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Background: The educational and cognitive differences associated with low socioeconomic status begin early in life and tend to persist throughout life. Coupled with the finding that levels of sedentary time are negatively associated with cognitive development, and time spent active tends to be lower in disadvantaged circumstances, this highlights the need for interventions that reduce the amount of time children spend sitting and sedentary during childcare. The proposed study aims to assess the effects of reducing sitting time during Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) services on cognitive development in toddlers from low socio-economic families. Methods/Design: We will implement a 12-months 2-arm parallel group cluster randomised controlled trial (RCT) with Australian toddlers, aged 12 to 26 months at baseline. Educators from the ECEC services allocated to the intervention group will receive professional development on how to reduce sitting time while children attend ECEC. Participants' cognitive development will be assessed as a primary outcome, at baseline and post-intervention, using the cognitive sub-test from the Bayley Scales of Infant and Toddler Development. Discussion: This trial has the potential to inform programs and policies designed to optimize developmental and health outcomes in toddlers, specifically in those from disadvantaged backgrounds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous research into attrition rates of Indigenous Australian Higher Degree by Research (HDR) candidates has focused on institutional barriers, highlighting cultural disparities. This case study of three academically able candidates who withdrew before completion from an institution designed to meet the needs of Indigenous students describes their path into the award and non-academic factors over the span of their education that impacted on their performance, then draws upon studies of resilience to propose that the psycho-social environments in which they had to operate were complex and burdensome. It proposes that institutions that enroll Indigenous Australian HDR candidates cannot ignore these environments and more appropriate support strategies should be employed. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

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Despite significant research in the field of educational technology, there is still much we do not fully understand about students' experiences with technology. This article proposes that research in the field of educational technology would benefit from a sociological framing that pays attention to the understandings and lives of learners. Within a broader study that aimed to investigate students' use and value of technologies guided by Bourdieu's sociological theory, this article reports on qualitative embedded case study data of 12 students in years 9 and 10 from two Australian secondary schools. The article provides detailed accounts of students' experiences with technologies in various contexts with consideration of the milieu in which technology use occurred, illustrating the heterogeneous and complex network of influencing factors on students' technology practices. The findings and discussion augment the application of Bourdieu's concepts of field, habitus and capital as a tool to view and understand students' varied and complex experiences and relationships with technology. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Diversity in the student body, particularly the inclusion of disadvantaged groups, has been incorporated into the discourse of inclusive education, with social justice and equality now part of the agenda. However, the conflation of diversity with equality potentially obscures some structural elements of the contemporary university system. This research reports on the experiences of culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) social work students and their experiences and maps the views of CALD student's engagement with the social work course. Overall data indicated that for CALD students to successfully engage with their studies, social work programmes must address the personal, cultural and political dislocation that CALD students experience while undertaking their studies [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents an empirical study undertaken to develop a typology of international student community engagement activities that incorporates the perceptions of three key stakeholder groups - the international students, the community and the university. Framed by the notion of value co-creation, our exploratory study was undertaken at a rapidly growing, regional Australian university. Qualitative data was collected via interviews with community members (n = 5) and university staff members (n = 4) and focus groups with international students (N = 22). Our resulting typology comprises three clusters of engagement activity - highly unstructured, semi-structured and highly structured - with two engagement types in each cluster. Thus, the six major types of international student university-community engagement activities are: spontaneous occurrences and daily interactions (highly unstructured), informal social gatherings and casual employment (semi-structured) and formal social organisation participation and professional work experience (highly structured). Our typology offers a useful platform for strategic endeavours related to international student university-community engagement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Australian higher education sector has grappled, with little success, to increase the participation of students from lower socio‐economic status (SES) backgrounds. In this article I identify the ways in which the secondary school