ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the concerns of Australian public school teachers and principals regarding commercialisation. It focuses on data generated from a survey of the Australian Education Union members asking the perceptions of commercialisation in public schools. The chapter also explores the extent to which teachers express concerns regarding commercialisation in their schools through the analysis of a concern inventory. A key consideration of the concerns of these participants is the way that central provision is being ‘hollowed out’ and outsourced, particularly where the services that are being outsourced are perceived by educators to be central to the work of public systems and to the provision of public schooling by the State. The national system of schooling in Australia and the standardisation of teaching and learning practices, coupled with the evacuation of responsibility from State education departments, creates an environment in which States and territories have less ownership of their constitutional responsibility to deliver public schooling.
