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Enrolments in postgraduate engineering in Australia include a significant proportion of Asian ESL (English as a Second Language) students, and there is some debate in the literature about whether they are capable of critical appraisal. Content-based discipline-specific EAP (English for Academic Purposes) courses provide an environment for addressing the language, writing, and critical appraisal needs of such students. In particular, there is evidence that a 'sustained' approach to critical appraisal through engaging with engineering content is the best environment for this significant cohort. Despite this, such programmes are relatively rare in higher education partly as a result of the peripheral status of language and academic skills in relation to engineering knowledge and practice. This case study outlines the curriculum framework and rationale for a content-based EAP response to teaching critical appraisal skills and examines evaluative feedback from an open-ended survey of three semester cohorts of students (n=64, 85% response rate) regarding their encounter with critical thinking and practice. The paper argues both that discipline-specific EAP courses are an appropriate place to teach critical appraisal skills and contributes to the debate on the capacity of ESL students to develop this skill. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Schools represent the primary setting where refugee children learn about Australian life and culture. They serve as a broad context for acculturation not only for academic development and language acquisition but for cultural learning too. This paper focuses on the after-school homework tutoring programme that uses University of Western Sydney (Australia) secondary teacher education students as tutors for African refugee students in secondary schools to facilitate their inclusion into Australian society. African refugees may receive lower returns for education in comparison with other Australian migrants. Using Bourdieu's theory of social capital and cultural reproduction as a conceptual framework, this paper discusses the part played by schools in constructing barriers that prevent under-represented groups such as refugees participating in the education process. It aims to explore the success of community engagement programmes like Refugee Action Support, which is designed to act in the interests of others (refugees) characterised as socio-culturally disadvantaged. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper considers Judith Butler's discussion of the intersections between governmentality and sovereign power in Precarious life: the powers of mourning and violence. We consider this interrelationship with a view to considering how this might enable us to expand our understanding of contemporary discourses governing young people within and outside Australia. In particular we focus on the production of groups of young people, such as those classified as 'illegal immigrants' who may be situated outside the frame of 'public good' or the 'private interest'. This enables for a theorisation of the lives of groups of young people who may 'have no definitive prospect for a re-entry into the political fabric of life, even as one's situation is highly, if not fatally, politicized'. It is questionable whether the Foucauldian notion of governmentality gives sufficient account of the lives of these young people whose conduct is effectively considered irrelevant by the State. As educators, it is arguable that we have an ethical imperative to encourage our students to care for themselves, and for others, especially those others whose lives have been 'fatally politicized'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Australia is a federation of six states and two territories. Each state and territory has its own legislature, which may not be of the same political persuasion as the Commonwealth (Federal) Government. Under the Australian Constitution primary control of school education is with the State and Territory Governments, with the Australian Commonwealth Government having no specific constitutional responsibility for school education. However, this is complicated by a dual-tiered funding system, whereby the Australian Commonwealth Government has responsibility for some funding of government schools and majority funding for non-government schools. Since 1975 there have been moves by the Commonwealth Ministers for Education to acquire a significant role in identifying national priorities for education and constructing policies and assessment tools to achieve such goals. Financial provision and national policy formation have increasingly become the means by which Australian Commonwealth Ministers for Education have "shaped" educational debates and policies. In November 2004 the then Australian Commonwealth Minister for Education, Science and Training announced the details of the Australian Government National Inquiry into the Teaching of Literacy. The focus of the Inquiry was examination of research into reading, preparation of schoolteachers and literacy teaching practices, especially reading. The Inquiry may be seen as the latest move by the Commonwealth Government to influence the teaching of literacy in Australia. In this paper official notions of literacy, as outlined through the various Australian Commonwealth Government's inquiries into literacy and national policy documents for the period 1975-2005, are examined using metaphor analysis. Metaphor analysis provides a means of analysing discourses about literacy in each of the reports and policies in order to interpret the underlying ideology. These official constructs of literacy are briefly considered within the competing and wider notions of literacy in Australia academic debates and the tensions that exist in defining literacy. Why did the Australian Commonwealth Government become involved in the literacy debates during this time? In particular, how has the Australian Commonwealth Government defined literacy and why did it take a more controlling role in both the definition of literacy and the shaping of education for literacy? The reasons for the Australian Commonwealth Government becoming involved in the literacy debates remain largely unresolved. In this paper it is proposed that involvement in the literacy debates constituted a way for the Commonwealth Government, in a time of economic rationalisation, to change their role in educational reform from one of financial assistance to one of leadership in curriculum. It is also proposed that a metaphor analysis of the policy documents and associated reports indicates a move from a wide definition of literacy to an increasingly narrow and utilitarian definition of literacy, reflecting the predominantly economic focus of the Australian Commonwealth Government. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explores leadership styles and gender in higher education (HE) by examining representation of female professors in Australian and Turkish universities and identifying barriers to achieving seniority. The paper explores factors, including leadership styles, which explain the higher representation of female professors in Turkey, despite legislative frameworks and strategies in Australia to improve representation of senior women. It then explores barriers to women's career advancement, including the difficult management culture, low morale, informal processes in appointment and promotion, and lack of training for management roles in Australia, and conflict between career and family roles in Turkey. Finally, the paper identifies the impact of strategic choices on leadership styles and women's career advancement. This research questions the impact of equal employment opportunity and affirmative action frameworks on women's representation as professors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports on the first part of a recent research study into current initiatives to support the learning of non-English speaking background (NESB) transnational students in Asia who are studying off-shore at Australian universities. Learning support and development staff in 12 universities were surveyed using a questionnaire. The survey yielded data on the varied modes of learning support for transnational students, many of which are Web-based; their perceived effectiveness; their evaluation status and the number and nature of those with a focus on assisting students to avoid plagiarism. The questionnaire elicited responses about future plans, challenges and barriers in relation to the effective learning support of transnational students. Critical themes to emerge were: the importance of person-to-person contact; embedding of learning resources into course delivery; interventions to assist students to avoid plagiarism that acknowledge cultural factors; the need for planning, professional development; adequate resources and attitudinal change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research findings from a longitudinal, classroom-based study of Bachelor of Education students in Tasmania suggest that three dominant discourses of schooling are powerful shapers of pre-service teachers' pedagogical decisions in relation to the teaching of SOSE (studies of society and environment). These discourses appear to inform teaching practices and contribute to uncritical SOSE learning experiences for children. The findings from this naturalistic research grounded in teacher education suggest that teacher preparation programs should encourage far greater critical reflection on curriculum documents. In particular, the findings highlight tensions for teacher educators in selecting between experiential and/or interdisciplinary, critical approaches to teacher education. These issues are illustrated in the teaching of SOSE as locality focused knowledge. What this means for the selection of fieldwork sites for children's learning and teacher education pedagogies is explored in this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims: Schools have emerged as a key site for prevention and early intervention strategies for antisocial behaviour. This paper examines teacher perspectives of the scope within their day-to-day practice for the implementation of monitoring and management of student risk status for substance misuse. Methods: Teacher perspectives of early intervention for young secondary school students aged 12-14 are examined. Case studies are presented of five non-metropolitan Australian schools located in a low socioeconomic area. Findings: The study identifies a diverse range of early intervention practice in school settings; reports that teachers are pragmatic in their identification of students at risk, and use an under-theorised construct of engagement to manage risk. A number of tensions centring on the perceived purpose of school emerge when early intervention policy is operationalised in the classroom. Conclusion: The student wellbeing policy currently in use in Victorian schools needs to be refined. These revisions should provide schools with a clear and understandable early intervention framework that allows local translation. Any further policy development should be based on teacher understandings and capacity for early intervention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the interrelationships between identity and learning for adult learners participating in vocational education and training programmes situated within workplaces. Identity is understood to be integral to learning. A theoretical position for understanding identity is developed using a narrative standpoint. Adult learners are understood to bring particular dispositions to workplace learning, in particular, their previous experiences and biographies of learning. The notion of wounding learning practices is articulated to discuss the impact of adult learners' previous encounters with learning. These previous experiences may contribute to weaker identities and dispositions to learning in the workplace. Individuals' identities and relationships to learning impact upon their current and future engagement with affordances of workplace learning. Three significant pedagogical practices, from a two-year workplace training programme involving adult learners from a regional Australian town, are offered as insights into the interrelationships of identity and learning. In doing so, this paper contributes to the discussions of identity construction through workplace learning. Adult educators are invited to reflect on the potential pedagogic practices which might contribute to and foster the reconceptualisation of learners' identities and their participatory trajectories within the workplace. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper argues that competency-based training in vocational education and training in Australia is one mechanism through which the working class is denied access to powerful knowledge represented by the academic disciplines. The paper presents a modified Bernsteinian analysis to argue that vocational education and training students need access to disciplinary knowledge using Bernstein's argument that abstract, conceptual knowledge is the means societies use to think 'the unthinkable' and 'the not-yet-thought'. I supplement Bernstein's social argument for democratic access to the disciplines with an epistemic argument that draws on the philosophy of critical realism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper draws on a large Australian commissioned research study that mapped classroom pedagogies called 'productive pedagogies'. The model of pedagogies derived from an admixture of theory and empirical observations and worked together what Fraser (1997) calls a politics of redistribution and a politics of recognition in its desire to make a difference in relation to schooling as a positional good, a good in and of itself, and in terms of making a difference in relation to the multiple differences extant in contemporary society. Statistical analysis of classroom observations indicated there were four dimensions of productive pedagogies, notably intellectual demand, connectedness, supportiveness and working with and valuing of difference. The actual pedagogies mapped were more akin to 'pedagogies of indifference', not in relation to the extent of teacher care and teacher work as therapy, but in respect of making a difference, in the low levels of intellectual