Educational malpractice : legal cases and educators' views

The notion of being negligently and legally liable for poor teaching that results in the failure of students being able to achieve expected educational outcomes is an unimaginable prospect. However, there is an emerging trend of legal proceedings being brought against teachers, blaming them for low scores in literacy, numeracy or even the failure to pass an examination. The duty implied on educators to ensure the educational well-being of their students and the breach of such duty is what is commonly termed in the literature “educational malpractice” or “educational negligence.”

In this article, several cases relating to educational malpractice that took place in the U.S., the U.K., and Australia are reviewed, and the cases demonstrate that the courts are beginning to show a willingness to extend the tort of negligence to students’ intellectual harm. The author then conducted a small-scale investigation to ascertain the views of school principals regarding this issue, with very interesting results.

A framework for designing mainstream educational e-simulations

This chapter describes the knowledge, skills, and technology needed for the effective design of educational e-simulations. It reviews the features and functionality of a typical experiential e-simulation and discusses approaches useful in its design, with impact on its subsequent construction and deployment in the field. The chapter reports a conceptual study examining development experiences gained in the construction of several educational e-simulations and folds these experiences into a framework for understanding e-simulation design. The chapter finally uses the framework to compare and contrast different approaches taken while designing and delivering two e-simulations, based on the same technology and business case, but delivered to distinct cohorts of university students.

Deliberative educational planning : including educators’ deliberations in educational policy making.

The objective of this chapter is to argue a case for the need to include teachers and professional educators in the policy making and implementation processes of the World Bank's Education Sector Strategy 2020. By drawing on evidence from the Consultation Plan, the chapter investigates how communicative practices about teachers are embedded in the discourse of the plan and how these influence the rationalisation of the policy. In doing so, the chapter will examine the relationships between social actions, systems rationalisation and life world rationalisation. Much like commercial and entrepreneurial organisations focus on the voice of the customer (VOC), that is on satisfying the stakeholders and end users in their processes, in this chapter, the voice of the teacher (VOT) is highlighted. The skills and knowledge of key stakeholders need to be leveraged and engaged in order to ensure that the policy achieves its desired aims. In order to frame this argument, notions of Habermas’ communicative action theory is used to show how policy engages in systems steering. Rather than understanding education strategy and reform as a process of engaging only government and policy makers, this chapter suggests that by engaging the practitioners and listening to the practical discourse around reform, teachers can be leaders of reforms rather than obfuscated agents.

Feeding back and enhancing authentic learning in quality course assessment design : locating information systems education in rigorous educational research

Locating information systems education foursquare within rigorous and substantial educational research is crucial if the discipline is to receive the scholarly attention that it warrants. One way to do that is to highlight how current information systems course design in Australian undergraduate and postgraduate programs exhibits the strongest possible elements of contemporary learning theories. This paper analyses selected features of the design of an information systems postgraduate course in an Australian university, including the use of peer review of journal entries and writing professional reports to enhance authentic learning and maximise quality assessment design. The analysis is framed by the principles of instructional design theory (Snyder 2009). The authors argue that, by demonstrating theoretically grounded and effective educational practice, the course highlights the value of being located in wider educational research, and of bringing the two fields more closely together.

An ethnography of housing : public housing work in Victoria

This thesis examines the everyday practices of housing officers working in the Victorian Office of Housing, a large public sector statutory authority providing rental housing to low–income households. Housing officer work has changed substantially associated with the shift from the provision of ‘public housing’ in the post–WWII period to the provision of ‘welfare housing’ from the early 1980s. These changes are evident in both the formal organisation of work and day–to–day practices. The principal research question addressed is ‘How has the work of staff in the Victorian Office of Housing changed as a consequence of the shift from the provision of ‘public housing’ in the post–WWII period to the provision of ‘welfare housing’ from the early 1980s?’

This question is addressed by presenting an historically informed ethnography of the Office of Housing. Research was undertaken over a twelve–month period through interviews, participant observation and the collection of documents. The data collected through the use of these methods provided the basis for the presentation of ‘thick descriptions’ of the work of staff employed to provide rental housing to low–income households.

The research into this large hierarchical formal organisation was undertaken in three offices: a local suburban office, a regional office and head office. This enabled connections and tensions in direct service delivery work and policy work to be identified and analysed. It revealed that the experience of the shift from the provision of public housing to the provision of welfare housing has not been uniform and underscores the importance of understanding organisations as socially constructed.

Staff work was analysed by distinguishing four overarching problems consistently referred to by staff and highlighted in formal reviews. First, ‘problems with tenants’ refers to the changing profile of tenants and staff responses and interactions. Second, the ‘problem with rent’ centres on setting and collecting rents from very low–income tenants. Third, the ‘problem with housing standards and assets’ focuses on housing quality, maintaining properties and the tenant use of properties. Fourth, the ‘problems with the organisation’ are found in the constant searching for the best ways of defining roles, leading and communicating within a large and geographically distributed organisation. These are the features of work which present dilemmas for those who seek to produce better services for households who live in public housing.

Introduction : In Australian educational researcher, v.39 v.4

This special issue can be situated in the ‘affective turn’ in education. It responds to the increasing significance of affect, emotions and creativity as the foci of contemporary educational research. The resurgence of interest in these issues is symptomatic of current educational reforms and their impact on how educators should think about, and practise, teaching andwhat students need to know and howthey should learn. It is not to say that the current reforms are radically dissimilar from the previous ones in terms of their general intention to bring about change.What is different, though, is theweight they put on standards, accountability, efficiency, performativity and valueaddedness. As a result, the economic, market-driven principles of reforms have subsumed all other dimensions of education, such as its socio-cultural and relational aspects. The turn to affect is driven by a recognition that the economic rationalisation of education is at odds with its emotional and creative dimensions. The turn is registering a change in how education is managed and, indeed, what counts as education today.

