Part C of Symposium 42
ail00042    Paper

Preschool-Play-Performativity': Local/Global Constructs and Contradictions.

AILWOOD, J: University of Queensland

In 1998 Education Queensland released a mandatory curriculum for the voluntary preschool year. A compulsory professional development program accompanied the release of this curriculum. This paper aims to explore the modes of regulation and governance evident in the curriculum document through an analysis of how the text constructs preschool childhood. The analysis takes play, the central pedagogical tool of early childhood education, as its focus. The ways in which play is reaffirmed as the natural, holistic and inherent basis of preschool childhood are then considered. Through this consideration it is argued that play, as described in the Preschool Curriculum Guidelines, is not natural. Rather, it is 'preschool play' and as such is regulated and surveyed with the particular end in view of recrafting the preschool child as, for example, the 'school ready child' (Grieshaber, 2000). Further, it is suggested that the construction of preschool play as natural also constructs the preschool child as natural, enabling an evasion of the deeply social processes involved in early childhood education. Issues widely debated in other areas of education, for example gender, class, ability, culture or geographical location, are largely silenced or marginalised. A significant omission are the changing local contexts in which preschool childhood may be experienced and the intersection of these contexts with global changes and influences.

all00252    Paper

Thinking this and that: teacher thinking beyond boundaries

ALLEN J University of Newcastle

The role of teacher thinking within emancipatory social practice has cultivated great debate within educational discourses. Critical theory as a distinct school of thought has privileged universal notions of emancipation whilst poststructural conceptions have challenged such grand narratives. It is this ongoing debate that has the potential to release teacher thinking from certainty to embrace indeterminancy and to conceive of 'critical' in radically different ways. Teachers' work is no longer considered as just the 'geographical' site of thinking but as a field constituted by competing discourses where vectors of power crosscut the cultural terrain of their everyday lives, Teacher thinking is constructed, constituted, contested and conducted in a field of competing discourses of human relationships, power relations, cultural, historical, political, social, ideological and visionary terrain. To conceive of teacher thinking in this way is to regard it as a 'critical' exploration where the quality of interpretation, its own richness, depends on how fully and well we develop the various alternatives indeterminacy presents.

This paper will bring to the surface the dissonances between, around and within espoused theories and practices of teacher thinking, the 'actual' and the 'real'. It is a critique that will work from within the categories of existing thought and everyday lives of teachers, describe them, radicalise them, and explore in varying degrees both their problems and unrecognised possibilities

Part C of Symposium 36
and00036c

The impact of national benchmarks on visions of learning Case studies: the operational end of developing literacy tests to address benchmarks - test developers' perspectives

ANDERSON, Australian Council for Educational Research
P DARKIN L Australian Council for Educational Research

This paper will discuss the application of benchmarks within the context of system level tests. The general purpose of these tests will be outlined, and the way they have been constructed explained. Reporting against benchmarks has had an effect on the general shape of the literacy tests, and on particular features such as the choice of stimulus and questions, and the introduction of spelling tests. Examples of how benchmarks have affected testing programs will presented, and some general implications for testing discussed.

Teachers' beliefs about successful teaching and learning in English

ARCHER J University of Newcastle

Teachers' practices are strongly influenced by teachers' own experiences as students and their beliefs about what constitutes good teaching and learning. For example, a teacher who believes that only students with "natural" ability will succeed in English classes, compared with a teacher who believes that with effective teaching and diligence on the part of the student non-talented students can succeed in English, would behave in the classroom in line with her beliefs. Changing behaviour, then, should stem from changing beliefs.

The present study focuses on English teaching. The data for the study are transcriptions of hour long interviews with groups of prmary school teachers and groups of secondary school teachers. In the interviews, teachers were asked to describe their teaching techniques, to explain why they chose those techniques, and to explain why they thought those techniques helped their students to learn. Interesting differences emerged between the responses of the primary and secondary teachers. These differences can be related to to the way primary and high schools are structured, and the resulting more wholistic approach to education of primary teachers.

Part B of Symposium
arn00045b

Successful integration of learning technologies in school classrooms (SILT)
Student cognitive learning strategies in technology enhanced classrooms.

ARNOLD L CATEGORY: University of Sydney

This theme focuses on intensive research in a small number of schools and draw on theoretical frameworks of problem-solving and (meta) cognitive learning strategies. The findings from the studies will be shared across all schools.

Part D of Symposium 6
art00006d Paper

Issues in Literacy Prior to School.

ARTHUR LUniversity of Western Sydney, Macarthur
MAKIN L University of Newcastle
ASHTON J University of Western Sydney Nepean

This symposium will report on research into literacy practices undertaken in 79 prior to school early childhood settings undertaken as Stage 1 of the Early Literacy and Social Justice Project. This is a co-operative project between two government departments and three universities in NSW. Data was gathered through environmental observations, interviews with staff and focus group discussions with families. Analysis identified literacy practices in homes, communities and early childhood settings, as well as staff members' and families' beliefs, attitudes and knowledge bases regarding literacy.

A major finding of this study was that children have a variety of experiences with literacy at home and in their communities that have the potential to be incorporated into early childhood programs. However, most early childhood staff are not aware of the extent of children's literacy experiences and learnings. In particular, children's experiences with environmental print, technology and popular culture and in community languages other than English are not fully understood. Ways of broadening definitions of literacy to include everyday literacy practices, and incorporating these in early childhood programs are currently being explored in Stage 2 of the Early Literacy and Social Justice Research Project.

Part A of Symposium 8

Children and early childhood education.

DOCKETT S - University of Western Sydney, Macarthur

Often, research about teachers and teaching focuses on children as the recipients of the process of education. The papers presented in this symposium seek to focus attention on children and to listen to their voices as they inform, guide and direct teachers and researchers through their involvement in various research projects. In each of the papers, children's voices are prominent. Several educational and research implications are drawn from these studies of young children in various contexts.

asp00171    Paper

A case study of constructing a platform for addressing the professional development needs of primary school principals in an independent sector

ASPLAND TQueensland University of Technology
BROOKER R Queensland University of technology
MACPHERSON I Queensland University of Technology

This paper works within the current literature about school leadership and asks such questions as:
How can school principals mobilise their staff, students, parents and community interest groups to become proactively engaged in the issues affecting teaching and learning in their schools?
How can school principals encourage teachers to reflect on their own practice and work collaboratively with them to find the means to enhance teaching practice?
How can school principals assist stakeholders in their school community to influence policy makers and curriculum decisions to ensure that the highest standards of teaching and learning take place in their schools?
In order to address these questions, the researchers negotiated with a repesentative group of primary school principals in an independent sector to develop a way of tapping the lifeworld perspectives of the principals concerning their work as school leaders, as well as exploring their preferred pathways of professional learning.
The work proceeded iteratively and collaboratively and moved towards addressing the questions posed above from the elicited lifeworld perspectives of the principals. Addressing the questions in this way provided an inside-out rather than an outside-in view of how to construct appropriate pathways for the professional learning of the principals.
The paper reports on and critiques the research process and its substantive outcomes. The iterative and colaborative research process is elaborated in terms of investigation, interrogation, interpretation and implication; while a discussion of the substantive outcomes is framed by the questions outlined above.

Symposium 46. Parts A | B | C | D | E
asp00046

Interrogating Collaborative Research - Who is Inside and Who is Out? - Symposium Overview

ASPLAND T.; ATWEH B.; BURNETT L.; HALL G.; HART DB.; HILL G.

: During the past few decades collaborative research has been advocated in the literature and policy statements in may educational systems around the world. Likewise the literature has problematised several aspects of collaborative research activities. This symposium presented by researchers within the PARAPET network at the Queensland University of Technology represents learnings on this issue arising from six research projects within different settings and partners and using different methodologies. The papers deal with issues related to multiculturalism, working with specific social groups such as lesbians, working with young people as researchers, collaboration between university and schools, and conducting doctoral research in schools. The range of methodologies used includes ethnography, action research and memory work within feminist perspective.

Part A of Symposium 46
asp00046a

Interrogating Collaborative Research - Who is Inside and Who is Out? Listening from the inside: Struggling with positioning

ASPLAND T. Queensland University of Technology

This is a paper articulates the struggles that were experienced by a researcher keen to report on the supervision experiences of a number of international women students completing PhD's In Australian universities. It reports on the repositioning of the researcher throughout the study so that she could really hear what the students were saying and be responsive to a number of issues that impact the positioning of the researcher inside the research conversation. The issues are related to gender, culture, class and power constructs within university research.

Part B of Symposium
atw00046b

Interrogating Collaborative Research - Who is Inside and Who is Out? Collaborative research with young people: Learnings from the SARUA project

ATWEH BQueensland University of Technology

The Student Action Research for University Access project is a collaborative research project between groups of senior school students, school teachers and University researchers. During the 8 years of it activities in at least 17 high schools in the greater metropolitan area of Brisbane significant learnings have developed about working with students on projects that affect their own lives. This paper problematises aspects of partnerships and collaboration between two diverse cultures of the university and the school and discuss issues of power and ownership of research questions and results.

Part C of Symposium
aub00452c

Packaging quality: what's left when the wrappings are gone.

AUBUSSON PUniversity of Western Sydney Nepean
WATSON K University of Western Sydney Nepean

Curriculum initiatives often flounder at the implementation stage. Consequently, curriculum packages have been developed that attempt to build in quality teaching. Improving quality teaching then depends on the ability of curriculum developers to package their product in a way that will promote teachers' ability to faithfully implement appropriate teaching.

This paper outlines research that assessed the effectiveness of two different curriculum packages for promoting a constructivist teaching approach by a high school science teachers. Teachers from six different schools across Sydney attended professional development sessions at which the learning/teaching theory supporting the curriculum package was explained along with the main ideas teachers were likely to find new and different. The teachers then implemented the different packages.

The findings suggested that the amount of support present in the curriculum packages was so overwhelming in itself that it hindered the implementation process. In some cases the curriculum packages improved the quality of teaching and learning while in other cases quality teaching and learning was hindered.

Part D of Symposium 16
auh00016d     Paper

Assessing Children's Creativity in Music and Storytelling.

AUH M.S University of Technology, Sydney

How can we assess creativity in musical compositions in a reliable and valid way? Four approaches can be used: assessing (1) product, (2) process, (3) person, and (4) environment. Following Torrance's assessment method, some creativity researchers in music use fluency, flexibility, originality, and syntax as the criteria for assessing creativity in improvisations, while others use more musical criteria, such as tonal coherence and rhythmic coherence in compositions. Despite disagreements about specific definitions of creativity among researchers, there is one definition on which they generally agree, that is, "creativity is the ability to produce work that is novel (ie. original , unexpected) and appropriate (ie. useful, adaptive concerning task constraints). This paper reports on a research study conducted by this researcher on creativity in children's music compositions and storytelling.

auh00052    Paper

The Effects of Use of Graphic Notations on Creative Thinking in Composing Music

AUH M.S University of Technology Sydney

Several research studies have shown that graphic notations could enhance imagination in composing music, and thus more creative compositions could be made using graphic notations than using traditional staff notations. However, no such study has been conducted with Australian students.

The purpose of the study was to determine if composing music with graphic notations could produce more creative compositions by Australian secondary school students than composing music without graphic notations. Subjects were 80 seventh-grade students attending a secondary private school in Sydney, Australia. The students were divided into Experimental (n = 40) and Control groups (n = 40), and were given three warm-up sessions before actual test. 30 minutes were observed to be the average time that the students spent for composing. They gathered in groups of 10, and composed music. When they finished, they played their compositions, which were videotape-recorded. Three expert judges evaluated the compositions for creativity, using 5-point rating scales and criteria of 1) Originality, 2) Structure, and 3) Expressiveness. Interjudge reliability will be calculated. Analysis of the data is in progress, and results will be reported in presentation. It is expected that the Experimental group would show higher creativity scores in composition than the Control group.

ayo00511    Paper

Implementing Nutrition Education in Preschool Children in Malaysia

AYOB A University of Science, Malaysia

The goal of nutrition education should be that children eat a well-balanced diet that contains a wide variety of foods, and that children learn to make wise food choices independently (Herr & Morse, 1982:10). The main purpose of this study is to design a program, which helps children develop important concepts, attitudes and behavior toward food. Nutrition education should take place through children's actual experiences and be focused on attitudes and feelings as well as development of concepts. Parental involvement is also important in this program. Without a total, continual approach to nutrition education that is integrated between home and school, children's behaviors will probably not change. The intervention program focuses the following concepts, attitudes and behaviors respectively: 1) The five basic food groups give a balance of food. Food help us to live, grow, keep healthy, and have energy for work and play; 2) Willingness to accept and try foods not known to them, developing acceptance of a variety of foods. Awareness of food dislikes and likes, and understanding of why they select certain foods above others; 3) Selecting a variety of foods, balancing food choices among the five basic food groups. Establishing orderly meal patterns. Hence, the program involves curriculum based on story, activity and play carried out by preschool teachers and parents. The sample of this study involved one hundred preschool children (age from five to six) from three preschools. The preschool teachers that participated were trained from time to time to conduct the intervention program designed. Preliminary, a pretest was carried out to these preschool children and a posttest will be conducted after the completion of the intervention program of six months.

bac00287    Paper

Reformating Reporting Methods for Case Studies

BACHOR D University of Victoria

Case studies are becoming popular way of portraying field-based knowledge about classroom assessment as well as a wide variety of other topics. In this paper, I will review some selected literature from approximately 1975 to 2000, in which a case study approach to the examination of classroom assessment has been emphasized. I will summarize some procedures on evidence gathering and analysis of case studies. Finally, I will recommend a few procedures to report case studies whereby the reported evidence more clearly corresponds to the collected evidence.

Part C of Symposium 16
bam00016c

Form: an Organic, Dynamic Research Conception.

BAMFORD AUniversity of Technology, Sydney

Form, to an artist , implies the characteristic structure of a thing, be that a painting, sculpture, poem or symphony. Good art is often described as having "significant from", attributes that are both physical and intuitive that set a work apart from others. Art based, qualitative research and feminist inquiry have long felt uncomfortable with the term 'validity' as a measure of significance of research practice. For this reason, it is the contention of this paper that traditional notions of validity be replaced in qualitative research with the concept of 'form': an organic and dynamic concept that encompasses the many manifestations of qualitative and feminist inquiry.

Part A of Symposium 15
bar00015a

Teacher accountability: system requirement to school reality.

BARBLETT L Edith Cowan University
LOUDEN W Edith Cowan University

: In Western Australia, the non-compulsory years of school are administered by the compulsory schooling sector and the ways in which early childhood teachers are asked to account for their work have changed. Early childhood teachers are asked to implement the school development plan and provide evidence of accomplishment of the school priorities. Such moves have unsettled teachers, as they believe the "one size fits all" application of school policies does not capture the essence of early childhood pedagogy and practice. This paper draws on qualitative and quantitative data collected during a five-year study that investigated early childhood teacher accountability from the policy level to the practicalities of everyday classroom life. The study found that early childhood teachers need to view whole school policies as appropriate and meaningful in order for them to be implemented. The study suggests therefore that policy pertaining to the early years needs to written in such a way that meets the needs of the system but also fits with the culture of early childhood teachers.

bar00141    Paper

Leadership behaviour of secondary school principals, teacher outcomes and school culture.

BARNETT K University of New South Wales
MCCORMICK J University of New South Wales
CONNERS R University of New South Wales

The purpose of this study was to build upon the findings of a previous study by the authors, which suggested that, the transformational and transactional leadership behaviours of school principals in New South Wales State secondary schools were associated with some teacher outcomes and aspects of school learning culture.

Three hundred and seventy three teachers from forty randomly selected state secondary schools in New South Wales, Australia participated in the study. Teachers were asked to indicate their perceptions of principal leadership behaviour and teacher outcomes by responding to the 45-item Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire Form 5X (Short) and to indicate their perceptions of school learning culture by responding to the 42-item Patterns of Adaptive Learning Survey. Data analysis was designed to take into account the measurement, distribution and hierarchical properties of the data. Thus, these data were analysed using the combined approaches of multilevel analysis and structural equation modelling.

bar00392    Paper

Promoting Higher Cognitive Level Talk through Philosophy for Children in a Whole-class and Small-group Cooperative Learning Setting.

BARRY K University of Notre Dame Australia
KING L Edith Cowan University
BURKE M St. Pius X School, Perth

This descriptive study examined teacher and student talk during whole class and small-group cooperative learning in a series of Philosophy for Children lessons in a year seven classroom over a six month period. The study has built upon several studies by King, Barry and Maloney in analysing student talk, and the conditions that affect it, in small group work. Recorded talk was transcribed and analysed through reading of scripts, the use of a low inference small-group learning interaction analysis system (MAKITAB) and a qualitative analysis package (NUD*IST). The data revealed significant levels of higher cognitive talk in both settings with increased participation in the small-group setting; clearly identifiable metacognitive processes especially in the small-group setting; andsignificantly higher levels of student cognitive question asking in the small-group setting. In both settings students demonstrated the ability to engage with each other, with ideas and to think critically. It has been concluded this most likely resulted from the cognitive intent and the conditions of learning set in place by the teacher. These conditions include the teacher's success in building a community of inquiry; the modelling of language and thinking style; the use of Philosophy for Children as a study domain; and the transfer of social and communication skills from the whole class to the small-group setting.

bea00445    Paper

Emotion Matters in Educational Leadership

BEATTY B University of Toronto

Pursuing the apparent paradox in educational leadership research and practice, wherein emotion is often treated as marginal or insignificant, this paper explores the foundational role of emotion in the working lives of teachers and leaders in schools. As part of a doctoral research project, fifty teachers were interviewed about emotionally positive and negative interactions with school administrators. Twenty-four principals from six different countries, participated for six months in an asynchronous online conversation focused on the emotional dimension of their work with teachers, students, parents and each other. Findings from these studies indicate that educational administrators are emotionally 'significant others' in teachers' lives, affecting their motivation, their confidence and their classroom practice. Principals, breaking the silence about the emotional dimension of their leadership lives, reveal some of the rarely considered and often most meaningful aspects of their work including emotional labour (Hochschild, 1983; Blackmore, 1994), emotional politics and emotional practice (Hargreaves, 1998). Considered together, the findings from these two studies indicate that the emotions ofleadership as they shape and reflect the realities of life in schools, are not only relevant but also defining and therefore worthy of furtherconsideration in educational research, theory and practice.

bea00495  Paper

Popular culture, textual practice and identity: literacy and the new technologies in the middle years

BEAVIS C Deakin University

This paper explores young people's textual engagements with electronic and other forms of popular culture, and the changing nature of literacy in the context of commodification, mass marketting and the new technologies. Building on school based studies exploring computer games in the classroom and the Pokemon phenomenon, it examines ways in which popular texts are read, and narrative and generic elements incorporated into the curriculum and into students' spoken and written texts. Drawing on Green's model of cultural, critical and operational dimensions of (technological) literacy, it examines issues of literacy and culture, identity and critique for teachers and students in the middle years, and their implications for constructions of literacy and curriculum

bec00163  Paper

Growing Partnerships: a further look at University-School partnership development

BECK M - Australian Catholic University HUMPHRIES S - Australian Catholic University

While the concept of partnership between University and school is receiving more positive attention in both arenas, the actual implementation of such partnerships is somewhat slow to develop in educational circles in Australia. This paper will be a 'case study in progress'. It is the continuation of the paper given by the two authors at the AARE conference in 1999 and will consider the model developed by Butcher & Howard (1999) and how this has been successfully or less successfully achieved during the last year. If partnerships are to be successful, the process of implementation needs to be clear and equally understood and accepted by both parties. The initial planning with those directly involved comes to nothing if the rest of the community is unclear or ignorant about the everyday partnership practices. The agony and ecstacy of partnership development is described in light of research and other partnership cases.

ben00389  Paper

Becoming an inclusive educator

BENTLEY-WILLIAMS R - Charles sturt University, Bathurst

This research focused on how student teachers develop understandings about people with disabilities and their future role as inclusive educators of children with diverse needs. The study adopted Knowles' Biographical Transformational Model(1992), as a framework to explore the biographical influences affecting how a select number of student teachers gained an understanding of what it means to become an inclusive educator. Participants were 12 students in the BEd course, involving 6 students studying the mandatory Special Education subject in 2nd year and 6 students in the Early Intervention subject in the 3rd year Special Education Major.

In conjunction with their studies, participants were asked to provide voluntary support in a setting for people with disabilities. The contexts included an independent living skills centre, a recreational program, and respite in families' homes for young children with disabilities. Through processes of reflective inquiry in these situated contexts, students identified critical incidents that expanded their understanding of role identity as teachers of children with disabilities. Findings from this investigation demonstrate how broadening the learning context facilitated the connection between the student teachers' personal and professional lives. Implications for teacher educators highlight the value of practical field experiences as a way of enhancing deeper learning.

Part C of Symposium 6
ber00006  Paper

Information Literacy - Implications for Early Childhood teaching.

BERTHELSEN D- Queensland University of Technology
HALLIWELL G - Queensland University of Technology
PEACOCK J - Queensland University of Technology
BURKE J - Queensland University of Technology
RYAN I - Queensland University of Technology

Information literacy encompasses both technological skills and skills to locate, evaluate, and use information from a range of sources. Early childhood teachers require knowledge, skill and confidence in such skills to inform their teaching practice and to facilitate their ongoing professional development. Increasingly, within early childhood programs, there is a focus on the development of information literacy skills of children from the time they enter formal school programs and this continues across their schooling years. Two cohorts of students, first and second year students in a Bachelor of Education course, completed surveys in which skills levels and knowledge of information literacy were explored. Students were found to have a range of skills and confidence levels and they indicated commitment to such skill development. The importance of a focus on early childhood students' skills in information literacy are discussed in terms of the need for systematic planning and integration of a range of information literacy tasks across students' undergraduate programs. The implications that such experiences have for teachers' professional practice, as educational contexts change and increasing importance is given to children's information literacy skill development, is explored.

Symposium 27 Part A | B | C | D
big00o27

Cautiously optimistic: Actor-networks, translations and other useful inventions for re-thinking educational change and innovation - Symposium Overview

BIGUM C - Central Queensland University
ROWAN L - Central Queensland University

Given the significant and on going institutional change endured by individual researchers over the past years, it is hardly surprising that people would look longingly towards a more optimistic future for educational research. Clearly there are many different factors that determine what individual researchers will see as causes for optimism. Regardless of how they are defined, however, optimistic or desirable futures don't just happen: they have to be made.

In order to contribute proactively and effectively to the creation of 'positive' futures, we have a real need for analytical frameworks that allow us to think about the work that goes into making/sustaining any kind of change or innovations and for analysing innovations as and when they occur. As a basis for the study of change and innovation in education, actor-network theory has recently begun to be taken seriously. It represents a significant move away from current theories of change in education.

This symposium draws together six instances of research into various instances of institutional/cultural/personal change which is informed by actor-network theory. It works to highlight the work that goes into the development/implementation/stabilisation of innovations and recognises the key roles that individuals actors play in this process. Attention is drawn to the relationship between innovations and such factors as identity, technology, and gender.

Part A of Symposium 27
big00027a

Translating change agents, enrolling relative advantage and problematizing communication channels: taking an actor-network axe to accounts of educational change and innovation informed by diffusion theory

BIGUM C- Central Queensland University

The stories we tell each other about change and innovation in education are important. Much of the research literature concerned with change and innovation in education as in other fields has been strongly informed and influenced by the tenets of diffusion theory. Typically applied to the study of technology-based change, diffusion theory can be shown to be consistent with many of the commonly used frameworks that account for change in education. Working to generate abstract and generalisable accounts of change, diffusion theory employs a large set of factors or influences as the means of explaining the rate at which an innovation spreads through its potential adopter society, for instance, the characteristics of the innovation, characteristics of the adopter, the culture of the organization, and the influence of opinion leaders.

This paper describes an alternative approach to the study of educational innovation and change which is based on a sociology of translation or actor-network theory (ANT). ANT rejects cause and effect or factor-based accounts of change and focuses on understanding how alliances and associations of people and things are made, strengthened and weakened. This paper will offer a critique of diffusion theory as a basis for theorising educational change and illustrate what an ANT analysis can bring to the study of educational innovation via reference to some recent research.

Part C of Symposium 27
big00027c

Work, Work, Work: Turning Optimistic Innovations into Durable teaching Practices

BIGUM C - Central Queensland University
ROWAN L- Central Queensland University

Contemporary educational, economic, technological and equity pressures have given rise to a veritable flood of 'innovative' university teaching practices ostensibly designed to make teaching at once more effective, more efficient and more attractive to the student population. While the existence of these teaching innovations is easily documented and while man are celebrated uncritically-and optimistically-for their 'innovative' and 'flexible' nature, there is an absence of research focused on the actual and ongoing work (including significant technological, political, social, ethical and economic negotiations) required to make any educational innovation durable and stable.

This paper reports on research within a current ARC LG project that is designed to explore the actual work required to make university teaching innovations stable and durable. Drawing on the analytical resources provided by the sociology of translation (actor-network theory: ANT) and focusing on a particular instance of web-based university teaching within a Queensland University, this paper explores the usefulness of ANT for identifying the full range of influences, pressures and contexts (social and technical) which shape the design, development, implementation and, potentially, the stabilisation of educational innovations. The paper explores the way ANT based educational research can help us translate optimistic teaching goals into sustainable teaching practices.

Symposium 31 Parts: A | B | C
bis00031

Developing and validating teaching standards for professional development and advanced certification - Symposium Overview

BISHOP A - Monash University

In 1999 the Australian Research Council funded three collaborative research projects (1999 - 2001) designed to develop professional standards and performance assessments for English, Mathematics and Science teachers. These were Strategic Partnerships in Industry Research and Training (SPIRT) Grants with the relevant subject associations acting as the industry partners. Each project has approached the common task in significantly different ways, but all three have been based on the primacy of teacher's knowledge of their work. As the task of developing teaching standards progresses, the validation of those standards is becoming the focus of the research.

Each project is conducting this discourse about validation with teachers from across Australia. The challenge is to ensure that the teaching standards developed will be an accurate reflection of the work of teachers and provide a useful focus for professional development and a basis for advanced certification. This symposium will present an overview of each project and focus on the research issues in foregrounding the voice of the teacher in the development of the standards.

Part C of Symposium 31. bis00031  Paper

From the ground up: Developing professional standards for excellence in the teaching of mathematics

BISHOP A - Monash University
BENNETT S - Monash University
CLARKE B - Monash University
DOECKE, B - Monash University

The project titled, Research and Development of National Professional Standards for Excellence in teaching Mathematics is a collaboration between staff from Monash University Faculty of Education and the Australian Association of Mathematics Teachers (AAMT). The project has two main goals: (1) to determine consensual views on national professional standards for excellence in teaching mathematics (the 'Standards') and (2) to develop an assessment scheme and protocols for certifying this excellence. A grounded approach to data gathering through the use of Teacher Focus Groups is being used. The data from these TFG's has been used to develop a draft document "Descriptors of excellence in the teaching of mathematics". In this document the descriptors are organised into the domains of Professional Knowledge, Professional Attributes and Professional Practice. This draft has been circulated to all members of AAMT for feedback. The TFG's are ongoing and will provide elaboration and exemplification of these "Descriptors" during the current stage of the research. In this session we will report on the project with a particular focus on the TFG's and their role in listening to the "voice of the teacher".

bla00233  Paper

The 'accidental' manager and the enterprise of the self: gender, identity and crisis of motivation in leadership?

BLACKMORE J - Deakin University
SACHS J - University of Sydney

The nature of work and work identity are also being transformed. In much of the organisational literature, the concept of identity is treated separately from notions of professionalism within specific occupations or institutions. We argue in this paper that individuals' work identity is informed by the articulation between particular personal and professional discourses circulating within and around educational organisations. These give rise to different understandings and readings of corporate identities. At the same time, each new educational setting defines corporate identity differently. We found that there were different professional cultures across the three sectors-the entrepreneurial culture of TAFE, the disciplinary knowledge based Culture of universities and the pedagogical or caring culture of schools. Work provides a new sense of identity for a generation of increasingly economically independent women, together with or substituting for family and home as key aspects of women's identity in previous generations. While women continue to move into leadership in middle and executive management largely through accident rather than design, by proven rather than potential performance, their progression upwards requires more strategic leadership performances. Once there they face ambiguity and paradox - caught between macho competitive individualist cultures reinvented in the corporate organisation seeking to do more with less, and more humanist approaches of soft management theory premised upon networks, change agency and transforming organisations. While all managers, both executive and middle managers, male and female, confront these tensions, women are open to a range of gendered images, expectations and perceptions, caught between adopting the corporate line and between more inclusive and team building behaviours. We explore how 'the corporate' informs gendered work identity of women managers in a number of universities, TAFEs and schools. Women's investment in their identity which may not 'fit' the corporate educational organisation. To 'become a manager' may often require relinquishing those aspects of self which were seen to be critical to how they were viewed by others and wished to be viewed and a reinvestment in practices which could be seen as being complicit with non educational agendas, creating a sense of abandonment of self and adoption of the colluded self.

bla00326  Paper

'Warmware': new learning technologies, teachers and educational change

BLACKMORE J - Deakin University
JOHNSON R - Deakin University
WARREN W - Deakin University

Much has been written about the potential of new learning technologies for transforming teaching and learning, and indeed the organisation of schooling. Much has also been written about teacher responses to new learning technologies-how they resist, ignore, or innovate. A number of recent reports indicate a gap between policy, practice and the capacity of organisations to provide the conditions and resources in schools to creatively use new learning technologies. Few of these discourses draw upon theories of educational change, in particular those which relate to the dissonance between attitudes and feelings about radical change, and how it impacts on teacher work identity with respect to learning technologies. Much of the literature has focused upon the technical aspects, the hardware and software, but not the 'warmware', so critical to sound pedagogical practice. This paper draws from the Learning in New Environments Research Group action research project, a pilot study in a large metropolitan secondary college, which is exploring the social implications of new learning technologies for changing relations between students, between teachers and students, between teachers and between family and school. The paper draws from the first round of data collection from the teachers in an on going action research project in a region with a high level of socio-economic and cultural diversity. It draws on concepts of Lieberman's notion of learning networks and Wenger's notion of communities of practice, as well as past research on the reception of gender equity reform in educational organisations, which focuses upon emotional aspects of professional work identity and organisational change.

bla00530  Paper

Creating an Optimistic Future for Indigenous Research in Education: Re-visioning both Outcome and Process

BLANCHARD M - Koori Centre, University of Sydney
MCKNIGHT A - Koori Centre, University of Sydney
LUI L - Koori Centre, University of Sydney
WRAY D - Koori Centre, University of Sydney
GALLEGUILLOS S - Koori Centre, University of Sydney
SMITH A - Koori Centre, University of Sydney

The panel will be comprised of Indigenous and non-Indigenous staff from the Koori Centre at The University of Sydney. Each contributor will present a brief paper focusing on selected challenges, issues and opportunities facing the field of Indigenous research in Education. In keeping with conference goals and expectations, panel members will explicate an optimistic and positive view of the future. While recognising past and present shortfalls, panel members will also explore ways and means of creating an environment in which rigorous, critical, inclusive enquiry will better inform practice in Indigenous Education. The perspective, wherever possible, will take account of national and international trends and priorities in Education. In a broad overview sense, some or all of the following topics will referred to by panellists:

1. Indigenous research methodology.
2. Indigenous research ethics.
3. Protocols for collaborative enquiry in educational research.
4. Intellectual property questions and issues.
5. Understanding the system; writing applications for funding and research management.
6. Professional development needs and interests in Indigenous Education research.
7. Impact of the internationalisation of educational research in general.
8. Setting an agenda for Indigenous educational research and translating findings into relevant, quality practice.

Part E of Symposium 32
boa00032e

Patterns of Discontent: International Perspectives on Teacher Satisfaction Shared Leadership In Tasmanian Early Childhood Settings

BOARDMAN M - University of Tasmania

The study was designed to investigate the perceptions of Kindergarten to Grade 2 teachers and leaders regarding the nature of leadership provided at their school, with respect to collaborative and consultative processes utilised. Study Methods Data gathering was undertaken utilising surveys. Demographic data was sought via closed questions, whilst scaled items, employing a Likert scale process, sought participants' perceptions regarding the role of their school leader in early childhood education. Data Source A stratified sampling process was employed, within two Tasmanian state school districts, to identify the research target group, which comprised 30 schools. Study participants included 101 early childhood teachers and 40 leaders (including 17 principals and 23 senior staff members, who were responsible for leadership in Kindergarten to Grade 2 within their school). Conclusions Leaders in the study were almost universally committed to utilising shared leadership processes, rating it as the third most important factor. However, K-2 teachers indicated less enthusiasm for this leadership process with it being only rated as their tenth most important factor of leadership, although they did nominate teams of teachers as an important source of leadership. Speculation has to be given to whether teachers are seeing the current drive for shared leadership as fragmenting the leadership role, and whether some view it as an avoidance of responsibility by substantive leaders. The widely recognised benefits of shared leadership need to better communicated to K-2 teachers, with areas in which shared leadership can be gainfully utilised carefully defined, along with those areas in which substantive leadership is more appropriate.

boo00306  Paper

The Changes and Influences on Teachers' Work in Fiji

BOOTH E - University of Wollongong
SINGH G - University of South Pacific
LINGHAM G - Lautoka Teachers' College
WILSON M - University of Wollongong

The study explores the changes in primary teachers' work in Fiji over a five year period following the major political and social disruption of the coups. The survey data were gathered by beginning second year students from the Lautoka Teachers' College who were undertaking a home based practicum. The structured and opened ended questions questioned the influences on the work of teachers. Each teacher had the opportunity to explore what could happen in their professional work if changes could be made in their teaching environment. Over 200 primary teachers from all administrative divisions of Fiji were surveyed. The outcomes of the inquiry will be of particular interest to a major review of education being undertaken during 2000 in Fiji as well as for the national Curriculum Development Unit, schools, teacher education and beginning teachers.

bot00283  Paper

The Future: Optimism or Ossification

BOTTRELL C - La Trobe University
LING L - La Trobe University

This paper addresses the issues raised in a recent review of post compulsory education and training in Victoria. In the interim report (April 2000) it is stated that employers found that the skills of new graduates appear to be most deficient in the areas of creativity, flair, problem solving, oral business communication and interpersonal skills. It is upon the first three of these perceived deficiencies that this paper focuses. In the research study conducted in southern NSW primary schools (Bottrell 1997-1999) where 66 teachers were surveyed, it was found that the subjects of creative arts, science and society and its environment are being allocated significantly less time in the curriculum of primary schools than other so-called basic subjects.

With the govenrment policy driven emphasis on literacy and numeracy, competency based approaches to curriculum, standardised testing programs and outcomes based curriculum, subjects which are likely to promote flair, creativity and problem solving often slip into the background. Competency based and outcomes based curriculum develop in learners an imperative to emit the desired response to achieve the state outcome, thus encouraging homogenity of response and convergent outcomes. Teachers faced with the need to prpeare students for the standardised statewide tests which result, despite assurances to the contrary, in league tables of successful educational institutions, ar tempted to teach to the test and to narrowly defined competencies or outcomes. Thus from both a teaching and learning perspective the likelihood of flair, creativity and problem solving being encouraged is severely diminished.

bot00331  Paper

Against the Odds

BOTTRELL D - University of Sydney

This paper presents preliminary findings from research with girls and young women from an inner city public housing estate. The project explores girls' and young women's experiences in education, job seeking, recreation, being in trouble and notions of personal success. Participants in the study may be characterised as marginalised, but their desire for and rejection of promises of 'the centre' indicate an hegemony of values which at times inverts the hegemonic ideologies encountered in classed, raced and gendered centre-marginal relations.

The paper draws on theories of resistance and resilience for understanding processes of opposition and conformity, cultural management and identity work. Resistances as part of identity work involve both acceptance and rejection of available cultural ideals. Reframing resistances as aspects of identity work, within specific cultural contexts, points to the resilience of marginalised girls in their management of life constraints and opportunities. Their perceptions of what constitutes success, and what that means for individuals, indicate reiterated patterns of resistance and conformity and a mix of optimism and wariness of expecting too much.

bou00257  Paper

THE ROLE Of POSTGRADUATE STUDENTS IN DISSEMINATION AND USE OF RESEARCH IN SCHOOLS AND SCHOOL SYSTEMS

BOURKE S - The University of Newcastle
HOLBROOK A - The University of Newcastle

Postgraduate students, particularly those working in schools and school systems, are a key group in disseminating and using educational research. This paper reports the results of a questionnaire administered in 1999 to a national sample of 1267 postgraduate students focussing on their views of the sources and importance of research, and on their individual research interests. Colleagues at the respondent's school were seen as the most important sources for and initiators of new ideas and developments in schools. Other colleagues, professional associations and universities were also important for the majority of postgraduate students. The types of information on which new developments were based were principally research (45% of respondents) and accumulated wisdom/experience (29%). The impact of university research was recognised on their own activities by 77% of postgraduates and on education generally by 60%. In descending order, the research projects most often listed by postgraduates (54%) were in the area of educational processes and structures which included three sub-topic areas: (1) internal educational processes, (2) social and philosophical views of education and, to a lesser extent, (3) curriculum organisation, educational levels and qualifications. Other prominent areas were learning and development (12%), human society (10%), special education (8%), politics and economics (7%), and curriculum areas, for example, key learning areas (6%).

bra00074  Paper

Portfolios For Assessment and Reporting

BRADY L - University of Technology, Sydney

Portfolios have arguably become the most prominent strategy for assessment and reporting in Australian primary schools, a trend explained both by the need to assess and report in an outcomes framework (a legacy of the national curriculum), and by the authentic assessment movement with its emphasis on performance assessment.

This paper reports on a study conducted in 2000 using a stratified proportional systematic selection of 64 primary schools in NSW to determine school portfolio implementation. Specifically the study aimed to investigate teacher perceptions of the purpose of portfolios; the contents of portfolios; and how portfolios are used to assess and report. A case study of one school provided more explicit focus on how portfolios have changed both teaching and assessment and reporting practice.

Data from the survey were analysed using frequency distributions, tests of significance and analysis of variance. Qualitative case study data are also reported. Finally the paper accounts for and discusses the results.

Part D of Symposium 27
bre00027d

Reclaiming materiality: The use of ANT in considering educational reform

BRENNAN M - Central Queensland University

The paper examines some of the methodological issues arising in the study of school reform, using key foci of Actor Network Theory (ANT) as a starting point. It surfaces issues of idealism, neo-positivism, and realism, as well as human-centric social science, in much of the research on school reform. In particular, many of the large-scale studies tend to be more useful for top-down management of reform and measurement, with the smallest unit that of the school. Ironically in an era of school-based management, the methodology and the outcomes tend to parallel centre-periphery innovations, working towards centralist explanations of change, policy, so school reform is treated as an effect of a centralised action. ANT makes possible different explanations that do not presume a centre-periphery model of change. Rather, the goal is to track the multiple ways in which innovation works - or does not. ANT encourages the study of innovations as iterative and inclusive of non-human actants, treating them as involved in multiple and intersecting networks. Comparisons of methodological issues will be drawn between specific studies of school improvement/school effectiveness and more ANT-influenced approaches to the consideration of research on school reform.

bre00239  Paper

The role of children when mother returns to study mathematics in the further education sector: Benefits for both

BREW C - La Trobe University

It is well documented that children of middle-class parents generally do better at school than their working-class peers and despite increases in school retention rates in Australia, this remains the case. Social reproduction theories are used to describe this phenomenon. Social reproduction theory assumes that a family's class position is generally fixed by early adulthood, based on the occupation and education and associated values and attitudes acquired by the parents-to-be. But what happens when social class becomes more fluid, and parents markedly raise their educational status after their children are born? Do the children inherit their old level of cultural capital or the new?

Empirical studies demonstrate a large indirect relationship between home environment and mathematical achievement and conclude that ways are needed to improve the home environment because the benefits for children's mathematical achievements are potentially quite large. In this paper case studies of women with children who have returned to study mathematics in the further education sector are presented. Interview data from both the adult students and their children provide evidence of a synergistic relationship in the intellectual development of women and their children

bre00396  Paper

From CATs to coursework: Teacher feedback on the VCE Mathematics 2000

BREW C - La Trobe University
TOBAIS S - La Trobe University
MILNE L - La Trobe University
LEIGH-LANCASTER D - La Trobe University

Following the recent review of the Victorian Certificate of Education, work requirements and the extended project or problem solving common assessment tasks (CAT 1) have been replaced by outcomes and coursework assessment in the revised VCE Mathematics studies. These changes were to address perceived problems with the authentication of students' work & excessive workloads in the previous study. Coursework assessment consist of a more flexible assessment structure, comprising a limited number of specified tasks that are smaller in scope and undertaken mainly during scheduled classes.

In July 2000 a survey was sent to over 700 VCE mathematics teachers across all sectors and regions on the first year of implementation of this new assessment structure. In this paper we report on the extent to which teachers believe that the authentication and workload issues associated with work requirements and the former extended common assessment tasks have been addressed. Also presented are teachers' experiences of the impact of the changes on the quality of students' learning outcomes. A focus is given to the use of investigative and problem solving approaches, the likely impact of the changes on junior mathematics and by gender, and the use of technology in the classroom.

bro00115  Paper

The Triviality of Transfer in the Arts

BROWN N - (COFA, University of New South Wales

Claims of educational value in the arts are motivated by the realisation that, one way or another, the arts are more obliged than other subjects to spell out their wider educational relevance. The marginal position of the arts in education is largely a result of the unique kinds of knowledge they represent. For this reason redressing the marginalisation of the arts is often linked with attempts to redefine and broaden their cognitive structure. Recent evidence of transferability between knowledge in the arts and other curriculum domains is currently advanced as one useful approach. However, different ways of valuing the arts embrace different structural aspects of their knowledge. Thus the facts of transferability between knowledge in the arts and other domains vary according to their interpretation within different frameworks of artistic value.

