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The field of Australian higher education has changed, is changing and is about to change, repositioned in relation to other 'fields of power'. It is a sector now well defined by its institutional groupings and by their relative claims to selectivity and exclusivity, with every suggestion of their differentiation growing. The potential of a 'joined-up' tertiary education system, of vocational education and training (VET) and universities, has the potential to further rework these relations within Australian higher education, as will lifting the volume caps on university student enrolments. Moreover, Australian universities now compete within an international higher education marketplace, ranked by THES and Shanghai Jiao Tiong league tables. 'Catchment areas' and knowledge production have become global. In sum, Australian universities (and agents within them) are positioned differently in the field. And being so variously and variably placed, institutions and agents have different stances available to them, including the positions they can take on student equity. In this paper I begin from the premise that our current stance on equity has been out-positioned, as much by a changing higher education field as by entrenched representations of social groups across regions, institutions, disciplines and degrees. In taking a new stance on equity, the paper is also concerned with the positioning in the field of a new national research centre with a focus on student equity in higher education. In particular, the paper asks what stance this new centre can take on student equity that will resonate on a national and even international scale. And, given a global field of higher education, what definitions of equity and propositions for policy and practice can it offer? What will work in the pursuit of equity? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The proportion of students enrolled at university from the lowest quartile of socio-economic position has remained static at around 15% for at least the past 15 years (DEEWR, Transforming Australia's higher education system, ). This paper argues that the apparent lack of progress towards equity of access has been exacerbated due to how socio-economic position (SEP) is measured within higher education. Three major methodological issues are identified: (a) the use of socio-economic indicator for areas (SEIFA) at an inappropriate unit of geographic area (postcode), (b) an inappropriate choice of index (education and occupation), and (c) using the index of education and occupation as the sole indicator of SEP thereby increasing the risk of misclassification of individuals through the operation of ecological fallacy. This paper argues that to address these methodological deficiencies, alternative methods of determining SEP are required at both the aggregate and individual level. Possible options are proposed for use as replacements for the geographic area (postcode) and index (education and occupation) as well as additional measures at the individual or household level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is about changing concepts of equity in UK higher education. In particular, it charts the moves from concepts about gender equality as about women's education as a key issue in twentieth century higher education to questions of men's education in the twenty-first century. These changing concepts of equity are linked to wider social and economic transformations, the expansion of higher education and the growth in the knowledge economy, or what has been called 'academic capitalism'. Feminist theorists and activists, often called second wave feminists, developed concepts of gender equality in education, including higher education in the twentieth century, and these have been incorporated into higher education and policies with the expansions of higher education, especially around notions of widening participation. Notions of widening participation in policy and practice arenas focus on equity as about social class, socio-economic disadvantage, ethnicity and race, rather than specifically on gender questions. Equity is now twinned with diversity and where gender is now invoked it is largely about young and working class men's disadvantage in relation to higher education. In this paper, I will also provide research evidence from the UK's Teaching and Learning Research Programme (TLRP) which has been the UK's biggest ever initiative in education research about equity and diversity as currently conceived in UK higher education. I will show how gender has been incorporated with diversity questions and has lost its critical and feminist edge. I conclude with addressing questions about the future of higher education policies and practices to address questions of equity and diversity, attempting to counter the systemic inequalities in current forms of UK higher education. There are opportunities for developing new, critical and feminist pedagogies. More inclusive or 'connectionist' approaches, rather than 'teaching to the test', would engage socially diverse men and women students in a range of higher education subjects and settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper draws from the ARC Discovery project called Moving Ideas: Mobile Policies, Researchers and Connections in the Social Sciences and Humanities - Australia in the Global Context (2006-2009). This project explored the ways that ideas travel and how knowledge transforms through travel. One aspect of the study was the critical examination of various research policies around the world that are associated with moving ideas and moving researchers. These are often coupled with notions of 'brain drain-gain/mobility' and diaspora. A second focus was on the mobility biographies of globally mobile intellectuals with various links to Australia and on the implications of their mobility for their ideas, politics and national and trans-national identifications. It is our view that the actual experiences and insights of such people have the potential to enhance researcher (academic) mobility policies. A third concern has been to address the question of what it means to globalise the research imagination. In addressing this question we have drawn on leading researchers from around the globe who undertake research on globalisation itself. The paper to follow draws from selected publications associated with this project. The book from the project, to be completed in 2010, is titled Moving Ideas and Mobile Intellectuals. It should be noted at the outset that our focus in the project and in this discussion paper is on researchers in the social sciences and humanities including but not exclusively educational researchers. We begin by asking what it means to globalise research and how is this related to the nation-state'? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses some recent developments in digital media, research technologies and scholarly practices that are known under the umbrella term of 'eResearch'. Drawing on conceptual ideas of digital materialism, epistemic artefacts and epistemic tools, this paper discusses how the digital inscription of knowledge and knowing could change the nature of knowledge work in educational research and inquiry. This paper argues that eResearch challenges the conventional divide between 'monological' and 'dialogical' research practices and provides opportunities to create 'trialogical' ways of inquiry. These trialogical practices involve not only the collaborative development of answers to research questions, but also require explicit attention and development of new digital epistemic infrastructures - digital resources, software and conceptual tools and social structures. Our limited understanding about educational knowledge building practices is one of the major challenges for further advancement of educational research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper draws from the ARC Discovery project called Moving Ideas: Mobile Policies, Researchers and Connections in the Social Sciences and Humanities -- Australia in the Global Context (2006-2009). This project explored the ways that ideas travel and how knowledge transforms through travel. One aspect of the study was the critical examination of various research policies around the world that are associated with moving ideas and moving researchers. These are often coupled with notions of "brain drain-gain/mobility" and diaspora. A second focus was on the mobility biographies of globally mobile intellectuals with various links to Australia and on the implications of their mobility for their ideas, politics and national and trans-national identifications. It is our view that the actual experiences and insights of such people have the potential to enhance researcher (academic) mobility policies. A third concern has been to address the question of what it means to globalise the research imagination. In addressing this question we have drawn on leading researchers from around the globe who undertake research on globalisation itself. The paper to follow draws from selected publications associated with this project. The book from the project, to be completed in 2010, is titled Moving Ideas and Mobile Intellectuals. It should be noted at the outset that our focus in the project and in this discussion paper is on researchers in the social sciences and humanities including but not exclusively educational researchers. We begin by asking what it means to globalise research and how is this related to the nation-state ? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses some recent developments in digital media, research technologies and scholarly practices that are known under the umbrella term of "eResearch". Drawing on conceptual ideas of digital materialism, epistemic artefacts and epistemic tools, this paper discusses how the digital inscription of knowledge and knowing could change the nature of knowledge work in educational research and inquiry. This paper argues that eResearch challenges the conventional divide between "monological" and "dialogical" research practices and provides opportunities to create "trialogical" ways of inquiry. These trialogical practices involve not only the collaborative development of answers to research questions, but also require explicit attention and development of new digital epistemic infrastructures -- digital resources, software and conceptual tools and social structures. Our limited understanding about educational knowledge building practices is one of the major challenges for further advancement of educational research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates regional Australian students' aspirations and expectations for their future and, more specifically, the manner in which these are formulated around a view to move outward -- that is, away from regional, remote and rural communities -- and onward -- that is, to make something of their lives. Drawing upon interview data, the paper highlights the ways in which rural students from across Australia expressed high-level aspirations, most of which centred on future careers. It explores features of student talk which demonstrates that many of them had thought about their futures in detailed ways and had accumulated knowledge and "street savvy" that would assist them in steering their futures. The paper also examines the ways in which student talk about the changing context of the world of work and the inescapability of further education emerge as a naturalised discourse in justifying their future plans. Finally, the paper explores the implications of such research findings for career advisers and teachers working in regional areas of Australia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is concerned with the definition of the field of educational research and the changing and developing role of the Australian Association for Research in Education (AARE) in representing and constituting this field. The evidence for the argument is derived from AARE Presidential Addresses across its 40-year history. The paper documents the enhanced complexity and diversity of the field over these 40 years, including the emergence of a global educational policy field, theoretical and methodological developments in the social sciences and new research accountabilities such as the Excellence in Research for Australia (ERA) measure. Specifically, the paper suggests that the evidence-based movement in public management and education policy, and the introduction of the ERA, potentially limit and redefine the field of educational research, reducing the usefulness and relevance of educational research to policy makers and practitioners. This arises from a failure to recognise that Education is both a field of research and a field of policy and practice. Located against both developments, the paper argues for a principled eclecticism framed by a reassessment of quality, which can be applied to the huge variety of methodologies, theories, epistemologies and topics legitimately utilised and addressed within the field of educational research. At the same time, the paper argues the need to globalise the educational research imagination and deparochialise educational research. This call is located within a broader argument suggesting the need for a new social imaginary (in a post-neoliberal context of the global financial crisis) to frame educational policy and practice and the contribution that educational theory and research might make to its constitution. In relation to this, the paper considers the difficulties that political representations of such a new imaginary might entail for the President and the Association, given the variety of its membership and huge diversity of its research interests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article sets out to examine the experiences of college student activists involved in Students Against Sweatshops on the Beautiful River University campus. Based on observation and interview fieldwork, the paper explores how students negotiate and understand their activism against the backdrop of neoliberalism. The paper concludes that being a contemporary student activist requires advanced time management skills and the capacity to ascribe multiple meanings to activities (for example, hanging out and doing activism simultaneously). This emphasis on using one's time wisely resonates with students who are surrounded by the language of neoliberal reform. By analysing how students prioritise activism, outreach to new members and develop friendships, and position themselves as part of an international network, I show that student activism is influenced by the neoliberal environment at Beautiful River University at the same time that student activists are working to resist and counter such practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper identifies the ways in which the Productive Pedagogies framework has been refined as a research tool for evaluating classroom practice within a current study into issues of school reform in Queensland. Initially emerging from the landmark Queensland School Reform Longitudinal Study (1998-2001), the Productive Pedagogies has been taken up widely in Australia and internationally as both a research tool and metalanguage to support teachers to critically reflect on their practice. In this paper, following a brief description of the model's four dimensions, we detail how we have addressed some methodological concerns in using and modifying the framework for the present study. In response to critiques by other researchers and debates within our own research team, we justify our use of the framework. To