| AARE NEWS No. 40 | July 2002 |
|---|
Higher Education at the Crossroads is indicative of another wave of educational reform approaching that will impact significantly on educational research and academic work. The Vice Chancellors' response to the consultative paper has already allowed the government to focus on funding deregulation. But there are also other underlying issues that are of concern.
There have been a number of opportunities in the past month that have provided some sense of future directions and how we might as a peak organization inform any reforms. First, the Research Leaders in Education Forum held at the University of Canberra on the 14th June allowed us to gain a greater understanding as the agenda of the new Head of DEST, Dr Peter Shergold, and Dr Carol Nicoll of the Higher Education Review. In turn, the Forum members representing over 25 Australian universities, commented upon the failure of Crossroads to recognise the already significant changes occurring in academic work since the last wave of reforms, the focus of Crossroads report on teaching to the detriment of research, the narrow conceptualisation of productive research practices underpinning the report through the notion of research concentration, and the lack of government dedicated investment in educational research. The contrast arising from the Higher Education discussion in the morning and the presentation by Dr Doug McEachern, Executive Manager of the Social, Behavioural and Economic Science Panel for the Australian Research Council, highlighted yet again the inherent contradictions of recent policies confronting educational researchers and the tensions arising between finding time to do research, teach, do administration and be accountable.
Second, at a dinner with Dr Brendan Nelson in Sydney on the 28 June organised by the National Education Forum, there was a further opportunity to promote the position of educational researchers along with other teacher professional organizations. The NEF in a response to the Minister is indicating a desire to work strategically to facilitate communication between government, policy makers and peak professional organisations, particularly in the areas of professional learning and professional standards.
Finally, at a two day consultative forum on 24 and 25 June organised by the MCEETYA Task Force on ICT, I presented as AARE President comments about ICT in schools together with Jane Kenway who as Editor of AER, presented on digital publication. This forum focused on both possible strategic directions in research and the type of information systems that can inform the dissemination of research to policymakers and practitioners.
These three forums indicated a new and welcome dialogue emerging between educational researchers and governments at both state and federal level. In particular, all stakeholders (policymakers, educational researchers and teacher practitioners) commented on the value of, and productive outcomes arising from, these forums and the need for ongoing dialogue. There are already suggestions that AARE Annual conferences can facilitate such forums. At the same time, unless such processes and activities indicate that we as educational researchers can actually have some impact on policy and future reforms of higher education, TAFE and schools, such consultations will merely be seen to be tokenistic. It is our hope that they are not!
Jill Blackmore
President, AARE
The Australian Association for Research in Education (AARE) is the peak organisation of educational researchers in Australia and has over 1,000 members.
Australian educational research is of high international standing, and has had a substantial positive effect on policy and practice throughout the education industry in Australia (DETYA 2000).
There is a vital synergy between research, scholarship and teaching at the undergraduate and graduate levels, in initial and post-initial teacher education and other subfields of study in Education. Thus it would generally be counter-productive for the quality of teaching in Education (and other fields) for teaching-only academic positions to the established.
Academic workloads have increased sharply over recent years. According to AVCC statistics, staff-student ratios in Education have deteriorated from, on average, around one academic staff member to fewer than fifteen students in 1994, to one to around 23 students in 2000. In some faculties and schools of education the deterioration has been even greater. Across all areas in universities the deterioration has been less than in Education from a similar level in 1994 to one staff member for 19 students in 2000. A deterioration in workloads can force academic staff to become de facto teaching-only, as their worktime is filled with additional teaching-related duties. This would be detrimental to the quality and effectiveness of research, especially in fields such as Education where there are fewer alternative sources of research support, and where research in universities with lower resource levels can be of high quality and vital importance.
Australian Educational research is concentrated in universities. The funding of Educational research predominantly comes from general university funds (GUF) that support the research time of general research-and-teaching academics. This is much more so in Education that in other fields of research (or research directed towards other socio-economic objectives - SEOs) (see Tables 1, 2, and 3).
There is a severe lack of alternative sources of Educational research funding, and a lack of National Competitive Grant (NCG) schemes to facilitate Educational research (except in VET). Only 11 per cent of Educational research in universities is funded through NCG schemes (including the ARC), compared with 18 per cent in all SEOs (see Table 3)
High quality education research is carried out in diverse universities. There are no particular concentrations, and greater concentration would not facilitate higher quality research. The notion of 'critical mass' is question-begging, particularly, but not only, in Educational research. In general, high quality Educational research is facilitated by diverse regional, national and international distributed networks of researchers who maintain close links with practice in the education industry, rather than by physical concentrations of individual researchers and facilities.
The crucial relationships between educational researchers and policy and practice in schools and other education settings throughout Australia indicates the importance of strong research capacities in regional universities and universities with connections with particular communities or particular teaching subspecialisations (such as the preparation of special education teachers).
There are a range of other issues that should be taken into account. These include the apparent sharp decline in Indigenous commencements, especially in Education and at the higher degree level (see Table 5), and the lack of industry or other support or incentives for education professionals to undertake postgraduate studies.