This paper investigates the impact of three claims of artistic value on the facts of transfer in the arts. It emerges that the extent to which each value claim sifts out different properties of the evidence, weighed against the high levels of abstraction at which the transport of qualitative knowledge occurs, nullifies the usefulness of cognitive transfer as a stratagem against marginalisation in the arts.

Symposium 469: Part A | B | C | D | E
bro00469  Paper

Teachers as researchers of educational change - Symposium Overview

BROADBENT C - Australian Catholic University

This symposium presents research conducted by postgraduate students enrolled in the M Ed unit Educational Change and Career Development offered at the Australian Catholic University in Canberra. To allow maximum opportunity for the design and development of individual learning pathways, students engaged in minor research projects relating to the impact of educational change on their professional and personal lives. Students located their research within a social, theoretical and personal context and drew on background experience in attempting to discern issues, approaches and emphases relating to educational change in schools. This symposium presents the results of that research and includes six papers on: Violence in the classroom; Legislative reform in the ACT; The case for outcomes-based assessment; A survey of the usage patterns and problems of using computers in the classroom; Introducing students to peer-assessment and self assessment; and Perceptions of teachers regarding the inclusion of children with disorders in the classroom. While a variety of foci are presented through the papers, the overarching theme explores the impact of educational change on teachers and their work.

Part C of Symposium 46
bur00046c

Interrogating Collaborative Research - Who is Inside and Who is Out? - Symposium Overview

BURNETT L - Queensland University of Technology

During the past few decades collaborative research has been advocated in the literature and policy statements in may educational systems around the world. Likewise the literature has problematised several aspects of collaborative research activities. This symposium presented by researchers within the PARAPET network at the Queensland University of Technology represents learnings on this issue arising from six research projects within different settings and partners and using different methodologies. The papers deal with issues related to multiculturalism, working with specific social groups such as lesbians, working with young people as researchers, collaboration between university and schools, and conducting doctoral research in schools. The range of methodologies used includes ethnography, action research and memory work within feminist perspective.

but00159 Paper

The folio and critical stages in students' experiences with Design and Technology in school settings

BUTCHER L - University of Newcastle

All students in NSW schools study Design and Technology which is the core technology subject offered in the Technology and Applied Studies 'Key Learning Area'. Students study D&T for 200 hours between years 7 to 10, but in most instances the prescribed component can be undertaken in the first two years of high school. Many schools are offering elective D&T programs for students in years 9 and 10 and these programs are frequently chosen by students wishing to extend their experience with design and technology. One of the questions of critical interest to teachers and curriculum planners relates to the perception that students have of D&T and how they engage with it. The author's professional interests in D&T classroom activities led him to undertake a qualitative study that was structured to maximise researcher involvement with two year ten class groups in two separate schools over a school year. The author conducted 75 field observations and 30 student interviews.

This paper explores in detail the students' engagement with the requirement of the design folio, incorporating what value they place on it and what they think makes a good design experience. Further analyses showed that these views varied throughout different stages of the design process and critical points are discussed in depth.

Part B of Symposium 26
cap00026b

School Reform and Productive Pedagogies
How not to miss this opportunity: Making a difference via two-way capacity building partnerships.

CAPENESS R - University of Queensland

Hargreaves has succinctly stated that change is mandatory, improvement optional. In the context of a recent and significant school renewal process initiated by Education Queensland, many schools are focusing on ways in which they can implement "new basics", "rich tasks" and "productive pedagogies". The ways in which change is embraced within these schools depends on a number of internal factors. However, recent research shows that schools can no longer approach school reform with the attitude that they can do it alone. Rather, effective schools will choose to extend their 'internal collaborative strength' via seeking out and pursuing 'programs and activities that are based on two-way capacity building' in order to change and enhance personal meaning in the teaching and learning experiences of those within the school community. This paper investigates how a Queensland school chooses to optimise and maximise successful and sustainable change via external partnerships which extend professional development opportunities for teachers and school leaders beyond what is possible internally.

car00192  Paper

Moving Out and Moving On: School Closure and Transition Experiences of Students, Teachers and Parents

CARRINGTON V - University of Tasmania
CHURCHILL R - University of Tasmania

While there is a large body of research focused on the transition of students from primary to secondary schools, this is not the only major shift that may encompass/overtake groups of students. School closure and amalgamation appear increasingly on the agendas of Australian State governments. It is our contention that it is highly inappropriate to assume that the issues related to closure parallel those of transition. However, in the absence of research into the impact of closure, educators and administrators are forced to rely on existing and/or extended transition programmes.

While the literature focuses on issues of continuity and discontinuity between sites, transition has a long tradition as a positive rite of passage into adolescence and early adulthood. Closure, however, raises highly specific and often negative emotive issues for staff, students and families.

Based on the results of a number of semi-structured interviews with staff, students and families, this paper reports on the impact of one instance of closure of a Tasmanian secondary school on the closing and receiving school communities. Additionally, implications for school communities in planning for and coping with the processes and pressures of impending closure are addressed.

car00094  Paper

An Ethnographic Study of Art as a Discipline Concealed in the Beliefs and Practices of Two Artists

CARROLL J - Australian Catholic University

This study examines the model of naive to sophistication in Discipline Based Art Education (DBAE) as a representation of the practice of two artists. In particular, the study focuses on the DBAE prediction of connotative integration among the four roles of artistic practice as a marker of sophistication in the artist. The study is designed to reveal the concealed frames of reference which motivate the beliefs of two artists and their practice over time. The methodology focuses on a semantic analysis of the texts and contexts which form a representation of the underlying folk beliefs of the two respondents. The evidence emergent in the investigation suggests that understanding is not transparent in the two artists explanation of the works that they make. It emerges that the reflective insights of the two respondents effectively misrepresent their own motives and performances. Cover or folk terms provide evidence of complex motivation, as well as incoherence and denial in the respondents maintenance of their practice. The study concludes that the model of connotative integration presented by DBAE is neither predicted in the practice of two respondent artists, nor, more generally, entails a fruitful archetype of educational practice in the visual arts.

car00232  Paper

Mentoring and beginning teacher's workplace learning

MARK CARTER - Deputy Principal Cheltenham Girls High School, NSW Department of Education and Training
ROD FRANCIS-School of Education - Charles Sturt University

Mentoring has been the focus of much attention in the recent literature on initial teacher education, induction and approaches to professional development for experienced teachers. There have been several reasons for its prominence. There has been a growth in understanding of how beginning teachers learn, a recognition of the place of practitioner knowledge in the teaching profession together with a belief that mentoring offers a 'cost' solution to teacher training and development.

This paper briefly reviews the literature related to mentoring and beginning teacher professional learning. The key conclusions in the literature are examined in relation to findings from research into the professional learning of beginning teachers conducted in NSW government schools during 1998. Some 220 beginning teachers and 245 supervisors and mentors were surveyed and the processes of beginning teacher professional learning examined observed closely in six case study schools in different settings across the state. Examination of survey data using multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) clearly established the importance of mentoring support in beginning teachers' professional learning in the induction year. Case study research also identified key practices, conditions and professional interactions that sustained transmission, transactional and transformational approaches to teacher learning.

The complementary qualitative and quantitative data in relation to mentoring provide new and robust evidence of the importance of this professional learning strategy in generating beginning teacher satisfaction with induction support. In particular, the analysis of qualitative data establishes the importance of mentoring in moving teacher learning beyond the simple transmission of prevailing culture and professional norms. In combination with other key conditions and practices mentoring has the potential to shift the outcomes of beginning teacher induction from transmission to transactional and transformational learning.

Part A of Symposium 42
caw00042a

From Welfarism to the Market and the Contestation of Teacher Literate Knowledge?

CAWKWELL G - University of Queensland

From Welfarism to the Market and the Contestation of Teacher Literate Knowledge The turn from the Welfare State and Keynesian economic practices towards the implementation of neo-liberal economic policies has taken place in New Zealand since 1984. The implementation of these policies has included the marketisation of schools and the contestation of teachers' knowledge. Teachers' knowledge has been constructed as contributing to 'provider capture', as biased and used in the interests of teachers and educators generally, rather than for the benefit of consumers, i.e. parents and their children. This notion of 'provider capture' together with accompanying claims of educational and literate 'crises' have contributed to the questioning and contestation of teachers literate knowledge. This continues to be played out as claims of crises have centred around the development and implementation of the English curriculum and continued with the Literacy Taskforce Report, The Literacy Experts' report and the Parliamentary Science and Education sub committee report into the teaching of reading. This paper examines constructions of teachers' literate knowledge and the effects of their contestation.

cha00480  Paper

Parents' Perception of Private School Provisions

CHADWICK, F - The University of Newcastle

Educational policy makers are able to cite sound reasons for certain types of instruction being the responsibility of the generalist primary class teacher. Parents of able young Australian musicians are, however, critical of the impact of such policies upon their children's school-based experiences. They maintain that teachers' lack of skills and expertise i specialised areas, results in the use of inappropriate and less than successful approaches to teaching and learning.

An examination of extensive qualitative data reveal firmly held parental contentions, that the needs and interests of musically involved children would best be served by school-based music programs differentiated from the mandatory courses undertaken by all students. Additionally, parent maintain that placement of their children in advantaged school settings is likely to ensure the provision of teaching and learning programs more readily suited to their children's needs.

The evidence presented in this paper has been obtained from a recently completed, Australia-wide study, concerning itself with an examination of environmental facilitation of talent development in music. Australian parents (N=194) describe a crisis of confidence in the public education system in respect of this specialised area of education. The implications for teacher education programs shall also be addressed.

cha00343  Paper

Teacher education students' epistemological beliefs - A cultural perspectives on learning and teaching

CHAN KW - Hong Kong Institute of Education

The role of beliefs on teaching and learning has been evidenced in research literature as influencing the success or failure of curriculum and instruction. Within the belief system, the epistemological beliefs are found to relate to meta-cogntive activities (Schommer, 1994) , which are considered important in leaning and teacher professionalization. This paper reports the findings of a study conducted by the author to examine the epistemological beliefs of Hong Kong teacher education students, based on a questionnaire adapted from that of Schommer (1991) and any possible relation between epistemological beliefs with demographic variables such as age, gender and electives. The issue is approached from a comparative perspectives with results discussed with reference to both the Hong Kong (Chinese) cultural context and western (North America) culture. Implications are drawn from the cultural base, with suggestions for future development in teacher education programs and possible direction of research.

Part D of Symposium 45
cha00045d

Successful integration of learning technologies in school classrooms (SILT)
The role of student learning teams in effective classrooms.

CHAPMAN E - University of Sydney

Research is being undertaken into the use of student learning teams. These projects develop and evaluate strategies for collaborative learning and student roles in learning teams.

Part E of Symposium 42
che00042e

CRAFTING SUBJECTS: LOCAL CONTEXTS/GLOBAL IMPERATIVES
Globalization and Governmentality: Educational Changes in Hong Kong and Singapore.

CHEUNG W-L - University of Queensland
SIDHU R - University of Queensland

A popular reading of the Asian economic crisis of 1997 is that it exemplifies the worst possible excesses of globalization. As the economic bubble burst in the much-lauded 'Dragon' and 'Tiger' economies, many NIEs in Asia are still suffering from the impacts of the crisis. On the contrary, Hong Kong and Singapore escaped the harsh neo-classical prescriptions delivered by the IMF on the one hand, and they were sufficiently concerned by the magnitude of the crisis to impose a harsh regime of fiscal restraint on their public sector on the other. Using the Asian financial crisis as a starting point, we argue against the position taken by some globalization theorists who have declared the imminent redundancy of the state in light of fast capitalism. Besides, we conceive both globalization and the state are 'complex organism' instead of monads in which there contains no parts. The interactions between globalization and the state may weaken some areas of the state but simultaneously strengthen others. In the aftermath of the Asian financial crisis, we see in both Hong Kong and Singapore, a renewed governmentality that is centred around survival, competitiveness and prosperity. Education provides space for both governments to strengthen their governmentality as well as enhances adapting to economic globalization. We conclude that the state continue to play significant role in the management of global-local tensions and education is an important sphere where this negotiation takes place.

cla00216  Paper

'Save our Souls' from forward rolls: An investigation of Bachelor of Education Primary students' perceptions of Personal Development, Health and Physical Education (PDHPE) and their level of efficacy in teaching the subject in the K-6 context

CLARKE D - University of Western Sydney, Nepean

This paper reports on a cross institutional study between the University of Western Sydney and the University of Technology Sydney. Bachelor of Education Primary students often perceive themselves as poorly equipped in terms of knowledge and physical ability to teach the NSW K-6 Personal Development, Health and Physical Education syllabus. The students articulate this level of efficacy in their lack of willingness to teach thesubject during Practicum experiences. This study aims to explore the prior experiences, level of efficacy and willingness to teach the syllabus before and after enrolment in the mandatory Key Learning Area subject Personal Development, Health and Physical Education at each of the Universities. The study will compare results between Universities. The study will investigate these issues by utilising qualitative research methods. Approximately 150 students from each University will be surveyed before and after their enrolment in Personal Development, Health and Physical Education. In the future, it is hoped that data gathered can be explored in regard to differences in gender, age, cultural background and socioeconomic status.

Symposium 24: Parts A | B | C

Current Research in Early Numeracy Education - Symposium Overview.

CLARKE D - Australian Catholic University
ROWLEY G - Australian Catholic University
HORNE M - Australian Catholic University
SULLIVAN P - Australian Catholic University

This symposium will outline progress in a joint three-year project involving DEET, CEO, and AISV (Victoria), Australian Catholic University and Monash University. The Early Numeracy Research Project (ENRP) is researching effective approaches to mathematics learning in the first three years of school. The ENRP involves the provision of professional development to teachers in 35 ?trial? schools, and the collection of achievement data from these and another 35 matched ?reference? schools. Interview schedules for one-to-one interviews have been developed to enable the identification and reporting of ?growth points? in numeracy. Approximately 5000 children are interviewed twice yearly. This presentation will focus on achievement levels in trial and reference schools and the development and validation of the use of interviews to identify growth points in early numeracy

Part A of Symposium 24
cla00024a

Current Research in Early Numeracy Education..
Overview of the project, framework and interview schedule
Development of an interview schedule for identifying growth points in early numeracy.

CLARKE D - Australian Catholic University
SULLIVAN P - Australian Catholic University

Drawing upon Australian and overseas research on young children's mathematics learning, a framework of the key 'growth points' in mathematics was developed. This framework addressed major mathematics domains in early numeracy, including Counting, Place Value, Addition and Subtraction, Multiplication and Division, Time, Measurement, Properties of Shapes, and Visualisation and Orientation. Using this framework as a basis, a 30-40 minute, task-based interview was developed for use by teachers in a one-to-one setting, early in the school year (February/March), and towards the end of the year (November). Data collected from interviews with over 5000 children has led to modifications of the framework. This paper will provide some background to the project, outline the process of development of the framework and interview, and share some data on student understanding of key ideas.

Part C of Symposium 24
cla00042c  Paper

Current Research in Early Numeracy Education.
Growth in children's numeracy understanding, data from 1999 and 2000.

CLARKE D - Australian Catholic University
GERVASONI A - Australian Catholic University

A major aim of the Early Numeracy Research Project is to research effective approaches to the teaching of mathematics in the first three years of schooling. In order to assess the effect of the ENRP professional development program, data from twice-yearly interviews enable a measure of growth in knowledge, skills and understanding over time in trial schools (who are fully involved in the professional development program at school, region and statewide level) and those in reference schools (who have access to interview data, but are not involved in the professional development program). In this paper, data will be shared on the comparisons in growth between trial and reference schools, drawing on data from two interview periods in 1999 and the data from March 2000. Information on changes i teacher practice in trial schools over the course of the project will also be shared.

Part B of Symposium 17
cla00017b  Paper

Mentoring: Implications for portfolio development.

CLARKE M - University of Western Sydney, Nepean

This paper aims to explore how mentoring can assist in the development of a teacher portfolio and the benefits that can be derived by providing a supportive work environment. The literature relating to teacher portfolios(Bartell, Kaye, Morin,1998; Friedus,1996; and Shulman,1998) advocates that mentoring is an integral component of the portfolio process. A model developed by Clarke (1997) will be discussed. This model incorporates a mentor into a process that encourages dialogue, conversations and reflections about teaching. In 1998 at the University of Western Sydney,Nepean a portfolio process was introduced into the Bachelor of Education first year undergraduate program in a subject, Children and Teaching. An initial paper reported on the developmental stages of this process. It is the intention of this paper to review the role of the mentor in the portfolio development process.

During Semester One, 2000, a group of Bachelor of Education third year students will complete a subject, Student Mentoring. In Semester Two, 2000,these students will put the mentoring knowledge and skills gained in Semester One into practice with Bachelor of Education first and second year students. This paper will examine issues related to the ways in which mentoring can assist teachers in the development of a teacher portfolio and how this process can strengthen teacher quality and professional development.

cla00116  Paper

Researching values in the mathematics classroom: Some questions on the 'how to' ?

CLARKSON P - Australian Catholic University
BISHOP A - Monash University
FITZSIMONS G - Monash University
SEAH WT - Monash University

Values are taught in every lesson. However in mathematics classes, the teaching of values seems to be implicit rather than explicit. One challenge in this context is how does a teacher and a researcher recognise the values that the teacher is teaching? One crucial area that has emerged during the progress of the Values and Mathematics Project* is in trying to find a common language for teachers and researchers. What is an appropriate language for the ideas that we as a research team are forming, reforming and refining, which will communicate with our teacher colleagues? In turn the teachers also have difficulties in articulating their ideas. This issue appears to be so new to teachers that they do not have common expressions in their vocabulary which come easily to mind. In this paper we also compare this Australian project with a parallel project colleagues in Taiwan are conducting. A heightened challenge for us that has come from the Taiwan group is to look more closely for the influence of teachers? personal value systems when they are teaching mathematics. We conclude that instead of trying to minimise or ignore the effects of such an influence, we need to find ways to recognise such influences and take seriously how teachers respond to them.

Part A of Symposium 501 clu00501a

Learning the language and learning through language in the first three years: A study of two sisters.
The emergence of language: birth to 18 months.

CLUGSTON L - Macquarie University

In this paper, I will explore the key developments which occur from birth to 18 months. Drawing on longitudinal data from a small child, Abby, the early linguistic system will be traced from its origins in infancy to the development of an invented system where sound is used symbolically to convey meaning in a systemic manner ("protolanguage"). The child uses her early communicative resources to interact with those around her, while at the same time using her language as a vehicle for other types of learning. Videotaped data will be used to illustrate aspects of Abby's development.

coo00492  Paper

Mutual Obligation: The Construction of the Desired Citizen.

COOPER S - University of Newcastle

Australia's current Federal Government has been, for the past several years, reconstructing welfare arrangements for unemployed people. Until last year, these changes, built upon the principle of "mutual obligation" (including the "work for the dole" scheme, and numeracy and literacy training), have been targeted at those under the age of twenty-five.

This paper is an analysis of the rationale given by the various government departments involved, via publicly available media releases, for the implementation of mutual obligation policies, as well as changes which have taken place to and within these policies, for young people in particular. Seven major themes become evident within this official rationale: mutual giving and getting; progressive politics, reform and the economy; the acquisition of work skills ; the development of a work ethic; building of self-esteem and confidence; the transition from adolescence to adulthood; and, the "encouragement" of individual choice, responsibility and independence.

This paper will discuss these themes as embodying the education and training philosophies of a conservative government whose unconcealed interest lies in the de- and re-construction of its own roles and responsibilities, and the production of the desired future Australian citizen.

Part C of Symposium 25
coo00025c  Paper

Youth, work and education: the persistence of meritocracy.

COOPER S - University of Newcastle

As part of the EGSIE-Australia Youth Project, More than 300 students aged between 13 and 17 years completed a questionnaire which gauged their opinions on a broad range of factors relating to current and future issues within school, education and work. Among its findings, this survey shows that Australian young people believe very strongly in the notion of meritocracy, and the importance of educational success as the foundation for success as an adult. A strong theme became evident in the data pertaining to students' opinions about factors affecting educational and work success, with most believing that things such as personal hard work,positive attitudes toward school, and personal ambition were key factors. Simultaneously, students rated factors such as family background, race/ethnicity and social class as significantly less important influences upon educational success. Such findings suggest that students are not only very aware of an ever increasing emphasis upon education and training across various sectors, but also that the locus of control pertaining to education and work success lies within the individual. These opinions strongly mirror the tenets of government policy within the frameworks of education, labour market and welfare provisions, and raise questions about the efficacy of current discourses of educational equity.

Part A of Symposium 29
cor00029a  Paper
Also listed in abstracts book as cor00355

English Curriculum and Citizenship in South Australia from the 1920s to the 1950s

CORMACK P- University of South Australia
GRANT P - University of South Australia

The four decades following WW1 are significant precursors to what is commonly understood as a renaissance from the 1960s on, when English teaching attained new agency with regard to curriculum reform. The 1970s are particulalry regarded as an extended moment of paradigmatic change, ushering in the so-called 'New English' as a distinctive curriculum innovation in English teaching and the practice of schooling. Interestingly, this period of New English or Language Arts teaching in primary schooling in the 1970s re-articulated discourses of child-centredness and developmentalism which were prominent in English teaching in the 1920s. Thus the years from the 1920s to the 1950s represent a fruitful site for examination of how different, often contradictory and intersecting discourses shaping and informing English teaching were sustained, suppressed, rejuvenated and re-articulated in the pre-'New English' period.

This paper outlines the nature and scope of primary and lower secondary English curriculum in South Australia from the 1920s-1950s. It constitutes an exploration, in one local site, of the role of English curriculum and the English teacher in shaping the character of the student and promoting a suitable form of citizenship. It reports on an ongoing study that draws on methodological perspectives and resources of curriculum history as well as historical approaches related to the work of Michel Foucault.

cor00382  Paper

Learning-to-learn Skills for Lifelong Learning: Some Implications for Curriculum Development and Teacher Education

CORNFORD I - University of Technology, Sydney

Lifelong learning continues as a major educational issue in the new millenium on account of ongoing technological and social change and the consequent need to maintain skill and knowledge currency. Numerous articles have appeared which involve analyses of the socio-political reasons for and different policy approaches to lifelong learning. Largely missing are articles which consider the acquisition of effective learning-to-learn skills and strategies which are essential to keep abreast of volumes of new information in an information age and knowledge society.

This paper examines the reasons why learning-to-learn skills and strategies are central to ensuring effective lifelong learning. It considers the possibilities of effective acquisition of learning-to-learn skills in the workplace in the light of emerging research which indicates that the workplace may be a far from satisfactory place for effective learning. The conclusions drawn are that schools will need to be the pre-eminent sites for the specific teaching of effective learning-to-learn skills for reasons of access and equity. The implications of this in terms of curriculum development and teacher education, both pre- and inservice, are explored in this paper.

cra00328

An investigation of nine and twelve year old boys and girls perceptions of their personal, local and global futures.

CRAKER L - University of South Australia

The idea of how young people perceive the future and what they expect for themselves and their communities in the future has been a recurring theme in educational research in Australia and around the world. However, very little qualitative research has been carried out in this area with a focus on primary school aged children.

This study demonstrates the importance and validity of thoughts and ideas regarding the future, present in a younger cohort. Issues of future identities and future expectations taken from the perspectives of nine and twelve year old girls and boys were explored. Views of personal situations, local communities and global communities in fifteen years time were studied in detail and analysed in an attempt to gain insight into expectations younger children may have of their futures. Eight students from a South Australian metropolitan primary school participated in a series of written activities and semi-structured interviews. Subsequently, a qualitative analysis using coded transcripts and observational notations was undertaken.Results from this study revealed some prevalent inconsistencies in the relationships between the children's perceptions of their personal futures and perceptions of their local and global futures.

cre00462  Paper

Revisioning learning - contributions of postmodernism, constructivism and neurological research

CREBBIN W - University of Ballarat

Critical Postmodernism challenges modernist notions of knowledge as objective reality and Constructivism is a learning theory which attempts to explain how learners make meaning through language and other sources of information. In this paper I will provide a brief overview of how I have drawn on these theories and linked them with recent findings from research in neurological studies of consciousness and emotion, in an attempt to describe new ways of understanding the processes of learning and to suggest some implications for teaching.

My motivation for this research is to try to develop an understanding of how learning occurs and, more importantly, why it is that so much of what students "learn" is not constructed in ways which enable that learning to be meaningfully used.

cro00199  Paper

"Education and Corporate Philanthropy: Handshakes or Handouts?"

CRONIN C - University of Sydney

In 1995 Australia and the United States made ,in theory, commitments to connect their schools and classrooms to the Internet by the year 2000. Over the next few years, each country used methods of private-public sector collaboration to enact this educational goal. To explore this policy and process scenario, case studies in each country were examined through the lens of NetDay. NetDay is an American-based strategy that incorporates community voluntarism, corporate philanthropy and existing education policy structures to connect classrooms and schools to the Internet. NetDay, among other things, is a combination of corporate, political, community, and media sector efforts combined with technology-driven rhetoric about what is demanded from education at the turn of the millennium. The case studies showed from a comparative perspective that schools using private-public sector collaboration to fund school expenditures need various pillars of support. These supports can include a strong personal and professional philanthropic community, an established or emerging concern about social capital, or a commitment to self-funded models of educational institutions. The research suggests that schools should develop a systemic policy on private-public sector collaboration that reflects its educational goals, managerial ethos and community values. This sense of mission may promote more successful and long-term partnerships. Likewise, larger systems (be they states or districts) may need to create an environment where schools are allowed the capacity to build these relationships not merely induced to change through mandates.

cro00403  Paper

Research in Construction: the Key Competencies and the emergence of knowledge work

CROWLEY S - University of Technology, Sydney
HAGER S - University of Technology, Sydney
GARRICK J - University of Technology, Sydney

This paper arises from an ARC funded project focussing on the role of generic competencies in relation to workplace reform in the Australian Building and Construction Industry. As a SPIRT (Strategic Partnership with Industry ˆ Research & Training) project, the principal industry partner is the Department of Public Works and Services (DPWS). Other partners include some of the larger New South Wales building and construction companies.

The construction industry in New South wales has been undergoing significant change and the strategic vision for the industry developed by the New South Wales Government promotes ongoing development through continuous improvement.

This research project undertaken in three phases, analyses the workplace reforms centred on occupational health, safety and rehabilitation and environmental practices. One of the outcomes of the project is to examine the knowledge gained about how generic competencies in the construction industry are linked with these workplace reforms.

The research has identified the generic competencies of communicating ideas and information, planning and organising, teamwork and collecting, analysing and organising information as being integral to the emergence of "Knowledge workers" in the industry.

Part A of Symposium 22
cro00022a

'Over' the Rainbow - Cultural Space, Queer Theory and Pedagogies
Interrupting 'new' masculinities: Female Masculinity Troubling Identities.

CROWLEY V - University of South Australia

Throughout the western world, South America, Asia and the Antipodes Drag Kings have emerged as a site and practice of political intervention. Drag Queens have been an iconic and emblematic element of gayness that has in part filtered into the issue of masculinities and the field of 'new masculinites'. 'Female masculinity' has yet to be seriously considered in debates about sexualities, identities, gender and questions of the body beyond the binary male/female where masculinity is the sole province of the male body and femininity the sole province of the female body. This paper will trace Judith Halberstam's recent theorisation of 'female masculinity' and explore questions that it and Drag King performance raise for theorising the body and knowing gender.

cul00065  Paper

Anticipating the Future? Case studies in the Inner Lives of Children

CULLINGFORD C - University of Huddersfield

The early cultural experiences of children have long been recognised in psychiatry and more recently in education as all important ,but this has rarely been acted upon. Traditional curricula and structures continue to be imposed without listening to the voices of the recipients. What would happen if we did hear what they say? What can they reveal that has any value?

This research, which stems from studies like The Human Experience: The Early years, and The Causes of Exclusion, explores several case studies which reveal some of the major patterns of conceptual development. Attitudes towards the home and school and towards siblings and peer groups are analysed, together with young people's subconscious conceptions of themselves. The question asked, both in methodological and epistemological terms, is how much can we learn about the future of these young people still, ostensibly , in their formative years and how much can we predict from what they reveal inadvertently.

cun00359  Paper

Teacher Education - Meeting the Challenges of the Future

CUNNINGHAM D - Board of Teacher Education, Qld
HALL G - Board of Teacher Education, Qld

Recent changes in society and in education raise numerous implications for the education of teachers. Acknowledging this, the Board of Teacher Registration Queensland has embarked on a major study in which it is taking a "fresh look" at teacher education and professional development In the study, the Board will review its mechanisms for influencing teacher education and development at various points, including its guidelines for preservice programs and its program approval processes, its requirements for moving from provisional to full registration, and its requirements for ongoing registration.

As a basis for the study, the Board has undertaken an analysis of recent reports, surveys and curriculum initiatives (mainly from Queensland) which incorporate explicit and implicit demands of teaching and teachers, and therefore of teacher education. This has helped to identify emerging areas where teachers' knowledge and skills may need development The Board will consult widely with Queensland bodies and groups with an interest in teacher education. It is expected that proposals for consultation will be developed by the end of 2000.

The paper will describe this work-in-progress. Audience participation will be invited in the identification of issues and potential new models for professional learning and development across the careers of teachers.

cur00294  Paper

The potential of Action Research in the sustainable Management of Change

CURRIE J - Faculty of Education, University of Sydney

This paper will examine the application of Action Research as a method and a process in the sustainable management of change. It will highlight the use of Action Research in the development of organisational learning and change within five NSW schools and will assess its impact in contributing to the continued viability and evolution of the change.

The inability of top-down prescriptive change to ensure that organisational outcomes (such as improved student learning) are achieved and sustained highlights the difficulty of change in hierarchical and scientifically managed organisations. The pace of economic, technological, social and policy change is indicative of the challenge facing organisations and their managers in accurately interpreting their external environment and instituting a coordinated organisational response.

Action Research provides a participative process and technology to allow for the identification of significant change issues, and the development of collaborative responses. The Action Research cycle creates a vehicle for organisational and professional learning through the creation, diffusion and dissemination of explicit change knowledge. This knowledge becomes the basis for embedding existing change, or further evolutionary change, and the reconceptualisation of tacit organisational and professional practices. The technology of Action Research allows a managerial and cultural opportunity for change to be created, interpreted and sustained through participative action and reflection.

cur00137  Paper

Competition Policy and the Future of Higher Education Institutions in Australia

CURTIS D - Flinders University

Various changes in government policy over the past 15 years have led to what is perceived to be a funding crisis in higher education. A broad analysis of public policy suggests that higher education is in a state of continuing change on many fronts. National Competition Policy has not been as fully implemented in higher education as it has in the VET sector or in other portfolio areas. The opportunity to press this policy further in the sector is apparent. Should this occur, institutions will be under much greater pressure than they are now. Competition among existing Australian universities has grown and there is scope for this to increase. The use of communication and information technologies (CIT) will facilitate greater competition within Australia from overseas providers and will lead to increased competition from new entrants to higher education, including media and publishing companies.

This paper reports on a study of the influence of policy changes, particularly National Competition Policy, on higher education and on consequences of those changes. It examines issues such as diversity within the sector, the use of CIT, and academic work. It presents an analysis of case studies of three profit-driven higher education providers in the United States against the policy framework outlined above. It suggests that these cases serve as a possible model for some Australian higher education providers in an increasingly diverse sector.

cur00138  Paper

teaching RE - what does it mean today?

CURTIS N - University of South Australia

This paper focuses on one component of a larger study investigating teachers' attitudes to teaching classroom religious education programs in Catholic Secondary Schools in South Australia. The paper will report on a survey of Religious Education Co-ordinators which sets out to ascertain their views on the factors that influence the delivery of classroom religious education. The paper will discuss the perceived purposes of religious education programs; current practices; what Religious Education Co-ordinators regard as effective practices, including the role of assessment; and what organisational factors enhance the religious education programs and what factors may detract from it.

Symposium 45 Part A | B | C | D | E | F | G
cut00045

Successful integration of learning technologies in school classrooms (SILT) - Symposium Overview

CUTTANCE P - University of Sydney

This symposium will report on the above integrated research program currently funded by a consortium comprising ARC/Victorian DEET/Lucent technologies/IBM.

Aims of the Project The aims of the project are to: (r) work with individual teachers in developing an understanding of effective practice in the integration of learning technologies in Science and SOSE school learning environments; (r) develop strategies to measure and evaluate the impact of different learning technologies configurations, particularly combinations of classroom-based computers and computer laboratories;(r) develop approaches to measuring the role of learning technologies in improving cognitive learning outcomes (CSF and LT skills and knowledge) and non-cognitive learning outcomes (learning skills, affective outcomes and social competencies); and (r) assess the professional development needs of teachers and evaluation of the effectiveness of different strategies of professional development in the area of learning technologies and their impact on teacher learning and practice.

The Work of the Project The project is focusing on the enhancement of teaching and learning in science and SOSE in Years 5-8 in 29 Victorian government schools. Because of the diversity of the contexts and programs in the participating schools the project team have developed an approach that focuses at the individual teacher level, at the individual school level and across schools. A range of methodologies is being employed in different parts of the project - from socio-cultural qualitative methods and network analysis to quantitative evaluations and statistical modelling of data. At the teacher level the project consists of a number of themes that integrate the specific ways in which participating schools are integrating learning technologies into their teaching and learning. Seven themes were identified by individual schools in their planning and approach to the integration of learning technologies in Science and SOSE.

The school-level research focuses on activities and issues that relate to whole-school improvement and the implementation of learning technologies in schools.

Across schools, the focus is on the evaluation of the impact of learning technologies on learning outcomes. This part of the project is assessing whether the differences in the way that learning technologies are arranged in classrooms, labs and over networks and integrated into teaching and learning is related to differences in learning outcomes for students.

Themematic foci of the Research. The researchers are working with each school to analyse the strategies used to integrate learning technologies in the following thematic areas. (r) Teacher and student use of on-line and other ICT resources. (r) Student cognitive learning strategies in technology enhanced classrooms

Part E of Symposium 45 cut00045e

Successful integration of learning technologies in school classrooms (SILT)
Assessing the impact of enhanced learning environments on student learning.

CUTTANCE P - University of Sydney
CHAPMAN E University of Sydney

The research team is working with schools across the project to develop strategies for assessing the impact of learning technologies on both cognitive and non-cognitive learning outcomes. The cognitive outcomes focus on curriculum&emdash;based outcomes against the Victorian Curriculum and Standards Framework, higher&emdash;order cognitive skills, and ICT skills and knowledge. Non-cognitive outcomes include affective development (self-esteem, attitudes to learning, etc), learning skills (meta-cognitive learning skills, etc), and social competencies (development of team&emdash;based skills, collaboration, etc).

Symposium 16: Part A | B | C | D | E
dev00016

Research Methodologies in the Creative Arts

POSTON-ANDERSON B - University of Technology, Sydney

The aim of this symposium is to explore research methodologies in the creative arts. Five academics who work in this area present insight into their research which spans the fields of literature, music, theatre, and visual arts. These presentations have as their goal raising the profile of arts-based research in the academy and provoking discussion about what it means to be a creative arts researcher within an academic environment.

Part A of Symposium 16
dev00016a  Paper

Using Autobiography in Arts Education.

DE VRIES P - University of Technology, Sydney

The proposed paper will describe how I used autobiography to examine my lived experience as a primary school music teacher. The primary data source for the study was my autobiographical novel. A methodology based around phenomenology and autobiography was used resulting in a research design consisting of 1) writing autobiographical narrative; 2) analysing the narrative; 3) reflecting on these themes, and more specifically the "reality" of events; 4) interviewing characters from the narrative to reflect on the themes that emerged from the autobiographical narrative; and 5) documenting the research literature on each theme to gain a greater insight into the contributions which my experiences can make to this body of literature.

dev00496  Paper

Productive learning or technologies of government: a Foucauldian reading of the politics of professional development

DEVOS A - University of New South Wales

In this paper I propose to use the conceptual tools provided through Foucault's later work on governmentality to examine the role of professional development in higher education. As Foucauldian scholars have observed, governmentality refers to much more than just the 'state'. It refers: "to all endeavours to shape, guide, direct the conduct of others, whether these be the crew of a ship, the members of a household, the employees of a boss, the children of a family or the inhabitants of a territory. And it also embraces the ways in which one might be urged and educated to bridle one's own passions, to control one's own instincts, to govern oneself." (Rose, 1999:3)

I will undertake an analysis of the ways in which professional development governs staff of the university, the ways in which it involves subjects 'educating themselves into accepting, valuing and working to achieve the congruence of personal and organisational objectives'. The site for this examination is WomenResearch 21, a staff development program designed to help women academics at the beginning of their academic careers develop their research confidence, effectiveness and productivity. The 'subjects of government' in this case are the women participants in the program.

The purpose of this enquiry is threefold: to investigate the usefulness of a Foucauldian perspective on the politics of professional development; to provide me as the manager of the project with an analytic distance from which to conduct a form of evaluation which places the institution, its values and my own practices, under question; and finally to explore the concept of agency in a Foucauldian analysis of the constitution of subjects.

dev00497  Paper

A thousand flowers bloom': women, research and the(ongoing) struggle for systemic change.

DEVOS A - University of New South Wales
MCLEAN J - University of New South Wales

In June 2000, UNSW-like her sister universities around Australia-was required to lodge a Research and Research Training Management Plan with DETYA. This Plan was required in the context of the changed research funding arrangements set out in the 1999 White Paper on Research. This year also saw the first year of implementation at UNSW of a new program called WomenResearch 21. Funded through a CUTSD grant for a period of two years, the program is designed for women in the beginning or early stages of their academic research careers. Its aims are twofold: firstly to

improve the research confidence, effectiveness and productivity of these women researchers; and secondly, to seek changes to insitutional policies and practices around research. In this paper, we will document the background, design and early implementation of WomenResearch 21, in the context of the institutional research policy environment. We will report on the experiences so far of

the women participants, and offer an account of institutional responses to the program. We will further describe and assess the interventions we have made in the development of the University's research and research management plan. The paper will conclude with an analysis of the policy and implementation issues associated with an affirmative action program of this type, within the current framework for research in the University.

Part B of Symposium 36
dic00036b

The impact of national benchmarks on visions of learning A collaborative process for setting cut-scores in reading and writing - a participant's perspective

DICK W - Australian Council for Educational Research

Collaborative agreement across Australia has been sought in the setting of cut-scores for reading, writing and spelling, to apply to system and state tests. In the past 18 months educators from all states and territories have worked together to establish these cut-scores. The paper will include a description of the processes adopted, how the operation has worked, and what some of its outcomes have been.

dic00164  Paper

TAFE Child Care Graduates Begin a University teaching Degree

DICKSON J - Macquarie University

This paper presents a study which investigated, described and analysed the variables that impacted on the the first year experience of a group of TAFE Child Care graduates who enrolled in a Bachelor of Education ( Early Childhood). The group of students studied in this research represent but a small proportion of the rapidly growing cross sectoral movement of students between TAFE and other private providers and Australian universities. A number of academic and personal themes which appeared central to the first year transition of TAFE graduates were identified.By focussing on the student experience the research demonstrates that there are issues confronting transfer students which had not been previously researched and published.

Part A of Symposium 32
din00032a

Patterns of Discontent: International Perspectives on Teacher Satisfaction
Teachers' Work and the Growing Influence of Societal Expectations and Pressures

DINHAM S - University of Western Sydney, Nepean

To outline the contexts, features and trends of contemporary educational environments and educational change. + To describe an international study designed to provide comparative data drawn from utilisation of an instrument designed to measure teacher and school executive career satisfaction, motivation and mental health utilised in England, New Zealand, the USA and Australia. + To identify and quantify the sources and relative strength of factors contributing to teacher satisfaction/dissatisfaction in the countries under study. To distinguish general patterns and trends in teacher and school executive satisfaction, motivation and health from contextual factors in each of the four countries, and to account for these differences. + To present a 'three domain' model of teacher career satisfaction developed from the Australian, England, New Zealand and USA data, which highlights the variable importance and influence of societal based factors and forces.

(b) Perspectives/methods Previous studies of teacher (and job) satisfaction and dissatisfaction have tended to confirm that the factors giving rise to each are largely mutually exclusive, 'core business' or the job itself giving rise to satisfaction, while the 'conditions of work' tend to give rise to sources of job dissatisfaction, a phenomenon originally noted by Herzberg et al (1959), Sergiovanni (1967) and others. + The initial Australian study under the banner of the Teacher 2000 Project sought to test and quantify previous findings and relationships in this area. It found that there are in fact three broad domains of teacher satisfaction:

+ the 'core business' of teaching (centred on student achievement, teacher efficacy and personal and professional self-growth) which respondents found highly satisfying, + extrinsic aspects of teaching (such as the status of teachers, educational change and social expectations on schools), which respondents found uniformly dissatisfying, and

+ A central domain of satisfaction factors (conditions of work) which were either neutral or moderately satisfying/dissatisfying (such as school leadership and decision making factors, community relations, school communication) and which showed most variance from school to school and with leadership being a key factor.

When the Teacher 2000 Project was replicated in New Zealand, England and the USA, it was found that the extrinsic or societal factors which are largely outside the control of teachers and schools vary in their intensity and therefore their influence within national, state and system contexts,

with the amount and nature of educational change and restructuring, media and public criticism of teachers and schools and the status of teachers being critical factors in the dissatisfaction teachers feel with their occupation. Further, it was found that the more turbulent, difficult and

demanding this 'third domain', the more teachers' satisfaction with both their conditions of work and what they see as their 'core business' will be eroded.

