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This paper is concerned with a case study regarding the `rise and fall' of a promotions committee within an Australian College of Advanced Education The paper considers the internal organisational factors involved with the abolition of promotion by merit as part of increasingly dominant managerialist practices The paper attempts to contextualise these institutional developments in terms of the restructuring of the Australian economy and concomitant pressures upon state expenditure and consequent increasing pressures on tertiary education institutions to `pay their own way' The study fits within the `imperialist strategy' within organisational analyses where the study of organisations is "merged within a wider analytical framework geared to the examination of historical transformations in institutional structures and the principles which underlie these long-term historical movements" In the concluding section, some critical remarks are proffered regarding the way senior administrators within tertiary education institutions have responded to these privatisation pressures upon them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To promote better collaboration for patient care, interprofessional education (IPE) is required in many health professions courses. However, successful IPE implementation at scale can be challenging because of complicated logistics and competing priorities. Implementing across multiple geographies adds further complexity. This paper describes the implementation of a full cohort IPE activity for medical and pharmacy students delivered at both the Australian and Malaysian campuses of Monash University. We designed a 150-minute, blended learning activity centred around asthma care for second-year medical and pharmacy students. Student perceptions were measured with a pre- and post-activity survey using the validated ten-item, three-factor, SPICE-R2 instrument. Analysis focused on differences between professions and countries. All second-year medicine (N = 301 in Australia and N = 107 in Malaysia) and pharmacy students (N = 168 in Australia and N = 117 in Malaysia) participated in the learning activity. A total of 326/693 (47%) students participated in the associated research by completing both the pre- and post-activity surveys. The pre-activity survey showed significant differences in four items between medicine and pharmacy students in Australia and two items in Malaysia. Post-activity, we observed significant changes in 8/10 items when the two professions were combined. Specifically, we noted changes across the countries in perceptions of roles and responsibilities for collaborative practice and patient outcomes from collaborative practice. IPE across different professions and countries is feasible. Positive outcomes in role understanding and perceived patient outcomes are achievable through a context-sensitive, locally driven approach to implementation. Longitudinal experiences may be required to influence perceptions of teamwork and team-based care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper outlines a case for the reconfiguration of the public sphere as discursive space, arguing that such a reconfiguration better enables investigations into public debates on education. The paper focuses on one such investigation, which studied one newspaper's reporting of a review of the school curriculum in Queensland, Australia. It employs Critical Discourse Analysis to analyse the interrelationships between policy discourses and the discourses about the review that were constructed in the print media. The paper shows how the dynamic structure of the public sphere enabled discursive connections to be made across sites in order to privilege a shared public discourse on education policy, schools and teachers. In so doing, it demonstrates the capacity of the public sphere to define educational issues and identities in particular ways. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Work placements (including internships) are common in urban and regional planning education but the relevant literature has largely overlooked their assessment and academic standards. To address this gap, the paper presents a study of this topic undertaken within the Australian context. The research involved systematically scoping the status of work placements in planning education in Australia, and exploring the perspectives of participating educators, practitioners and students on appropriate assessment methods and academic standards. We found significant and problematic divergence in these three key stakeholders’ perspectives. The implications of these findings are discussed in a national and international context. The consequent proposition is an approach to assessment and standards that promotes a shared understanding across these key stakeholders. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Recent changes to policies and funding for tertiary education are exacerbating an already difficult situation for refugees aiming to earn university degrees. No one intended to create the barriers that the refugee-background community faces; government agencies continue attempts to improve educational outcomes for those who arrive as refugees. The root causes of this situation are the complexity of the refugee situation and a lack of holistic knowledge about this diverse group of New Zealand residents among policy makers and educators. In addition, the complexity of interactions among policy changes and refugee situations has prevented any single agency from predicting outcomes of its policies for refugee-background students. In this paper, I discuss how new policies interact with a range of existing barriers faced by refugees pursuing degrees and how, without urgent attention, this will constrict or close pathways into and through university study. I further suggest that the strongest foundation for an effective program to provide equitable access to university education is including refugee-background students among those groups who receive equity consideration. [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 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]

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]

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 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]