these ends, we present a refined methodology that addresses the importance of pedagogical process, substantiates the inclusion of particular items within the framework, supports a critical approach to issues of difference, includes students' perspectives and recognises the significance of content knowledge in the assessment of quality pedagogy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the ways in which senior female academics' leadership practices are informed and negotiated in relation to a multiplicity of fields. As part of the shift in the logics of practice underpinning the Australian academic terrain, there has been a movement from the implementation of equity policies to that of diversity in relation to the employment of academic staff, characterised by neoliberal discourses of new public management which favour the production of the individualistic, entrepreneurial academic identity as opposed to notions of collectivity and the public good. However, diversity policies are not the sole texts that inform the ways in which many women leaders operate, nor the most important in guiding the practices they produce. Drawing on a larger study of representations of women's leadership in the media and academia, this paper examines how two leading female academies drew upon a range of logics of practices within the different fields of academia, feminism and Indigenous rights to inform their leadership practices. In so doing, the women contested the emergent logic of practice underpinning the contemporary Australian academic field. Such contestation can be considered one of the "subaltern" consequences of policy regimes and forms an integral part of policy fields. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Learning to Learn in Schools Phase 3 Evaluation was a four year project across England exploring the concept of Learning to Learn in 33 primary and secondary schools. The project was funded through the UK based Campaign for Learning. One of the key aims of the project was to ensure that the locus of control in terms of development remains with the schools, who decided on the focus of innovation relevant to them under the umbrella heading of Learning to Learn. A team from the Research Centre for Learning and Teaching at Newcastle University then supported and facilitated the teachers in the systematic evaluation of their experiences. As a result we believe that this process supported meaningful professional development about teaching and learning. This paper exemplifies this process through two professional enquiries into pupil talk in the classroom and how it supported learning. The projects were carried out by teachers in two schools, one secondary (11-18 years) and one primary (4-11 years). Both schools decided that encouraging pupil talk about learning best fit with their priorities and the project aims of exploring Learning to Learn. The paper describes the different research methods and findings of the teachers' research, focusing on the decision making which occurred and how the process of the research has impacted on their professional development. Conclusions are drawn about how the philosophy of Learning to Learn can be as easily applied to the process of professional enquiry through action research and teachers' learning, as to the more traditional domain of students' learning and how this might contribute to the development of a successful Learning to Learn school culture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In their paper, How has school productivity changed in Australia? social economists Andrew Leigh and Chris Ryan (2008) attempt to show that Australian (government) schools and their teachers' productivity has declined by some 73 per cent between 1964 and 2003 compared to an overall increase of 64 per cent across the Australian economy. In response I contend that Leigh and Ryan use an inappropriate statistical device to "decompose" student demographics to arrive at conclusions that contradict the original positive assessment of student standards by independent authorities (Rothman, 2007). Their work, which for many years seemed to be the foundation stone for Howard government education policy has by their own admission (A. Leigh & C. Ryan, personal communication, February 14, 2008), never been put to the test of peer review prior to publication. This paper critically analyses and contests their research by placing their claims within a social policy context that has subtly changed from one where teachers can make a difference to teachers are the difference. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper tracks the development of gender equity and schooling policy in Australia from the National Policy on the Education of Girls in 1987, to current policy concerns with boys' educational underperformance. The paper's key focus is on the ways in which feminist informed equity policy has been undermined by broader imperatives of economic rationalism and anti-feminist discourses. Drawing on Nancy Fraser's understandings of distributive and cultural gender justice and her notion of a non-identitarian feminist polities, the paper critically examines the ways in which such imperatives have re-articulated equity and schooling concerns. Through these lenses, the limitations of the affirmative gender binary polities and remedies that have dominated gender and schooling reform in Australia are highlighted. The paper concludes with an illumination of the gender justice spaces currently being mobilised in Australian schools. Such spaces, it is argued, fostered within a context of increasing autonomy and self-management for schools, are providing avenues for creative and disruptive (pro)feminist activism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reveals how the provision of teacher professional development is conceptualised within the Australian Government Quality Teacher Programme (AGQTP) policy text and its predecessors, and uses these texts to infer the nature of the production practices associated with the development of these policies. The paper argues that multiple tensions within these texts gesture towards support for complex and contested approaches to professional development during the policy production process. To make sense of this contestation, the paper draws suggestively upon Bourdieu's field theory, which conceptualises the social world as consisting of social spaces or "fields", and extensions of his theory, which reveal fields as exerting considerable influence upon one another. The paper argues that "Quality Teacher Programme" texts infer support for more progressive, social democratic approaches to the provision of teacher professional development within the educational policy field, as well as more economistic and neoliberal approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses research examining the attitudes and behaviours of researching women in academia and considers the effect of these factors on successful researching outcomes. The results of this exploratory research highlight in particular, a number of interesting environmental influencers which contribute to enhancing successful work outcomes for academic women researchers. Specifically, personal factors such as, marital status, partner support, age, cultural background and level of organisation (in life) coupled with, research defined factors such as incentive for conducting the research and the existence of research partnerships and/or groups are identified as significant performance influencers. These dimensions appear to facilitate the level of research productivity for women academics based on key performance indicators such as journal/conference paper submissions and successful research funding applications. The potential benefits of this exploratory research are that any correlation between specific self-supporting