(c) Data source
The research reported here was conducted in four countries - in Australia, New Zealand, England and the USA - and employed a sample of over 2,600 teachers and school executive at over 360 primary and secondary schools.

(d) Conclusion Implementation of the Teacher 2000 Report has highlighted the crucial and growing importance and influence of the 'third domain' factors which are largely outside the control of teachers and schools, and which have growing yet variable influence upon teachers and school executives' satisfaction with aspects of their roles.

Knowing the nature, features and intensity of different educational contexts is thus of great potential value in understanding how teachers and school executive regard their world of work and in predicting how successful or deleterious proposed educational change is likely to be.

Symposium 452 Part A | B |C |D |E | F
din00452

Building in Quality: What Works? What Doesn't? - - Symposium Overview

DINHAM S - University of Western Sydney, Nepean

Public interest in education in many countries has been intensifying for several decades. If there ever was an 'ivory tower' of education, it has well and truly crumbled in recent times as various pressure groups and stakeholders have attempted to shape what happens in schools, particularly state schools. Like all change, educational change has brought with it intended and unintended consequences. Some of the new expectations and responsibilities placed on schools and some of the changes wrought have been reasonable and even overdue, while others have been intrusive and potentially damaging.

A major justification for the above intrusions has been the desire to improve the 'quality' of education and its outcomes. The motivations for this have been complex but have included the perception that education is in 'crisis', a perception some regard as 'manufactured' for political ends (Berliner and Biddle, ), and the belief that restructuring/reforming education offers means for making nations 'more competitive'.

Means for achieving the desired outcome of quality improvement have included both 'carrots' and 'sticks', that is incentives and punishments. The proposed symposium aims to explore the linked issues of the various attempts to improve quality, their success/failure, the effects of practitioners of these attempts, and goes on to explore some measures which have been demonstrated to truly improve the quality of teaching and learning.

Part E of Symposium 452
din00452e

The Role of the Faculty in Quality teaching

DINHAM S - University of Western Sydney, Nepean

This paper presents the findings of a study into successful teaching at the New South Wales Higher School Certificate. Teachers were identified using confidential Board of Studies data and were observed teaching and interviewed. One of the key factors found to contribute to individual teacher success was the subject faculty or department.

This paper examines the role of the faculty in facilitating student and teacher success and provides some implications and direction for those interested in creating and sustaining effective faculty climate and practices to support quality teaching.

Symposium 5: part A | B | C
doc00005

teaching in early childhood - Symposium Overview.

DOCKETT S - University of Western Sydney, Macarthur

Early childhood teacher education has faced a number of challenges over the years. These relate not only to initial teacher education programs, but also to continuing professional development opportunities. The research presented in this symposium relates to both of these areas, but specifically considers issues of practice and the ways in which these reflect, challenge or contrast with related research.

Part A of Symposium 8

doc00008a

Children talking about national identity.

DOCKETT S - University of Western Sydney, Macarthur

In the current social and political context, conflicting messages about national identity abound. On the one hand, Australians are reminded of the great diversity of our multicultural population, and the importance of tolerance and acceptance of difference, as we aim to be a player on the world stage and in the global economy. On the other hand, there are messages about the importance of being Australian, often accompanied by images of the outback, rural landscapes and unique flora and fauna. How do young chidlren respond to these messages? How do they perceive Australia and Australians?

This paper reports the responses of a group of children (n=28) aged 5-8 years to these questions. These chidlren attended a suburban Sydney school which was located in, and supported by, a strong multicultural community. Data were collected using a series of focus group interviews. Themes of responses are considered in terms of young chdilren's awareness of the social and political context in which they live.

Part A of Symposium 43
doc00043a

Starting school: What does the research say?

DOCKETT S - University of Western Sydney, Macarthur
PERRY B - University of Western Sydney, Macarthur

Since 1997, the Starting School Research Project at UWS Macarthur has been investigating what parents, children and educators regard as important in children's transition to school. In this paper, the results of this and other Australian and overseas research are distilled into a set of guidelines which will set the foundations for successful transition programs in a number of contexts. The paper outlines the methods employed in the various research projects and their results and synthesises these into an overview of research into children's transition to school.

dor00323  Paper

Psychodrama in Teacher Education

DORRA N - University of Sydney

Being tuned psychodramatically in a classroom context can be understood as having the ability to act empathetically on both emotional and cognitive terms. This paper reports on a research project in psychodrama currently underway in the M-teach program in Sydney University.

The process was designed in two parts for a group of students undertaking options in psychodrama as part of their course:
1. Practicing the basic tools of psychodrama.
2. Using psychodramatic methods in simulations of classroom conflict.

As a result of the experience, students reported significant improvement in reflecting and performing the variety of roles needed as a teacher. The workshops combine group and individual activities and emphasise Psychodramatic tools including Role reversal, Soliloquy, Double and Encounter. The students reported that the acquisition and application of Psychodramatic tools directly to the classroom context added a new dimension to teaching. Students in the research groups reported a bonding and deep interpersonal contacts created through action within the group, a reduction in anxiety toward their first practice teaching experience and a potential for a better teacher pupil rapport. In addition they anticipated they would teach more imaginatively.

Dexterity in the use of empathy in action in resolving conflict can widen the boundaries in teacher student relationships, bring both to a better understanding of their motivations and of spontaneous reactions and create alternatives of action and new insights.

Part C of Symposium 41
dow00041c

The practice(s) of choice: primary school parents, secondary schools and policy agendas Edspeak, hot knowledge and crossed fingers: tales of parent choice-making.

DOW A - Blackwood High School

We report on conversations with six groups of parents from western suburbs primary schools. We tell how mothers and fathers of varying cultures and ethnicities represented the processes of school choice and what issues they highlighted as significant in the practice(s) of choosing. We compare this firstly with the literature, and secondly with the information presented by schools.

We show how particular kinds of school information are valued by some parents, and the apparent importance in the practice(s) of choice of other issues such as local 'hot knowledge', 'test results', image, transport and family history. We go on to consider the implications for our further research.

Symposium 17 Part A | B | C
dun00017

THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS: MENTORING FOR EFFECTIVE EDUCATIONAL FUTURES - Symposium Overview .

DUNKIN M - University of Western sydney, Nepean

Mentoring as a learning strategy has its roots firmly in the history of humanity. As early humans bonded together for survival, the knowledge and skills of one generation were passed onto the next, as those with special talents and experience shared the wealth of their knowledge with those future generations who were to carry on the flame of human wisdom, knowledge and culture.

In today's organisations there is increasing recognition that facilitation and support of a mentoring process is an effective strategy that can significantly benefit individuals by affording them an opportunity to grow, develop and share their professional and personal skills and experiences (Karpin,1995; NSW Department of Education and Training, 2000). Mentoring is based upon encouragement, openness, mutual trust, respect and a willingness to learn and share.

This symposium explores the theme of mentoring through a subject currently being delivered to second and third year preservice educators at the University of Western Sydney. Papers in this symposia will focus upon the role of mentoring in the development of a teacher portfolio; the psycho- social functions of mentoring through the use of music in the enhancement of interpersonal skills and the role and strategies of mentoring in nurturing self-reflection and metacognitive skills.

Part A of Symposium 20
dur00020a

I'm not a white middle-class male.

DURIE J - University of Western Sydney, Macarthur

This paper will discuss my research into white subjectivities, in particular the intersections of whiteness with other subject positionings of class, race, gender and location, recognising the impossibility of a single white embodiment. In examining white subjectivities, the paper will focus on the normalcy and invisibility of whiteness to many of us who are 'white', exposing and complicating 'being white' as a subject position. That is, the paper will simultaneously work to expose whiteness and its privileges as it problematises any easy categorising of whiteness. The site of my research is Western Sydney and my discussion draws on interview material with participants living and working in Western Sydney and also my teaching at UWS in the area of cultural difference. The paper will particularly draw on my experiences of teaching about whiteness in the classroom to explore some of the implications of speaking about whiteness with 'white' people.

edw00401  Paper

Teachers doing what they're told?: the fate of centrally mandated change.

EDWARDS B - Latrobe University

In this paper I will be reporting the findings of a twenty month study by an insider researcher of a case study secondary school. The focus of the research is the response teachers make to centrally mandated curriculum change, in this case the Curriculum and Standards Framework in Victoria. A model which might be explanatory of teacher responses to such mandated changes will be presented which employs Bourdieu's concept of habitus, Ball and Bowe's school responses as teachers' prior stances and Michel de Certeau's tactics. The study seeks to amplify the ways in which centrally determined and mandated policy is mediated by the teachers who operate within local contexts which are informed and shaped by wider historical, current and personal contexts.

The teachers are shown to have choices which might be represented by forms of agency described as self-bounded, other-bounded and authentic. Responses which display authentic agency will be deeply heuristic, hold ethical obligations paramount and value theoretical pragmatism.

edw00449  Paper

EDWARDS J - University of South Australia

The paper draws from a PhD thesis that examines young women's subjectivities as constructed through government youth policy. Using feminist poststructural policy analysis, the Youth Allowance policy and associated texts and discourses are being examined to understand how young women as youths (subject to and of policy), construct subjectivities in response to government policy. This paper will focus on the question 'What is the impact on young women's' lives of being held 'captive' in the gendered discursive field of youth?' It will draw on answers to the following questions.

• How has the policy definition of youth been expanded in response to the current economic and political context?
• How does recent youth policy work at constructing gendered individuals?
• How do young women as youth respond to government policy?

joh00330  Paper

An investigation of upper primary students' understanding and use of anti-bullying strategies.

EDWARDS R - - University of South Australia
JOHNSON B - University of South Australia

Research into the nature of bullying has led to the development of anti-bullying programs in schools adopting a 'whole school approach' or a 'shared approach' between schools, students and communities (Rigby, 1996; Slee & Rigby, 1994). While schools are seen as ideal sites for the delivery of anti-bullying programs, little research has been undertaken into students' actual use of the anti-bullying strategies they have been taught.

A qualitative study of twelve students was undertaken to investigate four questions:

1. What do students know about anti-bullying strategies?
2. Do they use the anti-bullying strategies they have been taught?
3. Do they use any other strategies? And, if so,
4. What factors influence their choice of strategies?

Results indicate that students were more likely to use their own anti-bullying strategies rather than use those taught by the school. This suggests that school programs to counter bullying may lack authenticity and relevance. The implications for greater student participation in program design are discussed in the paper.

ems00149  Paper

'Context', A Model For Action Around Issues Affecting Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Teachers and Students

EMSLIE M - Royal Melbourne institute of Technology
CROWHURST M - University of Melbourne

'Context' is a non-profit community group for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender (GLBT) teachers and youth workers which has been meeting in Melbourne, Victoria since 1996. The aim of 'Context' is to contribute to the work of improving the experiences of GLBT teachers, youth workers and young people in youth sector settings. This session will report on the work of 'Context'. The activities to be discussed include: a report on research work in progress. 'Context' is currently investigating contemporary workplace experiences of GLBT teachers and youth workers. Current GLBT teachers and youth work practitioners are submitting their stories for an edited collection. The book of stories aims to identify factors which constrain work practice and the strategies GLBT teachers and youth workers employ to address issues they encounter in the workplace. We will present some of the initial results from the research to date * a presentation on projects 'Context' has implemented to address particular issues experienced by GLBT people in youth sector settings. We will report on a conference 'Context' hosted during 1998 (please see: Crowhurst, M. & M. Emslie (compilers) 'Young People and Sexualities: Experiences, Perspectives and Service Provision: Papers from a Community Conference Exploring Issues Affecting Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Young People', Youth Research Centre, University of Melbourne, Melbourne). We will also discuss strategies 'Context' has utilised to improve collaborative links between schools and youth services for the benefit of GLBT people in youth sector settings.

fie00086  Paper

The Teacher and Student Diversity: The One Size Fits All Approach

FIELDS B - University of Southern Queensland

Student diversity and the challenges it presents to teachers now ranks alongside discipline as one of the major professional concerns of teachers. In this paper the issue of student diversity as it relates to the difficulties and challenges it poses to the design and delivery of instruction will be explored. The paper looks at the educational movements which advocate the benefits of diversity in both a broad social sense, and specifically in reference to its impact on the education system and teachers in particular.

Throughout the discussion 'student diversity' will be used to refer to both the personological characteristics which contribute to individual uniqueness and to the myriad of social and cultural differences which exist in the community at large and which are also reflected in the school community. The paper will conclude with a discussion of the impediments which exist to inhibit the capacity of teachers to respond appropriately and effectively to student diversity and diverse student needs.

Symposium 28 PartA
fit00028

After Hegemonic masculinity; Continuing the struggle to promote gender alliance through education - Symposium Overview

FITZCLARENCE L - Deakin University
HICKEY C - Deakin University

Over the last two decades educational research and practice have made significant advances in promoting more equitable gender relations. Tangible out comes of this work includes a variety of important policy initiatives and an accompanying challenge to common sense sayings and understandings (such as 'boys will be boys') and the developments of a more sophisticated and elaborated lexicon of concepts and educational ideas. One aspect of this work has been the focus on masculinity making and educational practice. Recently a new form of conservative cultural politics has entered the gender and education space. Groups with a vested interest in gender separation and segregation have argued that masculinity making is intrinsically and rightly 'men's business'. Bob Connell, has observed that; The burst of publicity has brought back obsolete ideas about natura difference and true masculinity. It has provided cover for a neo-conservative campaign to roll back the rather limited advances against discrimination made by women and by gay men in the last two decades (Masculinities, iv)

This symposium has been designed around the need to challenge the momentum of regressive gender politics. The papers are designed to outline recent work within education that has attempted to continue the progressive work that provided important relational concepts, such as hegemonic masculinity. Here there is shared recognition that in these 'dangerous new times' there is an urgent need to remake and advance concepts and language, including hegemonic masculinity, in order to adequately confront the contemporary challenges and to advance a new form of gender alliance.

Symposium 37 Part A | B | C | D
fie00037

Local curriculum partnerships in the time of international curriculum developments: Stories from South Australia, Essential Learnings in the time of diversity and difference

FITZCLARENCE L - University of South Australia

The increasingly global movement to renovate and coordinate curriculum has generated both opportunities and challenges. One of the challenges has been to find a mechanism to unify curriculum practice across the borders of nation- states. Thus different frameworks have produced overarching bodies of knowledge that have been identified as the generic skills and dispositions required by 'citizens' in a global environment. Within the South Australian Curriculum, Standards and Accountability Framework (SACSA) these are called the Essential Learnings, described as; understandings, dispositions and capabilities which are developed throughout a person's education and beyond, and which can be drawn upon as individual and groups live together and interact in Australian and global societies. The five essential learnings are Identity, Thinking, Interdependence, Futures and Communication. The Essential Learnings are more than a set of basic skills or key competencies. They are in themselves rich and deep ways of knowing, being and doing. The SACSA writing team have interpreted this description of the essential learnings as the warrant to design a matrix that promotes skills and capacities needed by young people to make their way in an increasingly complex and differentiated world. An elaboration of this interpretation is the focus of this part of the presentation. Here 'essential learnings' will be described as discrete areas of knowledge designed to help people make their way in the world during and after formal education and a mechanism designed to connect the eight discrete learning areas.

Part A of Symposium 28

Learning to walk the thin line of being masculine; towards new concepts in the study of masculinity, sport and education

FITZCLARENCE L - University of South Australia
HICKEY C - Deakin University

Sport and physical education, as arenas of gender making, have been a focus of a great deal of scholarship by many different researchers during the last two decades. The concept of hegemonic masculinity has been important in many of these studies. Our work in football as a significant cultural site of gendermaking practices has benefited from the availability of this concept. At the same time we have come to recognise the need for an extension and refinement of this meta category as we have explored the thin line that exists between pleasure and pain, collectivity and individualism, selfishness and selflessness, and, care of self and others and general carelessness.

In this presentation we will argue that it is important to better understand these distinctions, and in the process to generate a new language of sporting and seducational practice. Such developments will allow us to be better positione in working with the large numbers of young males who continue to be attracte to sporting participation. This will require going beyond the suggestion that sport and physical activity are social practices are intrinsically and inevitably implicated in the development of dominant and dominating forms of masculinity. The presentation will draw on work conducted in the varied aspects of a project

Part D of Symposium 37
fle00037d

Local curriculum partnerships in the time of international curriculum developments: Stories from South Australia, Essential Learnings in the time of diversity and difference

FITZCLARENCE L - University of South Australia

The increasingly global movement to renovate and coordinate curriculum has generated both opportunities and challenges. One of the challenges has been to find a mechanism to unify curriculum practice across the borders of nation- states. Thus different frameworks have produced overarching bodies of knowledge that have been identified as the generic skills and dispositions required by 'citizens' in a global environment. Within the South Australian Curriculum, Standards and Accountability Framework (SACSA) these are called the Essential Learnings, described as; understandings, dispositions and capabilities which are developed throughout a person's education and beyond, and which can be drawn upon as individual and groups live together and interact in Australian and global societies. The five essential learnings are Identity, Thinking, Interdependence, Futures and Communication. The Essential Learnings are more than a set of basic skills or key competencies. They are in themselves rich and deep ways of knowing, being and doing.

The SACSA writing team have interpreted this description of the essential learnings as the warrant to design a matrix that promotes skills and capacities needed by young people to make their way in an increasingly complex and differentiated world. An elaboration of this interpretation is the focus of this part of the presentation. Here 'essential learnings' will be described as discrete areas of knowledge designed to help people make their way in the world during and after formal education and a mechanism designed to connect the eight discrete learning areas.

Part D of Symposium 43
fle00043d

Transition to school: Authentic, inclusive and reciprocal communication.

FLEET A - Macquarie university PATTERSON C
GARRETT D

This portion of the session presents data collected from a range of school and before-school settings that contribute to our understanding of communication in the transition to school process. Voices of children, parents and teachers provide multiple perspectives to illuminate existing subtleties and challenges, frustrations and possibilities.

Considering the exercise of children and families moving into school communities as a challenge in communication may at first seem banal or simplistic. The research, however, helps ground our thinking about what 'communicating' means in the transition to school process and how meaning making might be enhanced amongst all participants.

This presentation will raise issues related to the use of inclusive and reciprocal written and oral communication. It will also examine the importance of designing environments to facilitate interactions. Analysis of the data suggests that the processes involved in beginning school would be enhanced by problematising accepted ways of managing the transition.

fli00054  Paper

Culture Club. An Investigation of Organisational Culture.

FLINT N - University of South Australia

This paper will be of interest to those seeking to increase their understanding of the organisation to which they belong or would like to belong. Organisational culture has an important function and is an important function as it is both product and process, it is both effect and cause. Culture facilitates organisational processes of co-ordination and control and can be an important source of motivation for members. It is usually regarded as an asset because it has an important role in fostering social cohesion and reducing uncertainty, particularly for people new to a group. Some authors have argued that an organisation‚s culture can also be a problem as the anxiety reducing function of culture tends to result in resistance toward change and new influences. An investigation of tertiary students‚ perceptions of the fairness of educational assessment through an ecological framework has prompted an ethnomethodological study of the cultures of the courses in which the students are enrolled.

This paper presents a theoretical overview of organisational culture; what it is, how it begins, develops and is maintained. It also considers the qualitative methods used by researchers in studying the culture of an organisation.

for00168  Paper

The gender-stereotyping of mathematics : Pre-service teachers' views

FORGASZ H - School of Scientific and Developmental Studies

In the past, mathematics was strongly believed to be a 'male domain'. This belief, researchers postulated, contributed to females' decisions not to pursue studies in non-compulsory and/or challenging mathematics courses to the same extent as males. One of the subscales of the Fennema-Sherman Mathematics attitude scales has been widely used to tap beliefs about the stereotyping of mathematics as a male domain. Having argued that many of the items on the scale were anachronistic and others no longer valid (Forgasz, Leder & Gardner, 1999), two new instruments were developed and trialed. Findings from the administration of the instruments to Australian grade 7-10 students have been reported (Forgasz, Leder and Kaur, 1999; Leder & Forgasz, 2000).

The data indicated that students now consider boys more likely than girls to find mathematics difficult, and to need additional help. Girls were considered more likely than boys to enjoy mathematics and find mathematics interesting. Findings such as these challenge notions of mathematics as a masculine endeavour. The same instruments were recently administered to primary and secondary pre-service teachers of mathematics. The results are reported in this paper and comparisons made with the findings from the students.

fos00305  Paper

Leadership for Learning

FOSTER M - S.A. Dept. Of Education, training and Employment
LE CORNU R - University of South Australia
JOHNSON B - University of South Australia
PETERS J - University of South Australia

Learning to Learn is a South Australian project funded by the Department of Education Training and Employment. Its focus is on whole school reform through the redesign of learning experiences for the whole school community. School leaders in the Learning to Learn Project attend regular "Learning Circles" with the Project Manager and colleagues from the University of South Australia to explore the issues and challenges facing leaders of changing schools, and share strategies for supporting learning in their school communities.

This paper reports on research which was conducted during the first year of the project which highlights issues and strategies identified by school leaders through the Learning Circles. These include: planning for change, engaging the school community in the change journey, developing the conditions that support change and communicating learning about the change process to others.

fra00393  Paper

Sin, Hope and Optimism in children's metaphors

FRASER D - University of Waikato

Metaphor-making is a universal human endeavour that manifests across cultures in various ways. Analysing metaphors enables us to gain a greater understanding of many social and cultural issues.teaching children to write through metaphor based upon their emotional landscapes, can reveal much of the inner world of the child. Such texts can have cathartic, emotional and intellectual value. A range of these texts will be shared and discussed with reference to emotional development and socio-cultural insights.

ful00334  Paper

Schools around the world: Involving teachers in international professional development

FULLARTON S - Australian Council for Educational Research
AINLEY J - Australian Council for Educational Research

International tests such as the Third International Mathematics and Science study (TIMSS) provide us with numerical scores on mathematics and science achievement, which are then ranked. However these rankings obscure other contextual information; they do not portray how and why students achieve at particular levels, nor do they provide teachers with guidance and insights in how to improve their teaching.

The project discussed in this paper utilises student work and teacher commentaries on the work to show what teachers expect students to achieve and how those expectations compare across national boundaries. The student work and teacher commentaries are displayed on the project web site, allowing teachers to readily examine what constitutes typical work, best work and sub-standard work in other countries as well as in other parts of their own. Teachers can then participate in on-line discussions about the content and assessment of their student work, engaging them as active researchers in an effort to define student achievement as a reflection of curricular rigour and teacher expectations.

gal00188  Paper

Negotiating temporary settlements: A genealogy of policy production in Australian higher education

GALE T - Central Queensland University

This paper identifies six strategies employed by policy actors in the production of Australian higher education entry policy during the (Dawkins/Labor) period from 1987 to 1996. It begins from the premise that while policy is often intended to be read as if spoken with a single voice, suggesting rational debate and (then) consensus amongst policy producers, it is more cogently understood as the product of struggle and conflict. Informed by 27 semi-structured interviews with politicians, political advisors, bureaucrats, academics, institutional administrators and independent authorities, the paper addresses the temporary settling of these actors' struggles and conflicts in contexts of policy making through strategies of negotiation: specifically, trading, bargaining, arguing, stalling, manoeuvring and lobbying. Rather than providing a sequential account of higher education policy that weaves its way through these strategies of negotiation, as grand narrative, the paper is more sporadic in its representations of strategies, identifying them in 'local' and specific knowledges and practices. Drawing on Foucault, what emerges is a genealogy of policy production, 'a painstaking rediscovery of struggles together with the rude memory of their conflicts' (1994, p. 22).

gar00309  Paper

Improving policy processes; advancing the development of the teacher feedback loop

GARDNER C - University of Tasmania
Williamson, J - University of Tasmania

The need for policy actors to work collaboratively during the policy process receives increasing attention in the literature. A more interactive and iterative approach throughout the policy process involving a broader spectrum of policy actors is indicated. Merely working better to enact policies is insufficient; the processes through which policy is developed are in need of review and improvement. While the values and goals of policy actors typically differ, often there is a shared recognition that action is required to address a problem. It is essential to recognise and act upon this common ground in order to strengthen policy actors' commitment to positive policy outcomes.

This paper draws on a case study of policy implementation in the Tasmanian government school system. While the data were gathered chiefly during the enactment of the policy, it became increasingly evident that the influence of the values and goals of those policy actors assigned responsibility for policy implementation should be considered before implementation officially commences. The study's findings support an expansion of teachers' policy roles. Indeed, failure to accord teachers with more influential policy roles may first, contribute to their increased feelings of alienation in the policy process and second, decrease policy effectiveness.

Part A of Symposium 30
gar00030a

Physical Bodies: Gender and Physical Activity
Bodytalk: Conversations about the body and gender

GARRETT R - University of South Australia

If the body, how it moves, what it consumes and what it does is a medium of culture, then the body itself represents a powerful symbolic form. This paper focuses on the role that physicality and the body play in the construction of identity and dominant notions of femininity for senior school students at the end of the 20th century. By examining the lived and embodied experiences of physically active and non active girls the research attempts to develop a greater understanding of how bodies and physicality impact on identity formation and perception of the self.

The main theoretical position in this paper is that bodies are socially constructed and serve as sites for studying the interrelationship between gender and identity construction. Therefore, 'body narratives' may help to illuminate restrictive gender understandings as well as identify positions in relation to gender identity and physicality.

The qualitative approach taken in this research was based on a feminist post-structuralist methodology that includes elements of author reflexivity throughout the research process. Drawing from evidence from in-depth participant interviews, observation and storywriting the interrelationships between gender, body image and physicality are mapped into four positions. These positions, though not definitive in nature, are explored in detail.

gil00388  Paper

A New Framework for Looking at Gender Equity

GILL J- University of Spouth Australia
STARR K - University of South Australia

This presentation begins with a recognition of a good deal of educational writing and research under the rubric of gender equity. After a brief overview of the history of gender equity in Australian education the paper focuses on the ways in which the gender emphasis - and the notion of equity - can be seen to have changed during the past decade. Parallel to this movement, although not consonant with it, has been the increasingly sophisticated way in which theories of gender have developed. The concept of gender as a set of attributes derived from the psychological literature of the seventies has given way to gender being theorised as a relational and dynamic process, although some slippages are evident in many current discourses.

In particular the paper demonstrates:

1. the lack of fit between current gender theory and the ways in which the boys-in-education movement generally seeks to present its cause
the need to preserve the notion of cathexis in thinking about gender dynamics
2. some of the ways in which we may envisage a future possibly less marked by traditional gender divisions
3. how gender strategies may be structured in schools in light of this stance.

gil00397  Paper

Still calling Australia home? Young people talking about national identity.

GILL J - University of South Australia
HOWARD S- University of South Australia

This paper reports on a continuing study into the understandings of young Australians about the country in which they live and their place in it. I the section of the study to be reported here, we analyze the responses to 'being Australian' as derived from conversations with groups of young people whose culture and heritage is markedly different from that of the traditional white Anglo Saxon Australian families. Our research involved working with children in primary schools with large numbers of indigenous and Asian families. The small group interviews routinely involved a mix of cultural, racial and ethnic backgrounds. In this way we attempted to draw out the children's ways of thinking about nationalism, but also we were thus able to capture the dynamic ways in which Australian-ness was being discursively constructed in the children's talk. The concept of belonging emerged as particularly important, along with a sense of place that was both similar to and markedly different from traditional representations of Australia. Ultimately we contend that standard educational approaches to questions of national identity and civics education are out of touch with the ways in which current generations of young people respond to the idea of place and belonging.

gim00509  Paper

Nurturing a learning community in a Professional Development School context.

GIMBERT B - The Pennsylvania State university

Embedded in the framework of a Professional Development School (PDS) context, this research explores how interns in a learning community experienced collegial interactions, conversations and collaborative reflection. The PDS intern community was a transformative learning forum in which empowered novice teachers articulated and examined their beliefs, and analysed their classroom practice. Within the confines of a safe and non-threatening peer environment, interns created personal meanings of their experiences, posed further wonderings about children's thinking and ideas, and reflected on how to make 'better problems.' Fostering 'best' teaching practices, contemplating theory-practice issues, understanding the political and social culture of the schooling context, and building natural interdependencies, provided stimuli for these preservice teachers to raise their voices and consider multiple perspectives. Within the learning community, interns created spaces as they individually and collectively began making sense of learning to teach and teaching to learn in a Professional Development School context.

gin00078  Paper

Primary school students' engagement in design and technology projects

GINNS I - Queensland University of Technology
STEIN S - University of Queensland
MCROBBIE C - Queensland University of Technology

This paper explores the technological understandings acquired by grade 6 students as they grappled with structured and ill-structured design and technology projects. The students engaged in a coherent sequence of design and technology learning experiences of one and a half hours duration for approximately six weeks, which included working in groups on projects. Data sources included surveys, interviews, videotapes and audiotapes of the students at work during the learning experiences, students' reflections on their involvement in the projects, and the teacher's reflections on the students' work. The findings indicate that the students were able to articulate more in-depth technological understandings related to, for example, the nature of the materials they used in the projects, the design practices and concepts they had to grapple with, and testing and evaluating partially completed and end products. The study will enable us to identify and analyse ways of immersing students into the knowledge, practices and culture of design and technology. The implications for teaching and learning design and technology in primary schools will be examined.

Part C of Symposium 5
goo00005  Paper

Documenting professional practice through a portfolio: Empowerment of self

GOODFELLOW J - University of Westren Sydney, Nepean

A professional portfolio may be described as a record of goals, growth, achievement and professional attributes developed over time and in collaboration with others (Winsor, 1998). The concept of a portfolio was used as a basis for work undertaken by 23 students who had prior knowledge of and were currently employed in the field where they were now seeking to gain a Bachelor of Education qualification. This paper reports on one teacher's experience in using a portfolio to document progress towards goals and her reflections on her own professional development. The process of creating a portfolio as a reflection of self is one of the major challenges in preparing a portfolio. Insights into the challenges and personal satisfaction associated with the process reveal the value of using portfolios to support ongoing professional development. Examples of the student's work will also be displayed.

Part B of Symposium 15
gra00015b

Exclusion panels: Policy and pragmatism.

GRAY J - Edith Cowan University

Within a school community, justification for action to control non-compliance with regulatory expectations of behaviour and attendance is dependent on local, school-based definitions of truancy and disruptive/dangerous behaviour. Policy response to these needs is the use of a range of disciplinary panels, incorporating notions of inter-agency and community collaboration within an expectation of voluntary participation and willingness to adapt.

This paper argues that culturally conflicting notions of school attendance and appropriate behaviour impact on enactment of educational policy perceived to address a social problem through pragmatic use of disciplinary panels, meeting the school needs but often limiting a student's long-term educational opportunities. The paper draws on both quantitative and qualitative data gathered during a three-year study of cultural factors impacting on the creation and enactment of public policy associated with non-attendance.

An ethnographic study was conducted in four metropolitan education districts in Western Australia, identifying three defining cultures framing non-attendance policy and inter-agency processes. Access to district data-bases within one of these districts allowed an intensive study of non-attendance and disciplinary data for 30 000 students.

The study highlights the covert impact of non-attendance policies on students and their families defined as 'different' within their school community, questioning policy outcomes and intent in terms of equity, inaction and social exclusion. The over-representation of Aboriginal students in truancy, suspension and exclusion data indicates a need for more social and cultural empathy in pragmatic, local enactment of disciplinary panels.

Part C of Symposium 29
gre00029e

Constructing the English Teacher and Schooling the Nation-State

GREEN B - University of New England
REID J-A - University of New England

In this paper, we explore the hypothesis that an organic relationship exists historically between English teaching and public education. In the current climate of on-going debates about literacy as an increasingly significant economic and political concern, there are important analogies to be drawn between the symbolic figure of the English teacher and that of the public school teacher more generally. However this is not at all unique to the present time or without historical precedent - quite the contrary.

Our focus is on the historical nexus between English teaching, teacher education and public schooling. We concentrate our attention on the state of New South Wales in the first half of the twentieth century. We report on research on the first ten years of the first two teachers colleges in this state - Sydney Teachers College (1905-1915) and Armidale Teachers College (1928-1938). This is complemented by an examination of primary English curriculum in the period in question. We explore the discursive and material construction of the English teacher, in teacher education and in school practice, with reference to issues of citizenship, national identity and cultural-symbolic authority. The paper addresses issues involved in attempting to produce a poststructuralist supplement to curriculum history.

Symposium 29 Part A | B | C
gre00029

Researching English teaching and Curriculum History: Looking Back, Looking Forward? - Symposium Overview

GREEN B - University of New England

How might research into both curriculum history and English teaching contribute to the assessment of an 'optimistic future'? This symposium will explore this question by presenting accounts of curriculum-historical studies of English teaching, with specific reference to Australia and New Zealand. It is motivated by a general interest in literacy debates and the emergence of literacy as a key governmental concern. These developments are appropriately though not exclusively understood in relation to the history and politics of English teaching and the English subjects, especially given the historical importance of subject English as well as language and literacy in the linked projects of public schooling and nation-building. What are the lessons to be learnt from curriculum history, in the present and for the future? Specifically, the symposium will explore issues of citizenship, education and subjectivity, and the role and significance of English curriculum historically in the formation of national culture and identity. It reports on two current research projects addressed to English teaching, teacher education and public schooling in New South Wales and South Australia in the first half of the twentieth century. As well, it presents a case-study of literacy debates, technocracy and the primary English curriculum in New Zealand, with particular reference to the 1940s.

gri00315  Paper

Schooling and social class in Australia: The persistence of liberalism?

GRIFFITHS T - University of Newcastle

This paper examines some of the issues around educational disadvantage based on social class in contemporary Australia, in the context of an official de-emphasis on structural exclusion, both in public rhetoric and policy, and a renewed public emphasis on meritocratic opportunities for all students. Liberal notions of structural inequality being adequately addressed, and indeed overcome, through equal opportunity and access to school education, are contrasted with the reality of entrenched links between social class (and socioeconomic status) and unequal outcomes in school education. The implications of this are discussed in terms of the current national and world-system contexts, and potential strategies that respond to the contradiction between official rhetoric and outcomes.p

This paper draws on data from a range of sources, including selected ABS statistics, recent literature on social class and education, and both interview and survey data from the ongoing EGSIE (Educational Governance and Social Inclusion / Exclusion) project. The central contradiction between the official de-emphasis of structural disadvantage, and ongoing class-based inequality, is elaborated through this data. This is subsequently examined from a world-systems perspective that focuses on the current emergence of, and need for, anti-systemic responses to the capitalist world-economy.

Part B of Symposium 25
gri00025  Paper

Student obligations: Accept individual responsibility for social exclusion.

GRIFFITHS T - University of Newcastle

This paper examines the idea of responsibility for educational success, and subsequent employment and socioeconomic welfare, being placed on individual students in schools. Expressed in meritocratic terms, this idea is set in the context of more general shifts in Australian political and social life, including a weakened welfare state and de-emphasis on structural disadvantage in public policy. This paper draws primarily on interview data with educational systems actors discussing changes in educational governance and their relationship to questions of social inclusion / exclusion, to illustrate the impact of what other scholars has noted in terms of increased individualism in educational policy. This material is supported with selected ABS statistics and data from the youth survey component of the EGSIE study. Based on this material, and current literature in the field, arguments are made for a qualitatively distinct level of individualised responsibility in education. The implications of this process are discussed in terms of an even greater level of marginalisation for already disadvantaged equity groups. This in turn raises issues of the potential for teachers and policy to respond to this in ways which highlight the structural bases of educational and socioeconomic disadvantage, and critique the current trend towards heightened individualised responsibility.

gro00303  Paper

Evidence Based Practice - Towards Whole School Improvement

GROUNDWATER-SMITH - S University of Sydney
VECCHIET SERENA - MLC School

This paper will examine current conceptualisations of evidence based practice which has its derivation in the medical context. It will argue that education can lay claim to a broader and richer understanding of the term growing out of a tradition of action enquiry and practitioner research. The paper will trace work undertaken across a three year period in a large Independent Girls School which has used school based research as the fulcrum for teacher professional development leading to school improvement.

gro00435  Paper

Yes, We Are Listening.

GROUNDWATER-SMITH, S - University of Sydney
VECCHIET SERENA - MLC School

This paper will report a specific study in the context of improving the school through practitioner research as cited in the paper "Evidence Based Practice". It will examine the effects of student voice on teachers' professional practice. Focus groups were conducted with students from Year 9 Maths and English classes. Over 200 direct quotes derived from the focus groups were then interrogated and categorised by members of the Maths and English faculties. Subsequently changes in practice were proposed which met the concerns raised by the students.

Symposium 11 Part A | B | C
hal00011

Diversity and Difference in early childhood and education - Symposium Overview.

JONES-DIAZ C - University of Western Sydney, Nepean

This symposium focuses on the diversity in the field of early childhood education in terms of the backgrounds and experiences of children, diversity staff in early childhood education, the issues related to social capital, the concept of difference and the value that is placed on such difference. The papers presented in this symposium question some of the stereotypical beliefs, practices and values that exist within the field of early childhood education and question assumptions underlying everyday practices and issues in different contexts.

Part D of Symposium 46
hal00046d Paper

Interrogating Collaborative Research - Who is Inside and Who is Out? Relationships between school / university co-participants in collaborative research activity

HALL G - Queensland University of Technology

This paper explores relationships between co-participants in collaborative research partnerships between university and school personnel. The author's perspective is that of the principal of a school involved in teacher learning through a research partnership with a university, and draws on his own (in progress) doctoral research project.

Part B of Symposium 8
hal00008b

The Gifted early Schooler.

HALL J - University of Western Sydney, Nepean

Gifted and/or talented children in the early years still appear to be underserved and not well understood by struggling parents and teachers. This is particularly distressing since the early childhood years are extremely critical to the overall development of human beings. To inform this debate, results from a number of case studies will be presented, portraying two perspectives: that of parents of gifted early schoolers and that of teachers of early schoolers. In particular, practical examples and anecdotes articulating and nurturing mutal coooperation will be explored.

Part D of Symposium 5
hal00005d

Guiding and supporting preschool teachers: the efficacy of legislated procedures.

HALLIWELL G - Queensland University of Technology
PERRY R - Queensland University of Technology

In Australia, preschool education for four to five year old children is provided by community kindergarten networks, some school systems and some child care centres and systems. Procedures for guiding and supporting preschool teachers are developed within each system and in state school systems those procedures are often legislated. In 1998 Education Queensland introduced mandated preschool curriculum document and required that teachers working in state preschools undertake a training program associated with this document. Teacher assessments of the efficacy of these procedures for supporting and guiding their work are examined.

han00418  Paper

Managing Contested Issues of Representation in a PhD Thesis.

HANRAHAN M- - Queensland University of Technology
MCWILLIAM, E- Queensland University of Technology

During her PhD Mary constructed a partial explanation for unsatisfactory learning in science, using a cross-disciplinary body of literature (including that relating to critical literacy teaching, second language learning, social and cognitive psychology, and sociolinguistics). Taken as a whole, the literature seemed to suggest that deep learning and change depend to some extent on the nature of interpersonal relationships in the setting, and (tacit) cultural as well as rational factors. This study explores the nature of deep learning and change in two rather different contexts, science education and a PhD and proposes that such processes involve a complex of interrelated cognitive, social and biological aspects. Not only does this proposition have significant implications for teaching and learning science (Hanrahan, 1998) and similarly for research methodology (Hanrahan, 1998). It also challenges some of the epistemological assumptions underlying expectations about PhD theses. This paper looks at contested issues around representing learning in a PhD thesis, and the controversial structure that resulted, in one particular case.

han00419  Paper

The Professional Enhancement Model of Academic Induction into On-line teaching.

HANRAHAN M - Queensland University of Technology
RYAN M - Queensland University of Technology

The current imperatives at work in tertiary education settings are resulting in a second wave of academics (cf. the "early adopters") into using use on-line technologies in their teaching. This has provided universities with a considerable professional staff development challenge just when university budgets are shrinking.

This paper briefly reviews traditional professional development models involving centralised PD units and proposes an alternative model of "professional engagement". We reconceptualise the challenge as one of building on existing workplace structures, including recruiting academic on-line coordinators for each School in the Faculty, showcasing existing exemplary practice, and setting up Professional Engagement Groups and a support team. Once embedded, we can move on to the next big challenge of moving from a unit-and-lecturer focus to articulation between units and year levels. These second-order enhancements would augment the exemplary practices, and shift the focus from people to courses.

har00202  Paper

Students gaining increased global awareness: teacher research tracking implementation of LOTE curriculum policy

HARBON L - University of Tasmania

Over the past thirty years, much research on primary level foreign language education has been conducted in the areas of language immersion/bilingualism and communicative methodologies, and less on the equally significant area of foreign language curriculum implementation. In fact, much of the literature existing on primary foreign language curriculum implementation is based on anecdotal evidence about what teachers have long 'known' (Met & Galloway, 1992).

This paper reports the findings of doctoral research of teachers in Tasmanian primary schools grappling with a new curriculum policy introduced by the Department of Education and the Arts from 1996 (DEA, 1995).

A conceptual framework based on the work of Fullan (1991) and Kallos & Lundgren (1976) was used to analyse the case of primary foreign language curriculum implementation in Tasmanian government primary schools. From document analysis, survey of the primary LOTE teachers, transcripts of teacher interviews and classroom observations, a picture of the teachers' practices and beliefs were constructed on the following themes: teachers' visions for primary LOTE education; -contextual factors influencing teaching approaches; -resources used; -training and qualifications; and -methods used to teach the LOTE. This study aims to contribute to our understanding about how LOTE curriculum policy has been constructed in practice. It is significant for policy developers who match 'intended' curriculum with 'operationalised' curriculum for evaluation purposes.

