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This paper examines responses to the trend for increasing participation in tertiary education, linking developments in higher education with those in apprenticeship systems, in Australia and the United Kingdom. In both sectors, expansion proceeded for several decades, but was robustly criticised in both countries. The expansion of access to these two forms of tertiary education, therefore, was contested and potentially precarious. The paper finds, through analysis of official data, that participation in higher education and in apprenticeship was actually almost static, or fell, in both countries in the 2010s. Yet criticism of expansion continued in media commentary during this decade. The paper both explains and takes issue with the arguments against expansion, which have been influential in both sectors. It discusses some ways forward to understand the phenomenon better, and also the need to address the problems caused by the restriction of opportunities. Comparative analysis between the two sectors has not previously been undertaken. It is argued in the paper that such analysis enriches the theoretical lenses through which expansion of access may be viewed, and that it may suggest avenues for future research, and perhaps, for advocacy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a review of the literature relating to hard-to-reach families which has been published over the last 12 years in the UK, USA, Canada and Australia. The purpose of the review was twofold: to gain insights to understandings of the term ‘hard-to-reach’ within these services – education, health and social – which might be aiming to access such families in order to help them improve their life chances and to explore the ways in which services have been successful in engaging the families. A consistent message to emerge from the review is that complex issues need complex solutions which in turn need time to implement. Additionally, it is clear that services need to develop diversity of support provision in order to meet the varying needs of families and that services need to develop a shared script for working with them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The nursing profession has experienced significant change over the last 100 years. Consequently, the work-force of the 21st century is a diverse entity that is edging toward the specialization of nurses in a specific clinical setting. In such an environment, a common knowledge base is demanded of nurses - a factor that has affected the development of second level, or enrolled nurses (ENs). The forces at play raise questions about nursing roles and scopes of practice. The establishment of education pathways that promote career development has been the stimulus for conversations about the effectiveness of the transition of EN to registered nurse (RN). This paper presents a review of the literature that identifies and explores common emerging themes (making the move from EN; adapting to Bachelor of Nursing; transitioning to RN) associated with this transition through the process of undertaking baccalaureate studies in nursing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on the history of relations between colonialism, schooling and social change in Australia, Papua New Guinea and Ireland, countries that were once part of the British Empire. It indicates that responses to schooling ranged from acceptance and tolerance, to modification and rejection, depending on the country, the issue, and the historical period. There were also differences in the historical connections in schooling between Britain itself and each country: regarding Australia, the relationship was predominantly unidirectional, from the centre to the Antipodes; in PNG British educational ideas which arrived were filtered through the Australian administration; while in Ireland, British initiatives in schooling contributed not only to social change there, but also helped produce loyal personnel to work in Britain and the colonies. Attention is also given to areas of interdependence and interconnectedness, and to illustrating how conducting such case studies is important in order to help counter alternative interpretations promoted by powerful sectors in society in the interest of reproducing their social privilege. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Assembling 10 essays from around the globe which engage variously with the space in which food preparation occurs - the kitchen - revealed stunning diversity but also commonalities. In this first of two sets of theme papers on this vital but often unexamined domestic space, the discourse of modernity unites the look and use of twentieth-century kitchens in Australia, Britain and Finland. Imbued with notions of scientific management, the modern kitchen had some common designs which prescribed women's place within it - first as the main occupant and then as the family overseer. The construction of this semi-private space also involved particular domestic technologies which, as the new century dawns, now literally connect the kitchen to the world beyond via the internet fridge. This Introduction begins the two-part feast of gender, place and culture - with an overview of Australia and sketch of subsequent essays - Supski on mid-century migrant Australia, Saarikangas on Finland, Bennett on rural Britain and Watkins on the fridge. [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]