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Much is made of the potential of lifelong learning for individuals and organisations. In this article we tend to make much less of it, certainly with respect to its use in universities to discipline academics. Nevertheless, we argue that academics now need to re-learn the positions they occupy and the stances they take in response to the marketisation of Australian universities. In particular, we suggest that the position of (pure) critique no longer commands attention in Australian contexts of higher education, although the paper does not suggest a disregard for a critical stance purely for the sake of participation. It is in understanding the interconnections between position and stance , and how they might be strategically performed during the everyday practices of academics, that a more promising way of engaging with the venalities of the market is envisaged; a strategy that could be described as 'sailing into the wind'. In discussing these matters, the paper draws on semi-structured interviews with academics located in university faculties/departments/schools of education along Australia's eastern seaboard. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes a new implementation model that bases implementation outcomes on the responses of academics to a new policy. The model is derived from a review of policy and organisational behaviour literature. The model was tested within the context of the implementation of significant reforms aimed at changing the work practices of academics operating in the Australian higher education sector, in particular reforms resulting from the implementation of a quality initiative in the early 1990s, at approximately the same time as the advent of managerialism. The findings were used to modify the original model. The major finding is that the long‐established organisational culture is maintained and reinforced by the actions of senior academics undertaking management responsibilities. As such, the factors organisational culture and leadership combine to form a strong force that acts to mediate proposed organisational changes according to established values and beliefs. The revised model contributes to a better understanding of how academics respond during the implementation of change. The revised model may have relevance for similar types of professionals in public institutions, such as public research institutions, hospitals, schools and some welfare agencies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - To explore the nature (component parts, degree structure) and purpose (intended outcomes) of the Doctor of Business Administration (DBA) degree, identifying the strengths and weaknesses of the degree as they stand presently, using Australian experience. Design/methodology/approach - A review of DBA programme offerings in Australia identified commonalities and differences in these offerings, and provided information necessary to propose strategic and theoretical implications of DBA education. Findings - The paper demonstrates areas of confusion surrounding the purpose and nature of the DBA degree, especially as a research degree in comparison to the PhD. It concludes that quality controls are needed to ensure that this growing addition to management education adds to, and aids, the goal of strengthening management research, in ways that link theoretical insights with management practice. Research limitations/implications - Theoretical and practical implications of the DBA degree are offered, as well as the extent to which the DBA addresses the educational needs of students and its benefits to the university. Practical implications - The paper provides data useful to administrators interested in establishing a DBA degree in their institution, for researchers wishing to further explore and contribute to the discourse regarding the calibre and content of DBA degrees, and for students wishing to learn more about the fundamental differences between the PhD and the DBA. Originality/value - This paper provides new information about the way the DBA degree is developing in an Australian context, and offers advice on issues that need attention in order to further ground the DBA in a combined research and practitioner ethic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The call for the transformation of schools has come at a time when fewer people are seeking the principalship. Some contend that it is rapidly becoming 'mission impossible'. This paper presents a more optimistic view. Scenarios for the future of schools are canvassed. Knowledge management is critically important. Partnerships on an unprecedented scale are proposed. Strategies to build a capacity for leadership at all levels are outlined. Innovation must be balanced by abandonment. Illustrations are drawn from several nations, with particular reference to Australia. Sixteen recommendations are offered along with five strategies for immediate implementation at the school level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The development of professional doctorates in Australia and elsewhere in the 1990s has led to a reconsideration of the nature of the doctoral award. There is evidence in Australia for the emergence of what has been called a second generation of professional doctorates. In this inductive article, the features of the latter are developed from three case studies. Research into an EdD and its subsequent development from a first to a second generation programme are also presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Investigates relationships between school and classroom environment. Explains how in Australian secondary schools, instruments were developed and validated for assessing seven dimensions of school environment (empowerment, student support, affiliation, professional interest, mission consensus, resource adequacy and work pressure) and seven dimensions of classroom environment (student affiliation, interactions, co-operation, task orientation, order and organization, individualization and teacher control). The study involved a sample of 2,211 students in 104 year nine and year 12 religious education and science classes and 208 teachers of religious education and science in Catholic and government secondary schools. Indicates that weak relationship between school and classroom environments emerged, suggesting that the school environment cannot be assumed to transmit automatically to the classroom. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Researchers investigating the decline of potential applicants for principalships have demonstrated that teachers perceive there to be a significant problem in current selection procedures. This article reports an investigation in two Australian states into principal selection. Drawing on a corpus of interviews, two case studies and administrative guidelines, we highlight five key problems in the interview process: (1) the dependence of selection panels on a written application; (2) the dilemma of experience versus potential; (3) the covert rule about the appointment of preferred applicants; (4) the quandary of panel competency; and (5) the evidence of inconsistency of decisions. We argue that the selection process amounts to a reproductive technology which, in the quest for certainty and safety, results in particular kinds of people being successful. This amounts we suggest, whether the selection process is managed by progressive or conservative personnel, to a form of homosociability the tendency to select people just like oneself. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

New demographic patterns as well as new communication and information technologies and administrative and marketing practices have irrevocably altered schools in Australia's large cities. This study examines the ways that teachers and parents in one urban school speak about race and ethnicity in the midst of these changes. Beneath the ironic relationship between difference and sameness which underpins multicultural debate are different understandings that determine ways some belong and some do not belong within the school community. This paradoxical relationship persists, despite increasingly post‐modern definitions of identity that underpin the field of this debate. I conclude that the examination of multicultural curricula must include the normalized ways of knowing and ‘being’ identity, which underpin conversations about race and identity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this article is to review and critique the current state of information literacy education, and propose a way forward. Key developments in the UK, USA and Australia are reviewed, including standards and models of information literacy. The place of information literacy in the higher education curriculum is discussed. Problems with current practice are identified, in particular, prescriptive guidelines which encourage a surface learning approach; delivery by librarians who may lack both educational training and power to influence the curriculum; and poor assessment methods. Alternative approaches are highlighted. A case study of a credit bearing information literacy class, offered by the authors to undergraduates at Strathclyde Business School, is analysed, to argue that information literacy can stand alone as a subject of study, with appropriate learning and teaching methods. The article concludes by proposing models for the information literate student and the information literate university. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article reports on ethnographic field work carried out in Australia in a programme of second chance education aimed at giving people, considered previous failures in mainstream education and with a background of homelessness, access to tertiary education. The programme is an attempt to operationalise a pedagogic strategy for change. It operates on a university site within the School of Nursing and has now been running for six years. Although there is a continuing debate on the link between tertiary education and opportunity in the context of mass tertiary education, all students who participated in this particular programme, see education as both a way out of poverty and a pathway to improving their lives. There is a clear connection for students in this study between education and the ability to live a relatively stable and comfortable life. Groups within the programme quickly become strongly classified by their site preference. Even though people from the different groups within the course have similar backgrounds of disadvantage, the social relations of most classrooms they find themselves in, are framed in such a way as to discourage the sharing of their own experiences and hopes for the future. In this way, some groups are unable to access a more successful group's thinking or language as their own in constructing strategies for success within the course.