Authors:Julia E. Morris Pages: 455 - 472 Abstract: Abstract This study draws on student engagement factors to examine the relationship between students’ non-school-based arts experiences on their intrinsic motivation and self-efficacy to participate in visual arts responding tasks. Visual arts responding in the curriculum includes learning about artists and artworks, decoding art and making critical judgements, and is important in building twenty-first century learning skills such as critical thinking and communication. A total of 266 Year 10 to 12 students from 18 schools in Western Australia (WA) participated in the quantitative research, which explored outside-school arts engagement as well as cognitive and psychological engagement factors in their current year of secondary schooling. The findings showed that while being an art consumer appears to impact on intrinsic motivation and self-efficacy, producing art as a hobby outside of school does not appear to do so. The research raised questions about links between practice and theory, and how to promote students’ engagement in responding. PubDate: 2018-09-01 DOI: 10.1007/s13384-018-0269-8 Issue No:Vol. 45, No. 4 (2018)
Authors:Scott J. Peters; Jennifer L. Jolly Pages: 473 - 491 Abstract: Abstract Gifted education teacher training, licensure, certification, and degrees are ubiquitous in the Australia and abroad, and yet whether or not such training results in changes to classroom instructional practices remains unknown. The purpose of this study was to better understand the relationship between professional development in gifted education and the practices used by educators in the classroom. Two hundred and seventy-nine respondents who had completed one of three levels of teacher professional development completed the Classroom Practice Survey (Revised). The preregistered prediction for this study, that higher levels of professional development would result in higher levels of self-reported teacher practices, was not supported by the data, thereby drawing attention to the need for more research in this area and potential revisions to gifted education teacher professional development opportunities. PubDate: 2018-09-01 DOI: 10.1007/s13384-018-0260-4 Issue No:Vol. 45, No. 4 (2018)
Authors:Tracey Muir; Sharyn Livy; Sandra Herbert; Rosemary Callingham Pages: 297 - 313 Abstract: Abstract Since 2008, all Australian students in Years 3, 5, 7 and 9 have been assessed in literacy and numeracy through an annual National Assessment Program—Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) test. In 2015, a team of mathematics education researchers across Australia conducted a nationwide research project to identify school practices and policies that were consistent between schools that showed growth and/or improvement in their NAPLAN numeracy results. This paper reports findings from three case study schools, using a school improvement framework to interpret evidence gathered from the schools’ principals and school leaders. The study has particular implications for policy makers and school leaders who may be seeking ways to improve mathematical practices in their own jurisdictions and schools. PubDate: 2018-07-01 DOI: 10.1007/s13384-017-0252-9 Issue No:Vol. 45, No. 3 (2018)
Authors:Katharine Swain; Donna Pendergast; Joy Cumming Pages: 315 - 342 Abstract: Abstract This paper provides insight into middle school students’ perceptions and reactions to their participation in the Australian National Assessment Program—Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN). A case study was conducted over 10 months at two Queensland schools with different approaches to NAPLAN implementation. Student voice was elicited via focus groups and 35 students provided drawings and words describing their experience in four stages: preparing, sitting, completing and receiving their results. Thematic content analysis of the textual data and trait and holistic coding of the visual data revealed five themes and suggests that the approach adopted by the school may impact on students’ NAPLAN experiences. This study privileges student voice and enables access to student experiences as they participate in a testing regime which is now a feature of the Australian school assessment landscape. PubDate: 2018-07-01 DOI: 10.1007/s13384-017-0256-5 Issue No:Vol. 45, No. 3 (2018)
