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The purpose of this review study was to conduct a thematic exploration of prior studies related to the transition between primary and secondary school. The aim of the paper was to discover (1) the extent of earlier research, (2) how earlier research thematises social and emotional issues, and (3) suggestions of those studies concerning how to improve schools. Searches were conducted across four international databases of peer-reviewed research to identify articles published in the last decade on the topic 'transition between primary and secondary school'. Articles related to social and emotional issues were further selected, and thematic analysis was conducted on the selected 29 articles to identify the topical focus. This review study draws attention to the importance of understanding challenges related to the transition between primary and secondary school. Overall, the analysed studies indicate that this is an important focus for educational research. Key issues related to support and wellbeing/bullying have emerged, which clarify the importance of further research in this field. The present study may also contribute to increasing awareness among policy makers and school leaders of the challenges related to the transition between primary and secondary school.

Given the intense politicisation of education, many teacher educators are caught in the cross-hairs of government's reform agendas, university expectations and student teacher needs. This paper reports on a study of 28 literacy teacher educators in four countries (Canada, US, Australia and England). This paper reports on the broad question: How is politics affecting literacy teacher educators? Three specific aspects are considered: their pedagogies, identity and well-being. It describes how their pedagogy (goals and teaching strategies) has narrowed because of mandated curriculum and exit exams. It shows how their identity as academics is being complicated because they often do not have time for their research. And their well-being is compromised because of excessive external inspections and as their community in the university splinters.

The present study aims to examine the leadership research in higher education in order to shed light on its development during the last two decades by revealing the evolving trends in research on leadership in higher education, the most prominent scholars working on related research, the most popular topics in related research, and the countries in which the related studies are based. Bibliometric method was employed in the analysis of the original research and review papers published in five prominent higher education journals between 1995 and 2014: "Higher Education," "Research in Higher Education," "Studies in Higher Education," "The Journal of Higher Education" and "The Review of Higher Education." The results of this bibliometric analysis show that the majority of the related articles come from three countries: the U.S.A., the UK and Australia. It is also found that the leadership research in higher education is still very scarce and has not shown any meaningful increase during the last two decades. In addition, content analysis is used to provide more in-depth information about the topical focus, purpose and methodology of the selected articles. The results of content analyses are discussed in detail, and suggestions for the future research are provided.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to discuss the globalization of Business Schools and present different strategies, issues and perspectives on how and why business schools are going global. The paper explores various models for globalization, contrasts and integrates them, and then presents an approach to globalization that is within the reach of these smaller and less endowed schools. Design/methodology/approach: This paper reviews relevant literature and an analysis of exchange programs amongst the world's leading business schools. Different aspects of the globalization of management education are discussed including internationalizing the curriculum, globalizing research agendas, and the impact of globalized competition. Findings: A framework has been developed that can be employed by business schools--especially in emerging economies--to internationalize themselves through their education and research programs. Recommendations are made for how business schools with limited resources can meet the challenge of offering the internationally-oriented education experience increasingly demanded by employers and students alike. Research limitations/implications: Limitations to this paper result from the use of "Financial Times" top 100 ranked business schools. Aside from weaknesses inherent the rankings methodology, the choice of these business schools excluded hundreds of high quality business schools around the world--many of which are internationally recognized for quality. Furthermore, the methodology of the scanning of web sites of schools for types of collaboration agreements across borders might not give the full picture of agreements betweens schools. Originality/value: Although a considerable amount has been written about the globalization imperative facing business schools (with many illustrations of what could be considered best practice), there is a significant lack of information when it comes to the articulation of strategies and implementation challenges facing smaller and less well endowed business schools that want to globalize. (Contains 19 notes, 1 table and 3 figures.)

Significant efforts have now been made to identify the generic competencies required to succeed across different workplace contexts. The aims of this paper were to: (i) outline factors that contributed to the increased demand for generic competencies seen over the last three decades; and (ii) review the early generic competency frameworks developed in Australia, New Zealand, the US, Canada, the UK, and other European countries. It is concluded that whilst there were significant areas of commonality amongst the frameworks, regional differences were also apparent. The paper provides a historical context for more recent research into the generic competencies that should be emphasized within tertiary-level education and training curricula. (Contains 1 table.)

