Education and Contested Citizenships in Contemporary Australia

This edited book brings together scholars of education, sociology, philosophy, migration and political theory to examine how citizenship is made, taught and disputed in contemporary Australia. Using ‘contested citizenships’ as an analytical frame, the chapters map the shifting boundaries of belonging across schooling and higher education, citizenship testing and language assessment, faith-based pedagogy, labour-market regulation for older workers, and debates about moral agency in liberal democracy. Throughout, the volume shows how formal legal status intersects with lived experience, cultural identity, mobility, and processes of inclusion and exclusion, and how education functions as a microcosm of wider struggles over rights and recognition. By combining conceptual discussion with empirical and practice-oriented analyses, the book offers a nuanced account of Australian citizenship in comparative perspective for scholars and students interest in citizenship studies, political sociology, sociology of education, migration studies and public policy.