Conclusions are drawn about the factors influencing teachers' negotiation of the policy implementation process. Tentative recommendations are made regarding policies and practices to assist teachers to continue to meet the challenge of primary LOTE curriculum implementation.

Part D of Symposium 32
har00032d

Patterns of Discontent: International Perspectives on Teacher Satisfaction

HARKER R - Massey University, New Zealand

To build upon and validate understandings revealed by prior research about teachers' satisfaction, teachers' dissatisfaction, teachers' orientation to teaching, teachers' values, and teachers' health to gather data about teachers' motivation, satisfaction, and health for international comparison; to obtain benchmark information on matters relating to teacher welfare which can be used for purposes of tracking, explanation, planning, and prediction at school, system, policy, and other levels; To compare findings of the present study about teachers' motivation, satisfaction, and health to those already reported in the literature.

Method The New Zealand version of the Dinham and Scott questionnaire was employed to collect data.

Data A stratified, random cluster sample was drawn which obtained 550 primary and secondary teachers from schools the southern half of the North Island of New Zealand.

Conclusions Levels of satisfaction were highest with core business aspects of the job + The least satisfactory aspects of the job are to do with the lack of support perceived from government and community, together with inadequate resources and excessive workloads. Teachers were most affected by working conditions and a supportive environment These two components also play the main part in any changes to their level of satisfaction since beginning teaching.

Sixteen percent of teachers report high to very high levels of stress associated with their work in schools.

Part B of Symposium 44
har00044b

School subjects: Defining teachers' worklives
The subject department and subject culture: shaping teachers responses to syllabus change?

HARRIS C -University of Sydney

The importance of subject department and subject culture in shaping the practice of teachers is well documented. Further, the ways in which teachers define themselves and their practice in relation to 'school subject' has implications for the ways in which teachers' individually and collectively engage with subject specific curriculum change. This paper previews results from a study of history teachers' individual and collective responses to a new junior history syllabus in NSW secondary schools. A new syllabus is a public statement of philosophical orientation that has implications for the ways in which history is perceived, and the ways, in which historical knowledge is defined, taught, learnt and consequently assessed. The development and implementation of a new syllabus reveals the construction and reconstruction of history as a school subject to be both highly contested and fragmented. This paper explores the ways in which a new syllabus is reconstructed at a number of levels and in varying arenas before history teachers enter the classroom, thus highlighting the role of the history department and subject culture in the change process.

Part F of Symposium 45
har00045f

Successful integration of learning technologies in school classrooms (SILT)
Teacher learning and professional development in technology environments.

HARTNELL-YOUNG E - University of Sydney

A combination of focussed case studies and discussions across schools is being undertaken to research the PD needs of teachers, how teachers learn about the integration of learning technologies and evaluating the impact of PD on teaching practice.

Part A of Symposium 13
hat00013a  Paper

Post-compulsory schooling policy and the lives of young people in Australia. Becoming somebody: With or without schooling?

HATTAM R - Flinders University of South Australia

This paper will draw on the Students Completing Schooling Project which has developed an account of early school leaving though listening to how 209 young people made sense of their experiences of leaving school.

In this study, we were keen to understand the way young people deliberate about how schooling fits into their plans for living a life - for "becoming somebody" (Wexler, 1992). Our interview material indicates that a powerful "interactive trouble" (Freebody et al 1995) contributes to the non-completion of school and involves: a misunderstanding of the impact of popular culture on youth identity formation; under-estimating the demands of private life especially for those living in poverty; forms of masculinity, femininity, and harassment that undermine post-school options; homophobia yhat permeates the culture; and potent forms of racism that are played out in school life. This account critiques the school reform policy initiatives being implemented in South Australia under the guise of 'local school management'. In a devolved school system, why would schools want to hang onto the 'hard' students when they only 'bring the place down'?

Symposium 26: Part A
hay00026

School Reform and Productive Pedagogies - Symposium Overview.

HAYES D - University of Technology, Sydney
LINGARD B - University of Queensland
MILLS M - University of Queensland
CAPENESS R - University of Queensland

This symposium draws on the work of the Queensland School Reform Longitudinal Study (QSRLS) and on current curriculum developments in Queensland to explore the effects of change upon the work of teachers and principals within reforming schools. The first paper uses data collected from three QRLS case study sites to provide an overview of the notion of productive leadership, that is the kinds of leadership which contribute to the pervasive practice of productive pedagogies within school communities.

The second paper utilises data collected in one of the QSRLS case study sites, which is also one of Education Queensland's Frameworks Project schools trialing the 'new basics and 'rich tasks', to investigate some of the ways in which schools draw upon external agencies to facilitate changes in teachers' work. The third paper uses the same case study site to provide an insider/ousider account of the impact of these changes upon the work of teachers within this particular case study site.

Part A of Symposium 26
hay00026a

School Reform and Productive Pedagogies
Productive Leaders and Productive Leadership: Schools as Learning Organisations.

HAYES D - University of Technology, Sydney
LINGARD B - University of Queensland
MILLS M - University of Queensland

This paper focuses on the concept of productive leadership and the ways in which such leadership contributes to the development and nurturing of productive pedagogies within a school site. It describes three case studies drawn from the Queensland School Reform Longitudinal Study. These case studies have been chosen because they illustrate a variety of leadership practices conducive to the creation of teacher professional learning communities which mediate external pressures, teaching practices and students' outcomes (Newmann and Associates, 1996; Louis, Kruse and Marks, 1996; Talbert and McLaughlin, 1994; Gammoran and Secada, 1998). We suggest that the various configurations of leadership practices described in the case study schools represent productive forms of leadership.

Part B of Symposium 31
hay00031b

Owning the standards: English Literacy teachers and the SPIRT project

EMMITT Marie - Deakin University
Doecke Brenton

The English/Literacy project involves three teams of researchers from Monash University, Queensland University of Technology and Edith Cowan University. The industry partners are the Australian Association for theteaching of English (AATE) and the Australian Literacy Educators' Association (ALEA), together with standards bodies in Victoria, Western Australia and Queensland. Panels have been set up jointly by AATE and ALEA in three states, and the project has been marked by a high degree of teacher involvement. The teachers in our project have critiqued standards documents developed both in Australia and overseas, attempting to develop alternative ways of representing what good English literacy teachers believe, know and are able to do. A range of research issues has emerged, including the relationship between academics and teachers in a collaborative project of this kind.

hei00259  Paper

Mental computation: Is it more than mental architecture?

HEIRDSFIELD A - Queensland University of Technology

Literature at national and international levels argues the importance of including mental computation in a mathematics curriculum that promotes number sense. However, mental computation does not feature in importance in the current Queensland mathematics syllabus documents. Hopefully, with the writing of a new mathematics syllabus, mental computation will feature with more prominence. It has been posited that when children are encouraged to formulate their own mental computation strategies, they learn how numbers work, gain a richer experience in dealing with numbers, and develop number sense. In the literature, a wide variety of addition and subtraction mental strategies has been identified and characteristics of good mental computers have been documented. These findings are useful to inform teachers of children's thinking, and help them better understand children's explanations. However, little research has attempted to explain why or how children develop these strategies and why some children are proficient. Thus, the intention of present study was to go beyond reporting the existing situation in schools to investigating, in depth, associated factors, and to develop a comprehensive model for mental computation. This paper reports a study of Year 3 children's addition and subtraction mental computation abilities, and the complexity of interaction of cognitive, metacognitive, and affective factors that supported and diminished their ability to compute efficiently. As well, the part memory plays in mental computation was investigated. Finally, some implications for teaching are discussed.

hem00464  Paper

The development of a career education program for gifted high school students

BOYD, G -- Charles Sturt University
HEMMINGS B -- Charles Sturt University
BRAGGETT, T -- Charles Sturt University

This paper reports on the development of a career education program for gifted high school students in a New South Wales selective high school. Such a program built upon a previous program that had identified weaknesses, including being demand responsive, generic in approach, and not aligned with student needs. A situational analysis of the school formed the basis of the re-developed program and formative evaluations through a survey of participants, participant observation, stakeholder input, and outcomes reviews as summative evaluations were then undertaken to ensure a successful program re-development. These evaluations resulted in the following changes: earlier and more flexible career awareness opportunities; increased scope for values clarification; inclusion of psychological, psychocreative, and social elements; integration of career education and student welfare; lifelong learning emphases; aspiration enhancement for particular students; strategy employment for females; and, an expansion in community learning opportunities. The implications for school personnel, students, and parents are considered with the aim to deliver a 'best practice' career education program for gifted high school students.

Part C of Symposium 44
hil00044c  Paper

School subjects: Defining teachers' worklives
Subject associations: Tribal cliques or unifying networks?

HILFERTY F - University of Sydney

Teacher subject associations are subject specific organisations that represent the professional and industrial needs of teachers. They provide a context for teacher community through which members (largely secondary school teachers) can construct their identities as subject-matter specialists with teachers who share similar interests and experience. This subject-bound affiliation has resulted in an organisational strategy that promotes subject matter as a specialised area of knowledge. Such an approach strengthens the organisation's gatekeeping role of protecting subject status, and contributes to the task of professionalising teaching by affirming the expertise of members. For teachers then, the benefits of association with a professional community operate at two levels. Firstly, at an individual level, involvement in subject association activities can be a meaningful influence on professional identity. Secondly, the association provides a forum through which teachers may collectively assert demands for their involvement in decisions about school education. This paper will explore whether subject associations reaffirm traditional conceptions of teacher professionalism based on subject division and hierarchy, or promote a conception that unites all teachers - a conception that gives teachers a voice in decisions concerning their own work.

Part E of Symposium 46
hil00046e

Interrogating Collaborative Research - Who is Inside and Who is Out?
When the inquirer is "the other": The dilemmas of telling one's own story

HILL G - Queensland University of Technology

The author is engaged in a doctoral inquiry investigating practices of higher degree education. His data includes stories of students undertaking higher degrees and includes his own story of undertaking an MSc using post positivist inquiry. He will talk about some of the dilemmas of telling one's own story and attempting to view oneself as the other.

Part C of Symposium 17
hin00017c  Paper

Mirroring effective education through mentoring, metacognition and selfreflection.

HINE A - University of Western Sydney, Nepean

Mentoring stimulates individuals to self-assess and reflect, thus becoming more conscious learners, teachers and mentors who are able to apply knowledge of their learning needs and styles to new areas of study and the development of effective classrooms. Self-reflection is a central dynamic to mentoring. Not only is it crucial in encouraging more open minded and creative thinkers and effective educators, but it also develops an awareness of self as learner, teacher and mentor. Individuals who are capable of self-reflection are able to examine their own internal processing mechanisms. This metacognitive capability can be used to significantly improve and modify their processing strategies to enhance performance (Forrest-Pressley, MacKinnon and Waller,1985 and Hine andIsmail,1997).

Through the process of mentoring with second and third year preservice education students in a subject entitled Student Mentoring, this paper explores a range of strategies that are utilised to develop self-reflection, metacognition and mentoring skills. Students are nurtured through self-reflection and mentoring to evaluate their strengths and attitudes, to monitor their learning and mentoring progress and to set goals for effective learning, teaching and mentoring (Hine,Newman and Peacock,1999). Mentoring encourages students to become more self-reflective, metacognitively-aware and self-directed learners,teachers and mentors.

ho00151  Paper

teaching Chinese surface and deep dyslexics double-character words

HO F.C Hong Kong Institute of Education
ELLIOTT R - University of New South Wales, Sydney

Ho & Elliott (1998) found that the treatment effects of the analytic and whole-word approaches to reading instruction had different consequences for surface and deep dyslexic children when teaching single-character and double-character words.

The purpose of this investigation is to further examine the treatment effects of analytic and whole word approaches on teaching the dyslexic children the four types of double-character words, i.e., regular-regular character (RR), regular-irregular character (RI), irregular-regular character (IR) and irregular-irregular character (II) words. Regular characters refer to those characters, which contain phonological components. Irregular characters are those characters, which give no phonological information within the characters. The results show that the surface dyslexics performed much worse than the deep dyslexics in II and RI word recognition and that the analytic approach is a more effective teaching method than the whole word approach in teaching the II character words. It was concluded that the nature of reading disabilities as well as the regularity of characters should be taken into consideration when teaching the dyslexic children.

ho00213  Paper

Case Studies of Beginning Teachers: Their Struggles, Knowledge and Beliefs

HO BT - Nanyang Technological University
AUN TK - Nanyang Technological University

The knowledge domain of teacher cognition is vast. It comprises knowledge of general and personal pedagogy, knowledge of learners and learning, subject matter knowledge , knowledge of context and pedagogical content knowledge. As such, teaching becomes an extremely complex cognitive and affective activity. Beginning teachers with their limited knowledge and unexplored beliefs often struggle to translate theoretical knowledge into meaningful classroom practices.

The study employed a qualitative research stance and was postulated on an emergent paradigm. Case studies based on in-depth interviews with four beginning teachers provided a rich data source. These beginning teachers had just completed a term (10 weeks) of teaching practicum in secondary schools. This paper briefly outlines the teacher knowledge domain, analyzes the data source to see how knowledge and beliefs impact on classroom practices and describes the struggles faced by beginning teachers.

hoo00103  Paper

Reconciling Indigenous and Western Knowing

HOOLEY N - Victoria University of Technology

Indigenous communities in Australia desiring access to western culture and knowledge have a major contradiction to resolve in the field of education. It is unlikely that social institutions supported by the state within the hegemonic culture will adopt policies and practices that undermine its own authority, or at least, not to any substantial extent. Minority cultures participating in mainstream life must therefore accept that they will be impacted upon by majority viewpoints and come under some pressure to change. The perspectives of Indigenous mathematics and science for example, will inevitably be influenced by contact with the corresponding western perspectives. Nyerna Studies, the Bachelor of Education program being implemented in partnership between the Koori people of Echuca-Moama and Victoria University of Technology, is attempting to come to grips with this contradiction, essentially by a respectful, democratic and cultural two-way teaching and learning. The program has completed its third year in 2000, is open to Koori and non-Koori students and involves studies of Education, Koori Culture and Knowledge, Sport and Recreation and Youth and Community.

Considerable success in the investigation of educational, cultural and research ideas through a process of integrated, holistic enquiry, can be reported. The complex notion of culture is central to the understanding of two-way learning and whether culture is to be merely enjoyed or explained, has been subject to ongoing study. Discussion of the principles and practices on which Nyerna Studies is based will indicate that progress is being made in reconciling Indigenous and western knowing and that collaboration and critique is being transformed into critical dialogue and possibility.

how00387  Paper

Young Adolescents Demonstrating Resilient and Non-Resilient Behaviour: Insights from a Qualitative Study

HOWARD S - University of South Australia
JOHNSON B - University of South Australia

This paper summarises the results of a recent qualitative study involving 7 young adolescents (12 - 16 years of age) who were identified as displaying resilient and non-resilient behaviours in school. Interviews were used to explore the lives of the young participants in a variety of settings: school, home, peer group and community. Using Bronfenbrenner's ecological systems theory as a theoretical framework, our analysis has produced rich and complex accounts of how protective factor and processes interact in the lives of young people to produce resilient o >non-resilient behaviour.

In this paper, we focus on the school's potential for developing resilient behaviour in all students. Clear differences between the ways in which 'resilient' and 'non-resilient' students talked about a range of issues suggest that schools have the capacity to foster resilient behaviour through purposeful, sustained attention to the following: (a) the development of autonomy and self efficacy in all students; (b) strong support for achievement, competence and mastery in a range of traditional and non-traditional areas and (c) recognition and support for the school's role as a social centre as well as a learning centre for young adolescents.

hug00443  Paper

Drama as a learning medium: researching poetry teaching.

HUGHES J - University of Sydney

This paper looks at the use of a drama learning medium approach, known as enactment of the expert, to help primary students in years five and six comprehend a difficult poetry text. An analysis of the students written responses was undertaken together with an analysis of a video tape of the project.

Part C of Symposium 15
hun00015c

Students at risk: Policy and practice in rural schools.

HUNTER J - Edith Cowan University

Many Western Australian rural schools have high proportions of Aboriginal students. The literacy performance of students in these rural schools is lower than national and state averages. Aboriginal students are over represented in the lower performing groups. The Western Australian education Department requires every school to develop and implement a policy for students at educational risk. This study examines how six Western Australian rural primary schools enact their policy for students at risk. The literacy development of 63 students was tracked from their pre-school year to Year 2, using diagnostic literacy assessment strategies. Interviews were conducted with their teachers and school principals as well as with Aboriginal Education Workers who supported them.

It was found that factors such as student mobility, high staff turnover and teacher inexperience led to discontinuities in policy implementation, serving to negate the intent of the policy to improve literacy performance of students at risk in rural schools.

hur00181  Paper

Masculinities in the English Classroom: looking for cracks and fissures in the stereotypes

HURRELL G - University of South Australia

In many of today's English speaking societies there is a burgeoning academic literature on 'boys and literacy', 'boys and English' and 'boys and schools'; and also a widespread, media-driven sense of alarm and crisis around the same areas. With an increasing circulation of discourses around boys, there is a potential danger of reinforcing or propagating unproductive stereotypes about boys and girls. In this paper I discuss some of the unexpected findings produced in my recent qualitative research with one Year 8 co-educational English class. My aim was to explore some of the complexities of the interplay between subject English and gender, with particular emphasis on masculinities. My central point in this paper is to argue that my unexpected findings, the deviations from my preconceptions and assumptions, constitute critical points for reflection on our practices as teachers and as researchers: they are the 'cracks and fissures' in the stereotypes, and the spaces for potential negotiation and change in our classrooms.

hut00304  Paper

Reframing the Mother in Family Literacy

HUTCHINSON K - Victoria University of Technology

This paper addresses the invisibility of mothers in the Family Literacy movement and explores the work of the mother in maintaining and extending family literacy practices. Despite the centrality of mothers in their childrens education, mothers are largely invisible in the research literature theorising and describing family and intergenerational literacy practices and programs, or they are viewed as somehow deficient in their literacy practices. In this paper, this absence will be addressed through an exploration of the mothers literacy practices within families and the complexity of the literacy work performed by mothers within families will be made visible. Family literacy programs will be reconceptualised within a post structuralist feminist framework, and pedagogies suggested which acknowledge the multiple subjectivities of women as mothers, learners and teachers of their children.

Part B of Symposium 42
ich00042b   Paper

Globalisation, Higher Education, and the Re-creation of Japanese Femininity

ICHIMOTO T - University of Queensland

This paper links globalisation and the re-creation of femininity in Japan by focusing on four factors that have been affecting women's lives. Firstly, in reaction to the global economy and capitalism, human resource planning has resulted in testing and educational curriculum tracks designed to meet the needs of the local labour market. This human capital concepts account for the marginalisation of female labour. Secondly, 'capitalist consumerism', the 'middle classness', and technological innovation were achieved through the economic miracle and globalisation emerged in the late twentieth century. These are pivotal concepts to use in thinking about women set free from the housework and domesticity. Thirdly, the paucity of job opportunities for women underused women's talents despite the positive trend toward increased female participation rates in higher education during the 1980s. This illogicality leads women to the acquirement of more sophisticated self-development and even higher degrees. Finally, the compression of the world in terms of time and space and global environment of lifelong learning make it feasible for women to pursue their higher education overseas. Those four factors intertwine and contribute to the emergence of contemporary Japanese women.

Part A of Seminar 31
ing00031a

Developing and validating standards for professional certification in teaching science

INGVARSON L - Monash University

The quality of an education system depends primarily on the knowledge, skill and commitment of its teachers. This calls for long term policies and structures that attracts able students, prepares them well and promotes their continuing professional development toward high professional standards. While government and employer support is critical, successful implementation of these reforms depends on the profession strengthening its capacity to define rigorous standards and its ability to assess its members' performance against those standards.

Teacher organisations are increasingly recognising that they have a central role to play in educational reform through developing profession-wide standards for entry to the profession and advanced certification. This paper describes the process used over the past year by the National Science Standards Committee of the Australian Science Teachers Association to develop and validate standards for highly accomplished teachers of science.

ing00194  Paper

Silent issues in success for International Postgraduate students

INGLETON C - University of Adelaide
CADMAN K - University of Adelaide

In a preliminary study designed to explore factors in International students' success in an Australian research university, we used memory-work, a methodology designed to bridge the gap between theory and experience and to explore ways in which individuals themselves participate in the process of their own socialisation (Frigga Haug et al 1987). We worked with seven International postgraduate students who raised issues that affect success but appear to have received little public attention, in the literature or in their induction programs. The issues include the high cost of competition; the weight of responsibility towards family, colleagues and workplaces at home; the types of experiences that engender self-doubt and confidence; motivation in the face of failure; and perceptions and experiences of academic validation in a foreign culture. What the students had believed were personal and private issues, held in silence, were recognised by the group as common experiences. As a result of their participation in the study, the students are already actively changing private and public awareness of some of the socialisation affecting their success.

isa00079  Paper

Opportunities for learning provided by a "flexible delivery" environment

ISAACS G - University of Queensland
ANDREWS T - University of Queensland
STEIN S - University of Queensland

The study described here was part of a larger study evaluating activities at the University of Queensland's "state of the art" purpose-built campus for "flexible delivery" at Ipswich, Queensland. We describe the various learning opportunities identified by three university teachers, each from a different faculty, as they planned for, and implemented, subjects based at the Ipswich campus. Data were gathered through interviews and discussions with the teachers and their students, classroom observations, and collection of artifacts, such as teacher diaries of activities and planning materials.

Teachers noted that the widely held and publicized expectation that the new campus would provide different and better opportunities for learning and teaching was borne out for the most part in their experiences during the semester. Students' and teachers' perspectives on the quality of learning taking place were enhanced; opportunities were created for teachers to experiment with ideas to enhance learning through the use of a variety of strategies and technologies. Some awareness was shown by teaching staff of issues related to the interactions amongst beliefs about teaching and learning, teaching practices and students' developing perceptions of learning. However, there are clear implications for the continuing professional development of teachers in higher education "flexible delivery" situations.

isa00080  Paper

Balancing competing demands within a "flexible delivery" environment

ISAACS G - University of Queensland
ANDREWS T - University of Queensland
STEIN S - University of Queensland

The aim of this study was to investigate the beliefs and practices of three university teachers operating within a newly established, specifically designed, "flexible delivery" environment.

During the course of one semester the three university teachers, each from a different faculty, reported the various demands on their time and expertise as they planned and implemented their new subjects. Data gathered through interviews with the three teachers and their students, classroom observations, the collection of artefacts, such as teacher diaries of activities and planning materials, and discussions with the teachers about their beliefs and practices, and their responses to working within a "flexible delivery" environment revealed that meeting the learning needs of their students was one of the most important factors for these teachers. In attempting to meet their students' learning needs, these teachers had to balance the demands of, for example, creating authentic learning experiences for their students; finding an appropriate "place" for technological innovations within the planning and implementation of their subjects; and defining for themselves the meanings of "flexible delivery" and "flexible learning". This study provides insights into teacher beliefs and practices within "flexible delivery" environments in university contexts and implications for the support of their professional development in the area of teaching and learning.

Part D of Symposium 42
iye00042d

Creating Entrepreneurship - Negotiated Space in Global and Local Media(ted) Discourse.

IYER, R - University of Queensland

This paper reports on a study of the representation of women entrepreneurs in Indian popular media. In recent years, middle class Indian women have made some tentative moves into the private sector and entrepreneurship. The media have partially supported visions of the 'modern' Indian woman: educated, employed and employable, 'local' yet suitably westernised, committed to family and yet pursuing individual aspirations, and so forth. However, despite the 'popular' and discursive re-crafting of the 'modern' Indian woman, closer analysis reveals entrenched patriarchal values that constrain women in normative constructs of Indian femininity that limit women's opportunities, their professional aspirations and visions of themselves. Data is presented from Indian newspapers, women's magazines, interviews with women entrepreneurs, and female magazine editors. The paper concludes by arguing that, despite three decades of global proliferation of 'feminist' discourses on gender equity to enhance women's status, opportunities, educational and workforce participation, cultural, political and historical differences articulate very different constructs of women across nation states.

jen00518  Paper

Working conditions and career ambitions and possibilities between Danish Ph.D. students and assistant professors

JENSEN H - University of Copenhagen

The paper sum up some of the findings from two surveys among one thousand Ph.D. students (all enrolled 1997) and about 500 assistant professors (the total number in the country as such). Through the questionnaire we try to map out the conditions of success at different levels of the system. What were the qualifications and ambitions for becoming a Ph.D. student? What are the qualifications and ambitions or reasons for applying for an assistant professorship? And what's the reason for leaving or staying at a university as an associate professor? We emphasize the topic studied in itself and in relation to the profile of the institutions research, the daily working conditions, the support from colleagues, manager or other, the family responsibilities and so on.

jen00519  Paper

The Persistent Gender Hierarchy at Danish Universities in a comparative perspective

JENSEN H - University of Copenhagen

In Denmark about one fifth of all researchers at the universities are female. 93 per cent of all full professors are men. This uneven distribution of men and women in the research community has been sort of stable for many years, and does not seem to change dramatically in the near future.

The paper will deal with figures (comparing the Danish situation with other countries), the research system as such and the political situation, for example, why a proposal for 30 professorships especially for the under represented gender, was turned down. One important point is that there is not one problem. The uneven distribution of gender varies according to discipline and in some cases according to institutions (some departments hire women, others working with the same subject don't) as well as between different levels of the system. More and more female students graduate from universities, the number of female Ph.D. students is rising, but the percentage of women becoming assistant professor, associate professor or full professors does not increase as much.

Part B of Symposium 16
joh00016  Paper

Literature and Education Research Methodologies: Theory and Application.

JOHNSTON R - University of Technology, Sydney

This paper briefly introduces the Centre for Research and Education in the Arts at UTS, and describes its conceptualisation of research, particularly arts research, as both theory and application. With a focus on research in children's literature, and specifically on picture books, it will discuss the methodologies currently being used and demonstrate the ways in which this comparatively new field of literature research is making contributions not only to literature research in general but to other areas as well. Applying the idea of the researcher-as-bricoleur, the paper will seek to draw together literary and educational methodologies and demonstrate the significance of this for educators.

Part A of Symposium 11
jon00011a  Paper

Diversity and Difference in early childhood and education
Multiple literacies.

JONES-DIAZ C - University of Western Sydney, Nepean
ARTHUR L - University of Western Sydney, Nepean
BEECHER B

Early childhood education needs to fully embrace contemporary frameworks of poststructural and critical theory which emphasize literacy as social and cultural practices. This will enable early childhood programs to provide meaningful and contextual literacy experiences that fully acknowledge children's multiple literacies such as bilingual / biliteracy experiences, and literacies of popular culture. Popular culture has a powerful impact on children's everyday experiences, and critical literacy provides opportunities for children to critique, deconstruct and reconstruct a range of contemporary popular culture media texts. Ways in which early childhood educators can incorporate popular culture and critical literacy into early childhood play environments will be explored.

Part C of Symposium 11
jon00011c

Diversity and Difference in Early Childhood and Education

JONES DIAZ C - University of Western Sydney, Nepean
ROBINSON K - University of Western Sydney, Nepean

This paper is based on empirical research undertaken in Sydney, which investigates early childhood educators' attitudes and teaching practices towards diversity and difference in Preschool and Long Day Care settings. Educators most frequently equate diversity with acceptance and often do not consider the vast range of areas associated with cultural diversity and their implications for practice. Consequently, educators tend to consider some areas of diversity and difference as being more comfortable and relevant to children and their families. Relevance of dealing with various aspects of diversity is most frequently equated with visible differences within the setting. Those other areas that are often invisible or not obviously present within a setting, for example, gay and lesbian issues, or indigenous communities, are perceived to be non-existent and therefore irrelevant to children and daily teaching practices. This paper highlights the need to reframe theoretical and practical approaches to working with diversity and difference in early childhood education. Feminist poststructural theory enables staff to have critical understandings of power relations inherent in social inequalities and how these inequalities can be constituted and perpetuated within early childhood settings. To effectively deal with discrimination, prejudice and bias in young children it is critical that children are viewed as changing, complex and contradictory subjects with agency, who actively participate in the construction of the self, rather than passive recipients of socialisation. Further, it is equally important that early childhood educators are aware of their own values and attitudes to various aspects of cultural diversity and difference and how these may influence their daily teaching practices.p

jon00218  Paper

Self-surveillance and the male teaching body

JONES A - University of Auckland

How do young male teachers negotiate the newly risky territory of the classroom? Governance of teacher-pupil touching has become a preoccupation not only of the education policy-makers who write the now-myriad guidelines for teacher professionalism and 'child safety'. It has also become part of the practice of being a 'good teacher'.

This research reports on the first segment of data collected in a larger research programme on 'men in teaching'. First-year male primary school teachers talk about the strategies they use to avoid physical contact 'not to touch the teacher'. The teachers' talk serves to illustrate some of the key features of a significant and widespread cultural change in teaching practice in the West. The paper argues that what counts as the caring teacher and good teaching practice with small children is being shaped in particular by the preoccupations and assumptions of current social anxiety about child sexual vulnerability. We suggest that this anxiety is located in wider expressions of risk and vulnerability, and concerns about safety, from 'safe sex' to 'cultural safety' to 'safe food' (Giddens,1991, Beck, 1992). How this anxiety might be understood in education, and how it might be played out in embodied classroom practice is the focus of this paper.

jon00228   Paper

Raising standards in mathematics through effective classroom practice

JONES S - University of Wales Swansea, Wales, UK
TANNER H - -University of Wales Swansea, Wales, UK
TREADAWAY M - University of Wales Swansea, Wales, UK

This paper reports some of the results of the "Raising Standards in Numeracy" project which was funded by the Welsh Assembly during the period 1999/2000. Schools in which pupils achieved standards significantly higher than would have been expected from their prior attainment were identified using value-added analyses in order to explore factors and strategies which might contribute positively towards standards in mathematics. Two primary and two secondary schools were identified in each of five LEAs. Pedagogical factors contributing to high attainment were then explored through extended interviews with LEA advisors, head teachers, mathematics subject leaders and classroom teachers. These factors were triangulated at classroom level through participant observation. This paper focuses on features of classroom practice, making only brief mention of factors at the level of whole school and subject leader. These features are contrasted with findings from other projects and analysed to provide a rationale for good practice.

The role of middle managers in raising standards in mathematics
Authors: Howard Tanner, Sonia Jones and Mike Treadaway University of Wales Swansea, Wales, UK

kam00263  Paper

Cross generational and historical interviewing: Stories of Literacy Teachers Work

KAMLER B - Deakin University
COMBER B - University of South Australia
O'BRIEN J - University of South Australia
DORNBRACK J - Deakin University

This paper will report on innovative research methods developed in a study of literacy teachers work. During the past four decades (the span of a teaching career) the field of literacy education has been riven with debates about best methods, with each new theory and associated pedagogies and technologies of practices, promising to solve the problems of the past (Kamler 1998; Luke 1998.) This project aims to explore the 'silenced' perspectives of literacy teachers by developing historical and cross generational accounts of literacy with regard to broader policy and curriculum change. The historical interview techniques piloted in this project invite teachers to historicise their literacy curriculum within the wider conditions of their labour as women primary school teachers during different phases of their teaching careers. The cross generational interview techniques invite and train early career literacy teachers (age 25-30) to access stories of older literacy teachers' work. The project is grounded in a recent explosion of research on teachers' lives and stories but works with Hargreaves (1996) warning against an apolitical presentation that romanticises teachers' voices, emphasising the need to 're-present' these voices critically and to explore the multiple power relationships that govern teachers' work.

Part B of Symposium 40 kan00040b

Research in Primary Curriculum: variations in teaching approach, self-efficacy and curriculum content in four of the six primary Key Learning Areas
Interplay: factors which affect music teaching self-efficacy in preservice teachers

KANE J - Macquarie University

This paper will explore the Key Learning Area strand of Music in primary schools. It will report on a longitudinal research study of pre-service teachers which focuses on the factors which affect levels of student teacher self-efficacy in relation to music education and the effects of a music education program linked to practical classroom practice and performance skills. Results of pre-test survey data gathered in Stage 1 of the research will be reported upon along implications for the remainder of the study.

ked00200  Paper

On Leadership, Fitting In, and Disunity: A study of the group dynamics of an early primary peer group

KEDDIE A - Deakin University

This paper reports on my research into the way young males (boys) think about and practice their masculinity. Underpinning my investigation is a foundational assumption that dominant forms of identity work are enacted and reinforced in groups (see Harris, 1998). The focus of my study, therefore, involved analysing the collective knowledges and practices of a group of young boys attending a primary school in Launceston, Tasmania. The 'peer group' at the centre of this research comprised of five Grade 1/2 male friends.

On the basis of a series of group discussions and regular observations I have sought to explore how collective understandings of masculinity (and indeed gender) are negotiated and constructed. My understandings of 'becoming gendered' are strongly informed by the tenets of feminist poststructural theory. My immersion within this perspective has directed my focus to the centrality of power relations in how and why boys adopt particular masculinities.

kee00209  Paper

A Case Study in Cross-Cultural Literacy

KEEN D - Dunedin College of education

Cross-cultural literacy involves far more than the mechanics of language. It requires an apprehension of the framework within which language operates. It posits a two-way process involving sympathetic imagination, and a shared willingness and ability to see through others' eyes. It calls for insight into motives and agendas formulated in unfamiliar contexts and conditioned by discrete experiences.

This paper explores cross-cultural perceptions and patterns of interaction in the context of the shared experiences of Malaysian students, New Zealand-born students and New Zealand lecturers at the Dunedin College of Education, New Zealand. Data underpinning the paper was gathered using a range of instruments at the College during the period April-October 2000. The paper draws conclusions about current levels of cross-cultural literacy at the College, and examines the implication of these conclusions for effective programme design and course delivery in the future.

key00212  Paper

Developing a good science syllabus for an optimistic future:A classroom teacher's perspective

KEYS P - Queensland University of Technology

The Queensland School Curriculum Council has recently released the first of eight new syllabus documents: the years 1 to 10 science syllabus. Whilst change is nothing new, what is different is that it is the first time for teachers to be involved in writing and developing their own school-based program. Previously science syllabuses in Queensland were written in a form that required little or no school based curriculum development.This paper reports on a perspective of science curriculum change by practicing classroom teachers. Data were collected through focus groups and interviews with teachers and gauged in the early phase of implementation. Major findings to be discussed include; issues of curriculum structure, professional development, issues of changing from didactic to child centred learning, science teaching self-efficacy and teacher content knowledge. The researcher, as a participant observer, has adopted Eisner's (1991) methodology of educational criticism. It provides a rich analysis and portrayal of the concerns of teachers in school based curriculum development that may not otherwise be expressed. This paper provides an insight into the practical theories held by teachers, which may impact on their preparedness to adopt the new curriculum. The implications for professional development will be discussed further

kle00336

The Victorian state school curriculum: Curriculum and Standards Frameworks and Teacher Professionalism

KLEINHENZ E - Monash University
INGVARSON L

"The curriculum and Standards Frameworks(CSF) " is the name given to the curriculum developed for Victorian government schools as part of the system of school self management introduced after the election of a conservative Liberal state govenrnment in 1992. This paper reports the findings of research still in progress that is attempting to discover whether using the CSF is helping teachers to "grow" professionally. Drawing on data obtained from interviews with teachers and curriculum documentation in two primary and two secondary schools, information is presented about how teachers are using the CSF, the extent to which it is enhancing collegiate processes and the extent to which teachers are finding it professionally "empowering" or "disempowering."

Among the more striking findings so far are indications that primary teachers are making more productive use of the CSF and that secondary teachers are experiencing difficulties that may be indicative of a more general malaise. Secondary teachers' practice was found to be uneven and individualistic, while that of primary teachers was characterised by teamwork,. On the basis of interviewees' mainly positive responses to the CSF, a tentative conculsion is reached that the the CSF and curriculum frameworks like it may have the capacity to assist teachers to improve the quality lof their work and to move closer towards the notion of "professionalism"

kni00515  Paper

Longitudinal Development of Educational Theory: A democratic classroom

KNIGHT T - La trobe University

Presented is a democratic education paradigm. It presents seven attributes for consideration. While intrigued by contemporary critical social analysis on democratic schooling, it is held to be inadequate for informing present policy and analysis.

In general critical analysis draws from abstract theorising, seldom from grounded theory. A central feature of this proposal is the preparation of students for solving individual and pressing social problems. Educational theory comes in all shapes and sizes. There are theories of knowledge, development, learning, instruction, discipline, management and organisation. What passes for theory in most classrooms is bits and pieces taken from all, or some of those mentioned. There appears for example little correspondence between the theory of knowledge and theory of instruction or discipline. This is the culmination of three decades of work in grounded theory, and characteristic of this work has been the application of democratic principles to action research. It is replete with hard won successes and very difficult setbacks. As a general theory it has a long way to go. From the outset of this research it has held that an ideal democracy is an unattainable goal. Democracy can only be a hypothetical vision used to measure progress, much as infinity does in mathematics. Whether any practice is an asset to a democratic classroom can be determined by how it measures on each of the proposed attributes. Doubt is cast whether democracy is 'discovered', instead, advocated is that democracy is continually invented.

kom00269  Paper

Diversity and Justice: Being Different in Universities and Schools

KOMESAROFF L - Deakin University

In this paper I discuss issues of diversity and justice in higher education and schools. The paper reports on the early stages of a research project with an equity target group at universities: the deaf. The research comes out of a larger project that identified the political nature of language practices and policies in schools for a linguistic minority. Deaf students are targeted in university policy as disabled although many do not identify as such. There is confusion between national language policy that recognises their status as members of a cultural and linguistic minority and educational policy that provides support for their education through disability networks. These networks have embraced a policy of inclusion, which, in the case of the deaf, can run counter to cultural values and efforts towards self-determination.

As educators and educational researchers the politics of our practices and research epistemologies must continue to be challenged and exposed. Being different in universities and schools, the title of this paper, refers both to the diversity in student, teacher and researcher populations and the need for us to act in ways that are different from the past. Educators and researchers with a commitment to social justice and change help to make sense of the past and approach the future with optimism.

koo00491  Paper

Choose to choose educational research: Moving towards an optimistic future or a dead end?

KOO M - Hong Kong Institute of Education

This paper describes a collaborative journey with a group of primary school teachers and principals within a context of curriculum change in Hong Kong. This collaboration, which builds on hope, trust, reflections and authenticity, elicits participants' 'voices' through narratives and conversations. An Action Research as iterative, critical and collaborative engages research participants to a research world which celebrates the success of change by improvement, the collaboration by mutual contribution to shared values and beliefs, and the reconstruction of curriculum work by ongoing critique and transformation. Teachers' stories, which are the constructs of their personal lives intertwined with professional lives, are embodied of participants' critical reflections on the place, space, purpose, content and process of teacher curriculum decision-making at the time of curriculum change. Through sharing and negotiation, ownership and participation as well as agreement and consensus, this action research empowers participants to act and talk in reflection about curriculum work for enhancing the effectiveness of teaching and learning. Reflecting on this collaborative research journey, the paper further poses a question when choosing to choose educational research. This question challenges researchers and other stakeholders to critically reflect on educational research whether it is moving towards an optimistic future or a dead end.

kos00161  Paper

Activity Theory and the New Literacy Studies: Social dynamics in the literacy learning and teaching activity network

KOSTOGRIZ A F - University of New England

This paper explores a number of implications arising from the combination of the New Literacy Studies and cultural-historical psychology - in particular, the concept of literacy as social practice and the psychological category of activity. Placing 'social' at the centre of literacy and psychological studies, these two perspectives are fruitfully combined in the service of a practically useful literacy learning/teaching framework. The focus on the social in literacy practices implies certain understanding of configurations and reconfigurations of the elements which constitute those practices (Gee, 2000). Activity Theory in this respect can be used to provide a broad conceptual framework for literacy research and the teaching/learning practice design. It functions therefore as a powerful and clarifying descriptive tool in studies of the human trajectories in literacy learning contexts in both its comprehensiveness and its engagement with the difficult issues of consciousness, intertextual memory, intentionality, mediation, intersubjectivity, history and change.

kra00446  Paper

Adolescent Chinese writers: Juggling writing demands and sociocultural influences

KRAUSE K-L - macquarie university
O'BRIEN D - Macquarie University

This paper reports on an ongoing study of Chinese students' argumentative essays (written in English) with a focus on the sociocultural and sociolinguistic forces at play in their writing. This phase of the study involves analysis of 100 argumentative essays, written by Chinese students (in English) in the Henan Province of China. The essays were marked by an English teacher from Henan Province and by an Australian English teacher, using a pre-determined set of marking criteria. Results of our analyses -including a metalinguistic analysis of the scripts - indicate marked differences between the ways in which teachers from each country assess identical essays. Moreover, data indicate that in many instances, students' patriotism and lack of awareness of reader needs - as demonstrated in their use of language and claims - impedes their capacity to construct coherent, objective and effectively substantiated written arguments. These and related findings provide justification for a sociocultural consideration of the pedagogical and assessment issues related to the writing processes of second language learners.

While our focus is on the writing of Chinese high school students, there are several broader issues involved, such as those pertaining to teacher preparation and inservicing, development of culturally appropriate teaching resources - including textbooks, and facilitation of ongoing cross-cultural research. We believe these issues have relevance to Chinese educators as well as to those involved in teaching Chinese L2 learners in Western countries.

lad00025  Paper

Educational Governance, Social Inclusion and Social Exclusion in Australia - Symposium Overview

LADWIG J - University of Newcastle

'Educational Governance, Social Inclusion and Social Exclusion in Australia' (EGSIE-Australia) is the Australian leg of a large international comparative study examining the relationship between relatively recent restructuring of systems of schooling and the classic sociological question of who gets what from schooling. The study draws conceptions of governance and subjectivity developed in relation to Foucault's understanding of governmentality and Bourdieu's analyses of habitus and the State as a bureaucratic field. Conducted in three main stages, EGSIE-Australia included text analyses of selected policy documents, interviews with a national sample of teachers, principals and systems actors, and a series of youth studies, including a large scale survey of Youth. Funded by the ARC, from 1998 to 2000, this study has been conducted in partnership with scholars from nine European countries, in which parallel analyses have been developed. The symposium presents six papers developed within the study, cutting across each of the three main stages of analysis.

