Bus ride to the future: cultural imaginaries of Australian childhood in the education landscape

Article

Saltmarsh, Sue. 2011. "Bus ride to the future: cultural imaginaries of Australian childhood in the education landscape." Global Studies of Childhood. 1 (1), pp. 26-35. https://doi.org/10.2304/gsch.2011.1.1.26
Article Title

Bus ride to the future: cultural imaginaries of Australian childhood in the education landscape

ERA Journal ID200564
Article CategoryArticle
Authors
AuthorSaltmarsh, Sue
Journal TitleGlobal Studies of Childhood
Journal Citation1 (1), pp. 26-35
Number of Pages10
Year2011
Place of PublicationUnited Kingdom
ISSN2043-6106
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)https://doi.org/10.2304/gsch.2011.1.1.26
Web Address (URL)http://journals.sagepub.com/home/gsc
Abstract

In Australia, as in many other parts of the world, representations of childhood are ubiquitous in what Nikolas Rose refers to as ‘the public habitat of images’. In the education landscape – a term used here to refer to the extensive range of policy-related, pedagogic and promotional sites associated with educational provision, participation and purchase – depictions of children feature prominently, and function as an important means by which dominant discourses of childhood are produced, circulated and maintained. In this article, I analyse images and text from a recent Australian government advertising campaign regarding the proposed national curriculum, in order to explore how familiar images, activities and ideals associated with schooling are implicated in cultural imaginaries of Australian childhood. I consider how notions of order, accomplishment and aspiration function to inscribe and reiterate gendered and racialised discourses through which imagined futures of individual and national prosperity are installed as normative ideals.

Keywordscultural imaginaries; Australia; childhood
ANZSRC Field of Research 2020390203. Sociology of education
470107. Media studies
470203. Consumption and everyday life
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Byline AffiliationsAustralian Catholic University
Institution of OriginUniversity of Southern Queensland
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