A gendered educational agenda : what's wrong with 10 Things I Hate About You?

Both William Shakespeare's play The Taming of the Shrew (1593) and the film 10 thing I hate About You (Gil Junger, 1999) contain tropes of gender and education and gendered education, and both represent and perform 'education'. That is, they depict characters undergoing a range of educational experiences and in turn educate their audience about what it means to be educated appropriately. It seems fitting then that these pairng of texts has been popular with high school teachers who, more often than not, use them as ways into teaching Shakespeare to contemporary adolescents. I suggest that the play-film pairing can be more productively introduced into the classroom as texts that offer critical readers the opportunity to contest the values of education and gender contatined within them, rather than as tools to reintroduce outdated notions of gendered agency and cultural authority. Indeed it is precisely because 10 Things is unequivocally a romantic comedy that aims to work within the audience's comfort zone that we must seriously interrogate the cultural politics of gender and education it promotes.

How can flexible learning centres use social networking to improve their ongoing educational assessments?

Most online assessment systems now incorporate social networking features, and recent developments in social media spaces include protocols that allow the synchronisation and aggregation of data across multiple user profiles. In light of these advances and the concomitant fear of data sharing in secondary school education this papers provides important research findings about generic features of online social networking, which educators can use to make sound and efficient assessments in collaboration with their students and colleagues. This paper reports on a design experiment in flexible educational settings that challenges the dichotomous legacy of success and failure evident in many assessment activities for at-risk youth. Combining social networking practices with the sociology of education the paper proposes that assessment activities are best understood as a negotiable field of exchange. In this design experiment students, peers and educators engage in explicit, "front-end" assessment (Wyatt-Smith, 2008) to translate digital artefacts into institutional, and potentiality economic capital without continually referring to paper based pre-set criteria. This approach invites students and educators to use social networking functions to assess “work in progress” and final submissions in collaboration, and in doing so assessors refine their evaluative expertise and negotiate the value of student’s work from which new criteria can emerge. The mobile advantages of web-based technologies aggregate, externalise and democratise this transparent assessment model for most, if not all, student work that can be digitally represented.

To work or not to work? Child development and maternal labor supply

We estimate the effect of early child development on maternal labor force participation. Mothers of poorly developing children may remain at home to care for their children. Alternatively, mothers may enter the labor force to pay for additional educational and health resources. Which action dominates is the empirical question we answer in this paper. We control for the potential endogeneity of child development by using an instrumental variables approach, uniquely exploiting exogenous variation in child development associated with child handedness. We find that a one unit increase in poor child development decreases maternal labor force participation by approximately 10 percentage points.

Difference and dispersion : educational research in a postmodern context

Difference and Dispersion is the fourth in a series of annual research papers produced by doctoral students from The Graduate School of Education, The University of Queensland, following their presentation at the School’s annual Postgraduate Research Conference in Education. The work featured herein celebrates the diversity of cultural and disciplinary backgrounds of education researchers who come from as far afield as Germany, Hong Kong, China, Nigeria, Russia, Singapore, Thailand and of course different parts of Australia. In keeping with a postmodern epistemology, ‘difference’ and ‘dispersion’ are key themes in apprehending the multiplicity of their research topics, methodologies, methods and speaking/writing positions. From widely differing contexts and situations, these writers address the consequences, implications and possibilities for education at the beginning of the third millennium. Their interest ranges from location-specific issues in schools and classrooms, change in learning contexts and processes, educational discourses and relations of power in diverse geographical settings, and the differing articulations of the local and the global in situated policy contexts. Conceived and developed in a spirit of ongoing dialogue with and insight to alternative views and visions of education and society, this edited collection exemplifies the quality in diversity and the high levels of scholarship and supervision at one of Australia’s finest Graduate Schools of Education.

A principal at work : a story of leadership for building sustainable capacity of a school

This study explores through a lifestream narrative how the life experiences of a female primary school principal are organised as practical knowledge, and are used to inform action that is directed towards creating a sustainable school culture. An alternative model of school leadership is presented which describes the thinking and activity of a leader as a process. The process demonstrates how a leader's practical knowledge is dynamic, broadly based in experiential life, and open to change. As such, it is described as a model of sustainable leadership-in-process. The research questions at the heart of this study are: How does a leader construct and organize knowledge in the enactment of the principal ship to deal with the dilemmas and opportunities that arise everyday in school life? And: What does this particular way of organising knowledge look like in the effort to build a sustainable school community? The sustainable leadership-in-process thesis encapsulates new ways of leading primary schools through the principalship. These new ways are described as developing and maintaining the following dimensions of leadership: quality relationships, a collective (shared vision), collaboration and partnerships, and high achieving learning environments. Such dimensions are enacted by the principal through the activities of conversations, performance development, research and data-driven action, promoting innovation, and anticipating and predicting the future. Sustainable leadership-in-process is shared, dynamic, visible and transparent and is conducted through the processes of positioning, defining, organising, experimenting and evaluating in a continuous and iterative way. A rich understanding of the specificity of the life of a female primary school principal was achieved using story telling, story listening and story creation in a collaborative relationship between the researcher and the researched participant. as a means of educational theorising. Analysis and interpretation were undertaken as a recursive process in which the immediate interpretations were shared with the researched participant. The view of theorising adopted in this research is that of theory as hermeneutic; that is, theory is generated out of the stories of experiential life, rather than discovered in the stories.

