Description:
Increased access to university by students with different backgrounds and capabilities from those in the past has posed, and continues to pose, dilemmas for lecturers who seek effective ways of addressing the challenge of undergraduate literacy and learning. To this end, we have been engaged on a Committee for University Teaching and Staff Development (CUTSD) funded program that we call TULIP (Tertiary Undergraduate Literacy Integration Program) which focuses on the integration of tertiary literacy within content teaching as a means of enhancing student literacy. The broad aim of the TULIP Project was to build on collaborative and reflective teaching and learning partnerships between lecturers and students, between lecturers across two universities, and between lecturers in disparate disciplines. The project developed, trialed and evaluated a suite of learner-centred literacy strategies that comprise the TULIP Resource Kit which foregrounds the embeddedness of tertiary literacy within content teaching.
Description:
School choice is most commonly considered in the context of private/public schooling and access to university. University entry remains a key element in family decision-making about which school they would like their children to attend. Debates about school choice are most commonly framed in relation to marketisation and the relative popularity of private and public schools. However, the demand for high performing Government schools is likely to increase and in turn have an impact on the means by which families argue their case for entry. In this article the place of elite government schools in school choice within the Government sector is explored, most particularly within Victoria, where there have been a number of pertinent policy initiatives. These are emphasising selective schools, league tables and performance measures linked to possible school closures. The popularity of high-performing schools offers an opportunity to understand what families find attractive in a school. And the link between such schools and elite universities may allow these universities to diversify their student populations. However, without adequate resourcing, Government schools are unlikely to support the broad range of students achieve their aspirations, making access to university the prerogative of the resourceful, regardless of whether being resourceful is linked to postcode or knowing what high-performing schools use as indicators of success. [Author abstract, ed]
Description:
School choice is most commonly considered in the context of private/public schooling and access to university. University entry remains a key element in family decision-making about which school they would like their children to attend. Debates about school choice are most commonly framed in relation to marketisation and the relative popularity of private and public schools. However, the demand for high performing Government schools is likely to increase and in turn have an impact on the means by which families argue their case for entry. In this article the place of elite government schools in school choice within the Government sector is explored, most particularly within Victoria, where there have been a number of pertinent policy initiatives. These are emphasising selective schools, league tables and performance measures linked to possible school closures. The popularity of high-performing schools offers an opportunity to understand what families find attractive in a school. And the link between such schools and elite universities may allow these universities to diversify their student populations. However, without adequate resourcing, Government schools are unlikely to support the broad range of students achieve their aspirations, making access to university the prerogative of the resourceful, regardless of whether being resourceful is linked to postcode or knowing what high-performing schools use as indicators of success. [Author abstract, ed]
Description:
This paper examines indirect discrimination in Australian universities that tends to obstruct and delay women's academic careers. The topic is defined and contextualised via a 1998 speech by the Australian Human Rights Commission's Sex Discrimination Commissioner, juxtaposed with a brief contemporaneous exemplar. The paper discusses the prevalence of women among casual and fixed-term academic workers, and the contrasting low numbers of women in senior academic positions. It is argued that the neo-liberal 'marketisation' of higher education, which still prevails, has fostered a number of indirectly discriminatory practices and conditions that substantially disadvantage women. A selection of studies of the problem are critiqued. It is argued that a broad statistical methodology is inadequate due to its tendency to 'homogenise' the academy and its component individuals, in the process giving scope for unjustified optimism among university policy-makers. A particulate approach is advocated, acknowledging the wide variation between and within universities, and the range of hidden difficulties individual women academics can face. It is concluded that despite apparent reforms over the past decade, the situation of women has improved little in practical terms.
Description:
At Deakin, the Humanities Networked Infrastructure project (HuNI), has paved new ground for facilitating the effective use and re-use of humanities research data. HuNI is one of the first largescale eResearch infrastructure projects for the humanities in Australia and the first national, crossdisciplinary Virtual Laboratory (VL) worldwide. HuNI provides new information infrastructure services for both humanities researchers and members of the public. Its development has been funded by the National eResearch Collaboration Tools and Resources project (NeCTAR) and undertaken by a consortium of thirteen institutions led by Deakin University. A Deakin University Library team with skills in data description, curation, retrieval and preservation is exploring with digital humanities researchers and developers effective means to support and maintain the HuNI project. HuNI ingests and aggregates data from a total of 31 different Australian cultural datasets which cover a wide range of disciplines in the humanities and creative arts. The HuNI VL also provides a number of online research capabilities for humanities researchers to discover and work with the large-scale aggregation of data. The HuNI VL enables researchers to create, save and publish selections of data; to analyse and manipulate the data; share findings and to export the data for reuse in external environments. In a major innovation, HuNI also enables researchers to assert relationships between entities in the form of ‘socially linked’ data. This capability contributes to the building of a ‘vernacular’ network of associations between HuNI records that embody diverse perspectives on knowledge and ramify avenues for research discovery beyond keyword and phrase searches. This paper reports on key milestones in this project, the future role of Libraries as digital humanities research partners and the challenges and sustainability issues that face national digital humanities research projects that are developed in strategic library settings.
