Resilience of a corrupt police network : the first and second jokes in Queensland

Resilient organised crime groups survive and prosper despite law enforcement activity, criminal competition and market forces. Corrupt police networks, like any other crime network, must contain resiliency characteristics if they are to continue operation and avoid being closed down through detection and arrest of their members. This paper examines the resilience of a large corrupt police network, namely The Joke which operated in the Australian state of Queensland for a number of decades. The paper uses social network analysis tools to determine the resilient characteristics of the network. This paper also assumes that these characteristics will be different to those of mainstream organised crime groups because the police network operates within an established policing agency rather than as an independent entity hiding within the broader community.

Converting theory to practice : university-school collaboration on devising strategies for mentoring pedagogical knowledge

There appears no shortage of theorists for preservice teacher education; however many ideas are abandoned without practical applications. Indeed, it can take years for theories to materialise into practice, if they materialise at all. The quality of preservice teacher education is central for enhancing an education system, and mentors’ roles can assist to shape preservice teachers’ development within the school context. Yet mentoring can be haphazard without being underpinned by a theoretical framework. A mentoring model (personal attributes, system requirements, pedagogical knowledge, modelling, and feedback) has emerged from research and the literature to guide mentors’ practices. This qualitative study investigates mentors’ pedagogical knowledge as one factor crucial to the mentoring process. More specifically, this study involves a questionnaire and audio-recorded focus group meetings with experienced mentors (n=14) who deliberated on devising practical applications for mentoring pedagogical knowledge. Findings revealed that these experienced mentors pinpointed practical applications around a mentor’s role for providing pedagogical knowledge to the mentee. These strategies were varied and demonstrated that any one mentoring practice may be approached from a number of different angles. Nevertheless, there were core mentoring practices in pedagogical knowledge such as showing the mentee how to plan for teaching, articulating classroom management approaches, and talking about how to connect learning to assessment. Mentors may require education on current mentoring practices with practical strategies that are linked to theoretical underpinnings.

Educational change and youth voice: Informing school action on cyberbullying

Change is a regular part of school life. Educational innovations are constantly being implements in order to benefit students, improve outcomes and meet the obligations and accountability demands of governments. Rapid social and technological change has occurred within and around schools during the past 15 or more years, impacting upon curricula and pedagogies. Simultaneously, there has been a trend towards incorporating youth voice, where young people share in the decisions that will impact on their school experiences (Mitra, 2008a, 2004). Most recently, with the advent of the first National Australian Curriculum (McGaw, 2010), there is an imposed curriculum change, which reflects the growing global trend towards centralised control over what students learn in school (Zhao, 2011) and highlights that schools have to respond to change from all levels. Spears (in press) also notes that parents are raising children in an increasingly wireless world which is far removed from the one in which they were raised. Educators are teaching in schools that are vastly different technologically from those they knew as children and adolescents, or even those in which they were teaching a decade ago. Children born in 1995, the year when the Internet was first commercialised, are 16 years old in 2011 and, whilst parents may have embraced technological advances in their own adult working or social lives, they are yet to fathom fully what it means for their children and their relationships: to be educated and to socialise in the midst of mobile social media. Young people have greater access to more information than at any time past and move seamlessly between online and offline environments, often referring to them as ‘the same life’ (Spears, Kofoed, Bartolo, Palermiti and Castabile, in press). Along with these changes has come the transformation of traditional forms of bullying to cyberbullying, amid the public perception that bullying generally is becoming worse in schools.

Philosophy, behaviour disorders, and the school

The recent exponential rise in the number of behaviour disorders has been the focus of a wide range of commentaries, ranging from the pedagogic and the administrative, to the sociological, and even the legal. This book will be the first to apply, in a systematic and thorough manner, the ideas of the foundational discipline of philosophy. A number of philosophical tools are applied here, tools arising through the medium of the traditional philosophical debates, such as those concerning governance, truth, logic, ethics, free-will, law and language. Each forms a separate chapter, but together they constitute a comprehensive, rigorous and original insight into what is now an important set of concerns for all those interested in the governance of children. The intention is threefold: first, to demonstrate the utility, accessibility and effectiveness of philosophical ideas within this important academic area. Philosophy does not have to be regarded an arcane and esoteric discipline, with only limited contemporary application, far from it. Second, the book offers a new set of approaches and ideas for both researchers and practitioners within education, a field is in danger of continually using the same ideas, to endlessly repeat the same conclusions. Third, the book offers a viable alternative to the dominant psychological model which increasingly employs pathology as its central rationale for conduct. The book would not only be of interest to mainstream educators, and to those students and academics interested in philosophy, and more specifically, the application of philosophical ideas to educational issues, it would also be an appropriate text for courses on education and difference, and due to the breadth of the philosophical issues addressed, courses on applied philosophy.

Data modeling in elementary and middle school classes : a shared experience

This paper argues for a renewed focus on statistical reasoning in the elementary school years, with opportunities for children to engage in data modeling. Data modeling involves investigations of meaningful phenomena, deciding what is worthy of attention, and then progressing to organizing, structuring, visualizing, and representing data. Reported here are some findings from a two-part activity (Baxter Brown’s Picnic and Planning a Picnic) implemented at the end of the second year of a current three-year longitudinal study (grade levels 1-3). Planning a Picnic was also implemented in a grade 7 class to provide an opportunity for the different age groups to share their products. Addressed here are the grade 2 children’s predictions for missing data in Baxter Brown’s Picnic, the questions posed and representations created by both grade levels in Planning a Picnic, and the metarepresentational competence displayed in the grade levels’ sharing of their products for Planning a Picnic.

