103 results on '"Seddon, P."'
Search Results
2. Context-Dependent Memory: Do Changes in Environmental Context Cues Affect Student Recall?
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Seddon, Michael
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This study concerned an action research project undertaken within a mainstream 11-18 secondary school with a high proportion of pupil premium students in the north of England. Pupil premium is a grant given by the government to schools in England to decrease the attainment gap for the most disadvantaged children, whether by income or by family upheaval. The purpose was to investigate whether context-dependent memory impacts student recall during examinations. Students were tested within their standard classroom environment, then moved to a different environment for their second test. The results of this were statistically analysed and compared between genders and school years. The study demonstrated an impact, with students performing statistically worse when tested in an area that is removed from their standard environmental classroom context. Gender was shown to have no impact upon the effects, however, the school year was. Year 7 students were less affected than all other years. The reasons for this are unclear. There were limitations within this study, primarily with ensuring the examination papers were similar enough to act as a control variable. With the range of new topics introduced between the two sets of exams, students had a greater breadth of required knowledge. It was plausible therefore that there were other factors influencing the students' poorer performance. More research will need to be undertaken to establish that is the change in context that causes lower performance.
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- 2019
3. Examining the Formation and Evolution of University and School Partnerships across Four Case Studies
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Heffernan, Troy, Manton, Claire, Seddon, Terri, Kostogriz, Alexander, and Barbousas, Joanna
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Current research suggests partnerships between universities and schools create learning advantages for pre-service and beginning teachers while opening new research avenues and school relationships for academics and universities. This paper argues that these findings are often based on a business-orientated definition of 'partnership' and originate from studies that examine partnerships which are frequently based in North America and Europe. Thus, the existing studies often focus on partnerships that create learning advantages, but only in profitable or scalable ways that might lead to formal or enhanced collaborations. This paper critically examines the literature and problematises their findings amongst four case studies of partnerships of various sizes and levels of bureaucracy to determine if the literature's broader conclusions remain true when applied to less business-driven views of partnerships that consider 'partnership' in a broader definition. The paper makes a scholarly contribution by informing the audience of what benefits can come to those involved in school and university partnerships of different sizes, and when not preoccupied with creating partnerships for immediate or potential profit.
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- 2021
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4. Australian School-University Partnerships: The (Dis)Integrated Work of Teacher Educators
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Manton, Claire, Heffernan, Troy, Kostogriz, Alex, and Seddon, Terri
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The Australian government now mandates initial teacher education (ITE) providers to form partnerships with schools in order to maintain accreditation. The emphasis on partnerships as the crucial means of improving ITE is not new, and a body of literature from the Australian context describes a vast number of partnerships that have been enacted over the past few decades. In this literature, however, the specific work arrangements and practices of teacher educators are generally overlooked. And yet, it is the work of teacher educators that is critical in initiating and sustaining these partnerships. This paper seeks to address this disparity by employing the theoretical framework of practice architecture to consider the role of the teacher educator in partnership work. We have found that the ways in which the work of teacher educators is constrained in cultural-discursive, material-economic and social-political domains significantly impact the possibility of "enduring" partnerships with schools.
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- 2021
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5. University Enabling Programs While Still at School: Supporting the Transition of Low-SES Students from High School to University
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Vernon, Lynette, Watson, Stuart J., Moore, William, and Seddon, Sarah
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University participation rates are significantly lower in low socioeconomic status (SES) areas in Australia. Specifically, rates differ between-schools and within-schools, where inequalities in opportunities to access university pathway programs exist. The aim of this study was to test whether academic encouragement supported students' school satisfaction and increased their desire for, expectation of and belief in the possibility of university study and whether differences were evident depending on pathway of study: the ATAR pathway versus a Year 12 access enabling pathway program called TLC110. A sample of 257 high school students (58% female) from 18 high schools, within a low-SES area of outer metropolitan Perth, Western Australia, were surveyed. Teacher encouragement was found to be positively associated with school satisfaction and, in turn, supported university desire, expectation and belief for ATAR students but not for TLC110 students. Qualitative data were collected (n = 9) to contextualise the inclusivity of TLC110 for high school students from low-SES backgrounds to support aspirations for university.
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- 2019
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6. Towards a Culture of Scholarly Practice in Mixed-Sector Institutions. Research Report
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National Centre for Vocational Education Research, Williams, Melanie, Goulding, Fleur, and Seddon, Terri
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Scholarship is readily seen as a requirement in higher education and is not commonly associated with vocational education and training (VET) institutions. However, the increasing prevalence of VET institutions delivering higher education qualifications has raised questions as to the place of scholarship in these institutions. This report uses Boyer's four forms of scholarship--delivery, integration, application and teaching--to explore how scholarship is implemented across the different tertiary education sectors. Whilst the VET sector may not use the term "scholarship", aspects of these four forms are being practised. The authors conclude with a number of strategies to enhance scholarly practice in VET institutions. Appended are: (1) Limitations of the research; (2) Professional versus scholarly practice; and (3) Areas for further research. (Contains 3 tables and 2 footnotes.)
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- 2013
7. Visualising the European Space of Education: Analytic Borderland, Transnational Topologies and Spaces of Orientation
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Barbousas, Joanna and Seddon, Terri
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Studies of europeanisation have made a significant contribution to knowledge about education and how it has respatialised since the turn of the 21st century. This line of inquiry initially historicised the 1990s as a means of researching the emerging European space of education, but then morphed into studies of governing through the field of comparative policy studies. The research on governing Europe made the space of education visible in particular ways, which raises questions about the space of experiencing Europe: specifically, about how education is seen by professionals and with what effects. This paper uses the concept of 'space-time' to investigate the respatialisation of education. We review three case studies that historicise the europeanisation of education to problematise the space of governing, conceptualise the space of experience at three scales and illustrate how these entangled transnational topologies, analytic borderlands and spaces of orientation re-made the space of visual education in the 1920s.
