Romancing the public school: attachment, publicness and privatisation

In Anglophone countries, narratives of public schooling tend to emphasise generic hopes about as central the idea a good, including fostering community, delivering equality and protecting broad notions democracy. However, systems become more open privatised logics, these sit alongside fears for future ‘publicness’. Through analysis participant interviews in four education Canada, England, New Zealand Australia, this paper shows that emerge from specific nature privatisation evident within contexts. Our argument is while remain common, parochial policies histories inform particular how school are losing their There evidence ‘cruel optimism’ among participants they try hold onto belief good publicness, even institutions hybridised by creeping privatisation.