"Living on the edge" : A case of school reform working for disadvantaged adolescents
- Authors: Smyth, John , McInerney, Peter
- Date: 2007
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Teachers College Record Vol. 109, no. 5 (2007), p. 1123-1170
- Relation: http://purl.org/au-research/grants/arc/DP110102619
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- Description: The issue of why so many young adolescents around the world are disengaging from school and making the choice to drop out is one of the most intractable, vexed, perplexing, and controversial issues confronting educators. Tackling it requires courage and a radical rethinking of school reform around issues of power, ownership of learning, and the relevance of schooling and curriculum for young lives. This means a heightened institutional capacity to "listen." This article describes an instance of a disadvantaged urban Australian government school that realized it had little alternative but to try new approaches; "old ways" were not working. The article describes an ensemble of school reform practices, philosophies, and strategies that give young adolescents genuine ownership of their learning. This school stands out as a beacon that school reform is possible, even for young adolescents from the most difficult of circumstances. However, such approaches look markedly different from where mainstream educational reform is taking us at the moment. Copyright © by Teachers College, Columbia University.
- Description: 2003005576
'After hours' schools as core to the spatial politics of 'in-betweenness'
- Authors: Tsolidis, Georgina , Kostogriz, Alex
- Date: 2008
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Race Ethnicity and Education Vol. 11, no. 3 (2008), p. 319-328
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- Description: In this article the authors draw on a larger study in which their overall concern is to illustrate how diasporic identifications develop through a range of scales related to self, family, community, nation and beyond. They consider the Melbourne Greek community as an exemplar of diasporic experience and use it as a case study for their investigation, which is aimed at exploring how transcultural literacies relate to spaces which complicate and enrich identifications. In this article they consider the role of 'after hours' schools in the shaping of diasporic identities. These are community-based schools where Greek language and culture is taught. Commonly, classes are held on Saturday morning or in the evenings during the week. Such schools operate in classrooms that are rented from 'real' schools. By existing in spaces that are commonly occupied by mainstream day schools, students who attend 'after hours' schools experience a form of marginalisation that is also a right of passage. Here the authors argue that such 'in-between' spaces assist with the formation of 'in-between' identities that are emblematic of globalization.
'Getting a job' : Vocationalism, identity formation, and critical ethnographic inquiry
- Authors: Down, Barry , Smyth, John
- Date: 2012
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Journal of Educational Administration and History Vol. 44, no. 3 (2012), p. 203-219
- Relation: http://purl.org/au-research/grants/arc/LP100100045
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- Description: This article examines the highly disputed policy nexus around what on the surface appears to be the helpful field of vocational education and training. Despite the promises of vocational education and training to deliver individual labour market success and global competitiveness, the reality is that it serves to residualise unacceptably large numbers of young people, especially those from disadvantaged circumstances, by reinforcing the myth that it is acceptable to have the bifurcation in which some young people work with their hands and not their minds. Furthermore, vocational education and training by itself cannot resolve the fundamental causes of poverty, unemployment, and economic inequality. This article draws on Australian research to describe the insights from a critical ethnographic inquiry in which young people themselves are key informants in making sense of 'getting a job'; how they regard the labour market; the kind of work they find desirable/undesirable; the spaces in which they can see themselves forging an identity as future citizens/workers - and how answers to these questions frame and shape viable, sustainable, and rewarding futures for all young people, not just the privileged few. © 2012 Taylor & Francis.
'Give me air not shelter': critical tales of a policy case of student re-engagement from beyond school
- Authors: Smyth, John , Robinson, Janean
- Date: 2015
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Journal of Education Policy Vol. 30, no. 2 (2015), p. 220-236
- Relation: http://purl.org/au-research/grants/arc/LP100100045
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- Description: This paper tackles what is arguably one of the most pressing and intractable educational issues confronting western democracies and the disengagement and disconnection from schooling of alarming numbers of young people. The paper looks at the policy response in Victoria, Australia, and through ethnographic interviews with a small number of young people; it finds a significant mismatch between the policy intent of re-engagement programmes, and the experiences of young people themselves. It seems that this is an instance of what might be termed policy deafness, a situation that will likely produce devastating consequences unless corrected.
