancy Fraser, who works in the nexus of feminist, Marxist and critical theory. Fraser’s theory of justice has already attracted a range of research engagements by educational researchers (e.g. Arnot, 2006; Keddie, 2012; Apple, 2011; Huttunen, 2007). Here, however, I turn to Fraser’s most recent examination of the adaptive capacity of capitalist reforms (Fraser, 2013) and her conceptualisation of subaltern counterpublics (Fraser, 1997; 1990; 2007; see also Reay & Mirza, 1997; Mirza & Reay, 2000; Gerrard, 2014a; Gerrard 2014b).
First, I outline Fraser’s conceptualisation of subaltern counterpublics as a means to examine these wider social, cultural and political dimensions of policy-related practice. Following with Fraser’s feminist critique of Jurgen Habermas’ theory of the public sphere, I suggest the value of extending policy research beyond the processes and practices that appear within the legitimated public policy field. Second, extending upon the notion of counterpublics, I consider the broader dynamics of hegemony and social change under neoliberal capitalism. Drawing on Fraser’s recent consideration of the relationship between second wave feminism and neoliberal capitalist reform, along with critical theorists Eve Chiapello and Luc Boltanski, I explore the capacity for reforms to have a recuperative function in the maintenance of capitalist hegemony. I propose that focus on the diverse social and historical struggles over – and crises in – educational policy and practice provides generative research avenues to understand the contested and messy processes of policy as a political object.
Journal Articles by Jessica Gerrard
Analysing across time, the author explores the ways in which these two very different schooling movements incorporated large numbers of women, challenged class and race inequality, and attempted to create spaces of ‘emancipatory’ education independent to the state. It argues that despite appearing to be on the ‘margins’ of the public sphere these schools were important, if contested and complex, sites of political struggle.
Policies saturate educational practices. From international inter-agency and government white papers, to the institutional policies of schools, universities, libraries, workplaces, welfare services, and community centres: educational policy documentation proliferates. In many ways, policies represent official instantiations of meaning and intent. Governments and institutions use policies as a means to shape and direct practice, and to indicate particular positions or meanings. Notwithstanding diverse interpretations and enactments (and even rejections) of policies in practice, policies are governing mechanisms. However, policies are also influenced by – and products of – wider social, cultural, and political struggles over the purpose, practice and meaning of education. In this chapter, I outline an approach to analysing policy in relation to these wider struggles. I suggest the value in researching policy reform within the context of crises in, and critique of, capitalism – past and present. To do this I draw primarily upon contemporary political philosopher Nancy Fraser, who works in the nexus of feminist, Marxist and critical theory. Fraser’s theory of justice has already attracted a range of research engagements by educational researchers (e.g. Arnot, 2006; Keddie, 2012; Apple, 2011; Huttunen, 2007). Here, however, I turn to Fraser’s most recent examination of the adaptive capacity of capitalist reforms (Fraser, 2013) and her conceptualisation of subaltern counterpublics (Fraser, 1997; 1990; 2007; see also Reay & Mirza, 1997; Mirza & Reay, 2000; Gerrard, 2014a; Gerrard 2014b).
First, I outline Fraser’s conceptualisation of subaltern counterpublics as a means to examine these wider social, cultural and political dimensions of policy-related practice. Following with Fraser’s feminist critique of Jurgen Habermas’ theory of the public sphere, I suggest the value of extending policy research beyond the processes and practices that appear within the legitimated public policy field. Second, extending upon the notion of counterpublics, I consider the broader dynamics of hegemony and social change under neoliberal capitalism. Drawing on Fraser’s recent consideration of the relationship between second wave feminism and neoliberal capitalist reform, along with critical theorists Eve Chiapello and Luc Boltanski, I explore the capacity for reforms to have a recuperative function in the maintenance of capitalist hegemony. I propose that focus on the diverse social and historical struggles over – and crises in – educational policy and practice provides generative research avenues to understand the contested and messy processes of policy as a political object.