This paper reports on an investigation into central features of institutional schooling that, collectively, constitute the 'symbolic architecture' of education. In particular, this paper provides an analysis of the practices associated with school uniform, badges and mottoes, drawn from a sample of over 500 schools in the state of Queensland, Australia. The analysis reveals a large degree of uniformity in the meaning content of these school icons, derived from a common core of educational values established during the formative decades of universal school but resting on older heraldic principles. The authors contend that the propagation of these values within the iconic discourse of schooling constitute a significant ideological practice that focuses a pupil's consciousness towards social norms and further reifies the institutional character of education. These processes are not .straightforward but are often contested in instances where pupils recreate mottoes in ways which mock the values that are consecrated in the formal symbols of schooling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Debate on teacher quality and quality in teaching and teacher education has been as vigorous in Australia as it has been in the UK and the USA In Australia, however, reform in teacher education has been subsumed within a national metapolicy of corporate federalism which is an amalgam of beliefs or discourses including neo-corporatism, economic rationalism, corporate managerialism and human capital The paper analyses the most recent document on reform of teacher education in Australia (the Ebbeck Report) and shows how its policy formulation is influenced by the discourse of corporate federalism It also shows how micro-economic reform in this sector is related to reforms in other sectors of education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background:Out-of-field teaching (generally defined as a situation where teachers are appointed to areas or phases of learning for which they have no formal qualifications) is an international phenomenon that can impact on the educational experiences of students. Teachers in rural and difficult to staff schools are frequently appointed out-of-field due to teacher shortages. Their lack of qualifications and experience relevant to their appointment can present significant challenges to their induction within the profession. Purpose:From a broader study of the experiences of teachers appointed to rural and remote government schools in their first years of appointment, out-of-field teaching emerged as a significant issue. This paper examines the experiences of out-of-field teachers in rural Western Australia. Sample:The participants were 29 teachers commencing employment at 17 rural/remote Department of Education schools in Western Australia: six multiple case locations and 11 single case sites were included. Four categories of teachers (young novice, mature aged novice, interstate educated and overseas-educated teachers) were identified as groups frequently recruited to fill vacancies in rural/remote schools. Design and methods:The collective case study was conducted in the qualitative, interpretivist paradigm, seeking to understand the lived experiences of participants. Data were collected through: an initial questionnaire; a series of telephone interviews; site visits; and email contact for up to 15 months. Data were initially analysed using inductive processes generating codes and categories; later, more emergent, grounded theory approaches were used. Findings:Six categories were formulated to describe the fit between participants’ qualifications and experiences and their appointment: role-congruence; role-displacement; phase-displacement; role-stretched and phase-stretched. In this small study, nearly half the participants were assigned to roles and/or phases of learning that were categorised as ‘incongruent’. Mis-assigned teachers were more likely to leave their appointments than role- and phase-congruent participants and more likely to express dissatisfaction with quality of worklife. Conclusions:Out-of-field teaching emerged as an important issue that can impact on teachers’ sense of efficacy and teacher attrition. When teachers are mis-assigned, it is suggested that systems and schools should provide support structures to assist teachers to develop their competence and to reduce the potential negative impact on teachers and learners. The proposed framework for categorising out-of-field teaching is presented as a tool for further exploration within future research in this area. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In the 1970s and 1980s John Carroll published three papers concerned with analysing talk in drama classrooms. It was Carroll's belief that "Drama, by its very nature as a creative force, demands a different sort of discourse from both teacher and pupils in the classroom" (Carroll, 1988). According to Carroll, the act of role-taking in the classroom is central to this. Carroll used socio-linguistic analysis to discuss the particular way in which role-taking affects classroom dynamics and the effect drama has on student learning. Since this early work from Carroll, the detailed analysis of talk in drama has received little attention. In this paper I aim to draw on both this early work by Carroll, and my own recent work using conversation analysis (Freebody, 2009, 2010) to continue the discussion around the significance of drama, role and talk in education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper argues that growing inequalities make it imperative that schools reinvent themselves around the issue of social justice. Through a case study of an Australian primary school, teacher-based forms of social capital are explored revealing progressive pedagogies to be an important precursor to the 'socially just school'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the most pervasive educational issues confronting Australia, and other countries, at the moment is the declining completion rates in high schools. While a period of success was experienced after the Second World War, there is now a pressing need to reform high schools in the ways they connect with young lives. In this paper, we present a 'sociology of the high school' as a way of encapsulating the high school as an institution that: is still largely stuck in a 'continuity of practice' (Elmore, 1987); has an 'attachment to familiar pedagogical routines' (Eisner, 1992); fails to listen to students; is hierarchically structured; treats students in immature ways; is hung up with passing on content; and seems more concerned with insulating itself from, rather connecting with or appropriating, young lives into the curriculum. As an alternative, we examine the notion of middle schooling that requires a version of whole school reform that engages with structures, cultures and changing pedagogy in ways more resonant with, and respectful of, young lives. We examine the tensions and dilemmas experienced at Investigator [1] High School in Australia, and conclude that the centerpiece has to be breaking the mold of the 'scripted' teacher and its replacement by the 'teacher-as-improviser'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Educational