curriculum contributes to this outcome, and how universities are complicit in this process. Using data collected at three low SES secondary schools, I argue that the hierarchy of subjects and the increase of vocational education options, together with the expectations of schools and teachers, conspire with tertiary selection processes to prevent all but a very few low SES students from gaining entry to university. These students are not well positioned in relation to cultural and social capital to negotiate the educational strategies that facilitate university entrance. When university places are limited and access is based on relative (apparent) merit, the secondary curriculum orders young people into a social hierarchy of post‐secondary options where the success of more privileged students comes at the cost of students from low socio‐economic backgrounds. The article concludes with an exploration of alternative modes of entry that disrupt the established curriculum hierarchy by valuing a broad range of knowledges for entry to university. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article addresses the way in which principals can contribute to closing the unacceptable gap in literacy achievement in Australia for low socio-economic status (SES) students by connecting leadership work more directly with the conditions which influence teaching and learning. It draws upon the outcomes of a project funded under the Australian Government's ‘Literacy and numeracy Pilots in Low SES Environments' initiative, called Principals as Literacy Leaders. Discussion centres on a synthesis of recent research literature into a leadership for learning framework or blue print to guide the actions of principals as they interact with their teachers over literacy learning and achievement. The framework was used to organise professional learning experiences for principals to enable them to engage members of staff with key issues known to challenge and enhance literacy learning. A sample of the kinds of experiences employed during the project is described. The combination or blend of curriculum content with professional processes, it is suggested, is in need of further research if initial hopes for improved leadership development in the future are to be realised. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The cultural complexity of student populations presents major challenges for contemporary schooling in Western migrant nations such as Australia. While this has much to do with the diverse linguistic and ethnic backgrounds of students, other differences such as socio-economic status, family histories and gender add to this complexity. Yet, the complexities of education are not only a function of the cultural and social diversity of the student population. There are vast differences in students' educational and physical capital which are related but not reducible to these diversities. Complexity is inherent in the culture and philosophy of schooling; the processes of becoming literate, numerate and learning how to learn. While students have diverse needs, there are common skills that must be acquired, skills that are requisite for effective social participation in contemporary globalized societies. The challenge for education, and for dealing with complexity in any field, is to avoid being reductionist in the process. This article explores approaches to navigating these complexities in educational policy and practice, highlighting the ways in which simplistic understandings can prove problematic and yet, how certain forms of complexity reduction are necessary in achieving goals of educational access and equity. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The migration experiences of Indian students challenge traditional frameworks of multiculturalism in Australia. First, unlike earlier groups of migrants, Indian students pay to study hoping to become migrants. Indian families contributed AU$2.9 billion in educational fees, living expenses and tourism in December 2010 and generated 28,975 full-time equivalent jobs. Second, the students’ narratives are largely centred on mobility and acquiring greater options rather than settlement. Third, Indian students come from a country that is an important trading partner for Australia. And last, like other migrants, the students live in transnational families that go beyond the traditional national framework of multiculturalism. This study draws on 35 open-ended individual and group interviews with Indians who arrived on student or spouse visas in 2005 or later and 12 persons who occupy leading positions in Indian community organisations, media and local government. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While the economic benefits created by international education export are well documented, few systematic and qualitative analysis studies have been conducted to examine how academic staff perceive the presence of international students in their institutions. Using interview data from 80 academic staff from different disciplines in one higher institution in Australia, this study examines whether the presence of international students has an impact on staff teaching practice. Some of the academic staff reported that they made no adjustments to their teaching. They treated all students as one student group. Other staff members said that there have been changes in their teaching in response to the presence of international students in their classroom. The paper discusses some of the underlying causes of these responses, and implications for the practice of international education. The discussion of the findings is informed by Bennett’s Developmental Model of Intercultural Sensitivity, which helps us understand how people respond to cultural differences. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