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- 2018
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8. Social Partnerships: Practices, Paradoxes and Prospects of Local Learning Networks
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Seddon, Terri, Clemans, Allie, and Billett, Stephen
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This paper discusses the formation, character and contradictions of social partnerships. We report on a specific initiative, the Local Learning and Employment Networks (LLEN) established by the Victorian Government in Australia in 2001, documenting the nature of this initiative and how it is playing out. We draw attention to some of the tensions that exist between different agencies, including different agencies within government. Through this detailed case study it is possible to identify parallels between LLEN and other social partnership initiatives developing in other parts of the world. This process of situating a specific Australian partnership within the wider trend to social partnerships permits a more contextualised analysis. It shows the way social partnerships are developing as a consequence of education reform shaped by neo-liberal governance and various patterns of compliance and resistance to this political rationality.
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- 2005
9. Social Partnerships in Vocational Education: Building Community Capacity
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National Centre for Vocational Education Research, Leabrook (Australia)., Seddon, Terri, and Billett, Stephen
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Social partnerships provide communities with the capacity to address problems, such as community breakdown, unemployment and social exclusion. This report analyses the types of social partnerships that involve education in community contexts. It identifies that partnerships are complex and multi-layered and successful partnerships require: acknowledgement and negotiation of the interests and expectations of all participants; development of resource and support structures; recognition of volunteer contributions; and, development of outcomes that recognise the full range of achievements and success within the partnership. The implication of the range and nature of social partnerships and their effect on VET policy are also discussed in the report. Appended are: (1) Forty social partnerships; (2) Trigger questions for case study interviews; and (3) Models of partnership. (Contains 2 figures.)
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- 2004
10. A Literature Review on Youth and Citizenship. CPRN Discussion Paper.
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Canadian Policy Research Networks Inc., Ottawa (Ontario)., Beauvais, Caroline, McKay, Lindsey, and Seddon, Adam
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Using the yardsticks of independence and equality, an analysis of the literature on youth from a citizenship perspective can track youth's citizenship status and capacity to become full citizens. For young people, education is an avenue to either exclusion or independence and equality. For example, dropouts are more likely to live in poverty, and economic independence is considered key to achieving full citizenship. Exclusion exists in the school system, as schools continue to stream young women into traditional career paths and allow racial discrimination. Schools fail to provide the knowledge and capacity to make informed, intelligent choices about substance abuse and sexuality. Access to education, student debt, and labor market conditions delay economic independence. Young people face discrimination due to age and membership in a particular community. Examples of differential treatment are found in the areas of work, medicine, social services, and legal system. Their right to protection from harm is infringed upon most by the transportation system and societal problems related to gender, poverty, and marginalization. Having hope for the future and feelings of belonging influence youth participation in politics and resistance to marginalization through formation of subcultures and via political protest. The notion of precariousness best captures the experience of youth citizenship with respect to exercise of rights and responsibilities, access, and belonging. (Appendixes include a 271-item bibliography and roundtable summary.) (YLB)
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- 2001
11. Teachers and Decentralisation. Papers Prepared for the National Industry Education Forum Seminar (Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, August 1994).
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Whitty, Geoff and Seddon, Terri
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This publication contains two papers on the implications of school decentralization for teacher education, student achievement, and democracy. The first paper, "Devolution in Education Systems: Implications for Teacher Professional Development and Pupil Performance" (Geoff Whitty), explores the way education reform movements for decentralization have developed generally by looking at how reforms have worked in England with some cross references to experiences in New Zealand and the United States. In doing so it reviews several studies and discusses the context in which reforms were installed. The conclusion notes that the overall benefits are not yet apparent and that reforms seem to intensify the links between educational and social inequality. The paper also notes that these reforms were part of a larger Thatcherite political project that must have influenced their effects. The second paper, "Decentralisation and Democracy" (Terri Seddon), argues that current educational reform is limited by its neglect of the interdependencies of development, democracy, and education; and that the character of decentralization is the key issue for debate. In three sections the paper comments on contemporary educational reform in Australia, discusses the consequences of decentralization for democracy, and suggests a way to reframe the problem of education reform to recognize the interdependency of development and democracy. (Contains 53 references.) (JB)
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- 1994
12. Restructuring Australian Education and Revolutions in Central and Eastern Europe.
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Seddon, Terri
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Offered as a guide to action in uncertain times, this paper reviews literature on Australian educational restructuring and recent revolutions in east central Europe. The questions asked in both sets of literature differ; however, those posed by the revolutions in eastern Europe have a more directional focus. The research questions posed by the eastern European literature are applied to an analysis of educational restructuring in Australia. The main argument contends that transformation, which lies at the core of the eastern central European social revolutions, is the key to contemporary politics of education. If Australian educational research is to act as a guide to action, an analysis of education in relation to social theory and to a sociology of transformation is necessary. Such research would both explain probable futures and postulate preferred futures toward which to work. (Contains 43 references.) (LMI)
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- 1992
13. Sustainable Development and Social Learning: Re-Contextualising the Space of Orientation
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Seddon, Terri
- Abstract
In the lead-up to the 2007 Australian federal election, Labor candidate Kevin Rudd described climate change as the "great moral challenge of our generation". In the years since then, the heat in Australia has been rising--in terms of both temperature and climate politics--, but government action has slowed down. Endorsement of economic growth is prioritised, with only intermittent recognition of environmental costs. At grassroots level, citizens' attitudes are influenced by social norms. This kind of social learning is a major constraint on sustainability. Therefore, it seems useful to consider how educators might help build sustainable futures. To understand how historical context entangles social learning in ways that complicate policies associated with Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) and practices of Education for Sustainability (EfS), the author of this paper draws on the concept of "space of orientation". Focusing on adult education, she traces the contradiction between "globalisation" and "sustainability" through policy logics, relational practices in Australian adult education and the "necessary utopia" which provides a point of reference for making futures. She argues that spaces of orientation are a critical resource in this era of intensifying conflicts of interest between economic priorities of globalisation and environmental priorities intended to slow global warming, because they mediate context and orient learning in ways that clear a path towards sustainability through the entangled histories of this present.
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- 2016
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14. Methodological Considerations in Evaluating Long-Term Systems Change: A Case Study From Eastern Nepal
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Koleros, Andrew, Jupp, Dee, Kirwan, Sean, Pradhan, Meeta S., Pradhan, Pushkar K., Seddon, David, and Tumbahangfe, Ansu
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This article presents discussion and recommendations on approaches to retrospectively evaluating development interventions in the long term through a systems lens. It is based on experiences from the implementation of an 18-month study to investigate the impact of development interventions on economic and social change over a 40-year period in the Koshi Hills region of Nepal. A multi-disciplinary team used a mixed-methods approach to data collection and analysis. A theory-based analytical approach was utilized to produce narratives of plausible cause and effect and identify key drivers of change within the context of cumulative and interconnected impacts of multiple programs and factors. This article responds to increasing interest in development evaluation to look beyond intervention-specific impact to broader determinants of change to assist with intervention planning. It is the authors' hope that this will stimulate debate and progress in the use of high quality research to inform future development work.
