Women primary principals in independent schools : creativity and inspiration

The purpose of my research is to reinvigorate educational leadership through improved understandings of women primary principals in Independent schools, thereby rethinking the current directions. By 'reinvigorate' I mean investigate what serves as inspiration for current women primary leaders and explore how this might be better used to generate the kinds of educational change that lead to more dynamic primary school leadership. These 'improved understandings' are expected to suggest a reconceptualizing of primary school leadership by, what I coin 'response-ability'. By 'response-ability' I mean to expose untapped potentials in primary leadership performance so that the leader utilizes the full range of their knowledge, skills and values.

There are acknowledged gaps in the primary school Independent sector concerning women in leadership both theory and practice and in this instance the Victorian context. Considerable research surrounds educational leadership [Peter Hill (2003), Neil Cranston (2001), Frances Townsend (1999),Helen Telford.(1996) and Caldwell & Spinks (1992)]. In particular Jill Blackmore's, (1999) research analysed a number of projects focusing on women secondary principals. As a critique of leadership her research exposed the gendered influences reinforced through culture, values and language

However there has been limited research into women in primary leadership and the implications for the Independent sector. In summary this research aims to understand women in primary educational leadership and investigate the significance of their untapped knowledge, skills, attitudes and values. Furthermore to propose what may constitute 'Response-able' leadership that could serve to highlight ethical principles, authenticity and creativity.
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Arlathirnda ngurkarnda ityirnda: being-knowing-doing: de-colonising indigenous tertiary education

Veronica Arbon is currently Professor and Chair in Indigenous Knowledge Systems at Deakin University. She has succeeded in delineating and elaborating on the dialects of coloniser- colonised interaction in tertiary education in a way that expands our understanding and opens many new questions and avenues of inquiry.

Filming for professional learning : collaborations in innovation

It is not unusual for academics to bemoan the reticence of teachers in adopting innovative tools and pedagogies, never more so than in the area of new technologies and multimodal literacies in classrooms. Typically, educational bureaucracies seek to dictate change in new technologies through a diffusion-adoption model of professional learning where ‘inservicing’ or ‘professional development’ of teachers is used to influence them to implement curriculum innovations. Typically a set of resources are developed for this purpose and teachers engage with workshop leaders as passive recipients of knowledge rather than active knowledge constructors. This paper explores an alternative form of engagement in which teachers are co-opted as collaborators and documenters of educational change. Its innovation is to use filming of teacher interviews and classroom practice – in this case to extend the teachers’ repertories.

This article will discuss the film-infused model of professional learning which was developed within the context of a research project on literacy teachers’ engagement with multimodality, but has potential for wider application. The research context will be outlined and four elements of a film-infused professional learning model will be discussed in detail. The effects of this model on the resource development and professional learning will then be addressed.

Ongoing colonial legacy : contemporary education beliefs and practices in Papua New Guinea

In the late 1980ˇ¦s, a realisation that the western education system bequeathed to Papua New Guinea at the time of Independence had functioned to devalue and marginalise many of the traditional beliefs, knowledge and skills students brought with them to education, led to a period of significant education reform. The Reform was premised on the report of a Ministerial Review Committee called A Philosophy of Education. This report made recommendations about how education in Papua New Guinea could respond to the issues and challenges this nation faced as it sought to chart a course to serve the needs of its citizens on its own terms. The issues associated with managing and implementing institutionalised educational change premised on importing western values and practices are a central theme of this thesis. The impact of importing foreign curriculum and associated curriculum officers and consultants to assist with curriculum change and development in the former Language and Literacy unit of the Curriculum Development Division, is considered in three related sections of this report: „P a critical review of the imported educational system and related practices and related issues since Independence „P narrative report of the experience of two colleagues in western education „P evidential research based on curriculum Reform in the Language and Literacy Unit. How Papua New Guinea has sought to come to terms with the issues and challenges that arose in response to a practice of importing western curriculum both at the time of Independence and currently through the Reform, are explored throughout the thesis. The findings issues reveal much about the capacity of individuals and institutions to respond to a post-colonial world particularly associated with an ongoing colonial legacy in the principle researcherˇ¦s work context. The thesis argues that the challenges Papua New Guinea curriculum officers face today, as they manage and implement changes associated with another imported curriculum are caught up in existing power relations. These power relations function to stifle creative thinking at a time when it is most needed. Further, these power relations are not well understood by the curriculum officers and remained hidden and unquestioned throughout the research project. The thesis also argues that in the researcherˇ¦s work context, techniques of surveillance were brought to bear and functioned to curtail critical thinking about how the reformed curriculum could be sensitive and respectful of those beliefs and traditions that had sustained life in Papua New Guinea for thousands of years. Consequently, many outmoded beliefs and practices associated with an uncritical and ongoing acceptance of the superiority of western imports have been retained, thereby effectively denying the collective voices of Paua New Guineans in the current curriculum Reform.

