AARE Office Services, Box 71 Coldstream 3770, Victoria, Australia
Phone +61 03 5964 9031 Fax + 61 03 5964 9586
Email: aare@aare.edu.au Internet: http://www.aare.edu.au
Editor: Peter Jeffery
| October 2000 | ISSN 1324-1214 | Number 33 |
You can download this document in PDF Format.
This will be my last report to the AARE membership as President. If the Constitutional amendment vote goes as the Executive recommends, I will also, for the time being at least, be the only two term President. At an earlier stage the Executive decided that two year Presidential terms would be more productive. The current Executive has taken the counter view, that, given the work pressures on academics today, two years is too long a period for a one person to devote so much time to AARE. This is not to suggest that I have not enjoyed being President. On the contrary, I have enjoyed the position, have deemed it to be a privilege to have held it and hope I, along with the Executive, have made some positive achievements for the Association. However, I would encourage you to vote in this Constitutional amendment referendum and to support the Executive's position, that is, to return the President's office to a one-year term. The arguments for and against this are included with the ballot papers mailed to all members separately.
The Australian Educational Researcher is the showpiece for the research work of our membership. The term of the editorship of Jill Blackmore and Noel Gough and their team at Deakin is now coming to a close. I would most sincerely like to thank the whole Deakin team and their Advisory Editors for the work they have done in improving the quality of our journal. Well done and many, many thanks on behalf of the educational research community world wide.
You will receive a mailing containing a ballot for the next journal editor. We have two nominations: one a team from QUT led by Erica McWilliam and the other a team from the University of South Australian led by Jane Kenway. I ask you all to participate in this election. The fact that we have two outstanding and high profile researchers and two very good proposals for the journal speaks volumes to the quality of our journal and to the vibrancy of AARE at this moment. Please vote in this election. And thanks to both Erica and Jane for their proposals. You can see the proposals of the two teams on AARE website too.
Very recently there have been two developments for AARE which potentially are very exciting. Earlier this year AARE received an invitation from the National Institute for Educational Research of Japan to participate in a week of discussions in Tokyo in relation to the possibility of establishing an Asia-Pacific Association for Educational Research, the production of a journal entitled the Asia-Pacific Journal of Education: Research for Policy and Practice and the possibility of producing a Handbook on Educational Research in the Asia-Pacific and related book series. Dr Peter Renshaw, President-elect of AARE, attended on our behalf. Peter has provided a full report on this meeting and its outcomes detailed elsewhere in this NEWS. I encourage you to read it.
My position is that creation of an Asia-Pacific Association for Educational Research would be an important step forward. While I personally have some reservations about the title of the journal, particularly in relation to the sub-heading and the use of the preposition 'for' which seems to indicate an instrumental, one-way, direct kind of research - policy - practice relationship, these other developments are also potentially very positive. Dr Geoff Masters, Executive Director of ACER, has been a major player in these developments. Peter and I held discussions with him prior to our participation and Peter's attendance at the Tokyo meeting. The paper Peter delivered is also now on the AARE website. I encourage you to read it. In it you will see some of the reasons Peter and I are a little disconcerted about the sub-title of the proposed journal.
Jenny Ozga's recent book (2000), Policy Research in Educational Settings (Open University Press), expresses in a knowledgeable and critical manner concern about educational research developments in the UK which attempt to instantiate a similar set of relationships between political agenda setting and research. Immediately here we come up against the old problem within sociology of 'the making' as opposed to 'the taking' of research problems.
Back to the second potentially exciting development: in partnership with ACER, the Executive has applied to AusAid for money under the Professional Associations International Development Scheme (PAIDS). This application is for monies to assist in educational research capacity building in some neighbouring Asian countries. If successful, AARE with ACER would work in Jakarta and Manilla, assisting Indonesia and the Philippines develop national professional educational research associations comparable to AARE.
In relation to the politics of contemporary educational research, the government has not yet released the reports which it commissioned on the impact of educational research. The Executive eagerly awaits their release which we hope is imminent. Once these documents are released, the Executive will pursue discussion of the reports in an active way.