Part A of Symposium 25
lad00025a

The imposition of a schooled habitus

LADWIG J - University of Newcastle
GORE J - University of Newcastle

Drawing on policy text analyses, interviews with teachers, principals and other educators, and a survey of youth, this paper develops the argument that contemporary forms of educational governance in Australia are narrowing and circumscribing acceptable forms of 'habitus'. Despite a rhetorical embrace of diversity, it is demonstrated that a particular set of dispositions and ways of being a 'teacher', 'student', or 'citizen' are currently deemed acceptable. The (always) normalising effects of schooling have significant consequences for who is included and who is excluded with respect to social institutions and future possibilities. Implications of this argument for educational policy, teacher education, and schooling are examined in relation to analyses of schooling as a world-cultural institution, policy debates on the effects of economic rationalism in education and contemporary forms of school restructuring and reform.

Part D of Symposium 25
lad00025d

Mimicry, alchemy and fabricated optimism: on the production of the 'new' educational governance.

LADWIG J- University of Newcastle
COOPER S - University of Newcastle

Primarily drawing on text analyses of the annual National Report on Schooling in Australia, this paper illustrates the textual mechanisms of what Blackmore, Lingard and others have referred to as the hollowing of the educational State, and argues that this hollowing is also apparent in the construction of the subject. Focusing on the relationship between educational governance and social inclusion/exclusion, the paper demonstrates that the mode of governance current in these text reinforces and limits understandings of social equity that are tied to categorical definitions of social difference. On the one hand, this process is shown to construct the subject as little more than an empty unit of analysis.

On the other hand, the images of progress and educational reform presented in these texts demonstrate that the hollow subject of schooling is itself constructed within the parameters of self-governance implied by the bureaucratic rationality of the State. When viewed in this light, public claims to new forms of educational governance can be shown to be linked to the internationally predictable mimicry of national educational optimism that bear little relation to any substantial change in the patterns of educational inclusion and exclusion.

law00130  Paper

"Be It Ever So Humble": Home-School Congruence and Literacy for Poor Kids

LAWSON J University of Western Sydney, Macarthur

This paper reports on research in progress that acknowledges and builds on seminal research in the area of home and community literacies and the ways in which schools support or devalue particular literacies and discourses to the advantage or disadvantage of young children. Recently there have been renewed calls for schools to acknowledge and build on home and community literacies In particular, the NSW Disadvantaged Schools Program (DSP) argues for home school congruence as a pathway to improved literacy outcomes in schools serving poor communities. However, despite the DSP's recognition of home-school congruence as a key aspect for schools to consider when they work on improved student literacy outcomes, it remains an area that requires further empirical and subsequent pedagogical clarification. So it is clear that at both research and policy levels, there are critical research issues to consider around school literacy practices that recognise, value, describe and utilise home literacies. This paper identifies and takes up important issues around home school congruence in DSP school contexts and their implications for the teaching of literacy.

lee00106  Paper

Teenage boys' perceptions of the influence of teachers and school experiences on their understanding of masculinity.

LEE J - Australian Catholic University

There is widespread interest in the education of boys in school. Research undertaken by Robert Connell, Mairtin Mac an Ghaill and others suggests that there are a range of masculinities displayed by teenage boys. Some of the multiple masculinities chosen are in conflict with accepted concepts of educational achievement.

This paper is a report on a doctoral research project. It is investigating the perceptions of Year 11 high school boys in two single sex Catholic schools. These adolescents share their understanding of what it means to be a man today. The teenage boys in the study identify aspects of school life that they perceive as influencing their sense of masculinity. QSR NUDIST is used to assist in the analysis of data from interviews and focus groups. The paper explores the boys' views of the impact of teachers, coaches, sport, discipline and classroom experiences on their understanding of what it means to be a man. Implications of the data for educational leaders and researchers are presented. Recommendations for improving educational outcomes are made that draw on the perceptive comments made by the teenage boys.

lee00374  Paper

Higher Education in Hong Kong and Singapore: An Optimistic or Pessimistic Future?

LEE HIU-HONG - City University of Hong Kong

In recent years, higher education in Hong Kong and Singapore has envisaged unprecedented changes and reforms, which affect significantly the daily lives of academia in addition to the management style of the university. Globalization is manipulated as a rationale for reforms with an aim to cope with the age of fast-changing technology and knowledge-based economy. Meanwhile, globalization embraces several values that prevail among universities, namely: economic rationalism, academic capitalism and corporate managerialism. The university becomes more business-like and enterprise-oriented. Business practices such as performance indicators, benchmarking, quality asurance and control, commercialization of applied research, user-pay principle, market incentives, and diversification of resources are transplanted to the higher education sector.

These phenomena demonstrate a paradigm shift from perceiving the university as a cultural institution to a public service one. Following the Anglo-American experiences of public sector reforms, higher education is similarly required to achieve the goals of "efficiency, effectiveness and economy" in the name of New Public Management (NPM). Smarter and wiser higher education, in terms of resource allocation, emerges at the expense of the traditional ethos of collegiality among academia for institutional decision-making and management. This article examines the impacts of higher education reforms on academe and academia in Hong Kong and Singapore. It is argued that higher education is cloaked by a pessimistic atmosphere, in which academics are pressurized by ever harsher external scrutiny over teaching, research and university administration.

leo00214  Paper

Quality of School Life and Absenteeism in Primary Schools

LEONARD C - University of Newcastle

This paper presents a study of possible relationships between quality of school life and absenteeism of 254 Year 5 and 6 students in 19 classes at 6 Lower Hunter Valley primary schools. The Quality of School Life (Ainley & Bourke, 1992) scales were used as indicators of student satisfaction and stress. The contextual variables of gender, school, class, number of days absent and, for the majority of students, year of schooling were collected and investigated for their relationship with student absence.

The analyses indicated a strong link between student perception of the quality of their school life and absenteeism. Where students felt less stress they were absent less often than students who were more stressed. Female students were also more likely to be absent than males.

Implications of these results are then discussed including the apparent importance of positive peer relationships and an exciting and enjoyable curriculum in ensuring students have a high quality of school life. The need for the provision of support services to students who indicated a high level of dissatisfaction with their school life is also highlighted.

lim00069  Paper

Adopting a Sociocultural Perspective Towards the Research of ICT in Education

LIM C - Nanyang Technologcal University, Singapore

Research studies of ICT in education have established that ICT promotes higher order cognitive skills of evaluating arguments, analysing problems and applying what is learnt. However, many of these studies focus on single learning variables and lack detailed investigation of what actually takes place in the learning environment and its sociocultural context. By adopting a sociocultural perspective of cognition, this paper provides an account of how the theoretical framework is developed to inform the design and methods of a two-phase study of uses of WinEcon in A-level Economics courses in the United Kingdom.

Phase one is a questionnaire survey, and phase two is a collective case study of three economics departments. The unit of analysis of the study is the activity system and the focus of attention is the role of the teacher. The descriptive and interpretive account of where and how an ICT package can be situated in the economics course to promote higher order thinking skills provides accumulated and useable knowledge for the integration of ICT in education. More importantly, the paper seeks to stimulate discussions and debates regarding the pertinent issues of researching the learning frameworks of ICT integration in education.

Part F of Symposium 25
lin00025f

The New Educational Magistrate: educational governance as a transnational policy field.

LINGARD B - University of Queensland

Drawing on data drawn from each of the countries participation in the international EGSIE project, this paper develops a descriptive analysis of what have become an transnational field of educational policy. Although the countries in this study cover a very divergent set of contexts from within Europe and include the very distant national context of Australia, shared links with a developing New Educational Magistrate can be readily traced. This paper outlines ten findings on the quality and nature of the transnational field of educational policy.

Part C of Symposium 26
lin00026c

School Reform and Productive Pedagogies
School restructuring: an "insider's" perspective

LINGARD B - University of Queensland

School renewal, productive pedagogies, rich tasks, key learning areas the discourses of change in selected Queensland secondary schools. This paper will report on teaching as an insider/outsider (Smyth et al., 2000) in a school's Health and Physical Education department during a time of intense pressure for structural, curriculum and pedagogical shifts. As a long-retired Health and Physical Education teacher I moved into the school for a term as a teacher/researcher. Following the principles of ethnography, data were collected using formal and informal interviews, field notes, and document analyses with a focus upon teachers', students' and administrators' sense of change processes and outcomes. As such it will attempt to map the discourses of power to consider questions such as "What is the impact upon teachers' work?", "What sense of change do the students have?", and "How do the administrators understand they are managing change?". Following Apple (1999) and Fullan (1999), it is suggested that change processes will be best explained using both structuralist and poststructuralist perspectives.

Part C of Symposium 28
lin00028c

Where to in gender theorising and policy in education after recuperative masculinity politics?

LINGARD B - University of Queensland

This paper analyses the backlash against specific policies for girls in schooling from a pro-feminist perspective. It contextualises this backlash by considering the effects of globalisation and masculinity politics of various types. The provocation of feminist responses of various types to this situation is also considered, as well as what success in schooling is taken to mean. Feminist responses to the current situation stretch from those who underplay to those who overplay the successes for girls in schooling. The latter stance differs substantially from that of the recuperative masculinists in that this feminist response recognises the career disadvantages still experienced by women. Finally, the paper suggests some possible ways ahead for new gender equity policies in education with specific reference to considerations of social class and the achievement of a more gender equal society.

These considerations are set against the current restructuring of educational systems, schools and policy approaches: the move from a policy active state to arguably a need for policy active schools working towards a rearticulated conception of gender equity.

loc00253  Paper

Delivering Health Education via the World Wide Web: An Investigation of Collaborative Learning Environments

LOCKYER L University of Wollongong
HARPER B - University of Wollongong
PATTERSON J - University of Wollongong

This paper presents the experiences and outcomes of a project which sought to investigate the efficacy of using Web-based learning within preservice teaching health education. The study involved the pedagogical re-conceptualisation of the course; the design, development and formative evaluation of a prototype Web site to support the learning activities; and the design and implementation of experiments that explored the strengths and weaknesses of each of face-to-face and Web-based learning environments in facilitating collaborative health education learning activities.

The findings suggest Web-based learning environments with embedded collaborative activities effectively foster health-related knowledge, attitude and behaviour change. The nature of interaction among learners in different environments suggests that Web-based environments might best facilitate health education activities that explore controversial or confronting issues. Learners perceive great value in aspects of face-to-face tutorials that are not easily transferred to the Web æ particularly immediate interaction with the lecturer. Nevertheless, students perceive Web-based learning to be effective in facilitating their understanding of health education issues as much as or more than face-to-face situations.

lon00051  Paper

I've sorted it out. I told them what to do!" The Role of the Teacher in Student Conflict.

LONGARETTI L - University of Melbourne
WILSON J - University of Melbourne

The issue of aggressive behaviour and bullying in schools is receiving much media attention. Schools are continually being called upon to take action in conflict management. The teacher's role in conflict management is important for modelling and skilling children. Constructive uses of conflict as a tool for learning fosters positive interpersonal relationships and importantly encourages students to be critical and active members of the school and society.

However, the results of this study suggest that although teachers may believe that skill development is important and possible, teacher actions rely on more traditional and familiar tactics for managing student conflict rather than more constructive conflict management techniques. Not surprisingly, when students encounter conflicts they regularly seek their teachers' assistance. When students attempted to solve conflicts themselves they lacked the necessary skills.

This paper discusses findings from a study of teachers' and students' perceptions about the management of conflicts and considers the role teachers have in student conflict. The study involved semi-structured interviews and observations of teachers and year four students within a primary school setting. The data from the research suggests that conflict is not effectively managed. The details provided by this study could assist educators in planning effective conflict resolution programs.

lou00160  Paper

The Social/ Cultural Influences on Environmental Understandings of NSW School Students

LOUGHLAND T- University of Technology, Sydney
WALKER K - University of Technology, Sydney
BRADY L - University of Technology, Sydney

The study reported in this paper emerged from a concern that despite twenty years of theorising about the practice of environmental education in Australian schools it continues to be marginalised in the school curriculum. The educational problem we set out to solve was how to improve the teaching and learning of environmental education in schools and the broader community in Australia. The aims of environmental education are well documented and there is little doubt that environmental educators would agree that environmental education in schools is an important strategy in achieving environmental improvement.

Numerous curriculum programs have been developed to assist teachers in the implementation of environmental education in their classrooms. However, little is known about the environmental understandings held by children. Currently environmental programs are being developed based on assumptions of what children know and what they believe. Clearly, more effective programs could be developed if children‚s environmental understandings and beliefs were known. This paper reports on research in progress. A research instrument was developed from our qualitative data. This instrument in the form of a survey was completed by over 3 500 students in Years 3,6,8 and 11 across New South Wales.

Symposium 42. Parts A | B | C
luk00042

CRAFTING SUBJECTS: LOCAL CONTEXTS/GLOBAL IMPERATIVES - Symposium Overview

LUKE C - University of Queensland

This symposium addresses the interconnections between aspects of globalization in education and local appropriations. Papers address how increasingly global educational discourses (e.g., theory, policy, curriculum, marketing strategies, workplace restructuring, etc.) impact on local sites in the re-making of social subjects: from educational administrators, teachers, local and international students, and the preschool child. Based on current critical theories of globalization, papers begin from the assumption that the consequences and local uptakes of globalization are not uniform and consistent. These papers, therefore, investigate the variability and often contradictory dynamics of what Robertson (1995) has termed "glocalization" of educational theory, policy, and practice.

lup00405  Paper

When Gifted Boys and Girls Grow Up

LUPART J - University of Calgary

In this presentation Canadian data and current statistics will be presented to indicate the present situation concerning females and achievement. Next, a brief review of the research concerning gifted girls, women, and achievement will be covered. (DELETE:The third topic will combine the previous two topics and present the view that most) Previous research has explored biological and environmental dimensions of female achievement, however, it will be noted that the greatest attention has been given to the particular barriers girls and women face. It will be emphasized that relatively limited work has been given to factors associated with female success, particularly in mathematics and the sciences. This section will conclude with a summary of issues related to female under representation in society. In the second part of the presentation, a brief overview of three studies carried out by the author and colleagues, which are directly related to these issues, will be presented. The first is a study concerning the persistence and withdrawal of undergraduate female math majors, and the reasons for their choices to continue or opt out of math dominant majors in university. Second, a retrospective study involving highly gifted grade 11 and 12 students and their values, adult life role decision making, and achievement will be presented. Third, an on-going study of grade 7 and 10 students concerning their values and interest in math, science, English, and their perceptions of adult life role and career choices. The presentation will conclude with implications for junior high, secondary, and post-secondary education.

lup00408  Paper

When Gifted Boys and Girls Grow Up

LUPART J - University of Calgary

In this presentation Canadian data and current statistics will be presented to indicate the present situation concerning females and achievement. Next, a brief review of the research concerning gifted girls, women, and achievement will be covered. (DELETE:The third topic will combine the previous two topics and present the view that most) Previous research has explored biological and environmental dimensions of female achievement, however, it will be noted that the greatest attention has been given to the particular barriers girls and women face. It will be emphasized that relatively limited work has been given to factors associated with female success, particularly in mathematics and the sciences. This sectionwill conclude with a summary of issues related to female under representation in society.

In the second part of the presentation, a brief overview of three studies carried out by the author and colleagues, which are directly related to these issues, will be presented. The first is a study concerning the persistence and withdrawal of undergraduate female math majors, and the reasons for their choices to continue or opt out of math dominant majors in university. Second, a retrospective study involving highly gifted grade 11 and 12 students and their values, adult life role decision making, and achievement will be presented. Third, an on-going study of grade 7 and 10 students concerning their values and interest in math, science, English, and their perceptions of adult life role and career choices. The presentation will conclude with implications for junior high, secondary, and post-secondary education.

Effective implementation of new technologies: Legitimising change strategies in schools' technologies

LYNCH J - La Trobe University

Schools are commonly viewed as resistant to change. Research suggests that attempts to implement innovations in schools often fail due to the ineffective management of the innovation attempt (Fullan, 1982). This paper suggests a framework for the more effective management of change attempts in schools, drawing on research on technological innovation in education and on managing change in organisations.

As organisations, schools can be compared with large established companies. Large established companies or "big old firms" (Dougherty & Heller, 1994) are characterised by their institutionalised practices, a quality which can be seen as producing rigidity or inertia. Schools are similarly characterised by institutionalised beliefs and behaviours. Writing within the context of product innovation, Dougherty and Heller (1994) classified activities of effective product innovation into three categories: (1) making links between the market and technological possibilities in the design, (2) making links between the expertise of different functions within the firm and (3) making links between the new product with the firm's strategy and resources. Making these links is difficult in big old firms because the links are seen as illegitimate within the institutional practices that characterise their organisation. However, these links can be legitimised by appropriate management strategies.

This paper explores the degree to which Dougherty and Heller's framework can be applied to schools, and the implication of this application for managing innovation and change in schools.

lyn00288  Paper

Kindergarten children's phonological processing abilities and their prediction of early reading acquisition.

LYNN S - University of Newcastle

This paper provides a cross-sectional review of 129 Kindergarten children's scores on a range of phonological processing tasks and their prediction of early reading achievement. This data provides the basis for a longitudinal study exploring reciprocal causal influences of phonological processing abilities on early reading acquisition.

The pattern of children's scores was examined across the variety of tasks for two types of phonological processing, namely, phonological awareness and phonological coding. The results were explored for the pattern of development of these phonological processing abilities in relation to the length of the sound unit, i.e., syllables, sub-syllables (onsets and rimes) and phonemes, and for the position of sound units, i.e., in the initial, medial or final positions.

Data were analysed using LISREL and linear regression analyses. Phonological synthesis and analysis tasks made unique contributions to the percentage of variance explained in the beginning reading measures, as did rapid naming ability. Working memory did not make a significant unique contribution to any of the reading measures at the Kindergarten level. Significant paths were found in the overall model, supporting the primacy of word recognition in the development of early comprehension skills.

Part C of Symposium 21
mac00021c

Passion and responsibility in qualitative research: a dispassionate reflection and a deliberative reconstruction - Symposium Overview.

MACPHERSON I - Queensland University of Technology

This session seeks to step back from the subjective passion usually associated with qualitative research efforts and to provide a more dispassionate reflection of these efforts. Matters of purpose, process and product in qualitative research efforts will be discussed with respect to what might be termed research responsibilities. These responsibilities will be framed in the session by the following: Disclosing ontological positions and political agendas underling the research (cf PURPOSE) Discussing ways of conducting the research which are ontologically consonant, methodologically transparent and ethically defensible (cf PROCESS) Deliberating about how to communicate the research experiences and outcomes in ways that are critical and credible on the one hand and compassionate and constructive on the other (cf PRODUCT). Each presenter will address these responsibilities with reference to specific qualitative research projects and using the framing as outlined above.

Thus, there will be a brief introductory paper, followed by three short research reports (one by each presenter). The discussant will provide a critical commentary of the introductory paper and the three research reports.

Session participants will then be invited to engage in small group conversations and to generate ideas about maintaining both passion and responsibility in qualitative research efforts. A synthesis of ideas emerging from these small group conversations will be facilitated by the discussant. The session will conclude with open discussion. Overall, the session will hopefully provide a platform for ongoing discussion via E Mail.

Part D of Symposium 30
mac00030d

Physical Bodies: Gender and Physical Activity
Gender agenda for physical culture in the 21st Century

MACDONALD D - University of Queensland

[No abstract available.]

Part B of Symposium 9
mac00009b

Title to be notified.

MACK L - Edith Cowan University
GODFREY J - Edith Cowan University

A major part of the research is to be conducted in remote communities and their schools. Cooperation will be sought from the community members and the teachers. Researchers will need to travel to the communities and spend time gaining the confidence of the participants and gathering data. While there are commonalities in the aims of the research and the phenomena of investigation, differences among the communities, the curriculum content, the student mix and the characteristics of the teaching staff will need to be taken into account in the research process and data gathering. In this paper, the authors examine steps that can be taken to ensure sound research methods.

Symposium 21: Part A | B | C | D
mac00021  Paper

Passion and responsibility in qualitative research: a dispassionate reflection and a deliberative reconstruction - Symposium Overview.

MACPHERSON I - Queensland University of Technology

This session seeks to step back from the subjective passion usually associated with qualitative research efforts and to provide a more dispassionate reflection of these efforts. Matters of purpose, process and product in qualitative research efforts will be discussed with respect to what might be termed research responsibilities. These responsibilities will be framed in the session by the following: Disclosing ontological positions and political agendas underling the research (cf PURPOSE) Discussing ways of conducting the research which are ontologically consonant, methodologically transparent and ethically defensible (cf PROCESS) Deliberating about how to communicate the research experiences and outcomes in ways that are critical and credible on the one hand and compassionate and constructive on the other (cf PRODUCT). Each presenter will address these responsibilities with reference to specific qualitative research projects and using the framing as outlined above.

Thus, there will be a brief introductory paper, followed by three short research reports (one by each presenter). The discussant will provide a critical commentary of the introductory paper and the three research reports.

Session participants will then be invited to engage in small group conversations and to generate ideas about maintaining both passion and responsibility in qualitative research efforts.

A synthesis of ideas emerging from these small group conversations will be facilitated by the discussant. The session will conclude with open discussion. Overall, the session will hopefully provide a platform for ongoing discussion via E Mail.

Part A of Synposium 21
mac00021a

Passion and responsibility in qualitative research: a dispassionate reflection and a deliberative reconstruction - Symposium Overview.

MACPHERSON I - Queensland University of Technology
BROOKER, R - Queensland University of Technology
Aspland, T - Queensland University of Technology

Part B of Synposium 21
mac00021b

Passion and responsibility in qualitative research: a dispassionate reflection and a deliberative reconstruction.

MACPHERSON I - Queensland University of Technology
BROOKER, R - Queensland University of Technology
Aspland, T - Queensland University of Technology

Tania will focus on her doctoral work with overseas women being supervised in higher degrees here in Australia,

Part D of Synposium 21
mac00021d

Passion and responsibility in qualitative research: a dispassionate reflection and a deliberative reconstruction.

MACPHERSON I - Queensland University of Technology
BROOKER, R - Queensland University of Technology
Aspland, T - Queensland University of Technology

Ian will relate to his work in three schools with teachers, parents and students concerning their partnership roles in curriculum decision-making.

Part F of Symposium 46
mac046f  [Paper]

Interrogating Collaborative Research - Who is Inside and Who is Out?
Is there a future for collaborative research?

MACPHERSON I - Queensland University of Technology
ASPLAND T - Queensland University of Technology
BROOKER R - Queensland University of Technology

This paper reports a conversation between researchers who have engaged in a number of collaborative research efforts (mostly within a critical collaborative Action Research approach) in the last decade of the twentieth century. As they continue their work into the twenty-first century, they reflect on their efforts and ask what they have learned about doing collaborative research. They agree that their efforts have produced understandings and skills about establishing research partnerships and negotiating research agendas. They even declare that they have made advances about the collaborative ways research data can be analysed and interpreted. However, they raise serious questions about the feasibility of maintaining and sustaining research partnerships through a fuller and more complete research cycle which includes both applications of analyses and interpretations in local practice and advocacy within systemic and policy contexts.

Part B of Symposium 5 |
mal00005b

Quality assurance in early childhood programs: The rhetoric and the reality.

MALONEY C- Edith Cowan University
BARBLETT L - Edith Cowan University

For decades early childhood teachers have been autonomous in ensuring they deliver quality programs for young children in their care. More recently, shifts in educational policy and decentralisation of school administration have left matters of quality assurance to individual schools. This paper explores the current practices used to assess the quality of early childhood programs at a system, school and individual level and raises concerns regarding their suitability. In addition, the paper suggests alternative procedures that are more likely to result in quality assurance and the promotion of quality programs in early childhood education.

Part E of Symposium 5
mal00005e

Establishing Routines and Rituals: Liberating or Controlling?

MALONEY C - Edith Cowan University

Routines and rituals are part of a successfully functioning classroom in that they structure teaching and serve a pedagogical purpose for teachers. However, not all routines and rituals are helpful. This paper is based on research conducted in pre-primary classrooms that investigated the forms and functions of routines and rituals used by teachers in their day to day activities. Findings indicate that routines and rituals can be both mindless and profound experiences and have the potential to both inspire and oppress teachers as they go about their business.

Symposium 6 Part A | B | C | D
mal00006

Early childhood Literacy - Symposium Overview.

ARTHUR L

Literacy continues to be a topical issue in education. As assessment of children's literacies becomes a focal point of primary schooling, attention is often drawn to early literacy practices as a means of influencing later literacy outcomes for children from diverse backgrounds. The research presented in this symposium challenges general definitions of literacy and their relevance for young children. It considers literacy from a range of perspectives related to young children, the literacies of their teachers and the practices that either embody or challenge the pervading views of literacy, literacy learning and worthwhile literacy practices in early childhood.

mal00107  Paper

Re-visioning the learning process online

MALONE P - Australian Catholic University

This paper will explore the use of on-line learning processes for undergraduate and postgraduate units that are web enhanced and compare these with web based postgraduate units that are completely taught on-line. It will draw on the framework developed by Billings(2000) to evaluate the'dynamic interaction' of the various aspects of the technology and the teaching learning practices of web based learning. It will explore the extent to which such learning processes can promote the development of a 'knowledge ecology' (Lewis, 2000) and the quality of the learning paradigms that underpin such approaches. It will particularly focus on the role of the instructors to develop a conceptual map of the learning process and incorporate appropriate communication processes and structures into the unit being offered. It will examine the specific implications for developing on-line units in the field of religious education.

The paper is concerned with developing a vision, an understanding of the learning process which draws on the availability of information but is concerned with the use of information to enable students to develop knowledge and ultimately understanding and wisdom.

mar00278  Paper

The secularisation of divine right: ethics, research, and management

MARGETSON D - Griffith University

Among other developments affecting the restructuring of universities, recent industrial relations law has tended to centralise power in the hands of management. This shift is apparently welcomed by some university managers. The corporatisation of universities, in stating financial return as the god which may not be questioned, has cleared the way for a thoroughly technicist approach to management. The end of financial return being beyond question, the only permissible questions remaining are those of how to serve, with maximum efficiency, the given end. Defended in terms of 'maintaining global competitiveness', and the like, this approach is assumed to promote the good of freeing managers to engage in efficient executive decision-making. The implied ethical justification is utilitarian, narrowly defined. The resulting practice, operationalised as 'managerial prerogative', appears increasingly as a form of secularised divine right of managers to rule however they wish. This casts doubt on the practice in regard not only to its assumed ethical justification, but also to its damaging effects on crucially valuable contributions academic work could make to society. The paper makes use of a case study in research and research-management to illustrate the problem.

mar00540  Paper

Children's adjustment to the first year of schooling: Indicators of hyperactivity, internalising and externalising behaviours

MARGETTS K - University of Melbourne

The transition to the first year of schooling can be a critical factor for children's adjustment to the demands of the school environment and in determining future school success. When children experience social and behavioural problems in the early years of school, they are more likely to continue experiencing these problems throughout their schooling. The identification of behaviours that indicate adjustment can assist early childhood staff in identifying children at risk of maladjustment, and in the implementation of appropriate intervention strategies. This paper will explore work-in-progress involving confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modelling using LISREL to identify items that contribute to constructs of hyperactivity, internalising and externalising behaviour, and to identify the relative contribution of each of these items to the adjustment domain of problem behaviour.

mas00354  Paper

Community driven practice: community educators in the East Timorese community of Sydney work towards reconstructing cultural education.

MASKELL J - University of Sydney
EZUQUIEL N - St. Marys

This is the story of a Community driven reflective teaching cycle &emdash; beginning with the question "what needs to be done? what aspects of culture are to be developed as curriculum? Complexities relating to pedagogy and language decisions in Timor are part of the story of this community driven activity. Educators from Mary McKillop Institute of East Timorese Studies and the East Timorese Cultural Centre have worked to develop cultural knowledge from elders to become curriculum materials in Timor LoroSae. The program began with the long term goal that community members (from Sydney) will return to Timor Loro Sae to teach children and to strengthen Tetun language.

may00311  Paper

Using information and communication technologies in a teacher education internship.

MAYER D - University of Queensland

Traditional practicum experiences in preservice teacher education are often characterised by disconnection. Preservice teachers are disconnected from university faculty and coursework, as well as from their peers. The university-based supervisor attempts to bridge the two contexts of preservice teacher education (schools and universities) and facilitate the learning to teach processes of preservice teachers. Traditionally they have done this during visits to schools while preservice teachers are completing practicum experiences, a situation which places high importance on the value of face to face communication. This is becoming increasingly difficult to maintain amidst the prevailing climate of fiscal restraint.

It is within this context that this paper explores the possibilities of using information and communication technologies (ICT) in the practicum component of preservice teacher education. It draws on research conducted at an Australian university which investigated the use of electronic bulletin board discussion groups by preservice teachers and university lecturers while the preservice teachers were completing an internship towards the end of their teacher preparation program. The paper discusses the benefits and challenges as reported by the participants in interviews, draws on the actual text of the electronic communication, and analyses the findings in relation to the current literature on supervision in the practicum and facilitating learning to teach in preservice teacher education.

mcc00072  Paper

Religious orientation and locus of control in an Australian Open Enrolment Christian School

John McCormick, Katherine Hoekman and Denis Smith
School of Education The University of New South Wales

This study extended earlier research into religious orientation and locus of control of church congregations in the United States to an open enrolment Christian school in Sydney, Australia. Relationships of the former with the perceived influence of the school on religious beliefs, the extent of 'feeling near to God at school' and the socioeconomic status of students were explored. Results suggested that the perceived influence of the school and the sense of feeling close to God at school were the strongest predictors of intrinsic orientation.

Religious orientation has been defined as the extent to which a person lives out his/her religious beliefs (Allport & Ross, 1967). A person with a strong internal religious orientation tends to seek to live day to day life according to her/his religion. On the other hand, a person with a strong extrinsic religious orientation may be more influenced by other social forces and tend to participate in religious activities to meet personal needs, for example, social affiliation, or for personal advantage (Allport, & Ross, 1967). Allport's original conceptualisation of religious orientation combined religious beliefs, behaviours and motivation (Allport, 1966). More recently, some writers (e.g., Fulton, Gorsuch, & Maynard, 1999; Gorsuch, 1994; Gorsuch & McPherson, 1989; Gorsuch, Mylvaganam, Gorsuch & Johnson, 1997) have argued that motivation is the most appropriate rubric under which to place religious orientation.

mcd00068  Paper

Education Leaders or Followers: The Administration of Catholic Education Systems and Federal Government Education Policy.

MCDONALD E - Macquarie University

Australian Catholic education has had a history of mixed relationships with governments, both State and Federal, concerning issues of funding and curriculum, but throughout its history it has declared ideals of "autonomy" in the provision of an education that is "distinctly Catholic". By the late 1990s Catholic education had a heavy reliance on Commonwealth Government funding. In addition, Federal Government policies, such as literacy and vocational education, were targeting specific outcomes in schools.

This paper reports the findings of a study of the role of three Catholic school system's administrative centres, the Catholic Education Offices (CEOs) in relation to these policies. Within their respective State education contexts, the CEOs interpreted, mediated, and overwrote the two Federal Government education policies. Further, the CEOs structured the policy enactment process in the schools.

The findings of the study suggest that policy researchers and public policy designers should give attention to the influence of school administrative centres on policy implementation. Catholic school system administrators have a complex role in the present policy and economic environment -- one that will demand vigilance if they desire to provide educational and values leadership to Catholic schools.

mcd00101  Paper

Metaxis in classroom research: Why Chicken Little ran away

MCDONALD L - Australian Catholic University
SIMPSON A - Australian Catholic University

The discourse of participant/observer often silences the difficulties inherent in a research paradigm that assumes the possibility of multiplicity without overtly acknowledging it. This presentation problematises the role of participant/observer in research in schools. Examples are drawn from a pilot study which utilised a research spiral involving teachers, university lecturers, school students and trainee teachers in two countries.

The first stage of the study took place in Kindergarten classes in Cambridge, England and Sydney and involved the children in a sequence of drama activities centered on a literary text. The research aim was to extend the theory base of critical literacy learning and of drama teaching in the early years of school. In the second stage of the study the videos made of the drama lessons were edited and shown to trainee teachers to exemplify significant moments, which occur as a result of varied drama processes. Our research purpose was to extend students repertoire of literacy classroom practices.

During the process of the study we became aware of various points of tension amongst the roles of researcher/participant/observer. The paper presents a critique of tension points that will be illustrated using a videoed scene from the classroom drama work.

mcf00148  Paper

Chance, Illusion and Engagement

MCFADDEN M - Charles Sturt University
MUNNS G - University of Western Sydney, Macarthur

Much attention is being currently focussed on the kinds of classroom pedagogies that will be productive for students from low socio-economic backgrounds. While recognising that relationships between poor students and teachers is a key place where educational differences can be made, this paper draws attention to critical issues of enduring resistance in schools serving poor communities. Here classrooms are often places where students have little interest in becoming engaged with any classroom practices, no matter how well intentioned and how emancipatory they may seem to their teachers and schools. The continuing challenge for teachers and policymakers is to consider how, when school resistance is persistent and culturally supported, that disengaged students may be encouraged to take up offers of educational success when many clearly view these offers as illusionary.

mcg00120  Paper

A Sting in the Tale: The Use of Anecdote as a Research Tool

MCGILL M - University of Tasmania

Narrative, teacher stories and critical incidents have been used for a number of years as research tools to access memories and reflections on experiences as learners and teachers. Anecdote, a specific form of story writing, is another 'tool' in this genre of narrative writing which can be used to spotlight, magnify and explore events and their meaning in teachers' lives.

This paper describes research in progress in the use of anecdote as a means of accessing and using the reflective process by beginning, up-grading and post-graduate students in the Faculty of Education at the University of Tasmania. But why the use of anecdote? This form of narrative is used because of the very specific 'grammar'ie key features, brevity, immediacy and personal perspective, and the punch line: the sting in the tale.

mcg00286  Paper

Building Success:A Queensland HighSchool Strategic Initiative Project.

MCGINTY S - James Cook University
BYRNE T - Teacher, Kirwan High School
FREE. R - Teacher, Kirwan High School

The "Building Success" action research project began at Kirwan High School in 2000. It involved a group of teachers, support staff, students and members of the wider community addressing the challenges of developing innovative pedagogies for 'at-risk' year nine students with patterns of truancy and behaviour problems in year eight.

The program ran within the school's structure and on the same campus. Students met curriculum outcomes through a significant reconceptualisationof the curriculum framework and integration of their core subjects - English, Maths, Science and Social Science through practical projects unrestrained by timetables and walls. Curriculum was student centered and the types of projects were negotiated with the students. Assessment was also negotiated. Students had the opportunity to engage in work throughlinks with business, university and TAFE. Technology was integrated throughout the curriculum. Authentic involvement was the basis of the program.

Students involved in the program were selected for the following reasons: exhibiting low attendance and participation rates, were at-risk of not completing their schooling, and failing to achieve academic success. Selection was a consultative process between parent, student and teachers. A report on the program's conceptualisation, development, implementation and future will be given.

mcg00524  Paper

Changing university teaching and curriculum: Points of reference for university teachers

MCGINTY S - James Cook University
MCTAGGART R - James Cook University

Quality teaching and quality curriculum are deeply intricated and interwoven. However, efforts to enhance students' experience of university tend to focus on the improvement of teaching and curriculum development as if they were somewhat disparate activities (Ramsden, 1992; Martin, 1997). At the very least, the discourses of university teaching, university curriculum, and the curriculum field pass like ships in the night.

The aim of this research is to understand how enhancing teaching constructs changes in the curriculum as it is experienced in practice. How does the focus on changing teaching in staff development change the ways in which staff relate to students? How does this focus change the ways in which knowledge is interpreted, organised and engaged in and how is the dialogue between teacher and taught different? As well as studying how changes in teaching diffuse through and relate to other educational sub-practices (administration, staff development, evaluation and research), the study will examine the points of reference university teachers use in reflecting on their practice. What constructs the aspiration and intention to change? But aspiration and intention are framed and occur amidst the exigencies, habits and customs of political life. What does the real politik of university life nurture and inhibit in teaching? These understandings will be crucial to informing and revitalising academic staff development and lay the foundation for further collaborative inter-institutional action research projects.

mci00154  Paper

What does it mean to teach in socially just ways? A reading from an ethnographic account of Wattle Plains School

MCINERNEY P - Flinders Institute for the Study of teaching

A belief that public schooling can contribute to the development of a more just society has long underpinned school reform in Australia-indeed the very foundations of the Disadvantaged Schools Program rested on the view that schooling could make a difference for students. But what are the major discourses informing school-based responses to social justice today? What kinds of school structures and practices support a culture of school reform around socially just curriculum? In the context of a devolving school system it appears that teachers, working in cooperation with parents and students, are the ones who have to make sense of the complexity of social justice issues in schools and the broader community

This paper reports on a recent critical ethnographic study of a school community which in many respects is working against a prevailing discourse of marketisation in its attempts to sustain a commitment to social justice. School reform at Wattle Plains is situated within social justice discourses linked to globalisation, the ascendancy of neo liberal governments, the emergence of new social movements and the persistence of material inequalities in Australian society. The account focuses on whole school reform and the attempt to sustain socially just curriculum through the development of critical literacies in the arts and multicultural education. Finally, the paper explores the problematic aspects of school reform in the current political and economic climate.

Symposium 20: A | B | C
mcl00020

Negotiating Whiteness and Other Identifications - Symposium Overview.

MCLEOD J - Deakin University
YATES L - University of Technology, Sydney

In White Nation: Fantasies of White Supremacy in a Multicultural Society (1998), Ghassan Hage argues that 'both White racists and White multiculturalists share a conception of themselves as nationalists and of the nation as a space structured around a White culture, where Aboriginal people and non-White 'ethnics' are merely national objects to be moved or removed according to a White national will' (p.18). Even though Whiteness and Australianness might be experienced as if they are neat opposites, Hage argues that they are not necessarily 'governed by an either/or logic' (p.20). Whiteness is not simply a fixed and given category of identity. Rather, Whiteness is both a fantasy and an aspiration: a constellation of attributes, ways of being and identifications that can be accumulated, in the Bourdieu-ian sense, whereby one might aspire to acquire-diligently and with varying success -certain prestigious forms of cultural capital.

In this symposium, the papers explore identifications of White and Other in different cultural sites, and examine the construction, intersection and effects of discourses of nation, race, ethnicity and racism. There is a particular interest in understanding these discourses in relation to processes and practices of identity formation and in working against reifying single binaries of racist/non-racist and White/Other.

Part C of Symposium 20
mcl00020c  Paper

Young people and the politics of racial discourse .

MCLEOD J - Deakin University
YATES L - University of Technology, Sydney

This paper addresses the political beliefs held by four different groups of 15 and 16 year old Australian school students, focussing particularly on how they represent and reflect on issues of racism, nationalism, individualism and unemployment. (These interviews were conducted as part of the '12 to 18 Project', a qualitative, longitudinal study of Australian secondary school students.) Our purpose in these interviews was not so much to find out if students held racist views, as it was to understand how they formulated discourses, for example, on race or nationalism, how these intersected with their views on other topics, and how they positioned themselves discursively-as 'Australian', as 'Other'. We examine the similarities and contrasts in students' political views and forms of reasoning, and consider these in relation to the type of school they attended, their life history and cultural and class background. This paper thus analyses the way discourses, for example, about racism, freedom of speech, individual rights and unemployment, intersect and have distinct forms and effects in different sites and among different groups of young people. And it explores the intersection of these discourses with practices of self-formation.

mcm00223  Paper

Aligning learning theory with curriculum design in hospital-based post graduate nursing courses: Getting the "optimal outcome"

MCMULLEN P - University of Newcastle
CANTWELL R - University of Newcastle

Advances in the provision of health care and the proliferation of biomedical technology has influenced the emergence of specialty areas within the health care sector. This is particularly evident in critical care nursing. For nurses to function competently in critical care areas, they must acquire and utilize a specialist knowledge base incorporating higher-order domain knowledge and domain related strategies. While some research has been conducted investigating the breadth of post-basic study in nursing (eg. Russell, Gerthing & Convery 1997), there has been very little research focussing on the nature of student learning nor the underlying curriculum assumptions of post basic nurse education.

In the current paper, a framework for investigating the quality of post-basic nurse education is proposed. This model focusses on the notion of "curriculum integration" (Brophy, 1999) - that is, the congruence between curriculum structure and learner attributes - as a conceptual underpinning for analysis of the implementation of a post basic nursing course. It is suggested that Biggs' (2000) "3P" model of student learning provides a descriptive mechanism allowing for the evaluation of the congruence between learner, instructor and curriculum components in the design and implementation of a specific post basic nursing course in critical care nursing.

mcs00479  Paper

Self-Perceptions of University Lecturers Who Teach in Live and Online Contexts

MCSHANE K - La Trobe University

By telling stories, we make identity claims (Ronai, 1997). This paper explores the self-perceptions of a group of university lecturers who teach using a combination of face-to-face and online modes. In this pilot phase of the research, I am undertaking interpretative analysis of case study material to explore how experienced lecturers perceive their teaching selves in live and online teaching contexts and how their teaching identities are being transformed through the experience of online teaching.