Teachers’ ethics : education international and the forging of professional unity

The paper maintains that the current era, marked by a new global economy transforming economic and social development, has created the need for a reorganisation of teachers’ representation. This paper discusses a key development in teacher organisation, namely the emergence of Education International as a global hub for teacher unionism from across the world. This unique organisation, formulated in response to the emergence of global economies and supra-national figures, represents teachers’ response to globalised institutions and has instigated projects, such as the Professional Code of Ethics, which aim to create a sense of professional identity and unity amongst teachers. The organisation presents the political voice of teachers as a global collective that seeks to embed teachers’ interests in education reform and in the public debates concerning the direction of educational change in the era of globalisation. The paper concludes by outlining an ongoing issue that jeopardizes the collective voice of teachers and stresses how this needs to be further addressed in the ethical frameworks of what it means to be a teacher in the 21st century.

Payoff, capital and teachers : education policies of the 90s

Although education remains in the flux of change, reviewing the trends in educational reforms in the last decade provides opportunity to learn from the past with a view to improving the educational strategies guiding reforms in the future. As globalisation has become more consolidated in education policy, investigating how particular ideas about globalisation inhabited policy and established over time, presents ways of addressing and challenging the assumptions about education and globalization in the 90s and the fall out from these ideas. Using evidence based policy research, this paper explores how educational policies from OECD, UNESCO and the World Bank coalesced with certain notions of globalisation that strategically guided educational reforms. An analysis of education-globalisation nexus in the policies of OECD, UNESCO and the World Bank evidences the distinct character and agenda of each agency. By focusing on textual evidence, in a range of education policy from the 90s, the paper discusses how policy consolidated particular ideas about globalization and presented ‘simple’ recipes for educational change. When reviewing the 90s, the relationship between education and global change shows that OECD policy emphasized education as a social and individual payoff, World Bank policy focused on education creating certainty enabling the free flow of capital, and UNESCO policy problematised globalization and focused on the importance of teachers as a way to create stability in education during the paradoxical times.

Co-operative learning in leadership education

Thailand is undergoing a period of major educational reform. Drawing on Thai and Australian experiences, ways of assisting school leaders to develop more collaborative methods of decision-making in Thai schools are investigated. The thesis reports a number of innovative techniques which are shown to work effectively in professional development programs for Thai school leaders.

Thirnda ngurkarnda ityrnda : ontologies in indigenous tertiary education

When Indigenous knowledge production is shifted through critical work in curriculum, Indigenous employment and authority underpinned by stronger Indigenous philosophies and cultures, resistance emerges. A storied descriptive and reflexive approach from within Arabana philosophy and ontologies - Yalka - brings understanding for a new old way in tertiary education and life.

Being academic

This research draws on the theoretical resources of Foucault and Bourdieu to focus on the complex relationship between the introduction of a range of new technologies, the lived experience of being academic and the often contradictory subjectivities within the power relations of the managed university in the 21st Century.

Radical conservative experiment in New South Wales education

This study, written from the perspective of a parent activist, articulates the 'battle of ideas' or struggle 'around the truth' of public education in New South Wales since the conservative Greiner government came to power in 1988 and instituted the 'new right' agenda. Political control is theorised in the light of debates about hegemony, power, ideology and truth. Documents what happened in 'consultations' about educational reform between the Ministers and their appointees on on the one hand, and the public education lobby, on the other.

Reflecting on contemporary accounting : teaching and learning social and critical perspectives

This paper provides a case description and analysis of an effort to enact accounting education change. The study reports on an attempt to renew the social and ethical worth of accounting education and practice in the post-Enron context of increased interest in how accounting may contribute to social responsibility and sustainability. The paper considers the organisation, aims, and content of a newly-developed unit on social and critical perspectives on accounting, and key elements of the pedagogy utilised. These include team teaching, the employment of research literature rather than a prescribed textbook, an expanded conception of accounting and accounting “knowledge”, the adoption of educational goals that encompass preparing students for economic and social life and for democratic participation, and a view that sees ethics, the environment, and society as central to accounting. It is concluded that accounting educational change must encompass the content and practice of classroom activity, but it also requires change to the self-consciousness of all actors involved. Explicit inclusion of the social, critical, environmental and ethical dimensions of accounting in our teaching and learning programs provides an avenue for academics to individually and collectively make a meaningful contribution.

The future direction of schooling

This chapter provides a cross-societal discussion of the findings of the Schooling for the future study, the case studies. It examines why senior educators and policy leaders in each of the six case study societies believe that bureaucratic school systems are the most likely scenario for future even though these are not the most desired. It examines some of the key factors that account for senior educators and policy leaders’ views, and the changes they argue are needed to achieve the desired scenario for the future. The chapter concludes with a discussion of the contribution and the implications of the study for the usefulness of the OECD scenarios as policy tools.

Expanding the horizons of accounting education : incorporating social and critical perspectives

This paper examines a case of accounting education change in the context of increased interest in ethical, social, and environmental accountability, presenting a reflexive case study of a new university accounting subject incorporating social and critical perspectives. Foundational pedagogical principles and key aspects of curriculum are outlined. The pedagogy draws on the integration of humanistic and formative education (principally based on Gramscian and Freirean approaches) and deep and elaborative learning. Two key aspects of curriculum and pedagogy are analysed. First, a curriculum based on a broad conception of accounting and accountability as power-laden social processes, drawing on a range of research literature. Second, the adoption of an authentic, supportive, and collegial team teaching approach. Students’ feedback relating to identified issues is presented. The paper contributes to the renewal of the social and ethical worth of accounting education, concluding that deep accounting educational change encompasses both the content and practice of classroom activity and changes in the self-consciousness of staff and students.