ABSTRACTS of FOCUS CONFERENCE PAPERS 2007
Compiler and Editor: Peter L. Jeffery.
Published April 2008
Paper Codes
ALD0723X
A review of advertised research and employment opportunities for educational researchers in Australia
Lyn Alderman, University of Newcastle
The Australian Association for Research in Education (AARE) by promoting the conference theme has identified a need to be more proactive to ensure growth in the number of educational researchers. Within the higher education sector there are a number of methods used to encourage interest in a particular area, and these include policy, funding, sponsorship, employment and scholarships. There are three types of employment for academics: research, lecturing and academic development and two types of scholarships: either students self-identify the topic or topics are targeted with associated funding. The aim of this study is to review the academic positions and targeted scholarships of Australian Universities and research organisations gathered from advertisements in a national newspaper. This will establish a baseline of recent practice from July to December, 2006 and identify opportunities for researchers in all disciplines and specifically in education. Results reveal the two main groups for academics are research and lecturing with a small number in academic development. Although the education discipline is well represented overall (3rd in 12 disciplines after health and science) in terms of research opportunities education then moves to 10th position. A further significant finding is the highly contractual nature of research versus the more stable, tenured environment lecturing. There are a number of implications arising from this short study. Firstly, the education discipline as a targeted area for research alone is significantly under-represented in the advertised positions but is well represented in lecturing where the role always requires teaching and research. Thus it seems the amount of time devoted to research by academics in the education discipline is significantly lower than for health or science. Secondly, there are few industry/government targeted scholarships in the education discipline therefore any growth in numbers of educational researchers through postgraduate study is not expanded by funding to meet identified needs. In conclusion AARE, an association interested in promoting the growth of educational research, has an obvious need to encourage and review the outcomes of this study and perhaps adopt some of the successful strategies employed by other disciplines to improve the opportunities for educational researchers in the future.
AVE0719X
Building researcher capacity in the VET sector
Andrea Averis and Mark Cully, National Centre for Vocational Education Research
One of the objectives of NCVER's National VET Research and Evaluation (NVETRE) program is to build researcher capacity in terms of human resources and the knowledge base, which is necessary for substantial ongoing research effort and to enhance the ability of users to engage with and use research.
As an outcome of the review of NCVER's research and statistical services in 2006, NCVER is developing initiatives to build researcher capacity to support VET sector research. These include increasing researcher diversity by encouraging new researchers (i.e. established researchers new to the VET field or new career VET researchers) and also encouraging researchers from diverse institutional circumstances (i.e. TAFEs, RTOs, consultants engaged in brokering workplace training). In addition, NCVER gives priority to structuring projects to give mentoring opportunities to researchers new to the sector.
Currently, the criteria by which research proposals are judged are relevance, quality, experience of the research team and cost. These criteria can be argued to militate against innovation and new researchers, and clearly place new career VET researchers at a particular disadvantage (except where they are part of a broader experienced team). It is also recognised that there is a trade-off between promoting quality and encouraging new researchers. For established researchers outside the VET field the institutional complexity of the VET system is a potential pitfall. For new career researchers their inexperience may give rise to mistakes or naive approaches. However, it is possible to bring the quality level of projects by new researchers up to the same quality level as experienced VET researchers.
The various initiatives to increase researcher capacity include funding for additional support for innovative research methodologies and cross disciplinary collaborations; support for secondments or sabbaticals for new VET researchers to work at NCVER; mentoring of new researchers in projects by experienced researchers; and partnerships with universities to fund PhD students and post-doctoral fellows to undertake specific VET research topics.
To implement these initiatives effectively involves building relationships with those who train researchers, undertake recognised research of broad relevance to the VET sector or use a range of research practices and methodologies in the course of their work in the sector. Overall, these initiatives aim to broaden the number of researchers involved in VET research.
