Australia Association for Research in Education
Education policy
Economic thinking is corrupting education in Australia
There is a growing trend in education of proposing and enacting policy ideas that are based primarily upon …
Specialist science and maths teachers in primary schools are not the solution
The idea to put specialist science and maths teachers into Australian primary schools gained a lot of support after the latest results of international tests were announced. It even became official policy in NSW last year when then Education Minister, Adrian Piccoli, announced a plan to deliver hundreds of specialist STEM (science, technology, engineering and …
Fast policy: when educational research morphs into quick fixes and ‘silver bullets’
Education is increasingly positioned as a problem in need of fixing. Faced with demands for accountability and transparency …
What’s a Good Education System Worth?
The Turnbull Government’s education election manifesto, Quality Schools, Quality Outcomes claims (several times over) that when it comes to the funding of schooling, it matters less how much is spent and more how the resources are spent. This is a convenient argument for a government chasing a budget surplus, and the Turnbull Government makes no …
Are think tanks having too much influence on Australian schooling policies?
The past decade has seen think tanks operate in sophisticated ways to influence the development of Australian schooling …
Why condemning international tests is a distraction, and what we really should be worried about
Governments all around the world seem to be influenced by the international rankings of students by the Organisation …
Education in Australia needs to change direction NOW, before it’s too late
We believe the next five years are vital to the future of education in Australia. As we see …
Vice Chancellor Stephen Parker: Pyne’s higher education reforms doomed to failure
Christopher Pyne and I were on diametrically opposite sides over the Higher Education and Research Reform Bill and …
Charter schools: an old, flawed idea and wrong for Australia
A new report proposes Australia adopt a US styled charter school, or UK type academies, approach as a solution to our falling scores on international tests. It even suggests Australia should consider for-profit schools. The report comes from the Centre for Independent Studies, a conservative pro-business pro-privatisation think tank. US charter schools and UK academies …