Planning research and educational partnerships with Indigenous communities : practice, realities and lessons

Increasingly planning practice and research are having to engage with Indigenous communities in Australia to empower and position their knowledge in planning strategies and arguments. But also to act as articulators of their cultural knowledge, landscape aspirations and responsibilities and the need to ensure that they are directly consulted in projects that impact upon their ‘country’ generally and specifically. This need has changed rapidly over the last 25 years because of land title claim legal precedents, state and Commonwealth legislative changes, and policy shifts to address reconciliation and the consequences of the fore-going precedents and enactments. While planning instruments and their policies have shifted, as well as research grant expectations and obligations, many of these Western protocols do not recognise and sympathetically deal with the cultural and practical realities of Indigenous community management dynamics, consultation practices and procedures, and cultural events much of which are placing considerable strain upon communities who do not have the human and financial resources to manage, respond, co-operate and inform in the same manner expected of non-Indigenous communities in Australia. This paper reviews several planning formal research, contract research and educational engagements and case studies between the authors and various Indigenous communities, and highlights key issues, myths and flaws in the way Western planning and research expectations are imposed upon Indigenous communities that often thwart the quality and uncertainty of planning outcomes for which the clients, research agencies, and government entities were seeking to create.

Educational inequalities in women's depressive symptoms : the mediating role of perceived neighbourhood characteristics

Socio-economically disadvantaged (e.g., less educated) women are at a greater risk of depression compared to less disadvantaged women. However, little is known regarding the factors that may explain socioeconomic inequalities in risk of depression. This study aimed to investigate the contribution of perceived neighbourhood factors in mediating the relationship between education and women’s risk of depression. Cross-sectional data were provided by 4,065 women (aged 18–45). Women self-reported their education level, depressive symptoms (CES-D 10), as well as four neighbourhood factors (i.e., interpersonal trust, social cohesion, neighbourhood safety, and aesthetics). Single and multiple mediating analyses were conducted. Clustering by neighbourhood of residence was adjusted by using a robust estimator of variance. Multiple mediating analyses revealed that interpersonal trust was the only neighbourhood characteristic found to partly explain the educational inequalities in women’s depressive symptoms. Social cohesion, neighbourhood aesthetics and safety were not found to mediate this relationship. Acknowledging the cross-sectional nature of this study, findings suggest that strategies to promote interpersonal trust within socioeconomically disadvantaged neighbourhoods may help to reduce the educational inequalities in risk of depression amongst women. Further longitudinal and intervention studies are needed to confirm these findings.

Striving for educational equity and ‘world-class quality’ schools in Mauritius in global times

Concerns that the education system in Mauritius has not been adequately preparing students for work and life, and unsatisfactory academic achievement in schools, have fuelled the government’s drive to improve the quality of schools. These concerns exist within education structures that systematically segregate students into ‘star’ schools and less desirable schools that curtail the education experience of the majority of Mauritian children. Within this context, Mauritian education authorities have attempted various educational reforms aiming at ‘World Class Quality Education’ so as to contribute to an efficient and dynamic workforce and to meet the needs of an increasingly competitive, knowledge-based and globalised economy. Reflecting the Mauritian government’s ‘quality’ agenda and its focus on the work of school leaders, this article reports the findings of research exploring Mauritian principals’ views about the usefulness or otherwise of Total Quality Management (TQM) principles in raising educational standards. It focuses specifically on whether and how principals are addressing the mounting challenges brought about by globalisation. The findings indicate that, despite the government’s efforts at reforms, the education system detracts from ambitions to adequately prepare all Mauritian children for work and life in a globalised and networked world. The article argues that school leaders need to take proactive responsibility for ensuring that all Mauritian children have access to an education system that cultivates their participation as active citizens of the global community.

Teach for Australia (TFA) : can it overcome educational disadvantage?

This paper considers an alternative teacher certification pathway known as Teach for Australia (TFA) that is currently operating in the Australian state of Victoria. A discursive approach informed by critical theory is used in the paper to critically examine the specific case of TFA as an alternative teacher certification pathway charged with improving student learning outcomes and reducing educational disadvantage. The problematization of educational programmes such as TFA, including specific terms and statements found in TFA documentation, features prominently in the paper alongside the political and economic policy context of public education. The argument and central contention of the paper is that TFA will not overcome educational disadvantage; nor will it over time improve student learning outcomes.

Bourdieu and educational research: thinking tools, relational thinking, beyond epistemological innocence

The main aim of this chapter is to provide an introduction to the theoretical work of Pierre Bourdieu, and to outline different ways in which Bourdieu’s work is influential and has been engaged with in education research and to suggest implicitly the usefulness of this work for educational researchers. In order to do this, we draw on a range of Bourdieu’s own writing published singly or with colleagues, emphasising in particular his engagements with education. Part of our treatment also deals with his wider writing that has subsequently been influential for education researchers, and in particular Bourdieu’s anthropological writing and account of practice (Bourdieu 1977, 1990), his approach to social class and cultural issues, his account of the judgement of taste and distinctions (Bourdieu, 1984), and his later politically focused writing (Bourdieu, 1989/1996, 2003, 2004c, 2005a).