BOU0733X
Some results of the education journal banding study
Allyson Holbrook, Sid Bourke, Greg Preston, Robert Cantwell and Jill Scevak,
The University of Newcastle
The RQF panels will require some form of journal ranking to support the processes of determining publication quality in the field of educational research. The Centre for the Study of Research Training and Impact began a process last year to bands some 1000 refereed education journals. The process began with the identification of the journals and their qualities including refereeing processes. Next the journals were grouped by sub-discipline to obtain a strong sense of publication 'thrust' in the field. This process enabled us to suggest to the ABS the need to change RFCD codes in Education on the basis of firm evidence. Finally and in association with the AARE, an on-line questionnaire was developed for national distribution. Subsequently a second, shorter form of the questionnaire was prepared for international use. The paper presented here reports on the national phase which in addition to asking academics to rate journals by quality, and their publishing practices, asked them to identify journals that were having an 'impact' outside of academe. Areas of interest in research and reasons for selection of journals and were also collected from respondents.
BUR0728X
The engagement of teachers with professional development packages
Jennifer Burgess, Macquarie University
Teachers in prior-to-school settings in New South Wales have recently been grappling with the implementation of three professional development packages (NSW Curriculum Framework; Literacies, Communities and Under 5's; Health Promoting Children's Services). These non-mandatory curriculum resources were specifically designed as vehicles for contemporary early learning theory. For state-wide organisational change to be effective, teachers have to be engaged in a process of personal change, therefore, the engagement with professional development packages becomes pivotal to this process.
The teachers' experience of change was impacted upon by organisational decisions, innovation design and environmental characteristics leading to implications for policy development. This presentation will reveal the impact of organisational factors on the teachers' engagement with these packages. These factors included the provision of fully funded voluntary external training, the selected internal training model and the expected time commitment for the implementation of each package. The attitudes of teachers to these innovations and the pattern of their adoptions will also be revealed. Unsuccessful attempts with the implementation of an innovation package revealed systemic barriers to change that smother the process of teacher change. All these factors act independently and interdependently, combined their impact can be innovation fatigue. This presentation will also explore a model of teacher change based on the notion of engagement. Six teacher's experiences of change form the continuum of this model. Their place on the continuum is defined by the interrelated characteristics of engagement: action, focus, concerns and alignment of philosophy. The model of this study has been aligned with teacher change research conducted in schools settings, thus the findings can inform the process of teacher change in prior- to-school and school settings.
The mixed methodology research design included an analysis of the documents, a questionnaire and individual interviews. Change theorists (Fullan, 1993; Hall & Hord, 2001; Rogers, 2003) provide the foundation for exploring the impact of multiple initiatives on professional practice. The findings of the research suggest that a teacher's engagement is an indicator of the level of change.
CHE0721X
Investigating praxis inquiry within teacher education using Giddens' structuration theory
Brenda Cherednichenko, Tony Kruger, Peter Burridge and Cathryn Carpenter, Victoria University
Partnerships are the foundation of teacher education at VU, providing opportunities for pre-service teachers to be inquiring and socially active practitioners. These partnerships have been developed between the University and a broad range of educational settings in the community, including primary and secondary schools, and other non-school learning settings for example camps, community learning programs, and special program centres such as museums. Pre-service teachers work in these settings evaluating and responding to the educational needs of the organisation and the individual learner within these organisations.
The Praxis Inquiry approach has been developed as a process which encourages pre-service teachers to reflect on their partnership experience and generate questions about teaching and learning within their social context. The praxis inquiry process draws conceptually from Dewey, Friere, Kolb, Giddens and Habermas, on the understanding that inquiry about social practices of learning enhances the learning, teaching, social action of all partners, as well as the broader community.
Praxis inquiry has been a key structure of partnerships for the past 2 years. Anecdotal evidence suggests that praxis inquiry increases pre-service teachers', school teachers' and lecturers' reflective discussions. In order to better understand this process, staff have explored the use of Giddens' structuration theory to develop an analytical framework to formally evaluate praxis inquiry.