An evaluation of the pattern and structure mathematics awareness program in the early school years

This paper reports a 2-year longitudinal study on the effectiveness of the Pattern and Structure Mathematical Awareness Program (PASMAP) on students’ mathematical development. The study involved 316 Kindergarten students in 17 classes from four schools in Sydney and Brisbane. The development of the PASA assessment interview and scale are presented. The intervention program provided explicit instruction in mathematical pattern and structure that enhanced the development of students’ spatial structuring, multiplicative reasoning, and emergent generalisations. This paper presents the initial findings of the impact of the PASMAP and illustrates students’ structural development.

Perceived gender differences in STEM learning in the middle school

Women are underrepresented in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) university coursework, reflecting long-standing gender issues that have existed in core middle-school STEM subject areas. Using data from a survey and written responses, we report on findings following the introduction of engineering education in middle school classes across three schools (grade level 7, n=122). The engineering experiences fused science, technology and mathematics concepts. The survey revealed higher percentages for girls than boys in 13 of the 24 items; however there were six items with a 20% difference in their perceptions about learning in STEM. For instance, despite girls recording that they have been provided equal or more opportunities than boys in STEM, they believed they do not do as well as boys (80% boys, 48% girls) or want to seek a career in STEM (39% boys, 17% girls). The written responses revealed gender differences across a number of themes in the students’ responses, including resources, group work, the nature and type of learning experiences, content knowledge, and teachers’ instructional style. Exposing students to STEM education facilitates an awareness of their learning and may assist girls to consider studying STEM subjects or STEM careers.

Complex modelling in the primary/middle school years

The world’s increasing complexity, competitiveness, interconnectivity, and dependence on technology generate new challenges for nations and individuals that cannot be met by continuing education as usual (Katehi, Pearson, & Feder, 2009). With the proliferation of complex systems have come new technologies for communication, collaboration, and conceptualisation. These technologies have led to significant changes in the forms of mathematical and scientific thinking that are required beyond the classroom. Modelling, in its various forms, can develop and broaden children’s mathematical and scientific thinking beyond the standard curriculum. This paper first considers future competencies in the mathematical sciences within an increasingly complex world. Next, consideration is given to interdisciplinary problem solving and models and modelling. Examples of complex, interdisciplinary modelling activities across grades are presented, with data modelling in 1st grade, model-eliciting in 4th grade, and engineering-based modelling in 7th-9th grades.

The motivation and structure of corrupt police networks : theorising the dark side of the ‘thin blue line’

In recent times considerable research attention has been directed to understanding dark networks, especially criminal and terrorist networks. Dark networks are those in which member motivations are self rather than public interested, achievements come at the cost of other individuals, groups or societies and, in addition, their activities are both ‘covert and illegal’ (Raab & Milward, 2003: 415). This ‘darkness’ has implications for the way in which these networks are structured, the strategies adopted and their recruitment methods. Such entities exhibit distinctive operating characteristics including most notably the tension between creating an efficient network structure while retaining the ability to hide from public view while avoiding catastrophic collapse should one member cooperate with authorities (Bouchard 2007). While theoretical emphasis has been on criminal and terrorist networks, recent work has demonstrated that corrupt police networks exhibit some distinctive characteristics. In particular, these entities operate within the shadows of a host organisation - the Police Force and distort the functioning of the ‘Thin Blue Line’ as the interface between the law abiding citizenry and the criminal society. Drawing on data derived from the Queensland Fitzgerald Commission of Enquiry into Police Misconduct and related documents, this paper examines the motivations, structural properties and operational practices of corrupt police networks and compares and contrasts these with other dark networks with ‘bright’ public service networks. The paper confirms the structural differences between dark corrupt police networks and bright networks and suggests. However, structural embeddedness alone is found to be an insufficient theoretical explanation for member involvement in networks and that a set of elements combine to impact decision-making. Although offering important insights into network participation, the paper’s findings are especially pertinent in identifying additional points of intervention for police corruption networks.

Capstones : transitions and professional identity

The literature identifies transition as a key objective for capstone experiences. Capstones should take account of the particular needs of final year students by assisting them to transition from their student to their professional identity. The authors are currently completing an Australian Learning and Teaching Council (ALTC) funded project, “Curriculum Renewal in Legal Education: articulating final year curriculum design principles and a final year program”, which seeks to achieve curriculum renewal for legal education in the Australian context through the articulation of a set of curriculum design principles for the final year and the design of a transferable model for an effective final year program. The project has investigated the contemporary role of capstones in assisting transition out by reviewing the relevant literature and considering feedback from a project reference group, a final year student focus group and a recent graduate’s focus group. Analysis of this extensive research- and evidence-base suggests that capstone experiences should support transition through: • Assisting students to develop a sense of professional identity; • Consolidating students’ lifelong learning skills; • Providing opportunities for consolidation of career development and planning processes; • Enabling students to enhance professional skills and competencies; and • Preparing students as ethical citizens and leaders. This paper will examine the role of capstones in assisting students to transition to their professional identity and will propose learning and teaching approaches and assessment of learning methods that support transition out.