Authors:Lawrence Perry; Leanne Holt Pages: 343 - 361 Abstract: Abstract The introduction of spaces that encouraged the participation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in higher education became a reality in the early 1980s. Since then, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander educators and leaders have worked tirelessly to find their ‘fit’ within the Western academy, which continues to impose a colonial, Western educative framework onto Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. More recently, universities are attempting to move towards a ‘whole of university’ approach to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander higher education. To achieve such a major shift across the academy, Indigenous values, perspectives and knowledges need to be acknowledged as a strong contributor to the environments of universities in all core areas: student engagement, learning and teaching, research and workforce. In a move to achieving a ‘whole of university’ approach which revolves around Aboriginal culture and knowledges, the Wollotuka Institute at the University of Newcastle developed a set of cultural standards, as part of an international accreditation process, to guide a culturally affirming environment for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students and staff. This environment acknowledges the unique cultural values and perspectives of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. In this paper, the authors explore, from an Indigenous Standpoint, the creation of a university environment that privileges Aboriginal values, principles, knowledges and perspectives. The paper exposes how traditional Aboriginal Songlines, particularly in Aboriginal education, were disrupted, and how the creation and emergence of a contemporary environment of Aboriginal educational and cultural affirmation works towards the re-emergence of Songlines within higher education. PubDate: 2018-07-01 DOI: 10.1007/s13384-017-0251-x Issue No:Vol. 45, No. 3 (2018)
Authors:Anna Filipi; Anne Keary Pages: 363 - 382 Abstract: Abstract The International Student Program (ISP) in Australian secondary schools has in recent times drawn public attention. Despite this attention, there is a paucity of research about the challenges faced by schools in developing and sustaining these programs. The study reported in this paper explores the ISP in an independent metropolitan secondary school in Victoria with a high enrolment of international students. Using positioning theory, the study analysed the self- and other-positionings of an EAL teacher, a STEM teacher and two international students on a range of issues germane to the ISP and academic language. Findings confirmed past research that content teachers feel a lack of confidence in addressing these students’ language needs. In adding to the literature, the study found that content teachers feel a responsibility for these students and that the international students positioned themselves as successful language learners as well as students with gaps in their academic language. PubDate: 2018-07-01 DOI: 10.1007/s13384-017-0253-8 Issue No:Vol. 45, No. 3 (2018)
Authors:Sonal Nakar; Richard G. Bagnall; Steven Hodge Pages: 383 - 400 Abstract: Abstract This paper reviews the nature and implementation of the Australian VET FEE-HELP (VFH) policy initiative: a scheme introduced in 2008 to extend income-contingent loans to the vocational education and training (VET) sector in Australia. We argue that the implementation of the scheme has been seriously flawed, leading to a range of counter-educational and unethical practices on the part of some VET providers. An ongoing research project into the impact of the changing contemporary cultural context of VET on the creation of moral dilemmas facing VET teachers in their work has identified four dilemmas that were seen by teachers to be significantly driven by the VFH scheme. Those dilemmas arose from (1) unethical student recruitment and enrolment practices, (2) overlooking traditional educational standards, (3) constraining teacher responsiveness and (4) manipulating learning assessment. The identifying teachers saw themselves as being professionally unprepared to handle such moral dilemmas, leading to discomfort and inappropriate handling of the dilemmas. PubDate: 2018-07-01 DOI: 10.1007/s13384-018-0257-z Issue No:Vol. 45, No. 3 (2018)
Authors:Taghreed Jamal Al-deen Pages: 401 - 417 Abstract: Abstract In this paper, I draw on a qualitative study of Iraqi-born Muslim mothers in Australia exploring how they navigate choosing secondary schools for their daughters. While the mothers interviewed for this study agreed on the importance of education and its role in facilitating upward social mobility for all their children, they articulated a specific and more complex set of concerns in relation to selecting schools for their daughters. This article suggests that families’ positions in the Australian diasporic Iraqi community are tied to girls’ schooling and, therefore, school choices are heavily gendered and contribute to a gendered structuring of family and community life. By analysing the narratives of Iraqi-born mothers, a deeper understanding emerges of the complex and varied outlooks of migrant Muslim parents on education and gender in their everyday practices of raising and educating their daughters. PubDate: 2018-07-01 DOI: 10.1007/s13384-017-0255-6 Issue No:Vol. 45, No. 3 (2018)