This paper analyses 4 case studies of praxis inquiry within partnerships, utilising the components of Giddens' structuration theory. The exploration of the experiences suggests that praxis inquiry is an approach which, contributes to personalised learning opportunities, increased human agency, and broader perspectives on social responsibility.
DIE0726X
Building capacity and expertise in publication
Carmel Diezmann, Lynn Wilss and James Watters, Queensland University of Technology
The Research Quality Framework [RQF] has provided a strong impetus to improve the quality of publications in our Faculty. We have addressed this imperative by developing a strategic and innovative publication support program thereby building a publication culture. The program aims to build research and publication capacity for early career to senior researchers.
Although publication is an important component of academic work, it is fallacious to assume that academics are necessarily scholarly writers or write regularly. Improving publication in a faculty or school is challenging for three reasons. First, academics have "ad hoc" experiences in learning how to publish. Although some are fortunate to have excellent publication mentors and opportunities to write with colleagues or doctoral supervisors, others lack these opportunities. Second, academics have different levels of proficiency. Some academics publish in highly regarded journals, others publish mainly in conference proceedings and another group rarely if ever publish. Staff in this latter group might be frustrated by their lack of knowledge or success in publication. Third, there is an urgency to improving the quality and impact of publications. Publication track record is important in grant assessment and grants are becoming increasingly competitive. Research track record is also important for early career researchers to improve opportunities for employment and promotion.
Thus, the purpose of this paper is to report on a program that has evolved to address the contextual issues within our Faculty and has relevance for higher education. This program is two-pronged. First, it focuses on building publication capacity across the Faculty. Capacity includes both more staff involved in publishing and staff publishing in increasingly higher quality forums. Second, the strategy focuses on fostering expertise to ensure that an adequate proportion of staff are acknowledged as leaders in their specialty areas. Throughout the planning, implementation and evaluation of this publication program we have adopted the role of reflective practioners who are constantly seeking ways to improve the status quo. In this paper we describe this support program and present data on its impact. We also report our concerns and future plans particularly in relation to the RQF assessment of publications.
DWY0720X
Sink or swim! Equity and early career researchers in the current research climate
Joanne Dwyer, University of Western Sydney
In the current research climate, research support often goes to those with an established career track record. Moreover in an environment where research support is provided from within universities and is competitive, this can mean that those who can most successfully compete for support (resources) are established researchers; those who miss out are early career researchers. There is therefore an equity issue regarding early career researchers. This paper explores the issues and hurdles early career researchers employed in today's Australian universities are facing. Of particular significance to early career researchers are issues regarding teaching V's research, writing (opportunities for and development of skills) and access and opportunity for research grants. While there is some support for early career researchers in these areas it is not adequate. For the most part they are addressing these issues on an individual basis; there is heavy reliance on individual networks and support with varying degrees of success. The aim of this paper is not to seek favours on behalf of early career researchers, rather to recognise that different quality measures should be used to judge their work and contribution. This paper proposes a number of recommendations, including institutional changes, for supporting early career researchers in this way.
FUR0734X
The Social Organisation of educational research in England: A view from BERA
John Furlong, University of Oxford and Martin Lawn, University of Edinburgh
'Education is the second largest (social science) discipline under consideration, and perhaps one of the most complex. Structural, historical and institutional factors affect all disciplines in different ways but in Education their impact has been quite profound' (ESRC, Demographic Review of Social Sciences, Mills, 2006:44)
The focus of this paper is on the way the field of education[al] research is organised in England; its aim is to contribute to an understanding of some of those 'structural, historical and institutional factors' referred to by the ESRC in their recent demographic review of the whole of Social Sciences.
The field of education research has grown enormously in England over the last 25 years, in size, complexity, forms of production and purpose; it has been shaped by governmental, market and production changes, and it appears to be moving outside the university sector as well.