attitudes or behaviours of successful women academics and effective research outcomes could provide important clues to both emerging and continuing researchers for career development and promotion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents (i) a purpose-built conceptual model for professional learning and (ii) a leadership framework designed to support a large-scale project involving diverse sites across the state of Queensland, Australia. The project had as its focus teacher-capacity building and ways to improve literacy and numeracy outcomes for students at educational disadvantage. It involved 15 intersectoral clusters and brought together Middle School teachers, principals, curriculum leaders and management personnel from Education Queensland, the Association of Independent Schools Inc., and the Catholic Education Commission. In the paper we discuss how the project worked at the interface of research and practice. Further, we discuss how professional learning was facilitated by a multi-layered approach that acknowledged the importance of research-based learning, curriculum and pedagogic leadership by principals, and strong opportunities for teacher agency through cross-cluster and intersectoral collaboration. In conclusion, we invite readers to consider how the approach represents a radical new way to think about what could count as valued professional learning interactions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper addresses two problems which are common amongst university students, namely perfectionism and self-handicapping. Perfectionism deals with setting unreasonably high standards for one's own performance, while self-handicapping behaviours provide a possible excuse for poor performance, for example putting tasks off until the last minute. Although they have the potential for many negative outcomes in students, such as anxiety and poor performance, university communities have done little to investigate these problems or reduce their incidence. This paper aims to provide a comprehensive overview of perfectionism and self-handicapping, with particular reference to how they impact upon higher education students, so that universities may become more aware of these problems and their implications. We also discuss a new model, which describes a relationship between these two constructs, and suggests a method for reducing these problems in a university environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Syllabus and policy documents in many states and countries around the world, and more specifically in Queensland are underpinned by an emancipatory agenda, in particular the principles of social justice. Educators are called upon to achieve this through a pedagogy which is immersed in the language of critical theory. Two elements that underpin emancipatory politics, that is, a transformative attitude towards the future, and the aim of overcoming the illegitimate domination of some individuals or groups by others, seem to be unobtainable within a choice generation, with its focus on lifestyle and consumerism. This paper focuses on the discourses of youth that are legitimated through the accounts of young people for whom emancipation is not a key issue. Such students may achieve the syllabus outcomes related to the critical agenda, yet it begs the question: Are contemporary youth making choices that further the critical transformative cause, or are our critical pedagogies simply serving to perpetuate dominant understandings? This paper explores and interprets performative accounts of youth and their multiliterate lives, within a critical poststructuralist framework. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Part-time engagement is a significant feature of senior secondary study for large numbers of students, in a context which includes high level policy pressures to achieve better outcomes for many more and a wider proportion of the schooling population, and significant policy and practice shifts at school, system and accreditation authority levels. Yet little is currently known about which students choose this option, and why, or the policy, schooling practice, system or theoretical implications of this change in senior secondary engagement patterns. The paper argues that research is required to fill this gap by identifying the intersections between part-time study and retention, engagement and completion, within broader theoretical, contextual and educational frameworks around post-compulsory study, and youth transitions more generally. It highlights definitional and statistical complexities which confuse understandings and distort analyses of changing patterns of senior secondary engagement, and the disjuncture between these definitions and the lived realities of students and their schools. Rather than trying to capture this shifting and fluid educational engagement through definitional gymnastics and statistical manipulation, the paper concludes by suggesting the concept of extended completion as a more useful descriptive and analytical tool. And it introduces a research project designed to fill the research and policy gap explored below, and to enhance retention and completion policy and practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper addresses the issue of Vocational Education and Training in Schools -- an issue that has recently attracted significant political attention particularly in light of current national skills shortage in Australia. Specifically, it investigates secondary school students' perceptions of VET in Schools [VETiS]. It also explores the factors influencing their decision-making in relation to VETiS -- that is, why one might choose, or choose not, to enrol in a VETiS course of study. In view of the findings presented, the paper argues that VET, and more particularly VETiS, is experiencing an "image problem"-- one underscored by the need for curriculum design and delivery reform -- and suggests that there is much work still to be done on the VET agenda. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we draw on accounts from students to inform a Middle Schooling movement that has been variously described as "arrested", "unfinished" and "exhausted". We propose that if the Middle Schooling movement is to understand the changing worlds of students and develop new approaches in the middle years of schooling, then it is important to draw on the insights that individual students can provide by conducting research with "students-as-informants". The early adolescent informants to this paper report high hopes for their futures (despite their lower socioeconomic surroundings), which reinforces the importance of supporting successful learner identities and highlights the role of schooling in the decline of adolescent student aspirations. However, their insights did not stop at the individual learner, with students also identifying cultural and structural constraints to reform. As such, we argue that students may be both an important resource for inquiry into individual school reform and for the Middle Schooling movement internationally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In March 2004, Stephen Ball and others presented a symposium at the conference of the British Educational Research Association (BERA) on the necessity of theory in educational research. Like Ball, I have observed that theory, not just social theory, is a difficult space and one that divides researchers (those comfortable with theory and those less so), within educational research. It is an aspect of educational research training that rarely receives the attention essential for 'quality' educational research. In the context of the contemporary research assessment exercises, it is worth reflecting on the relationship between research informed by social theory and expectations of quality and