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- 2016
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15. Parents Influencing Secondary Students' University Aspirations: A Multilevel Approach Using School-SES
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Watson, Stuart, Vernon, Lynette, Seddon, Sarah, Andrews, Yolanda, and Wang, Angela
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Students' university aspirational capacity and expectancies are key factors in predicting future university participation. Aspirations and expectations to attend university are strongly influenced by parent educational socialisation and school culture. This study investigates associations between students' university discussions with parents and their aspirations and expectations for university, and whether this link is particularly salient for students from disadvantaged schools. As well, differences in students' exposure to university are examined. Students (N = 548, 57% female) from Perth's south-west metropolitan region in Western Australia were surveyed. Multilevel analysis revealed that students from low socio-economic status (SES) schools who reported more frequent university discussions with parents had higher aspirations and expectations for university than students from similar SES schools who had fewer university discussions with parents. Furthermore, university discussions with parents predicted higher levels of aspirations for university and this link is stronger for students from lower SES schools. The effect of school-SES for the university expectations model was similar, though of weaker influence. Exposure to university is greater for students in high-SES schools. Therefore, students and parents in low-SES areas may benefit by increasing university exposure to develop knowledge and discussions about university, and support aspirations to grow expectations to attend university.
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- 2016
16. Re-Making Education in Contexts of Uncertainty: Governing, Learning and Contextual Understanding
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Seddon, Terri
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The euphemism "21st century contexts" is often used to capture the transition from solid twentieth century education towards more uncertain social and educational conditions. These contextual narratives acknowledge the complexities of contemporary education that make decision-making, professional practice and leadership seem difficult. But they rarely explain the context of uncertainty, which, as research suggests, is linked to rapid change in practices of governing and their effects on nation states, the inter-state order, and established national educational knowledge-authority orders. This disjuncture raises questions about how, and with what effects, contexts shape educators ways of knowing and doing education. I use the concept of "educational space-time" to understand how educators contextual understandings are implicated in educational change by drawing examples from studies of educational change in different historical periods and governing regimes. I argue that the way educators navigate change and uncertainty has effects on learning and citizenship but should also acknowledge the effects of changes in governing regimes. Contextual understandings that acknowledge shifts in governing-learning regimes can open the way to educational work that is not locked into binary choices between territorial government or multilateral governance.
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- 2015
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17. Programme Recruitment and Evaluation: The Effect of an Employability Enhancement Programme on the General Self-Efficacy Levels of Unemployed Graduates
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Hazenberg, R., Seddon, F., and Denny, S.
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This paper reports research that engaged in the evaluation of an intervention programme designed to enhance the employability of a group of unemployed graduates. The evaluation adopted a quasi-experimental intervention research method employing a general self-efficacy scale, which had been validated in prior research. Results revealed that participants displayed higher levels of GSE after engagement in the programme. Results also revealed the effect of "behavioural plasticity" on the intervention experiences of unemployed graduate participants. The findings of this study are discussed in relation to programme design, recruitment and evaluation.
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- 2015
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18. Renewing Sociology of Education? Knowledge Spaces, Situated Enactments, and Sociological Practice in a World on the Move
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Seddon, Terri
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Sociology of education is caught in a dilemma. The study of education and society that unfolded through the twentieth century produced educational vocabularies that spoke into education policy and practice about inequality and social justice. Now that sociologically informed educational discourse is marginalised by individualistic economic-psychological vocabularies that read inequality as individual deficits and aspirations. The question is, how can sociology of education speak into contemporary educational knowledge and construct vocabularies that re-open dialogue about social justice? In this article, the concept of "knowledge space" is used to understand the situated enactment of sociological practice that disciplines sociological knowledge about education. A mobile methodology is used to report on three knowledge spaces that locate sociological practice and frame sociological knowledge. The article argues that global transitions have re-scaled and re-ordered the relation between the sovereign and governmental spatial powers that previously centred education. These shifts trouble education and its perceived applications, and also divide national from supra-national sociologies of education. Reconciling these sociologies requires studies of intersecting spaces, scales and the mobilities that fabricate educations and societies. It demands explicit attention to methodological choices, but also offers spaces of possibilities for renewing sociology of education as a powerful discourse.
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- 2014
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19. A 'Moot' for Educational Research in Europe?
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Hoveid, Marit Honerod, Keiner, Edwin, and Seddon, Terri
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For many years the EERJ Roundtable has been a standing event within the European Conference on Educational Research (ECER). In a discursive style it addresses issues related to contemporary relationships between educational research and educational policy in Europe. The changing educational landscape, together with shifting practices and discourses of educational research, prompted researchers to discuss the need for increased self-governance. It was taken up as the topic for the 2013 EERJ Roundtable and couched as a question: What is the possibility of a "moot" for educational research in Europe? This article reports on the 2013 Roundtable. Its three short presentations and subsequent audience discussion have been summarised and reflected upon to make a case for a moot: a self-governing space for educational research. It reveals ECER, and particularly the EERJ Roundtable, as a scholarly and a political arena where the interplay between research, policy and larger patterns of social change can be reviewed, interrogated and appropriated critically into the disciplinary logics of educational research.
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- 2014
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20. Making Educational Spaces through Boundary Work: Territorialisation and 'Boundarying'
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Seddon, Terri
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Globalising processes are shifting the established nation-building project of twentieth-century national education systems. This historic axis between education and territorialised state power is being re-spatialised and remade as a globally networked, lifelong learning educational order. Political sociology of education theorises these de- and re-territorialising trajectories; yet the practical processes of remaking educational spaces are less well documented. The concept of "boundary work" provides a lens for understanding the interplay between political and sociological processes that remake educational spaces over time and scale. Analysing two visions of education at the start of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, I track the shifting configuration of actors and processes involved in boundary work. I argue that educational spaces are "things of boundaries" and lifelong learning reforms indicate processes of boundary work involving emergent educational actors: "professionals-who-educate".
