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Understanding the drivers of student dropout from higher education has been a policy concern for several decades. However, the contributing role of certain factors—including student mental health—remains poorly understood. Furthermore, existing studies linking student mental health and university dropout are limited in both methodology and scope—for example, they often rely on small and/or non-representative samples or subjective measures, and focus almost exclusively on main effects. This paper overcomes many of these shortcomings by leveraging unique linked administrative data on the full population of domestic students commencing undergraduate studies at Australian universities between 2012 and 2015 (n = 652,139). Using these data, we document that approximately 15% of students drop out of university within their first academic year. Critically, students receiving treatment for mental health problems are 4.3 (adjusted) to 8.3 (unadjusted) percentage points more likely to drop out of higher education. This association remains in the presence of an encompassing set of potential confounds, and is remarkably uniform across segments of the student population determined by individual, family, and programme characteristics. Altogether, our findings call for increased policy efforts to improve student mental health and to buffer against its deleterious effects on retention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An abundance of research in Indigenous education has not resulted in significant systemic change in relation to Indigenous education in Australia. In this paper we examine convergence and divergence across the policy, practice and research realms with the aim of identifying key sites of opportunity for innovation and change. Through analysing how research and evidence is produced and included/excluded in Indigenous education policy settings, the complexities of how different types of evidence are considered rigorous and relevant were found to be clearly implicated with broader social and political discourses with relation to Indigenous peoples and interests. Whilst we argue for an Indigenous based evidence approach that centres Indigenous agency and solutions, we propose that deeper conversations about Indigenous voice and diversity is needed in implementing such an approach. We re-visit some key policy cycles that resembles the new co-design approach announced by the Australian Government in 2019 and consider the implications based on published literature to date for Indigenous education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There are increasing calls within Australia and internationally for schools to be research-engaged, for teaching to be research-rich and for researchers to engage with end-users. Such aspirations raise important questions about whether and how Australian schools are engaging in and with research. This paper reports on an empirical study, Catholic Education Melbourne's Understanding School Engagement in Research project, which sought to better understand research engagement amongst 67 Catholic schools in Melbourne. Drawing on the findings of this project, coupled with a subsequent analysis of wider international literature, this paper shows how schools are selective about their research involvement; are discerning about what the research is on and how it is conducted; access research in indirect and informal ways; value research more than they use it; and need much more than research access. The paper concludes by synthesising these five themes into a conceptual framework for understanding and improving school research engagement, and outlining the implications for research organisations, schools and jurisdictions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This literature review presents a critical appraisal of the dominant approaches toward the sexuality and relationships of people with acquired brain injury. In particular, we sought to identify and review existing programs focusing on sexuality and relationships which use an educational and/or peer–peer approach. A systematic and comprehensive search of the EBSCOHOST database was conducted within an unlimited time-frame to yield the highest number of relevant results possible, along with hand-searching of key journals and databases. Reports, papers and webpages, documents commonly referred to as 'grey literature' that are not published in peer-reviewed journals, were also hand searched as a part of this review. The database search yielded 862 results, 14 of which were found to be relevant to our research interests. All of the sexuality education programs identified in this review were experienced positively by participants, families, caregivers, and professionals working with people with acquired brain injury. No peer–peer sexuality and relationships programs were identified. However, we found strong support for the use of peer–peer approaches in other programs for people with acquired brain injury. This literature review provides strong support for the development peer–peer sexuality and relationships programs for people with acquired brain injury. However, any future programs would have to overcome the limitations of existing sexuality and relationships programs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While an increasing body of Australian and international research has explored the relationship between media and education, few studies have examined this relationship in the context of early childhood education. This paper contributes to this research gap by reporting on a corpus-assisted discourse analysis of how childcare is represented in 801 newspaper texts from six Australian newspapers. As a foundational paper of a broader study investigating public and political influences on parents' childcare choices, the paper details the use and utility of corpus linguistic tools for exploring the discourse construction of childcare in a large corpus of media texts. It also highlights the value of analysing media corpora via media ownership, focusing on the two dominant Australian media organisations, Fairfax and News Corp. Analyses reveal similarities but also key differences in the representation of childcare in Fairfax and News Corp newspapers. In Australia, print media still sets the daily media agenda and reflects the dominant discourse constructions surrounding major public issues. Accordingly, the beliefs, practices and decision-making of current and potential parent users of formal childcare may be differentially influenced depending not just on their (direct or indirect) access to print media, but by the format (tabloid or broadsheet) and thus ownership (Fairfax or News Corp). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In much the same way that a squirrel stores a range of food in a range of places, the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority's (ACARA) Australian Curriculum: English (ACARA, 2015) stores references to grammar in a range of places. This paper explores some seemingly 'hidden' grammars within the AC:E to (re)discover their genesis and how they unfold across Foundation to Year 6. The first 'Secret Squirrel' moment centres on the introduction of a new grammar which weaves traditional Latin-based and Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) theory. The second 'Secret Squirrel' moment centres on the use of one sub-system of SFL Theory, the System of Appraisal, and its potential to provide an analytical lens for 'reading' the interpersonal meaning within narratives. The remainder of the paper draws on Goodson's (1990) notion of curriculum as a social construction, paying attention to the levels of processes and (potential) practice. This part of the paper focuses on the System of Appraisal as it is introduced in the AC:E and then translates the Content Descriptions to an example analysis. One stimulus text, Melanie Watt's (2012) children's picture book 'Scaredy Squirrel at the Beach', is introduced then analysed using the System of Appraisal as an analytical lens for identifying how language choices 'go to work' (Macken-Horarik, 2003, p. 285) on readers, that is how Watt's language choices are crafted so a 'compliant' child reader (Martin & White, 2005, p. 62) has the opportunity to 'feel with' and thus 'adjudicate' the behaviour of characters in particular ways (Macken-Horarik, 2003, p. 285). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The focus of our paper is the leadership role of programme managers in the higher education sector. In particular, we highlight the complex and paradoxical nature of the programme leader’s role, and provide an insight into leadership in this challenging and dynamic environment. We identify cognitive and behavioural complexity as necessary capabilities for programme managers to ensure they can navigate the turbulent river system of academia. The Integrated Competing Values Framework describes some leadership behaviours appropriate for the programme manager’s role. We also argue how critical observation skills, reflection and self-awareness can assist programme managers to provide leadership in this uncertain environment. Our paper concludes with a discussion of areas for future research and important practical implications for universities. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Since 2009, all Australian states require young people to be 'earning or learning' until age 17. Secondary schools and vocational colleges now accommodate students for whom the conventional academic pathways of the past were not designed. The paper reflects on a project designed to explore the moral orders in these institutional settings for managing such students in extended compulsory schooling. Originally designed as classroom ethnographies, the project involved observations over three to four weeks and interviews with teachers and students in five sites in towns experiencing high youth unemployment. The project aimed to support teachers to work productively in such classrooms with such students, under the assumption that teachers orchestrate classroom interactions. However, it became clear events in these classrooms were being shaped by relations and parties above and beyond the classroom, as much as by those present. Teachers and students were observed to both comply with, and push against, the layers of policy and institutional processes regulating their behaviours. This paper re-thinks the original project through the gaze and resources of institutional ethnography, to better account for the layers of accountabilities and documentation practices that impacted on both teacher and student behaviours. By tracing the extended webs of 'ruling relations', it shows both how teachers and students could make trouble for the institutional moral order, and then be held accountable for this trouble. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although international definitions of early childhood repeatedly refer to a birth-8 age span, there are complex, institutional divides within this age range. This paper explores the divide between pre-compulsory and compulsory early childhood institutions. In countries such as Finland this divide is not such an issue because children do not begin formal schooling until age seven or eight. However, in Australia these 8 years include both pre-compulsory programs (often birth-5) and compulsory schooling. We argue that in situations where the early years of compulsory school are included in a country's definitions of early childhood, they often occupy a tenuous place in research, policy and practice. Drawing from the history of early childhood education in South Australia, we explore the place that the early years of school have occupied in early childhood discourse, policy and practice and then consider some contemporary state-based and national reforms. Our hope is that by considering the South Australian past, the paper may provide a space from which to advocate for policies and structures that uphold specialist expertise and leadership in the early years of