Explorations in the economy of prestige : textbook competitions and the judgement of quality : the Australian Awards for Excellence in Educational Publishing

Intenationally there is a rapid proliferation of textbook competitions, prizes and awards. Mirroring developments in cinema and fiction, increasingly educational publishers, politicians, author groups and other social institutions wish to highlight the quality of textbooks and teaching and learning materials. Along with other sectors in the creative arts (film, art, acting, for example) publishing textbook awards and prizes seek to reward and publicize the leading and highest quality materials. Although most awards, prizes and competitions have a monetary component James English (2005) argues that the proliferation of such prizes, competitions and awards reflect an economy of prestige. This preliminary paper looks at the impact of the Australian Awards for Excellence in Educational Publishing and its impact on Australian educational publishing. It begins to contrast how textbook quality is judged in these awards compared to the judgement of quality in other prizes and awards.