In conversations with me, the participants are encouraged to articulate and reflect on their teaching selves as represented in website material, computer-mediated communication and face-to-face teaching/learning contexts. I will discuss several extracts from participants' stories to illustrate how narrative analysis is being used, and to highlight some of the research issues. I will conclude the paper with an outline of the implications for the next phase of the study.

The larger study on which my paper is based aims to understand how academics who engage in online teaching may adapt to the changed circumstances it entails, and in doing so find new meaning and purpose in their role and identity as teachers.

mcw00133  Paper

Design Education and the Production of Culture

MCWHINNE L - University of Technology, Sydney and University of New South Wales

This paper will report on a pilot study designed and undertaken by the researcher, utilising a questionnaire to sample 400 first and second year graphic design students from two metropolitan universities. The first stage of data collection was used to address issues such as the demographic background of the student population and the factors involved in university selection and course expectations. From here, the research will progress in the form of a naturalistic inquiry entailing individual and group interviews with a small sample of international students drawn from the population of the pilot study. At this stage, the researcher anticipates emergent issues to include those of identity and subjectivity. This paper draws upon the researcher _s background as a design lecturer in the UK and most recently Australia, and the experiences gained during a two and a half-year educational secondment to Malaysia.

Part B Symposium 1
mel00001b  Paper

Research literacies and enlarging 'ethnos' within migrant English teaching.

MELLES G - Deakin University

Literacies in plural seems a much more appropriate response to the kinds of narratives ESL teachers construct in their engagement and rejection of calls for research action within multicultural migrant teaching spaces. There is a pragmatic 'knife' sharpened by high contact classroom encounters with acculturation and second language acquisition that searches and often finds normative research 'distance' inadequate to dialogue, collectivity, and history both of self and others. I suggest that enlarging the Rortian 'ethnos' through engaging others involves selecting the communities one wants to belong to or which one wants to observe (with a view possibly to joining) and identifying the vocabularies in use. It also means unpacking this project against/within a background of diverse language literacies interpreted by our own current ethnocentrism. The desire for solidarity and recontextualization I look for is a story I want to tell to others.

mel00525  Paper

The rights of the child: a comment on rights as a basis for practice in early childhood education

MELVILLE JONES H - Edith Cowan University

This paper discusses the notion of children as possessors of rights and the relationship of this view to programmes in early childhood education. It considers in particular the use of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child to support a Vygotskyan approach to practice by early childhood professionals. The paper highlights the issue of controversy surrounding the Convention, particularly its focus on choice rights for the autonomous child. It argues that the Convention is ambiguous and that it lacks balance. For both of these reasons the case for using rights as a basis for practice in early childhood education is weakened by its use of the Convention as a means of support.

Symposium 36: A | B | C | D
men00036

The impact of national benchmarks on visions of learning - Symposium Overview

MENDELOVITS J - Australian Council for Education

Overview of symposium: The symposium provides an opportunity for participants to discuss, with professional test developers, the nature, impact and implications of using national benchmarks on assessment in Australian schools and on learning in the longer term. The contributors will address the following topics:

1. Benchmarks: definition, context and consequences.;
2. A collaborative process for setting cut-scores in reading and writing - a participant's perspective;
3. Case studies: the operational end of developing literacy tests to address benchmarks - test developers' perspectives; and
4. International perspectives on benchmarks and standards in numeracy - a researcher's perspective.

Organisation plan

The symposium will begin with a brief description of some of the issues surrounding the setting of benchmarks in Australia, the methodology by which this has been carried out for literacy, and some of the consequences for system-level testing.

Each presenter will speak for approximately 10 minutes describing and illustrating their work, and raising particular challenges for exploration. Fifteen minutes will be set aside for open discussion.

Part A of Symposium 36
men00036a

The impact of national benchmarks on visions of learning Benchmarking: definition, context and consequences

MENDELOVITS J- Australian Council for Education
MASTERS G- Australian Council for Education

Setting benchmarks became an issue in the Australian education context when the results of the National Survey of English Literacy were reported, with a federal initiative to set standards of achievement for students at key stages in primary education. The Curriculum Corporation co-ordinated collaborative activities to set national benchmarks for literacy and numeracy.

MCEETYA then established a Benchmarking Taskforce which used a combination of several methodologies to set cut-scores on system-level tests which reflect national benchmarks. This paper will describe this process and discuss some of the issues involved, pointing to possible consequences for teaching and learning in Australia.

mil00110  Paper

Restructuring and reculturing schools: Addressing the data.

MILLWATER J - Queensland University of Technology
YARROW A - Queensland University of Technology
SHORT J - Queensland University of Technology

In researching in a project of three Australian schools, initiated through an ARC grant with National Schools' Network, a university professional development team collected a myriad of data. In order to clearly see what all of the data was telling us about changes in pedagogy,teacher work, teacher culture, student culture and student learning outcomes a method was developed for generating a set of findings.

This paper shows how data were analyses against the enabling factors selected from the literature, viz, professional development; collegiality and collaboration; leadership; teacher and student empowerment; and organisation and personal characteristics. Interesting commonalities and differences in outcomes are reported.

mor00211  Paper

School - university partnerships: An exploration of the perceptions of teachers concerning involvement in teacher education

MORAN W - Australian Catholic University
LONG J - Australian Catholic University
NETTLE T - Australian Catholic University

Much has been written about the nature of existing partnerships in teacher education which go far beyond the limited involvement in practice teaching that was once the norm in teacher education. However, because most partnerships have been designed by university based teacher educators and school administrators, the classroom teachers' voice has largely been absent. On the few occasions where the teachers' voice has been heard, it has been at best ambivalent.

This paper attempts to give teachers a voice by asking the question: how do teachers perceive preservice teacher education and their role within it? One hundred and seven teachers in six primary schools in the Parramatta Catholic Diocese of Sydney were surveyed. They were asked four broad questions about their perceptions of: recent changes in teaching; possible changes in teacher education; their role within teacher education, and the possible benefits of involvement in teacher education for themselves, their class and their school. The results of this initial exploration have relevance for the planning of school - university partnerships for the professional development of both preservice and practicing teachers.

Part E of Symposium 25
mor00025  Paper

Teachers' understanding of educational inclusion and exclusion: A discursive analysis.

MORRISON K - University of Newcastle

This paper draws on interviews with teachers that were conducted as part of the EGSIE-Australia project which sought to empirically investigate the relationships bewteen education governance and social inclusion and exclusion. The teacher sample was a national group of principals, head teachers, and teachers, who were identified by their ongoing commitment to, and practical work with, educational disadvantage and social inclusion and exclusion in schools and the wider community.

The paper explores how these teachers made sense of categories such a 'marginalisation' and 'disadvantage', seeking to highlight the implications for practice for the ways in which teachers use such categories to understand the limits (and possibilities) of their own practice within current contexts and shifts in educational governance. It also reports on changes in the ways in which educational governance has impacted at the level of practice, as reported by these educational practitioners and demonstrates the frontiers of our discursive understandings of social inclusion and exclusion.

Symposium 19: Part A | B | C | D
mun00019

"Fair Go Fair Share Fair Say Fair Content" Pedagogies in DSP Schools in Sydney's South West - Symposium Overview.

MUNNS G - University of Western Sydney, Macarthur
JOHNSON K - DET

This symposium reports on a pilot research project being undertaken in DSP schools in Sydney's South West. The schools have been identified by the NSW DSP because they have taken up pedagogical approaches that the NSW DSP believes will benefit students from low socio-economic backgrounds. These approaches have been facilitated by current NSW DSP action areas of classroom and school organisation, quality teaching and learning and home-school congruence. The research utilises combinations of case study and action research methodologies. Features of the research are that it is collaborative (NSW DSP consultancy teams, university researchers, teachers, students, and community members), has lateral coordination of data (cross site comparisons through different theoretical lens) and site interactivity (all participants having voice and involvement). Participants in the symposium are representative of the whole research team and will include NSW DSP consultancy teams, school members (including teachers, students and community members) and university researchers.

part A of Symposium 19
mun00019a

"Fair Go Fair Share Fair Say Fair Content" Pedagogies in DSP Schools in Sydney's South West.

MUNNS G - University of Western Sydney, Macarthur
JOHNSON K - DET

This symposium reports on a pilot research project being undertaken in
DSP schools in Sydney's South West.
Findings to be presented.

part B of Symposium 19
mun00019b

"Fair Go Fair Share Fair Say Fair Content" Pedagogies in DSP Schools in Sydney's South West.

MUNNS G - University of Western Sydney, Macarthur
JOHNSON K - DET

This symposium reports on a pilot research project being undertaken in
DSP schools in Sydney's South West.
Findings to be presented.

part C of Symposium 19
mun00019c

"Fair Go Fair Share Fair Say Fair Content" Pedagogies in DSP Schools in Sydney's South West.

MUNNS G - University of Western Sydney, Macarthur
JOHNSON K - DET

This symposium reports on a pilot research project being undertaken in
DSP schools in Sydney's South West.
Findings to be presented.

part D of Symposium 19
mun00019d

"Fair Go Fair Share Fair Say Fair Content" Pedagogies in DSP Schools in Sydney's South West.

MUNNS G - University of Western Sydney, Macarthur
JOHNSON K - DET

This symposium reports on a pilot research project being undertaken in
DSP schools in Sydney's South West.
Findings to be presented.

mur00178  Paper

Problem-based learning in teacher education: Just the beginning!

MURRAY-HARVEY R - Flinders University
SLEE P - Flinders University

Despite the efforts of teaching staff to help students make connections and apply their on-campus learning to life in the classroom there exists a separation of these two worlds. While the literature on problem-based learning (PBL) in teacher education is scarce there is extensive literature in other fields providing evidence that better connections can be forged between these two worlds by using a PBL approach. A modification of our teacher education program provided the opportunity to introduce an innovation into the program. Two cases were developed with classroom teachers to challenge students to solve real-world teaching/learning problems that crossed topic boundaries. PBL tutorials were introduced as an alternative format to the mainstream seminar program in the third year subject "Development, Learning and Teaching."

This paper describes the process of developing the cases, implementing the PBL approach, andevaluating the outcomes. The authors are optimistic that the success of the PBL approach in connecting this topic to the students' practicum experience will pave the way for its adoption in other key areas of the teacher education program.

nan00111  Paper

A Virtual Tutorial - Engagement and Encounter in an On-line

NANLOHY P - University of Western Sydney, Macarthur
MUNNS G - University of Western Sydney, Macarthur

This case study describes the implementation of an asynchronous discussion board as a vehicle for in depth consideration of pedagogical issues within a pre-service teacher education subject. The study uses evidence gathered with a range of methods from participants over a number of cohorts to examine students understanding of content issues, the nature of on-line interactions and the development of learning communities. Decisions about the design of the learning environment and the freedoms and responsibilities of the participating lecturers and students are described and related to the literature (McAteer et al, 1997; Hedberg, J. et al. 1998; Levin, 1999). Drawing on a number of theoretical models (Gunawardena, Lowe, & Anderson, 1997; Wilson and Whitelock, 1997) and a framework developed by Henri (McLoughlin and Luca, 1999) an analysis is made of the discussion board transcripts. The results suggest that the structured probe and response organisation of the board and the cooperative grouping of student and lecturer participants generated deep consideration of subject content, a spontaneous and energetic communication and the development of a self regulating learning community.

nas00383

Mathematical and scientific visual representations: Are they really worth 1000 words?

NASON R - Queensland University of Technology
KIDMAN G - Queensland University of Technology

In this paper, mathematical and scientific visual representations from two Integrated Learning Systems (ILS's) will be analysed using a set of principles generated from a review of the research literature from the fields of mathematics education, science education, cognitive science, computer-aided learning, computer graphic design and semiotics. Based on this analysis, the audience will discover that visual representations found in ILS's and other educational software, may be visually attractive, but may also be useless and seditious.

part C of Symposium 45
nea00045c

Successful integration of learning technologies in school classrooms (SILT)
Enhancing learning and student engagement in the middle-years.

NEAL G - University of Sydney

This study is integrated with the MYRAD project to work with schools in the use of learning technologies to enhance student engagement and student learning in the middle years.

ng00139  Paper

Motivational and learning processes of university students in a distance mode of learning: An achievement goal perspective

NG C- The Open University of Hong Kong

This research investigates the complex relationships between the motivational and learning processes of university students in a distance learning mode. Research on why and how Chinese distance learners engage in learning has been limited. Using the achievement goal theory as a research framework, the current study explores the motivational and learning characteristics of a group of distance learners. It is hypothesized that the nature of distance education will lead to specific goal profiles in the students involved, which will subsequently affect their use of various learning and self-regulating strategies, and subsequently their learning outcomes. This paper reports the findings from a survey study, which is part of a larger longitudinal study investigating the learning processes of Chinese distance learners studying at the Open University of Hong Kong 549 undergraduate students enrolled in an educational psychology course completed a questionnaire assessing their achievement goals, learning strategies, self-regulatory strategies and attitudes towards the course.

The results revealed that achievement goals operated as a frame affecting how these distance learners approached their learning and how they perceived the course. The significance of this study lies in that it provides an initial understanding of the motivational and learning processes of the Chinese distance learners. It also extends the research of achievement goal theory by exploring the effects of certain goals often found among distance learners.

ng00153  Paper

A cross-cultural comparison of the effects of self-schema on learning engagement

NG C- The Open University of Hong Kong

In an up-to-date review of motivational studies in education, Alexander and Murphy (2000) concluded that self-schema is an under-researched concept that deserves more attention from educational researchers. This paper reports the findings of a cross-cultural study that can be considered timely in light of their call. The effects of self-schemas on learning engagement among Australian and Chinese high school students were investigated. A total of 329 Hong Kong Chinese and 704 Australian year 10 students completed a questionnaire that assessed their self-schemas, goal orientations, learning approaches and perceived performance in studying mathematics. In a series of path analyses, it was found that an identical linear model that took self-schema as the most crucial independent variable explained the data in both samples well. Self-schemas predicted why and how Australian and Chinese students engaged in learning mathematics. The two path models, albeit with an identical structure, had subtle differences in the strength of individual paths, which could be attributed to the differential stress on performance and mastery in the respective education system of these two samples. This study advances our understanding of self-schema as a motivational construct in students' learning processes across different cultures.

Part A of Symposium 45
nic00045a

Successful integration of learning technologies in school classrooms (SILT)
Teacher and student use of on-line and other ICT resources.

NICHOLSON P - Deakiin University

The use of the Internet and multi-media resources in project&emdash;based work. This focuses on the websites and CDROMS that schools are using and the way in which they are used. Information about these resources is shared across schools and links provided to a range of resources available on the Internet.

Part A of Symposium 6
nyl00006a

Infants, literacy, context and participation rights.

NYLAND B - Royal Melbourne institute of Technology

In recent years the importance of context in development has been examined as well as the significance of joint attention and joint accomplishment in learning. The importance of infancy has once again been highlighted with present debates about the meanings and implications of brain research. This paper looks at infancy, how early experiences support the development of multiple literacies and how child rearing contexts can support this development.

Development occurs within relationships that are reciprocal and if babies are to gain a positive sense of self from the cultural environment it is important that adults are sensitive to non-verbal communication. Children construct their view of the world as they learn language. They come to understand the community and their relationship to this community through interactions. The infant in this paper is the socially competent infant whose first literacy and way of reading the world is emotional awareness.

Part D of Symposium 36
o'c00036d

The impact of national benchmarks on visions of learning
International perspectives on benchmarks and standards in numeracy - a researcher's perspective

O'CONNOR G - Australian Council for Educational Research

A comparison of Year 3 and Year 5 draft Numeracy benchmarks with benchmarks in other countries was conducted in 1998. A number of correspondences were found between Australian benchmarks and standards of other countries. The study also discovered areas in international curricula which did not appear in the Australian benchmark descriptions. An additional focus of the study was to compare the scope of Third International Mathematics and Science Study items against Australian numeracy benchmarks.

oli00360  Paper

Visual Composition through Rugby Union

OLIVETTI D - The University of Sydney

The study presented here resulted in a collection of written and visual texts exploring the compatible elements of Rugby Union and Visual Composition. The collection of paintings, drawings and written work defines the compatible elements of the two disciplines and explains how these elements can be used in a cross-discipline teaching technique. Action research methodologies were employed to determine the effectiveness of this technique in a year seven visual arts class.

The unit of work taught during the study compared certain elements of visual composition to specific elements of a Rugby Union football game. Students participated in historical study, critical study and art making as outlined in the Stage Four Syllabus for Visual Arts in New South Wales. Through the results of anonymous pre/post testing, it was determined that the students simultaneously learned about Visual Composition and Rugby Union. The results suggested that the combination of traditionally incompatible disciplines, in this case Rugby Union and Visual Composition, could be used as a successful teaching technique.

ols00513  Paper

Early childhood teacher practices regarding the use of dramatic play in K-2 classrooms

OLSEN Amacquarie University
SUMSION J

This study explored early childhood teachers' use of dramatic play in K-2 classrooms. In Phase 1 of the study, two early childhood teachers who were not incorporating dramatic play into their programs were interviewed to explore their perceptions of the importance dramatic play, and factors which support or discourage its use. In Phase 2, two early childhood teachers who were incorporating dramatic play into their programs were interviewed. A particular focus was to explore how these teachers managed to overcome obstacles to the provision of dramatic play, including those identified by the teachers interviewed in Phase 1. Non-participant observations in the classrooms of those teachers who were using dramatic play enabled further insight into how time, space and resources can be managed to enable the use of dramatic play. Implications for teachers who may be seeking to implement dramatic play in their K-2 classrooms will also be discussed.

ong00466  Paper

Parenting Behaviours and Adolescents' Psychosocial Adjustment

ONG A C - National Institute of Education, Singapore

The paper presents the results of an extensive study with 748 Singapore adolescents on their perceptions of their parents' child-rearing behaviours and the relationship to the adolescents' psychosocial adjustment. The study looked at three key dimensions of fathers' and mothers' parenting behaviours: warmth, control and communication, as well as important areas of adolescent psychosocial well being: self-esteem, emotional well being, autonomy development, and social efficacy.

The findings revealed that adolescents perceived mothers to be the more nurturant and supportive parent. Correlational analysis further indicated that both fathers' and mothers' parenting behaviours were significantly linked to all measures of psychosocial adjustment, with stronger associations in the mother-adolescent dyad. The differential outcomes reflect the different types of relationship that adolescents have with their fathers and mothers.

ong00467  Paper

Infusing Thinking Skills into Curriculum Content

ONG A C - National Institute of Education, Singapore

Helping students become more effective thinkers is a fundamental goal in education. In recent years societal demands for higher order thinking has generated a strong interest in teaching of thinking skills among educators.

In the last two years, the entire Singapore educational system has undertaken major initiatives to introduce far-reaching curricula changes that would promote creative and critical thinking in students. In attempting curricula innovations, educators in Singapore find themselves confronted with a confusing variety of models of thinking skills and plethora of approaches to the teaching of thinking. They have to grapple with myriads of issues including the conflicting demands of teaching curriculum content and the necessity to inculcate thinking skills.

This paper describes a major pilot project which attempted to address some of these key issues resulting in an integrative model and framework for a thinking curriculum that was successfully implemented in vocational education. This model has been adapted and currently taught in pre- and in-service teacher education courses. The paper describes the thinking model as well as presents a curriculum approach to infusing thinking by outlining the key steps involved in implementing and delivering a thinking curriculum.

osb00285  Paper

OSBORNE B - James Cook University

For four years we have been working with first year students trialling various approaches to running asynchronous tutorials via first email and then webconferencing (Osborne, Wilson & Iles, 2000). This has been a response not only to the perceived needs of "saturated selves" (Gergen, 1991) and "the options generation" (Mackay, 1997), calls for flexible delivery, but also to assist prepare students to use Information Technology meaningfully in preparation for future roles in IT rich schools.

We have come to understand that apart from having to deal with system and technical glitches assocaited with delivery, that students have had to learn/we have had to teach a new form of literacy, namely e-literacy. This involves not just mastery of the software, but also new ways to interact with others. From this base it is then possible, free of the constraints of both time and place, to encourage students to go beyond the surface features of the texts presented, to delve deeper and develop higher order thinking skills in a spirit of critical friendship which Blanton, Moorman & Trathen (1998) found to be rare in their review of IT in preservice teacher education.

This paper outlines how we have been developing, and continue to develop, these skills on the basis of annual adjustments. It provides examples from the e-conversations and survey responses of the students. It also provides some examples of unintended but useful outcomes of asynchronous webconferencing.

References

Blanton, W.E. Moorman, G. & Trathen, W. (1998). Telecommunications and teacher education: A social constructivist review. Review of Research in Education, 23: 235-275.

Gergen, K. (1991). Saturated selves: Dilemmas of self in contemporary life. New York: Basic Books.

Mackay, H. (1997). Generations: Baby boomers, their parents and children. Sydney: Pan MacMillan.

Osborne, A.B., Wilson, E. & Iles, M. (2000). e-literacy, a new literacy, not just a new tool: asynchronous e-tuitorials/web conferencing in first year teacher education (1997-1999). Paper presented at 9Th annual teaching Learning Forum, Curtail University of Technology, 2-4 February.

Part C of Symposium 40
out00040c

Research in Primary Curriculum: variations in teaching approach, self-efficacy and curriculum content in four of the six primary Key Learning Areas
Mathematics through Text Types

OUTHRED L - Macquarie University
SARDELICH S - Macquarie University

This paper reports on a small action research project which linked together the Key Learning Areas of Mathematics and English by focussing on the teaching of Mathematics through text types. The twofold aim of this project was: (i) to develop a program to teach mathematical problem posing to young students; and (ii) to investigate if experience in problem posing was as effective as experience in problem solving in developing students' ability to solve a range of mathematical word problems, including non-routine problems. The emphasis of the problem posing program was to teach the students about the structure of a problems by linking parts of the problems to aspects of text types with which they were already familiar.

owe00241  Paper

Innovative teaching Project

OWEN C - Australian College of Education

The Australian College of Education, the Australian Traineeship Foundation and the Dusseldorp Skills Forum have worked in partnership during the past twelve months to identify and document examples of innovative teaching practice in Australian secondary schools. Five teachers, short listed from nominations, were interviewed during site visits. The case studies depict practitioners who have managed to 'break the mould' of the isolated, classroom-bound teacher, and have stepped beyond the comfort zone of their own subject/discipline area. An educational resource is to be published that describes, analyses and synthesises the key elements and features of innovative teaching in contemporary contexts.

Results: At the time of writing this abstract four case studies have been completed or are underway, the other studies are in the final planning stages, soon to be implemented. From the evidence emerging to date it appears that innovative teachers are very effective communicators, able to engage with a wide variety of audiences. They have a love of learning and teaching and are exemplary life-long learners. They are also able to articulate a philosophy of education that is clear and unambiguous, and feel comfortable with supporting their students to realise their own potential. They are not hesitant when it comes to putting in long hours and cleverly garner resources and advocates to support the innovations they bring to their classrooms, schools and communities. They are skilled problem solvers and have the ability to empower others to be involved and share the benefits associated with success.

Conclusion: Education departments, teacher training institutions and professional and community groups can learn a great deal from the teachers who are the subjects of this study. However, emerging issues such as the extent to which the innovative skills highlighted throughout this study are readily transferable, and the nature of the resourcing required to support these accomplished teachers in meeting the demands of the knowledge society, would benefit from in-depth discussion by both the teaching profession and the wider community.

pag00225  Paper

Three Women and a Research Project: An experiential approach to cooperative research and partnerships in educational research

PAGE S - University of Sydney
DIGREGORIO DANIEL K - University of Sydney
FARRINGTON S - University of Sydney

For the past three years a group of researchers from Yooroang Garang: The School of Indigenous Health Studies at the University of Sydney, has been involved in a study of students' experiences during their progress through the Diploma of Health Science: Aboriginal Health and Community Development. The team comprised one experienced qualitative researcher and two members of staff who had no previous experience implementing a research project. The project grew out of a shared interest in educational outcomes for Indigenous students in our school.

The research process can be daunting for beginning researchers. For the inexperienced members of this team the research project provided the opportunity to learn valuable research skills experientially. This paper will focus on the experiences of the team involved in the project. The paper will include a description of the research process, including how the research project developed and was implemented in a team. Although the team included one experienced researcher, we were all new to the process of researching cooperatively. During this project we learned that there are both benefits and challenges to the team approach.

Part C of Symposium 469
pan00469  Paper

Teachers as researchers of educational change
Legislative reform in the ACT

PANTING, N - Australian Catholic Uniiversity

This research paper critically examines the need for change to the current legislation underpinning education within the jurisdiction of the ACT and addresses the question: What improvements to education can be expected from legislative reform. The paper establishes the context for reform of educational legislation in the ACT and identifies those who would benefit most from the revised legislation. Multiple forms of descriptive data were gathered for the project including observation records of three public and one special interest group meeting, interview data of members of the School Legislation Review Committee, and from interrogation of the key documents pivotal to the review.

This paper argues that simplistic reasons for change provided by government are often dwarfed by the complex issues that surface during the review process. Indeed, many issues needing review are to be found outside the terms suggested or are unearthed as part of the review process. This paper recommends that the introduction of any new legislation should enhance the government‚s capacity to assist schools in implementing change, should allow closer links between the government and the schools and should mitigate the effects of other legislation to ensure the common good‚ for all is upheld.

par00272  Paper

On The Subject Of Pedagogies. Vygotskian Contributions to a Postmodern Approach to Critical Pedagogy

PARKES R - University of Newcastle

This paper represents an on-going attempt to establish a dialogue between educational theories of mind and society. It is part of a continuing project to formulate a critical pedagogy that is comfortable under postmodern conditions. I will begin by briefly exploring the ways in which various "radical pedagogues" have attempted to respond to the crisis of postmodernity - the death of certainty about the truth-claims of the curriculum, the nature of students, and authority within the pedagogical relation - arguing that they do not go far enough to satisfy postmodern concerns. I will then turn to pedagogies inspired by Vygotsky's (1934/1987) notion of the Zone of Proximal Development, (including those that cluster around the metaphors of scaffolding/construction, apprenticeship, and performance) and argue that in their reformulation of the pedagogical relation, and their resultant problematisation of knowledge, subjectivity and agency, lies possibilities for a radical postmodern pedagogy. I will conclude by addressing Gee, Hull & Lankshear's (1996) important critique that these pedagogies are aligned with the interests of fast capitalism, and argue that all radical pedagogies are in Foucauldian terms, "dangerous practices".

Symposium 9: Part A | B | C
par00009

Collaborative Research: Conductive Hearing Loss - Symposium Overview.

PARTINGTON G - Edith Cowan University
SINCLAIR A - Edith Cowan University
BRAHIM N - Edith Cowan University
WYATT K - Edith Cowan University
MACK L - Edith Cowan University
GODFREY J - Edith Cowan University
GOWER G - Edith Cowan University

A research project into school based efforts to improve the education of students with conductive hearing loss has commenced in Western Australia. The research is entitled "teaching Indigenous students with conductive hearing loss in remote and urban schools in Western Australia". The foci of the research include the educational consequences of conductive hearing loss, the processes of teacher change and the benefits of community participation. Three Industry Partners, the Education Department of Western Australia, the Catholic Education Commission, and the Aboriginal Independent Community Schools, are participating in the project, which is being coordinated by staff from Edith Cowan University. Three papers will be presented in this symposium. The first will address the expectations of the industry partners; the second will examine issues in conducting research in areas remote from the university and the third will consider the issues associated with conducting research involving schools, communities and Industry partners.

Part C of Symposium 9
par00009c

Research in complex situations: working with multiple partners, researchers, schools and communities.

PARTINGTON G - Edith Cowan University
GOWER G - Edith Cowan University

The aims of the research are to investigate the educational consequences of conductive hearing loss, to study teacher responsiveness to educational change, identify effective strategies for change and study the benefits of involving Indigenous community members in the change. Three industry partners are involved in the project that has a research team of ten members. Three school districts are participating in the research and 24 schools and their communities will be selected to participate in the project. The complex nature of the research aims and context presents administrative and methodological challenges for the research team. In this paper those challenges are identified and strategies for meeting them are suggested.

Part B of Symposium 469
pea00469b  Paper

Teachers as researchers of educational change
Introducing students to peer-assessment and self-assessment

PEATLING L - Australian Catholic University

In this case study a group of Year 7 students in the ACT were introduced to the concepts of peer-assessment and self-assessment. They worked in groups to research one of the planets in the solar system, and then to produce posters and a class presentation. At the beginning of the unit, students and teacher worked together to produce assessment criteria and scoring rubric for use during the assessment phase of the unit; the teacher developed a reflection sheet to be used at the end. While no trends were discernible in a comparison of grades awarded by peers, teacher and self, what emerged as the most interesting part of the study were the insights provided by watching the students at work on their self and peer-assessment tasks and by comments made in the reflection sheets. These provided thought-provoking ideas about the contribution that these activities can make to the learning process. A review of some of the literature available on this topic and on the more general area of defining and implementing quality assessment strategies is included.

pee00071  Paper

A Homosexual Ideology in the History of New South Wales Art Education

PEERS C- University of New South Wales

This paper investigates the development of the art curriculum within the New South Wales government school system, from the implementation of Leaving Certificate courses in 1911, to the end of the 1930s. It focuses specifically on the construction of the art syllabus in relation to prevailing debates about how western boys and girls should be educated. The paper examines the writings of art educators, educational psychologists, and departmental officials, as well as archival texts. It argues that during this period, the design and implementation of the art curriculum in New South Wales provided substance for the promotion of attitudes and values, which underpinned gender relations in Australian society.

The paper combines Louis Althusser's theory of ideology with the psychoanalytic framework of Jacques Lacan, and the work of the feminist philosopher Luce Irigaray, to interpret the aims and interests of the art curriculum in New South Wales during a formative period, prior to the Second World War.

pee00112  Paper

Learning can be FUN!

PEE SH - Singapore Polytechnic

Infants and young children appear to be propelled by curiosity, driven by an intense need to explore, interact with and make sense of their environment. Unfortunately, as they grow, their passion for learning often seems to shrink and learning becomes associated with drudgery instead of delight. Awareness of students' attitudes and beliefs about learning and what facilitates learning can assist lecturers in making lessons meaningful and interesting to students. This paper describes a very well received laboratory course which I conduct using Labview. It seeks to provide reasons for the high level of motivation of students in the course and concludes with suggestions on teaching/learning strategies that will make laboratory experiments highly interesting. This proposed paper will look at what and how the problem-based approach is implemented in the lab sessions. This approach encourages open-minded, reflective, critical and active learning. While it is arguably a very effective approach in promoting student learning and interest, it cannot guarantee students learning. As may be expected, the motivated students generally learned much more than the less motivated one.

Symposium 43 Parts A | B | C
per00043

Starting School in Australia: Multiple perspectives - Symposium Overview

PERRY B - University of Western Sydney, Macarthur

Around Australia in the last few years, there have been many advances in research and practice relating to young children's transition to school. This symposium considers these advances from the multiple perspectives of active researchers in the field.

The session will commence with an overview of the state of play in transition to school research in Australia and overseas.

The second paper will consider the transition to school from a child's perspective. In particular the notion of "readiness to learn" will be challenged through an investigation of the child as a capable learner. The third paper will investigate the role of mutual trust and respect in the transition of children to school. Of particular importance in this paper is an investigation of how collaborative teams can be built in communities to ensure that the perspectives of all the stakeholders are taken into consideration in any transition program.

The fourth paper will report on the importance of authentic, inclusive and reciprocal communication in the establishment and implementation of transition programs. It will use data collected in before-school and school settings to problematise the transition to school and question some current practices from the perspective of the communication involved. The session will conclude with a brief response and summation.

pha00224  Paper

The Predictive and Mediational Role of Self-efficacy: A Path Analysis

PHAN H - University of Sydney

Bandura's (1997) self-efficacy theory posits four principal sources of information (i.e., performance accomplishment, vicarious experiences, verbal persuasion, and physiological states) through which individuals acquired and modify their self-efficacy beliefs. The objectives of the present study were to examine the predictive and mediational role of self-efficacy and the order of potency of the four sources of information for English, mathematics and science. Six structured multiple-choice questionnaires and an achievement test were administered to primary school students in 5th and 6th grades (N=272). Path analysis techniques were used to infer direct and indirect effects of the four sources of information on self-efficacy, and self-efficacy on performance. The findings are consistent with previous findings and confirm Bandura's order of potency of the four information sources. However, not all four sources of information were predictive of self-efficacy. For each subject, self-efficacy beliefs mediated the effects of the four sources on performance. As well, English and science self-efficacy beliefs were predictive of students' English and science performances respectively. Except for mathematics anxiety, ANOVA results revealed no significant univariate effects for gender. Based on the findings, educational implications are discussed with several caveats and directions considered.

Part G of Symposium 45
pie00045g

Successful integration of learning technologies in school classrooms (SILT)
Configuring, establishing and developing technology enriched learning environments.

PIETSCH J - University of Sydney

Key elements of this theme focus on the human and organisational issues that arise in the move from traditional learning environments to technology supported learning environments. Information is being gathered about the innovation and change process across schools in relation to technology. The way that schools have addressed challenges in developing their learning technology environments will be of interest in terms of the development of a set of problem &emdash; solving strategies across schools. The impact of different configurations of provision and access to learning technology will be evaluated to assist schools in their future planning.

Part C of Symposium 22
plu00022c

'Over' the Rainbow - Cultural Space, Queer Theory and Pedagogies.

PLUMMER D - University of South Australia

Homophobia is not what it seems to be. While homophobia is typically defined as a 'fear or hatred of homosexuals and homosexuality', this paper examines data in support of a much broader social significance. In what probably reflects this lack of certainty, many writers have attempted to invent new names for homophobia or alternatively, to confine its use to its literal sense as a reference to genuine phobias. Others seem to have adopted different explanatory frameworks in an attempt to 'nail down' homophobia and engage with it, for example, by equating it with 'heterosexism', anti-homosexual bias or as a variant of misogyny.

The evidence detailed in this paper, suggests that none of these approaches is entirely satisfactory. Moreover, data will be examined which offers alternative explanations for this pervasive and poorly understood phenomenon. In doing so, a case will be made that homophobia is much broader than what most explanations allow for, and that in countless insidious ways homophobia has major consequences for all men, gay or not.

Part E of Symposium 16
pos00016e  Paper

Research Methodologies in the Creative Arts Dramaturgical Analysis.

POSTON-ANDERSON B - University of Technology, Sydney

Dramaturgical analysis is examined from the viewpoint of the playwright-researcher. Considerations in story adaptation, rehearsal, audience analysis, and performance are discussed from the research perspective. Special attention is given to an analysis of the variation between written script and dramatic presentation and the implications which this has for learning more about theatre as a performance medium. A UTS children's production entitled, Stories from Hans Christian Andersen, is used as the case study on which the observations for this presentation are based.

Part A of Symposium 17
pow00017a  Paper

Mentorship: Applying pedagogical methods for musicians to the training of Education students as mentors.

POWER, A - University of Western Sydney, Nepean

There are but few studies which have examined the mentor relationship in the training of musicians. Nevertheless such mentor relationships have existed since the eighteenth century. A qualitative study by Hays has recently documented the importance of passing on knowledge and performance practice in the training of musicians (Hays, 1998). Hays' study also classified the primary functions of the mentor relationship in two distinct kinds: psycho-social and career-associated.

The challenge for any mentor is to open up new horizons for the mentees. As a result, anxiety may arise. A model for achieving peak musical performance has been applied in the training of student mentors. This paper provides an overview of work with education students and focuses on the psycho-social functions of mentoring through the use of music in the development of interpersonal skills that lead to personal and professional bonds between mentor and mentee.

pow00484  Paper

Early childhood education as a contact zone- Emergent indigenous leadership in Australia and Canada

POWER K - University of New England and Minimbah Aboriginal Preschool
ROBERTS D - University of New England and Minimbah Aboriginal Preschool

Locating the early childhood education setting as a crosscultural contact zone, this paper explores emergent indigenous leadership practices in Australia and Canada . These arise from indigenous leaders' optimism about Aboriginal-generated directions for success in some indigenous early childhood settings. These directions address the educational expectations and needs of Aboriginal children and families, in a context of the consistent failure of dominant discursive regimes to do so. These practice are identified in collaborative research partnerships, between an early childhood lecturer at UNE Armidale and an Aboriginal Preschool director and between the Australian partners and Canadian early childhood practitioners . We collaboratively adapted the language and concepts of Jorde-Bloom and Sheerer's (1991) staff development instruments for use by Australian and Canadian Aboriginal preschool teaching staff in group workshops. The paper explores a number of leadership practices that draw on a range of sources of authority through traditional, contemporary indigenous and mainstream regimes of truth, to devolve leadership throughout local communities; take account of kin networks; refuse to adopt fixed binary oppositional positionings, and aspire to educational success through Aboriginal curriculum perspectives 'beyond the boomerang'.

Symposium 40: PartA | B | C
pre00040

Research in Primary Curriculum: variations in teaching approach, self-efficacy and curriculum content in four of the six primary Key Learning Areas - Symposium Overview

PRESTON C - Macquarie University

This symposium will bring together results of research in three different aspects of primary curriculum. The research covers investigation into teaching approaches, teaching self-efficacy and curriculum direction and content with a focus on developing new insights for refinement of both primary and secondary education in the future.

Part A of Symposium 40
pre00040a  Paper

Research in Primary Curriculum: variations in teaching approach, self-efficacy and curriculum content in four of the six primary Key Learning Areas
Science K-10 a Case Study of a School Cluster

PRESTON C - Macquarie university

This paper focuses on the Key Learning Area of Science and reports on the preliminary findings of research into the continuum of Science teaching from Kindergarten to Year 10. Experience working with both primary and secondary preservice and inservice teachers has revealed interesting similarities and differences in the teaching of Science to children. A comparison will be made between the intended Science curriculum based on syllabus documents and the implemented curriculum and methods of teaching which resulted from in-school data collection and teacher interviews in a secondary school and its main primary feeder schools.

Part B of Symposium 43
rab00043b

Children as capable learners

RABAN B - University of Melbourne

Effective transition programs recognise the growth, development and learning that has occurred before the child starts school as well as the impact of the child's environment on these. Children are not regarded as having to be "ready to learn" before they come to school. Rather, they are recognised as capable learners who bring with them a vast array of learning experiences and expectations. Commencing from this perspective, this paper considers data on children's literacy development and uses them to establish the notion of young children as capable learners - learners who are making a transition in this learning, not commencing it, as they make the transition to school.

Symposium 22: Part A | B | C
ras00022

'Over' the Rainbow - Cultural Space, Queer Theory and Pedagogies - Symposium Overview.

RASMUSSEN M - University of South Australia
CROWLEY V - University of South Australia
HARWOOOD, V - University of South Australia
PLUMMER D - University of New England

Discourse related to sexualities and schooling has often focussed on recording the victimisation of lesbian and gay teachers and students, combating school based homophobia and the development of support programs for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender teachers and students. This panel seeks to move beyond these frameworks to an examination of the ways in which heteronormativity seeks to normalise heterosexuality and reinforce the homosexual/heterosexual binary. The panel will also address some of the ways that queer theory and cultural studies inform discourses related to sexualities and schooling and consider strategies for queering pedagogy and opening schooling and education up to worlds lived and experience beyond the heteronormative.

Part B of Symposium 22
ras00022b

'Over' the Rainbow - Cultural Space, Queer Theory and Pedagogies - Symposium Overview.

RASMUSSEN M - University of South Australia
CROWLEY V - University of South Australia
HARWOOOD, V - University of South Australia
PLUMMER D - University of New England

Discourse related to sexualities and schooling has often focussed on recording the victimisation of lesbian and gay teachers and students, combating school based homophobia and the development of support programs for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender teachers and students. This panel seeks to move beyond these frameworks to an examination of the ways in which heteronormativity seeks to normalise heterosexuality and reinforce the homosexual/heterosexual binary. The panel will also address some of the ways that queer theory and cultural studies inform discourses related to sexualities and schooling and consider strategies for queering pedagogy and opening schooling and education up to worlds lived and experience beyond the heteronormative.

Part A of Symposium 41
rei00041a

The practice(s) of choice: primary school parents, secondary schools and policy agendas
Parental Choice: What are the research questions and theoretical possibilities?

REID A University of South Australia

Despite the fact that parental choice of schools lies at the heart of contemporary education policy in Australia, there is as yet little published Australian research about the practices of parent choice. This is in stark contrast to the UK and the USA where a significant school choice literature has emerged over the past decade.

In this paper we critically review that research, focusing particularly on what it tells us about who makes choices, how the choices are made, for what reasons and with what effects. We use this review and analysis to suggest some possible fruitful research questions and theorisations in the area of school choice in the Australian context.

Part A of Symposium 37
rei00037a

Local curriculum partnerships in the time of international curriculum developments: Stories from, South Australia, Teacher's work in a time of curriculum frameworks

REID A - University of South Australia

One of the perennial tensions in education has been that involving the extent to which teachers should be autonomous in their curriculum work. At any historical moment, it is the prevailing political and social, as well as educational, context which determines the resolution to this tension. Currently, in the marketised education systems which operate in many countries, the pendulum has swung away from teacher autonomy towards state control. New forms of accountability tightly constrain the curriculum work of teachers who are exhorted to produce the best possible results (usually measured by standardised tests) and so enhance a schools marketability. Many scholars argue that such impositions serve both to deskill and intensify teachers' work. Teachers, through teacher unions and professional associations, have sought to resist these incursions into their work. However, their efforts have been misrepresented by the media as self-seeking and as demonstrating a lack of concern for quality education. Is there another way?