After the marketplace: evidence, social science and educational research

This paper is an essay on the state of Australian education that frames new directions for educational research. It outlines three challenges faced by Australian educators: highly spatialised poverty with particularly strong mediating effects on primary school education; the need for intellectual and critical depth in pedagogy, with a focus in the upper primary and middle years; and the need to reinvent senior schooling to address emergent pathways from school to work and civic life. It offers a narrative description of the dynamics of policy making in Australia and North America and argues for an evidence-based approach to social and educational policy – but one quite unlike current test and market-based approaches. Instead, it argues for a multidisciplinary approach to a broad range of empirical and case-based evidence that subjects these to critical, hermeneutic social sciences. Such an approach would join educational policy with educational research, and broader social, community and governmental action with the aim of reorganising and redistributing material, cultural and social resources.

Perspectives on enhancing educational policy processes

In this article we examine some of the challenges in the educational policy process today. While acknowledging the inherent tensions in, and complexities of, the policy process, we suggest some ways that might help to better understand it. An evidence-based approach to policy making is offered for consideration. While such an approach is not new, we frame the approach around three lenses drawn from the work of Head (2008): these lenses are titled political, research, and technical. It is argued that consideration of the complexities and challenges at play across these three lenses in a context of contested policy terrain can result in better understanding of the policy process and lead to better policy conceptualisation, planning, and implementation.

Developing reflective practitioners online: The business of blogs in work integrated learning

Reflective practice is widely considered across discussions around educational psychology, professional identity, employability of graduates, and generic or graduate capabilities. Critical reflection is essential for providing a bridge between the university and the workplace, and for ultimately preparing work ready graduates (Patrick et al, 2008). Work integrated learning, particularly through internships and work placements for students, is viewed as a valuable approach for students developing skills in reflective practice. Reflective journals are one of the tools often used to encourage and develop student reflection. Shifting the reflective journal to an online interface as a reflective blog presents opportunities for more meaningful, frequent and richer interaction between the key players in a work integrated learning experience. This paper examines the adoption, implementation and refinement of the use of reflective blogs in a work integrated learning unit for business students majoring in advertising, marketing and public relations disciplines. The reflective blog is discussed as a learning and assessment tool, including the approaches taken to integrate and scaffold the blog as part of the work integrated learning experience. Graduate capabilities were used as cornerstones for students to frame students’ thinking, experiences and reflection. These capabilities emphasise the value of coherent theoretical and practical knowledge, coupled with critical, creative and analytical thinking, problem solving skills, self reliance and resilience. Underlying these graduate capabilities is a focus on assessment for learning matched with assessment of learning. Using specific triggers and prompts as part of the reflective process, and incorporating ongoing feedback from academic supervisors, students moved from descriptive levels of reflection, to more meaningful and critical reflection. Students’ blogs are analysed to identify key themes, challenges and achievements in the work integrated learning experience. Suggestions for further development and improvement, together with a model of best practice, are proposed.

The social work & human services workforce : report from a national study of education, training and workforce needs

This report analyses the national curriculum and workforce needs of the social work and human services workforce. Australia’s community and health services are among the fastest growing sectors of employment in the nation but the sustainability of an appropriately qualified workforce is threatened. Yet there is little integration of education and workforce planning for the community services sector. This contrasts markedly with the health services sector, where key stakeholders are collaboratively addressing workforce challenges. Our research confirmed rapid growth in the social work and human services workforce and it also identified: • an undersupply of professionally qualified social work and human service practitioners to meet workforce demand; • the rapid ageing of the workforce with many workers approaching retirement; • limited career and salary structures creating disincentives to retention; • a highly diverse qualification base across the workforce. This diversity is inconsistent with the specialist knowledge and skills required of practitioners in many domains of community service provision. Our study revealed a lack of co-ordination across VET and higher education to meet the educational needs of the social work and human services workforce. Our analysis identified: • strong representation of equity groups in social work and related human service programs, although further participation of these groups is still needed; • the absence of clear articulation pathways between VET and higher education programs due the absence of co-ordination and planning between these sectors; • substantial variation in the content of the diverse range of social work and human service programs, with accredited programs conforming to national standards and some others in social and behavioural sciences lacking any external validation; • financial obstacles and disincentives to social work and human service practitioners in achieving postgraduate level qualifications. We recommend that: • DEEWR identify accredited social work and human services courses as a national education priority (similar to education and nursing). This will help ensure the supply of professional workers to this sector; • VET and higher education providers are encouraged to collaboratively develop clear and accessible educational pathways across the educational sectors; • DEEWR undertake a national workforce analysis and planning processes in collaboration with CSDMAC, and all social and community services stakeholders, to ensure workforce sustainability; and • COAG develop a national regulation framework for the social and community services workforce. This would provide sound accountability systems, and rigorous practice and educational standards necessary for quality service provision. It will also ensure much needed public confidence in this workforce.