Professor Jill Blackmore (Dr)
President, Australian Association for Research in Education
The full "Response by AARE" can be read at htpp://www.aare.edu.au/exec/crossroads.pdf
The AARE Executive held their mid-year meeting at the University of Canberra over the two days 12th and 13th June. Matters discussed included the following. Other matters are reported elsewhere in this edition of the News.
The Brisbane Conference is shaping up to be very active in terms of SIG events. Here is a selection of the many SIG activities planned:
Early Childhood SIG The Early Childhood SIG will be holding several symposia during the conference. Here is a brief sample of titles accepted so far:
Several more proposals for symposia are still going through the review process. In addition, we anticipate many individual papers with an early childhood focus.
Suggestions for the focus of a SIG event have been flowing in. Possible topics put forward include a debate on the future of child development; a discussion about teacher leadership and how each state promotes and celebrates quality of practice; and a panel discussion by ARC grant holders in early childhood about strategies that have contributed to their success. Realistically, given the busy conference schedule, there will probably be time for only such event. If you have a preference for one of these topics, or would like to suggest another please get in touch with Jennifer Sumsion jennifer.sumsion@mq.edu.au
The Postgraduate and Early Career Researcher SIG have put forward a proposal for a panel at Brisbane. This panel discussion is intended to raise issues encountered by post-graduate students and early career researchers members of AARE. Some spaces exist for the views of this section of the membership through post-graduate student representation on AARE, and through the recent formation of the Postgraduate and Early Career Researcher Special Interest Group. However, there are issues that remain below the surface and these include supervision, training of supervisors, workloads, off-campus special needs, international students and cultural sensitivities and protocols, for some international students delays in examination and the pressures of visa expiry dates, the solitary postgraduate student and others. Early Career Researcher issues include access to research funds, tenure, workloads etc. In terms of adequate post-graduate student representation within AARE, there are the perils of geography, time and workloads. There are issues needing far closer attention, scrutiny and accountability.
The purpose of this panel is to begin a process whereby some of these issues can be brought out into the open. Panel participants are all at different stages in their academic careers and therefore bring a variety of perspectives to the panel. Valerie Harwood and Brian Edwards are recent graduates and occupy different positions within the academy. Mary Lou Rasmussen is near submission, and Jan Edwards is a post-graduate student representative on AARE Executive and is writing her first draft. Terry Evans is an academic staff member at Deakin University involved in the Doctoral education programs. The panel will be chaired by Jill Blackmore, President of AARE.
We are in the process of developing a brochure for the SIG to encourage membership and participation. Other events and activities are planned for Brisbane. Further information is available from Jan Edwards email (edwjk001@students.unisa.edu.au) or John Cripps Clark email (jcc@deakin.edu.au).
The Teachers' Work and Lives SIG is dedicated to providing a forum for research into and discussion of all aspects of teachers' work and how this affects their lives. Questions of particular interest include:
*How teachers are coping with change and the pressures placed on them?
The Teachers' Work and Lives SIG hosts an international email discussion list of the same name and educators interested in joining the list should contact Catherine Scott on cscott2@metz.une.edu.au
At this year's conference in Brisbane the SIG will host a round table discussion on the new NSW Institute of Teachers, to be chaired by Prof Steve Dinham, who is on the Institute's interim committee.
If you would like to establish a SIG, please contact Jennifer Sumsion at jennifer.sumsion@mq.edu.au
The Editorial team welcomes proposals for Special Issues of the AER. Once you have canvassed the idea with one of us informally, will you please prepare a short proposal under the headings below. Once we have these we can then properly assess your ideas for the Special Issue, using external expertise if necessary, and give you feedback.
Keep in mind we have three issues each year in April, August and November and that it takes roughly seven weeks to be processed once we have the issue ready to go to the desktop publisher and printer. If, in the end, we do not decide to go ahead with your issue, we will make some suggestions about Journals that might be better suited to it. At this stage, we have one special issue to come out in the final issue this year and two other proposals under consideration.
Jane Kenway, UniSA,
Managing Editor.
This issue carries four very diverse doctoral theses abstracts, addressing the effects on schooling of economic restructuring, the prospect of institutional closure in regional and metropolitan areas, teachers' engagement with mandated curriculum change, and the literacy development of students with intellectual disabilities. Perhaps they have more in common than is at first apparent!
Congratulations to the authors. In a context in which a few want to claim that not much research is going on in higher education, it is pleasing to continue to receive evidence such as these that high quality educational research is a feature of Australian university education faculties, schools and departments.
Please continue to encourage education doctoral students in your faculties and departments to submit abstracts to me at trevor.gale@education.monash.edu.au Details of submission requirements can be found in AARE News No. 39 (last issue), which is also located on the web at www.aare.edu.au
Trevor Gale
Executive Member
Dr Helen Raduntz (PhD), University of South Australia, A contemporary Marxian critique of trends in education and teachers' work in an era of major structural change.