schooling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social inclusion in Australian higher education was high on the agenda of the recent Rudd/Gillard Australian Government. This paper offers an assessment of that agenda, particularly the extent to which it worked in favour of under-represented groups. It argues that the Government's widening and expansion policies and its equity and aspiration strategies lacked sociological imagination, projecting deficits onto individuals who refused to be taken in by its ambitions for higher education participation. The paper concludes that in the absence of a sociological imagination in government policy, the freedoms of disadvantaged groups continued to be curtailed: not just to choose futures in keeping with their goals but also the freedom to formulate choices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While past literature has explored school engagement in older students, there is less research for younger children specifically, and very little which engages children themselves in the research process. This paper provides insight into school engagement for academically at-risk students in the second year of school through a participatory research project. Specifically, the paper reports on a project which examined three groups of students within the Catholic Education system in Australia, namely, those not considered at-risk academically, those considered at-risk but receiving one-on-one support, and those considered to be at-risk but not receiving support. Students participated in focus groups and a photo elicitation project, with questions adapted from The School Engagement Questionnaire forming the basis of data collection. In relation to behavioural engagement, the thematic analysis demonstrated that students in each group valued social interaction, while at-risk students spoke about experiences of punishment at school and students in the group receiving support spoke about rewards. In relation to cognitive engagement, themes of boredom were evident across all groups, while students in the non at-risk group were more likely to speak about the value of learning. At-risk students also displayed some anxiety in relation to school which was not displayed by students who were receiving support. Free time, favourite lessons and technology were all identified as prominent themes in all groups in relation to affective engagement. While the study has some limitations due to restricted timeframe and sample size, it provides an insight into the utility of considering school engagement in developing an understanding of the school experience of at-risk students in primary school. Future studies in this area should examine broader, more representative samples and also consider students with multiple risk factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the number of globally mobile students has expanded, governments are assumed to be consistently and intentionally competing for talent, in what has been called a 'great brain race'. While the notion of competition has become dominant, there is little evidence on long-term policy dynamics in this field, not only across jurisdictions but also over time. We seek to address this gap in this paper through a longitudinal analysis of the politics and public policies impacting international students in four major recruiting countries-Australia, Canada, England and the USA. Through this comparative analysis of the period 2000 to 2016, we demonstrate that international student numbers across the jurisdictions have grown steadily but that this appears to be decoupled from political and policy changes. We also discuss how 'internationalization' initiatives provide an insufficient policy umbrella for policy action on the recruitment and retention of international students. Public policy impacting international students spans multiple government agencies or ministries, encompassing different policy fields. This requires greater policy coordination, which remains elusive for the most part. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes the source of the gender gap in third-grade numeracy and reading. We adopt an Oaxaca-Blinder approach and decompose the gender gap in educational achievement into endowment and response components. Our estimation relies on unusually rich panel data from the Longitudinal Survey of Australian Children in which information on child development reported by parents and teachers is linked to each child's results on a national, standardized achievement test. We find that girls in low- and middle-socio-economic-status (SES) families have an advantage in reading, while boys in high-SES families have an advantage in numeracy. Girls score higher on their third-grade reading tests in large part because they were more ready for school at age 4 and had better teacher-assessed literacy skills in kindergarten. Boys' advantage in numeracy occurs because they achieve higher numeracy test scores than girls with the same education-related characteristics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports on a qualitative study of the practicum learning experiences of thirty students of Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) enrolled in a Masters of TESOL Education at Victoria University in Melbourne, Australia. Drawing on current thinking about the role of reflective practice in teacher education, the value of real world learning beyond the classroom and the pedagogical affordances of the practicum, the enquiry aims to identify the types of practitioner learning that occur during practicum placements in terms of enhancing learners' knowledge and skills, increasing their self-reliance and self-confidence and contributing to their growth as educators and individuals, their professional and social identities. Utilising reflective surveys from a portfolio of authentic practicum documents as data, the researchers create thematic narratives of 'being and becoming' which foreground the salient themes. Hence, we demonstrate how the practicum develops participant