- Description: This paper tackles what is arguably one of the most pressing and intractable educational issues confronting western democracies – the disengagement and disconnection from schooling of alarming numbers of young people. The paper looks at the policy response in Victoria, Australia, and through ethnographic interviews with a small number of young people; it finds a significant mismatch between the policy intent of re-engagement programmes, and the experiences of young people themselves. It seems that this is an instance of what might be termed policy deafness, a situation that will likely produce devastating consequences unless corrected.
'I want to get a piece of paper that says I can do stuff': youth narratives of educational opportunities and constraints in low socio-economic neighbourhoods
- Authors: McInerney, Peter , Smyth, John
- Date: 2014
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Ethnography and Education Vol. 9, no. 3 (September 2014), p. 239-252
- Relation: http://purl.org/au-research/grants/arc/DP110102619
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- Description: The persistent failure of contemporary policies to improve school retention rates and close the achievement gap between students from low and high socio-economic (SES) backgrounds should be a matter of grave concern. In this article, we set out to show what it means to be educated in a context of disadvantage from the perspectives of young people attending a senior secondary public school in regional Australia. Acknowledging that youth are experts in their own lives, we draw extensively on student narratives of the funds of knowledge and opportunity structures that support and/or constrain education and employment opportunities in low-income neighbourhoods. Although young peoples' stories of hope and agency go some way to undermining the deficit thinking about these students and their families, we argue that the realisation of their aspirations requires institutional support and policies that address the systemic causes of educational disadvantage.
'Low income doesn't mean stupid and destined for failure' : challenging the deficit discourse around students from low SES backgrounds in higher education
- Authors: McKay, Jade , Devlin, Marcia
- Date: 2016
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: International Journal of Inclusive Education Vol. 20, no. 4 (Apr 2016), p. 347-363
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- Description: The discourse around students from low socio-economic backgrounds often adopts a deficit conception in which these students are seen as a 'problem' in higher education. In light of recent figures pointing to an increase in the number and proportion of these students participating in higher education [Pitman, T. 2014. "More Students in Higher ed, But it's no more Representative." The Conversation 28: 1-4] and an absence of evidence to support deficit thinking, this deficit discourse requires re-examination. Qualitative data from 115 interviews carried out across 6 Australian universities as part of a national study reveal that, contrary to the conception of these students as a 'problem', students from low SES backgrounds demonstrate high levels of determination and academic skills and that they actively seek high standards in their studies. This paper critically examines deficit conceptions of these students, drawing on findings from qualitative interviews with 89 successful students from low SES backgrounds and 26 staff members recognised as exemplary in their provision of teaching and support of students from low SES backgrounds. Drawing on these findings, this paper challenges the deficit discourse and argues for a more affirmative and nuanced conception of students from low SES backgrounds.
'No they're not digital natives and they're not addicted': an essay critiquing contestable labels
- Authors: Johnson, Nicola
- Date: 2011
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Fast capitalism Vol. 8, no. 2 (2011), p. 1-5
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- Description: Reducing complexity is often our focus when we explain new phenomena. However when we label things in simplistic ways, we may be in fact causing harm, in fact performing symbolic violence (Bourdieu 1998) by using and promoting essences of the phenomena in question. This essay gives examples of these simplistic, inappropriate categories that essentialize people into inflexible boxes, and argues that labeling is a simplistic practice, which gives us (mis)certainty. To me, there is a need for nuanced understandings of phenomena versus reductionist suppositions. We need insight rather than generalizations and essentializations. Many (mis)assumptions are based on a lack of evidence. This short essay argues against the constant complexity reduction apparent in popular (and to a certain extent academic) discourse. It highlights the ‘good’ of a society shaped by and shaping the Internet. It draws together the two labels of digital natives and Internet addiction to provide examples of how symbolic violence is being inflicted.
'Ordinary kids' navigating geographies of educational opportunity in the context of an Australian 'place-based intervention'
- Authors: Smyth, John , McInerney, Peter
- Date: 2014
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Journal of Education Policy Vol. 29, no. 3 (May 2014), p. 285-301
- Relation: http://purl.org/au-research/grants/arc/DP110102619
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- Description: This paper addresses the vexed educational policy aspects of area-based interventions (ABIs) in neighbourhoods designated as 'disadvantaged' in an Australian context. We find that the way in which the policy of ABIs is supposed to operate and impact education is highly problematic. What we present instead in this paper is a much more complex process by which aspirations are formed, sustained, contested and maintained by young people who regard themselves as 'ordinary' and as being engaged instead in a process of navigating educational opportunities on the basis of resources available to them.