The study involves an investigation into: 1) why there is currently a trend towards restructuring education to conform to the requirements of the capitalist market economy; 2) what are the factors influencing the trend; and 3) what is the likely outcome for education and teachers' work if the trend persists. The trend towards education's marketisation is problematic from the standpoint of issues of equity and social development. From a historical developmental standpoint and on the basis that the restructuring of education cannot be understood without reference to changes occurring in the capitalist economy, a Marxian critique had to be developed for the task not only of discovering the nature of the dynamics operating within that economy which appear to be driving education towards marketisation but also of tracing this developmental tendency and its rationale. Drawing on Marx's foundational analysis of capital and updating it in accord with contemporary developments the critique reveals that in its history and driven by the imperative to accumulate and expand capital, it can be shown that capitalism thrives and survives on constant technological and structural change and the economic crises it engenders. The degree of severity of the current crisis, however, which derives from a surplus of capital which cannot find investment opportunities, has driven capitalism to extend its regime of market regulation globally and to open even services like education to marketisation and international competition as a means of ensuring that the needs of private capital accumulation are met. On this account it is likely that education and teachers' work will be subjugated to the same conditions operating in commodity production and exchange with almost total disregard for equity in education on which social development depends. A grasp of the dynamics involved, however, provides the basis for effective and participatory decision-making and intervention.
Dr Pam Twee (PhD), University of western Sydney, Literacy learning of adolescent students with intellectual disabilities: A case study inquiry.
This study explores the learning, and specifically literacy learning, of intellectually disabled adolescent students. Factors that have influenced this learning throughout the adolescent's education are identified. It was undertaken to address a gap in the practical and theoretical knowledge of literacy in the field of mild and moderate intellectual disabilities. Although there has been extensive research into literacy and disability independently, there has been little that specifically combines the two. Nineteen case studies of the literacy development of adolescent students with mild and moderate intellectual disabilities were developed through observations in their classrooms and of related activities, interviews, questionnaires, analysis of work samples and research into the personal and educational histories of the students. The results of the study show that there were three main influences on literacy development for these students. These were the unique nature of the learner, home and family factors and the impact of school on the literacy learning of these students from their early learning and through their years of formal education. Within these categories, specific influences on the adolescent's literacy development were revealed, providing teachers and others involved with the care and welfare of such students with valuable information on which to base appropriate learning experiences. This study adds to current research on the learning of adolescent students with intellectual disabilities by looking specifically at literacy development and using qualitative approaches to search within and beyond the classroom for issues which affect their learning. It examines literacy learning in the light of the whole person and focuses on factors which influence the literacy learning of disabled adolescents. Practitioners in education and in the care of disabled children can use the study's findings to build a framework of knowledge to develop appropriate educational placements, programs and support for learning by drawing on significant aspects of the child's personal, social and educational development.
Dr Arna Wesley (EdD), Macquarie University, Teachers' response to mandated curriculum reform in technology education.
This thesis presents a study that investigates teachers' response to mandated curriculum reform in technology education, using the New South Wales Design and Technology Syllabus Years 7-10 as the example. It explores the relationship between teachers' attitudes and concerns and their implementation behaviours. Using teachers of Year 8 Design and Technology in Sydney metropolitan high schools as the population for the study, a screening survey categorised the teachers into those who supported the reform and those who did not. Three teachers from the supportive group and three teachers from the non-supportive group became the sample for a case study that included a detailed questionnaire, interview and site visit. This case study provided the opportunity to conceptualise the issues that surround curriculum reform. These issues were then presented to a second group of teachers for validation. The case study tells the story of six teachers who felt little sense of ownership of the reform and who grappled with the challenges of making changes to their previously valued teaching methodologies. This story is set in an environment where two faculties with distinct gender delineation and differing cultures were asked to merge in the implementation of the new syllabus, posing a unique set of demands. The finding that mandated change is unlikely to be endorsed and implemented unless the participants are fully involved is not new. However this specific case provides a clear message that if reform requires a shift in pedagogy, teacher commitment becomes more central to the implementation. It found that those teachers who not only had knowledge about the reform but had experienced the pedagogy through their own learning had a better understanding of the change and were more likely to respond positively to the implementation. As most syllabi move to a 'process' approach to learning these findings provide a foundation for further research.
Dr Mark Witham (PhD), James Cook University, A Fair Go: Cutting The Cake and Closing Schools
Cutting cakes refers to the art of resource allocation, closing schools is the real focus of this research and 'A Fair Go' is used to summarise the economic rationale for resource allocation and school closure policies. The conceptual framework has two main foci: cost-effectiveness analysis and vertical equity or 'fairness'. The implicit policy for allocating resources to schools was examined using multiple regression analysis. This was compared with how four metropolitan and four country South Australian schools allocated resources themselves using a detailed costing methodology. There is evidence that resource allocation policies were not cost-effective and that the systemic allocations to year levels did not accord with school practice. The misallocation of resources to senior secondary years was inefficient and created inequities between country and metropolitan students. There was a significant variation in the resources allocated to individual students with the vast majority of metropolitan students allocated between $3,000 and $10,000 each with relatively little variation. Country students had a much greater range with a significant number of students allocated more than $10,000 and up to $41,000. Cost effectiveness analysis was used to evaluate the hypothetical closure of eight case-study schools. This included quantifying the implicit valuation of students' travel time. If the value of students' time were taken into account closing the country schools would represent a net cost to society. Metropolitan schools, by contrast, were likely to yield net benefits to society from closure. School closure decision making was found to depend on the recurrent resource allocation policy in place. This means that schools should not be closed for the purpose of cost-savings, without full consideration of the alternative of changing the resource allocation policy.