outcomes have descended on schools with a ferocity unimaginable a few years ago. We have reached the point where outcomes rhetoric is so deeply embedded in the official discourses of schooling that it appears to be `the only game in town'. This paper outlines the economic rationalist origins of outcomes orientations, and uses an Australian background to expose the pervasive myth about the relationship of outcomes to aspects of leaching and learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Studies of pedagogical relationships offer insights into policies and practices which have the capacity to promote progressive change in educational practice for children in poverty This paper focus on relationships established in three differently-located Australian primary schools. Greytown a medium sized inner-city school in New South Wales, Manger, a large suburban school in Queensland, and Meiks, a small rural school in New South Wales Each school is a designated disadvantage school and finded according through accordingly through a fedral Disadvantage Schools Program, is located in working class area and is ethincally diverse. The schools' pedagogical response to children in poverty are contrasted and analysed in terms of their capacity to contribute to socially just outcome from schooling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Directions in schooling for tribal Aborigines in Australia have long been influenced by psychological and anthropological perspectives. This paper argues that these are inadequate and cannot account for the frequent failure of school to meet community expectations. It is argued that there is a need for new directions based on analysis of the social relations of Aboriginal education. The possibilities opened up by such an analysis are discussed with reference to recent Aboriginal initiatives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this article is to provide primary teachers with effective ways of engaging in drama processes to affirm diversity and to promote inclusive education in regard to cultural and linguistic diversity. It is informed by, and a response to, the ‘cultural and linguistic’ section within the recently revised version of theDrama Australia Equity and Diversity Guidelinesto which both authors contributed. It examines some ways in which recommendations and advice provided within the document can be enacted in primary schools through the use of drama education methods, in particular dramatic storytelling and process drama. Through their work the authors have found that drama techniques and processes can be highly effective in developing understandings of cultural and linguistic diversity within primary schools. By way of illustration this paper also focuses on the findings of a recent PhD project conducted by one of the authors, which focused on the education of pre-service primary teachers in the use of drama techniques to explore cultural identities and linguistic diversity. Specifically, it examined the roles culturally specific oral arts forms, including participatory storytelling (in this instance stories from South African cultures) can play in supporting drama pedagogy and intercultural understanding of pre-service primary teacher candidates and how they can transfer this knowledge to their teaching. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper draws on the personal experience of the author who had been employed as a Youth Arts Manager in a small, desert town in the Northern Territory. In her research honours study during the project for which she was engaged, she aimed to understand the tensions she experienced managing this partnership. Now, five years later, she reconsidered the experience and, placing the concept of culture shock at the forefront of her perspective, came to see the experience in a new light. Kate proposes that understanding protocols is a process embodiment that may be affected by the experience of culture shock, and secondly, that creative processes can be reduced neither to process nor product. Rather, with a clear understanding of aims and objectives as they relate to context, from community development can fruitful artistic partnerships. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article examines the intersection between the senior secondary drama classroom, creativity and neoliberalism. Informed by a research project involving fifteen West Australian drama teachers and thirteen students, it considers the drama classroom as one site where tensions between the performative needs of neoliberal education and the more humanistic desires that drama teachers embody are enacted. This paper suggests that drama education can be a powerfully transformative vehicle for creative and innovative thinking because of its spatially unique classroom environment and embodied nature. However, collisions between rhetoric and reality, social good and economic return, can mean that young people are denied opportunities for choice and the capability development that drama education brings. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Student attrition is an issue of particular concern in the field of ICT because the industry faces staffing shortfalls. The study described in this paper provides further understanding of the causes of attrition from ICT courses by exploring the reasons students give for leaving their ICT courses. An online survey of early leavers from four Australian universities was conducted. The results show that many factors can contribute to the attrition of ICT students, and that for many students it is a combination of issues that leads to their withdrawal. Only a relatively small number of ex-students had experienced serious life events that necessitated their withdrawal. It was much more common for the participants to cite reasons associated with the university environment, the teaching of their ICT course, and their inability to combine their studies with other commitments. Recommendations are made to address issues that could be mitigated by university action. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the data gathered during research into the formation of a regional board of education in Victoria, Australia Two of the issues which arose over the 12-month research period and which were extensively commented on during the second round of interviews are explored The first issue relates to the frustration experienced by, especially, the elected representatives who had joined under the banner of collaborative and participatory decision making, but found in reality that this was not the case The consequent high degree of alienation led many members to resign The second issue relates to the tension between the central administration and the members representing the local community who sought to contest the limitations imposed on them by the central administration`s budgetary guidelines These issues are discussed within the theoretical perspectives offered by O'Connor, Offe and Habermas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Discusses the factors being considered in national curriculum-making in Australia. Trends in the Australian economy; Costs of education in relation to the outcomes of schooling; Integration of education and youth policies.

