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.
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.