The meeting in Canberra as described by AARE President Jill Blackmore was very interesting. It highlighted the need for post-graduate students to be aware of and vigilant about the issues discussed in 'Crossroads'. As a way of raising these issues within the AARE, we have planned a panel at the conference in Brisbane. This panel and the topics for discussion are outlined in SIG news. At the conference in Brisbane, the Association has made available a room for postgraduate student networking and for an AGM of students on Monday evening. At this AGM the election of the post-graduate student representative on AARE for 2003 will be ratified. We are currently negotiating with the Brisbane conference conveners for a special guest speaker for the AGM. As mentioned in a previous issue, the Deakin Students Union have made funds available to support the AGM. We have extended an invitation via Agnes Chan, President ERA to post-graduate students from ERA Singapore who will be attending the Brisbane conference to join AARE post-graduate students in the networking space and at the AGM of post-graduate students.
We are currently developing strategies to implement in Brisbane to achieve the following.
At its latest meeting (Canberra, June 2002), the Executive determined to be more proactive and explicit about its research training agenda. Specifically, the Executive outlined its strategy to promote research and research related activities, seeing these as being generated by AARE members in four main ways:
Funding for these initiatives (2 & 4) has also been made available and details on how to apply can be found on AARE's webpage (www.aare.edu.au).
In particular, the Executive wants to encourage members with an interest in fostering these initiatives to consider nominating for the position of Research Training Coordinator at the coming election. The Executive believes the position would entail: (1) making the above possibilities explicit to members and encouraging their uptake, (2) being involved in organising Executive generated forums, and (3) taking the front running in theorising research training, particularly from the perspective of AARE.
A position description for Research Training Coordinator can be found on the website along with a nomination form for elections. These will also be highlighted in coming newsletters. Members with an interest in this area and who want further information can also contact the current President, Jill Blackmore, the President Elect, Judith Gill, or one of the other current Executive Members.
Trevor Gale
Executive Member
The Brisbane conference will be a large and engaging event if the quality and diversity of abstracts received is any indication. Submissions are now closed and we anticipate a conference with 600+ papers, with over 700 delegates from many different countries and all the States and Territories in Australia.
Many full papers are still being refereed, so if you submitted a full paper for refereeing then be patient a little while yet. The large number of submissions reflects the continuing importance of the AARE annual conference as the primary venue for research dissemination in Australia.
We will meet as the conference committee in August to begin the complex process of scheduling papers. The academic program will include a number of integrated strands related to the Special Interest Groups, and we will try our best to group all papers by themes and topics to create a coherent pattern to the overall program.
There are papers on a wide diversity of topics. Of particular interest has been the number of teacher-researchers presenting papers and symposia with university partners. The teachers' day we hope will be very rewarding and successful in attracting many teachers to the conference.
There has also been a surprising number of papers on education and the arts, suggesting that we are reaching a new professional community or this topic is currently a focus for researchers. As well there are papers focussing on education for refugees and other social justice issues, and continuing strong submissions in key areas such as policy, pedagogy, gender, measurement, teacher education, curriculum, specific subject domains, and so on.
The venue at UQ will be excellent. Sally Brown is a local conference organiser (working with Peter, Ruth and Wendy Jeffery) who has arranged a good selection of rooms and facilities and assures us that the new conference and convention centre at UQ is very impressive.
In this AARE NEWS is a selection of papers accepted for the conference - as you can see from the titles it will be a rich offering.
Peter Renshaw
Professor of Education
School of Education and Professional Studies
Griffith University
Peter Renshaw (Convenor)
Tania Aspland (Ozaccom liaison)
Di Mayer (Teachers'Day)
Sue Grieshaber (Dinner and Welcome Reception)
Sue Thomas
Bill Atweh
Maree Dinan
Debra Cunningham (Sec/Treasurer)
Peter Jeffery
Sally Brown (UQ liaison)
The dinner for the Brisbane conference is to be held at The Club House, St Lucia Golf Links, which gives spectacular views of the rolling fairways and bushland beyond. The 'old' section of the Club House was originally part of a homestead called "Hillstone", built by local sugar producer and entrepreneur William Dart in the 1880s. Before building "Hillstone", William Dart owned a sugar plantation where the University of Queensland (the conference venue) is now situated.
The dinner ($75 per head) includes
Numbers are limited so book early for a great night! The venue has a limited capacity, so be sure to book early. 250 TICKETS WILL BE PRINTED - NO MORE!
A pre-conference workshop for Early Career Researchers and Doctoral Candidates, their Supervisors and Mentors
Sunday December 1, 2002, from 12.00pm to 4.30pm.