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- 2014
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21. Educational Work: The Educational Boundary Politics of Making 'Citizens'
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Seddon, Terri
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Contemporary global transitions are remaking education as a social institution and re-positioning educators in a lifelong learning political order. In this paper, I reflect on a research project that investigated the teaching occupation in learning societies in order to explain the concept of "educational work": the form of labour that makes, orients and enacts spaces, which yield learning and build citizen capabilities. I report on a case study of educational work in a global-national lifelong learning space, a small private training provider in Melbourne to illustrate this analysis. The analysis reveals how educators formed, supported and secured an educational space for learning, and its effects on citizen capabilities. I argue that the transition from the political order of public education re-frames and reforms education and the labour of educating that historically formed citizens but it does not dissolve educational work, or the importance of securing citizen capabilities. Understanding "educational work" as a practice of governing and a contradictory process of making "subjects" and "citizens" reframes the debate about "education" and "training" and highlights its continuing importance as a means of securing democratic politics.
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- 2014
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22. Globalization and Academic's Workplace Learning: A Case Study in China
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Wang, Xuhong and Seddon, Terri
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Globalization is the major confronting challenge of higher education worldwide. And internationalization has become a response of higher education to meet the demands and challenges of globalization. In the recent decades, Chinese government has developed different policies to steer education reforms in order to achieve the aim of internationalization. The internationalizing process has produced contradictory changes in academic workplaces. This study explores how globalizing processes affect academic work and academics' workplace learning in China. It reports on a series of policy changes, and the effects of these policies on the workplace learning of academics. The changing policies positively affect academics by bringing rich information and resources to their workplaces. But at the same time, academic work is becoming increasingly restrictive and controlled. The self-interests of the academics are reconstituted in terms of the interests of government and university, producing tension in academics' workplaces. Moreover, the conflicts among different policies cause confusion. We argue that the changing policies in relation to the internationalization of higher education have affected academics in both positive and negative ways. Therefore, there is a call for policy-makers to adjust the existing policies in order to create a better policy environment for academics.
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- 2014
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23. Who Is Conducting Educational Research in Australia and How Can Their Work Be Supported?
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Bennett, Dawn, Smith, Erica, Bennett, Sue, Chan, Philip, Bobis, Janette, Harrison, Neil, Seddon, Terri, and Shore, Sue
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Educational research has long been the subject of lively and agitated debate, not least because of its diversity. Ranging in scope from academic development and broad-scale policy research through to student engagement and discipline-specific research, it includes methods of traditional academic inquiry and investigations and also less traditional modes of research. However, the topography of Australian educational research and the characteristics of the people who undertake this complex body of work are currently unclear. This paper explores some of the complexities of the Australian research community, drawing on the findings of a national online survey of academics who identified as researching in the field of education from within and outside education schools and faculties. The survey attracted 504 responses from 38 of Australia's 39 universities, and just over two-thirds of respondents were located in a school or faculty of education. We draw on the results to answer the questions of who is undertaking educational research and who how they might be supported. We utilise a conceptual model that "segments" the educational research workforce represented by the survey respondents, and we conclude by indicating strategies that might be utilised to address research barriers indicated by educational researchers.
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- 2013
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24. Changing Boundaries--Shifting Identities: Strategic Interventions to Enhance the Future of Educational Research in Australia
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Harrison, Neil, Bennett, Sue, Bennett, Dawn, Bobis, Janette, Chan, Philip, Seddon, Terri, and Shore, Sue
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This paper reflects on the geography of Australian educational research in the context of the ERA 2010 and 2012 assessments results. These results reflect significant changes to the nature of educational research over the past decades, where this research is conducted and by whom. We recap the historical changes to the formation of educational institutions and their impact on research outputs to demonstrate that interdisciplinary work is growing in a context where there has been a shift in research outputs away from the traditional area of school education. The ERA results demonstrate a high level of research activity in the intersections between previously distinct discipline areas, particularly in the scholarship of teaching and learning. The future of ERA itself is addressed in order to propose interventions that might make a difference to an ecology that is anchored in traditions and tends towards inertia. Finally, we argue that efforts by universities to build research capacity are likely to continue to be competitive, to focus on the individual rather than on departments and schools, and to be subject to an increasingly pervasive culture of accountability. Against this discourse of accountability, and an accompanying loss in autonomy and creative "think-time", we propose that academics in education actively engage in a community of research. We conclude with interventions designed to build a high-quality, analytical and theoretically intensive research culture to underscore educational research in Australia.
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- 2013
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25. Education Research Australia: A Changing Ecology of Knowledge and Practice
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Seddon, Terri, Bennett, Dawn, Bennett, Sue, Bobis, Janette, Chan, Philip, Harrison, Neil, and Shore, Sue
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Processes of national research assessment, such as Excellence in Research for Australia (ERA) are a type of audit technology that confronts and steers established institutional identities and traditions. This nexus between policy and practice drives boundary work that diffracts prevailing policy logics, organisational practices, and habits of mind. We use this notion of "boundary work" as an analytical lens for understanding the nature and effects of ERA in the Australian educational research space. This paper explains the methodology that informed the AARE-ACDE research reported in Strategic Capacity Building for Australian Educational Research. It documents the policy logic of ERA and the way it cuts across the established ecology of educational research, revealing social and symbolic work that is remaking the boundaries of educational research. We report on the historical trajectory of Australian educational research, the way ERA codes research outputs, and how educational researchers are repositioning in this shifting research space. We argue that there are specific loci of boundary work where capacity building in Australian educational research can make a difference to future educational knowledge building.
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- 2013
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26. Living in a 2.2 World: From Mapping to Strategic Capacity Building for Australian Educational Research
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Harrison, Neil and Seddon, Terri
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The results of Australia's first national research assessment, excellence for research in Australia, provoked considerable discussion about the state of educational research in Australia. Understanding the nature of this field of research became the focus for empirical research and analysis that was intended to inform strategic planning. This paper provides an overview of the articles in this special issue, bringing together research on Australian educational research and insights from international researchers who research the effects of research assessment in educational research in their own countries. These sources inform a commentary on Australian educational research and suggest an agenda for further action on strategic capacity building for Australian educational research.