impact. In this paper I revisit the argument made by Ball and others for the necessity of theory, and discuss its role in framing research questions, informing analysis, and promoting reflexivity on the significance and relevance of research. I illustrate this process by discussing the ways theory can assist in the generation of research agendas and questions. I conclude the paper with an example of how a team of educational researchers from Australia, UK and New Zealand have made use of social theory to inform an Australian Research Council (ARC) funded project investigating the recontextualisation of health knowledge in schools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines theoretical issues arising from technical and further education and training reforms over the last few decades. It illustrates how these reforms have been dominated by particular knowledge concerns assumed to be central to specific areas of human activity. It then examines the reforms in terms of theoretical relationships among knowledge, skills, activity and meaning, as advanced by Piaget (1980a, 1980b) and Vygotsky (1934/1986); and discusses the implications for this and other sectors of education. The paper concludes that the reforms in technical and further education have pursued an image of relevance, but have mistaken how individuals construct meaning in workplace activities and the relationships among these kinds of meanings and those used in wider individual and social activities. It is also concluded that this mistake has serious implications for the current directions of the sector and its effectiveness in preparing people for their working lives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the context of pressure to increase retention rates a wide variety of alternative educational programs has developed in Australia over the past few decades. The purpose of this paper is to provide a map of the alternative education landscape for marginalised youth in New South Wales, in order to reduce confusion and enable communication between programs, practitioners and scholars, locally and internationally. This paper focuses on two dimensions to do with the program's purpose in relation to locus of change and with the stability of the program to construct a proposed map of alternative education for marginalised youth in Australia. Based on this map, the paper argues that one type of program is most useful, not only for marginalised young people but also for suggesting possibilities for reform in mainstream education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores various epistemological paradigms available to understand, interpret, and semiotically depict young people. These paradigms all draw upon a metadiscourse of developmental age and stage (e.g. Hall 1914) and then work from particular epistemological views of the world to cast young people in different lights. Using strategic essentialism (Spivak 1996), this paper offers four descriptions of existing paradigms, including biomedical (Erikson 1980), psychological (e.g. Piaget 1973), critical (e.g. Giroux & MacLaren 1982), and postmodern (e.g. Kenway & Bullen 2001). While some of these paradigms have been more distinct in particular cultural, historical, and political contexts, they have overlapped, informing each other as they continue to inform our understandings of young people. Each paradigm carries unique consequences for the role of the learner, the teacher, and the curriculum. This paper explores contemporary manifestations of these paradigms. From this investigation, a potential new space for conceptualising young people is offered. This new space, underpinned by understandings of subjectivity (Grosz 1994), assumes sense of self to be both pivotal in generative learning and closely linked to the context and its dynamics. We aver that such a view of young people and educational settings is necessary at this time of focused attention to the middle years of schooling. In so doing, we explore the potential of classroom life and pre-service teacher education constructed within this new discourse of young people. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Group work is a widely used learning approach in higher education where it is seen as encouraging the development of collaborative skills and attitudes while producing an assessable product. Group assignments can, however, create dilemmas and tensions for both staff and students. Students often seek academic intervention in the form of support and dispute arbitration; and the types of interventions employed to deal with issues arising during and after group work, and the effectiveness of the interventions, are critical aspects of group assignments. This paper reports the findings from a recent qualitative study based on interviews with ten university academics about their use and management of undergraduate group work,. This findings revealed that positive experiences and outcomes can be undermined when staff expectations of group work are at odds with studets reality, particularly when academics try to distance themselves from students reality, particularly when academics try to distance themselves from student group problems or intervene retrospectively. The paper concludes that academics must be able and willing to work alongside groups in helping them achieves that are positive, fair and equitable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The literature suggests that teacher morale is at an all time low in Australia (Hicks 2003, Smyth 2001) with teachers feeling undervalued, frustrated, unappreciated and demoralized (Smyth 2001; Senate Employment, Education and Training References Committee (SEETRC) 1998). In this paper the author utilizes the data gathered in a recent study into teaching excellence awards (Mackenzie 2004) as the medium to explore and discuss the issue of teacher morale and to provide, some tentative suggestions for improving morale as proposed by the study participants. If we accept a reciprocal relationship between teacher morale and student learning (Ramsey 2000, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) 2000), students in some schools may not be getting the best possible value from teachers affected by low morale. Participants in the Mackenzie (2004) study agreed that morale was generally lower than in previous times, although many suggested that morale was positive in their own schools. This suggests that morale may be more complex than has been previously understood, with three levels of morale, operating concurrently for teachers. a concept which is explored in this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The PISA studies of reading achievement of 15 year old students in OECD and partner nations show Anglophone nations to have continuing high proportions of weak readers (≤Level 2), with no improvement in this area from 2000 to 2006 (OECD, Science competencies for tomorrow's world: Executive summary, ). The nations which have decreased their proportions of low achievers all use highly regular (transparent) orthographies, which expedite the development of efficient reading and writing skills (Galletly and Knight, Aust J Learn Disabil 9(4):4-11, ). While international scrutiny is being focussed on socio-cultural differences in education as a basis of nations' achievement differences, little consideration is currently being applied to the speed of reading accuracy and spelling development. This is surprising, given the volume of research showing that orthographic regularity significantly expedites development of reading-accuracy and spelling-with very low rates of reading difficulties in nations with highly regular orthographies (Seymour et al., Br J Psychol 94:143-174, , p. 174; Share, Psychol Bull 134(4):584-615, , p. 615). This paper proposes Transition-from-early-to-sophisticated-literacy (TESL) as a variable for use when considering cross-national achievement differences. It is proposed that Complex TESL nations (including Anglophone nations) will need paradigmatically different mechanisms to those used by Resolved and Facilitated TESL nations, for improved literacy and academic outcomes by lower achievers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Australia, eligible long day care services may apply for support at the state level to assist with the transition of children from culturally or linguistically diverse backgrounds into childcare settings. For staff in childcare services, this support comes in the form of a cultural support worker (CSW). The primary role of a CSW is to build capacity in childcare staff to support children and families as they enter the childcare program. This paper draws on interview data and documentation from multiple sources to report the perspectives of key stakeholders affiliated with a cultural support program in an Australian childcare setting. It concludes that a more flexible approach to policy that directs the work of CSWs is needed, as well as further research into ways to build capacity for cultural competence for both CSWs and childcare staff who work collaboratively to support young children as they transition to childcare. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores some of the processes through which an educational policy agenda can be generated in the media sphere. It casts light on the roles of journalists and various types of expert in these processes as they pertain to critical literacy. I argue for the usefulness of cross-field performance as a concept which helps to illuminate the special place of individuals who position themselves across journalistic, academic and political fields. The analysis is supported by examination of patterns in newspaper reporting and academic publication, which suggests that contestation of critical literacy serves as a staging device for a team of policy entrepreneurs, whose performances work to discredit and exclude other players. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the qualitative results of a study of students' reading of multimodal texts in an interactive, online environment. The study forms part of a larger project which addressed image-language interaction as an important dimension of language pedagogy and assessment for students growing up in a multimedia digital age. Thirty-two Year 6 students representing a sample of high, medium and low performers on an Australian state-wide school literacy test were surveyed about their internet usage and interviewed using a structured protocol while working online through a selection of materials from an educational website. Findings from the earlier stages of the project indicated that different types of image-text relations vary in the degree of difficulty they pose for students' reading comprehension. This phase of the project extended the analysis of image-text relations to online, interactive texts. Student performance on online reading tasks and interview data are used to illustrate some of the complexities students encounter when reading online, and how this may vary with factors such as their day-to-day literacy experiences and levels of engagement. The results have implications for literacy pedagogy and assessing the reading of web-based texts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the report of the Inquiry into the Teaching of Literacy (Department of Education, Science & Training (DEST) ) and explores the claims it makes about reading pedagogy and the centrality of particular 'methods' or 'approaches' to teaching backed by 'scientific' evidence. Discourse analysis of the report shows that its logics allow only certain kinds of evidence to count in policy, and that it reduces difficult social and political issues to questions of technique. This allows the report to recommend an approach whereby qualitative insights and practitioners' experience can be bypassed through valorising methods developed and verified by scientific researchers. The report's claims are considered genealogically in the light of historical cases from the early nineteenth century, where educational reformers struggled with the issue of how to educate the children of the poor. In one, the monitorial system promoted by Lancaster in England, there was a focus on reading which made teachers or monitors artefacts of a standardised method. By way of contrast, in Scotland, a classroom approach developed by Stow () made the teacher central to the process, as someone who sensitively interpreted and extended students' experiences with texts. Stow's approach would form the model for the modern classroom in compulsory state schooling, while the monitorial system would eventually be abandoned as ineffective. The historical cases demonstrate the dangers of approaches to policy that fail to account for the complex interplay between teacher, student and text in the reading lesson. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper argues for the need for critical reading comprehension in an era of accountability that often promotes reading comprehension as readily assessable through students answering multiple choice questions of unseen texts. Based upon a 1 year study investigating literacy in Years 4-9 the ways strong-performing primary schools develop serious and in-depth reading for learning are explored. School and teacher features which allow for the development of sophisticated pedagogical repertoires and space for critical reading comprehension, without losing the complexity of curriculum offerings, are outlined. How one experienced middle primary teacher operates strategically, ethically and critically in supporting her ESL students to learn to read is illustrated. The teacher's work is situated within the complex accountability demands faced by classroom teachers. This was accomplished by a teacher whose pedagogical repertoire has been assembled across a career teaching in low-SES high ESL communities in a school with a balanced literacy program and high level of collegial support. Risks for schools and teachers whose circumstances work against their capacities for prioritisation and strategic decision-making are identified and discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports on the work of a small group of Education academics to build a professional learning community in a regional university in the north of England. Their efforts form part of a 'Leading Learning' school-university partnership serving schools in disadvantaged communities in inner city Leeds. This is designed to support teachers' professional learning and development and reclaim their sense of collaborative professionalism in a new era of austerity Britain. The account given here is about the new partnerships being created between and among academic colleagues, who are learning to work effectively with each other and their schooling colleagues on their collective professional learning and to build their collaborative sense of professionalism. The complexities of this task-of working in a professional learning community within Faculty in order to model and support a city-wide professional learning community with teacher partners, school communities, and civil servants in the local Authority-are framed in terms of knowledge-building for the improvement of educational provision for disadvantaged students in local schools and the university. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