I have been intrigued by how the 'post Olympic euphoria' has appeared to spawn concern and media publicity about the paucity of Australia's current investment in research and educational infrastructure. Public ventilation of such concern can only be a good thing. To me at least, it seems patently absurd that with a purported budget surplus of $13 billion, the current federal government does not fund universities adequately, does not fund government schools equitably, does not support the ABC in the way it ought, and does not support investment in research of all types in the way it ought. The current government appears to want the knowledge economy without the requisite knowledge production.
However, there appears to be a debate beginning in all arms of the media about this lack of foresight and investment. The media's role here is crucial. Pierre Bourdieu (1996) in On Television and Journalism (Pluto Press) argues that today the combined effects of the media result in political 'agenda setting'(p.50) and the 'circular circulation' of issues (p.23) - media pick up on issues covered by others. We might be better placed than we have been for some time to pressure the federal government in relation to adequate funding for education and research. (Then again think about the inequities and inadequacies of the federal government's Enrolment Benchmark Adjustment policy and new SES index for the funding of non-government schools!!)
However, think about the amount of publicity given to the report of the Chief Scientist, Dr Robin Batterham, The Chance to Change, released in August. This report by the Chief Scientist, who is employed on a part-time basis, which perhaps says it all, documents Australia's poor performance in comparison with a range of other countries in terms of research expenditure science, engineering and technology. One recommendation of the report - similar to that of The Wills Report on Funding for Health and Medical research for the NHMRC - is that funding for the ARC be increased by 100% by 2004. The government has committed to the Wills' recommendation for the NHMRC; we need to politic to ensure it also commits to the Batterham recommendation. The only danger for us in the Batterham Report, as I see it, is the talk about too few graduates in science, technology and engineering and the potential impact this might have in other enrolment domains. However, there is also some good news with respect to science teaching, but the recommendations here seems insufficient, given the situation in respect of science (and maths) teachers. In the lead up to the next federal election and given the run the media appears to be giving to lack of research investment, we need to take our opportunities here as best we can regarding the situation of educational research funding. I would like to see more of us taking a public intellectual role in relation to these matters.
Recently I attended the European Educational Research Association's annual conference which was held in Edinburgh. Debra Hayes, Martin Mills, Joanne Ailwood and I presented papers in an AARE symposium on the state of gender equity policies in contemporary Australia. Terri Seddon and Pat Mahony (Roehampton Institution of the University of Surrey) were the respondents. This session went very well. The European conference is one not attended by all that many Australian researchers. I would encourage you to think about attending some time in the future. Next year their conference is in Lille, France, 5 - 8 September 2001. Some incentive there!
I would also like to mention a brilliant Keynote Address by Professor Antonio Novoa from the University of Portugal where he considered the emergence of a new European educational policy space. This was a brilliant paper which I encourage you to read. There is a chapter of his on a similar topic in a recent State University of New York edited collection (edited by Tom Popkewitz), entitled, Educational Knowledge: Changing Relationships between the State, Civil Society and the Educational Community. In my view this is informed and critically useful educational theorising and research - research about policy not for policy, but useful nonetheless.
In closing I would like to publicly thank all of those who have served on the Executive during my time as President. I can truthfully say that the membership has been well served by its Executive: thanks to Barbara Kamler and Richard Walker who are not seeking re-election. I would also like to thank Roger Slee who has been the research training coordinator for the past two years. Dr Annette Patterson from James Cook University is the current convenor of the AARE PhD Award Committee. I would also like to publicly express my gratitude and thanks to Annette and her team in relation to the PhD award I know how much work this involves. In handing over the Presidency to Peter Renshaw the business of AARE will be in very good hands indeed. I look forward to seeing you all at the Sydney Conference. And please remember to cast your vote for AER Editor and for the Constitutional amendment.
Bob Lingard
President
E-mail r.lingard@mailbox.uq.edu.au
Trevor Gale has compiled this report on the highly successful conference on this vital topic organized by Dr Jill Blackmore with join sponsorship Deakin and AARE.
E-mail t.gale@cqu.edu.au
Earlier this year AARE submitted the following details for entry in the Australian Bureau of Statistics - Directory of Rural Statistics to be released in January 2001.