practice teachers' realisations of their emerging agency as practitioners, makes manifest their perceptions of their increased professional confidence and then serves to indicate the pedagogical value of applying theoretical learning from the classroom to their professional practice. These results suggest the importance of preparing teachers for discovery, both the usual and the unexpected, in the process of planning, implementing and evidencing practicum work, and emphasise the importance of being and becoming to the practicum's work of embodied learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper demonstrates that the emphasis on students' socioeconomic status (SES) in research and policy circles in Australia is unwarranted. The bivariate relationships between SES and educational outcomes are only moderate and the effects of SES are quite small when taking into account cognitive ability or prior achievement. These two influences have much stronger relationships with students' outcomes than SES and their effects cannot be attributed to the influence of SES at earlier points of time. The theoretical explanations for socioeconomic inequalities in education (e.g. schools and cultural factors) are problematic and are not supported by empirical work. The much weaker than assumed effects of SES has implications for research and policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports on a language-based model of direct instruction known as text-based, or genre, pedagogy, customised in collaboration with English teachers in four Australian secondary schools to teach creative writing in Years 7 and 8 classrooms. A distinctive feature of this pedagogy is a shared metalanguage used to make visible to students the literacy demands of specialised discourse, in this case, the specialised discourse of creative writing. We demonstrate the use of the metalanguage at four different levels of language, in order to build visible bridges from more general patterns of language use, in this case, the generic structure of narrative, to specific grammatical patterns that require more specialised terminology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2014, the Australian Federal Government attempted to de-regulate higher education fees so as to allow universities to set their own tuition fees. The associated public debate offer critical insights into how the identity of a student as a 'customer' of higher education is understood and deployed when developing higher education policy. This paper uses the 2014 Australian higher education reforms as a lens through which to further scholarly research into the student-as-customer metaphor and to see how it is influenced by the perceptions and understandings of policy actors external to the higher education sector. These include politicians, special interest groups, the students and their parents and prospective employers. This study reveals that the public/private nexus-both of funding and benefit-problematizes traditional conceptualisations of students and others as higher education customers. In turn, this restricts the ability or desire of policy actors to describe how the student functions as a customer as a consequence of market reform. This inability compromises the development of effective and sustainable higher education policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite decades of policy and practice oriented at improving educational outcomes for Aboriginal students in Australia, achievements on most measures indicate that there is a long way to go in this endeavour. One avenue for improving Aboriginal education that has received little attention is accessing the views of Aboriginal students themselves about best practice in engaging Aboriginal students. While there is a body of research in education that attempts to privilege 'student voices,' little work has explicitly focussed on accessing the voices of Aboriginal students. This paper reports on my study that involved asking Aboriginal students their views on schools, teachers and the curriculum in culturally safe discussion spaces. The Aboriginal students highlighted the need for their culture to be represented at schools and the recognition of their Aboriginality in safe environments at school. These findings reinforce the importance of engaging with Aboriginal people in the development of best practice so as to build Aboriginal understandings within a Western educational system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2012, a new assessment and rating process for Australian early childhood education and care (ECEC) services was introduced, using a new National Quality Standard (NQS). The NQS assessment and rating process has similarities to observational assessment systems used in educational research, and involves similar strategies for upholding 'rigour', as defined by a positivist research paradigm. Drawing on the author's own experience supporting authorised officers to conduct NQS assessments, the paper argues that the NQS assessment and rating process also contains certain similarities to educational research conducted using a constructivist paradigm. Understandings of rigour from constructivist research-including rapport with participants, reflective practice and comfort with ambiguity-can therefore offer valuable insights into how NQS assessments can best be implemented. Although government actors maintain a preference for positivist paradigms, greater attention to constructivist paradigms may help to align the NQS assessment process with the ways of knowing valued in contemporary ECEC practice, and improve its ability to accommodate the complexity and diversity of ECEC quality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Stage theories of spelling development have been widely accepted since their conceptualisation in the 1970s; but, converging evidence offers support for non-linear models of spelling development. Specifically, Triple Word Form Theory (TWFT) suggests that students are capable of drawing on and coordinating