Getting below the surface of the principal recruitment 'crisis' in New Zealand primary schools

Since 1989 in New Zealand, the work of the primary school principal has been transformed in official policy texts from that of leading professional to chief executive officer. Surveys document the changing nature of the role and the workload and other pressures that have resulted, particularly for principals with teaching responsibilities in smaller schools. There is a generally accepted crisis of preparation, recruitment, development and retention. Below the surface, however, are deeper-seated, structural difficulties: women comprise the majority of teachers, yet are a minority of principals and their career advancement is largely limited to small schools and those in poorer socioeconomic areas. This article reviews the situation and examines the reasons why dominant images of the primary school principalship may be both partial and counterproductive.

Calibration and reliability of a school food checklist: a new tool for assessing school food and beverage consumption

There is a pressing need in Australia and other countries to develop systems for monitoring secular trends in childhood obesity and related behavioural and environmental determinants. Energy from foods and beverages consumed at school is an accessible indicator of children’s eating patterns and we have developed a school food checklist (SFC) to measure this. The SFC records the number of serves and source (home, canteen, vending machine) of 20 food and beverage categories. This study aims to assess the accuracy and to calibrate the SFC by comparing it to a weighed record (WR) and to evaluate inter-recorder reliability. Participants were 910 primary school children aged 5 to 12 years from a rural township in Victoria, Australia. WR were collected from a nonrandom sub-sample of 106 and a second sub-sample (n=46) had intake measured twice using the SFC to assess inter-recorder reliability. Mean energy values were 2992 kJ ± 924 and 3008 kJ ± 952 for the SFC and WR respectively and the correlation coefficient was strong (Pearson r = 0.77). The mean difference between the WR and SFC methods was 15 kJ (95% CI, -107 kJ to 138 kJ) and the limits of agreement (+2 standard deviations) were ± 1270 kJ. The SFC overestimated the energy/serve of breads and fruit drinks and under-estimated energy/serve from fat spreads, biscuits/crackers, muesli/fruit bars and fruit. Inter-recorder reliability was good (kappa 0.51). The SFC was designed to measure energy from food and beverages in schools. It has good accuracy and reliability and the revised version should further improve accuracy of the instrument.

Estimating the effects of energy imbalance on changes in body weight in children

BACKGROUND: Estimating changes in weight from changes in energy balance is important for predicting the effect of obesity prevention interventions. OBJECTIVE: The objective was to develop and validate an equation for predicting the mean weight of a population of children in response to a change in total energy intake (TEI) or total energy expenditure (TEE). DESIGN: In 963 children with a mean (+/-SD) age of 8.1 +/- 2.8 y (range: 4-18 y) and weight of 31.5 +/- 17.6 kg, TEE was measured by using doubly labeled water. Log weight (dependent variable) and log TEE (independent variable) were analyzed in a linear regression model with height, age, and sex as covariates. It was assumed that points of dynamic balance, called "settling points," occur for populations wherein energy is in balance (TEE = TEI), weight is stable (ignoring growth), and energy flux (EnFlux) equals TEE. RESULTS: TEE (or EnFlux) explained 74% of the variance in weight. The unstandardized regression coefficient was 0.45 (95% CI: 0.38, 0.51; R(2) = 0.86) after including covariates. Conversion into proportional changes (time(1) to time(2)) gave the equation (weight(2)/weight(1)) = (EnFlux(2)/EnFlux(1))(0.45). In 3 longitudinal studies (n = 212; mean follow-up of 3.4 y), the equation predicted the mean follow-up measured weight to within 0.5%. CONCLUSIONS: The relation of EnFlux with weight was positive, which implied that a high TEI (rather than low physical activity and low TEE) was the main determinant of high body weight. Two populations of children with a 10% difference in mean EnFlux would have a 4.5% difference in mean weight.

Overweight and obesity prevalence in children based on 6- or 12- month IOTF cut-points: does interval size matter?

The International Obesity Taskforce (IOTF) recommends using age- and gender-specific body mass index (BMI) cut-points for defining the prevalence of overweight and obesity in children. These are given in both 6- and 12-month age intervals. Since the BMI-for-age curves are nonlinear, a degree of bias will be introduced when age intervals are wide. We aimed to quantify this bias in prevalence estimates in 2178 Australian children aged 4-12 years using 12- versus 6-month age intervals. Using the 12-month interval, the prevalence of overweight and obesity was underestimated by 1.4% compared to the 6-month interval estimates; however, this was age-dependent. It overestimated prevalence for 4-year olds, but underestimated it for older ages by up to 2.6%. Overweight prevalence was generally affected more than obesity prevalence. The use of different age intervals for IOTF cut-points introduces a small but systematic bias in prevalence estimates of overweight and obesity.

