Managing youth transitions in the Network Society

Castells argues that society is being reconstituted according to the global logic of networks. This paper discusses the ways in which a globalised network logic transforms the nature young people's transitions from school to work. Furthermore, the paper explores the ways in which this network logic restructured the manner in which youth transitions are managed via the emergence of a Vocational Education and Training (VET) agenda in Australian post compulsory secondary schooling. It also notes the implications of the emergence of the 'network society' for locality generally and for selected localities specific to the research upon which this paper is based. It suggests that schools represent nodes in a range of VET and other networks, and shows how schools and other agencies in particular localities mobilise their expertise to construct such networks. These networks are networked, funded and regulated at various levels - regionally, nationally and globally. But, they are also facilitated by personal networking opportunities and capacities. The paper also points to the ways in which the 'reflexivity chances' of young people are shaped by this network logic - a situation that generates new forms of responsibility, for schools and teachers, with regard to the management of youth transitions.

A review of the impact of education and prior experience on new venture performance

The importance of education and experience to the successful performance of new firms is well recognized both by management practitioners and academics. Yet empirical research to support the significance of this relationship is inconclusive. This paper discusses theories describing the relationship between education and experience and firm performance. It also analyses and classifies the differing measures of performance, education and experience, and compares the results of multiple studies undertaken between 1977 and 2000. Possible reasons for conflicting results are identified, such as lack of sound theoretical bases that relate education and experience to performance, varying definitions of the key variables and the diversity of measures used. Finally, a framework is developed that incorporates variables that interact with experience and education to influence new venture performance.

Introducing ethnomethodological analysis to the field of music education

In recent years qualitative research methods have been adopted within in the field of music education and have received widespread acceptance. However, the theoretical framework provided by ethnomethodology (Garfinkel, 1974, in R. Turner, Ethnomethodology , Penguin, Middlesex, UK) and the tools of conversational analysis (Sacks, 1992, Lectures on Conversation , edited by Gail Jefferson, Blackwell, Oxford, UK) have, to this point, been overlooked by researchers in the field of music education. In this paper I argue that the application of ethnomethodological and conversation analytical approaches in the field of research in music education can provide fresh insights into the work of music teachers and how this work is accomplished in institutional settings. Here I demonstrate how a conversation analytical perspective drawing on an ethnomethodological framework might be used to investigate transcripts of audio-recorded interview talk. This type of analysis can illuminate aspects of members' roles in relation to, and perceptions about music education in school settings that might be overlooked in other types of analysis. A conversation analytical approach to the examination of talk-in-interaction explicates in fine-grained detail how members orient to matters at hand in the context of research settings, as well as revealing features of the cultural world of music teaching. Further application of the approach to research problems in other school settings, I argue, will inform the field of music education in ways yet to be realised.

"They're scared of it": Intergroup determinants of attitudes toward children with HIV

The study used an intergroup perspective to explore teachers' willingness to teach children with HIV within mainstream education. One hundred thirty-eight teachers from 13 high schools across the United Kingdom participated in a survey. The results suggest that previous contact with an individual who was HIV positive (whether an adult or a child) was strongly associated with greater willingness to teach a child with HIV. However, this effect disappeared when intergroup anxiety, positive affect, and positive beliefs were included as covariates. There was little evidence that instrumental variables (i.e., relatively pragmatic concerns about infection) were associated with willingness to teach. Participants who had some contact reported lower fear of contagion from a child with HIV, but there was no evidence that this was associated with overall attitudes. The results are interpreted to suggest that interventions to reduce prejudice should not simply concentrate on improving knowledge about HIV transmission.