E-mail aare@aare.edu.au
Do you send Xmas cards to colleagues and friends? Why not include an AARE brochure? If you don't like that idea, please consider distributing the brochure at your institution or in meetings you attend. It advertises AARE publications [including your papers] and it invites people to join the Association but it's well designed, non-exhortative and modest in approach. Email to aare@aare.edu.au and ask for one or more copies and we'll post them asap.
E-mail aare@aare.edu.au
One member has requested printed copies of the documents because he has no computer nor easy access to one. AARE Office has supplied the documents by post and will continue to do so. A few members have asked for AARE NEWS by email. Underwhelmed with feedback as usual, no news from everyone else is considered good news by the Editor.
E-mail aare@aare.edu.au
AARE Office receives publications from various places. We forward books to the Editor of the AER to arrange a review. We list items received and invite members to ask for any they want. This a "display and destroy" operation - unrequested items are put into recycling after a month.
| Title, Author Publisher | Description |
|---|---|
| Valuing Young Lives - Penny Mitchell - Australian Institute of family Studies | book,194pp, Evaluation of the National Youth Suicide Prevention Strategy, first of 5 volumes, [AARE copy sent to AER] see www.aifs.org.au |
| Life Living is for Everyone: A framework for prevention of suicide and self-harm in Australia, building partnerships | ISBN 0 642 44693 8 one of three in a boxed set [AARE copy sent to AER] see www.mentalhealth.gov.au |
| Life Living is for Everyone: A framework for prevention of suicide and self-harm in Australia, learnings about suicide | ISBN 0 642 44693 8 one of three in a boxed set [AARE copy sent to AER] see www.mentalhealth.gov.au |
| Life Living is for Everyone: A framework for prevention of suicide and self-harm in Australia, areas for action | ISBN 0 642 44693 8 one of three in a boxed set [AARE copy sent to AER] see www.mentalhealth.gov.au |
| Education and Training Participation: Factors influencing participation in post-secondary education and training in Australia: 1989 to 1997 - Sandra Roussel - Research and Evaluation Branch DETYA | July 2000, REB 7/2000, 76pp, ISBN 0 642 23989 4, free to any member requesting. |
| Participation in post-compulsory schooling - Sandra Roussel and Terry Murphy - - Research and Evaluation Branch DETYA | May 2000, IAED Occasional Papers 3/2000 ISBN 0 642 23988 6 free to any member requesting. |
| CEET's Stocktake of the Economics of Vocational Education and Training - Chris Selby Smith and Fran Ferrier - CEET | August 2000, Working Paper No. 28, free to any member requesting |
| VET and the Voluntary Sector: Dealing with Ambiguities - Sonnie Hopkins - CEET | April 2000, Working Paper No. 26 free to any member requesting |
| Analysis of Logitudinal Data: Participation in VET - Michael Long | CEET Working Paper No. 29 September 2000 free to any member requesting |
| Financing Vocational Training and Lifelong learning - - Gerald Burke | CEET Working Paper No. 30 September 2000 |
| Pathways for Youth in Australia - Phillip McKenzie | CEET Working Paper No. 31 September 2000 free to any member requesting |
E-mail aare@aare.edu.au
AARE CD [published 2000] contains all the conference papers up to 1999 as well as other material from AARE such as the Code of Ethics. The CD was given to all members who attended the 1999 joint conference and will be given to all joining members as part of the "welcome to membership packs" which we send to people joining the Association. If any other member wishes to have a copy of the AARE CD they should contact aare@aare.edu.au The CD copies of the papers are the same as on the AARE website [at present] but they 'load' more quickly direct on your own computer without having to wait for a www and download time.
E-mail aare@aare.edu.au
The next meeting of AARE Executive will as usual be held before the annual conference begins to attend to matters that must be put in order for the AGM also at conference. Members may view the draft AGENDA and raise matters of concern with the Hon. Secretary if they wish.
E-mail debrac@btr.qld.edu.au
A very active Committee has been formed and under the leadership of Clive Dimmock is shaping the next annual meeting of the Association [to borrow the American terminology]. At the AARE 2000 Conference [Sydney] a poster will be distributed for all present to take back to their institution for display. A basic information document is located on AARE website.