Over the course of the last two years, BERA has been trying to map the field and to make sense of its development. BERA's argument has been that the educational researcher community needs to understand much more of about itself, and the factors that shape it, before it can make an effective contribution either to capacity development or to the shaping of research policy more generally. This paper reports on the first part of the mapping process where we bring together existing relevant data about the key elements in the field - personnel, institutions, output etc. It also tries to draw conclusions about the next steps in the inquiry.
Mills, D et al [2006] Demographic Review of the Social Sciences ESRC
GOU0703X
Capacity-building and the social organisation of trust
Noel Gough, La Trobe University and Annette Gough, RMIT University
In this paper we reflect on nearly ten years of participation in capacity-building activities in South African universities and colleges of higher education. We began this work as participants in a program funded by AusAid to enable tertiary institutions in Australia and South Africa to form links aimed at enhancing the capacity of South African higher education institutions, particularly those that were historically disadvantaged. This institutional links program involved more than 40 projects, funded over two rounds. The specific project we began in 1998, Educating for Socio-Ecological Change: Capacity-Building in Environmental Education Focusing on South Africa's Tertiary Educators, involved a total of eight tertiary institutions - six in South Africa and two in Australia. As we performed our work in the very different cultural, historical and political contexts of Australian and South African universities we found David Turnbull's 'spatialised' perspective on knowledge production to be particularly generative. Turnbull shows how particular knowledge spaces can be constructed from differing social, moral and technical components in a variety of cultural and historical contexts - or, borrowing a concept from Deleuze and Guattari, an 'assemblage' of people, skills, local knowledge and equipment linked by various social strategies and technical devices. One analytic advantage of this perspective is that differences between knowledge production systems can be explained in terms of the different kinds of performances that are involved in constructing assemblages from the people, practices, theories and instruments in a given space. Thus, for example, some knowledge traditions move and assemble their products through art, ceremony and ritual, whereas the productivity of Western science has so far been accomplished by forming disciplinary societies, building instruments, standardising techniques and writing articles. Each form of knowledge production entails processes of knowledge assembly while simultaneously establishing a social order of trust and authority. However, we found that the mobilisation of 'trust' (as a Deleuzean 'order-word') produced different effects among our South African colleagues from those produced within the discourses of Western science studies (such as in Tunbull's writings and our own uses of the concept). We examine a particular instance of a South African colleague's analysis of how the social organisation of trust might be changing in post-apartheid South Africa and use this as a point of departure for our own speculations about the social organisation of trust in Australia's current system of higher education.
HAR0714X
Building capacity for sustainable leadership in higher education assessment
Marina Harvey and Sharon Fraser, Macquarie University
The Leadership and Assessment: Strengthening the Nexus Project aims to build the capacity of a group of cross-disciplinary leaders in effective assessment practice. While there is a substantial body of literature on leadership in higher education and a wide literature base on assessment in higher education, there is a dearth of research, and therefore literature, on the nexus between leadership and assessment. This project aims to contribute to the scholarship on capacity of leadership and assessment, and of leadership of assessment.
A Participatory Action Research (PAR) methodology underpins the project. This presentation introduces the project, which is in its first phase, and the three participating departments from one Sydney metropolitan university. As well as being cross-disciplinary, the project model is multi-level, working at the unit, program, department and divisional levels. The growing Community of Practice, interacting through a web interface, expands the project to a wider, national community.
This presentation will focus on the role of the PAR methodology in directing the project's pathway, especially in supporting and developing the scholarship between leadership and assessment in Higher Education.
Several issues will be addressed. These include the formation of the multi-level "Leaders in Effective Assessment Practice" (LEAP) group and the role of critically reflective practice and regular reflective sessions in the process of developing the scholarship, and leadership, of teaching and learning in participating departments. The potential of collegial action research will also be explored, as will the role of participant observers including that of the external evaluator.
KEL0737X
Shifting from competition to collaboration: Rethinking the future Australian educational research
Peter Kell, University of Wollongong
The presentation looks at some options for the future for research in education and training in the context of contemporary developments in universities and industry.