Authors:Anna Hogan; Greg Thompson; Sam Sellar; Bob Lingard Pages: 141 - 160 Abstract: Abstract This paper explores teachers’ and school leaders’ perceptions of commercialisation in Australian public schools, reporting on findings from an open-ended survey question from an exploratory study that sought to investigate teacher and school leader perceptions and experiences of commercialisation. Commercialisation, for the purposes of this paper, is understood as the creation, marketing and sale of education goods and services to schools by for-profit providers and often includes (but is not limited to) the provision of curriculum content, assessment services, data infrastructures, digital learning, remedial instruction, professional development and school administration support. Our account highlights that commercialisation is prevalent in the day-to-day practice of Australian public schools. The perceptions of teachers and leaders suggest that commercialisation is complex, with both affordances and challenges. Respondents acknowledged that aspects of commercialisation are necessary for successfully running schools and classrooms in the 21st century, but also noted that there is a fine line beyond which these seemingly innocuous services become perilous. Concerns focused on how particular services are leading to the deprofessionalisation of teachers as they have less autonomy over what to teach and how to teach it. Moreover, teachers and school leaders reported being perturbed by the idea that commercial providers and services might work to replace teachers in the future. Drawing on these data we argue that growing commercialisation in Australian public schools clearly requires an ethical debate that schools, education professionals, policy makers and interested publics are yet to have. PubDate: 2018-04-01 DOI: 10.1007/s13384-017-0246-7 Issue No:Vol. 45, No. 2 (2018)
Authors:Melitta Hogarth Abstract: Abstract The areas of concern (‘goals’, ‘domains’ and ‘priority areas’—whatever policymakers wish to call them) relating to Indigenous education have not changed since the first National Indigenous education policy in 1989. Deficit discourses, discursive trickery and the inability to report progress continues to demoralise and ensure Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students remain at the lower rungs of educational outcome indicators maintaining societal and institutional constructs. In this paper, I argue that there is a need to dramatically reform the approach to Indigenous education transforming the hegemonic positioning assumed by the coloniser. Essentially, this would take a revolution: a revolutionary transformation of institutional and societal constructs; a cognitive awareness of how language and discourses are used to maintain power and a need to privilege Indigenous voices and knowledges to ensure that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples’ rights in education are achieved. PubDate: 2018-08-13 DOI: 10.1007/s13384-018-0277-8
Authors:Yaxing Zhang; Deborah Henderson Abstract: Abstract This paper draws from a larger exploratory qualitative study that investigated the perceptions of principals and teacher leaders regarding their interactions in Chinese urban primary schools during contemporary curriculum reform. Insights from micropolitics, notably two core constructs of cooperation and conflict, were utilised to examine the interactions of participants. The research found that principals and teacher leaders employed exchange and facilitation as two strategies during cooperative processes; and they adopted enforcement and compromise in conflictive processes. Eight new sub-dimensions under the four strategies emerged from the interview accounts. Findings indicate that most principals were exercising their power ‘through’ their teacher leaders who in turn were working in alignment with their principals to achieve the desired outcomes in schools. Principals in some circumstances used power ‘over’ as a traditional approach, while power ‘with’ was not apparent in participants’ comments. The paper contends that traditional Chinese cultural attitudes towards education, as shaped through Confucianism, were also discernible in framing the nature of some of the interactions between principals and teacher leaders. PubDate: 2018-07-16 DOI: 10.1007/s13384-018-0275-x
Authors:Emily Gray; Linda Knight; Mindy Blaise Abstract: Abstract This paper examines a project that developed humorous, irreverent and subversive arts-based interventions into sexism in the academy. Two workshops were run with women currently working in teacher education in Australian universities. The researchers worked with the participants collaboratively and in line with feminist practices and methodologies to develop interventions that were performed at a large multidisciplinary educational research conference. The paper outlines the origins of the project, the feminist scholarship that inspired it, the methodological framework as well as a discussion about three of the interventions and demonstrates that sexism both (re)produces structural disadvantage for women in higher education as well as being characterised by a set of micro practices that shape the everyday experiences of women in the academy. Although this research is set within an Australian context, the paper acknowledges that sexism is systemic within higher education across contexts. PubDate: 2018-05-23 DOI: 10.1007/s13384-018-0274-y