Background: The extent to which the global financial crisis (GFC) has impacted upon teacher education in universities in Australia is potentially, like most other aspects of teacher education, a contested area. Purpose, aims/questions: The aim of this article is to examine the impact the GFC along with other funding constraints, has had on teacher education in Australia. Sources of evidence: On the surface we could cite some aspects of teacher education which may point to a significant impact of the GFC such as funding from the government not keeping pace with other OECD countries' spending on higher education in general and teacher education in particular, increased pressure to find appropriate practicum placements for students, increased staff/student ratios, reduction of hours for teaching in university courses, obsession with profit margins and cost-driver budget models. However, all of these issues were evident or at least immanent before we started hearing about the GFC. Alistair Mant in his book Intelligent Leadership (Crow's Nest, NSW: Allen and Unwin; 1997) employs the metaphor of frogs and bicycles to describe organisations and systems. Universities and most organisations are in fact more naturally like frogs than bicycles. They are organic in that all parts interact to create the whole and they are complex systems, which are not susceptible to technical, machine-like approaches. A bicycle is a machine and a frog is a living thing. Main argument: Governments view universities as bicycles or machines, and this thinking is further reinforced through the introduction of a market forces model. Teacher education when treated as a bicycle when it is really more of a frog, shows signs of adaptation for as long as it can cope with various bits being cut off, but then will become unsustainable. While the impact of the GFC in Australia generally was much less severe than in many other countries, the continued starving of teacher education of adequate funding over a long period has taken its toll as reflected in unduly high staff student ratios, an over-reliance on casual staffing, insufficient funds to support the requirements of practicum placements, unrealistic staff workloads, lack of succession planning and inability to innovate. Conclusion: The issues discussed in this article are likely to be attributable to a highly successful and prolonged period of economic rationalism and policies, which emanate from New Right ideologies. The influence of neo-conservative and neo-liberal policies is well in evidence in universities generally and in Australia, successive governments have underfunded higher education. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The teacher's body has a dubious status within contemporary pedagogic practice. The impact of progressivism in many western countries, with its emphasis on student-centred learning, has resulted in a marginalisation of the teacher's role in many classrooms. While its influence appears to be waning, in Australian primary schools, student-centred methodologies such as group-based and independent learning tend to dominate classroom practice. Relegated to the role of facilitator the teacher's overall presence and bodily impact in classrooms has been greatly reduced. Drawing on a study of the practice of two kindergarten teachers in two schools in Sydney, Australia, this article will examine the ways in which they embody pedagogic space, the regimen they create and the techniques they employ in teaching their students how to write. In a sense the title 'Disparate bodies' has a dual focus. Not only does it relate to the different ways in which the two teachers deploy their bodies in the classroom, it also refers to the differential embodiment of their students which results from the affects that their teachers' pedagogies engender. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author reviews the relationship between 'literature' and pop culture, arguing that both are part of an intellectual continuum, and that to attempt to extol one and demonise the other is not only based on false and simplistic premises, it is exclusive and destructive. She reminds us that 'All education is based on assumptions about standards and quality. We carry values in our minds that subtly but continually remind us of gradings and shadings of importance and significance.' And that this needs to be acknowledged. Education is not value-neutral, objective or ethically and intellectually pure. She draws attention to 'the dire state of debates about education in Australia', and offers a more positive and proactive agenda is offered for `putting the pop into the literacy'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article we describe the background to the recent development of citizenship education in Australia, Canada and England and then, following an account of our methods, discuss issues arising from an analysis of a sample of textbooks from these countries. We suggest that the current policies to introduce versions of citizenship education have emerged in these countries in the context of diverse challenges to the legitimacy of the nation state. We argue, generally, that all three countries tend, in the textbooks we have examined, to emphasize forms of citizenship education that may submerge citizen empowerment under essentially orthodox agendas. We see differences in textbooks between and within the three countries but argue that, despite many exceptions, we are able to characterize textbooks in Ontario, Canada as education in civics (provision of information about formal public institutions), those in England as education for citizenship (a broad‐based promotion of socially useful qualities) and those in Australia as social studies (societal understanding that emerges from the development of critical thinking skills related to existing academic subjects such as history and English). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bullying and harassment are pervasive problems in schools, with interventions to counter bullying now regarded as a matter of high priority by educational authorities. This article considers the impact of bullying on victim and bully. It also explores the role of peers as bystanders in school bullying. Australian research is described, examining peer perceptions and responses, together with factors associated with bystander behavior. The authors' research suggests that teaching peers to cope may go some way to combating bullying in school by effecting change at the peer group level. Features of a universal coping program are given and common elements of successful antibullying interventions are highlighted. It is clear that peers play a central role in school bullying and teaching young people strategies to cope may be a positive step toward promoting peaceful schools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article describes an action research project undertaken in Australia to confront Eurocentrism in our social work curricula. Our aims, action, and reflections are discussed. Further, we explore the legitimacy of non-indigenous teachers taking action to reconcile indigenous knowledges in curricula. The findings have relevance for international social work education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on discussions with Asian–Australian young women at a mixed-sex, Australia State high school, this article argues that the pro-school conformity of Asian–Australian young women sets them in a problematic and precarious relationship to the material and symbolic and processes of racialisation. The first part of the article identifies the limitations of research into the pro-school/anti-school orientations of minority students, arguing that most accounts are based on theories of culture, acculturation, class and gender, and class and race that neglect an analysis of race and sex. I then argue that practices of racialisation and sexualisation actually sustain pro-school culture and Asian female group associations. While these formations are effective in securing Asian female educational success, they are also problematic because they limit the educational possibilities and employment opportunities of Asian young women in Australia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Discusses the controversy surrounding the Australian School of Pacific Administration (ASOPA) in the 1940s. Reformulation of Australian policy for Papua and New Guinea; Public Service supremacy in policy formation; Establishment of the ASOPA as an intra-departmental training school with restricted objectives.

