Beyond the Age of Aquarius: Reframing Alternative Education examines the way in which alternative schools and initiatives from the 1960s, 1970s, and contemporary times share a progressive "frame" of ideas.

This book traces the shift from the radical alternative schooling movement of the 1960s and 1970s and the progressive ideas of democratic schools and child-centred teaching. While many schools of that era have disappeared, others have integrated into a new orthodoxy of diversity.

The fascinating analysis shows how many of these initiatives have been reinvented into a schooling system where alternatives can exist within the mainstream—as individualised education "pathways" of potentially comparable status and boundless flexibility.

Alternatives still pose powerful challenges to schooling but these no longer involve claiming "alternative" status. Only "at-risk" youth programmes are now recognised as Alternative Education (AE) in New Zealand. Alternatives continue to test the boundaries of diversity, flexibility, relevance of learning, and community in New Zealand.

Beyond the Age of Aquarius: Reframing Alternative Education considers the transformation of the practices, spaces, and regulation of schooling, and is designed to provoke discussion on the role and "fit" of alternatives in schooling in relation to the mainstream. Reflecting on the previous and current manifestations of those ideas allows us to re-examine their meaning today and what is, and is no longer, possible within current frames.

Dr Karen Vaughan is a senior researcher with the New Zealand Council for Educational Research. Her research work has included studies of alternative education, youth transition from school, and post-structural ethnographic methodology. Prior to becoming a researcher, she worked as a software designer, university tutor, and legal secretary. She once nearly took an apprenticeship in fine-furniture making.