Authors:Mary Ann Powell; Anne Graham; Robyn Fitzgerald; Nigel Thomas; Nadine Elizabeth White Abstract: Abstract Until recently, children and young people’s perspectives have been largely overlooked in considering optimal approaches to supporting their wellbeing at school. This article reports student views on the meaning of ‘wellbeing’ and how this is best facilitated, gathered as part of a large, national research project aimed at understanding and improving approaches to wellbeing in schools. The data reported here were gathered through 67 focus groups, involving 606 primary and secondary school students, across three Catholic school regions in different Australian states. Students provided rich accounts of how they view their wellbeing, conceptualised across three interconnected themes of ‘being’, ‘having’ and ‘doing’. They identified relationships with self, teachers, friends, peers and significant others, as central to their wellbeing. The findings point to immense potential in accessing and utilising children and young people’s views for change and reform in schools in the area of student wellbeing. PubDate: 2018-05-12 DOI: 10.1007/s13384-018-0273-z
Authors:Carlinda Leite; Preciosa Fernandes; Carla Figueiredo Abstract: Abstract Curriculum contextualisation and the role of teachers as curriculum makers are important for student learning. Building on this idea, this study was developed to understand if teachers from well-ranked schools are motivated to contextualise the curriculum and are using this strategy in their daily classroom routines. Data were gathered through focus group interviews with teachers from three Portuguese secondary schools that were well placed in the national exam ranking. The data analysis showed that teachers are motivated to contextualise the national curriculum in their daily teaching and learning practices to promote their students’ academic success and full development. However, teachers also identified constraints related to the existence of a mandatory national curriculum to be fulfilled, which is necessary for the national exams, and the length of the subject programmes. Despite the constraints, teachers recognised the positive outcomes of curricular contextualisation, mostly regarding the promotion of students’ motivation to learn. PubDate: 2018-04-24 DOI: 10.1007/s13384-018-0271-1
Authors:Tess Boyle; Anne Petriwskyj; Susan Grieshaber Abstract: Abstract This paper makes a case for conceptualising transitions from the before school sector to the compulsory years of schooling as continuity practices. It begins by presenting an overview and critique of constructions of transitions to school that contribute to contemporary discourses and agendas (e.g. the conflation of transitions and readiness). Then recent international trends in understanding transitions as continuity are analysed and synthesised into three broad categories: structural, developmental and contextual continuities. These categories are subsequently used to develop a conceptual model for reframing transitions. The model is then used to first, examine a snapshot of familiar Australian transitions practices; second, highlight the interdependence of the practices and the sites in which they are enacted; and third, support the argument to reframe transitions as continuity practices. Finally, contributions the paper makes to transitions to school theory, research and practice are explicated. PubDate: 2018-04-20 DOI: 10.1007/s13384-018-0272-0
Authors:Paul Ginns; Andrew J. Martin; Tracy L. Durksen; Emma C. Burns; Alun Pope Abstract: Abstract Personal Best (PB) goals are defined as specific, challenging, and competitively self-referenced goals involving a level of performance or effort that meets or exceeds an individual’s previous best. Much of the available research underpinning arguments for PB goal-setting is self-report-based; thus, the causal effect of PB goals on learning outcomes remains in question. The present experiment examined the impact of PB goal-setting (against a no-goal condition) on 68 Year 5 and 6 schoolchildren’s problem-solving during an arithmetic fluency-building activity, SuperSpeed Math. Equivalence of the two conditions was established across a range of prior ability and self-report motivational variables, including prior mathematical ability; Personal Best, Mastery, and Performance goal orientations at the individual and classroom level; mathematics self-concept; and valuing of and interest in mathematics. Controlling for initial problem-solving performance, students who set PB goals in subsequent rounds showed a small but reliable advantage over students in the control condition. These results suggest PB goals may provide a way for students to experience both challenge and success in a range of classroom activities. Suggestions for future research based on these initial findings are made. PubDate: 2018-04-09 DOI: 10.1007/s13384-018-0268-9