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- 2013
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27. Education Research in Australia: Where Is It Conducted?
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Bobis, Janette, Shore, Sue, Bennett, Dawn, Bennett, Sue, Chan, Phillip, Harrison, Neil, and Seddon, Terri
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Research assessment exercises aim to identify research quantity and quality and provide insights into research capacity building strategies for the future. Yet with limited knowledge of the ecology of Australian educational research, there is little chance of understanding what research audits might contribute towards a capacity building agenda for such a complex field. This paper draws on secondary data analysis of research outputs submitted by 13 Australian higher education institutions to the "Excellence in Research for Australia" (ERA) 2010 and 2012 national research assessment exercises, to show where Australian educational research is conducted. Findings offer a profile of education researchers by location in academic organisational units within universities. By analyzing data not accessible through reported ERA data we were also able to present information about appointment profiles, specifically levels and type of appointment within universities, as well as data on institutional and geographic region, and patterns associated with type of outputs (books, book chapters, journal articles, conference papers and other outputs) and field of research. Analysis of the data reveals definitive shifts in the nature of the published outputs and in employment profiles of researchers and their location across university and regional groupings. Research audits are administrative processes that reshape institutional and disciplinary governance structures, policies, individual outputs, work practices and careers, but they are not the sum total of the field per se.
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- 2013
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28. Effects of an Employment Enhancement Programme on Participant NEETs
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Seddon, Fr, Hazenberg, Richard, and Denny, Simon
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The research examined the effects on participants of an employment enhancement programme (EEP), which was delivered by a work-integration social enterprise in an area of high unemployment in the South-East of England. The EEP was designed to increase the employability of young people aged 16-24 years who are not in employment, education or training (NEET). In order to measure the effects of the EEP on the participants, 24 NEET young people completed questionnaires designed to measure their general self-efficacy (GSE) before and after (Time 1 and Time 2) their engagement in the EEP. Fifteen of the original 24 NEETs also took part in semi-structured interviews with a researcher at Time 1 and Time 2. Results of the analysis of the questionnaire data revealed a statistically significant increase in the levels of GSE for the 24 participants after engagement in the EEP. Results of the analysis of the interview data with 15 participants revealed eight overall themes, four at Time 1 and four at Time 2. The triangulation of the quantitative and qualitative results of this research revealed the psychological benefits to this NEET group of young people after engagement in the EEP. (Contains 1 table and 2 figures.)
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- 2013
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29. ICT-Supported, Scenario-Based Learning in Preclinical Veterinary Science Education: Quantifying Learning Outcomes and Facilitating the Novice-Expert Transition
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Seddon, Jennifer M., McDonald, Brenda, and Schmidt, Adele L.
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Problem and/or scenario-based learning is often deployed in preclinical education and training as a means of: (a) developing students' capacity to respond to authentic, real-world problems; (b) facilitating integration of knowledge across subject areas, and; (c) increasing motivation for learning. Six information and communication technology (ICT) supported, scenario-based learning (SBL) problems using case studies that integrated information across subject areas were implemented in a second-year genetics course for undergraduate veterinary science students and linked to educational outcomes. On a post-implementation questionnaire, students appreciated the use of authentic scenarios but login records indicated variable engagement among students. Comparison of learning outcomes from SBL-supported and non-SBL-supported content (within and across student cohorts) indicated that exposure to SBL generated quantifiable improvements in learning in both high and low ability students. Despite this, students did not perceive that the SBL activities improved their learning. Thus, ICT-supported SBL have the potential to reinforce connectivity of content across a range of pre-clinical courses, but to facilitate a genuine novice to expert transition may require consideration of students' perceptions of scenario relevance, their confidence, and how students of differing learning styles engage with such activities. (Contains 2 tables and 4 figures.)
- Published
- 2012
30. Making Space for VET Learning after the Bradley Review: Rethinking Knowledge to Support Inclusion and Equity
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Pardy, John and Seddon, Terri
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The relationship between higher education and vocational education and training in Australia is under discussion as a result of the Bradley Review of Higher Education. This reform process, which is intended to create a more inclusive, mass tertiary education sector, has significant implications for VET. This article examines the implications of this reform agenda for pedagogy and the different knowledge traditions that are conveyed through learning cultures, which have developed differently in higher education and VET. We draw on recent theorisations of craft and craftsmanship to critique the persistence of the mental-manual division of knowing that underpins relations between VET and university learning. Approaching craft as an integrated form of knowing, we suggest that VET pedagogy supports the development of "knowing practice" and recognises open conceptions of knowledge that can engage learners who, traditionally, have not gone to university. We argue that the distinctive learning cultures associated with VET may be at risk in an emerging tertiary education landscape where current debates about knowledge and knowing privilege intellectual ability and are often blind to other forms of knowledge and knowing. (Contains 1 table.)
- Published
- 2011
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31. Challenges for Academic Accreditation: The UK Experience
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Shearman, Richard and Seddon, Deborah
- Abstract
Several factors (government policy, demographic trends, employer pressure) are leading to new forms of degree programmes in UK universities. The government is strongly encouraging engagement between universities and employers. Work-based learning is increasingly found in first and second cycle programmes, along with modules designed by employers and increasing use of distance learning. Engineering faculties are playing a leading part in these developments, and the Engineering Council, the engineering professional bodies and some universities are collaborating to develop work-based learning programmes as a pathway to professional qualification. While potentially beneficial to the engineering profession, these developments pose a challenge to traditional approaches to programme accreditation. This paper explores how this system deals with these challenges and highlights the issues that will have to be addressed to ensure that the system can cope effectively with change, especially the development of individually tailored, work-based second cycle programmes, while maintaining appropriate standards and international confidence.
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- 2010
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32. Strategies Students Adopted when Learning to Play an Improvised Blues in an E-Learning Environment
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Seddon, Frederick and Biasutti, Michele
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In this investigative study, the authors sought to reveal the learning strategies adopted by participants as they learned to play a 12-bar improvised blues with both hands together on a musical keyboard in an e-learning environment. There were 3 participants, 2 female and 1 male. Participants' average age was 21 years. They worked individually in an e-learning environment with the assistance of "Blues Activities" text and supporting audio material. A remote facilitator was available via e-mail to provide advice, support, and encouragement during and after each of the learning sessions. Video observation techniques were employed, and a coding scheme emerged via a qualitative analysis procedure. A time analysis of the video data based on the emergent coding scheme revealed the percentages of time participants spent in five distinct learning activities, which were interpreted as instruction, copying, practicing, playing, and evaluating. The findings of the current study provide an insight into the learning strategies adopted by these 3 participants in this particular learning situation and provide empirical support for theories of learning to play by ear proposed in prior research reviewed in this article. (Contains 1 note, 4 tables, and 1 figure.)
