I came across the above term while speaking with Akesha, a friend of mine and fellow education academic. I was really intrigued by the idea, and I think it has some relevance to my own work. Ultimately, educationalisation is the idea that schools are becoming more and more involved in curing various social ills. For example, sexual education is now the domain of schools. Drug and alcohol education are as well. Road safety and driver education are part of school curricula. Cyber-safety and good digital citizenship are a part of many school curricula, as well. As I understand it, educationalisation means that these problems – society’s ills, if you will – are being solved by becoming part of the role of educators and formal schooling institutions.
It’s an interesting shift – most of these issues used to be the responsibility of third party organisations, like driving schools, for example, or parents – sexual education and alcohol and drug education. Now, though, for whatever reason, this has been removed from the private domain and placed squarely in the public domain – that is, in the role of a teacher. It’s also worth nothing that there are great discrepancies between different country’s approaches to this. Physical Education, for example, in the UK, is pretty much restricted to sport. In Australia, though, it runs the whole gamut of Personal Development, Health and Physical Education, taking up a range of pastoral features and demands.
It is also thinking about why this is the case – why are teachers expected to deliver this kind of education now, compared to previously? Educationalisation is a progressive approach – it’s about what is often called ‘educating the whole child’, not just the academic life of the child, and I can understand some of the principles behind it. For example, by educating children about driver education – in such a way that every child receives the same base standard of education – there is an increased likelihood that less young people will engage in dangerous behaviours on the road. I’m not sure if there is any evidence for this, but there are links between this approach and other public education campaigns.
Of course, that success is predicated on the fact that the education programs are well taught and well resourced. Unfortunately, what can often happen is that teachers, already struggling with the hundred other responsibilities they have in school, do not have the time or the resources to do this properly, and thus it becomes another tool with which to bludgeon teachers – more evidence of the need for reform and the failure of the education system.