E-mail aare@aare.edu.au
Peter Renshaw recently travelled to Japan where he represented AARE at a "Regional Research Directors" seminar. The other participants were directors of government sponsored research institutes who had responsibility to develop curriculum and assessment materials and strategies in line with educational policies and national goals. There were a diversity of countries represented - developing countries, developed countries etc, Thailand China HK Sri Lanka Laos Vietnam South Korea India NZ and Aust. The purpose was to initiate a regional research association - Asia Pacific Education Research Association - that would include membership of the national research institutes such as ACER, NZCER, as well as professional associations such as AARE, NZARE ERA Singapore, and ERA HK, etc. Both report and full paper writen by Peter Renshaw and Bob Lingard are on AARE website.
E-mail p.renshaw@mailbox.uq.edu.au
E-mail p.renshaw@mailbox.uq.edu.au
We receive a range of advertisements for jobs, opportunities, courses, publications and services. See them on the web at the following link.
Ruth Jeffery attended the final Project PACT Forum in Canberra for AARE. The forum was funded by the GST Startup Fund. A report is on the web. AARE's first BAS is complete, checked and by the time you read this, submitted and paid. It has cost AARE dearly to re-arrange its affairs to comply with the GST law with software and many hours of work consuming AARE Office for most of the year to date.
E-mail aare@aare.edu.au
Peter Jeffery attended the final NEF meeting for 2000 in Canberra [at the cost of the GST Startup Fund]. A report is available on the web. NEF members are excited at the prospects of 2001 being the Year of Volunteers [recognition for association officers?] and an election year in which education will be a major policy issue.
E-mail aare@aare.edu.au
Statistical knowledge has become increasingly important for many research professionals over the past five to ten years. These include education researchers, research students, chemists, physiotherapists, health psychologists and health administrators who may have trained in their disciplines some years ago, and now find the need to understand statistical concepts and to use statistics and research methods in their daily work. Follow the links for more information.
E-mail aare@aare.edu.au
Over 550 abstracts have been received, reviewed and acknowledged. All proposers should have now received a fax (or letter) with their abstract as entered on the conference dB. Proposers are asked to check their abstract for accuracy and to supply any missing contact details. Any corrections, changes or additions should be advised to this office by sending an E-mailto a.gruhn@edfac.usyd.edu.au. This e-mail address should also be used if have not yet received an acknowledgment of your abstract.
This year there will be two one-day workshops on Sunday 3 December 2000 before AARE begins. Please note that there is no penalty for late registration to attend workshops if you are adding this attendance to a previous registration application.
Inquiry as Artistic Endeavour: imagining possibilities in arts-informed educational research
Workshop offered by Ardra L Cole and J. Gary Knowles, Co-directors of the Centre for Arts-Informed Educational Research, Dept. of Adult Education, Community Development and Counselling Psychology, the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education of the University of Toronto, Canada.
This one day workshop will explore the role of the arts in processes and representations of educational research. It will provide both a theoretical basis as well as experiential dimensions for arts-informed inquiry. A range of artistic forms (including stories, narratives and poetry, visual art, installations and performance) will be explored as a basis for developing processes of information gathering, as data, and as representation. Participants will examine a number of examples of recently completed and in-progress arts-informed educational research. Researchers will also be able to explore possibilities for their own research agendas.
Ardra Cole and Gary Knowles have been involved in arts-informed educational research for almost a decade. Their recent work is mainly informed by installation and visual art forms as well as the literary genres of creative non-fiction, nature writing, and memoir. They were co-chairs of the alternative practices and representations in curriculum and instruction section of the American Educational Research Association Division B (Curriculum Studies) Program Committee for the 2000 annual meeting.
Facilitating Practitioner Research: Issues and Strategies
This one day workshop will be highly interactive. It will discuss with participants issues related to developing practitioner research as a form of what Michael Fielding has called 'Radical Collegiality'. It will also examine strategies and recent international developments in practitioner research. It will be a workshop which will be of value both to those who are beginning this work and those who are well advanced.