- Published
- 2010
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33. 'Evaluating a Music E-Learning Resource: The Participants' Perspective'
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Seddon, Frederick and Biasutti, Michele
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This pilot investigative study tested the efficacy of a music e-learning resource specifically constructed to enable individual learners to play a 12-bar improvised blues by ear, on a musical keyboard, in an e-learning environment. The study also sought the participants' perspective of this experience by eliciting their reflections on the learning experience. Participant perceptions of the role of the "on-line tutor" in this e-learning environment were also examined. The research adopted a qualitative approach through videotaped observation of the participants as they engaged with the resource. The resulting video data was analysed employing an inductive process of analysis. Semistructured interviews were also conducted with individual participants after the learning sessions were completed. Qualitative analysis of the interview transcriptions provided the participant perspective. Triangulation between the data validated researcher interpretations of the findings. Results revealed (a) all participants successfully engaged with the musical task in the e-learning environment, (b) five learning activities emerged from the analysis of the video data that were interpreted as: "instruction", "copying", "practising", "playing" and "evaluating", (c) four "participant perspective" themes emerged from the interview data that were interpreted as: "activities", "feelings", "evaluation" and "difficulties" (d) participants sought different levels of interaction with the "on-line tutor" who was found to adopt the role of "remote facilitator". (Contains 3 tables and 2 figures.)
- Published
- 2009
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34. Participant Approaches to and Reflections on Learning to Play a 12-Bar Blues in an Asynchronous E-Learning Environment
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Seddon, Frederick and Biasutti, Michele
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This study investigated the viability of learning to play an improvised 12-bar blues on keyboard with both hands together in an asynchronous e-learning environment. The study also sought to reveal participant approaches to and reflections on this learning experience. Participants were video-taped as they engaged with six "Blues Activities", supported by audio "guide" and "backing" tracks and a "remote facilitator". Participants required nine or ten learning sessions, over a period of six weeks, to successfully complete the "Blues Activities". Individual, semi-structured interviews, designed to reveal participant reflections on their engagement with the "Blues Activities" were conducted with the participants after they had completed the learning sessions. Results revealed that: (1) at the end of the learning sessions, all participants were able to play the 12-bar improvised blues; (2) participants engaged in five distinct learning behaviours; and (3) four participant "reflective themes" emerged from the semi-structured interviews. The five distinct learning behaviours were interpreted as "learning activities": "instruction", "copying", "practising", "playing" and "evaluating". The four "reflective themes" were interpreted as: "activities", "feelings", "evaluation" and "difficulties". Comments made by participants during interviews and email exchanges, provided support for the researcher interpretations of the "learning activities" and "reflective themes" through the process of triangulation. Implications for music education are discussed. (Contains 1 note, 3 tables, and 2 figures.)
- Published
- 2009
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35. The Productivity Challenge in Australia: The Case for Renewal in VET Teaching
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Seddon, Terri
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This paper was prompted by the call for submissions to the Rudd government's 2020 Summit in April 2008. It analyses the impacts of VET reform on the VET workforce in order to identify strategies that might inform an agenda to build the workforce capacity to support economic and innovation. The paper argues that VET reforms since the 1990s created disturbances and uncertainties in VET teachers' and managers' work, and working lives. In particular, these reforms failed to recognise and endorse teaching expertise that sits at the heart of VET practice. Top-down reforms and funding constraints, coupled with lack of recognition of VET occupational expertise, created perverse behaviours. These contradictory trends prompted occupational boundary work that drove innovations in the character and reach of VET teaching, yet without establishing the terms and conditions necessary to sustain such occupational expertise. Consequently these innovations continue to be vulnerable because new initiatives-identities cannot compete with established identities in the competition for recognition and resources. These trends run counter to government efforts aimed at engineering change in VET to support skill building in an innovative Australia. This model of reform is not followed by other countries, which recognise and deploy teaching expertise in productive ways to build capacities for innovation amongst young and older worker-citizens. The paper concludes by suggesting that VET teaching expertise is an unacknowledged resource in the productivity challenge that could be mobilized in sustainable ways through professional renewal.
- Published
- 2009
36. Vets and Videos: Student Learning from Context-Based Assessment in a Pre-Clinical Science Course
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Seddon, Jennifer
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To increase the perceived relevance of pre-clinical science courses to undergraduates, a context-based assessment item was introduced to a genetics course that occurs early within a five-year veterinary science programme. The aim was to make a direct link between genetic concepts and the future clinical profession of the students. In the assessment task, students used problem-solving skills to deduce relationships between genetic variants and nose and coat colour in dogs and to determine breeding strategies to obtain a specified colour combination. The assignment was contextualised by students presenting their results as a role-play video of a veterinarian/client consultation. The students responded enthusiastically, finding relevance and enjoyment in the task. Together with the higher cognitive skills required, contextualisation is likely to be responsible for the deeper style of learning that was adopted by the majority of students. Hence, making explicit links between pre-clinical content and its use in a workplace setting can lead to improved learning outcomes. (Contains 1 figure.)
- Published
- 2008
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37. Non-Music Specialist Trainee Primary School Teachers' Confidence in Teaching Music in the Classroom
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Seddon, Frederick and Biasutti, Michele
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Prior research has revealed that non-music specialist trainee primary school teachers lack confidence in teaching music in spite of changes to teacher training and the introduction of music in the National Curriculum in England. The current study investigated the effects on non-music specialist trainee primary teachers' confidence to teach music in the classroom after having experienced six keyboard-based "blues activities" presented in an asynchronous e-learning environment. Participants were videotaped as they worked with music technology and a "remote facilitator", to play a 12-bar improvised blues with both hands together. Participants also took part in individual, semi-structured interviews before and after engaging in the "blues activities". Video and interview data was analysed employing inductive, qualitative procedures. This exploratory intervention study was undertaken with three participants and is reported as three individual case studies. After the "blues activities" intervention, all participants were able to play the 12-bar improvised blues with both hands together and reported improvements in their confidence to teach music in the primary school classroom. The results also revealed improvements in participant perceptions of their own musicality when compared with "other musicians" and links between perceptions of their own musicality and prior musical experience. Implications for future research and music education are discussed. (Contains 1 figure, 7 tables, and 1 note.)