'Power, regulation and physically active identities' : the experiences of rural and regional living adolescent girls
- Authors: Casey, Meghan , Mooney, Amanda , Smyth, John , Payne, Warren
- Date: 2016
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Gender and Education Vol. 28, no. 1 (2016), p. 108-127
- Relation: http://purl.org/au-research/grants/arc/LP0990206
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- Description: Drawing on interpretations of Foucault's techniques of power, we explored the discourses and power relations operative between groups of girls that appeared to influence their participation in Physical Education (PE) and outside of school in sport and physical activity (PA) in rural and regional communities. Interviews and focus groups were conducted in eight secondary schools with female students from Year 9 (n = 22) and 10 (n = 116). Dominant gendered and performance discourses were active in shaping girls' construction of what it means to be active or sporty', and these identity positions were normalised and valued. The perceived and real threat of their peer's gaze as a form of surveillance acted to further perpetuate the power of performance discourses; whereby girls measured and (self) regulated their participation. Community settings were normalised as being exclusively for skilled performers and girls self-regulated their non-participation according to judgements made about their own physical abilities. These findings raise questions about the ways in which power relations, as forged in broader sociocultural and institutional discourse-power relations, can infiltrate the level of the PE classroom to regulate and normalise practices in relation to their, and others, PA participation.
'Voiced' research as a sociology for understanding 'dropping out' of school
- Authors: Smyth, John , Hattam, Robert
- Date: 2001
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: British Journal of Sociology of Education Vol. 22, no. 3 (Spetember 2001 2001), p. 402-415
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- Description: How people obtain more complex understandings of the phenomenon of 'dropping out' of school is one of the most urgent policy and practice issues facing educational practitioners, policy-makers and sociological researchers at the moment. Smyth and Hattam argue that a different 'sociological imagination' is required--one that is simultaneously more attentive to the lifeworlds of young people and more reflexive of its own agenda.
'When students have power': Student engagement, student voice, and the possibilities for school reform around 'dropping out' of school
- Authors: Smyth, John
- Date: 2006
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: International journal of leadership in education: Theory and practice Vol. 9, no. 4 (2006), p. 285-298
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- Description: It is no coincidence, that disengagement from school by young adolescents has intensified at precisely the same time as there has been a hardening of educational policy regimes that have made schools less hospitable places for students and teachers. This paper argues that producing the circumstances necessary to turn this situation around requires invoking a radically different kind of ethos and educational leadership-one that encourages and promotes the speaking into existence of authentic forms of student voice.
- Description: C1
- Description: 2003001899
10 tips for using video analysis more effectively in physical education
- Authors: Beseler, Brad , Plumb, Mandy
- Date: 2019
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Journal of Physical Education, Recreation and Dance Vol. 90, no. 1 (2019), p. 52-56
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- Description: In order for video replay to be an effective assessment and teaching tool, a number of steps need to be followed. This article provides some useful tips for physical educators to ensure they are implementing this video technology effectively when teaching the overarm throw.
A clash of chronotopes: Adult reading of children's and young adult literature
- Authors: Zeegers, Margaret , Pass, Charlotte , Jampole, Ellen
- Date: 2010
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: The International Journal of the Book Vol. 7, no. 4 (2010), p. 89-97
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- Description: In this paper we explore ways in which adults engage children's and young adult books in primary and secondary schools in relation to Bakhtin's (1981) posited chronotope. We base our discussion on an analysis of experienced practising teachers' own engagement with books that are offered to children and young adults as part of teachers' didactic activities in developing literacy skills and literature appreciation in classrooms, drawing on the concept of the chronotope as going beyond the didactic to embrace the artistic and cultural in children's responses to their reading and writing. The suggestive possibilities of the chronotope as an organising feature of teaching reading and writing in a number of genres and production of text types, affords new ways of approaching reading by teachers, at the same time as it invites these teachers to examine their own responses to the literature that they engage in the process. The concept of the chronotope opens up spaces for literary and pedagogical responses that derive from children's own experience of their world, but we argue that teacher responses that are restricted by their own views of the world may inhibit a full exploration by children of the possibilities that the books that they encounter as didactically bound and culturally limiting.