This workshop will be offered by Susan Groundwater-Smith and Judyth Sachs.
Susan Groundwater-Smith is an Adjunct Professor at The University of Sydney. Judyth Sachs is a Professor at The University of Sydney. This workshop is designed to fulfil two purposes: i) to provide facilitation strategies for those supporting practitioner research, particularly in schools; ii) to report upon recent innovations in practitioner research as presented at the Third International Practitioner Research Conference. It will be a combination of both theory and practice as we, together, advance our understandings of the conduct of evidence based practice.
For the latest conference information check the conference site regularly:
Conference WWW site http://www.edfac.usyd.edu.au/projects/aare2000/ All abstracts will shortly be displayed.
Professor Judyth Sachs
Chair, Organising Committee
E-mail aare@aare.edu.au
The only definitive database of members of AARE is held on AARE's computer in AARE Office. It is adjusted by Ruth Jeffery at least once a week according to the ebb and flow of renewals in the rolling membership system whereby all members receive 12 months membership from the date of joining. Ruth has just added 130 new members joining to attend the AARE 2000 Conference [Sydney] from a list faxed by University of Sydney conference office. Members who joined in Melbourne for the AARE-NZARE 1999 Conference are receiving renewal notices now. If you haven't received a set of ballot papers by the time you read this, then your were not a member as at Melbourne Cup Day [7/11/2000].
E-mail aare@aare.edu.au
Members are welcomed into membership with a letter from the President and a packet of recent AARE publications. Some of these packs are going out now to the 130 members who have joined [thus far] for the AARE 2000 Conference - Sydney.
E-mail aare@aare.edu.au
Trevor Gale is creating submissions from AARE for several Senate Enquiries. Trevor would like to hear from any members who would like to assist in the compilation of material which will be considered by AARE Executive before submission as the Association "position".
E-mail t.gale@cqu.edu.au
In 1994, the Editorial Collective at Deakin University commenced the task of editing the Australian Educational Researcher, the journal of AARE. At that time, the Editorial Collective that produced the proposal constituted key academics belonging to the Deakin Centre for Education and Change. Suggesting that a journal should be run by a collective was innovative, but now considered to be the norm, as indicated in all the new proposals. I was elected onto the executive of AARE as the Managing Editor representing the Collective whose members included Jennifer Angwin, Richard Bates, Chris Bigum, Jill Blackmore, Stephen Kemmis, Gayle de Pietro, John Evans, Peter Evans, Lindsay Fitzclarence, Sara Glover, Noel Gough, Bill Green, Colin Henry, John Henry, Jane Kenway, Louise Laskey, Robin McTaggart, Richard Tinning, Rob Walker and Peter Watkins. This membership has changed radically in the seven years of the collectives editorship-due to the restructuring of universities, as well as the movement of academics upwards and outwards.
While Deakin Centre for Education and Change undertook the scholarly aspects of producing the Australian Educational Researcher under the management of Angie Bloomer, Professional Resources Services [AARE Office] run by Ruth Jeffery undertook final phases of copy editing and printing. When we inherited the journal, there was no backlog of papers or editorial package on 'how to do it'. The first issues in 1994 emerged in a context of urgency, seeking out suitable publications on the run. Blackmore, Gough and Green, the Editorial Executive, undertook to develop a new profile, both in its design and format. It took some years to create a journal that academics of all areas of the community of educational researchers submitted for publication. We are happy to say that in passing over the journal, there is a considerable stack of publishable papers to be passed on to the new editors.
The Deakin collective sought to establish a clear profile and focus for the journal around the critical tension between educational research, policy and methodology. At the same time, the collective saw that its responsibility was to provide a forum for debate amongst the wider education al constituency of AARE membership, to represent the full range of educational interests, philosophies and methodologies-fields as disparate as cognitive psychology, learning theory, policy sociology-utilising both qualitative and quantitative research. The journal exemplifies the view of educational research by going beyond the qualitative / quantitative dichotomy that dominated the 1980s. On looking back over the previous seven years, I feel we have succeeded in doing this - with special issues in areas from new literacy work, education policy analysis, teaching and learning, professional development, teachers and academic's work, educational reform, history of education, new research methodologies, teacher practitioner research and learning technologies. The editors have sought, through the special issues, to tap into the depth and breadth of experience and expertise of the Australian educational community by tracking the distinct shifts that have occurred in educational research over this time. First, as represented through the AARE annual conference. Most of the papers published were presented at AARE forums. But second, to provide a critical educational commentary of the reforms of higher education and its impact on academic and teachers' work and on educational research more generally, usually through the editorial. This has been a period of fundamental and rapid change, and the role of AARE has also changed significantly. At the same time, the inclusion of key overseas academics provided a strong comparative flavour that is part of the international academic community.