- Published
- 2008
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38. Youth, Heroin, Crack: A Review of Recent British Trends
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Seddon, Toby
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Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to review the research evidence on recent British trends in the use of heroin and/or crack-cocaine by young people in order to appraise the scale and nature of the contemporary health problem they pose. Design/methodology/approach: The approach consists of a narrative review of the main current data sources on young people's drug use. Findings: Use of heroin or crack-cocaine is rare in Britain in the general population of young people and is concentrated more amongst young adults than adolescents. There is some evidence for associations between use of these drugs and socio-economic disadvantages, although the links are complex. There may be fruitful connections to be made between drug policy and public health strategies for tackling health inequalities. Practical implications: Embedding responses to young people's heroin/crack use within mainstream strategies to tackle health inequalities may be mutually beneficial to both policy agendas. Originality/value: Situating in its proper evidential context the emotive issue of young people's use of what are believed to be the most dangerous illicit drugs, and appraising these data from a public health perspective, may lead to a more realistic and appropriate research and policy response. (Contains 2 tables.)
- Published
- 2008
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39. Collaborative Working and Contested Practices: Forming, Developing and Sustaining Social Partnerships in Education
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Billett, Stephen, Ovens, Carolyn, Clemans, Allie, and Seddon, Terri
- Abstract
Despite a lack of applied research, social partnerships are increasingly being adopted by both government and non-government agencies to meet localized needs in education and other fields. This article discusses the findings of an investigation of how social partnerships can best be formed, developed and sustained over time. Earlier work identified partnerships arising from community concerns, governmental enactment and negotiation between community and government agencies. However, across these distinct kinds of social partnerships, the partnership work that was central to their operation was particularly relevant. In the study reported here, researchers engaged with ten longstanding social partnerships to elicit, synthesize and verify the principles and practices underpinning their work. The principles and practices that are proposed as most likely to assist the effective formation, development and transformation of social partnerships over time comprise building and maintaining: (i) shared goals; (ii) relations with partners; (iii) capacity for partnership work; (iv) governance and leadership; and (v) trust and trustworthiness. These principles stand as ideals and goals to guide the development and continuity of social partnerships that can support important educational initiatives, and provide bases for evaluating partnership work. However, rather than being benign, this work and these practices are often underpinned by contested relations as much as collaborative work. (Contains 1 table.) [Research for this article was funded by the Australian Research Council and the National Vocational Education and Training Research and Evaluation Program of the Australian National Training Authority/Department of Education, Science and Technology.]
- Published
- 2007
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40. Using Quality Rating Scales for Professional Development: Experiences from the UK
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Mathers, Sandra, Linskey, Faye, Seddon, Judith, and Sylva, Kathy
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The ECERS-R and ITERS-R are among two of the most widely used observational measures for describing the characteristics of early childhood education and care. This paper describes a professional development programme currently taking place in seven regions across England, designed to train local government staff in the application of the scales as tools for improving practice. While the scales offer a transparent and measurable means of assessing and improving quality, a number of differences between criteria presented by the scales and by national regulations, curricular guidelines and notions of quality have been identified.
- Published
- 2007
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41. Creating and Testing a Model for Tutors and Participants to Support the Collaborative Construction of Knowledge Online
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Seddon, Kathy and Postlethwaite, Keith
- Abstract
This paper describes the construction and testing of a model designed to inform contributors to online collaborative dialogues about the nature of their contribution, and to guide the input from tutors who facilitate these dialogues. In particular, the model was designed to assist reflection on learning behaviours in online dialogues by participants and by tutors. The overall goal was to generate a model to help groups construct knowledge through reflection on their own contributions--rather than to provide a means for external evaluation of individual progress. To develop the model, a participatory action research methodology was used, involving interested parties in a spiral of exploration, planning, implementation, systematic observation, reflection and then re-planning. After clarification of the objective of the action research, a range of learning theories were reviewed; then constructs used in the evaluation of online learning were considered. From this reconnaissance, a prototype model was constructed. This was used by three groups actively involved in online collaboration. A synthesis of their evaluative feedback was made on the basis of which a further model was designed and then evaluated. This resulted in the authors' current model, which is presented and then itself tested. (Contains 3 tables and 2 figures.)
- Published
- 2007
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42. Systems Thinking, Lean Production and Action Learning
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Seddon, John and Caulkin, Simon
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Systems thinking underpins "lean" management and is best understood through action-learning as the ideas are counter-intuitive. The Toyota Production System is just that--a system; the failure to appreciate that starting-place and the advocacy of "tools" leads many to fail to grasp what is, without doubt, a significant opportunity for learning and improvement. Two case studies illustrate the application of the ideas behind the Toyota System for service organisations. In each case, managers had to "un-learn" in order to learn how to take the opportunity provided by a systems approach to the design and management of work.
- Published
- 2007
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43. Decentred Education: Suggestions for Framing a Socio-Spatial Research Agenda
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Ferguson, Kathleen and Seddon, Terri
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This paper explores the trend towards a decentred social organization of learning that has become evident over the last 30-40 years. This is illustrated by the shifting imagery of education, from the red brick school to dispersed learning networks, or "learning bubbles", that constitute new learning spaces. In the context of our large funded research project that aims to assess new learning spaces, we problematize this decentring of education and consider theoretical social and spatial resources that help us to understand this shift in the social organization of learning. We draw these insights together as suggestions for framing a socio-spatial research agenda and the key themes that help us to interrogate decentring and the emergence of new learning spaces, how these trends are manifest in educational practices, and the implications for affective learning, learners and their life chances. (Contains 2 figures and 3 notes.)
- Published
- 2007
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44. Collaborative Computer-Mediated Music Composition in Cyberspace
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Seddon, Frederick A.