Room to be advised.
To register, please go to the web site and follow the prompts. Register early to avoid disappointment. This half-day workshop will assist you to get started as a researcher post PhD and to become competitive in attracting research funding. It will identify key strategies for formulating valid and fundable research questions and for building an acknowledged research speciality. The workshop will include generic information on funding sources and will offer advice on how to customise funding applications to funders' imperatives and requirements. It will also discuss the advantages and disadvantages of funded research. Issues of intellectual property rights and the management of contractual relationships with funders will also be mentioned. Leading researchers will share their knowledge and experiences.
This workshop is free to participants. A light lunch and coffee will also be provided by the Association. This workshop builds on the one on Writing for Publication conducted at the Fremantle conference in 2001. Over 100 Doctoral candidates and early career researchers attended and we look forward to a similarly strong attendance at this event.
Speakers will talk for 20 minutes with 10 minutes for questions and comments.
Workshop Convener: Professor Jane Kenway.
| Time | Speaker | Topic |
|---|---|---|
| 12.00 -12.30 | Lunch | |
| 12.30 -12.40 | Associate Professor Jill Blackmore, Deakin University, President of AARE. | Welcome and introduction |
| 12.40 - 1.10 | Professor Jane Kenway, University of South Australia | Winning ARC funding - some issues for Early Career Researchers |
| 1.10 - 1.40 | Associate Professor Alan Reid, University of South Australia | Research and consultancy - issues of intellectual property and contractual relationships with funding agencies |
| 1.40 - 2.10 | Associate Professor Barbara Comber, University of South Australia | Establishing research partnerships with the education industry - starting small and getting bigger |
| 2.10 - 2.30 | Afternoon tea | |
| 2.30 - 3.00 | Associate Professor Noel Gough, Deakin University | 'More bang for less bucks': pleasures and possibilities of unfunded research |
| 3.00 - 3.30 | Professor Miriam David, University of Keele, UK | Research funding opportunities and issues in the UK and European Union |
| 3.30 - 4.00 | Professor Fazal Rizvi, University of Illinois, USA. | US Education Foundations and international funding opportunities |
| 4.00 - 4.30 | All members of the panel | Closing forum. |
WATCH OUT FOR THE LISTING OF ALL ABSTRACTS APPROVED FOR THE BRISBANE CONFERENCE. THEY WILL BE PUBLISHED ON THE WEB SOON. CHECK YOUR ABSTRACT BECAUSE EVEN THOUGH WE ONLY COPY AND PASTE YOUR WORDS INTO THE LISTING - ERRORS, GRAMMATICAL OR OTHERWISE, DO MAGICALLY APPEAR.
Please hand your FINAL VERSION disk and 2 hard copies fully labelled with PAPERCODE & NAME to: Ruth Jeffery [or her representative] at AARE Office Services Desk or Conference Registration Desk. Please label your work with your PAPERCODE & NAME. The required file format for submission is a MS Word document with all diagrams and figures embedded. SEE THE WEBSITE ON HOW TO PUBLISH TO FIND FORMATTING RULES WHICH MUST BE FOLLOWED. NB: REFERENCES IN ENDNOTES WILL DISAPPEAR IN HTML.
ALL PAPERS MUST BE HANDED IN BY 5TH DECEMBER 2002 TO GET INTO THE COLLECTION
31st July - last date for notification of refereed papers results [if completed by referees]. 31st August - early-bird registration rate closes 31st October - last day for withdrawals without penalty.
AARE is pleased to announce another time-saving, convenient, modern processing system enhancement for members.
Members can now renew their membership on-line using our secure DirectOne connection from AARE website.
New members can join at the same e-commerce page.
Recruit a member:
If you know someone who you would like to encourage to join AARE it is easy for them to do. Just tell them to go to AARE website and join us on-line. As soon as we are notified by the system that we have a new member AARE Office will send the person a "Welcome to Membership" pack of publications.
Renewing Members:
AARE Office will still issue reminder notices but instead of collecting handwritten [sometimes illegible] credit card numbers on the form to be returned, members will now be invited to go on-line and enter the details directly. This is also a way to eliminate the occasional errors we make in typing names and addresses -- you type it yourself and we suspect that you know your own name! Timesaving on office work translates into smaller increases in membership rates and faster feedback to you when you renew.
Tax Invoices:
The system issues full tax invoices within 60seconds of completion of the transaction and notifies AARE Office of the details by email. But AARE Office does NOT know your credit card number.
In the newsletter each year, the Honorary Secretary will call for nominations due by September 30. Members nominating a particular candidate should:
Pertinent information would include but not necessarily be limited to the following: The candidate's contribution to educational research; their contribution to AARE and the length of membership of the Association; their overall contribution to the educational community (policy formulation, public awareness, and so on).