Assurance of learning : the role of work integrated learning and industry partners

In the partnering with students and industry it is important for universities to recognize and value the nature of knowledge and learning that emanates from work integrated learning experiences is different to formal university based learning. Learning is not a by-product of work rather learning is fundamental to engaging in work practice. Work integrated learning experiences provide unique opportunities for students to integrate theory and practice through the solving of real world problems. This paper reports findings to date of a project that sought to identify key issues and practices faced by academics, industry partners and students engaged in the provision and experience of work integrated learning within an undergraduate creative industries program at a major metropolitan university. In this paper, those findings are focused on some of the particular qualities and issues related to the assessment of learning at and through the work integrated experience. The findings suggest that the assessment strategies needed to better value the knowledges and practices of the Creative Industries. The paper also makes recommendations about how industry partners might best contribute to the assessment of students’ developing capabilities and to continuous reflection on courses and the assurance of learning agenda.

The work of women teachers in primary literacy education : knowing and doing

This paper provides a retrospective account of three decades of my work as a literacy educator and researcher. Taking key insights from feminist sociologist, Dorothy Smith, including women’s standpoint, the everyday world as problematic, institutional capture, a sociology for the people, I revisit my research on literacy, poverty and schooling. I argue that understanding better the effects of what we do in educational institutions, through collaborative research with teachers, can lead us to generate positive alternative equity-driven practices.

Sustaining the next generation of teacher-researchers to work for social justice

This chapter explores a research project involving teachers working with some of the most disadvantaged young people in South Australia, children growing up in poverty, in families struggling with homelessness and ill-health, in the outer southern suburbs. Additionally, there were particular children were struggling with intellectual, emotional and social difficulties which were extreme enough for them not be included in a mainstream class. The research project made two crucial interrelated moves to support teachers to tackle this tough work. First, the project had an explicit social justice agenda. We were not simply researching literacy outcomes, but literacy pedagogies for the students teachers were most worried about. And we wanted to understand how the material conditions of students’ everyday lifeworlds impacted on the working conditions of teachers’ schoolworlds. We sought to open up a discursive space where teachers could talk about poverty, violence, racism and classism in ways that would take them beyond despair and into new imaginings and positive action. Second, the project was designed to start from the urgent questions of early career teachers and to draw on the accumulated practice wisdom of their chosen mentors. Hence we designed not only a teacher-researcher community, but cross-generational networks. Our aim was to build the capacities of both generations to address long-standing educational problems in new ways that drew overtly on their different and complementary resources.

Teachers' work and pedagogy in an era of accountability

A great deal of educational policy proceeds as though teachers are malleable and ever-responsive to change. Some argue they are positioned as technicians who simply implement policy. However, how teachers go about their work and respond to reform agendas may be contingent upon many factors that are both biographical in nature and workplace related. In this paper we discuss the work of middle school teachers in low-socioeconomic communities from their perspectives. Referring to reflective interviews, meeting transcripts and an electronic reporting template, we examine how teacher participants in a school reform project describe their work - what they emphasise and what they down-play or omit. Using Foucaultian approaches to critical discourse analysis and insights from Dorothy Smith's (2005) Institutional Ethnography, we consider the 'discursive economy' (Carlson, 2005) in teachers' reported experiences of their everyday practices in northern suburbs schools in South Australia in which a democratic progressive discourse exists alongside corporate and disciplinary discourses.

The link between age, career goals, and adaptive development for work-related learning among local government employees

More recently, lifespan development psychology models of adaptive development have been applied to the workforce to investigate ageing worker and lifespan issues. The current study uses the Learning and Development Survey (LDS) to investigate employee selection and engagement of learning and development goals and opportunities and constraints for learning at work in relation to demographics and career goals. It was found that mature age was associated with perceptions of preferential treatment of younger workers with respect to learning and development. Age was also correlated with several career goals. Findings suggest that younger workers’ learning and development options are better catered for in the workplace. Mature aged workers may compensate for unequal learning opportunities at work by studying for an educational qualification or seeking alternate job opportunities. The desire for a higher level job within the organization or educational qualification was linked to engagement in learning and development goals at work. It is suggested that an understanding of employee perceptions in the workplace in relation to goals and activities may be important in designing strategies to retain workers.

But does it work? Effectiveness of scientific visualisations in high school chemistry and physics instruction.

Scientific visualisations such as computer-based animations and simulations are increasingly a feature of high school science instruction. Visualisations are adopted enthusiastically by teachers and embraced by students, and there is good evidence that they are popular and well received. There is limited evidence, however, of how effective they are in enabling students to learn key scientific concepts. This paper reports the results of a quantitative study conducted in Australian physics and chemistry classrooms. In general there was no statistically significant difference between teaching with and without visualisations, however there were intriguing differences around student sex and academic ability.