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]

Previous studies have shown that both student and school socioeconomic status (SES) are strongly associated with student outcomes, but less is known about how these relationships may vary for different students, schools and nations. In this study we use a large international dataset to examine how student SES, school SES and self-efficacy are associated with mathematics performance among 15-year-old students in Australia. We found that increases in school SES are consistently associated with substantial increases in achievement in mathematics and this phenomenon holds for all groups, regardless of their individual SES. Furthermore, our findings show that the association of school SES with maths achievement persists even when subject-specific self-efficacy is taken into account. However, our findings also suggest modest differences among student groups disaggregated by these factors. In particular, the association between maths achievement and school SES appears moderately stronger for students with higher levels of self-efficacy compared with their peers with lower self-efficacy. Furthermore, among students with similar levels of self-efficacy, the association between maths achievement and school SES tends to be stronger for lower SES students than for their more privileged peers. From these findings, we highlight the importance of the Australian case for comparable systems of education, and provide a discussion of policy implications and strategies for mitigating the influence of school socioeconomic composition on academic achievement more generally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Turkish migration to France and Australia has followed a similar pattern, and the children of these migrants can be found in similar sites in the academic hierarchy present in both countries. However, important differences in the management of ethnic and religious identities and in the organisation of schooling have produced contrasting experiences for families and their children. The research findings presented here reveal processes underpinning the maintenance of "dreams" in Australia and hastening "disillusionment" in France. In Victoria, academic judgements are deferred and students remain in a comprehensive system in which all can at least aspire to the most academically demanding professions. By contrast, the attitudes of students in the French system are formed by examinations and separation into specialised vocational sections by the age of 15. Combined with more rigid pedagogical approaches and heightened ethnic tensions, this tends to produce a sense of disillusionment among students in France. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Of the challenges facing universities, the need to attract and accommodate students of increasingly varied demographic backgrounds is perhaps one of the most pressing. This study was conducted to profile the first-year student cohort at a new university campus characterised by the non-traditional students typical of a rapidly changing tertiary sector. The project was designed to follow on from the findings of a recent nation-wide review of first-year students in Australia, which provided a robust point of comparison. The cohort in this context differed from those of previous studies—over half were first-generation tertiary students; less than one-third were from a high socioeconomic status background; and just under half were mature-aged students. Overall, results indicated that students at this university, despite their backgrounds, were remarkably positive about their university experience and well-equipped to achieve at university study. These findings are highly relevant in terms of understanding the transitional experiences of non-traditional stud ents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Responding to the increasing numbers of students who now study across more than one of the traditional sectors of education and training, this research explored quantitative differences in conceptions of learning between students who had entered university study on the basis of a VET qualification, and those who had entered on a basis of previous university studies. Using the Conceptions of Learning Inventory the research also used gender as an independent variable. While some differences were shown between the previously-VET and previously-university students and some differences between genders these differences were characterised by low to moderate effect sizes only. The authors conclude that the quantitative differences are not particularly important, but that qualitative research may indicate differences in kind between the conceptions of learning of the two groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Within a context of global reform agendas that promote economic ideologies in education the discourses surrounding 'school failure' have shifted from 'individual risk' to 'a nation at-risk'. Enhancing the quality of schooling through improving educational outcomes and standards for all, and thereby reducing 'school failure,' is simultaneously constructed as enhancing both social justice and a nation's economic advantage in the global marketplace. Within this broader context, this research explores the complexity of issues related to policy for students at educational risk through an analysis of the Education Department of Western Australia's 'Making the Difference: Students at Educational Risk Policy.' This research adopted a theoretical framework of a 'policy cycle' (that allowed for an exploration of power relations within the policy process. Primarily, consideration is given to the competing social and economic discourses found within the policy text and subsequent tensions reflected and retracted throughout the policy process from macro (system), to meso (district) and finally to micro levels within the schools and classrooms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper documents the voices of Australian rural students as a means of examining students' views of the obstacles confronting them in their endeavours to fulfil the aspirations and expectations for their future imagined lives. The paper draws upon a national research project, and more specifically, data collected in a series of focus group interviews conducted with secondary school students in thirteen rural/regional communities across Australia. In view of this data, the paper demonstrates that the influences on, and indeed the obstacles to, rural students' aspirations and expectations, can be categorised into two dimensions - the personal and the social - that are nonetheless interconnected. Finally, in light of this, and as evident in the students' voices, it explores the following range of issues: availability of finance; apprehension and fear; attachment to home; work opportunities, as well as, educational opportunities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The authors conducted an analysis of 1,049 graduates from post-graduate business programs at an Australian university primarily to determine whether students from nonbusiness backgrounds, after completing a business preparation program, perform at the same academic level as students with prior studies in business. The authors found that students from business and nonbusiness backgrounds perform equally well. Another objective was to test the associations between additional student-related variables and academic performance for profiling successful postgraduate students. The authors found that younger postgraduate students and those who are more proficient in English achieve higher GPA scores. Student profiling is relevant for determining marketing and recruitment policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article reports on a pilot study that investigated the beliefs, values, and pedagogies of experienced high school teachers who worked with student populations of non-English speaking and economically disadvantaged immigrants or refugees in Australia. Qualitative research methods, including focus groups and in-depth individual interviews with teachers, produced data that were examined using Critical Discourse Analysis. Close reading of the teachers' comments suggests that there are a number of key discourses that teachers use to make sense of differences among culturally diverse and economically disadvantaged groups of students. Specifically, teachers distinguish between cultural groups on the basis of students' life experiences prior to arrival in Australia; students' collective and individual educational experiences; and the different social class positioning of students within the same ethnic group. In their comments, teachers at times categorised students in generalised and stereotypical ways but also were able to critique and reflect on their personal assumptions. An analysis of the teachers' reflections provides insights into how they made sense of "diversity" and how, as teachers, they try to work productively with ethnically diverse and economically disadvantaged students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reports the findings from a study examining how overseas students adapt to their new country of residence. Looks at the place attachment process of migrant students studying in Australia and Singapore. Focuses the analysis on adaptation to the physical and social environments. Discusses attachments to objects and provides suggestions as to how universities can assist in the adjustment process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Investigates the experiences of young Southeast Asian refugees in Australian schools. Health problems; Learning difficulties; Life change and loss; Children without parents; Intergenerational conflict; Schooling disruption; Language and schooling placement; Unstable living conditions. INSET: Youth monitor extra..

Discusses the injustice faced by students who have lower rates of school completion and the role of teachers in making a difference in the lives of marginalised students in Australia. Statistical information on the retention rate of students with low socio-economic status (SES) backgrounds; Effects of school mix on achievement; Response of the Australian government to the impact of SES on student achievement.

The author reflects on the problems posed by harassment, bullying and mental health to medical students in Australia. Topics discussed include the fear of reprisals and lack of confidence in complaint processes in medicine, the solutions in mitigating medical-related problems, and the significant standards and practice to address them.

Reports on a study on the incidence of sexual harassment of student by their peers or teachers in Australia. Rise in the incidence of sexual harassment in schools; Observations of a range of classes in almost 30 Victorian secondary schools from the government, independent and Catholic sectors; Interviews with teachers and students from one school for a detailed case study.