This paper argues that the new SACSA framework developed in South Australia offers a model of curriculum which satisfies the accountability demands of the state while increasing the space for teachers to exercise their professional judgment in curriculum planning and assessment.

RES00489  Paper

Whose literacies are disseminated by the educational technology? (The 'images of literacy' on CD-ROMs and the Internet)

RESNIANSKAIA L - University of South Australia

Within the growing body of the educational studies of the new information and communication technology, it is now a basic assumption that this technology changes both the literacy practices and the ways of teaching them. The implications of the use of technology in literacy settings is usually examined within such dichotomies as 'new / old' literacies; print / screen (online) literacies; verbal / visual (multimedia) literacies. Less frequently these technology-based and technology-introduced literacies are examined in terms of their sociocultural and occupational 'origin' and their pedagogical value as ways of the construction of children's identities. Meanwhile, this issue is particularly important in a situation where education is becoming influenced by new 'stakeholders' such as software and hardware producers and telecommunication corporations. The paper aims to investigate what cultural and ideological preconceptions may underpin the constructions of literacy in the technology-based educational products and practices. It focuses on the 'images of literacy' in reference CD-ROMs, on-line encyclopedias, and the Internet search engines. This analysis can inform the studies of the ways of construction of the literate subject in the information society. The analysis is based on the approaches developed within the studies of literacy as social practice (Gee, Luke, Street, Barton, Hamilton), Foucauldian approach in the educational research (Comber) and the critical analysis of the discursive construction of the child as a member of technoculture in contemporary media (Nixon).

rey00131  Paper

Framework for Studying Curriculum Change

REYNOLDS R - University of Newcastle

A holistic theoretical framework is proposed for use when studying curriculum change. The framework was developed by examining studies from social policy, educational history and curriculum researchers along with case study material gleaned from tracing developments in selected social education syllabuses in NSW. Four areas were seen to be essential to investigate when positing reasons for curriculum change or when considering ways to influence future curriculum change. These areas are the social, political, cultural and economic environment, the processes associated with curriculum development, the individuals involved and the text (both the language and the format) that is produced associated with these changes. The author was most interested in examining what many would consider to be a narrow interpretation of the term curriculum ie. from the point of view of looking at the politics of what was written into syllabus documents or the preactive perspective, as Goodson would call it. However it is proposed that the overall framework could also be of value when considering the interactive perspective or how the written curriculum is interpreted and implemented in the classroom context.

part A of Symposium 1
rhe00001a  Paper

Research literacies for non-Anglos: toward postcolonial futures.

RHEDDING- JONES J - Oslo University college

The paper targets the practices of English language take-over and resistance in international publication and the local awarding of higher degrees. Viewed as resistance, the continuing and developing of local research practices through much spoken language, in academia, produces powerful effects. In contrast, the necessity of English, as reading and occasionally as writing, operates to regulate, dilute and inform the theories and the methodologies constructing the research products. Spoken language practices such as the well attended public examining of doctoral degrees, and the promulgation of knowledge through frequent day-long seminars and intellectual chat, are usual in Northern Europe. Here English is other to the languages in use, and Anglo-American research cultures may be ignored, considered a little or highly integrated into the local productions. When what is other to English is itself sophisticated and independent, the situation is not the same as for so-called 'developing countries'. In this paper the research cultures exemplified are Nordic (from Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden). The researcher/presenter currently teaches Pedagogisk teori og praksis, Forskningsmetode og Vitenskapsteori.

Part B of Symposium 20
rhe00020b  Paper

Shifting ethnicities: foreign whites and others working on anti-racist pedagogies in early childhood education.

RHEDDING- JONES J - Oslo University College

The location of this paper is early childhood education in so-called 'multicultural' Oslo. Third year students involved in related field work projects produce reports, data and ideas to develop their own practices as (pre)school teachers and carers. Most of these students have first-hand experiences of being positioned differently, within a dominant white Norwegian-speaking society. The teacher/lecturers who work in this field have variously taken up relationships to 'the other', 'the foreign' and 'the multiple'. So, it appears, have postgraduate students doing the 'Multicultural Studies' Masters Degree offered on campus; though the 'Early Childhood Pedagogy' Masters students have not. The paper works theoretically to investigate ethnic shift, changing contexts, reconstructions and transformations. Beyond assimilations and integrations, what matters are newer theories and critical perspectives. Here a critical multiculturalism (May, 1999) develops anti-racism; ethnic identities involve dialectics of similarity and difference (Jenkins, 1997); and 'native' perspectives inform the postcolonial (Spivak, 1999).

Part A of Symposium 469
rig00469a  Paper

Teachers as researchers of educational change
Violence in the classroom

RIGTER P - Australian Catholic University

Increasing concern has been expressed about the extent and frequency of aggression and violence imported into our schools. These impact considerably on the personal well-being of teachers and on their professional decision-making and choices. This was evidenced at a small primary school with an enrolment of 330 students with a full time teaching staff of eleven plus other part-time and support staff. This paper explores the research, myths and popular perceptions surrounding violence and its effects on teachers‚ lives, professional skills and working conditions. A modified case study approach was used and data collected through distribution of an open-ended questionnaire to teachers at the school. Respondents represented a diverse range of ages, teaching experiences and expertise in the primary classroom. While the study was exploratory, the results of the research provide little doubt that aggression and violence in schools and against teachers is a real issue. While the violence may not be directed against teachers, they become victimised by the chronic pressure of violence. It is recommended the problem be addressed at many different levels including the involvement of parents and community, teacher intervention policy, assistance to students, better teacher education programs and a support mechanism for teachers.

rio00358   Paper

The Reformation of Education in NSW: The 1990 Education Reform Act, A Decade Later.

RIORDAN G - Macquarie University
WELLER S

The Education Reform Act, as it was then called, was assented to on June 1 1990. Presented to the NSW Parliament by Dr Terry Metherell and based on Recommendations made by the Committee of Review of NSW Schools chaired by Sir John Carrick, the Act was the first complete redrafting of school education legislation since the Public Instruction Act of 1880. The Act, we argue, marks a fundamental shift regarding the role of the state in the provision and governance of school education. This paper reports the preliminary findings of an extensive study into the development and passage of the Act. It is based on interviews with key participants. Among the issues canvassed in the paper are the development of an independent Board of Studies to determine curriculum, grant credentials such as the Higher School Certificate, and register schools. Attention is also given to the treatment of non-government schools, home schooling and the role and rights of parents under the Act. The paper reports the different perspectives of the key players regarding the process of developing the Act and offers insights into the process of educational policy making.

riz00375 Paper

The Relationship between School Reforms and Teacher Professionalism in Primary Government Schools in Pakistan.

RIZVI M - Queensland University of Technology

This paper will outline a number of issues faced by Government Primary Schools in Pakistan. Specifically, it will identify a research agenda that needs to be addressed if these schools are to progress. Pakistan's educational system is faced with many problems and dilemmas and each dilemma justifies a reason, but perhaps no problem is as grave as the low quality, the poor morale and the dejected professional status of the teachers. I say that because I believe that schools are only as good as their teachers, regardless of how high their standards, how up-to-date their technology, or how innovative their programs. As Ingvarson (1997, p. 31) so rightly states, "To have the best schools, we must have the best teachers. What teachers know and can do is the most important influence on what students learn".

With large number of under-educated, under-trained, under-paid and, most important of all, undervalued teachers in Pakistan, what can we expect the students to learn? Whether we want children to be the enlightened and the informed citizens of tomorrow or ignorant members of society will depend on teacher knowledge, teacher education and above all teacher professionalism.

Yes, teachers do matter the most. But what is being done for this section of the society which matters so much? Are efforts being taken to find out what teachers need to achieve their professional goals? Are the teachers given adequate opportunities to learn, to improve and to become effective? How can the teachers meet the ever-increasing demands placed upon them? How will the teachers successfully lead the students into the twenty-first century? Do the teachers believe that they can successfully lead children into the 21st century? Are the school reforms geared towards enhancing teacher professionalism?

This paper considers these questions. In this paper I outline some of the measures that have been taken at the government, at the non-government and at the school sector level to restructure and reform primary government schools in Pakistan. The paper goes on to argue that it is important to identify the impact of these reforms on teachers' efficacy, leadership and collaborative efforts for enhanced teacher professionalism. Thus, the paper argues that research is required which addresses the question of "What it actually means to be a professional in Pakistani Primary Schools and what model of school reforms can actually develop teacher learning for improved teacher professionalism?

rob00184  Paper

Place and space: a cross cultural perspective of young people's leisure and recreation activities

ROBERTSON M - University of Tasmania

This paper reports on cross-cultural research conducted with young people in Tasmania, Finland and Sweden. The purpose of this ongoing research is to explore the view that identities in post-modernity are linked to social constructions of place not necessarily aligned with traditional views of neighbourhood and home‚. Time-space compression, popular culture and the powers of the Internet bring diverse reference systems to the everyday lives of young people. Faced with life decisions for which there is little available wisdom young people are making new geographies. Little knowledge exists on the extent to which global influences have penetrated the thinking of their lives.p

This research project sought new knowledge on these themes. In each cultural setting samples consisted of 10-11 year olds and 14-15 year olds. A survey questionnaire was used to gather data on their home and leisure activities. They were also asked to comment on the aesthetics of place. As well, using photographic stimuli, individual interviews were conducted. The results show the powerful role of activities outside school in the everyday knowing of young people with striking cultural overlap. The experiences of these young people provide a rich source of findings for educational curriculums and public space planning decisions.

rob00197  Paper

Investigation of biochemical anomalies in people with visual processing problems causing reading difficulties: Implications for immune system dysfunction and dietary intervention.

ROBINSON G- University of Newcastle

There has been a renewed interest in the underlying causes of reading disability, with visual perceptual problems again being investigated. This paper will outline a sequence of investigations into possible biochemical anomalies for people with visual processing problems. The preliminary investigation (143 adults) identified a number of biochemical markers associated with symptom incidence. A more detailed analysis (67 adults) has identified biochemical anomalies which are indicative of a dysregulation of protein and tissue turnover which may be causally related to an activation of the immune system. These biochemical anomalies may also be indicative of a macular degenration of the eye and of problems with neural functioning. The results suggest that different sub-types of reading disability may relate to different pathological mechanisms, and biochemical analysis may allow more effective identificaiton of sub-types. This in turn will facilitate effective intervention based on underlying causes rather than on symptoms, with immune system dysfunction being a possible causal factor. It would also allow early identification before the development of inefficient reading strategies and lack of motivation has occurred. Dietary intervention specifically targeting identified biochemical anomalies may also become a feasible treatment option.

part B of Symposium 24
row00024b  Paper

Current Research in Early Numeracy Education.
Validation of an interview schedule for identifying growth points in early numeracy.

ROWLEY G - Australian Catholic University
HORNE M - Australian Catholic University

The Early Numeracy Research Project has relied on detailed interview for the provision of achievement data from over 5000 children in grades prep, 1 and 2 over two years (1999 and 2000). This paper outlines evidence currently accumulated on the measurement properties of the assessments derived from these interviews. Data will be presented to show that the process of assigning growth points from records of interviews is unambiguous and highly reliable, and that the rank order of growth points is relatively stable, even over a school year during which considerable growth has occurred. Evidence will be presented to show that the growth points do not, in general, form interval scales, but that they can be transformed into interval scales through a process that yields similar results from widely-different samples. The transformed scales will then be used to document the components of variance in achievement attributable to schools, to classrooms within schools, and to the provision of professional development to teachers.

row00481  Paper

The Practicum - A Starting Point for the Development of an On-line Learning Community of Physical and Health Education Professionals.

ROWLAND G - University of Wollongong

While ad hoc, course-specific projects have allowed early adopters to explore possible innovations in the use of information and communication technologies in facilitating flexible learning situations, educational institutions are now exploring more integrated strategies to such developments. This paper describes the development of one such strategy that attempts to foster a community-wide approach for a group of professionals coming to terms with the most effective way to utilise technologies -- physical and health educators. The Faculty of Education at the University of Wollongong is developing an on-line learning community to facilitate the pre-service education and continuing professional development of students, faculty and practicing teachers.

Whilst it is envisaged that such a project will take a little time to establish, a number of priority areas have been identified. One such area is the development of a practicum site that will provide on-line support for pre-service teachers, in particular, 4th year Physical and Health Education students completing their internship. This paper outlines the development of a web-based resource that provides support for students through communication with university lecturers, teachers and critical friends.

rub00473  Paper

Lifelong learning for all: rhetoric and realities

RUBENSON K - University of British Colombia

Policy documents from various nations, as well as reports from intergovernmental organisations e.g. the European Union, OECD, and UNESCO, uniformly promote lifelong learning as the foundation for adult educational and training policy. In 1994, UNESCO chose Lifelong Learning for All for its midterm strategy covering the period 1996-2001. In the same year the OECD conference of ministers of education proposed that member countries adopt „making lifelong learning a reality for all‰ as a priority for the ensuing five year period. This brings the question of adults‚ readiness to actively engage in learning to the forefront of the research and policy agenda. Despite the emphasis on lifelong learning for all even a superficial reading of the international literature indicates several contradictions in the discourse surrounding lifelong learning and a lack of serious interest in who benefits (Rubenson, 1996). Thus, instead of just promoting lifelong learning as a solution to economic and social problems facing society the purpose of this study was to critically examine what influences adults‚ readiness to engage in learning, and to develop an understanding of why large groups are excluded from the emerging learning society. Of special interest was the relationship between everyday learning (nature and structure of everyday experiences) and participation in organised forms of adult education and training. The evidence indicates that policy does matter. They also suggest that lifelong learning for all can only be achieved in a society that actively engages and make demands on the literacy skills of all its citizens. It is conditional on a working life organised in a way that promotes investigative learning, and a society where people are encouraged to think, act, and be engaged.

rus00379  Paper

Shared Understandings: Enhancing the Practicum

RUSSELL B Massey University
Chapman, J - Massey University

The first part of this research is a qualitative study of twenty five teachers who have taken time away from the classroom to work on short term contracts in a University College of Education preservice teacher education programme. The study considers their perceptions of the ways in which this experience has enhanced their professional development in terms of greater understanding, expertise and career prospects.

The research examines the ways in which this experience has enhanced their ability to work with preservice teachers as lecturers/tutors and Associate/Tutor teachers and changed their own teaching practices when they returned to a school or centre. It also explores whether this experience has enhanced their professional roles within the school setting, particularly in having input into new initiatives and policies. The second part of the research examines the experiences of seven of those from the original sample who are in senior positions in schools. It considers how their increased knowledge of the academic requirements of the University together with their increased understanding of the role of both the school/centre and the college in the preservice teacher education programme has enabled them to better support students during the practicum and also to be resource persons for other Associate/Tutor teachers within the school.

rya00201  Paper

Reflective Science: An exploration of the uses of Reflective Dialogue Journal writing in secondary science classrooms.

RYAN R - Central Queensland university

This paper reports on critical action research into the scientific literacy of secondary school students, as evidenced in student Reflective Dialogue Journals. Focussed on one secondary school classroom located in Brisbane, Australia, the research draws on literature concerned with writing and its use across the curriculum, particularly as this relates to scientific literacy and the nature of science. Specifically the interest of the research is with philosophies of science rather than the transmission of scientific constructs. The paper suggests that individual student reflections and teacher-student dialogue, made possible through such journal writing, provide significant opportunities to support students' development of complex understandings on the nature of science. Informed by a concern for matters of social justice, the paper also contemplates what such an approach to learning science might mean for marginalised students, particularly those differentiated on the basis of their gendered identities.

The paper concludes that while initial results appear promising, longitudinal research into the value of reflective writing in science classrooms is now required.

Symposium 1: Parts A | B | C
san00001

Developing research literacies in multicultural settings - Symposium Overview.

SANTORO N - Deakin Universiuty

The Concise Oxford English Dictionary defines research as an 'endeavour to discover new or collate old facts etc. by scientific study of a subject, [or] course of critical investigation'. Until relatively recently, this particular dictionary determined common usage by sampling the ways in which words were used in The Times (London) newspaper. Thus, the OED definition clearly does not exhaust the meanings of research in 'standard' English, let alone other dialects and languages. In communities that privilege what we call (in English) 'peer review', research also means whatever people who describe as themselves researchers actually do that their peers agree to call research. All of these meanings of research--'scientific study', 'critical investigation', or any means by which a given community develops, tests, and renews its disciplines or arts of inquiry--are culturally located. This symposium addresses questions about the meanings of research that arise when/where the settings in which research is conducted clearly are not (or cannot be assumed to be) monocultural. How do researchers and other participants in research develop shared meanings? What does it mean (for any person) to be 'research literate' in multicultural settings?

Part C of Symposium 1
san00001c  Paper

Researching multicultural adult education classrooms: intersections of ethnicity, gender and class.

SANTORO N - Deakin University

Many Australian studies of multicultural classrooms have examined ethnicity as a major shaping factor in learning and teaching practices. In this paper I want to argue that focusing on ethnicity in isolation from factors such as gender and class can be problematic in multicultural education contexts. The findings of a case study investigating the nature of teacher identities as 'played out' through classroom practices in multicultural work based adult education sites, indicate that class, gender and ethnicity intersect in dynamic, powerful and complex ways to shape the teachers' classroom practices, their representations of self and 'other' and the ways in which they negotiate current discourss of adult education.

sch00254  Paper

Implementation of computing in schools by primary principals: A longitudinal perspective

SCHILLER J -University of Newcastle

Computers are now accepted as part of teaching, learning and administration in primary schools. With the introduction of Computer Education policies in the early 1980s, principals of NSW primary schools faced complex decisions about implementing a new technology. Persistent challenges include purchase of appropriate hardware and software, their own training needs and those of their staff, location of resources, student and staff access, and ways of integrating computers into the daily life of their schools.

To ascertain how primary principals have met the challenges of computer use, three sets of data will be examined. Data from interviews, surveys and participant diaries from an intensive year-long study conducted in the mid 1980s of six urban primary schools considered dlighthouse schools' in implementation of computers in the Hunter Region of NSW; data collected through periodic, semi-focussed interviews with school principals and other leaders over the following 15 years; and data from a current project to establish baseline information on principals' use of, and concerns about computers, will be explored.

Findings will highlight the key role of the principal in the implementation of computing in primary schools, the significance of their change facilitation style, the nature of their interventions and the appropriateness of implementation strategies.

Symposium 32: Parts A | B | C | D
sco00032

Patterns of Discontent: International Perspectives on Teacher Satisfaction - Symposium Overview

SCOTT C - University of Western Sydney, Hawkesbury

To bring together and present a series of complementary international research studies, some of which used common instruments, to enhance understanding of current educational contexts and how and why these vary from country to country To gain enhanced understanding of how educational change and the current contexts of education are affecting teachers, school executive, schools and educational outcomes To identify those aspects of teaching both positive and negative which appear 'universal' and those which are attributable to particular contexts To stimulate discussion and debate of how teachers' career satisfaction, relationships in schools and the more effective functioning of schools can be enhanced using the findings of the papers presented. (b) Scientific or Educational Importance The last few decades have seen unprecedented interest, criticism and involvement in education from a variety of stakeholders, although its exact nature has varied from country to country. The extent to which this involvement of 'outsiders' has had positive outcomes for teaching and schooling is questionable. Some of the expectations and additional responsibilities placed on schools may in fact have been counter-productive and contradictory, eg. increased social expectations, increased emphasis on 'basics' and measurable educational outcomes through such measures as standardised skills testing, schools' league tables. A key issue is how teachers and schools are coping with what is a more demanding and even hostile external environment and how teachers perceive their work to have changed. If teachers and schools are to deliver what is being increasingly demanded of them, we need to fully understand and appreciate the ramifications of educational change and the current educational context.

Part B of Symposium 32
sco00032b

Patterns of Discontent: International Perspectives on Teacher Satisfaction
"I love teaching but": Teachers' words on teaching in turbulent times

SCOTT C - University of Western Sydney, Hawkesbury
STONE B - The Imagination Group, USA
DINHAM S - University of Westren Sydney, Nepean

This paper aims to use the qualitative material gathered during the Teacher 2000 project (see above) to gain further insights into the patterns of satisfaction and dissatisfaction which characterise teaching as an international profession. Bourdieu's concepts of the Right and Left Hand of the State are used to explore and clarify the far reaching effects on teaching as a profession of recent educational and social changes. Methods Data were the responses of participants in the Teacher 2000 project to open-ended questions in the survey instrument described above. Additionally, a limited number of e-mail interviews were conducted with a sample of US teachers. Responses were content analysed using a protocol jointly developed by three of the international researchers, and validated by the senior research assistant.

Participants Participants in the research were over 2000 teachers and school executive in four countries: Australia, New Zealand, England and UK.

Conclusions Analysis confirmed and supported the findings of the analyses of the numeric data: that Teachers' main motives are altruistic: they enter teaching out of desire to work with children and 'make a difference' the chief satisfactions of teaching lie within the core business domain - working with others in the educational community, helping children to succeed and develop, experiencing one's own increasing professional competence and expertise The chief dissatisfiers lie in at the societal and systemic level: the pace and nature of change, erosion of professionalism, increase in work load, decreasing status, and increasing criticism of the teaching profession by 'outsiders'

The findings are discussed in the light of Bourdieu's contentions about the consequences of the changes in the relations between the Left and Right Hand of the State, especially for the 'helping professions', including teaching.

Part C of Symposium 32
sco00032c

Patterns of Discontent: International Perspectives on Teacher Satisfaction
The Impact of Statewide Issues on Teacher Job Satisfaction.

SCOTT C - University of Western Sydney, Hawkesbury

To identify statewide issues that have had a positive and negative impact on teacher job satisfaction. To describe the type of statewide legislation and government decision-making that has had a positive and negative impact on teacher job satisfaction. To provide an explanation of the importance that government law making and policy decision-making has on the maintenance of positive teacher job satisfaction.

Perspectives and/or methods

The instrument used in the study was the US form of that initially developed by Dinham and Scott (1996). A semi-structured and open-ended interview schedule was used, to follow-up the survey. In order to acquire personal testimonies from administrators/supervisors and teachers regarding their perception of the positive and negative impact government legislation and decision-making has on job satisfaction.

Data Source

In all, 660 administrator/supervisors and teachers from 117 public schools were included in the sample.

Conclusions

To an item, the top 20 "satisfiers" reflected activities that are intrinsic to the teaching act, collegial relationships with peers, extending and enhancing professional skills, achieving professional goals, and having a positive impact on student behavior and attitudes. On the other hand, the top [sic WR]

sco00085  Paper

Steering from a Distance

SCOTT L - University of Western Australia
VIDOVITCH L - University of Western Australia

This paper analyses the impact of the 'new public management' (NPM) policy framework on education through the introduction of quasi-contracts, that is school charters on the daily operation of government schools in the state of Victoria, Australia. Based on qualitative and quantitative data gathered from principals in government primary and secondary schools, the paper reports on the impact principals perceive the introduction of school charters has had on competition between schools, community ownership of schools, school management, student learning and accountability. The findings suggest that school charters have had little impact in two key components NPM; that is, increasing competition between schools and increasing community ownership. Principals perceived that the charter had considerable impact on improving school management, specifically developing a shared vision for the school, gaining staff understanding of the vision, targeting funding to key improvement areas, long term planning and enhancing the leadership of the principal. A strong statistical relationship was established between student learning and school participation in a review. This impact on student learning has potential to be an important finding for school systems. The research indicated that the majority of principals in the study considered charters to be a sound basis for internal review and external validation and review. The paper concludes that school charters or similar contractual arrangements may be a viable way of increasing school autonomy and enabling governments to deliver education by 'steering from a distance'.

sco00091  Paper

School Charters: a framework amidst the confusion

SCOTT L - University of Western Australia

A review of literature on school charters reveals a confusion of language, definitions and contexts, which make interpretation of and discussion on, school charters problematic. this is a factor ignored in most discussion and commentary relating to the topic.

This paper develops a typography which identifies the different types of charters, and management approaches used in countries such as Canada , the American states, Australia and New Zealand. Similarities in concept are identified, the differences in purpose, implementation and management approaches explored. The paper concludes by highlighting the issues involved in generalising findings from current charter school research to other countries and school contexts.

sco00195  Paper

The influence of assessment method on student learning

SCOULLER K - University of Sydney

This paper draws on 3 comparative studies investigating the influence of assessment method on student learning. Each study employed a three-part questionnaire requiring tertiary students to reflect upon the way they prepared for and perceived two assessment tasks (a coursework assignment and an examination) of the same course. The studies contrasted the assignment essay with the multiple choice examination (study 1), the short answer examination (study 2), and the essay examination (study 3).

Results from Parts A and B of the questionnaire reveal differential learning approaches and perceptions according to assessment method. Of particular importance are findings that students are more likely to employ surface learning approaches when preparing for their examinations and deep learning approaches when writing their assignment essays. Part C of the questionnaire required students to state which task they preferred to assess their understanding of the course and to provide reasons for their choice. In each study the open-ended responses reveal a clear preference for assessment by assignment essay rather than examination and provide interesting insights into students' attitudes to their assessment tasks.

The current paper aims firstly, to provide a brief overview of the three studies, secondly, to present the findings from Part C of study 3 with reference to the other two studies, and thirdly, to discuss the implications for student learning.

Part A of Symposium 452
sco00452a

The Beatings Will continue til Quality Improves: Carrots and Sticks in the Search for Quality

SCOTT C - University of Western Sydney, Hawkesbury

Education is not alone in becoming the focus of attention and anxiety about the quality of its activities and outputs, although it is perhaps unique in the degree to which it has been publicly and conspicuously subject to scrutiny and castigation for its 'failings'. Certainly, public education throughout the Western world as been under attack and scrutiny for its perceived 'low standards' and the 'crisis' said to characterise it (although this crisis is, to many, a 'manufactured' one - Berliner and Biddle, 1998) Power (1994) contends that the tensions and contradictions of high modernity explain the widespread adoption of a model of 'quality assurance' based upon 'the audit', originally a financial phenomenon. The particular style of auditing favoured - 'Style A' - has as its characteristics long distance control, usually by external agencies, quantitative measures, low trust and ex post control. These important features are linked, for instance the involvement of outside bodies of experts in the oversight of activities has facilitated a shift in trust from operatives, the performers of activities, to auditors, those who police performance.

The particular features of the auditing model adopted come to influence what are seen as acceptable 'solutions' to 'problems'. This paper discusses some of these 'solutions' to the 'problems' of 'low quality' and the consequences for teacher practitioners.

Part B of Symposium 452
sco00452b

The Effects of Quality Improvement Measures on the Quality of teaching: The perspective from the classroom

SCOTT D - Alfred Deakin High School

A practising teacher reflects on the effects of over a decade of reform designed in major part to improve the 'quality' of teaching. Rather than aid improvement, the unrelenting reforms have induced 'change fatigue' and deprived teachers of the very things which allow them to improve their practice, for example the chance to pause and reflect, and time to share insights and practices with colleagues, the opportunity to experiment with new techniques and take 'risks' by trialing innovative approaches.

The criticism which has accompanied the decade of change has also undermined professional satisfaction and the efficacy which underlies effectiveness.

Part C of Symposium 37
scr00037c

Local curriculum partnerships in the time of international curriculum developments: Stories from South Australia, Issues of validity in framework-based assessment of student learning

SCRIMGEOUR A - University of South Australia

Validity has been and remains a central focus of research in assessment in general and in classroom assessment in particular. Current conceptions of validity have been expanded beyond drawing together evidence to demonstrate that interpretations of performance on tests are fair and justified to include values and social and ethical consequences of test use (Messick 1989, 1994). Despite the recognition of value judgements and the requirement to examine overt and covert assumptions in validation, tensions remain surrounding the demands which measurement theories impose on classroom-based assessment, in particular where there is an emphasis on complex, multi-dimensional performance. Vigorous debates surround the competing demands of accountability required by educational systems and the teaching and learning purposes of assessment required by teachers.p

These tensions are discussed in relation to the development of the SACSA Framework and, I suggest, will be intensified in its implementation. Such overarching state-mandated frameworks are generally implemented to address the variability in teacher judgement. The challenge is how to understand the variability, recognise the value of teacher judgements, and put in place efforts to strengthen student and teacher thinking about learning, assessment and progress.

sed00551  Paper

The Old and New Story of Teachers' Work: Innovative educational Practices in a marketised environment

SEDDON T - Monash University

The recent reforms of education and training in Australia have had a significant impact on the institutional framing of teachers' work. The traditional public sector arrangements have been unpicked and rendered ambiguous by the advent of educational markets, decentralisation and increased technology applications. Yet in any assessment of change, it is also important to consider continuities with the past. This paper takes a look at educational continuities and changes in Victoria with a view of identifying the old and new stories of teachers work. This paper builds on a series of research projects in which I have been investigating the practical consequences of educational restructuring through the 1990s. Specific data are drawn from a small private training provider. My arguement is that, within innovative educational practices, there are old as well as new stories about teachers and their work. I document this and consider the implications for teachers and, more systematically, for education and training

sho00114  Paper

How does a pre-service teacher plan, enact and reflect upon classroom teaching in order to achieve learning outcomes for students: An application of Bernstein's theoretical framework.

SHORT J - Queensland University of Technology
YARROW A - Queensland University of Technology
MILLWATER J - Queensland University of Technology

Experience in working with pre-service teachers engaged in classroom practice indicates that they are primarily concerned with self-survival, content coverage and control of student behaviour. Preoccupation with these contextual realities often appears to distract pre-service teachers from attending effectively to the management of appropriate learning processes and episodes - the pedagogic discourse, and to the achievement of planned learning outcomes for their students.

This paper reports on the application of Basil Bernstein's theoretical framework on the structuring of educational knowledge and pedagogic discourse, to the research question - How does a pre-service teacher plan, enact and reflect upon classroom teaching in order to achieve learning outcomes for students?

The analysis of Queensland secondary pre-service teacher case study data is used to canvas pre-service teacher preparation interventions that might improve the pedagogic discourse of pre-service teacher practice and the achievement of planned learning outcomes for their students.

sil00273  Paper

Towards an Optimistic Future: Schools as Learning Organisations - Effects on Teacher Leadership and Student Outcomes.

Halia Silins - Flinders University Of South Australia
Prof Bill Mulford - University of Tasmania

The ARC funded Leadership for Organisational Learning and Student Outcomes (LOLSO) Project is in its final year. Early results from 3,500 year 10 students and 2,500 teachers, including principals, from 96 secondary schools from Tasmania and South Australia were reported at AARE's 1999 conference. A four dimensional model of organisational learning was confirmed and employed (using path analysis) to identify conditions fostering organisational learning in Australian secondary schools. The predominant influences of leadership, organisational learning and significant teacher effects on student participation in and engagement with school were discussed.

This paper examines further the nature of organisational learning and the leadership practices and processes that foster organisational learning and, more importantly, the impact of these variables on teacher leadership. A path model is used to test these school variables as well as school characteristics such as availability of resources and community focus against the impact of students' home environment on students' views of teachers' work in the classroom and student outcomes such as attendance, and participation in and engagement with school. The importance of reconceptualising schools as learning organisations to promote successful school change is discussed.

Part B of Symposium 27
sim00027b  Paper

Studying innovation in education: the case of the ConnectEd project

SIMPSON N - Central Queensland University

For more than two decades there has been a continuing and significant financial outlay in Australia to equip schools with computers and related communication technologies. The adoption and adaptation of these technologies in schools has been the focus of much research. Where research has been concerned with accounting for the success or failure of such innovations, recourse, either explicitly or implicitly, to tenets of diffusion theory has been common.

This paper reports on a study of the development and implementation of an Education Queensland initiative, the ConnectEd project. The study was informed by the sociology of translation, commonly known as actor-network theory. The paper analyses key concepts in the overall process of innovating, describes an analysis informed by actor-network theory and details the ways in which diffusion theory limits understandings of innovation in education.

Part C of Symposium 43
sim00043c

Mutual trust and respect

SIMPSON L - Charles Sturt University CLANCY S
HOWARD P

All children experience a culture shift in the move from home to school, but the degree of difficulty in negotiating this transition is closely related to how well the school culture is understood in the home environment, and the degree of trust and respect that is implicit in this understanding. There are, however, many cultures within the community who have little knowledge about the subtleties embedded in the school culture. For these children the transition can often prove to be a taxing time.p

While this paper draws from the Narang Guudha (Wiradjuri language meaning little child) research project, which considers young Aboriginal learners' transition from preschool to school, there are many minority groups who come to school with a different culture from that of mainstream. When considering the cultural diversity of many groups, there are many different views and expectations of trust and respect. This paper considers these dimensions.

Part A of Symposium 9
sin00009a

Collaborative Research: Conductive Hearing Loss - Symposium Overview.

SINCLAIR A - Aboriginal Independent Community Schools
BRAHIM N - Catholic Education Commission, WA
WYATT K - Education Department, WA
MACK L - Edith Cowan University
GODFREY J - Edith Cowan University
GOWER G - Edith Cowan University
PARTINGTON G - Edith Cowan University

A research project into school based efforts to improve the education of students with conductive hearing loss has commenced in Western Australia. The research is entitled "teaching Indigenous students with conductive hearing loss in remote and urban schools in Western Australia". The foci of the research include the educational consequences of conductive hearing loss, the processes of teacher change and the benefits of community participation. Three Industry Partners, the Education Department of Western Australia, the Catholic Education Commission, and the Aboriginal Independent Community Schools, are participating in the project, which is being coordinated by staff from Edith Cowan University. Three papers will be presented in this symposium. The first will address the expectations of the industry partners; the second will examine issues in conducting research in areas remote from the university and the third will consider the issues associated with conducting research involving schools, communities and Industry partners.

smi00245  Paper

Affective distress, academic goal orientations and self-efficacy: HSC students' personal perspectives

SMITH L - University of Sydney
SINCLAIR K - University of Sydney

This paper reports the outcomes of a study into the personal meanings ascribed by final year students to the demands of the NSW Higher School Certificate. The data were collected using interviews, surveys and student journalling. Students were questioned about their stress responses, academic goal orientations and academic self-efficacy. Students' personal meanings were sought in order to obtain a deeper conceptual understanding of these factors. This study completes a longitudinal research project into the relationships between negative affective responses and learning in senior school students. The data are considered in the light of the results of the first phase of the project, reported at the 1998 and 1999 AARE conferences, which revealed high levels of affective distress and significant relationships among affective measures, goal orientation and self-efficacy.

smi00320  Paper

Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? Who will guard the guardians themselves? An institutional evaluation of the New Zealand State's educational 'watchdog' agency: the Education Review Office (ERO).

SMITH R - UNITEC Institute of technology

ERO states it is an "... internationally recognised leader in education evaluation" (ERO, 1998a: 31). ERO is the State's agent of accountability or quality assurance in the education system. It evaluates the "performance of all providers in the pre-tertiary education sector in terms of their effectiveness in the education of young people and their accountability for resources" (ERO, 1998b: 2). In 1997 the agency was the centre of unprecedented interest and critique when it was the subject of two external reviews (one a Ministerial and the other by secondary the other by the secondary teachers' industrial organisation). This year it will be subjected to another Ministerial Review by the new Labour-led Coalition Government. The organisation has a stated policy of transparency and public accountability, for example "openness to public scrutiny is a stringent test for the Office" (ERO, 1998a: 31). This claim and other issues concerning the concepts of accountability, surveillance and self-review will be investigated within the context of educational evaluation. ERO has been an active supporter of neo-liberal policies such as increasing marketisation and managerialism in education and it will be evaluated as to its changing practices over the decade of its existence.

smi00364  Paper

Enhancing comprehension of parables: Putting children through their p.a.c.e.s.

SMITH N University of Sydney
HARRISON H - University of Sydney

With multiculturalism and globalisation now a reality forAustralia and other Western countries, 'reading between the lines' is a critical skill that children need to develop as they grapple with stories and information from other socio-cultural settings. Because it contains a richness of [a] implicit information within the text, and [b] an implicit overall message, the parable is an excellent conventional literary device that can be used to facilitate this skill. This experimental study will focus on five conditions that are proposed to enhance learning: [p]ersonal meaning, [a]ction, [c]ollaboration, e]mpowerment, and [s]elf-affirmation. Four homogeneous primary groups (n ~ 20) will be compared for their comprehension of a generic parable. Group A will be the control. One condition of learning [s.] will be implemented for Group B, three conditions [s.a.c.] for Group C, and all five conditions [p.a.c.e.s.] for Group D. It is expected that there will be an increase in the comprehension of both the implicit content of the parable and its underlying message as a function of the increase in the number of conditions. Specifically, Group D will gain the highest comprehension scores, Group A will have the lowest scores and Groups B and C will have scores in between. Such results woul illustrate how educational research can inform better teaching practices˜a cause for optimism in light of recent media criticism of the profession and its training.

smi00377  Paper

Cyberlearning:The implications for education and curriculum

SMITH DL- University of Sydney
EWING R - University of Sydney

School traditionally has been regarded as a physical and geographic place where the learners have assembled to be put into contact with the teachers and/or other knowledge sources. Within a context of rapid social change and the associated challenges to the possible continued institutionalization of knowledge, the increasing possibility of information technology, principally, but not totally based on computers, being able to deliver on-line learning fundamentally challenges the notion of school as 'place'. While the learning still occurs in a space, this space is not physical but a virtual cyberspace reality. Such possibilities bring new challenges to us as educators.

The paper initially reviews ideas related to 'school as place'. It thenbegins to explore the changing capacity for schools not to be necessarilylocated in a geographical place and the factors responsible for this. Some examples of these are reported and discussed. In the final section of the paper, a number of implications from considering school as process rather than place are discussed, and a number of questions raised. The paper is very much exploratory and a work in progress.

Symposium 13: Part A | B | C | D
smy00013

Post-compulsory schooling policy and the lives of young people in Australia - Symposium Overview.

SMYTH J - Flinders University

In this symposium the participants will report on three research projects that contribute a qualitative perspective on post-compulsory schooling in Australia. All three studies have been designed to amplify student understandings of life in schools. The presenters believe that the contemporary policy framework is overly reliant on quantitative research that too often fails to account for the complexity inherent in young people's lives. If post-compulsory schooling policy in Australia is to provide a framework that is enabling of the diversity of young people's lives then policy needs to be sensitive to this complexity (Yates & Leder 1997). Each of the research projects explores the meanings that young people make of their lives, of school, work and other life concerns. This research has the capacity to move beyond the relatively inflexible categories which characterise large scale, statistically oriented research. In particular, the reflexive and open-ended element in these research projects enables the research to identify the distinctive perspectives of young people, which distinguish them from the 'baby boomer' generation. The longitudinal element of some of the projects enables the research to test the assumptions about education and youth transitions, which inform educational policy. The three studies offer powerful explanatory accounts of life in and around post-compulsory schooling that pushes for a contextual understanding of youth experience That is, they seek to make sense of the ways young people negotiate their lives in the social, political and economic terrain they find themselves. As a collection, the papers investigate: how young people negotiate study and/or work; how school culture works for/against young people completing schooling; and, the ways in which young people deliberate on how schooling fits into their plans for living a life.

Each of the studies has been designed to interrogate the policy framework for post-compulsory schooling in Australia including: how the policy metaphor of 'transition' works in the lives of young people (Dwyer & Wyn 1998); how well the policy conception of what constitutes 'youth' and 'adulthood' works in practice (White & Wyn 1998); what constitutes a 'good' school and how this is represented in policy and practice (Yates 1997); and how policy for the self-managing school contributes to alleviating the problem of early school leaving (Smyth 1993).

Each presenter will give an outline of their paper with special emphasis on the policy discussion, followed by comments from a discussant who will provide an international perspective on the presentations.

Part C of Symposium 13
smy00013c  Paper

Post-compulsory schooling policy and the lives of young people in Australia
(Un)democratic school culture: against the equity imperative of policy .

SMYTH J - Flinders university

Anecdotally we know that the cultural politics of the school has a powerful effect on how young people make sense of schooling, the spaces that exist for them to be listened to, and how they work to shape schools as places. As an "orienting theory", school culture has been an unattended-to category in the literature and debates about the non-completion of schooling.

This paper searches for those interferences to school completion that are located in the ways schools think about themselves and how they position themselves when they sort and sift students. Since some students are clearly provided with a more appropriate pathway than others, schools are not innocent in this process. Some schools operate in ways that include students; others have postures that are inhospitable and exclusionary; each of these represent school practices, policies and actions that are qualitatively different, and some of those differences are addressed here.

The paper explores the way in which the shifting, fragmented, multiple and contradictory identities that constitute youth, are positioned, shaped, embraced or repulsed by the democratic or undemocratic nature of school culture. Drawing upon interviews from 209 young Australians in the Students Completing Schooling Project, the paper shows how youth "pushes against the grain" in shaping and being shaped by school culture variously identified within a cultural geography of the school that is "aggressive", "passive" or "active" towards youth.

sny00144  Paper

SNYDER I - Monash University
ANGUS L - Monash University
FREEBODY P - Griffith University

This paper presents a report of a study in progress. There has been extensive media reporting of the alliance between Virtual Communities, the ACTU and Primus to provide computers and Internet access to workers at affordable prices. The alliance has provided us with an opportunity to investigate how people from lower socioeconomic groups, who would in the past be typically described as 'information poor', learn through engagement with the new technologies in both formal and informal educational settings. Such a study would have been impossible in the past as potential participants would be unlikely to have had access to technology in their homes. The aim of the study is to assist teachers in schools to understand the multiple ways in which such young people use the technologies in their homes and communities. Teachers may then use this knowledge to inform their own approaches to teaching and learning. Hopefully this will assist them in valuing and building upon the technological literacy practices that students bring with them to the classroom. In this way the study builds upon the work of Heath (1983) and Freebody et al (1995).