A framework for monitoring progress and planning teaching towards the effective use of computer algebra systems
- Authors: Pierce, Robyn , Stacey, Kaye
- Date: 2004
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: International Journal of Computers for Mathematical Learning Vol. 9, no. 1 (2004), p. 59-93
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- Description: This article suggests a framework to organise a cluster of variables that are associated with students' effective use of computer algebra systems (CAS) in mathematics learning. Based on a review of the literature and from the authors' own teaching experience, the framework identifies the main characteristics of students' interactions with CAS technology and how these may be used to monitor students' developing use of CAS; from this, the framework may be used to plan teaching in order to gain greater benefit from the availability of CAS. Four case studies describing students' development over a semester are reported. These demonstrate a variety of combinations of technical competencies and personal attributes. They indicate the importance of both the technical and personal aspects but suggest that negative attitudes rather than technical difficulties can limit the effective use of CAS. Finally practical suggestions are given for teaching strategies which may promote effective use of CAS.
- Description: C1
- Description: 2003000923
A journey to transformism in Australia teacher education : Reconceptualising teacher education in the 21st Century
- Authors: Dyson, Michael
- Date: 2009
- Type: Text , Book
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- Description: This book presents an alternative way of perceiving both formal schooling and teacher education. It challenges the educational community to examine the current practice of education and suggests a transforming alternative. Using the methodology and writing style of auto ethnography, the author has investigated an internship, in which interns were given room to negotiate their role, make mistakes, form relationships, and come to know the work of teachers. They were encouraged to become thinkers and were nurtured in their state of 'becoming' by mentors. As a result of this study a new model of teacher education, known as 'The Transformism model',is suggested. This involves the evolution of student teachers from a 'me view' perception to a 'worldview' perception. This model is not about training people to be teachers but is about the education of teachers through the adoption of adult learning and the incorporation of "Choice Theory". A new form of educational politics and practice is proposed where people come together in community; share their beliefs and knowledge, their likes and dislikes, their differences and their similarities in openness and with hope for a better world. " From publisher site"
A truncated functional behavioral assessment procedure for children with disruptive classroom behaviors
- Authors: Packenham, Melissa , Shute, Rosalyn , Reid, Robert
- Date: 2004
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Education & Treatment of Children Vol. 27, no. 1 (2004), p. 9-25
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- Description: Schools are now required by law to create behavior support plans based on functional behavioral assessment (FBA) for students with behavior problems. Although FBA has been shown to be effective, there are questions as to its feasibility in the schools. In this pilot study we examined the effectiveness of a truncated FBA procedure. The FBA used a simplified procedure for the teacher to identify the function of a behavior and to formulate a hypothesis. Results suggested that the teacher was able to select the probable function of the problem behavior, formulate a summary statement and design an intervention with guidance from the researcher. Problem behavior decreased during intervention and maintenance. Teacher acceptance of the truncated FBA procedure was confirmed with a social validity questionnaire.
- Description: C1
- Description: 2003006019
Absorptive capacity in strategic alliances with Chinese firms: Implications for strategic management education
- Authors: Lynch, David , Mardaneh, Karim , Tian, Feng
- Date: 2012
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Journal of Strategic Management Education Vol. 8, no. 4 (2012), p. 267-281
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- Description: Absorptive capacity (ACAP) is a dynamic competence underpinning an organisation’s competitive advantage. Nowhere has the role of acquiring and developing knowledge been more tested than in the growth of Chinese firms. Supported by technology, knowledge and capital transfers by alliance partners, such firms have underpinned the Chinese economy’s unprecedented growth. But, how did this occur and should strategy educators reconsider how business education pedagogy incorporates ACAP? This paper explores ACAP’s influence on knowledge transfer performance, based on businesses from China’s Guangdong and Shanghai provinces (n=151). This paper reports on an empirical analysis of ACAP’s determinants using logistic regression and cluster analysis. This analysis found a close relationship between ACAP, organisational factors and social integration mechanisms in collaborative ventures. This study found that ACAP is an important, but complex phenomena, which needs to be recognised as such in Strategic Management education.