In this paper we engage with some fundamental questions about the focus and conduct of academic research and its potential influence on policy in relation to social problems. We use the example of public housing and social-spatial disadvantage as a basis to advance an analysis of the housing researcher's role in informing and framing the policymaking process and its links to research evidence. Although our paper uses the example of Australia, the arguments presented are also applicable to other nation states, such as the UK and US, that have an under-funded public housing stock. The paper proceeds in three stages. First, we detail the role and function of public housing in Australian cities and the politics surrounding public investment in welfare provision. Second, we discuss a series of models developed around the kind of research narratives that have been linked to policy on public housing and neighbourhoods from the academy, arguing that the social composition and management of 'place' has been emphasised at the expense of structural imperatives. Third, we examine some of the more abstract concerns raised by the linkages we make, and the potentially delimited role of academic research on social problems such as poverty and locational disadvantage. We conclude the paper by arguing that the weak position of housing research has fuelled an internalised narrative-driven pragmatic realism that has occluded more useful accounts about the nature of social problems. It is therefore incumbent on researchers to challenge, in a more vigorous way, the narratives underpinning this self-restraining form of policy-realism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper explores the dynamics of competition in higher education. National competition and global competition are distinct, but feed into each other. Higher education produces ‘positional goods’ (Hirsch 1976) that provide access to social prestige and income-earning. Research universities aim to maximise their status as producers of positional goods. This status is a function of student selectivity plus research performance. At system-level competition bifurcates between exclusivist elite institutions that produce highly value positional goods, where demand always exceeds supply and expansion is constrained to maximise status; and mass institutions (profit and non-profit) characterised by place-filling and expansion. Intermediate universities are differentiated between these poles. In global competition, the networked open information environment has facilitated (1) the emergence of a world-wide positional market of elite US/UK universities; and (2) the rapid development of a commercial mass market led by UK and Australian universities. Global competition is vectored by research capacity. This is dominated by English language, especially US universities, contributing to the pattern of asymmetrical resources and one-way global flows. The paper uses Australia as its example of system segmentation and global/national interface. It closes by reflecting on a more balanced global distribution of capacity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to analyse job ads as relatively accessible indicators of the knowledge, skills and competencies required of librarians by employers. It then uses a framework provided by the literature on professional jurisdiction to examine what may be trends and shaping factors for the Library and Information Studies (US) profession with regard to jurisdiction in a changing information landscape. Design/methodology/approach – Job ads were examined in two separate studies; one comparing job ads in Australia and the USA over eight weeks in 2004, and the other looking at one month snapshots of Australian job ads in 1974, 1984, 1994 and 2004. The text from the job ads was analysed using a content analysis software package. The literature on professional jurisdiction provided an interpretive framework. Findings – The Australian snapshots over time showed that there is an increasing lack of clarity about the skills and competencies required of librarians. The American job ads seemed to rank jurisdictional knowledge and professional qualifications more highly than their Australian counterparts. Interpersonal skills, behavioural characteristics and technical services skills are in demand in both countries. Originality/value – In addition to reporting on the knowledge, skills and competencies required of librarians, by applying an interpretive framework from the literature on professional jurisdiction the paper exposes some of the challenges ahead for the LIS profession. Research limitations/implications – The research used a small number of sources and a relatively small number of ads. It is acknowledged that job ads are only one source of information about knowledge, skills and competencies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Government contracting with not-for-profit agencies, particularly those characterised as 'religious' and 'faith-based', to deliver social welfare has been the subject of substantial research in the United States and the United Kingdom in recent years. In contrast, attention to the role of 'religious' and 'faith-based' agencies in service delivery in Australia has been relatively limited. This paper explores conceptual issues relating to research into the impact on 'church-related' not-for-profit social welfare agencies in Australia of engagement in government contracting. It commences with a critical analysis of typologies in recent US and UK literature that use the terminology 'religious', 'faith-based' and 'secular', and identifies why this terminology is not analytically helpful. An alternative conceptual approach is developed, to guide research into the engagement of these agencies with government focusing on issues of governance, identity and mission. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Teaching national history in school generates significant public anxiety and political debate—as the various 'history wars' around the world reveal. For many school students, however, studying their nation's past is dull and repetitive. Such lack of interest has been confirmed by surveys and research reports that reveal alarmingly low levels of national historical knowledge among young people, and there is growing popular concern that their ignorance of the past endangers the nation's future. Yet preoccupation with students' apparent national illiteracy tends to overlook how they connect with history in the first place. This paper draws on findings from a comparative Australian and Canadian research project that interviewed students and teachers about the ways they learned and taught history. It argues that any return to 'the facts' at the expense of critical historical engagement in class could turn students away from the subject. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two major challenges to conducting a community-based twin study of pathological gambling (PG) disorder are that: (a) it is relatively rare, and (b) individuals with the disorder in the community may be difficult to locate and recruit. We describe a new study of 4,764 individuals recruited from the Australian Twin Registry in which we attempt to effectively deal with the first challenge and examine the impact of the second challenge. The lifetime prevalence of DSM-IV PG in this Australian twin sample was 2.2%, which is 400-500% higher than has been obtained in prevalence surveys conducted in the United States. A number of predictors of non-participation were identified, including a lifetime PG disorder diagnosis, but these did not have a large net effect on the estimated number of individuals with PG or related characteristics in the twin sample. Results of biometric modeling suggested that the effect of genetic, shared family environmental, and nonshared environmental influences on the propensity to engage in 11 different specific forms of gambling (e.g., playing the lottery, betting on horse or dog races, playing electronic gaming machines) were generally moderate, low, and moderate, respectively, with mean parameter estimates obtained of 43%, 10%, and 46%. An intriguing comparison with results from a 1963 US adolescent twin study conducted by Loehlin and Nichols (1976) suggests that: (a) propensity genes for gambling involvement may be more likely to be expressed in the heavy-gambling Australian culture, or that (b) the family environment has a transient effect on the gambling behavior of young people. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]