A pilot study has commenced which focuses on four families, three of which purchased computers through the Virtual Communities project. The fourth family, which can be characterised as high socioeconomic status has been included for comparison purposes. The research approach is broadly ethnographic. The main research techniques are observation, interview, audiotaped events, artefact collection and discourse analysis. Freebody, P. et al (1995) Everyday literacy practices in and out of schools in low socioeconomic urban communities. Canberra: DEET Heath, S. B. (1983) Ways with words. NY: Cambridge University Press.

Part B of Symposium 29
sol00029b

Adopting a Technocratic Approach to Literacy: New Zealand Primary School Literacy Curriculum Policy 1945-1948

SOLER J - The Open University

'Rolling revisions' to New Zealand literacy curriculum in the 1940s were formulated during the first Labour regime and published as reports on 'Written English', 'Oral Expression' and 'The teaching of Spelling' between 1945 and 1948. This paper argues that the first 'revisions' to English curriculum in 1946/47 were a compromise between traditional literary-heritage ideals and progressive, 'new education' visions of literacy and schooling. An examination of these reports shows that promotion of the 'new education' was constrained by criticisms of the 'freedom' and 'lack of standards' levelled by business and conservative sections of the teaching profession.

The particular focus of this paper is the 1948 'Report on the teaching of Spelling', which marks a significant turning point toward a technocratic approach to literacy instruction. The Report emphasised the work of specialised 'experts' and scientific 'studies' in the teaching of spelling, mobilised to give authority to its findings and recommendations. The Committee which produced this Report contained no influential educational officials, yet it successfully chastised the profession for inappropriate teaching practices. Reminiscent of recent debates, adoption of a technocratic approach gave this Committee power to critique what were seen as conservative approaches to spelling pedagogy - something with clear echoes in more recent times.

sor00251  Paper

Investigating Practice in Responding to Fear in Early Childhood Contexts

SORIN R - James Cook University

This presentation is bases on my research into children's emotions, which focused on the emotion of fear. Fear is named by nearly all theorists as a basic or innate emotion. While it motivates us to defend ourselves and avoid dangerous situations it can also limit memory, perception and problem-solving abilities, impair social interactions and threaten the sense of self.

Young Children are expected to learn to understand and to exhibit fear and other emotions in socially appropriate ways. Forms of "emotional literacy", these skills effect success or failure in learning and in life in general. The concept of multiple intelligences recognises interpersonal and intrapersonal intelligences, and early childhood guidelines include emotional and social learning, yet curricula mainly address the cognitive domain.

This presentation examines teachers' understandings of young children's fears and their practices that facilitate understanding and expression of this and other emotions. It challenges practitioners to reflect upon their own awarenesses and responses to affective situations and how they can best implement an affective curriculum.

Part D of Symposium 452
sou452d

teaching Mathematics: Pain or Pleasure? Or Professional Preparation?

SOUTHWELL B

Mathematics is a subject that seems to challenge teachers and students alike. Teachers who are enthusiastic about their subject matter and employ creative and challenging pedagogy based on sound philosophical and psychological principles are able to capture the imagination of the students and enable them to succeed in mathematics. The implications of holding different philosophical stances in relation to the teaching and learning of mathematics need careful consideration. The values thus espoused by teachers of mathematics will, to a large extent, determine the effect of their teaching. Other mediating factors could be motivation, the students' attitude, and the students' values. This paper considers the effects and importance of all these in the development of quality mathematics teaching practice.

sri00299  Paper

Computer conferencing: Can it significantly improve distance adult students' learning outcomes and student interactivity?

SRINGAM C - The University of South Australia

The study aimed at identifying the effectiveness of computer conferencing and integrated media when being applied to distance education in Thailand. Both quantitative and qualitative methods were employed. The subjects of the study were 92 Thai distance adult students who enrolled in a secondary education subject in the second semester of Academic Year 1999. On a random basis, they were divided into three groups. Students in the first two groups studied by using traditional material and engaging in face-to-face group discussions in tutorials. Students in the other group studied by using the same material and participating in online group discussions during a period of a 10-week experiment. Research instruments including an academic achievement test, an attitude scale, a questionnaire, computer mediated communication (CMC) records of contributions, teachers' comments, student self-reports and focused group interviews, were used to collect data. It was found that students in these three groups had a higher academic achievement. Those who participated in online group discussions also had a more positive attitude towards computer and information technology and the integrated technologies significantly supported student interactivity and cooperative learning. A practical model of distance education provision using interactive technologies in Thailand is also proposed.

Part B of Symposium 37
sta00037b

Local curriculum partnerships in the time of international curriculum developments: Stories from South Australia, An equity-influenced curriculum framework

STARR K - University of South Australia

The complex challenges of constructing a curriculum that promotes equity. How can equity issues and perspectives be built into a curriculum framework for use by schools in South Australia from reception to Year 12, across all schooling sectors (state, Catholic, independent) and all pre-schools, without being tokenistic or exacerbating equity problems by labelling some groups as 'disadvantaged'? This was the dilemma facing the writers of the South Australian Curriculum, Standards and Accountability Framework (SACSA) which is currently being prepared for implementation in 2001. After researching the various methods by which curriculum frameworks from around the world have tackled this issue, a special conference led to a conception of 'equity' which aims to effectively incorporate it within, and at the heart of, the curriculum framework.

This section of the group presentation focuses on the discursive construction of equity in current educational texts, looking at the ways in which this construction contributes to differential power positioning or various groups in schools and wider society. Taking a radical departure from what appears to be 'the norm', the position taken in the SACSA project disrupts hegemonic notions and the practices and policies they have fostered in the name of 'equity'. The discussion will focus on how the SACSA conception of equity affects curriculum scope, performance standards and ideas about curriculum accountability.

Part B of Symposium 11
sum00011b

Diversity and Difference in early childhood and education
Negotiating "Otherness": A Male Early Childhood Educator's Gender Positioning.

SUMSION J - Macquarie University

The care and education of young children continues to be perceived by many as women's work. Male early childhood educators, therefore, are highly conspicuous and subject to considerable suspicion. Consequently they must carefully negotiate their 'otherness'. This paper draws on data from in-depth interviews and informal conversations to describe: (1) the gender positioning strategies adopted by a male preschool teacher-director and (2) how he was positioned by others. The concluding discussion will focus on the implications of these positioning strategies for the early childhood sector fs potential to contribute to gender reform.

Part D of Symposium 469
sym00469d  Paper

Teachers as researchers of educational change
The case for outcomes-based assessment

SYMES J

This paper reviews the current changes to the NSW Higher School Certificate, with particular emphasis on outcomes, and provides an overview of the political and economic reasons behind the changes. The research project explores the nature of outcomes-based assessment and the willingness of teachers to accept the new approach in their classrooms. Data were collected from a total of 26 staff members by way of a survey devised to gauge teachers‚ understanding and application of outcomes-based assessment across key learning areas, prior to the introduction of a new outcomes-based syllabus in Religion.

Results of the survey indicated that teachers held a number of misconceptions regarding outcomes-based assessment. Following an in-service program, a questionnaire was distributed for the collection of further data. Despite the workload involved, teachers responded positively to the process and readily trialled the assessment strategy in the classroom; students‚ reactions to the assessment procedure were favourable.

tan00226  Paper

Using ICT to Support Interactive teaching and Learning on a Secondary Mathematics PGCE Course

TANNER H University of Wales, Swansea
JONES S - University of Wales, Swansea

During the academic years 1998/1999 and 1999/2000 an Open and Distance Learning version of the full time Mathematics PGCE course was developed and trialled at the University of Wales Swansea. This was a part of a larger collaborative project (The HATT project) between the constituent colleges of the University of Wales which aimed to use the affordances of ICT to improve the teaching of Mathematics, Modern Foreign Languages, and Educational and Professional Studies within the PGCE programme and to widen access to teacher training in Wales.

The project made use of First class conferencing e-mail, web based bulletin boards and streaming video to provide an alternative to some elements of the usual college based section of the course. This paper focuses on the changes in the learning discourse within PGCE mathematics arising from the affordances of the technology.

tan00490  Paper

The role of middle managers in raising standards in mathematics

TANNER H University of Wales, Swansea

This paper reports some of the results of the "Raising Standards in Numeracy" project which was funded by the Welsh Assembly during the period 1999/2000. Schools in which pupils achieved standards significantly higher than would have been expected from their prior attainment were identified using value-added analyses in order to explore factors and strategies which might contribute positively towards standards in mathematics.

Two primary and two secondary schools were identified in each of five LEAs. Management strategies and processes which might contribute to high attainment were then explored through extended interviews with LEA advisors, head teachers and mathematics subject leaders. These factors were triangulated through extended interviews with classroom teachers and through participant observation in the classroom. This paper focuses on aspects of effective middle management. Observed features are contrasted with findings from other projects and analysed to provide a rationale for good practice.

ter00203  Paper

"The best thing I've ever done": Second chance education for early school leavers

TE RIELE K - University of Sydney

Young people who complete senior secondary education are less likely than early school leavers to be unemployed or employed in casual or 'dead-end' jobs. Nevertheless, in Australia around a quarter of the 15-19 age group continues to leave school without a senior high school qualification. Early school leavers tend to be drawn in unrepresentatively large numbers from young people of low socio economic background, government schools, rural areas, boys and aboriginal background.

This paper will give a brief overview of the facts of early school leaving and relevant government policy. Young people tend to leave school early because they are alienated from schooling. They have negative relationships with teachers and find the curriculum irrelevant, uninteresting and too hard. It would, therefore, be counterproductive to force these young people to stay at school. Instead, a system of re-entry education is useful, allowing them to return to complete senior high school or equivalent at a later stage. The paper will report on data collected at re-entry institutions in the greater Sydney region, giving a description of the approach to education at these colleges. The main focus of the paper will be on the reasons for returning, experiences, opinions and hopes for the future of the students.

Symposium 41: part A | B | C
tho00041

The practice(s) of choice: primary school parents, secondary schools and policy agendas - Symposium Overview

THOMSON P - University of South Australia

In this symposium we will present some work in progress from the first stage of a research project examining the geographies of school choice. We spoke with primary school parents in the western suburbs of Adelaide as they were in the process of choosing a secondary school, and then again after they had made their decision. We also collected information and materials from school Open Days/Nights. The second stage of our research now underway involves the use of GIS software to map student movements across one region of the city. The first stage of this work was funded by a small ARC grant.

Part B of Symposium 41
tho00041b

The practice(s) of choice: primary school parents, secondary schools and policy agendas
Infor-motion: readings of school brochures and Open Nights.

THOMSON P - University of South Australia
UNDERWOOD F - University of South Australia

Secondary schools are now increasingly engaged in the production of materials and events that aim to encourage and direct parent choice. We deconstruct a corpus of school materials collected, and Open Days/Nights attended, during the year 2000, using feminist discourse and semiotic analysis. Our reading suggests the development of a genre of infor-motion, the blurring of information and promotion. We find some evidence to support the notion developed by Hesketh and Knight (1998) in the UK, that schools are 'busily managing their images in much the same way' (p.21). We consider the implications of this representational commonality.

Symposium 501 Part A | B
tor00501

Learning the language and learning through language in the first three years: A study of two sisters. The emergence of language: birth to 18 months.

CLUGSTON L - Macquarie University

In this paper, I will explore the key developments which occur from birth to 18 months. Drawing on longitudinal data from a small child, Abby, the early linguistic system will be traced from its origins in infancy to the development of an invented system where sound is used symbolically to convey meaning in a systemic manner ("protolanguage"). The child uses her early communicative resources to interact with those around her, while at the same time using her language as a vehicle for other types of learning. Videotaped data will be used to illustrate aspects of Abby's development.

Part B of Symposium 501
tor00501b

Learning the language and learning through language in the first three years: A study of two sisters.
Early mother tongue: 18 months to 3 years.

TORR J - Macquarie University

At about 18 months, Phoebe began to use adult-type words and structures to communicate with others. The nature of the transition from "protolanguage" to mother tongue is not well understood. Using video segments, this paper will explore Phoebe's linguistic strategies from 18 months to 3 years, with a focus on the development of literacy understandings which are inextricably linked to the development of oral language.

tre00367  Paper

Are They the Same - a Project to Examine the Successes of Adolescent Males in Education in Secondary and Tertiary Settings

TRENT F - Flinders University
SLADE M - Flinders University

Much has been made of the drop out rate of adolescent males from education, particularly as a contrast to adolescent females. This research, funded by DETYA , is designed to look at the boys' perception of what is happening . This involved talking to adolescents from all three schooling sectors, urban and rural and examining University achievement to see whether any particular discipline patterns emerge. The research occurred in two stages, both using focus groups. 360 adolescents were interviewed and their thoughts summarised. These summarie were returned to them for checking. The checked results formed the basis for discussions with those who had left school and for the remainder of the 1800 sample, over 60 schools. Some tertiary students were also interviewed.

Results show that there are conflicting paradigms at work . These cover notions of success, achievement, what is reasonable, adult society and schooling, teacher expectations, curriculum and assessment. Contrary to what appears in the literature, the effects of gender and masculinity are not seen as issues.

The research suggests a greater need for flexibility, structural change and a closer relationship between school and the world if the pressures which result in resistance, and despair are to be lessened and success rates of adolescents at school to be raised.

tro00321

Patterns of Discontent: International Perspectives on Teacher Satisfaction
Teacher Stress in the Low Trust Society

TROMAN G - The Open University, UK

Recent accounts of teacher emotions and cultures of teaching have noted that unsatisfactory social relationships with adults, for example, colleagues, headteachers, parents and inspectors, elicit hostile emotions from teachers and appear to be a source of stress in teaching. This paper examines why this should be the case. Some commentators have used labour process theory to argue that the intensification of work and government policies promoting managerialism in schools is the roots of the problem. While these seemed to be influencing factors in the case study reported, teacher perspectives and trust relationships in society and schooling are examined using conceptions of trust developed by Giddens (1990 and 1991).

The principal method used was semi-structured and open-ended, in-depth, life history interviewing in order to gather the personal testimonies of stressed teachers. The sample consisted of twenty primary school teachers, thirteen women and seven men. These worked, or had worked, in schools representing a range of urban and rural locations. All had been professionally diagnosed as suffering from anxiety, depression or stress-related illness.

The paper argues that, while the intensification of teachers' work, involving technification and managerialism, is certainly involved in eroding positive staff relationships, it is also the changing trust relations in high modernity which are shaping the social relations of low-trust schooling and impacting negatively on teachers' physical and emotional well-being and their collegial professional relations. The article concludes by arguing that effective schools and teaching require collegial cultures characterised by high-trust relationships.

val00341  Paper

Excellent Teachers: Exploring Self-Constructs, Role, Career Development and Personal Challenges

VALLANCE R - University of Notre Dame

This is a qualitative study, grounded in the professional experience of secondary teachers recommended by their principals as 'excellent teachers'. A cohort of twenty teachers was selected from four co-educational schools in suburban Perth.

The study has included classroom observation and four separate, in-depth, semi-structured interviews over two years. Teachers varied in age, experience and teaching subject, while the schools varied in socio-economic status. Each interviewee has addressed a number of topics centred around self perception of teacher's role, function within the school, abilities and talents developed to this stage of their career. Issues of personal failure, challenges to personal and professional development, the core or 'heart' of professional teaching in today's secondary system, and their stance towards current and anticipated demands of the evolving education system have also been explored. While the accounts are interesting as personal stories of teachers, the unanimity of the constructions of teaching role and personal responses to daily challenges of the profession is striking. Furthermore, the perspectives offered by these experienced teachers of schooling, education, teachers and students are remarkable in their optimism, belief in the future of education and high levels of personal commitment. Each interviewee has addressed a number of topics that have centred around the person's self perception of their role, function within the school, abilities and talents that have been developed to this stage of their career. Issues of personal failure, challenges to personal and professional development, the central core or 'heart' of being a professional teacher in today's secondary education system, and their stance towards current and anticipated demands of the evolving education system have also been explored.

While the accounts are interesting as personal stories of teachers, the unanimity of the constructions of teaching role and personal responses to the daily challenges of the profession is striking. Furthermore, the perspectives offered by these experienced teachers of schooling, education, teachers and students are remarkable in their optimism, belief in the future of education and high levels of personal commitment.

van00231  Paper

HSC Biology teachers and the Stage 6 syllabus

VAN ROOY W - Macquarie University

In July 1999 the Board of Studies NSW released five Stage 6 science syllabi for implementation in NSW secondary schools in 2000. The study reported in this paper examines the beliefs, values and attitudes that a small group (n=13) of experienced biology teachers have toward curriculum change and in particular those concerning the Stage 6 Biology syllabus. Semi structured interviews were conducted with teachers in November/December 1999 toascertain their reactions to this syllabus and in May/June 2000 to establish what they considered to be current advantages and difficulties of syllabus implementation given the context in which they worked. Teachers in this study were conceptualised as expert practitioners. Results to date would indicate that teachers have a sophisticated conceptualisation of biology teaching which for some marries with their beliefs about the nature of biology as a corpus of knowledge and understandings open to change. For others the nature of the syllabus and the manner in which it is implemented in classrooms necessitates a view of biology as a collection of facts which needs to be imparted to students in order to pass examinations. The study will continue to track the reactions of these teachers during 2001 and the early part of 2002.

vid00478  Paper

The Unsteady Ascendancy Of Market Accountability In Australian And English Higher Education

VIDOVICH L - The University of Western Australia
SLEE R - The University of Western Australia

Increased accountability is at the centre of widespread educational reforms which feature the rhetoric of deregulation. Not only have educational systems, institutions, and practitioners been required to be more accountable, but arguably the nature of accountability has also changed from professional and democratic to managerial and market forms. In particular, within the hegemonic discourses of the market ideology, market accountability to paying customers has been foregrounded. However, the hegemony is not complete. Governments have often positioned themselves as 'market managers', creating a complex and often contradictory relationship between new forms of market and managerial accountability, layered on top of more traditional notions of professional and democratic accountability.

This paper explores the changing nature of accountability in Australian and English higher education. As we enter the twenty-first century, central higher education authorities in both countries are conducting major reviews and revisionings of mechanisms to enhance the accountability of universities. Whilst acknowledging the potential homogenisation of policy directions with globalisation, this paper analyses policy differences, as well as similarities. The findings of analysis of documents and interviews at both the national level and within particular case study universities in each country are reported. There are significant differences in the ways in which particular policies are produced, received, negotiated, resisted and transformed in the different contexts - hence the 'unsteady' ascendancy of market accountability.

Part E of Symposium 469
wan00469e  Paper

Teachers as researchers of educational change
Perceptions of teachers regarding the inclusion of children with disorders in the classroom.

WANJURA C - Australian Catholic University

The recent educational policies of inclusion of students with disabilities in mainstream classrooms have caused a significant change in practice for teachers. Children with behavioural and emotional disorders are seen as the most difficult to include in general classrooms and research identifies them as providing a great deal of stress for teachers. This project looks at general classroom teachers‚ perceptions of the impact such children have on their teaching and stress levels, and their opinions on the increase and possible causes of emotionally and behaviourally disturbed children in classrooms.

Teachers are facing heightened levels of stress and concern for these students and many indicate a need to change their teaching practice to accommodate these students‚ special needs. Discussion of the need for schools to become proactive as a central coordinating agency in addressing the challenging behaviours that students are exhibiting is included.

wat00302  Paper

Exploring Perceived Personal and Social Gender Stereotypes of Maths with Secondary Students: An Explanation for Continued Gender Differences in Participation?

WATT H - University of Sydney

Students from each of three sequential cohorts (N=397, 414, 459 for cohorts 1 to 3 respectively) indicated their intended levels of participation in both HSC maths course selection and career plans, revealing a persistent gender imbalance in higher levels of participation favouring boys. Given this continued gender difference in participation, explanations are sought in students' perceptions of personal and social stereotypes about maths being more suited to males or females (or neither). Students rated the extent to which they themselves perceived maths as more suited to males or females, as well as the extent to which they perceived 'society' as perceiving maths as more suited to males or females. In addition, students provided qualitative explanations for their ratings of personal and social gender stereotypes.

Quantitative and qualitative data were collated for each gender within each cohort, and explanations thematically grouped. Despite most students' ratings favouring neither gender, stereotypes favoured boys for maths where these occurred. Social stereotypes were also more prevalent than personal stereotypes, perhaps reflecting cultural change and perhaps indicating a degree of 'political correctness' on the part of students' reported self-perceptions. An age trend was evident for personal but not social stereotypes, with a greater proportion of older than younger students reporting personal stereotypes. The study focuses on personal versus social stereotypes for boys versus girls, how these may develop and how these might contribute to the gender imbalance in maths participation.

wat00345  Paper

Students' Experiences of Understanding University Physics

WATERHOUSE F - La Trobe University
PROSSER M - University of Sydney

Previous research in the field of student learning in higher education has mostly focused on conceptual issues of students at the individual concept or task level. There has been little research of students' conceptions of whole subjects, and virtually no previous research of students' feelings of their conceptual experiences.

This present research aims to analyse students' experiences of studying a whole subject and their feelings associated with those experiences. The sample consisted of two interviews with twenty four first year university physics students. In analysing students' experiences, two related methodological approaches were used.

The first phase of analysis adopted a Phenomenographic approach, resulting in the development of categories of description of the variation within students' meaning of understanding. The second phase of the analysis adopted a metaphoric approach, where the variation within students' feelings associated with their meanings of understanding were analysed.

In this paper, we will present the set of categories of description we developed to describe the variation in the way students conceive of understanding. In presenting these categories of description, the discussion will point towards the beginnings of the metaphoric phase of analysis. In analysing the data using both methodologies, we aim to gain insight in to the nature of individual experience.

wau00369  Paper

Studying and Learning for University Students

WAUGH R - Edith Cowan University

A scale of Studying and Learning was created using a model of Motivation (sets of Guttman sub-scales of stem-items based on Striving for Excellence, Desire to Learn and Personal Incentives), integrated with three self-reported aspects (an Ideal Self-view, a Capability Self-view and a Studying and Learning Self-view). The response categories were the number of subjects studied. The stem-item sample was 23, all answered in three aspects, making an effective item sample of 69. The person convenience sample was 372 students in education at an Australian university. The 69 items fitted a Rasch Measurement Model and formed a scale in which the 'difficulties' of the items were ordered from 'easy' to 'hard' and the student measures of Studying and Learning were ordered from 'low' to 'high'. The proportion of observed student variance considered true was 0.944. The response categories were answered consistently and logically and the results supported nearly all the Guttman sub-scales. Students found it 'easy' to form a high view of how they would like to be, much 'harder' to form a high view of what they think they are capable of doing and even 'harder' to perform, at a high level, their Studying and Learning behavior for all stem-items, in accordance with the model.

Symposium 30: Part A | C | D [There is no B.]
web00030

Physical Bodies: Gender and Physical Activity - Symposium Overview

WEBB L- University of South Australia
WRIGHT J - University of Wollongong
GARRETT R - University of Queensland
MACDONALD D - University of Queensland.

Gender issues exist across all areas of education however certain learning areas are embedded with powerful discourses that limit opportunities to destabilise dominant gendered subject positions. This symposium investigates issues associated with physical activity and physical culture within and beyond schools. One of the main curriculum settings for physical activity within schools is the Health and Physical Education (HPE) Key Learning Area. The discursive practices of HPE not only reflect the expectations and constraints of discourses in the wider society, educational organisations and bureaucracies, but also the pervasive influences of working with and within sport (Macdonald, 1995). The institutional organisation of sport reinforces certain social relations: competition and hierarchy for some, exclusion or domination for others; often along gender lines. These social relations are both realised and symbolised in the bodily performances (Connell, 1995; Irigaray, 1993). The embodiment of subjectivities is magnified in these contexts.

This symposium will consider the discourses of physicality in the lives of teachers and students; in their careers, their tasks as curriculum makers and their experiences as participants. Themes from interview data will stimulate interesting points for discussion. Poststructural feminisms provide a useful analytical tool for considering issues of subjectivities, embodied power and contested discourses of the body.

Part C of Symposium 30
web00030c

Physical Bodies: Gender and Physical Activity
Physicality Magnified - Gendered Influences on Teachers' Careers

WEBB L - University of Queensland

Poststructural feminism's focus on the embodiment of our experience, breaking down the Cartesian dualism of mind/body (Butler, 1993; Davies, 1996; Kristeva, 1986) . It is interesting to consider this in the context of Health and Physical Education (HPE) where the teacher's body is a tool of work through aspects such as kinesthetic contact with students in providing feedback, the physical performances of demonstrating skills, and expectations to represent an 'appropriate' physical, healthy 'role model'. The HPE teacher's body is not only a tool of work but also the site of powerful dominant discourses associated with the pervasive influences of working with and within sport. This context of 'magnified' embodiment influences the careers of HPE teachers, including their aspirations to leadership opportunities in the Head of Department (HOD) position. Current Education Queensland records indicate that the negative effects of these influences are more acutely evidenced in the lives of women - HPE is second only to Science in terms of the lowest female HOD representation compared to teacher representation. This paper reports themes arising from interview data, expanding on the many ways that discourses are inscribed in/on bodies and contribute to the under representation of women in leadership roles in HPE.

Part F of Symposium 452
web00452f

Digging potholes in the information super highway.

WEBB C - University of Westren Sydney, Nepean

The typical professional development paradigm is based on the assumption that teachers can be 'infected' with the latest curriculum innovation and having been infected they will return to the classroom and implement the practices. Attempts to introduce information technology into teaching and learning are no exception. This largely discredited approach seems entrenched in the culture of school organisations. This paper will explore alternative strategies for professional development.

These strategies take a 'cultural change' approach to professional development. These include working with principals to effect change in the implementation of communication and information technology programs via affecting their perceptions of technology's place in schools. Other approaches include working with technological 'novices' to develop programs for their peers. Building in Quality: what Works? What Doesn't?

whi00075  Paper

Articulation of Practice: Teacher Action Theories and Student Use of Calculators in Upper NSW Primary Classrooms

WHITE A - University of Western Sydney, Nepean

Research studies have demonstrated that teachers experience difficulties in the articulation of their classroom practice and their teaching values. Attempts at articulation that have been reported suffer from inconsistencies between a teacher's espoused theory and theory of action.

Research that had been completed, both locally and overseas, reflected strong early opposition to calculator use in primary schools and evidence suggested that this early opposition exerted a continuing influence in the classroom (Howard, 1992). Thus teachers may support the use of calculators in mathematics as a general principle but refrain from calculator use in their own classrooms. The early researchers Argyris and Schon (1974), claimed behaviour was driven by individual action theories that were different from espoused theories and there were difficulties in uncovering these action theories.

This study reports upon the use of a modification to the Theory of Planned Behaviour (Ajzen, 1988) in order to uncover teacher action theories regarding the student use of calculators in primary mathematics classrooms from a selected sample of NSW upper primary teachers (N = 115). It will discuss these theories and their use in assisting teachers in their critical reflection and articulation of current practice.

whi00097  Paper

Re-searching the 'Junior Secondary Review' for Images of Primary, Secondary and Middle School Teachers

WHITEHEAD K - Flinders University

The 'Report of the Junior Secondary Review' (JSR) has been a catalyst for the growth of middle schooling in South Australia and has informed reports in other states since its publication in 1992. This paper identifies gendered discourses which underpin the images of primary, secondary and middle school teachers as they are portrayed in the JSR and considers some implications for the occupation. It argues that the perspectives canvassed in this report disenfranchise primary and secondary teachers, men and women, and are likely to contribute to further divisions within the occupation.

Although the JSR proposes that middle school teachers must transcend existing primary and secondary cultures to cater for the education of young adolescents it could be that efforts to introduce middle schooling will entrench gendered assumptions about teachers and students, and uphold gendered divisions of labour. Given that the South Australian Curriculum Standards and Accountability frameworks are about to institutionalise the 'Middle Years' as a discrete band of schooling, it is timely to re-search the discourses about the primary, secondary and middle school teachers who will be charged with the task of curriculum implementation.

why00394  Paper

'Upgrading' - Co-constructing A Community of Learners

WHYTE B - University of Waikato

When does 1+1+1+1 = 1 ? When the recent establishment of an outpost university campus has provided the opportunity for development of a locally-flavoured version of the imported concept of Professional Development Schools (PDSs). The combination of inter-school knowledge, a teacher education programme, experienced teachers upgrading diploma qualifications to a degree, plus doctoral and Ministry of Education contract research data, has prompted an inter/intra school/university dialogue which is fast evolving into an authentic co-constructed community of learners.

Facilitated by university staff working cooperatively with school principals and teachers more interested in 'career lattices' than career ladders', this collaborative project is underpinned by Sergiovanni's notion of 'cultural leadership' (power to accomplish vs power over people) which fosters the notion of 'all teachers as leaders'. Rising to the challenge of developing a genuine transformative partnership, the educational community in a small city of New Zealand is exploring creative ways in which to integrate novice student teachers and experienced veteran practitioners into a community of extended professionals. This paper describes the process and explores the issues, of a partnership striving for 'deep' rather than 'surface' engagement.

Part A of Symposium 5
wil00005a  Paper

Re-visioning assessment as a collaborative venture.

WILKS A - Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology

Assessment has recently been recognised as a process where collaboration can yield great benefits. Collaboration in the assessment process requires teachers to move toward a sharing of the responsibility and ownership within the process, because it provides the opportunity for strong positive relationships to develop between teachers, children, parents and the community (Kearney,1992). Teachers will need to take on the role of facilitators and enablers for parents to have sufficient information to be able to make real contributions in the process rather than being relegated to the role of receivers of information (Pugh,1985). True collaboration can result in feelings of empowerment and commitment (Bloom,1995). Input from the community as well as the parents and children can add to the cultural and individual relevance of the program and curriculum offered to young children (Gestwicki, 1992).

Documentation can be the cornerstone of the process for sharing information about children's learning between all interested parties (Eaton and Shepherd, 1998).

This paper will explore the ways in which collaboration can enhance the assessment process and lead to genuine contribution and sharing of the decision making and action within the process.

Symposium 15 Parts A | B | C | D
wil00015

Research in schools: Where policy meets practice - Symposium Overview.

WILDY H - Edith Cowan University

The proposed symposium addresses the tension between policy and practice in a context of system initiated school reform. The tensions are explicated through six different settings: accountability requirements for early childhood teachers; regulation of student behaviour; multiple understandings of curricular reform; catering for students at risk in remote rural primary schools; multi-grading in pre school and early primary school classes; and standards based assessments of principals‚ performance. Each study tackles a current policy issue facing schools. Together the papers call on a wide range of qualitative and quantitative data, including in-depth multi layered case studies, cross agency interviews, longitudinal student test results, field observations, and responses to in-basket assessment materials. Common to all six studies is the conclusion that much of the reform policy aimed at improving educational opportunities and outcomes is leading to rigid and cumbersome administrative regimes that fail to capture the nature of the professional work of teachers and school leaders. Of greater concern is that in many cases these policies also operate to limit students‚ long term learning opportunities. It is argued that continuing research in schools is needed to provide education systems with evidence of the effects of their policy in practice.

Part D of Symposium 15
wil00015d

Assessing principals' performance: Practice as policy.

WILDY - Edith Cowan University
H CLARKE
S LOUDEN W

Currently performance or outcomes based education is criticised because of the selective nature of what counts as an outcome. It is claimed that only what can be measured is valued. Further, unless the strategies for assessing performance are psychometrically adequate, neither what is assessed nor how outcomes are assessed are defensible. For example, performance standards for principals are rarely linked with assessment strategies. Even less often are performance assessments, such as interviews, selection panels and portfolios used for performance management, selection for appointment or promotion, linked to performance standards. Further, judgements about individual performance are most often made on the basis on scoring rubrics that exist in the heads of members of the assessing panel, behind closed doors. This paper reports the development of authentic assessment strategies linked to a case-based standards framework for principals' performance. This study, conducted in Western Australia during 2000 in a collaborative partnership with the WA Government Schools Leadership Centre, has three elements. The first is to develop items that link to the case-based standards framework incorporating interpersonal skills (such as listening, collaborating, negotiating) and moral dispositions (such as patience and persistence, courage and decisiveness, and sensitivity and tact). The second is the explication of scoring rubrics for assessing performance that exemplars of high, middle and low performance on dimensions of interpersonal skills and moral dispositions. The third element is the preparation of a package of psychometrically robust, credible and readily understood assessment strategies. The significance of this study lies in providing defensible assessment strategies that bridge the reality of principals' practice with an explicit and grounded standards framework.

wil00261  Paper

Like a bird of paradise among the carrion crows: An exploration of constructions of women leaders in the media and education

WILKINSON J - Deakin University

The gap between cultural discourses of female leadership and the reality for many women in the workplace appears to be widening. Recently an Australian Magazine report triumphantly announced the shattering of the 'glass ceiling' for women in management. Barely three weeks later, an Australian Institute of Management survey revealed that women in management were still earning 'far less than men' and that the number of women on Australian boards had fallen in the past year.

What messages are conveyed by contemporary media coverage of Australian female public figures in regard to women and leadership? What connections are there between the discourses of women and leadership which circulate within the mainstream media and the subjectivity of women who are or who aspire to be leaders? This paper analyses the way in which broadsheet newspapers in Australia have represented a range of female public figures in the last decade of the twentieth century. It then analyses interviews conducted with female educational leaders. The paper seeks to explore how this latter group of women are both constructed by and construct discourses of leadership within the education workplace and how such discourse may be informed and shaped by contemporary Australian media representations of women leaders.

wil00296  Paper

Promoting Productive Pedagogies: Preservice Teacher Education for New Times in Queensland State Schools

WILSON E - James Cook University
KLEIN M

Recent initiatives in Queensland State Schooling are placing issues of pedagogy clearly in the forefront of major reforms. Significant features of these changes are new ways of talking and thinking about educationa processes; 'New Basics' and 'Rich Tasks' are discursive terms representative of these initiatives. Such dramatic reforms necessitate a rethinking of the ways preservice teacher education readies teachers for new classroom climates and related pedagogies. These changes create discursive differences and tensions between new initiatives and previous practices at various levels.

This paper attempts to address some of these tensions between and among students and academic staff on campus over issues of pedagogy, agency and power as well as resistance based on ideology and acritical reaction to change. This rethinking of pedagogy involves not just new ideas for student teachers but also for those who serve to educate them.

Part B of Symposium 6
wri00006b  Paper

Challenging literacy perspectives

WRIGHT S - Queensland University of Technology

Inspired by influential thinkers in the early/middle part of the century (eg. Whitehead, Langer, Cassier), there was an increased interest in how people use symbols to express and communicate meanings, and how this capacity distinguishes humans from other creatures. The ability to usesymbols has been identified as central to human evolution and creative achievement (eg. myths, languages, arts, mathematics and science, and other symbol systems). However, in many ways, Western cultures have remained firmly committed to a traditional definition of literacy, which excludes key symbolic forms (ie. signs, sounds, gesture, graphic representation, play, music, mime, dance). Symbolic communication involves: bodily kinaesthetic, aural, visual, spatial, tactile, aesthetic, expressive and imaginative forms of understanding; the integration of thought, emotion, action; thinking through movement; turning action into representation; artistic cognition; communicating via a unique language; representing reality; depicting meaning; integrating ideas non-verbally and metaphorically; and alternating between reality and fantasy.

This paper summarises research results and presents examples of preschool/primary school children's exploration and use of symbols, not just as tools of thought, but as aspects of thought itself. It argues that artistic literacy should be the core of the curriculum.

Part D of Symposium 13
wyn00013d

New Agendas for Post-compulsory Education in Australia.

WYN J University of Melbourne

Recent research on young people's lives is generating a new approach to educational policy. This paper provides an overview of key elements of this new approach. The paper draws on a longitudinal study of 2000 young people, a representative sample drawn from a data base of 20,000 young people who left school in the state of Victoria in 1991. The research design includes interviews with a sub sample of 200, on a yearly basis. The paper also draws on a study of young people at vocational education colleges at three sites, one in Victoria, one in South Australia and one in New South Wales, undertaken in 1998-9.

The research provides evidence of a mis-match between young people's approaches to and perspectives on education, life and work, and those which currently inform Australian Post-compulsory educational policy. In particular, the concept of transition, which underpins current policy is shown to be lacking. While educational policy remains focussed on a linear and unidimensional model of transition from school to work, the research shows that other life concerns are also of significance to young people's decision-making. The research also reveals a complex and multidimensional process, which involves a mixing of study and work, rather than a transition from one to the other. This pattern is strong in secondary school and remains significant throughout the post-compulsory years. While educational policy is increasingly based on the premise that private investment in education will produce employment outcomes, young people's experience reveals a weak nexus between education and employment outcomes. The paper concludes that the life patterns of young people in Australiaforshadow a 'new adulthood' that has yet to be taken account of in educational policy.

yar00090  Paper

Thinking outside the square: A change model of university supervision of the practicum

YARROW A - Queensland University of Technology
MILLWATER J - Queensland University of Technology
SHORT J - - Queensland University of Technology

Tertiary supervision of preservice teachers undertaking professional practice no longer assumes the importance it once held. Competing interests (e.g., research and consultancies) mean that fewer university staff commit to this area. Those who do find their promotional opportunites may suffer. Against this background, this pilot study developed, trialled and evaluated the effectiveness on a "Professional Development Schools" approach. In essence, it involved hiring a professional development facilitator for each school whose task was to work with both preservice teachers and supervising teachers in their professional development. Reports indicate a high level of satisfaction with the outcomes. The project in on-going.

Part b of Symposium 13
yat00013b  Paper

Post-compulsory schooling policy and the lives of young people in Australia
Selves, social factors, school sites - and the tricky issue of 'school effects'.

YATES L - University of Technology, Sydney

Schooling policy is heavily driven by data-base statistical evidence, of inputs and outputs of different schools and of results for different' social categories' of student. Good schools are seen as those with high retention rates and good year 12 results; the outcomes of 'girls' as a category are compared with those of 'boys' as a category, with a heavy focus on participation levels at different ages, and on final year results. This paper discusses some evidence from a qualitative, longitudinal project, based in four different school sites, and the more complicated perspective it throws on what different types of schools are doing and achieving in relation to different types of young people. The project was designed to allow close-up study of the experiences of young people from similar backgrounds who attend different schools, and young people of different backgrounds attending the same school. The students were interviewed twice a year over a six year period (1994-1999) through each year of their secondary schooling. The paper will discuss some general features of how the students in the project construct themselves, their schooling and their future at the end of their schooling, and will also discuss some specific cases to consider the processes over time that produced the students' lives and their sense of themselves at the end of that period. Policy issues that will bead dressed in relation to evidence from this project include: (1) the problem of focussing on competition between schools and 'effective' school practices, given that school and family history, and school reputation and context are important dimensions in how students take up their school experiences; (2) the deceptiveness of retention indicators, and some questions about the wisdom of policy initiatives which force extended schooling participation on students who would prefer to leave; and (3) the effects of recent gender reform policy in Australian schooling and some consideration from this project of gender agendas today.

yat00439  Paper

Student Optimism and Pessimism during the Transition to Co-education.

YATES S - Flinders University

The optimistic or pessimistic manner in which students account for the causes of events in their lives has been shown to have an influence on their personal adjustment, health, motivation and academic achievement. In this study longitudinal data on students' optimism and pessimism were collected immediately before and for the first two years following the introduction of co-education to a single sex boys' school. Information was obtained also on a number of other attitudinal and self descriptive measures, together with an index of achievement. The study involved all primary and secondary students in the school.

In addition, in the first year of the study all of the instruments were administered to all primary and secondary students in a comparable single sex girls' school. Each of the questionnaires and the measure of achievement were Rasch scaled, so as to bring them to scales with common metrics. Comparisons were made between genders, across grade levels and across time, with a particular emphasis on changes associated with the transition from the single sex to co-educational school environment.

yeu00429  Paper

The Role of Educational Leaders.

YEUNG N T -Hong Kong Institute of Education

It was found that there was substantial overlap between the theories of effective counselling and the contemporary theories of effective leadership. This study aimed at examining the management style of a group of primary and secondary school principals in Australian schools as means of exploring effective educational leadership. Both quantitative and qualitative research analyses were conducted with these principals. They were asked to share their experience and point of view about educational management. Findings indicated that majority of the principals understood the importance of human relations skills in school administration. Implications for the role of principals as counsellor in schools and effective leadership were discussed.p

Symposium 44: Parts A | B | C
you00044

School subjects: Defining teachers' worklives - Symposium Overview

YOUNG C - University of Sydney

School subjects are, according to Goodson and Marsh, "the most quintessential of social and political constructions" (1998, p. 1). Even so, they have remained a neglected area of educational research. Recent studies however, suggest that school subjects define teachers' worklives - they are not only what they teach, they also organise where, when, with whom and how that teaching takes place.

This symposium will overview three complementary studies on school subject research, highlighting the connection of subject to pedagogy, policy and politics. The construction and reconstruction of subject within three distinct contexts are explored - the school, the subject department, and the subject association - together with the influence of these on students, teachers and the wider community.

Part A of Symposium 44
you00044a

School subjects: Defining teachers' worklives
Learner and school subject: contexts of consequence in teaching and learning.

YOUNG C - University of Sydney

Recent research on teaching and learning in the secondary school suggests that context plays a crucial role in crafting teachers' work and practice. As a result of this type of inquiry, conceptions of teaching have moved away from predominantly acontextual models of instruction to constructivist approaches grounded in the assumption that knowledge and understanding are fashioned in the interplay between teacher, learner and subject matter within a specific school setting, subject area and classroom. This paper examines those conditions teachers perceive as instrumental in shaping teaching and learning. It draws on the findings of a recent study of history practitioners working in three diverse school environments, and focuses on both the learner and school subject as being highly significant factors in defining teachers' daily activities and classroom practice.