Liberalism and Conservatism Ideologies in Education

Ideology has shaped policy making and functioning in areas such as economics, science, technology and education. It aids to give theoretical validity to a group’s outlook, aspirations, program and action. In the present, many individuals trust in ideologies and direct actions using their trust in ideologies. Ideologies are just as vital in educational philosophy as they are to society. Ideology is extensive in early childhood educator’s everyday lives, social identities and in influencing our performance in general or specific ideologies. Gutek (2014) describes ideology as the belief structure of a group who holds sets of related ideas that explain the past, assesses the present and provides course to the future.

Conservatism: Conservatism is voiced by Edmund Burke a British theorist emphasised the role of tradition as the foundation of culture and society. Conservatism is the opposite of Liberalism. The defenders of the old order landed gentry and traditional aristocracy development a counter revolutionary conservative ideology to liberalism. This included an emphasis on patriotism and civility, cultural heritage and traditional values are maintained and protected, specifically radical change. Lynch (2016) highlights three core principles that shape conservatism that are believed to have come from a higher power. The core principles are:

“All humans are imperfect by nature, and there is no way to create a perfect society on earth, the past is the basis for our social sensitivity and human relationships, and tradition provides cohesion and stability for the society and culture (Lynch, 2016, p.1)”

Liberalism: Liberalism is based on Enlightenment origins and influenced by English philosopher John Locke, emphasises the freedom of individuals to form a social contract to protect their natural rights, civil liberties and property. Liberalists are known to be open to change. Liberals separate state from church control and often not bound by tradition and believing in free flowing ideas. In education, liberalism encourages a commitment to democracy, academic freedom, scientific method use, objectivity and neutrally. Liberalists also believe that early childhood teachers and educators must implement effective teaching pedagogy to build and foster the capacity to justify and draw on their intellect. Lynch (2016) states that liberalism key elements include “the liberal concepts around property and the economy, rationality and the power of reason, secularism, individualism, progress, representative political institutions, and education for general citizenship” (Lynch, 2016).

Liberalism basically includes being open to change and believing in progress. Liberalism’s values are on the opposite end of the scale in relation to conservatism, as the classic liberals believe in free flowing ideas, thoughts, choice, rights and testing through scientific processes (Gutek, 2014). The education values include universal education, equity, free from censorship, authoritative and collaborative decision making, progressive curriculum and education administration have a voice in operations. Conservatism’s values include continuity, stability and reliability. They believe curriculum needs to be focused on traditional subjects with defined boundaries and skills including reading, writing, speaking, composition, listening and recently digital literacy. Content is also suggested to be taught in an orderly and consecutive approach.

Liberalism education supports students in developing logical and realistic skills including communication, analytic and problem solving skills and a sense of social responsibility and applying these skills and knowledge in real life situations. Conservatism has developed over the years and now has various types of liberalism including classic liberalism, economic liberalism and social liberalism to name a few. Conservatism is typically classic liberal in economic policy but follows conservative in social policies. This mix of ideologies is referred to as neo-liberalism (Gutek, 2014). Conservatism is usually associated with strong and traditional religious beliefs and often cautious about change (Gutek, 2014). Another difference between these ideologies is there belief in schooling systems. Liberalism believes public schools provide quality education for students and contests the idea of vouchers as they remove money from public schools which should be used on current public schools, increasing teachers’ salaries and reducing the number of students in each class. Conservatism supports school vouchers as they produce competition which results in schools improving their performance, they also believe vouchers will support families in choosing schools of their choice, not just based on their location or zoning and not being able to afford private schools.

Conservatism appears to have negative connotations on early childhood education and care and does not seem to follow many of the practices and principles that are highlighted in the Early Years Learning Framework. Practices such as flexibility and cultural competence are replaced with ideas of having consistently maintained routines without the possibility of flexibility or change along with having very traditional themes when it comes to celebrations, family and resources. There is not many opportunities for children to learn and discover independently, in most cases the teacher is considered the expert and they have a predetermined outcome in mind that all children need to reach. This ideology may be used in some aspects of early childhood education and care but would not be implemented widely.

Ideologies play an important role in giving identity to a group and in creating a sense of group solidarity, shared ideas, goals and values. These shared ideas, goals and values are seen in the Early Years Learning Framework. The Early Years Learning Framework is underpinned by its view of children as active participants and decision makers and that children possess unique cultures and ways of learning. The ideological lens in which the Early Years Learning Framework views the development of the child is influenced by liberalism as it advocates for individual freedoms and the right to choose, rather than stemming from a conservative view, which would ensure adherence to tradition and foster assimilation to a same already established cultural heritage (Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations for the Council of Australian Governments (DEEWR), 2009). Liberalism shares various links to the Early Years Learning Framework and highlights an importance on flexibility, freedom and shared thinking and contributions.