demand and connectedness, and in the virtual absence of the difference dimension across the approximately 1000 lessons observed. In working across the critical pedagogies literatures and empirical studies of classrooms the paper constitutes a pedagogical theory of the middle ground and attempts to provoke debate about future pedagogical research, related policy and classroom practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes the pedagogical impact of real-world experimental projects undertaken as part of an advanced undergraduate fluid mechanics subject at an Australian university. The projects have been organized to complement traditional lectures and introduce students to the challenges of professional design, physical modelling, data collection and analysis. An overview of two projects is presented: wind tunnel testing of buildings and wave loading on piles. Both studies are undertaken as group work within the undergraduate subject. The pedagogy of the projects is discussed in terms of the classical educational psychology literature concerning project-based learning, collaborative and guided learning and reflection. In terms of learning outcomes, the primary aim is to enable students to deliver a professional report as the final product, where physical model data are compared to ideal-fluid flow calculations and real-fluid flow analyses. Thus the students are exposed to a professional design approach involving a high level of expertise in fluid mechanics, with sufficient academic guidance to achieve carefully defined learning goals, while retaining sufficient flexibility for students to construct their own learning goals. The overall pedagogy is a blend of problem-based and project-based learning, which reflects academic research and professional practice. The assessment is a mix of peer-assessed oral presentations and written reports that aims to maximize student reflection and development. Student feedback indicated a strong motivation for courses that include a well-designed project component. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As part of a long‐term research study to enhance science learning, this paper reports on an exploratory study aimed at identifying initial beliefs and practices of a group of teachers and students (Years 4–6) in Australia when the students engaged with multiple representations of the same science concepts. There is growing recognition in science education research that students need to understand and link different representational modes, such as graphic and verbal modes, in learning to think and act scientifically. This exploratory study used a multi‐site case‐study approach employing qualitative and quantitative methods. The findings indicated that while teachers used various modes to engage students and assess learning, they were not systematic in their focus on student integration and translation across modes. The study found that various factors affected students’ understanding of different modes, and that students who recognised relationships between modes demonstrated better conceptual understandings than students who lacked this knowledge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How would you decide on the quality of a higher education institution? Would you (1) ask the academic registrar (or equivalent); (2) look up the most recent quality audit report; or (3) contact the teaching staff directly to discuss their perceptions about the quality of the services provided in their institution? While there is no one correct answer to the above question, the proposition underpinning the empirical research reported in this paper is: If you really want to know about quality in higher education, then ask those closest to the student‐academic interface—the academics or the students. This paper focuses on the former. Using a postal survey, the views of accounting academics from 39 Australian universities about quality in accounting education were investigated from two perspectives—beliefs (what is currently occurring) and attitudes (what ought to be occurring). The findings suggest differences in those beliefs and attitudes, and an overall view that quality in accounting education has declined over recent years. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Master planned communities (MPCs) are relatively new phenomena in Australia and are being used in some states to address problems of urban sprawl and dislocation of society. In order to achieve the needs of healthy, safe, sustainable communities, local centres need to encompass jobs, shopping, services and entertainment in convenient and attractive locations. In many countries although the State is in a position to legislate and oversee regional planning, it is no longer in a position to implement many of the changes needed to support the needs of its citizens. Private developers are working either on their own or in partnership with State governments to build fully planned communities encompassing housing, infrastructure, education, work and leisure. This paper addresses the question of whether such MPCs are an unequivocal good thing. Focussing on developments in Australia, the paper discusses issues of equity, security and community cohesion. The conclusion is optimistic and suggests that developers of MPCs have an opportunity to influence the development of successful communities through innovative learning and work opportunities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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There are few historical studies about the sex education of Australian youth. Drawing on a range of sources, including the oral histories of 40 women and men who attended two single-sex, selective high schools in a provincial Australian city (Newcastle, New South Wales) in the 1930s–1950s, this paper explores the adolescent experience of sex education and gender relations. First, it outlines attempts by the New South Wales State Government and the Newcastle community to introduce sex education, especially during the moral panic about sexuality generated during World War Two. Second, it charts the experiential realm of growing up for adolescent females and males. Hegemonic gender ideology meant that sexual knowledge was mostly kept secret from adolescent girls, and that frightening lies about sexual matters proliferated in the vacuum created by sexual ignorance. For adolescent males, sexual knowledge, while still shrouded in myth and mystery, was more readily available. Indeed sex education classes were introduced at the boys' school in the 1950s, while the girls' school remained silent on the matter for the entire time. At the theoretical level, the paper suggests that the dominant ideology of femininity included sexual ignorance and was allied to the ideology of childhood innocence. Both ideologies were artefacts of patriarchal power. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Department of Education in the Australian state of Queensland promotes inclusiveness and states a commitment to all students achieving to their full potential ( Inclusive Learning , 2004, p. 17). Paradoxically, comprehensive review of Queensland Government education department policy indicates the vision of inclusive education is subordinate to the problematic of ‘inclusion as calculus’ (Ware, 2002, p.149). Arguably the implications of conceptualising inclusive education via such limited notions of inclusion needs consideration. The question posed in this paper asks what effects the practices involved might have upon those children whose difference remains outside institutionally ‘recognised’ forms of Otherness1. Interestingly the psychiatric category at the foci of this discussion, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, is not deemed eligible for educational support in Queensland. Such avoidance through the non‐recognition of ADHD is remarkable given that diagnosis of ADHD and/or disruptive behaviour disorder is increasing across all states in Australia at an exponential rate (Davis et al., 2001; OECD, 2003; Prosser et al., 2002; Swan, 2000). So too is the prescription rate for stimulant medication (Mackey & Kopras, 2001). It appears then that any role schooling plays in the psycho‐pathologisation of children (Panksepp, 1998; Thomas & Glenny, 2000) is implicit in nature since there is no formal identification process responsible for locating ADHD/behaviour disorder in Queensland schools. Utilising a conceptual framework derived from the work of Foucault, this paper engages with this problematic to question what processes and practices might inform the construction of ‘disorderly’ schooling identities and further, may legitimise the differential treatment of such children within the Queensland context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Australian higher education has undergone radical change aimed at transforming universities into commercial enterprises less dependent on public funding. Despite some significant successes, including dramatic increases in the numbers of domestic and international students, decreased Commonwealth subsidies, and more private sector finance, there are ominous indications that institutional failure is endemic, especially financial accountability. Drawing on various theories of institutional failure, this paper attempts to examine the causes of the current crisis. A fourfold taxonomy of Australian university failure is developed that identifies governance failure, accountability failure, quality failure, and information failure as the primary sources of tertiary education institutional breakdown. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the past decade, a growing number of complaints have been made against Australian education authorities over the language of instruction used to teach deaf children. The complaints, made under the Disability Discrimination Act, were lodged with the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission for investigation and possible conciliation. When conciliation failed, two of these cases continued to the Federal Court of Australia. An analysis of court transcripts and the determinations made by the Federal Court is presented in this paper. The focus of analysis is the way in which researchers who appeared as expert witnesses in these cases were positioned by counsels for the respondents. Foremost among the findings was the way in which researchers, whose work challenged the approach taken by the education authorities, were represented as being political. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the social and educational implications of the Secondary Schools Scholarship Project (SSSP) in which Australia gave over 1,000 adolescents from Papua New Guinea three-year scholarships to study in Australian high schools. Drawing from postcolonial theory, the paper uses concepts of ambivalence, hybridity, hegemony, contradiction, and national discourse to analyse an array of issues which would not be in the purview of dependency theory. These issues include not only the cultural “border-crossings” and tensions experienced by the Papua New Guinean scholarship winners during their Australian sojourn and return to Papua New Guinea, but also the complex ambiguities in the outcomes and implications of a foreign aid project for a decolonising country. The scholarship programme illustrates the politics of foreign aid in education, including the contradictions of receiving aid from a donor country which is garnering substantial benefits from the recipient country, and the complexity of the postcolonial challenge of utilising this aid in a way that meets national educational goals in a globalising world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the examination procedures and protocols for the DBA degree through a survey of universities offering the degree in Australia. The findings indicate general consistency among institutions in understanding the differences between a DBA and PhD, and a relatively uniform acceptance of key criteria for assessment of the DBA. However, in some instances the information provided to examiners of DBA theses was either unavailable or limited, or did not articulate clearly the differences between a DBA and PhD and how these differences are to be addressed when examining a DBA thesis. A framework is provided for assisting potential examiners of DBA theses and graduate schools or business faculties in their drafting of DBA examination guidelines in order to obtain a level of consistency in DBA examination procedures and protocols. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the educational implications of pursuing equity and access for adult learners across further and higher education sectors. It contextualizes some advantages and disadvantages in cross-sectoral arrangements by reference to a specific access and equity partnership program in Australia and analyses the impact on the equity aims of the program in continually maintaining and developing the partnership. From the perspective of the University, the argument is that the University–TAFE localized collaborative model offers a successful and viable pathway to university for adult learners from an educationally disadvantaged and/or low socio-economic background. The perceived benefits of a community partnership, however, can undermine the educational and equity benefits of such a collaborative arrangement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studies the extent of graduate overeducation in Australia utilising both the objective and mean methods. As well, the paper tests for non-linear returns to overeducation. It is found that the rates of graduate overeducation vary by both gender and with the methods utilised, and stand between 21% and 46%. Non-linear returns to overeducation were evident among some groups of graduates. Young male graduates seem to suffer no penalty for overeducation compared with their matched peers, but this may be a reflection of technological change altering workplace requirements faster than changes in occupational titles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many students are unsuccessful in the study of school mathematics, not because of some innate ability, but because of pedagogical practices. Bernstein (1996) has argued that pedagogy serves as a mechanism for cultural reproduction, so that for those students whose cultures are different from that represented in and through