Selection Procedures:
A sub-committee of the Executive, chaired by the Honorary Secretary will examine the nominations received and taking into account the criteria for Honorary Life Membership, make a recommendation at the mid-year Executive meeting for one, and under special circumstances more than one Honorary Life Membership. The Executive should pass a resolution at the mid-year meeting to bestow an Honorary Life Membership on the nominated member or members. In addition to the stated criteria, the subcommittee should provide an ongoing review of gender, regional and disciplinary distribution of Honorary Life Members. Where marked discrepancies in the distribution occur, 'the sub-Committee should implement positive discrimination procedures.
Support for the Honorary Member to attend the conference:
Financial support will be provided by the Association, through the Annual Conference Organising Committee, to the nominated member(s) to attend the annual conference. The financial support will consist of. Conference registration fee waiver, actual transport costs to the conference, not to exceed the equivalent of an economy class airfare from the member's Australia home address to the conference site. Members residing overseas will be limited to a transport grant of $1,000.
The Annual Conference Organising Committee will arrange for a time during the conference for the bestowal of the Honorary Life Membership. Sufficient time should be allowed to have the President or the President's proxy present a profile of the nominee that provides justification for the bestowal, have the nominee respond, have the President bestow the Honorary Life Membership certificate. A certificate will be granted to the Honorary Life Member that registers the Honour bestowed by the Association.
NOMINATIONS FOR THE BETTY WATTS AWARD CLOSE 30 OCTOBER 2001
EARLY CAREER RESEARCHER AWARD NOMINATIONS CLOSE 30 OCTOBER
NOMINATIONS FOR AARE LIFE MEMBER AWARD 2002 ARE CALLED FOR IN THIS ISSUE.
NOMINATIONS FOR AARE EXECUTIVE 2002 ARE CALLED FOR IN THIS ISSUE
In accordance with the decisions made at the 1992 Annual General Meeting, nominations for the following positions on the Executive Committee of AARE should be forwarded to the Secretary by 5th October 2002. President-Elect for 2003 [to be President in 2004], Secretary, Treasurer, Research Training Coordinator, Editor of AARE NEWS [newsletter] and Executive Member (FOUR positions).
I, ............................................................................................................................................ (full name of proposer) Nominate: ................................................................................................ (full name of nominee) For the position of: .................................................................................(one of the above positions) Signed: ....................................................................................(proposer must be financial member) I second the nomination: ...........................................................(full name of seconder financial member) Signed by member seconder: .......................................................................signed (seconder member) I will accept the nomination: ......................................................(signed by nominated financial member)
Proposers, seconders and nominees must be financial members of AARE. Check membership status with Ruth at AARE Office Please send completed nomination forms to Hon. Secretary Debra Cunningham, Box 389 Toowong Q 4006 as soon as possible so that ballot material can be prepared, printed and distributed by post.. A list of serving AARE Executive is in this issue of AARE NEWS.
Position description
The role of the postgraduate student representative on AARE Executive is to further the aims of AARE in fostering educational research in Australia by:
* attending and participate in meetings of the executive so as to give voice to postgraduate experience and opinions;
* enhance communication both of AARE with postgraduates and between postgraduates using the newsletter, email, the conference and teleconferences;
* to improve the participation of post-graduate students in all aspects of AARE;
* assist the postgraduate representatives on the conference committee to develop acitivities and functions for the benefit of postgraduate conference attendees;
* take a lead in the growth and development of the postgraduate and early career researchers special interest group (PG&ECR SIG); and
* develop an annual strategic plan to address issues identified by members postgraduate students and members of the SIG.
Nomination form PG STUDENT REPRESENTATIVE
Nominations are called for in the AARE NEWS at the same time as nominations for the rest of the executive. Elections will be conducted by post together with the election to other positions on the executive. ----
I, ............................................................................................................................................ (full name of proposer) Nominate: ................................................................................................ (full name of nominee) For the position of: POST-GRADUATE STUDENT REPRESENTATIVE FOR AARE EXECUTIVE 2003 Signed: ........................................................................ (proposer must be financial PG STUDENTmember) I second the nomination: ................................................... (full name of seconder PG STUDENT financial member) Signed by member seconder: .......................................................................signed (seconder member) I will accept the nomination: ................................................ (signed by nominated PG STUDENT financial member)
Proposers, seconders and nominees must be financial members of AARE. Check membership status with Ruth at AARE Office
In 2002, the executive is:
AARE Office (Ruth Jeffery and Wendy Shilton)
As well as the usual responsibilities (running meetings, developing policy, advocating etc), the President
As well as the usual responsibilities (managing correspondence, taking minutes, handling voting for elections etc), the Secretary
As well as the usual responsibilities, the Treasurer liaises with the Conference Convenor each year and proposes the annual budget.
Elizabeth Milford is AARE's new Archivist. She has degrees and a Diploma of Museum Studies from the University of Sydney, and has worked with museum and archive collections in Sydney and Melbourne.
Elizabeth is currently assessing and sorting AARE's records prior to their relocation to the Noel Butlin Archive in Canberra. If you have any documentation (such as material relating to conferences, special interest groups, awards, research, publications or general administrative matters), please send it to her via PO Box 71, Coldstream, Victoria 3770.