Governance in rural communities: the case of Victoria

State and federal government policies for rural areas have encouraged local people and organizations to play a greater role in the provision of their local services. This emphasis on local participation has been described as a shift from ‘government’ to ‘governance’. However while there is an emerging research around small towns in Australia there is very little known about the processes of community governance. This paper focuses on local development groups in small towns in rural Victoria that have emerged or have been reconstituted with a broader community focus following municipal amalgamations. The basic aim of this paper is analyse to what degree these local community development groups can be regarded as constituting a form of community governance and the implications this has for democracy and accountability in small rural areas. The paper begins with a discussion of community governance as it represented in the literature. We then analyse ten case studies from across Victoria in the light of the changing political context.

Performance appraisals in Australian universities- imposing a managerialistic framework into a collegial culture

As a result of federal government pressure in the late 1980’s Australian universities now find themselves embracing managerial practices at the expense of their traditional collegial practices. The application of managerialism into the
university sector has seen the inculcation of business practices, including the widespread application of performance appraisals, into an environment which has in the past, been self-regulatory. Performance appraisals as a tool of managerialism, have provided university administrators with a mechanism which provides a sense of compliance with private sector practices. But has it worked? This paper examines the nature of performance appraisals and its usage within one university and questions how successful the introduction of such practices has been. In doing so, it identifi es areas of further research.

Crossing boundaries between learning and research : doctoral programs at a distance

Australian distance education, from school to university contexts, typically concerns teaching people the knowledge, values and skills that constitute their chosen courses of study; whereas doctoral courses principally concern candidates learning how to produce – through producing – significant original new knowledge. This paper considers the history and contemporary practices of Australian off-campus doctoral education and argues that these are at the forefront internationally. It is argued that understanding the provision of quality doctoral education at a distance requires a form of conceptual boundary crossing by policymakers, distance educators, and (especially) doctoral education practitioners, in order to develop and/or enhance future practices.

Who are they? A profile of complainants about advertising in Australia

Advertising expenditure in Australia has almost doubled in the last 10 years even though some advertisements maybe ''unacceptable." We investigated consumer complaint responses specifically within the area of advertising in Australia. Our findings indicate that these complainants to be older, more highly educated and more likely to be female, than the population at large.

High childhood obesity in an Australian population

Objective: The objective was to determine the prevalences of overweight and obesity in regional Australian children and to examine the association between BMI and indicators of socioeconomic status (SES).

Research Methods and Procedures: Regionally representative cross-sectional survey of 2184 children, 4 to 12 years of age, was conducted, and the socio-demographic characteristics of their parents from regional Victoria, Australia, 2003 to 2004, were obtained.

Results: The prevalences of overweight and obesity were 19.3 plusminus 0.8% (proportion plusminus standard error) and 7.6 plusminus 0.6% , respectively, using international criteria, and the proportion of overweight/obese girls was significantly higher than that of boys (29.6 plusminus 1.4% vs. 23.9 plusminus 1.3% , chi2 = 9.01, p = 0.003). Children from households of lower SES had higher odds of being overweight/obese; lower SES was defined by lower paternal education (adjusted odds ratio, 1.18; 95% confidence interval, 1.08 to 1.30) and lower area-level SES (adjusted odds ratio, 1.13; 95% confidence interval, 1.02 to 1.25), adjusted for age, gender, height, and clustering by school.

Discussion: The prevalences of overweight and obesity are increasing in Australian children by about one percentage point per year. This equates to approx40,000 more overweight children each year, placing Australian children among those at highest risk around the world. In addition, girls are more likely to be overweight, and there is a general trend for children of lower SES to be at even greater risk of overweight and obesity.

Association between the family environment and television viewing in Australian children

Aim: To describe the time children spend watching television (TV) and to assess associations between TV viewing time, the family environment and weight status.

Methods: Parents reported the amount of time children watched TV/video both for ‘the previous school day’ and ‘usually’ and described aspects of the family environment influencing TV access as part of a large cross-sectional study in the Barwon South-western region of Victoria, Australia. Child weight status was  based on measured height and weight. All data were collected in 2003/2004.

Results: A total of 1926 children aged 4–12 years participated. Parent-reported mean ± SE TV time for the previous school day was 83 ± 1.5 min. Children who lived in a family with tight rules governing TV viewing time (22%), or who never watched TV during dinner (33%), or had only one TV in the household (23%) or had no TV in their bedroom (81%) had significantly less TV time than their  counterparts. Overweight or obese children had more TV time than healthy weight children 88 ± 2.9 versus 82 ± 1.7 min per day (P = 0.04). They were also more likely to live in a household where children had a TV in their bedroom than healthy weight children (25% vs. 17%, P < 0.001).

Conclusion: Strategies to reduce TV time should be included as part of broader strategies to prevent childhood obesity. They should include messages to parents about not having a TV in children’s bedrooms, encouraging family rules restricting TV viewing, and not having the TV on during dinner.