pedagogy, the task of constructing school mathematics is made more difficult. The paper explores the ways in which a teacher changes the pedagogic relay in order to be more inclusive of her students. Her practice is informed by understanding the ways in which pedagogy is a subtle tool for marginalization in mathematics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper uses the international education sector in Australia as a case study to argue against understanding globalization as an exogenous force. It introduces the notion of globalization as a governmentality and discusses alternative interpretations which take into account notions of subjectivity, positionality and space/time. The paper examines the types of global imaginaries used to govern international education. A discourse of cultural hybridity is mobilized to construct Australia as a safe multicultural study destination. The expressions of hybridity which are sanctioned within the international university are scripted by a neoliberal text, limiting the possibilities for more sophisticated intellectual engagements with the global. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on the role of religion and philanthropy in the initiation of educational programs in Australia, for students who were blind or vision-impaired. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper explores different ways of conceptualising Indigenous/non-Indigenous research collaboration and partnerships. It begins with a brief outline of the problem of current conceptualisations within the critical paradigm in qualitative research. It proposes the idea of the contact zone (Pratt, 1992) as a useful way to theorise the site, and border work (Haig-Brown & Archibald, 1996) as a way to understand the emotional and intellectual work, of intercultural collaboration. We apply these ideas to the analysis of a series of conversations between team members involved in a research partnership between an Australian Aboriginal corporation and a university. This analysis suggests that the way borders are conceived differently by different team members depends on their particular political investments. A range of border maintenance and border crossings is necessary for the task of achieving effective collaboration. The 'discomfort' zone of cultural contact is usefully conceived as an area of productive tension in which differences can generate hybrid outcomes such as team produced books for the organisation's ecotourism enterprise. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper outlines a problem-based approach to the teaching and learning of multicultural education for pre-service teachers at the University of Canberra during the second semester, 1999. Within the context of this research, problem-based teaching and learning will be considered as both curriculum and as a process. The curriculum consisted of carefully designed problems focusing on theoretical constructs relevant to the unit under scrutiny; the process involved problem solving, self-directed learning strategies and team participation at both the seminar and tutorial level (Gallagher, 1997). The decision to adopt this approach was driven by a need to connect practical classroom scenarios with the theoretical basis of the course. It was through the adoption of an Action Research model that these issues were explored. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent times critical approaches to educational policy studies have been subject to increasing interrogation over methodological issues, often by critical policy researchers themselves. In the main, their reflexive posturings have been informed by critique which proceeds that beyond brief descriptions of research logistics and a general commitment to the methodologies of a critical orientation, critical policy analyses offer few explicit accounts of the connections between the stories they tell about policy and the data used to tell them. As a way of addressing these silences, this paper proposes three methodological approaches within which to explore and explain matters of policy, each generating its own particular view of the (policy) issues worth looking for, where they can be found and how to look for them. Drawing on research into the production of Australian higher education policy during the late 1980s and early 1990s, the paper illustrates the characteristics of these approaches, referring to them as policy historiography, policy genealogy and policy archaeology. Without claiming absolute distinctions between their interests, the paper couples policy historiography with the substantive issues of policy at particular hegemonic moments, policy genealogy with social actors' engagement with policy, and policy archaeology with conditions that regulate policy formations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How we obtain more complex understandings of the phenomenon of 'dropping out' of school is one of the most urgent policy and practice issues facing educational practitioners, policy-makers and sociological researchers at the moment, as increasingly numbers of young people fail to complete their secondary schooling. In this paper, we argue that a different 'sociological imagination' is required - one that is simultaneously more attentive to the lifeworlds of young people, that is more reflexive of its own agenda, and that is mindful of the wider politics within which 'dropping out' is being experienced. A heuristic around 'voiced research' is discussed in the context of an Australian study that explored the circumstances of 209 young people who left school prematurely. It is argued that such an approach enabled the phenomenon to be 'named' in a different way, which was more inclusive of the lives, experiences, aspirations and complexities of what was occurring at the point these young people decided to exit school. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the emergence of education as a marketable service with institutions now seeking to market themselves in a professional manner. A comparison is made between two samples- one of administrators within educational institutions in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and United States, the other of college and university students in Australia. Statistical analysis identified a series of key factors considered critical to the successful marketing of these institutions. A comparison of institutional and student views is made concluding that significant differences exist between the two groups. Managerial and research implications are provided. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

ABSTRACT Role play is an effective teaching and learning technique. This paper discusses the purpose, design, implementation and value of an issues-based role play exercise in a first-year undergraduate topic at an Australian university. The exercise requires students to consider the implications for environment, economy and culture of a large-scale tourist development on the small South Pacific island of Rarotonga. Students work together in small groups developing a particular point of view and presenting their arguments to the whole class. The paper is based on the first two consecutive years of development. Changes were made in the second year following students' and tutors' comments on the initial exercise. The results of these changes, and the students' reactions to their learning, are discussed. Students' identification of the skills gained and their satisfaction with the exercise are analysed and suggestions for successful running of similar exercises are outlined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