Elizabeth lives in East Malvern with her husband and a three-year old, and an eleven-year old who was once a three-year old. She loves reading biographies and winning at tennis.
The following titles have been "grabbed" from the entire list to give some idea of the rich variety of topics being addressed at this year's conference. Full titles and abstracts will appear on the website in due course.
Sessional staff: Reconceptualising the Teaching Team
Seeking uncertainty: Educational research as an engaged social science
Educational research capacity in Wales: The challenge of devolution
Australian Catholic Education in new times: New policy contexts and critical perspectives on educating for the common good
Enhancing the training, support and management of sessional teaching staff
Equity in education tax credit
The internationalisation of the New Zealand secondary schooling sector: Reviewing the recent trends
Policy and research dimensions of the 'global' and the 'local': Positivism reborn?
Piecing together the curriculum puzzle: Learning through Drama Education
The emergence of visual culture as a case study of political discourse in Art Education
An uncertain role for literacy in elementary school science
Primary school students' approaches to design activities
Ideo-political education in China's universities: A study of the challenges in the 1990s
Getting started: Initiating partnerships for success or failure
Anticipating the problems and uncertainties of research and development partnerships
Developing a Marxian critique for educational change in an economy of uncertainty
Spirituality: Providing guidance through uncertainty
Principal succession in Catholic primary and secondary schools in Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania: Opportunities and challenges
Leading the field: Case studies of school leadership
Small schools' leadership: Clearing the cobwebbed window
Ethical decision-making: Principals facing contextual complexity
Leadership as a discourse: Working within and against the comfort of epistemological certainties
Fielding theory: Bourdieu and the practices of leadership in schools
Leadership for pedagogy: Teacher leadership within and beyond the classroom
Associating school principal behaviours and behavioural dispositions with proclivity for change and school renewal
Performance standards for school leaders: Questions of context and complexity
A community of teachers: Using activity theory to investigate the implementation of ICTE in a remote Indigenous school
Teaching strategies that support students' construction of knowledge in a microcomputer based laboratory
Model of the utilisation of information and communication technologies in education
A re-assessment of assessment: Is there a role for examinations?
Homogenising play: Governing pre-school childhoods
Lexical neologisms in Japanese
Disrupting homogeneity: When being different is breaking school rules
More than 40 educational researchers convened at the University of Canberra on 14 June for the AARE Educational Research Leaders' Forum. This was the second such event held by AARE, the previous one having been at the same location in June last year. Major presenters at the Forum were Dr Peter Shergold, Head of the Department of Education, Science and Training (DEST); Dr Carol Nicoll, Executive Officer, Higher Education Review, DEST; and Dr Doug McEachern, of the Australian Research Council's Social, Behavioural and Economic Sciences Expert Advisory Committee.
In an introductory session before the arrival of the speakers, participants discussed in small groups, and then briefly in plenary, issues to be raised with the speakers or matters to be taken up in AARE's response to the Government's "Crossroads" document.
Peter Shergold Presentation
Dr Shergold focussed on what he described as the two big issues we are confronting in education policy over the next 12 months, as well as on how to improve the relationship between DEST and academics.
In regard to the "Crossroads" document, he emphasised:
Regarding the review of national research priorities:
Dr Shergold posed a number of questions for Forum participants:
There followed a lively discussion session in which participants responded to these issues and put questions to Dr Shergold. In response to questions from the floor, Dr Shergold stated:
Dr Shergold indicated he would be happy to receive a delegation from AARE in about August on research funding.
Dr Nicoll focussed on the Higher Education Review, indicating that 5 or 6 discussion papers will be coming out on various topics, there will be a series of invited focus groups in state capitals, and responses will be due on 13 September 2002. She emphasised that DEST sees education researchers as a significant interest group.
Dr Nicoll posed the following questions for Forum participants:
Again an interesting discussion session ensued.
Dr Nicoll encouraged all those present to make submissions to the higher education review.
Dr McEachern explained aspects of the ARC's national competitive grants program. He commented that the range of the ARC's activities has expanded greatly in the past year.
While the visible activity regarding the grant selection process has not changed much, the internal process has changed considerably. The process was outlined, as were the criteria for selection of expert advisory committee members, the composition of the Social, Behavioural and Economic Sciences EAC, and the criteria for selection of the Australian reader base and the international assessors.
Figures were given to illustrate the increases in recent years in numbers of applications and in success rates (eg Discovery Grants: 16.5% increase in applications 2001-02; Early Career Researchers: 33.8% increase in applications 2002-03).
Dr McEachern foreshadowed that arguments will be shifting from inputs to outputs of research. The application form and process will be redesigned in the next 12-18 months to give greater emphasis to outcomes from previous grants. Outcomes include publications, number of postgraduate students supported, patents or copyright, and the impact of the research on educational practice, on performance and on policy-making.
Responding to questions and comments from participants, Dr McEachern made the following points:
AARE President Jill Blackmore invited participants to send her any comments for the AARE submission to the Review. She raised the question of a mechanism to develop a coherent response to the forthcoming discussion papers. To facilitate organisation of responses, various participants offered to take on a coordination role within their states and to liaise with the AARE Research Training Coordinator: NSW - Jan Wright; ACT - Catherine McLoughlin; Vic - Terri Seddon; SA - Mike Lawson; N.Qld - Chris Bigum; S.Qld - Peter Renshaw.