- Abstract
This article reports on an exploratory investigation of the relationship between prior experience of formal instrumental music tuition (FIMT) and the process of collaborative computer-based music composition. The study linked a school in the UK with a school in Norway to engage in computer-mediated collaborative composition via e-mail. Participants were grouped into composing pairs (one from each country) balanced for prior musical experience. Results revealed prior experience of FIMT was associated with extended and complex musical dialogues, critical engagement with musical ideas and produced an "exploratory" environment. No prior experience of FIMT was associated with uncritical and descriptive dialogues and a "cumulative" environment. Proposals for future research are discussed.
- Published
- 2006
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45. Changing Research Contexts in Teacher Education in Australia: Charting New Directions
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Nuttall, Joce, Murray, Sally, Seddon, Terri, and Mitchell, Jane
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This paper examines research into initial teacher education in light of current Australian policy initiatives concerned with both the quality of research conducted in higher education and the quality of teacher education programs. The purpose of the paper is to explore some ways in which the research is, and can be, positioned in the current policy context. The paper begins with a brief overview of some of the main characteristics of the research concerned with initial (pre-service) teacher education in Australia over the last decade. In terms of scope, scale and methodology, the research can be characterised in the following way: typically small-scale; many one-off studies; localised in nature; and a growing application of qualitative research methods. An obvious strength of this type of research is that it is closely tied to practice and to the day-to-day workings of initial teacher education programs. An equally obvious weakness is that the research does not necessarily have so called "impact" in relation to policy debates and/or other measures of success in the wider research community. The paper charts some possible new directions for teacher education research in ways that build on the strengths and address the weaknesses. The directions can be characterised as follows: a "big funding" approach; an "institutional aggregation" approach; and a "platforms and protocols" approach.
- Published
- 2006
46. Lifelong Learning in a Market Economy: Education, Training and the Citizen-Consumer
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Axford, Beverley and Seddon, Terry
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Australian public policy adopted the concept of lifelong learning in the 1980s and harnessed it to human capital theory to articulate a new policy emphasis on "up-skilling" the Australian labour force. This paper addresses the question of how this conception of lifelong learning has fared in practice as Australian Commonwealth government policies, including those related to education and training, have shifted to embrace strong market orientations and priorities. Have the policy objectives of a more highly trained labour force been met or has the concept of lifelong learning become increasingly uncoupled from links with the nation-building exercise of preparing Australia for the "information age"? (Contains 1 figure.)
- Published
- 2006
47. How Does Formal Instrumental Music Tuition (FIMT) Impact on Self- and Teacher-Evaluations of Adolescents' Computer-Based Compositions?
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Seddon, Frederick A. and O'Neill, Susan A.
- Abstract
This study examined 48 computer-based compositions produced by adolescents (13-14 years old) using evaluations by specialist music teachers and the adolescents' self-evaluations and self-assessments. Based on previous research (Seddon and O'Neill, 2001), we expected that the teachers' evaluations of the compositions would not differentiate between the compositions by adolescents with or without 2-4 years prior experience of formal instrumental music tuition (FIMT). We also predicted that the self-evaluations and self-assessments of adolescents with FIMT would be higher than the self-evaluations and self-assessments by adolescents without FIMT. The results supported our predictions suggesting that adolescents' self-evaluations of their ability to compose and their self-assessments of their own compositions are determined by their levels of self-perceived competence, and that this is influenced by whether or not they have previous experience of FIMT. Implications for the use of self-evaluations and self-assessments in music education are discussed. (Contains 5 tables and 1 figures.)
- Published
- 2006
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48. Navigating Social Partnerships: Central Agencies--Local Networks
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Seddon, Terri, Billett, Stephen, and Clemans, Allie
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This paper considers the way social partnerships tend to be represented as either horizontal localised networks or neo-liberal policy instruments. Building on two empirical studies of partnerships, we argue that partnerships cannot be understood in either/or ways but are negotiated at the interface between central agencies and local networks. They are mediated by networks operating through the partnership and through government and community, and by the different organisational logics of agencies. These complexities challenge our ways of analysing and representing partnerships, and justify further research.
- Published
- 2005
49. Modes of Communication during Jazz Improvisation
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Seddon, Frederick A.
- Abstract
This study investigated modes of communication adopted by six student jazz musicians during rehearsal and performance. Six one-hour rehearsal sessions and a performance were observed and videotaped for analysis. Results revealed six modes of communication that formed two main categories, verbal and non-verbal, each containing three distinct modes of communication: instruction, cooperation and collaboration. Non-verbal collaborative mode displayed empathetic attunement, which is a vehicle for empathetic creativity. Empathetic creativity is a theoretical concept proposed by the author based on the concept of empathetic intelligence (Arnold, 2003, 2004). Practical applications of empathetic creativity are discussed with reference to music education, focusing on evaluation of individual contribution to group creative performances.
- Published
- 2005
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50. Prevention Work with Children Disaffected from School: Findings from the Evaluation of Two Innovative Community-Based Projects
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Gray, Paul and Seddon, Toby
- Abstract
Purpose: To report on findings from the evaluation of two innovative community-based prevention projects in the UK targeted at children disaffected from school, one involving football the other horticulture. Design/methodology/approach: Qualitative inquiry focusing on three areas: "theories of change" underpinning the projects; referral and operational processes; inter-agency partnerships. Main methods were: an interactive event for 50 practitioners; semi-structured interviews with project staff, project participants and other stakeholders; review of project documentation; observations. Findings: Both the projects evaluated had clear and plausible "theories of change". Referral processes were effective. Strong variations in "dosage" and length of project involvement appeared to be linked to differences in the effectiveness of the two projects. Research limitations/implications: The principal limitation to the research was the lack of case monitoring and outcome data that prevented any quantitative assessment of the projects. Further research is needed to establish the long-term impact of this kind of targeted prevention work. Practical implications: Prevention work targeted at children disaffected from school needs to be underpinned by clear "theories of change". Effective work requires good relationships with referring schools, the delivery of multi-faceted interventions and interventions to be of an adequate length. Originality/value: The focus on "theories of change" or mechanisms is an original contribution to the prevention literature. The paper will be valuable for those working in drug action teams and local authorities in planning prevention work for young people. The two projects were highly innovative in involving pupils in two very different activities--football and horticulture.
- Published
- 2005
- Full Text
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