School funding is a principal site of policy reform and contestation in the context of broad global shifts towards private- and market-based funding models. These shifts are transforming not only how schools are funded but also the meanings and practices of public education: that is, shifts in what is ‘public’ about schooling. In this paper, we examine the ways in which different articulations of ‘the public’ are brought to bear in contemporary debates surrounding school funding. Taking the AustralianReview of Funding for Schooling(the Gonski Report) as our case, we analyse the policy report and its subsequent media coverage to consider what meanings are made concerning the ‘publicness’ of schooling. Our analysis reveals three broad themes of debate in the report and related media coverage: (1) the primacy of ‘procedural politics’ (i.e. the political imperatives and processes associated with public policy negotiations in the Australian federation); (2) changing relations between what is considered public and private; and (3) a connection of government schooling to concerns surrounding equity and a ‘public in need’. We suggest these three themes contour the debates and understandings that surround the ‘publicness’ of education generally, and school funding more specifically. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The promise of higher education remains elusive for many Indigenous students in Australia. To date, institutional efforts to improve the persistence and retention of Indigenous students have been largely piecemeal, poorly integrated and designed to remediate skill deficits. Yet, market-led expansion of Australian higher education is driving curricular reform and demands for accountability and quality. Despite this, very little is known about how teaching and pedagogy can be used to support the learning and persistence of Indigenous students. In this context, the paper provides a reconceptualization of current debates and positions that are currently bound up within the limitations of questionable binary divides and oppositions, for example, educational psychology/sociology, transmission/critical or decolonial pedagogies and Indigenous/Western Knowledge. Nakata's concept of the Cultural Interface is mobilized to acknowledge some of the nuances and complexities that emerge when Indigenous and Western knowledge systems come into convergence within the higher education classroom. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background:This paper approaches evidence-informed practice from the perspective of evidence-informed policy-making. Using the findings of a recent study of evidence-use by educational policy-makers to raise questions about evidence-use by educational practitioners, it seeks to explore what such a study might tell us about how to understand and improve evidence-use by educational practitioners. Purpose:The paper aims, therefore, to identify potential connections, shared insights and common issues between evidence-use in policy and evidence-use in practice. It does this by focusing on two specific areas: the nature of the evidence (i.e.whatevidence is used) and the nature of the use (i.e.howevidence is used). The paper outlines what was found about each of these aspects of evidence-use in policy, and then considers what questions and issues these findings might raise for evidence-use in educational practice. Sample:The empirical study on which this paper is based was an in-depth study of the use of evidence within educational policy development in Australia. It focused on the development of three specific education policies within one Australian state education department and involved interviews with 25 policy-makers who were actively involved in the development of these policies. Design and methods:The policy-based study involved the following data collection processes: (i) in-depth semi-structured interviews with 25 policy-makers who were involved in the development of the selected policies; (ii) documentary analysis of policy documents, background research reports and other relevant papers relating to the selected policies; (iii) unstructured observation (where possible) of meetings and events connected with the development of the selected policies; and (iv) feedback from 40 wider policy staff who took part in a verification workshop to discuss the project’s emerging findings. Findings:Drawing on the findings from the original policy study, two areas of potential connection to evidence-use in practice are explored. First, in relation to ‘varieties of evidence and uses’, the negotiation of diverse evidence types and the potential for using evidence in multiple and varied ways appear to be features of evidence-use that are common to educational policy-makers as well as educational practitioners. Secondly, in relation to ‘narrowness of evidence sources’, there is potential for both policy-makers and practitioners to use a narrow (rather than broad) selection of evidence, due to a tendency to work with certain evidence types as a starting point (e.g. performance data) and a tendency to draw on certain evidence sources more frequently (e.g. well-known, familiar research sources). Conclusions:This paper emphasises: (i) the need for more integrated (or joined-up) understandings of evidence-use across contexts of practice and contexts of policy; (ii) the importance of continued efforts to understand and represent evidence-use more effectively within educational practices; and (iii) the value of paying careful attention to the quality and qualities of evidence-use within and across the different settings of educational practice and policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the development of data infrastructure in Australian schooling with a specific focus on interoperability standards that help to make new markets for education data. The conceptual framework combines insights from studies of infrastructure, economic markets and digital data. The case of the Australian National Schools Interoperability Program is analysed, drawing on a corpus of web-based technical and promotional documents and supporting interviews. The paper shows that Australia has well-developed data infrastructure in schooling that is creating new relations between schools, school systems and commercial vendors within network markets for data-driven educational technologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Enrolled nurses (ENs) across Australia precept nursing students in the clinical field. Yet learning about the preceptoring role is not widely available to ENs. Educational innovation: EN's in this study participated in a professional development project that utilised the material of an online learning resource, originally designed to inspire clinical registered nurses (RNs), and RN teachers, to develop teaching innovations in their role. Aim: The aim of this paper is to report the results of a pre-post-test questionnaire designed to evaluate the impact of the professional development intervention. Results: The analysis showed high scoring means with many items in the questionnaire statistically significant (p < .05, CI 95%). Conclusion: Results indicated positive differences in a number of teaching capabilities between pre- and post-test scores. This suggests ENs appreciate education that extends beyond clinical skills and that professional development should include the nursing education role. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Communication is widely recognised as an important capability for university graduates [Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. (2013).OECD skills outlook 2013: First results from the survey of adult skills. Author. Retrieved fromhttp://dx.doi.org/10.1787/9789264204256-en]. Yet, research suggests that it is often not adequately developed by Australian universities, remaining implicit in teaching and assessment. This is in part because Australian universities have historically conceptualised communication not as anoutcomeof disciplinary study, but as a generic, foundational competency or skill. It has therefore been managed outside the curriculum by establishing academic language and learning units that help students develop written and spoken communication through a range of student services. The services model of communication development is becoming untenable, however, given the increasing cultural and linguistic diversity of students and the recognised importance of communication as a graduate outcome. Whole-of-institution approaches are required to integrate communication into course curricula as a fundamental part of disciplinary learning, and develop the capacity of teaching staff to teach it. This paper explores Writing Across the Curriculum and Writing Inside the Disciplines, two complementary approaches used widely in the US for developing literacy in higher education. They emerged in the 1970s in response to the kind of student diversity now common in Australian universities, and offer institution-wide strategies for developing communication as an essential outcome of study in academic and professional disciplines. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The National Human Papillomavirus (HPV) Vaccination Program in Australia commenced in 2007 for girls and in 2013 for boys, using the quadrivalent HPV [4vHPV] vaccine. In Australia, students are primarily vaccinated en masse, on school grounds, after parental/guardian consent is obtained. Students most often receive little, or no, education at school about HPV or HPV vaccination prior to immunisation. There is also some uncertainty about where young people can and should obtain reliable information about the vaccine, outside of school. We conducted a cluster randomised controlled trial of a complex intervention in schools. This study aimed to improve: (1) student knowledge about HPV vaccination; (2) psycho-social outcomes and (3) vaccination uptake. In this paper, we briefly outline our educational intervention and discuss its implementation by educators including facilitators and barriers. We also discuss the study findings pertaining to student knowledge about HPV and HPV vaccination and their attitudes to vaccination across control and intervention schools. Study results showed students in intervention schools demonstrate greater knowledge and understanding of HPV and HPV vaccination. Greater knowledge and understanding of HPV and HPV vaccination appeared to promote positive attitudes towards vaccination and supported confidence with vaccination. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper I conduct a Foucauldian discourse analysis of a political speech given by Brendon Nelson in 2006 when the Australian Minister for Defence in the Howard Coalition Government. The speech connects conceptualizations of terror, globalization, education and literacy as part of a whole of government security strategy. The analysis examines this speech as an example of a liberal way of governing the conduct of diverse and unpredictable populations. My analysis suggests that the apparatus of government has been strategically used in order to biopolitically contain the rise of complex social forces and protect a set of homogenous cultural values. The purposes of education and uses of literacy are seen as instruments for the inscription of a coded set of values understood to be synonymous with civil society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explored the attitudes and intentions of pre-service teachers towards inclusive education, across two teacher preparation institutions in Australia and South Africa. There were multiple aims to the study: among these was a need to explore the impact of contextual factors on pre-service teacher attitudes towards inclusive education, and to investigate factors that may impact on their intention to include students with additional learning needs into regular classrooms. The study utilised a published survey as a measuring instrument. One-way analyses of variance were used to establish whether statistically significant relationships existed between specific demographic variables and respondent attitudes towards inclusive education. This paper presents the findings of this investigation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The higher education sector operates in an increasingly complex global environment that is placing it under considerable stress and resulting in widespread change to the operating context and leadership of higher education institutions. The outcome has been the increased likelihood of conflict between academics and senior leaders, presaging the need for more engaged and broader approach to leadership. Based on empirical research into the Australian university sector, this paper contends that a distributed leadership (DL) approach is appropriate for the higher education sector and offers value for supporting effective change. In acknowledging the paradigm change needed to implement a DL approach successfully, the authors present a process model to underpin the shift from a leader-centric to a DL approach. The Sustainable Enabling and Evaluating Reflective DL change process model presents a synthesis of how a systemic change to DL in higher education can occur. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper presents an international comparison of Australian and Spanish secondary teachers’ perceptions about the effectiveness of their pre-service education and their learning as in-service teachers. It aims to identify, firstly, the extent to which beginning teachers believe they are prepared for their careers through their teacher training and, secondly, what teachers have learned as practicing teachers. A qualitative case study was conducted to uncover whether similar issues raised by early career teachers were identified in different contexts. Data were collected through interviews with secondary teachers (N = 11) from Australia and Spain in their third year of full-time teaching. Findings suggest similar positive perceptions towards their practicum experiences, transition to beginning teachers and professional development. However, differences were found in their early career experiences regarding professional learning and their development of identity. Implications of the study are discussed by identifying strategies to improve pre-service education for secondary teachers. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The processes of puberty are now commonly observed in primary school-aged students. Schools, therefore, need to address puberty and sexuality education for students’ health, well-being, safety and pastoral care. Similarly, preservice teacher education needs to address future primary school teachers’ unfamiliarity and lack of confidence with these issues and topics, and develop appropriate and normative learning and teaching practices to benefit students of all ages. This paper explores the types of sexuality education content and pedagogies student-teachers prefer to learn about, and be assessed on, in a dedicated sexuality education course in their preservice Bachelor of Education (Primary) degree. A mixed-method design collected quantitative preference ratings and qualitative responses revealing that student-teachers prefer content about the social, developmental and psychological aspects of primary school children’s puberty and sexuality. Student-teachers also prefer school counsellors and school nurses as guest speakers, learning pedagogies in tutorial or small groups and assessments through case studies by oneself or small groups. This Australian evidence may be useful to designers of preservice health and sexuality education courses, who aim to assist primary school student-teachers become more competent, confident and professionally trained in puberty and sexuality education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article reports how ‘invented tradition’ [Hobsbawm, E. (2012), Introduction: Inventing traditions. In E. Hobsbawm & T. Ranger (Eds.),The invention of tradition(pp. 1–14). New York, NY: Cambridge University Press] as a long-term process has contributed to Indigenous students experiencing physical education (PE) within Eurocentric curricula that largely ignores their own culture. The study was undertaken at three high schools within the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) which come under the remit of the ACT Education and Training Directorate. Documentary evidence was the main data source and figurational sociology was used to inform the study and analyse the data. Central to figurational sociology is the notion of the figuration which refers to how individuals are located interdependently in social structures characterised by relationships of power. Historical and contemporary documents were analysed using content and thematic analysis according to the premise that the document writers are themselves included in figurations and their inclusion or presence has to be taken into account [Dolan, P. (2009), Using documents: A figurational approach. In J. Hogan, P. Dolan, & P. Donnelly (Eds.),Approaches to qualitative research: Theory and its practical application(pp. 185–208). Cork: Oak Trees Press]. The paper identifies key events and long-term processes mainly linked to Australia’s colonial past that have shaped contemporary PE curricula. Despite intent within historical PE curricula to include Indigenous perspectives in PE these have largely not translated to actual teaching. The final part of the paper suggests additional research to find ways to embed these perspectives. This is important because current curriculum requirements at a national level emphasise these perspectives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent literature on the activities of creative practitioners within the academy has focused on their roles as cultural workers within the higher education sector – contributing to the so-called ‘creative economy’ as skills-based practitioners with ‘real world’ experience – or it has considered the role of the academic teacher in shaping the creative life and careers of their students. Relatively little has been done, however, to specifically examine the lived experience of creative writers in the Australian academy as they attend to the professional requirements of their work as teaching and research academics on the one hand, and their linked professional activities as creative writers, on the other. This paper reports on the findings from a preliminary survey conducted between July and August 2013 which aimed to explore the career trajectories, expectations and experiences of work at the nexus of creative and academic labour. It identifies a number of key tensions between academic and creative aspirations of academics who are creative writers, along with institutional benefits that in some cases aided the production of their creative work. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper reports findings from textual analysis of the journals submitted by students who undertook the 2013 Planning Field Placement Course for the undergraduate degree of Urban and Regional Planning at the University of South Australia. We discuss the extent to which the reflective narratives contained in journal assignments demonstrate student expectations about the goals of work experience and their relative focus on descriptive versus reflective dimensions of work experience learning. We conclude that whilst the learning is quite significant, the extent of reflection on critical issues of professionalism is limited. Different perspectives on practice, reflection and learning seem to be in play, with possibly too much of a silo/solo approach to each. We end with some reflections on the implications for pedagogical practice in relation to work experience programming. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Focuses on the competency-based education and training in Australia. Influence of changes within the working environment and the global economy; Reform of educational system to boost competitiveness and productivity in the international marketplace; Formulation of a cultural understanding competence.

This contribution to the study of the literacy transition in Britain, Ireland, and Australia also touches on the relationship between literacy and international migration. Some 20,000 emigrants arrived in Australia in 1841 and their literacy is here established at the individual level, and then related to regional origins, occupations, religion, sex, and family status in the British Isles. The new Australian data offer unusual evidence to juxtapose with the prevailing account of British and Irish literacy. The paper makes systematic comparisons of the immigrant evidence with existing literacy findings for the populations of England and Wales, of Ireland, and the colonial population of Australia in the year 1841. The results also show extraordinary similarity of rank orderings between the Australian data and the conventional sources. The results show that the immigrants were consistently more literate than the home and the receiving populations and indicate a substantial link between migration and literacy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]