This presentation unpacks and challenges some of the assumptions about "cultures of excellence", "quality" and "diversity" that underpin current research policy in Australia and many other developed nations. Many of these policies are not new and are responsible for a "hollowing out" of research capacity.
The presentation argues that in the context of developments in research in Australia the tasks around capacity building demand a collaborative approach across researchers and research users. Although this is essential and there is strong evidence of it occurring it is also fraught with difficulties.
The presentation argues that the future of Australian research in education training will be determined by linkage with practitioners and the extent to which policy makers and governments enable, facilitate and protect this. The presentation will argue success of the sector is more likely around practices that build trust, share capacity and are inclusive are more likely to be effective than the current policy mix of excellence and competition being overlaid on the sector.
This presentation will explore ways in which the "branding" and future of education research might survive through a combination of arrangements that resemble a "cartel", with "periphery competition" and strong "protective measures". The presentation will focus on the importance of professional associations as third parties as a vehicle for brokering and quality controlling such arrangements.
KEN0706X
The Knowledge Economy?: An invitation to hesitation
Jane Kenway, Monash University
Educational researchers often mobilize the notion of the knowledge economy to as a warrant for their research and as a justification of the importance of its potential impact and national benefits. Further, knowledge economy policy discourse, with its interlaced ideas about knowledge, information, learning, economy, and society, has become so influential it has assumed the status of truth, dominating the policy lexicon. The existence of the knowledge economy, it seems, is self-evident; its future without doubt. Apparently, we are all moving inexorably towards an economy, and indeed society, determined and dominated by the following principles: techno-science, techno-scientific innovation, the codification of knowledge through ICTs, the commodification of knowledge through intellectual property regimes, and the production and circulation of knowledge by and through entrepreneurial knowledge workers and networks. Research capacity building in education is increasingly though about in these terms and, thus, I suggest, narrows the research agenda and reduces the potential impact. This paper offers a genealogy of the knowledge economy concept and in so doing challenges its self-confident but primarily self-referential essences. It points to other economies that are also highly pertinent to considerations of the impact of educational research and of strategies to develop it. It draws from my latest co-authored book Haunting the Knowledge Economy (2006) Routledge, International Library of Sociology.
LEE0718X
The promise of education revolution
Alison Lee, University of Technology, Sydney, and Erica McWilliam, Queensland University of Technology
In the context of the recent announcement of educational revolution as the promise of national Labor policy, we re-interrogate the promises that have been made by educational insiders (teachers and academics) and outsiders (eg politicians) about how social and economic problems can and should be solved through educational reform. For Rudd, the promise is very much rooted in the idea that education is for building human capital, which is in turn the fundamental building block of economic productivity.
The promises that are made about education - and by implication about educational research - often come back to haunt politicians and academics alike. Rather than either lauding Labor for the promise of reform or damning Labor as collapsing educational rationales into economic ones, we seek to interrogate the practice of making promises for education.
We argue that these practices are produced through twin fantasies about education: a widespread redemptive fantasy about the possibility and the imperative for education to solve problems of social and economic disadvantage; and an insider fantasy that educators can do this by themselves with the right resources. Through an examination of the 'de-sciencing' of education in the past decade or so, and its recent 're-sciencing', we conclude that, with all the promises that might be identified that pertain to educational research and to faculties of education, and with all the methodologies we have worked so hard to build and disseminate, we might have overlooked opportunities to engage in a broader conversation. Put simply, we are well practised in critique and less so in strategic public conversation.
We take the current moral panic about obesity as just one instance of a challenge that needs to be overcome if we are in Rudd's terms to 'get... the best out of Australia's social infrastructure'. We seek to demonstrate how such an issue might be usefully interrogated so that we avoid the fantasy of redemption of the obese child through 'better education' and at the same time equip ourselves for engaging in strategic public conversation about obesity as a human capital issue.
