Social justice and the study and practice of leadership in education : a feminist history

This historical sociology deconstructs the interrelationship between the theory and practice of the troublesome notions of leadership, social justice and feminism. First, it tracks marginalised groups' relationship to the field of educational administration and their claims upon the state. Mainstream approaches have been informed by theories, practices and politics that do not focus on the core educational work of teaching and learning, therefore sidelining social justice issues. Second, it maps feminist and critical theorists' alternative conceptualisations, for example, of democratic leadership, which dissolve artificial binaries between formal and informal leadership. Finally, it considers what this means for re-theorising leadership for social justice.

The major drawbacks to the use of wireless communication products in education

This paper considers the use of wireless devices as an educational facilitator both in the classroom and in a business environment.  There are many characteristics of such devices which are favourable to their use in such settings.  But there are also problems.  We identify the main problematic areas as being security, low speed and reliability, and the lack of interoperability.  In our opinion, the use of wireless devices for educational purposes will grow quickly, and the problems of reliability, speed and standards will be overcome.  However, the issue of security will remain a major problem into the distant future.

Passion in Jamie's kitchen : the vital ingredient in education and training for young workers?

In this paper we will sketch out and briefly analyse a recurring and central theme throughout the reality TV series Jamie’s Kitchen – that of passion:

• Passion for food;
• Being passionate as you construct and present yourself;
• Being passionate about your work;
• Having a go, getting passionate in a training environment which compresses years of training into months of training.

In this series the high profile celebrity chef Jamie Oliver set out to transform a group of unemployed young Londoners into the enterprising, entrepreneurial, ideal worker of 21st century flexible capitalism. This series, and its figure of the entrepreneurial, risk taking, small businessman (who in this instance is also a global celebrity brand) seeking to develop similar dispositions and behaviours in a workforce that initially does not display such character features, illuminates, and provides a means to explore, key features of new work regimes. The emphasis on passion in the analysis – which draws on Foucault’s later work on the care of the self - allows us to connect to discussions about education and training that highlight the passionate/pleasure dimensions of pedagogy. These elements of education and training very rarely get discussed in a vocational education and training environment which is largely driven by modules/competencies/outcomes.

Reviewing research in education in Australia and the UK: evaluating the evaluations

In many countries concerns have been expressed about the merits of educational research. This paper reports on the outcomes of a review of reviews of such research in Australia and the UK. Taken at face value, the latest round of reviews are largely critical in the UK (where they have generated much debate) and mainly favourable in Australia (where they have not). In accounting for this difference the paper suggests that it might be explained in part as a function of how the reviews were conducted. In the UK reviews have tended to begin with the research and work forward to practice whereas in Australia they have been inclined to begin with practice and work back to the research. It is suggested that policy makers, practitioners and researchers in Australia and the UK have much to learn from each other's experience, as have those in other countries planning similar reviews.

Student learning: "the heart of quality" in education and training

This paper surveys the development of various approaches to quality that are essentially learning-centred:

•In the Schools sector: a brief overview of the Victorian Quality in Schools project;

•In Higher Education: work in progress at two Australian universities (Victoria University of Technology and Swinburne Universities of Technology in Melbourne); and

•In Vocational Education and Training: work in progress in re-orienting the policy approach to Quality towards a more flexible and learning-centred model.

This paper will argue that when looked at from the perspective of the individual learner, there is a strong case for student learning to be placed at the very heart of Quality Systems in all sectors of education, and also therefore in related sectoral Quality Assurance programs and processes.

Some conceptual issues in education for sustainable development

There is a strong international, national and regional mandate for Education for Sustainable Development (ESD): the United Nations has gazetted a 'decade of education for sustainability; sustainability is Australia's top research priority area; and there is increasing local concern about specific sustainability issues like the effect of the sea change movement on Australia's coastal communities. In this paper I will consider two contemporary conceptual issues in ESD: the contested nature of the field itself; and the relationship between traditional discipline-based educational structures and ESD. In addition to these conceptual issues, I will draw on a recent practical example of fl sustainability project in raising some questions concerning the distinguishing characteristics of sustainability issues that perhaps ought to be addressed in ESD.

Futures in education

Futures education (FE) in a rapidly changing world is critical if young people are to be empowered to be proactive rather than reactive about the future. Research into young people's images and ideas of the future lead to the disturbing conclusion that, for many, the future is a depressing and fearful place where they feel hopeless and disempowered. On the other hand, as Richard Slaughter writes, 'young people are passionately interested in their own futures, and that of the society in which they live. They universally 'jump at the chance to study something with such intrinsic interest that also intersects with their own life interests in so many ways'. FE explicitly attempts to build on this interest and counter these fears by offering a profound and empowering set of learning strategies and ideas that can help people think and act critically and creatively about the future, without necessarily trying to predict it. Futures educators have, over the past decades, developed useful tools, ideas and a language for use with students of all ages to enable them to develop foresight literacy. Most of us tend to view the future as somehow beyond the present and rarely consider how decisions and choices made today profoundly affect not just one fixed future but any number of futures. The underlying goal of FE is to move from the idea of a single, pre-determined future to that of many possible futures, so that students begin to see that they can determine the future, that they need not be reactive and that they are not powerless. How does one do that? Ideas include, but are not limited to: timelines and Y-diagrams, futures wheels and mind maps, and 'Preferable, possible and probable' futures - a.k.a. the 3Ps. Current Australian curricula present education about the future in various implicit or explicit guises. A plethora of statements and curriculum outcomes mention the future, but essentially take 'it' for granted, and are uninformed by FE literature, language, ideas or tools. Science, the humanities and technology tend to be the main areas where such an implicit futures focus can be found. It also appears in documents about vocational education, civics and lifelong learning. Explicit FE is, as Beare and Slaughter put it, still the missing dimension in education. Explicit FE attempts to develop futures literacy, and draws widely upon futures studies literature for processes and content. FE provides such a wide range of ideas and tools that it can be incorporated into education in any number of ways. Programs in two very different schools, one primary and one secondary, are described in this article to provide examples of some of these ways. The first school, Kimberley Park State Primary School in Brisbane, operates with multi-age classrooms based on a 'thinking curriculum' developed around four organisers: change, perspectives, interconnectedness and sustainability. The second school, St John's Grammar School in Adelaide, is an independent school where FE operates as an integrated approach in Year Seven, as a separate one-semester subject in Year Nine and in separate subjects at other levels. Teachers both at Kimberley Park and St John's are very positive about FE. They say it promotes valuable and authentic learning, assists students to realise they have choices that matter and helps them see that the future need not be all doom and gloom. Because students are interested in the Big Questions, as one teacher put it, FE provides a perfect opportunity to address them, and to consider values that are fundamental for them and the future of the planet. Like any innovation, the long-term success of FE in schools depends on an embedding process so that the innovation does not depend on the enthusiasm and energy of a few individuals, only to disappear when they move on. It requires strong leadership, teacher knowledge, support and enthusiasm, and the support and understanding of the wider school community.