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This paper presents findings from an investigation of nature-based practices, from the perspectives of 10 academics/educators from six nations. Participants engaged in a focus group exploring the prevalence and inclusion of nature in social work practice and education. While the study focused on individual members' experiences and perspectives, the findings highlight important context-specific factors for including nature within social work to reconnect humans with nature for health, well-being, healing, and justice. An Integrative Environmental Model for social work is proposed to assist future practice and education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Commentators have predicted that Australian male primary school teachers will be extinct within 50 years. Drawing upon sociological ideas about the emergence of 'caring masculinities', this article qualitatively examines popular Australian understandings about male primary school teachers, their importance, why they are declining and whether, and how, this gender imbalance can be addressed. The study analyses data from 541 comments posted in response to nine online media pieces on male primary school teachers in Australia. The article shows that commenters believe men teaching young children experience stigmatised masculine identities but misplace the cause of this as the result of women and anti-feminist 'anti-male bias' rather than the constraining impact of hegemonic masculinity. The article suggests that until more caring and progressive forms of masculinity are culturally and economically valued in Australia we will see little change in the numbers of men entering primary school teaching. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores why women miss out in the transition from the educational system to the labour market. Using nationally representative longitudinal data (2001–18) from the Household Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) survey, we compare how long after graduation it takes men and women with tertiary qualifications (n = 2030) to achieve key labour market milestones: (1) getting a full-time job; (2) getting a permanent contract; (3) earning an average wage; (4) finding a job that matches their skill level. We find significant gender differences in reaching these milestones, confirming that time is a critical dimension for understanding gendered inequalities in the returns to education. We attribute findings to incompatible 'timescapes' across the institutions of education, family and employment. The more flexible timescape of education allows women to succeed, but the inflexible timescape of employment (particularly when combined with family responsibilities) impedes them from turning educational achievement into labour market progress. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Australia, there is a dearth of research applying the theoretical lens of critical race theory to explore Muslim university students' experiences in higher degree education institutions. The prevailing approach has been to focus on institutional barriers and policies. This article deviates from such studies by framing the analysis in terms of a comparison between Muslim and non-Muslim white students in higher degree education institutions in New South Wales (NSW) Australia in order to operationalize whiteness in Australia's settler colonial society as a central category of analysis. The article seeks to explore how Muslim and non-Muslim students experience and respond to the university as a white institution, considering how Muslim students engage in both adaptive and maladaptive coping strategies in response to the university as a white institution, and how white, non-Muslim students experience the normativity, invisibility and hegemony of whiteness in the university. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of International Journal of Music Education is the property of Sage Publications, Ltd. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The relationship between family socioeconomic status (SES) and the academic performance of children is well established in sociological research. Another important dimension is the factors that may influence educational outcomes within low SES families. This paper presents new data from a sample of over 3000 students from financially disadvantaged backgrounds to estimate the extent of socioeconomic, family, individual and contextual factors on school educational performance. Results obtained using binomial logistic regression techniques indicate that gender, unexplained absences, parental educational attainment, housing type, ethnicity and student age are all statistically significant variables and predictors of academic performance. In contrast, family structure, the main source of family income and geographical location do not significantly predict outcomes in school performance once other factors are controlled for. The findings support the notion that the 'social' and the 'economic' components of the socioeconomic status equation have distinct and separate influences on educational outcomes. While financial assistance to schools and families in need is important, policies and programmes that also assist low-income parents in providing appropriate psychological and educational support for their children should also be promoted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

International studies using the European Social Survey (ESS) reveal higher support for Universal Basic Income (UBI) in poorer countries with less generous welfare systems, and among individuals with lower income and education, and leftist political leanings. We present data from the 2019−20 Australian Survey of Social Attitudes mirroring the ESS question. Australia falls in the middle of European opinion, with 51% supporting a UBI, increasing slightly during the onset of Covid-19. We also find higher support among two different groups: (1) those facing greater 'material' precarity, including younger, low-income, unemployed, suburban renters, and (2) those who have more post-materialist concerns, including Green-left voters and those favouring redistributive values. Unlike in other countries, higher education predicts more support, while homeownership predicts less. The article concludes with challenges to introducing UBI to Australia, including potentially contradictory strategies for different support bases (material vs post-material), ongoing commitments to means-testing, and negative framing in the media. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although formal childcare is considered a key social investment policy to combat inequality, available research indicates that in most European and other high-income countries parents with lower socio-economic positions are less likely to use formal childcare. As the literature on the underlying causes of this so-called Matthew effect has not yet converged, this article is the first to assess whether educational gradients in formal childcare uptake can be accounted for by micro-level employment potential and work–family attitudes in 14 European countries and Australia. Complementing available research on supply-side factors such as policy design features, this study indicates that a large part of the educational gradients in formal childcare uptake persist after controlling for socio-demographic background variables, employment potential, and work–family attitudes as micro-level predictors. However, this study also shows that a considerable part of the educational differentiation in formal childcare uptake reflects differential employment potential. This finding turns attention to policies other than childcare to enhance labour market outcomes for lower educated groups, which in turn might attenuate the Matthew effect in formal childcare. Furthermore, a positive relation between individual-level work–family attitudes and the uptake of formal childcare is also identified as a partial explanation for educational gradients in formal childcare uptake. Although the explanatory power of work–family attitudes as an underlying determinant of the Matthew effect is more limited compared to employment potential, such variation in the acceptance of maternal employment and formal childcare should also be considered in the design of inclusive work–family policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper utilises the national Survey of Disability Ageing and Carers to summarise the educational disadvantages and vocational inequalities for those with disabilities in Australia. Amongst persons with a disability, there is a decidedly lower rate of school completion. Distinctly fewer persons with a disability obtain degrees. Income is markedly reduced. Labour force participation is significantly lower, and the unemployment rate in 2015 was twice that of those without a disability. Alternate duties were provided in only 2% of cases and workplace accommodation made in 4% of instances. Supported employment was available in only 2.2% of cases. A disconcerting conclusion is that, over the past decade, the unemployment rate for those with a disability has been consistently higher. Suggestions are made for career development professionals to reverse some of the disadvantages reported. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ‘cloze’ test is one possible investigative instrument for predicting text comprehensibility. Conceptual coding of student replacement of deleted words has been considered to be more valid than exact coding, partly because conceptual coding seemed fairer to poorer readers. This paper reports a quantitative study of 447 Australian secondary school student responses to three differing cloze tests covering identical content. The study sought to better understand the impact of cloze coding decisions on estimation of text difficulty and/or reader competence. Findings reveal the following: (a) conceptual coding increases reader cloze score differentially; (b) the increase in score from conceptual coding is greater for more able readers; (c) conceptual coding differentially advantages more able readers of less difficult text. This study is significant because instructors, researchers and developers often make decisions based on interpretation of mean scores from grouped cloze test results and such summaries of result distributions can obscure differential advantages such as those made clearer by this study. Estimates of text comprehensibility based on mean scores of conceptually coded cloze tests may overestimate group competence and underestimate text difficulty for some groups of readers. This contradicts an apparent consensus in the literature dealing with deletion-based tests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article focuses on the impact of education as the most important human capital endowment in the context of migration, religion, gender and ethnic identity from a demographic perspective. It presents research-based evidence to address such key research questions as whether and how significantly women's education provides equal benefit in the labour market for individuals, based on their migration status, religion, and ethnic identity. The field of this study is the multi-ethnic and multicultural context of Australia with a wide range of ethnic and religious groups of migrants from throughout the world. Preliminary results show that labour market achievement is positively and significantly associated with the educational attainment of individuals, irrespective of their migration status, religious affiliation and ethnicity. However, more comprehensive analysis from comparative perspectives reveals that the positive economic return of education is higher for natives (compared with migrants), for ethnic migrants from developed regions of origin (compared with those from less developed regions of origin) and for non-Muslims (compared with Muslims). The article provides two plausible explanations for these patterns. The first refers to the lack of recognition of overseas qualifications and to the devaluation of foreign education that particularly applies to ethnic migrants from less developed regions. The second relates to disadvantage through structural discrimination against migrants, particularly when their cultural and religious identity, such as Islamic names and dress codes, are distinctively displayed. In sum, this analysis presents further research-based evidence to go beyond the human capital theory in order to explain more appropriately the economic return of women's education in the context of religion and migration from a demographic perspective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses the interest content of all 1016 Australian occupations. These were classified according to vocational interests (i.e. outdoor, practical, scientific, creative, business, office, people contact, health, community, and computing), educational qualifications, and skill level, as well as in terms of the six Holland (RIASEC) types. Just over half of all occupations in Australia involve a practical interest. Creative interest was the least common occupational interest (9.2% of occupations). Some 80% of occupations covered more than one interest content, and in four instances, as many as six interests. Practical