Teachers in Tasmania, Australia, gave accounts of their experience of increased workload in the 10 years between 1984 and 1994. They reported working longer hours, teaching more students and having increased professional, pastoral and administrative duties. The reasons for this increased workload include: (1) less money being spent on education; (2) changes in student assessment from a norm basis to a criterion basis; (3) a change in the administrative structure within the state colleges in which most respondents teach; (4) a change in the student population. The result, they reported, was that their workload was both increased and extended (intensified), leading to a much more complex workplace. Significantly, complexity was also produced by the attempt of teachers to maintain their professional commitment while adapting to the economic rationalist policies of administrators. However, loss of teachers through redundancy, stress and a move to part-time work has meant that those teachers remaining have had to rationalize their work and reduce their professional commitment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on a research study examining the difference between educational system in Australia and France. The two countries have major differences in the dimensions of the task reflecting different structural frameworks inspite of similarities in the contextual factors associated with increased demand for education. Vocational courses in school, broader range in the senior high school curricula and the practice of selective grade-promotion has led to much higher enrolment rates in full-time education in France. As compared to France, Australia has low rates of full-time participation. A mainly academic curriculum, lack of alternative courses in school and of alternative credentials, reduced accessibility to higher education and the operation of a large TAPE sector engaged in providing part-time training has created social bias in full-time education in Australia. Sex differences are prominent in the vocational systems as well as in the academic programmes in both Australia and France. Apprenticeships are dominated by males in both the countries.

