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During the last decades, the search to try to understand why Australian teachers prematurely leave their jobs has become an increasing focus of research interest. This article yields significant insights into the history and potential future of the teacher attrition research field. Using a thematic content analysis methodology, a study of the Australian literature reveals that the field in this country is still in its infancy, and is dominated by small-scale, qualitative exploratory studies. Furthermore, it shows the lack of consistency amongst studies discussing teacher attrition, as well as the need for a theoretically informed framework that acknowledges the complex nature of teacher attrition. To fill this void, the authors propose a new theoretical model, arguing that teacher attrition is a complex phenomenon, a product of the interaction of elements from social capital, human capital, positive psychological capital and structural capital intersecting.

In recent years, educators have begun to use learning portfolios as a means of evaluating student learning in higher education. Research indicates that learning portfolios can help students understand better the learning process as well as enhancing learning outcomes. They promote reflection on the learning experience and encourage students to think critically and make judgments about their own learning. The aim of this paper is to explore how short-answer portfolios can support the development of generic skills. We focus on generic skill because one of the central aims of university teaching is to develop the generic capabilities of graduates. These generic attributes represent the qualities, skills and understandings a university community anticipates its students should acquire at university and display as a graduate professional and citizen. This paper reports the findings of a study of learning portfolios and generic skill development of industrial relations students studying on-line at a remote location. The students completed a short-answer learning portfolio as part of their learning experience. Data were gathered about the performance and views of these students from interviews, a survey, analysis of student work and email correspondence with their teacher. Our research indicates that learning portfolios are an effective way of developing generic skills, although they are very labour intensive from the teacher's perspective. (Contains 7 tables and 1 footnote.)

In the monolingual English-speaking world referred to as the "Anglobubble," governments are finally recognising the advantages of a citizenry able to engage in and between multiple languages and cultures. As a result, increased efforts are being made to introduce and expand educational programs to teach languages. Thus, now more than ever, an appropriate language teacher supply is needed to support the internationalisation process of citizens. However, a language teacher supply crisis is emerging. The content analysis study reported here, explored how the issue of language teacher supply was portrayed in print-based newspaper media from six English-speaking countries between 2010 and 2015. The findings indicate that there is an ongoing crisis with the supply of language teachers in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States. Further, in areas where language education is being propelled by top-down political agendas, sustainable progress is limited. Attention is focused on a small number of "popular" languages, with indigenous languages all but forgotten. In contrast, in areas where grass-roots community movements are present, actions are being undertaken to find genuine and sustainable solutions. This is also bringing a more positive media discourse, and, as such, increased social awareness of and value for language education.

Discusses a research project that aims to study the grammatical development of two groups of language immersion students, one that is participating in an Internet project involving collaboration with learners in France and Canada, and another that is exposed to the teaching of grammar that has been integrated with content area studies. (Author/VWL)

Doctoral education has undergone, in recent years, a revolution paralleling changes in modern society. In the last two decades, the world has witnessed a wave of doctoral education reforms driven by government funding cuts, commercialization, rationalization, internationalization, quality assurance, as well as by increasing demands from employers and doctoral graduates to train doctoral students for an ever-changing competitive job market, which goes beyond the walls of academia. With an historical view of doctoral education at international level, and paying special attention to the process of Bologna taking place in Europe, this paper investigates the different models of doctoral education developed, as well as how its initial traditional conceptualisation has evolved and diversified, driven by educational policy and changes to higher education funding, into new models of doctoral education relevant to our current society. It discusses, from an international perspective, how different higher education institutions are approaching the task of equipping doctoral students with transferable or generic skills, as well as specific skills, in order to educate active and sustainable researchers for the competitive international knowledge based societies of the 21st century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Language student attrition rightly continues to raise concern, associated as it is with heavy emotional and financial consequences. Existing models of student retention and attrition approach the issue of student dropout once the students had withdrawn from their studies. Even though these models have been successful in determining some of the factors that contributed to student withdrawal, there are three distinct gaps in the literature. First, the lack of studies dealing with in-course retention, second, the lack of retention and attrition models that tackled the issue from a prognostic approach rather than diagnostic, and third, the lack of research into second and foreign language learning student attrition. This article explains a new approach to language student in-course retention, developed and evaluated in a first-year tertiary Spanish class, as well as the instruments that support its implementation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The words "grammar learning" and "boring" are often, unfortunately, associated. Traditional grammar teaching and learning fails to engage students in active and lifelong learning. There is a need for learner-centred approaches that help students learn grammar in a second language or foreign language classroom in a more engaging and enjoyable way. Grammar learning games represent a particularly promising addition to the grammar teacher's arsenal. Little is known about how student-driven grammar learning games can be used in the class, however, this paper provides an account of a classroom based study, giving an early insight based on a research study that explored the impact that the use of a game-based grammar learning approach had on the grammar learning experience of tertiary students learning Spanish in Australia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Educational institutions are agents that can support culturally and linguistically diverse communities and promote transformative change in preparing global citizens. The degree of preparedness of citizens to deal with the new multicultural reality that constitutes modern life has real economic implications for a nation's success. By adopting a multicultural capital framework that synthesises current capital theories across fields, we seek to understand how educational institutions can prepare students for a world in which the ability to move across cultures and languages significantly determines an individual's ability to succeed. Middle schooling has been increasingly identified in educational literature as an identifiable stage in schooling that spans traditional notions of primary and secondary schooling and that holds distinct characteristics and needs. Drawing upon ethnographic data from a qualitative, exploratory study, this paper maps educational practices (both pedagogic and institutional) across six middle schools in urban Australia. By mapping these practices to the proposed multicultural capital framework, we identify how culturally proactive educational institutions productively draw upon multicultural capital to foster and promote a distinctly Australian perspective of what constitutes multicultural education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Definitions and policy intents of multiculturalism have been contested in the public sphere at international and national levels; however the term has remained in use in Australia since the 1970s. In policy frameworks, successive Australian governments have promoted societal pluralism as a national goal over a period of 21 years. Recent federal and state policies relating to multiculturalism have featured terms such as ‘social capital’ and ‘productive diversity’, as well as ‘inclusivity’ and ‘accountability’. At the level of middle schooling, understandings of the term and its enactment have varied. Within a wider, ongoing study, sociocultural data were collected from metropolitan schools that publicly espoused multiculturalism as foundational to their school philosophy and teaching practice. Analysis of interview data from teachers and school management explores accounts of ‘good practice’ in these schools. While some schools consider multiculturalism to be a domain within the curriculum, others are employing a whole-school approach. Implications are drawn for the enactment of multiculturalism in the middle years of schooling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]