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With global trends focussed on standardisation of curriculum and increased teacher accountability, it has become commonplace for curriculum to be viewed simplistically as a product. While all teachers engage in forms of classroom curriculum-making, questions remain as to what this looks like within an educational landscape that continues to portray teaching as a purely technical activity. This paper explores two Australian early career primary teachers' experiences of curriculum-making, drawing attention to the enabling and constraining conditions which shape such experiences. We consider the impact of these enabled and constrained experiences on early career teachers' aspirations and ongoing development as knowledge-led curriculum-makers. We contend that such constrained experiences limit opportunities for early career teachers to develop professional identities as knowledge-led curriculum-makers and continue to reinforce unhelpful representations of teachers as 'technicians'.

Multicultural education is an essential approach for fostering inclusivity and promoting diversity within primary school settings. This systematic literature review aims to explore the issues employed in multicultural education within primary schools, utilizing a data source from Springer, a renowned academic publisher. This research applies the systematic review literature method with the preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analysis (PRISMA) protocol. The review examines scholarly articles published between 2018 and 2023 to identify trends, challenges, and best practices in the field. The findings of this review have implications for educators, policymakers, and practitioners in the field of education. The identified best practices, such as problem-based learning, social-emotional learning, and virtual field trips, can guide the development of curriculum frameworks, instructional approaches, and professional development programs that prioritize multicultural education in primary schools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A virtues-based approach to research ethics offers an alternative perspective to the rule-based approaches that dominate many current ethical regulations. For researchers engaging in insider research where ethical dilemmas can be complex and unpredictable, ethical decisions often need to be made on a case-by-case basis. This requires researchers to have greater awareness of the dispositions of their character to ensure appropriate and just decisions are made. In this paper, a virtues-based approach to research ethics is used as framework for reflecting on research conduct. Past experiences as a teacher-researcher engaging in an insider research project are drawn on and used to demonstrate the usefulness of this framework for reflection. It is argued that by engaging in such reflection, a researcher may be able to strengthen their awareness of the excellences of character required to navigate ethical dilemmas confidently and safely in future research endeavours. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The initial prosperity of the 21st century’s first decade was accompanied in Australia by a skills shortage. Despite a relatively brief hiatus created by the ‘global financial crisis’, significant skills shortages have re-emerged. Drawing on multi-scalar insights into the construction industry in Australia and worldwide, and qualitative research in Australia, this article highlights the geographically constituted nature of the construction industry and the contradictory interplay of local labour force formation with increased recourse to the global labour market to meet workforce needs. More broadly, the article demonstrates how an appreciation of the geographical nature of an industry can yield new insights into work and employment. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]