The article analyzes Swedish youth policies and attempts to estimate their cultural relevance to the Australian situation. There is discussion on some of the features of the Swedish welfare state which is significant in understanding the way in which youth policies are integral to national social control policies. Specific Swedish education and training strategies are also discussed. As a model of social democratic rationalism and humanitarianism, the Swedish welfare state has long influenced the western world. The state is responsible for providing Swedish education. Private schools are less in number and are not of much significance. One of the distinctive characteristics of Swedish education is its emphasis on the uniformity of knowledge imparted during the compulsory school years. Apart from that emphasis on the study of languages and use of research findings to help determine policy are other characteristics of Swedish education system. The schooling in Australia is less reflective of a common purpose as compared to Swedish schooling.

The article forecasts the possible educational trends and innovations in Australia by the 1980s. Restrictions to education spending will be more severe as Australians will prefer taxation relief than improved schooling and wide educational opportunity. Decrease in student participation rate beyond the compulsory years of teaching is also expected. Moreover, shift of school policies and governance control from central state bureaucracies to local communities which will result to the increase of articulate participants in educational debates will most likely happen in the said decade.

The article examines the nature of the Australian rural myth, or the idealization of the bushmen, and how this has related to and affected the schooling and the provision of equality of opportunity for rural children. The myth has contributed to the belief that the farmers' problems are unique and that they can expect little understanding or help from the cities. In this respect it has been divisive. The problem for schooling in Australia is to distinguish the real differences from the imagined, since most problems are common to both rural and urban areas. However, the particular adaptations needed to accommodate local needs should be examined, just as much for the rural as for the urban areas. This may require some shift in the control of schooling to the local areas, together with appropriate changes in the attitudes and the preparation of teachers and administrators.

This article presents a case-study related to gender education policy and explores notions of identity and difference in relation to gender and ethnic minority status within the context of Australian schooling. This has been discussed through an examination of education policies related to gender. Feminist theorizations of identity as shifting and unessentialized offer a range of insights most relevant to schooling. In this article, these understandings have been explored most specifically in relation to Australian ethnic minority women and girls whose status as women, ethnic minority and, most often, working class leads many to attribute to them notions of compounded disadvantage and a consequential eagerness to relinquish their subject locations. This assumed eagerness is attributed more so to ethnic minority adolescent schoolgirls because of the understanding of culture clash which has permeated education policy. The construction of ethnicity in Australia has a limited commonality with the blackness and the racism so often referred to in feminist literature concerned with identity and difference.

Australian post-compulsory education policies have been subjected to theoretical critiques which question assumptions behind the articulation of policy. One line of critique derives from Foucault's analysis of power, and makes particular use of the theme of 'docile bodies'. A limitation of these critiques is the adoption of a 'top-down' model of policy which fails to test the model against empirical evidence. This article draws upon recent research evidence 'at the extremities' to test the applicability of Foucault's ideas within the Australian context. The research challenges the monolithic image that results from a 'top down' analysis and counteracts untested assumptions about the inevitability of current policies. While it suggests ways in which Foucault's ideas might enables us to lay bare the disjunctures between policy and its plurality in practice, it also highlights the limitations of Foucault's imagery of power. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article highlights Disadvantaged Schools Program (DSP), a compensatory education for children in poverty. Programs of "compensatory education" for children in poverty were set up in a number of affluent Western countries in the 1960s and 1970s. Little known outside Australia, the Disadvantaged Schools Program (DSP) is one of the few compensatory education programs to operate on a national scale. During the 1950s and 1960s Australian education systems had expanded at breakneck pace, riding an industrial boom and driven by enormous increases in demand at secondary and tertiary level. The idea of a targeted poverty program in education was drawn from the United States and Great Britain, traditionally the two main sources of ideas for Australian education. The result of this conjuncture was that the Disadvantaged Schools Program had a framework derived mainly from overseas poverty programs--it was targeted on a minority and had "compensatory" justification--but also had distinctive local features. First, it was based on the school as its unit of action, not the individual disadvantaged child.

This study explores the relationships between education and the economy. Briefly, the thesis proposes that economic growth and slowdown are associated with different educational experiences of groups of children, with particular types of experiences relating to relative power and the sense of justice held by more powerful individuals and groups. The thesis is explored in an examination of recent developments in Australian education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Marriage rates have now been falling in all Western countries for more than 20 years. Rising levels of wometfs education and employment, extra-marital cohabitation, and separation and divorce both preceded, and continue to accompany, this trend. We apply hazards models to a data-set rich in event-history information in order to study the links between these movements at the level of the individual in Australia. Contra the New Home Economists it transpires that longer education lowers women's propensity to marry, not by providing them with alternative careers to marriage, but by delaying their entry into the marriage market. Again, contra the New Home Economists, employment actually increases women's marriage probabilities. Cohabitation serves variously as an alternative and a prelude to formal marriage. Finally, in contrast with a study of marriage dissolution in Australia, the strengths of factors that variously inhibit or promote marriage, such as women's education and employment, have neither weakened nor strengthened during the recent past. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]