essment practices that aim to promote both quality and equity may be compromised in a higher education market where students are consumers and grades the currency exchanged for measures of success. In such a climate, academics report feeling pressured to make course content and assessment less challenging in order to obtain positive student evaluations, and they may lose faith in university quality assurance processes that seem focused on ensuring student satisfaction with education as a product. To explore these issues from the perspectives of the main stakeholders in assessment, this paper investigates assessment perceptions of students, course coordinators, and faculty Associate Deans responsible for teaching and learning at The University of Queensland. The findings highlight differences in what these groups consider to be important assessment issues and differences in how they should be addressed. First year students are identified as a disadvantaged group due to perceptions of the role of feedback and formative assessment that may be influenced by their secondary school assessment experiences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores some of the trends in educational research in Australia. It references the paper "Decentred Education," by Kathleen Ferguson and Terri Seddon, which addresses the image of the school. It also discusses the response by the educational research community to changes happening in the field. In addition, the article describes the sectoring of education and its effect on educational research.

Despite increasing number of mainland Chinese students studying in western tertiary settings, there is limited information available on their learning experiences and responses to popular educational practices in these contexts. There is an assumption in the literature that Chinese students respond well to the collaborative demands of groupwork due to the collectivist nature of their culture, however there are few reports to substantiate this claim. This paper reports on mainland Chinese students' perception of groupwork in two Australian tertiary settings. Thirteen students from mainland China were interviewed on their groupwork experiences. All interviews were completed in either Mandarin or Cantonese. Two types of groupwork were identified: assignment groupwork (AGW) and student generated groupwork (SGGW). Three criteria for collaboration: level of interaction, construction of knowledge and a shared goal were used to search for signs of collaborative elements in the Chinese students' recall of their groupwork experience. Indicators of collaboration were identified in the reports of AGWs but were less consistent in SGGWs. The findings of this study suggest that Chinese students perceive out-of-class groupwork in an Australian context as a positive learning experience, reporting enhanced understanding of academic contents, application of knowledge and socializing with other Chinese students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While seconded and contracted teachers make a significant contribution to education faculties there is limited research regarding their experiences, needs and supports. Accordingly, interviews were conducted with five seconded and three contracted teachers in an Australian regional university and interpreted within a qualitative, interpretative framework. Themes that emerge from the study highlight the contrast between university and school cultures, issues around identity, the ways in which teaching is viewed, research activity for second/contracted teachers, positives and negatives around secondment, and the phases through which seconded and contract teachers move during their employment at university. Recommendations regarding the role and expectations of seconded and contracted teachers conclude the paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is proposed from this study that engaging productively with others to achieve change has never been more critical in educational environments, such as universities. Via semi-structured interviews with a cohort of senior leaders from one Australian university, this paper explores their perceptions of the key issues and challenges facing them in their work. The study found that the most significant challenges centred around the need for strategic leadership, flexibility, creativity and change-capability; responding to competing tensions and remaining relevant; maintaining academic quality; and managing fiscal and people resources. Sound interpersonal engagement, particularly in terms of change leadership capability, was found to be critical to meeting the key challenges identified by most participants. In light of the findings from the sample studied some tentative implications for leadership and leadership development in university environments are proposed, along with suggestions for further empirical exploration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Globally, teaching has become more complex and more challenging over recent years, with new and increased demands being placed on teachers by students, their families, governments and wider society. Teachers work with more diverse communities in times characterised by volatility, uncertainty and moral ambiguity. Societal, political, economic and cultural shifts have transformed the contexts in which teachers work and have redefined the ways in which teachers interact with students. This qualitative study uses phenomenographic methods to explore the nature of pedagogic teacher- student interactions. The data analysis reveals five qualitatively different ways in which teachers experience pedagogic engagements with students. The resultant categories of description ranged from information providing, with teachers viewed as transmitters of a body of knowledge through to mentoring in which teachers were perceived as significant others in the lives of students with their influence extending beyond the walls of the classroom and beyond the years of schooling. The paper concludes by arguing that if teachers are to prepare students for the challenges and opportunities in changing times, teacher education programs need to consider ways to facilitate the development of mentoring capacities in new teachers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Demands for accountability have seen the implementation of large scale testing programs in Australia and internationally. There is, however, a growing body of evidence to show that externally imposed testing programs do not have a sustained impact on student achievement. It has been argued that teacher assessment is more effective in raising student achievement levels. However, it is also often argued that teacher assessments are less reliable than the results of testing programs. This paper presents a study in which teachers judged writing scripts using the process of pairwise comparison to generate a scale. The analysis showed high internal consistency of the teacher judgements. The scale locations from pairwise comparisons were highly correlated with scale estimates for the same students from a large-scale testing program. The results demonstrate it is possible to efficiently obtain highly reliable and valid teacher judgements using the process of pairwise comparison. Reliability indices are also provided for a series of small-scale assessments that used the same methodology in a range of other domains. The results support the findings of the main study. The article discusses the benefits of using the method to supplement and validate results from large-scale testing programs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While externally moderated standards-based assessment has been practised in Queensland senior schooling for more than three decades, there has been no such practice in the middle years. With the introduction of standards at state and national levels in these years, teacher judgement as developed in moderation practices is now vital. This paper argues, that in this context of assessment reform, standards intended to inform teacher judgement and to build assessment capacity are necessary but not sufficient for maintaining