We are exceptionally proud of the AER, of its appearance, the status that it now holds within the educational community, the growing international interest in the journal as a source of good Australian research and the interest of international publishers. The issue of internationalisation of the journal by publishing with an international publisher focused about how the journal remained representative of its constituency while becoming 'international'-that difficult local/global tension. The sticking point was over the extent that 'being international' meant increased publication of non-Australian authors and issues, on the premise that 'being international' was to publish articles relevant to American and English audiences on American and English research rather than recognising that Australian researchers writing about Australian issues was of international interest and calibre. This is an issue of considerable tension and importance in a period in which there has been, ironically, a concentration of educational publication in the hands of a few American companies, with the recent 'collapse' of Falmer, Carfax and Routledge into one company under Taylor and Francis; an increased expectation of academics to publish to 'get their research quantums up' with international refereed publications of 'high status'; and the proliferation of on-line journal publications. This will be the dilemma the Collective passes on to the next editors. But we also can pass on the legacy that the AER is a journal in which people wish to publish.
We would like to thank all those AARE members and others who have acted as reviewers for the journal, their willingness to contribute their time when time has become the scarcest resource. In particular, I would like to thank my Deakin colleagues who have over the past seven years been involved in the collective -those who have left-and in those who remain - Noel Gough and the newest Editorial Executive members, Catherine Beavis and Chris Hickey as well as Barbara Kamler, Pete Smith, Cherry Collins, Julie McLeod and Geoff Shacklock, Helen Forgasz, our newest members who do the work behind the scene reviewing. The editorial executive particularly appreciates the outstanding work of Angie Bloomer at DCEC, who produces an excellent final manuscript and keeps us organised, a feat in itself, and of course the most reliable services of Ruth and Wendy Jeffery of Professional Resources Services [AARE Office] who bring it up to the quality of production we have come to expect. The authors who have published in the journal represent the high standard of academic excellence that exists across the Australian educational research community, a breadth and depth of research that is recognised internationally, but unfortunately not supported by current governments in terms of their research funding policies. We still await the reports on the impact of educational research on policy and practice that have sat in Canberra for nearly a year.
Dr Jill Blackmore
Associate Professor
Managing Editor, Australian Educational Researcher (1994-2000).
For the Editorial Collective, Deakin Centre for Education and Change
Faculty of Education, Deakin University.
E-mail aare2000@edfac.usyd.edu.au
Abstracts of papers to be presented at the conference are on the web at
Abstracts www.edfac.usyd.edu.au
See also article in this NEWS.
| Associate Professor Clive Dimmock | U. W. A. | Convenor |
| Professor Roger Slee | U. W. A. | Associate Convenor |
| Dr Marnie O'Neill | U. W. A. | Associate Convenor |
| Associate Professor Steve Houghton | U. W. A. | Conference Treasurer |
|
Conference Secretariat: AARE OFFICE Box 71 Coldstream 3770 Victoria Australia Phone +61 3 5964 9031 Fax +61 3 5964 9586 E-mail aare@aare.edu.au | ||
AARE Executive approved this new style NEWS which will cut costs but provide members with a more frequent supply of information about AARE and educational research. The new format as you can see gives brief headlines plus one-liners and a URL for the full document which is located on the AARE web site in its subject matter classification. Also given in each short entry is the name and email address of the person responsible for the matter. If you opt to receive the NEWS by email the URLs and email addresses will be hypertext links to the document or the person.
Paper000820pj.htm
E-mail pjeffery@swin.edu.au