MAN0713X ® PDF Paper
When two universities meet: Fostering research capacity among Early Career Researchers
Kathy Mann, Kathryn Moyle and Gary Woolley, University of Canberra, and Andrea Reupert and Jane Wilkinson, Charles Sturt University
Between one-third and one-half of all presently employed academics will reach retirement age in the next decade. A challenge facing universities in this current environment is to continue to sustain their research capacities. Policy-makers and universities have developed various strategies to support ongoing development of different cohorts within the broader research community. One strategic approach has been to foster the research capabilities of Early Career Researchers (ECRs). This paper describes and analyses the features of one promising program collaboratively developed to support ECRs from education faculties within the University of Canberra and Charles Sturt University.
The program was initiated by senior researchers from both universities who identified a large number of ECRs on their respective staffs who worked in isolation and who would benefit from an expansion of their research and professional dimensions. While the program began as a "top down" initiative, sufficient autonomy was allowed for the ECRs to identify their own professional requirements and to develop an ongoing program.
ECRs have met regularly over the past two years to identify shared issues; organise and attend joint professional development activities (such as visiting scholars, senior researchers); and work on collaborative research projects and publications. Funding, ongoing senior management support, a variety of both senior and junior role models as well as working on common initiatives has provided momentum for the program.
The overarching aim of the program was to build a research community amongst the ECRs of both universities. An example of this collaboration has been a major writing project involving the production of a suite of articles by the ECRs concerning common ECR issues and support strategies. Outcomes also have included professional development and fostering cross university networks.
This paper analyses the characteristics underpinning the program and links theory with practice to generate valuable outcomes for the participants concerned. It foreshadows emerging changes to the culture of the two education faculties as a result of explicitly addressing ECR research issues. It concludes with suggestions for sustainable programs to support ongoing research capacity-building of ECRs in Australian universities.
MUI0739X
Building research capacity in the current funding context and how EIDOS evolved to do that
Bruce Muirhead, Eidos
New models of research and policy collaboration are constantly forming, evolving, collapsing, recreating. In Australia, a recent example of a forming collaboration is Eidos. Over the past three years the state and university sectors have invested approximately $1.5M into this venture.
This presentation explores ideas and models, underpinned by cross-sectoral collaboration, to deliver greater research impact and capacity. The presentation argues that, in the current funding context, there may be opportunities for the education and sciences fields via the creation of, and participation in, facilitator, 'boundary spanner', and broker structures and arrangements.
In the case of Eidos, the goal has been to build impact, capacity and influence of research in applied policy making. Eidos members include universities and policy leaders. Work is conducted through a network of participating research centres and partners, through which Eidos draws the intellectual strength of the research community into an active dialogue with policy makers and practitioners. Within its universities and government agencies, there are about 55 research and policy centres, and over 300 active senior and early career researchers. The Institute explores and implements ways to create structures and processes to harness the resources and maximize their contribution to state, national and global education and social research, policy and practice.
The presentation will theoretically and practically explore:
- Establishing policy and research joint venture structures and processes to build capacity and influence
- Managing large scale policy and research partnerships: stumbling blocks, challenges and ways forward
- Open source strategies for data-sharing, sustainability and development
- Current and future Australian human capital, educational and social research and policy debates and directions impacting on capacity building
PLU0709X
Teacher responsibility as a resource for capacity building
Frances Plummer, NSW Department of Education and Training
Collaborative inquiry, a shared focus on an explicit model of pedagogy and establishing a culture of professional learning communities are cited as strategies for improving the quality of teachers' work in NSW schools. These strategies are also linked to the discourse on collective responsibility. Collective responsibility is related to teachers' professional development organised around school-wide professional community that addresses aspects of classroom instruction, student outcomes and student academic achievement. Collective responsibility is reported in the literature as a desirable outcome of teachers' interactions. Less clear in this research is the explicit nature of collective responsibility and the conditions that enable or inhibit its development in teachers' workplaces. Research about collective responsibility in this context has limited clarity and consistency.