phonological, orthographic, and morphological skills from quite early in their spelling development. Assumptions about the nature of spelling development have important implications for the way spelling is taught; however, many existing assessment systems currently being applied by educators and systems have failed to consider non-linear perspectives of spelling development. This paper presents the Components of Spelling Test (CoST) as a new approach to spelling assessment. The test is a valid and reliable assessment tool informed by TWFT and developed through a method of analysis suggested by stage theorists. Data used to develop and test the CoST were drawn from students in Year 3 and Year 5 across four schools in the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) (n=198). The results of the testing clearly demonstrated that the CoST can provide teachers and educational researchers with a means to validly and reliably identify individual differences in specific phonological, orthographic and morphological skills associated with spelling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the context of increased demands for excellence in all areas, academic promotion and tenure is now directly linked to achievement of measurable outputs in all areas of performance. In a work environment characterised by high workloads, competing expectations and reduced resources, academics must increasingly demonstrate active engagement with the scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL). For many, this may mean adopting new cultures, methodologies, theories, languages and modes of enquiry outside their home or cognate discipline. In the context of performance management, academics must reconceptualise and articulate notions of 'good academic practice', often in parallel with the practical requirement to continue to teach in the culture and practices of their cognate discipline. We need to better understand the implications, for institutions and individuals, of approaching SoTL through the lens of performance evaluation. This paper reports the key themes from a pilot study examining how academics at an Australian university are responding to the emergence of SoTL in the performance management context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a growing awareness that some children transition into formal schooling more readily than others. Compelling evidence indicates that children familiar with the skills and knowledge associated with the dominant practices of literacy teaching in schools have an advantage. While families play a pivotal role in children's early literacy development, there is often a disjuncture between the literacy experiences of children from minority backgrounds and those they encounter on entry into formal schooling. Quality teaching in the prior-to-school setting becomes increasingly important for these children. This paper first examines what research and the literature reveal about successful transitioning of children into formal schooling, successful early literacy practices, and the importance of a quality early childhood education. This sets the backdrop for a description of an early literacy initiative, which took place in six remote Aboriginal communities in the Northern Territory, Australia, where all the early childhood educators were under- or un-qualified. Significant aspects emerging from the initiative were: the engagement of the Elders in the community for the implementation of the initiative; the 'two-way' learning between the non-Indigenous University mentor and the Aboriginal early childhood educator in each community; the necessity for making Indigenous ways of knowing, being and doing a key pillar of the children's literacy learning; the bilingual nature of the initiative; and the University mentors gradually stepping further and further away, moving from teacher, to coach, to mentor, as the skills and confidence of the early childhood educators developed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author of this paper considers the influence of Paulo Freire's pedagogical philosophy on educational practice in three different geographical/political settings. She begins with reflections on her experience as a facilitator at Freire's seminar, held in Grenada in 1980 for teachers and community educators, on the integration of work and study. This case demonstrates how Freire's method of dialogic education achieved outcomes for the group of thoughtful collaboration leading to conscientisation in terms of deep reflection on their lives as teachers in Grenada and strategies for decolonising education and society. The second case under consideration is the arts-based pedagogy shaping the work of the Area Youth Foundation (AYF) in Kingston, Jamaica. Young participants, many of them from tough socio-economic backgrounds, are empowered by learning how to articulate their own experiences and relate these to social change. They express this conscientisation by creating stage performances, murals, photo-novella booklets and other artistic products. The third case study describes and evaluates the Honey Ant Reader project in Alice Springs, Australia. Aboriginal children, as well as the adults in their community, learn to read in their local language as well as Australian Standard English, using booklets created from Indigenous stories told by community Elders, featuring local customs and traditions. The author analyses how the 'Freirean' pedagogy in all three cases exemplifies the process of encouraging the creation of knowledge for progressive social change, rather than teaching preconceived knowledge. This supports her discussion of the extent to which this is authentic to the spirit of the scholar/teacher Paulo Freire, who maintained that in our search for a better society, the world has to be made and remade. Her second, related aim is to raise questions about how education aligned with Freirean pedagogy can contribute to moving social change from the culture circle to the public sphere. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]