Conservatism has had many impacts on the current Australian education system and children’s learning outcomes including the introduction of the Australian Curriculum bench marking, teaching standards and NAPLAN testing. The Australian Curriculum bench marking was developed “to understand educational systems and to be able to draw valid comparisons among them, information about curriculum and about instructional practices must be available along with data on student outcomes. These three factors; curriculum, instructional practices and student outcomes; are the three central points that help to explain national systems”. NAPLAN was addressed as a beneficial tool to identify gaps in skills and knowledge in schooling. Wyn, Turnbull and Grimshaw (2014) highlight that “teachers and principals were especially concerned about NAPLAN’s narrow focus on literacy and numeracy, its cultural insensitivity, its negative impact on ‘best practice’ pedagogy and its capacity to undermine students’ self-confidence”.

These ideologies have both have influential impacts on education in Australia. Gutek (2014) outlines some of the impacts that liberalism had on education including the promotion of universal education, process-orientated teaching and learning and the defense of academic freedom. Universal education came about in the 19th century when liberal political parties won in the UK, US, France and Mexico. The main focus of universal education was to provide formal schooling for children and adolescents which was typically supported and instructed by government. Knowledge, beliefs, values and political processes were converted to educational content and processes including a strong emphasis on civic education. Liberalism’s beliefs of “life should be lived, especially socially and politically, according to well defined and mutually accepted procedures has a particular relevance on teaching and learning in schools”. These procedures can be seen in early childhood education e.g., respecting others property and each other, sharing, waiting and turn taking (Gutek, 2014). Academic freedom has had both positive and negative impacts on education, teaching and learning. One of these negative impacts is liberalisms belief of the past and being restrictive as they belief future should be guided by the past. In the past traditions were not to be questioned, which a past tradition was a limited curriculum focusing on basic skills e.g., reading and writing. Although in the present and future academic freedom supports the “freedom of teachers to teach and students to learning, without having their freedom curtailed by censorship or arbitrary controls”.

Liberalism and conservatism are both present in Australian education and children’s learning outcomes today. Liberalism is evident in early childhood education and care through the child care subsidy which replaced the child care benefit and rebate using single means tested subsidy to support families with their child care fees. Universal education is also present in Australian education and is supported by the liberals as they provide funding for children to have access to quality early childhood education 15 hours a week for a year before they start kindergarten. Liberalism also supports an educational system of governance to share power evenly, with both state and federal government being involved in education. (Gutek, 2014; Liberal, n.d). Liberalism is present in the Early Years Learning Framework which is widely implemented across Australian education in the early years and provides learning outcomes to guide early childhood educators and teachers. Cheeseman, Sumsion and Press (as cited in Savage, 2017) state that “focusing on ever young children, productivity policies today are aimed at harnessing potential early and ameliorating risk factors before they become entrenched. The policy focus has manifested into an intensification in the learning dimension of early childhood, evidenced in part through the increased production of national curricula documents”.

Conservative lens can be seen in the Quality Improvement and Accreditation System. This system is still supporting the delivery of quality early childhood education and care programs (Logan, Press & Sumsion, 2016). Neoliberalism is also present through education as it is outlined in policy as largely for building human capital and adding to economic production from early childhood to tertiary education. This is present in various policies including the ‘Melbourne Declaration on Education Goals for Young Australians’ which is signed and supported by all education ministers in federal, state and territory government.

Ideology has shared in the influences of the various policies that have shaped education and teaching in early childhood education. Educators and teachers need to have knowledge and understanding of the impacts and contributions that ideologies have had on curriculum and children’s learning and development. Gutek (2014) highlights that educators and teachers need to understand the ‘conscious and unconscious ideological assumptions that people use to interpret and to guide their social, cultural, political, economic and educational behaviour’. Liberalism is integrated in my service and can continue to be as we focus on play based learning, following the children’s interests and idea’s while supported, facilitated and extended by teachers. Children’s agency is also valued as we provide daily routines and predictability but are also flexible and allow for change in relation to the Early Years Learning Framework. Conservatism will continue to be integrated into early year’s education as their traditional skills include reading, writing, composition, speaking, listening and recently computer literacy which are all integrated into the key learning areas in the curriculum. Conservatism also emphases the importance of culture and a cultural core, this can be integrated through early childhood educators and teachers who demonstrate cultural values in behaviour and personalities through their curriculum and philosophy.

These ideologies have operated their way through society and education, becoming interconnected ideas that have influenced cultural views, political programs and educational policies. Liberalism and conservatism are widespread in early childhood and education and care, and perspectives and views on the ideologies will differ from service to service, and teacher to teacher. 

Works Cited:

1. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2021). Teen Drivers: Get the Facts.
2. National Highway Safety Administration. (2008). Teen Driving.
3. Sebastian, S. (2019). Should the legal driving age be raised? Pros and Cons. Drive-Safely.net. https://www.drive-safely.net/legal-driving-age-pros-and-cons/
4. Smith, A. (2020). 5 Reasons Why the Legal Driving Age Should Be Raised. Times Square Chronicles. https://t2conline.com/5-reasons-why-the-legal-driving-age-should-be-raised/
5. UC Davis Health. (2019). Why Raising the Driving Age is a Good Idea. https://health.ucdavis.edu/health-news/newsroom/why-raising-the-driving-age-is-a-good-idea/2019/07
6. USA Today. (2013). Should the Driving Age be Raised to 18?
7. Worrall, S. (2019). Raising the Driving Age: Pros and Cons. Green Garage Blog.