and people contact interests were negatively correlated (r = −.50). Occupational interest categories were consistent with the Holland types except that outdoor and practical interests in Australia did not correlate meaningfully with realistic. Occupational interests were related to educational requirements and skill levels. Outdoor and practical occupations were focused at the lower skill levels. Scientific and computing included the highest skill levels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Knowledge co-production between academics and practitioners is increasingly a focus for university workplace contexts. While there is emerging interest in how social science academics can engage with industry to generate impact, little attention has been paid to how one form of practitioner organisation, trade unions, engages with academics to influence policy and member outcomes. In this article, we examine a case of research collaboration with an education trade union based in New South Wales, Australia, to explore the process of knowledge co-production with this partnership and its impact on education policy. In examining this decade-long partnership, we contribute to the literature on union strategy by depicting collaboration with researchers as a unique strategy for influencing policy outcomes (in this case, addressing teacher workload), while also contributing to emerging scholarship on knowledge co-production as a means to generate impact beyond the academy. As such, this article contributes a rare example of 'cross-over' between the worlds of academia and industry, which may inform future engagement and impact processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a comprehensive framework for researching classroom-based assessment (CBA) processes, and is based on a detailed empirical study of two Australian school classrooms where students aged 11 to 13 were studying Indonesian as a foreign language. The framework can be considered innovative in several respects. It goes beyond the scope of earlier models in addressing a number of gaps in previous research, including consideration of the epistemological bases for observed assessment practices and a specific learner and learning focus. Moreover, by adopting the broadest possible definition of CBA, the framework allows for the inclusion of a diverse range of data, including the more intuitive forms of teacher decision-making found in CBA (Torrance & Pryor, 1998). Finally, in contrast to previous studies the research motivating the development of the framework took place in a school-based foreign language setting. We anticipate that the framework will be of interest to both researchers and classroom practitioners. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using data from the second wave of the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) Survey, conducted in 2002, this article provides information on the composition, distribution and correlates of the wealth holdings of Australian households. The survey results indicate that Australian households have an average net worth (or wealth) of just over A$400,000, comprising assets of $473,000 and debts of $68,000. The largest component of wealth is home equity. The degree of inequality across households in wealth inequality is found to be much larger than the inequality in income and varies substantially with age and, to a lesser extent, with household type and education. Age, socio-economic background, educational attainment, marital status and the number of children can account for about 30 percent of the variation across households in (logged) wealth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper suggests that, at least amongst employees, social classes may be thought of as having effects on labour market outcomes because they create segmented labour markets. Thus each social class of employees defines the boundaries of a labour market which is at least partially separated from those defined by other employee social classes. This implies that standard labour market variables such as education and labour market experience may have impacts on earnings which vary across class-defined labour markets. Based on a three class picture of the employee class structure (experts, managers/bureaucrats, workers), predictions about the relative impact of education, Labour market experience, gender, sector of employment and unionisation on earnings in each class are outlined. These are then tested on data from two Australian national representative samples. Results show that, as predicted, the impact of important variables (notably education and labour market experience) on earnings appear to be quite different for workers than for experts or managers. This supports the view that the labour market is segmented between workers and the middle class. There are other interesting variations in the impact of variables across class-defined labour markets, variation in gender effects being notable. However, evidence for a sharp differentiation of expert and managerial labour markets is more limited than predicted. Overall, the equations used explain far less of the variance in working-class earnings than of expert and managerial earnings, primarily because education and labour market experience appear to be less closely tied to earnings for workers than for experts and managers. Implications of these results for class theory and human capital theory are outlined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Australia has legislation in the form of the Disability Discrimination Act 1992 (Cth) and the Disability Standards for Education 2005 (Cth) that has the objective of eliminating disability discrimination. The purpose of this scoping review was to determine the extent to which this legislation is achieving the elimination of discrimination against students with disability in primary and secondary schooling. The review reports on the findings of a systematic search of law and education databases that identified 18 peer-reviewed articles discussing the legislation, relevant literature and related case law in the context of the education of students with disability in Australia. Content analysis of the articles indicated the existence of problems in several areas of the intersection between the law, policy and practice. These are outlined under five key themes: inclusion/exclusion, jurisdictions and definitions, the complaints-driven system, legislation clarity and reasonable adjustments. The review concludes with recommendations and suggestions for action. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examined the opinions of influential, authoritative employees from the education and legal systems, regarding their perceptions of the role of the law and cyberbullying in Australian schools. Participants were asked whether they thought a specific law for cyberbullying should be introduced, what particular behaviours, if any, should be criminalised and who should be involved. Participants were located across three Australian States. Thematic analysis was used to identify eight main themes within the data, namely (1) uses of the law in general, (2) introduction of a law for cyberbullying, (3) benefits and difficulties of criminalising cyberbullying for young people, (4) conditions for a cyberbullying law for young people, (5) who should be involved in a cyberbullying law, (6) legal sanctions thought to be appropriate, (7) educational and legal solutions and (8) educational interventions for student cyberbullying. Implications include increasing the awareness of how existing legislative responses can be used as deterrents, working towards more effective cooperation of education and legal systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, educators' experiences of working in diverse classrooms designed to provide English language education as part of Intensive English Language Programs (IELPs) in South Australia are considered. To this end, responses to qualitative interviews with 14 educators working in three schools are examined using Braun and Clarke's method of qualitative thematic analysis. Results indicate that the model of education provided within IELPs is seen by teachers as the best approach to educating young refugees and migrants in Australia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article investigates the phenomenon of university deferral and its impact on regional youth in Australia. It seeks to compare and contrast the post-school pathways and experiences of metropolitan and non-metropolitan deferrers over a period of three years following completion of school, with a view to establishing the unique characteristics of the barriers faced by non-metropolitan deferrers in Australia. Our research indicates that regional school completers are twice as likely to defer as school completers from the city. Three years out from school, a little over two-thirds of the regional deferrers in our study ended up at university. However, this still means that about one-third never took up their offer or dropped out soon after doing so. Financial stresses and travel-related factors seem to be the biggest barriers to taking up their place at university, particularly in the first year out of school. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

As large multinationals move their operations into remote regions of the world, imperatives of social responsibility and sound business pragmatism compel engagement of the marginalized local Indigenous people. This notion is particularly relevant for the mining industry in Australia, which is undertaken in remote regions, where the local Indigenous communities are significantly socio-economically disadvantaged compared to other Australians. This article reports the job-related outcomes of Indigenous Yolngu people of East Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory of Australia who were participants in a unique vocational-educational programme set up by the multinational mining company Rio Tinto Alcan. These mainline job-related outcomes are in two main areas: (1) employment in mainline work at the Nhulunbuy refinery or the mine site and (2) entrepreneurial timber-related business (milling timber, house construction, furniture manufacture). Both streams are inaugural achievements for these Indigenous Australians. The concluding sections present challenges for multinational corporations when anchoring institutional processes, structures and the contemporary technologies of the workplace with the contextuality of rural Australian communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hegemonic masculinity is Connell’s key concept in a hierarchical framework of masculinities which has had a significant influence on thinking about gender. This article draws on Connell’s theories, previous research and my empirical research to argue that there are limitations to using the concept of hegemonic masculinity, and even hegemonic masculinities, when examining boys and masculinity. Boys are rarely mentioned in definitions and theoretical writing about hegemonic masculinity, yet much research examining primary school boys and masculinity uncritically draws on the concept. My research in Australia with 6- and 7-year-old children found that boys had limited access to hegemonic masculinity. As a possible explanation for its usage by researchers with primary school boys, I explore the potential usefulness of multiple and local hegemonic masculinities. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In this discussion children’s difficult citizenship is examined within the contentious context of children being considered sexual citizens. The relationship of childhood to sexuality is fraught with difficulties, controversies, and complexities; it is one openly and officially based on exclusion, with children constituted as requiring protection from sexuality, considered an ‘adults’ only’ domain, dangerous to children. Hegemonic discourses of childhood and innocence are examined in the ways in which they have been utilized to strictly regulate children’s access to knowledge of sexuality and to deny their relevance and access to sexual citizenship. Utilizing a Foucaultian theoretical framework, it is argued that the regulation of children’s access to knowledge of sexuality is primarily linked to the ways in which childhood and innocence are utilized as a means through which the ‘good’ heteronormative adult citizenship subject is constituted and governed. Children’s education is foundational in the development of the heteronormative good future citizen and sexual citizen subject. Through institutions such as schooling, adults have heavily regulated children’s education and access to information, strictly defining what knowledge children should and should not be privy to. A focus is given to Australian primary schooling and pre-school education. Moral panic is regularly mobilized to reinforce this regulation when the boundaries of what is perceived to be ‘appropriate’ knowledge for children are transgressed. It is argued that this regulation has critical implications for children’s early education, their increased vulnerabilities, and for their health and well-being, not just in their childhood but throughout their lives. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Copyright of International Journal of Music Education is the property of Sage Publications, Ltd. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of International Journal of Music Education is the property of Sage Publications, Ltd. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