This paper examines the construct of collective responsibility and how it has been defined in the current literature. Some alterative views of constructing measures to investigate this phenomenon are discussed. The organisational capacity of schools to develop a culture of collective teacher responsibility is approached from the perspective of theorists who link it to professional community, collective efficacy and relational trust. Questions are posed to challenge the theoretical perspectives about how professional learning with a focus on improving student achievement can strengthen the capacity for teacher responsibility.
PLU0717X
Action learning: potential and pitfalls for innovation and research
Frances Plummer, NSW Department of Education and Training, Robyn Ewing, University of Sydney, David Smith, Education consultant, Garry Hoban and Steve Dinham, University of Wollongong, and Peter Aubusson and Laurie Brady, University of Technology, Sydney
Part 1: How professional learning builds capacity to sustain school reform
How to sustain school reform after an initiative/project concludes? This paper will examine this question by discussing the results from using an evaluative enquiry framework to conduct participatory school-based evaluation. This framework involves teachers, who have engaged in cycles of action learning, collaboratively determining the strengths and limitations of their school-based professional development activity.
A range of case studies highlight how changes in pedagogy through teacher learning can be sustained. Enabling conditions related to teacher attitude to change, integration of organisational learning into school plans and active and supportive leadership were identified as contributing to the sustainability of action learning beyond the funding period.
The principles for action learning along with effective processes and issues raised by teachers as challenges to sustaining professional learning are explored in more detail through the case studies. An emerging model for sustained school-based learning and set of criteria to ensure sustained school reform will be examined for determining the balance across the enabling conditions when the allocation of resources is limited.
Part 2: Seeking the "Professional Moment": Scaffolding action learning with an academic partner
An academic partner is a key participant in the action learning process. Without an academic partner, an action learning set (usually a group of six) will share insights and personal reflections but stay within the boundaries of their own experiences. Similar to the notion of the "teachable moment", an academic partner needs to be aware of the optimal "professional moment" when facilitating group discussions. This means scaffolding group discussions in several ways and at the right time: (i) encouraging personal reflections and sharing; (ii) scaffolding discussions with probing questions; (iii) ensuring that each member of the set gets adequate time for talking; (iv) adding in new knowledge; (v) suggesting alternative ways of thinking; and (vi) being a critical friend. Knowing when and how to provide such input requires an academic partner to be attuned to the discussions and understand the participants involved. This presentation will provide examples of the ways an academic partner can facilitate action learning and tease out some of the challenges of this role.
Part 3: Action learning: What works?
This paper examines the practice of action learning, and reports a large-scale systemic instance of its operation in the Australian Government Quality Teaching Program (AGQTP) coordinated by the NSW Department of Education and Training (DET). The research reported here aimed to investigate the conditions that influence teachers' implementation of an action learning approach to changing teaching practice. The sample was 82 NSW government schools that successfully tendered for grants to implement school-based and school-driven action learning within the Quality Teaching in NSW Public Schools framework. Results are based on school team self-reports, participant journals and seven case studies. The findings include: that action learning promoted collaboration, produced action, fostered reflection, facilitated ongoing change, cultivated quality teaching, stimulated changes to practice, enhanced the achievement of school learning outcomes, and advanced teacher understanding, concern and utilisation. Factors that expedited and constrained the action learning are identified and issues in project implementation are discussed.
SMI0722X
Research auditing in Aotearoa/New Zealand: A draconian capacity building regime in research for the discipline of Education?
Richard Smith, AUT University
The managerial and national educational policy instrument of research auditing is becoming popular in a number of countries around the world most notably in Hong Kong and the UK (through the RAE); in Aotearoa/New Zealand (through the PBRF) and most latterly in Australia (through the RQF). In other papers I have written recently (Smith, 2005; Smith, 2007) the focus has been on the current national policy arrangements associated with research auditing arrangements in three constituencies, the UK, Australia and New Zealand and some of the concomitant historical developments and antecedents. Interestingly as academics in the UK higher education institutions enter their sixth and final RAE in 2008, their colleagues in New Zealand are recovering from their second PBRF round (a partial one spanning outputs from 2000-2005) - and Australia is about to enter its first in 2007. A comparative approach has been previously adopted highlighting some of the similarities and differences in approaches to research assessment. The research methods utilised have included relevant literature reviews which briefly map the terrain and case studies of the three countries.
