Moral Panics and School Educational Policy

<p>How do the moral panics that have plagued school education since it’s nineteenth-century beginnings impact current school education policy? Research has shown young people to be particularly vulnerable to moral panics and with the rise of social media the impact of moral panics on school education is growing exponentially. Increasingly they are reaching into the highest levels of national governments and so powerful are their effects some politicians choose to orchestrate them for their own political ends. For many educational administrators the management of the ‘fallout’ of moral panics has become a time-consuming part of their day as well as being a problematic time for parents teachers and students.</p><p></p><p>First developed by British and Canadian sociologists such as Stanley Cohen (1972) moral panic theory has evolved substantially since its early focus on adolescent deviant behaviour and is now a part of common media talk. This book addresses the need for a single monograph on the topic with reference to historical moral panics such as those associated with sexuality education but also wider societal moral panics such as those associated with obesity. Teachers students indeed all members of school communities along with educational administrators and politicians can learn from this study of the impact of moral panics on school educational policy. </p>