Introduction

In recent years and in many countries there have been major changes in the organization of public education. In association with these changes there have been substantial revisions to the principles governing the organization and operation of schools and a reshaping of relations between the centre, regions and schools within the education system. In most countries shifts in the locus of educational decision-making have been accompanied by tensions and difficulties. This book examines the tensions and difficulties associated with the reorganization of public education in Australia. Contributors explore these tensions through a variety of related antinomies: bureaucracy and democracy, control and autonomy, centralism and devolution.