We examined intergroup predictors of cultural adjustment among Asian international students in Australia. Sociostructural beliefs (status, legitimacy, and permeability) and initial adjustment were assessed (N = 113) at Time 1, and measures of adjustment were obtained (N = 80) at Time 2 eight weeks later. International students who perceived their cultural group to be relatively low in status experienced lower levels of psychological adjustment. Also, as expected, the effects of status were moderated by perceptions of both the permeability of intergroup boundaries and the legitimacy of the status differential. At high levels of legitimacy, perceptions of permeable group boundaries were associated with better psychological, sociocultural, and academic adjustment among international students perceiving their group to be low in status, but lower levels of adjustment among students who perceived their group to be high in status. At low levels of legitimacy, irrespective of group status position, perceived permeability was not related to adjustment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To account for differences between systems of education in highly educated societies, I argue that the impact of academic discipline (field of study) on labor market outcomes should be central. Three modifications of earlier typologies are needed to account for cross-national differences in the transparency of skills provided by educational specialization. We should observe: (1) the system of tertiary vocational programs; (2) whether a system has a bachelor's-master's structure; and (3) whether students choose minor and major subjects in college. Our analysis of Norway, Australia, and the Netherlands shows that these modifications seem useful. In the Netherlands, the impact of fields of study on wages and occupational status is much higher than in the other countries. The relatively high value of Australian qualifications compared to the Norwegian may be explained by the welfare state regulations of both countries, but this explanation is a tentative one. In Australia, eligibility to social benefits depends much more on previous work experience than in Norway, making fields of study a better indicator of labor market commitment [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An extensive adaptation exercise was undertaken by the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER) when it was decided to modify the 1988 version of the American 'SIGI Plus' (System for Interactive Guidance, plus more) (Educational Testing Service, 1981 and later dates) for Australian conditions. The information is of several kinds, requiring varying degrees of validation and checking for local appropriateness. Although the same language, English, was involved, there are substantial differences in education systems and educational pathways, and noticeable differences in occupational conditions and people's value systems. Adaptations were needed at the level of the language (terminology), factual details relating to the vocational world (starting salaries, workplace conditions, legislation), and the educational world (educational programs, extracurricular facilities, further education). The self-assessment modules had to be adapted and then validated against Australian occupational criteria. Teams comprising occupational psychologists from government departments, career teachers, and counsellors both from educational and corporate settings adapted and verified all information and assessment components. Finally, all adaptations needed to be implemented in the computer program, requiring frequent and thorough system testing. The steps in the adaptation and validation procedures are outlined following a brief discussion of elements of career guidance and a description of SIGI Plus itself. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The implementation of outcomes-based assessment and reporting systems in educational programs has been accompanied by a range of political and technical problems, including tensions between the summative and formative purposes of assessment and doubts surrounding the validity and reliability of teacher-constructed assessment tasks. This article examines ways in which these problems have been manifested and addressed, using two recent examples from school and adult immigrant education in Australia. The first example concerns a recent controversy surrounding the use of national literacy benchmarks for primary school learners. Analysis of the issues suggests that some learner groups may be disadvantaged by the practice of reporting aggregate outcomes in terms of minimum standards, but that government policy is unlikely to change as long as the accountability function of assessment remains paramount in the public eye. The second example discusses the teacher-developed assessment tasks that are used to assess the achievement of language competencies in the Australian Adult Migrant English Program (AMEP). It is argued that problems of consistency and comparability that have been identified by research can be addressed through the develop-ment of fully-piloted task banks and the provision of appropriate forms of professional development. Greater attention needs to be given to the role of the teacher if outcomes-based assessments are to provide high quality information. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A B S T R AC T This article examines the discursive practices evident in Whole-Class Text-Response Discussion (WCTRD) as a pervasive curriculum activity in secondary English classrooms in Australia. This site was selected as an important one in the social construction of adolescents as apprentice citizens capable of reasoning from text in culturally valued ways. Bernstein's model of pedagogic discourse provides a sociologically principled framework within which the construction of particular forms of argumentative reasoning can be examined, as these forms are regulated either through visible or invisible pedagogies. Halliday's model of social semiotics provides the linguistic tools for the examination of how institutionally privileged values and ways of reasoning are realized in the micro-semantic exchanges of two such whole-class text-response discussions; one regulated through a highly visible pedagogy and the other through a relatively invisible pedagogy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]