Authors:Michael Rowan; Eleanor Ramsay Abstract: Abstract In this article, we map the extent of educational inequality within Tasmania, and between Tasmania and the rest of Australia, using National Assessment Program—Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) and senior secondary attainment data. This analysis yields some surprising findings, showing the success of Tasmanian primary and high schools and that Tasmanian educational inequality is most strongly expressed at the senior secondary level. We conclude that using such publicly available data to identify differential achievement within and between jurisdictions would strengthen public policy and practitioner interventions aimed at achieving more equal educational outcomes for students in all schools. Our findings also have implications for research directions in this field, suggesting that by analysis of NAPLAN and My School data across individual schools and jurisdictions academic researchers could assist practitioners gain a deeper understanding of inequalities reproduced by the systems they are working within, while finding examples of schools and systems which show a greater level of success in ameliorating disadvantage. PubDate: 2018-04-07 DOI: 10.1007/s13384-018-0267-x
Authors:S. L. Rogers; L. Barblett; K. Robinson Abstract: Abstract Stories appear frequently in the Australian media regarding parent and teacher perceptions and attitudes towards the National Assessment Program—Literacy and Numeracy. However, thorough empirical investigations of parent perceptions are sparse. This study presents a survey of 345 parents across Years 3 and 5 from a sample of Independent schools in Western Australia. A representative sample of teachers from these schools were also surveyed in order to compare and contrast parent and teacher perspectives about the transparency and accountability associated with testing, the usefulness of results for helping individual students, and the perceived clarity of communication of results. Findings reveal mixed positive and negative views that reside within an overall prevailing low opinion of the testing. Some ways for improving the perception of the testing with the general public are discussed. PubDate: 2018-04-03 DOI: 10.1007/s13384-018-0270-2
Authors:Tracy L. Durksen; Robert M. Klassen Abstract: Abstract Education authorities in Australia are calling for valid tools to help assess prospective teachers’ non-academic attributes, with a particular need for identifying those attributes necessary for effective teaching in specific contexts. With the New South Wales (NSW) Department of Education, we aimed to develop a scenario-based tool to help assess the non-academic attributes necessary for beginning teachers working in rural and remote settings. Using a situational judgement test (SJT) methodology, we worked with experienced teachers (n = 19) to develop scenario-based items, which were then reviewed by school principals (n = 13). The teachers also adapted items previously developed and piloted in the UK. Next, prospective NSW teachers (n = 99) tried 32 new and adapted items targeting four clusters of attributes: empathy and communication, resilience and adaptability, organisation and planning, and culture and context. Item quality analyses revealed 22 acceptable items. We conclude by suggesting SJTs for promoting non-academic growth of prospective and beginning teachers. PubDate: 2017-12-09 DOI: 10.1007/s13384-017-0248-5
Authors:Chris Hickey; Amanda Mooney Abstract: Abstract There is a rich, albeit chequered, history around single-sex schooling providing an educational option for nurturing the particular educational interests and needs of boys. While all-boys’ schools continue to position themselves at the forefront of contemporary masculine endeavour, they are simultaneously forced to fend off accusations that they are proverbial hot beds for the reproduction of gendered hegemony. Whereas some boys’ schools appear content with their ‘masculine’ profile, others appear more eager to present themselves as projecting tolerant and inclusive environments wherein respectful gender relations are actively encouraged. Situated within a wider case study, this paper examines how one all-boys’ school sought to foster gender inclusivity through a strategic initiative to increase the number of female teaching staff and the appointment of a female deputy principal. The data presented here focus on qualitative research interviews undertaken with key members of staff around 5 years after the initiative was introduced to the school. Our interpretation of the data draws largely on selected works of Michel Foucault to explore the discourse-power relations that sustain enduring hypermasculine and heteronormative values within the school. This lens provides a framework to interrogate how gendered constructions of professional identity are framed within such a context, and the spaces that exist for them to be challenged. PubDate: 2017-12-01 DOI: 10.1007/s13384-017-0249-4
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