- Description: C1
Academic leaders' perspectives on adopting ePortfolios for developing and assessing professional capabilities in Australian business education
- Authors: Holt, Dale , McGuigan, Nicholas , Kavanagh, Marie , Leitch, Shona , Ngo, Leanne , Salzman, Scott , Watty, Kim , McKay, Jade
- Date: 2016
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Australasian Journal of Educational Technology Vol. 32, no. 5 (2016), p. 1-18
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- Description: This paper represents a major stage of data collection and reporting on an Australian Office for Learning and Teaching Innovation and Development grant investigating the adoption of ePortfolios for developing and assessing professional capabilities in Australian undergraduate business education. Assessing desired capabilities with and through ePortfolios does not have strong traction in business education courses and disciplines. The status of ePortfolio use in business education in the sector is profiled through the perspectives of academic business leaders. The reasons why ePortfolio use is limited are explored, along with the possible benefits through greater and more systematic use in the curriculum. Various technological, training and support implementation issues are highlighted. The framing of key elements of effective implementation are summarised at the end of the paper. © 2016 Australasian Journal of Educational Technology.
Action, an ‘encompassing ethic’ and academics in the midst of the climate crisis
- Authors: Plowright, Susan
- Date: 2016
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Educational Philosophy and Theory Vol. 48, no. 14 (2016), p. 1442-1451
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- Description: In the midst of a crisis like the climate crisis and calls for ‘all hands on deck’, what do academics, as a microcosm of humanity, see? In Hannah Arendt’s terms, an ‘abyss of freedom’ to act or a paralysing ‘abyss of nothingness’? Some from the academy themselves, including Tamboukou, Apple and Bourdieu, make judgements more akin to the latter and mount arguments to urge action. This paper joins their call and theorises ethical and demonstrably plausible resources as a potentially generative heuristic for political action by academics in the face of ‘dark times’. I develop these resources by initially drawing on Arendt’s ethical, but limited, action process. Then, through interpreting and expanding her unfinished theory of judging and echoing Karl Jaspers' concept The Encompassing, I propose the notion of an ‘encompassing ethic’. This ethic, synthesised with Arendt’s action process, ameliorates action’s limitations and suggests the idea of ‘encompassing action’. The paper concludes by bringing these conceptual resources to life through two inspiring historical examples of such action involving academics. © 2016 Philosophy of Education Society of Australasia.
All over, red rover? The neglect and potential of Australian adult education in the community
- Authors: Golding, Barry , Foley, Annette
- Date: 2011
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Australian Journal of Adult Learning Vol. 51, no. SPEC.ISS.1 (2011), p. 53-71
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- Description: Consistent with the 'looking back, moving forward' conference theme, in this paper we undertake a critical, research-based appraisal of the current, arguably neglected state of adult education in Australia in 2010, and proceed to paint a picture of how a different and potentially more positive future might be realised. Firstly, we emphasise situations (including states and territories) in Australia in which adult education is seen to be lacking or missing for particular groups of adults. Secondly we emphasise research evidence confirming the demonstrable value of learning for purposes other than those that are immediately vocational. We identify links between lifelong and life wide learning on one hand, and health and wellbeing on the other. Part of the paper involves international comparisons with other forms of adult learning that Australia might learn from, adapt or borrow. We make particular reference to research underpinning the recent Inquiry into the Future of Lifelong Learning by NIACE in the United Kingdom. Our first main conclusion has to do with equity. Adult and community education (ACE) in Australia is currently seen to be least available or accessible to those Australians with the most limited and most negative experiences of school education, but the most need to learn in non-vocational domains. These groups include older Australians, some men and women, people not in paid work, and rural, isolated and Indigenous people. Our second main conclusion is that, to realise adult learning's future potential, we need changes to government policies, research and practice that acknowledge and actively support the broader nature and value of learning for life across all age groups. To paraphrase research from Belgium by Sfard (2008), based around Beck's (1986) exploration of reflexive modernity, the adult education function of ACE is in dire straits, unless education is seen as being much more valuable than the sum of individual vocational competencies, and particularly unless it is also recognised, valued and supported as one of many valuable outcomes of social, lifelong and lifewide learning throughout the community.