However, the focal point of this current paper reflects both my personal, my department's (a School of Education) and the wider university's (AUT) institutional responses to research capacity building agendas. However, on a more macro level, wider issues such as the role of national professional associations such as the New Zealand Association for Research in Education (NZARE) are discussed.
In the first round of the Performance-Based Research Funding the discipline of Education was ranked 39th of the 41 disciplines assessed (see Smith, 2005). The results of the second round of the PBRF have not been published yet (due April 2007), and it is hoped to be able to included these in the analysis for comparative purposes.
A primary focus of this paper is to challenge and critique the political and economic philosophies underpinning the policies and questioning the fundamental necessity and premises for research auditing regimes (see Barnett, 2005; Lucas, 2006; Blackmore & Wright, 2006). The effects of auditing, competition and ranking on academic professional identity (Middleton, 2005), self-esteem and institutional market positioning are traversed in this paper.
This paper adds to the growing cabal of research articles which question the function and validity of the PBRF. It offers some new theoretical and personal insights into being an emergent researcher in an international culture of research competition and academic productivity at individual, institutional and national levels of analysis.
SOL0704X
Design for the Knowledge Economy
Ian Solomonides, Macquarie University
A university is a knowledge organisation and as such a core objective is to 'generate, acquire and transfer knowledge' (Department for Education, Science and Training (DEST) 2006) and thus to have an impact beyond the academic peer community. Following this, many universities are committed to the principles of outreach and community engagement.
This paper details work undertaken by the author and others in the UK to enage in community outreach and knowledge application and transfer for commercial benefit. The work involved a three-way collaboration between a UK university, the local government authority and small to medium sized enterprises (SMEs) or commercial enterprises in the region. The 'knowledge' transferred was in the design domain, covering several elements of design research and development from the creation of new products to brand management. As part of an innovative MA research programme in design and with funding from, and in consultation with the local governement authority, a 'design audit' was undertaken. The audit established specifc and regional needs relative to design in SMEs under the aim of 'design for competitive advantage'. A clear need for design input was established, covering several areas of the design domain and various commercial imperatives. Following this a method of placing MA students in these SMEs was initiated. The students were effectively undertaking work based learning supported by the University whilst being funded in their MAs by the receipient commercial enterprises or the local authority, to work on negotiated, specific projects of benefit to the SME and the local economy. Clear benefits in relation to the local economy, retention of graduate skills, educational achievement and knowldege transfer were observed. This paper will describe the development and implementation of the design audit, report its findings and implications, give examples of the subsequent work undertaken, refer to the nexus between enterprise and entreprenuerial skills and it will place the activity as an example of the initiatives called for within the context of the DEST (2006) report on Knowledge Transfer.
WAT0724X ® PDF Paper
Percolated or Espresso? The ways in which educational research influences policy development in Australia
Louise Watson, University of Canberra
Conventional thinking holds that educational research can, at best, have an indirect influence on public policy and that research outcomes will "percolate" through educational communities rather than have a significant influence on policy development in the short term. This paper argues that while some forms of research may be inherently inaccessible to those outside of a defined research community, educational research can and should influence public policy development more directly than is implied by the percolation model.
There is an increasing diversification of educational research communities in Australia and some of these communities appear to have a disproportionate impact on public policy. They author explores why this is the case and discusses the implications of research diversity for educational policy researchers.
The author explores the nature of the policy development cycle and identifies the ways in which academic educational researchers might seek to influence that cycle more directly. While a number of strategies appear to be successful in terms of influencing public policy development, seeking a direct influence on policy poses risks for academic researchers. The limitations of the RQF approach to measuring the impact of academic research are also discussed.
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