It was suggested that the main text of responses should be kept short, and all substantiating material should be put in appendices, and that responses should include good anecdotes and success stories. It was proposed that educational researchers should consider setting up their own industry consultative group as a lobbying voice, and that this be discussed at a special meeting at this year's AARE conference.
Listing directories on AARE website with at least 0.01% of the traffic, sorted by the amount of traffic. People love your papers!
| Requests | % bytes | Directory read |
|---|---|---|
| 410128 | 25.97% | /99pap/ |
| 222145 | 24.93% | /00pap/ |
| 430233 | 17.03% | [root directory] |
| 139493 | 9.34% | /98pap/ |
| 112253 | 5.88% | /97pap/ |
| 40449 | 5.61% | /01pap/ |
| 63531 | 2.29% | /94pap/ |
| 57029 | 2.07% | /96pap/ |
| 41562 | 1.54% | /95pap/ |
| 38959 | 1.32% | /92pap/ |
| 33218 | 1.30% | /93pap/ |
| 12228 | 0.46% | /conf2002/ |
| 16105 | 0.43% | /91pap/ |
| 11747 | 0.33% | /90pap/ |
| 18788 | 0.31% | /conf/ |
| 7343 | 0.28% | /89pap/ |
| 9741 | 0.16% | /aer/ |
| 6388 | 0.16% | /news/ |
| 2193 | 0.12% | /ethics/ |
| 482 | 0.10% | /news36/ |
| 4892 | 0.08% | /secure/ |
| 1016 | 0.05% | /exec/ |
| 1351 | 0.04% | /stats/ |
| 4494 | 0.03% | /rare/ |
| 5374 | 0.03% | /docthes/ |
| 3865 | 0.02% | /members/ |
| 155 | 0.01% | /conf02/ |
| 327 | 0.01% | /news37/ |
| 916 | 0.01% | /surveys/ |
| 15380 | 0.08% | [not listed 24 directories |
AARE is engaged in intense negotiations with sister organization NZARE about the structure and arrangements for the joint conference which is planned for December 2003 in Auckland. At present a process of selection for a joint conference professional organizing team is in hand. President Jill Blackmore and President-elect Judith Gill are in frequent email contact with John Hattie in New Zealand
Before papers can go out to referees for evaluation it is necessary to strip them of identifications such as names of authors and institutions. We have been amazed at the places people put their names on papers, sometimes it seems they are going out of their way to make the stripper's job difficult. Some authors, when confronted over this matter have offered to do the stripping rather than having the Editor do it but of course your AARE stripper still has to give each close attention to makes sure everything has been taken off. This can be a difficult task. A vision of the future might be that we could ask all people submitting papers for full paper refereeing to strip prior to sending or at least refrain from putting their names on everything many times!
AARE Office is engaged in the refereeing process for 150 out of 600 papers proposed for AARE 2002. Doesn't sound much? Each has to go [after stripping and converting to .pdf ] to 3 referees. Finding 3 referees in similar fields is hard. One came back recently declined "...because it's my partner's work". If we find 3 people with 3 email requests we then send the paper out to 3 referees and hope we get 3 faxes promptly. Numerate people will have worked out that that's 450 email requests, 450 replies, 450 paper sendings and 450 inwards faxes - a heap of work. And we still get people asking why AARE requires $25 administrative fee for refereeing services. Oh, and we then fax the reports when made to be anonymous to each of the 150 authors. It is a fact that it is hard to break a modem with masses of email but recently we did have to replace AARE's modem.
A group of three AARE Executive members has been working steadily to appraise Webex for possible use for meetings and to allow some sessions of AARE Conferences to be broadcast over the web to registered viewers. www.webex.com.au will give interested people some idea of what we are researching with the sponsorship of Webex and assistance from Swinburne University - Lilydale. So far the three Exec. members have tried out Webex meetings on-line and we will do more now that Peter Jeffery has been given some special access by Webex.
We would like to ask you for money since you are now all rich and famous however we'll settle for any old files , papers, documents about AARE that you have. Please contact aare@aare.edu.au and tell us what you have and would like to donate to our archives. We will arrange transportation. Allyson Holbrook still has 10 cartons of papers to give us [she casually mentioned in Canberra last month]. Who knows what past presidents, secretaries and editors may have. If you have difficulty with email 0359649296 will contact Ruth or Wendy at AARE Office while Peter is out sailing. Please mention thei appeal to any past executive members you may see in your travels.
Photos of people at the two Canberra meetings are available on AARE website. We have deleted any we thought a bit that way but some are quite good. Print them and post them on your university notice-board.
Also on AARE website is the latest AARE Membership data. These were presented to the Executive in June and caused quite a lot of interest.
Published by the Australian Association for Research in Education Inc [AARE] Box 71 Coldstream 3770 Victoria Australia.