teacher and public confidence in schooling. Teacher judgement is intrinsic to moderation, and to professional practice, and can no longer remain private. Moderation too is intrinsic to efforts by the profession to realise judgements that are defensible, dependable and open to scrutiny. Moderation can no longer be considered an optional extra and requires system-level support especially if, as intended, the standards are linked to system-wide efforts to improve student learning. In presenting this argument we draw on an Australian Research Council funded study with key industry partners (the Queensland Studies Authority and the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment of the Republic of Ireland). The data analysed included teacher interview data and additional teacher talk during moderation sessions. These were undertaken during the initial phase of policy development. The analysis identified those issues that emerge in moderation meetings that are designed to reach consistent, reliable judgements. Of interest are the different ways in which teachers talked through and interacted with one another to reach agreement about the quality of student work in the application of standards. There is evidence of differences in the way that teachers made compensations and trade-offs in their award of grades, dependent on the subject domain in which they teach. This article concludes with some empirically derived insights into moderation practices as policy and social events. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses an initial analysis of the form of Australian postgraduate scholarship over the last four decades in relation to curriculum inquiry. The study forms part of an ARC funded project on the shifts and emphases of Australian curriculum policy from 1975 to 2005 which seeks to contribute to understandings of how Australian curriculum has developed across states and over time. Analyses of changing emphases within education thesis production are hampered by the lack of systematic and consistent indexing of the theses, but within the criteria and methods we used, the thesis analysis elicited some tantalising findings. These seem to show a changing focus away from curriculum study in the most recent decade of Australian postgraduate theses, following three decades of rising interest in that area of education. But the study also demonstrated inherent methodological and practical problems for doing the inquiry itself, in terms of (1) the ways we categorise and think about education as a field; (2) limitations of the archiving and coding practices we have put in place to sustain a sense of our own history and the need to improve these; and, (3) potentially, research assessment now in train, and its intention to categorise work via "field of research" codes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper summarises the results of a three-day workshop conducted between October and December of 2007 as part of a larger project dedicated to improving teacher quality at the pre-service and in-service levels. Both pre- and post-test measures were administered before and after workshop completion in order to capture changes in knowledge, attitude, and perception. For contextual relevance, findings are summarised in light of extant literature pertaining to curriculum integration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper draws on the concept and process of deeper learning, namely the U theory (Senge, Scharmer, Jaworski, & Flowers, 2004a). As a driver to get a deeper exploration of organisational change process, the theory of U goes beyond the interpersonal aspects of learning, instead focusing on a deeper personal generative learning that emphasizes seven capacities along the deep learning process. Corporations in Taiwan have been striving in a globalised world economy for market competitiveness through organisational learning and change and this study seeks to understand adult workers' engagement with deep learning. Based on the theory of planned behaviour, the study investigated how personal backgrounds, attitude, perceived subject norm and perceived behavioural control affected adult workers' intention of deeper learning using Pearson correlation and stepwise regression analysis. Data were collected from working adults (N=512) in a high tech company located in Taipei. Results showed that there was a significant positive correlation between the independent variables, namely adult workers' attitudes, perceived social pressure, and behavioural control, and the dependent variables (i.e., the seven capacities within U theory). In addition, among three independent variables, subjective norm had the strongest predictive power on the successful diffusion of the U theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many studies and papers have explored and critiqued the "what" and the "why" of working at the cultural interface of mainstream curricula and local Indigenous knowledge, but this project sought to understand the "how". Participants went beyond explorations of "cultural items" and worked in the overlap between the New South Wales Department's Quality Teaching Framework and Indigenous Pedagogies drawn from local lore, language and the sentient landscape. Indigenous knowledge urns used not merely as content, but to provide innovative ways of thinking and problem solving in the field of design and technology. The methodology for the study was based on a significant site in the local river system. The focus of the action research study shifted in the early stages from the students to the teachers, who required a radical shift in their thinking in order to set aside deficit logic, or stimulus-response approaches to teaching and learning, to embrace sophisticated Indigenous ways of knowing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper draws on 159 survey responses of fourth year Education students as they embark on a research project based in their internship school. The project explores predisposition to research and the level of preparedness to undertake a research project. The students who met most frequently with their supervisor and showed higher research self-efficacy were also most likely to want to undertake postgraduate study and reacted positively to good personal support and a feeling of belonging to a research "community". Many felt they were "unconnected" to a learning community, and specifically to their supervisor. They were generally positive about their ability to do the tasks, such as finding and writing up literature, even though they were concerned about managing the overall commitment. Despite this they were optimistic about completion. Only 5% were sure they would undertake postgraduate study in the future, and 65% were sure they would not do so. In an environment where there is commitment to promoting research skills consistent with the needs of a knowledge society and drawing on evidence to inform practice, the findings not only raise the question of how best to support and give meaning to early research endeavours of preservice teachers, but also highlights the challenge of achieving this against a high level of disinterest in further tertiary study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper I critically examine the changing nature of teacher professionalism in relation to educational policy-making, specifically, the new national policy for values education in Australian schools, and a newly endorsed Cultural Understandings syllabus for teaching in New South Wales' secondary schools. I argue that these policy changes connect teachers' work to a broad citizenship agenda, where values formation is increasingly seen as a core responsibility of teachers, and intercultural education is proposed as a domestic strategy for social cohesion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]