Description:
At Deakin, the Humanities Networked Infrastructure project (HuNI), has paved new ground for facilitating the effective use and re-use of humanities research data. HuNI is one of the first largescale eResearch infrastructure projects for the humanities in Australia and the first national, crossdisciplinary Virtual Laboratory (VL) worldwide. HuNI provides new information infrastructure services for both humanities researchers and members of the public. Its development has been funded by the National eResearch Collaboration Tools and Resources project (NeCTAR) and undertaken by a consortium of thirteen institutions led by Deakin University. A Deakin University Library team with skills in data description, curation, retrieval and preservation is exploring with digital humanities researchers and developers effective means to support and maintain the HuNI project. HuNI ingests and aggregates data from a total of 31 different Australian cultural datasets which cover a wide range of disciplines in the humanities and creative arts. The HuNI VL also provides a number of online research capabilities for humanities researchers to discover and work with the large-scale aggregation of data. The HuNI VL enables researchers to create, save and publish selections of data; to analyse and manipulate the data; share findings and to export the data for reuse in external environments. In a major innovation, HuNI also enables researchers to assert relationships between entities in the form of ‘socially linked’ data. This capability contributes to the building of a ‘vernacular’ network of associations between HuNI records that embody diverse perspectives on knowledge and ramify avenues for research discovery beyond keyword and phrase searches. This paper reports on key milestones in this project, the future role of Libraries as digital humanities research partners and the challenges and sustainability issues that face national digital humanities research projects that are developed in strategic library settings.
Description:
Most people find times of transition stressful, such as commencing a new job or moving house. In this study, our aim was to investigate stress reported by students as they commenced university. Specifically, we aimed to investigate whether stress levels and perceived social support levels differed among students (i.e., metropolitan and rural and regional) who moved house to commence university and those who did not. Results from 551 students (144 males) indicated that 88% of all students rated the level of stress associated with commencing university as being above the mid-point on a 5-pt Likert scale. The stress of commencing university was higher among rural and regional students who left home to study than it was among metropolitan students who shifted house. In addition, the stress associated with moving house significantly predicted both metropolitan and rural and regional students’ ratings on the stress of commencing university. There were no group differences in perceptions of available social support when commencing university. Results of this study, especially for rural and regional students, are discussed in terms of student welfare, and ways to ameliorate the potential stress and depression associated with commencing university and shifting house.
Description:
Most people find times of transition stressful, such as commencing a new job or moving house. In this study, our aim was to investigate stress reported by students as they commenced university. Specifically, we aimed to investigate whether stress levels and perceived social support levels differed among students (i.e., metropolitan and rural and regional) who moved house to commence university and those who did not. Results from 551 students (144 males) indicated that 88% of all students rated the level of stress associated with commencing university as being above the mid-point on a 5-pt Likert scale. The stress of commencing university was higher among rural and regional students who left home to study than it was among metropolitan students who shifted house. In addition, the stress associated with moving house significantly predicted both metropolitan and rural and regional students’ ratings on the stress of commencing university. There were no group differences in perceptions of available social support when commencing university. Results of this study, especially for rural and regional students, are discussed in terms of student welfare, and ways to ameliorate the potential stress and depression associated with commencing university and shifting house.
Description:
Massification, a phenomenon driven by both the collective aspirations of citizens and governmental encouragement of a highly skilled workforce, is revolutionising the field of higher education. The student body, particularly in widened participation universities, has expanded in number and diversity increasing the demands on HE institutions and their teaching staff. Australian business school graduates are expected to drive national success in fast-changing, globally competitive business environments. This qualitative study investigates characteristics of teaching excellence in widened-participation teaching environments in Australian business schools. The recency of the massification phenomenon has meant theoretical conceptualisations are sparse so Grounded Theory was used to generate new theory. Using university entry scores as a surrogate for an academically inclusive student cohort, 23 award winning teachers from the business schools of eight universities were interviewed. These exemplary business educators displayed strong similarities in terms of their approach to teaching. Seven dimensions of diversity that significantly impact teaching within a widened-participation environment were identified. This thesis argues that alignment between the diversity of cohort and both the type of educators and the pedagogic strategies they employ is the key to unlocking teaching excellence within widened-participation universities, thus giving rise to the notion of context mediated pedagogy and the associated conceptual model. Findings from this study are significant because extreme student diversity is now the norm in many university environments and a better understanding of teaching excellence may offer specific insights for policymakers, academic leaders and educators seeking to adapt pedagogy for the massified HE environment. Improving teaching quality in these widened-participation universities has the power to significantly impact on individual student success, whilst driving innovation on the global stage.
Description:
Massification, a phenomenon driven by both the collective aspirations of citizens and governmental encouragement of a highly skilled workforce, is revolutionising the field of higher education. The student body, particularly in widened participation universities, has expanded in number and diversity increasing the demands on HE institutions and their teaching staff. Australian business school graduates are expected to drive national success in fast-changing, globally competitive business environments. This qualitative study investigates characteristics of teaching excellence in widened-participation teaching environments in Australian business schools. The recency of the massification phenomenon has meant theoretical conceptualisations are sparse so Grounded Theory was used to generate new theory. Using university entry scores as a surrogate for an academically inclusive student cohort, 23 award winning teachers from the business schools of eight universities were interviewed. These exemplary business educators displayed strong similarities in terms of their approach to teaching. Seven dimensions of diversity that significantly impact teaching within a widened-participation environment were identified. This thesis argues that alignment between the diversity of cohort and both the type of educators and the pedagogic strategies they employ is the key to unlocking teaching excellence within widened-participation universities, thus giving rise to the notion of context mediated pedagogy and the associated conceptual model. Findings from this study are significant because extreme student diversity is now the norm in many university environments and a better understanding of teaching excellence may offer specific insights for policymakers, academic leaders and educators seeking to adapt pedagogy for the massified HE environment. Improving teaching quality in these widened-participation universities has the power to significantly impact on individual student success, whilst driving innovation on the global stage.
“Undoing” Gender: how the School of Science, Engineering and Information Technology SEIT Women’s group works across university and community lines to promote inclusive STEM
Description:
Research on gender and education in industrialised and developing countries suggests that schools and universities are sites of ‘doing’ rather than ‘undoing’ gender. Deutsch (2007) contends that ‘doing gender’ refers to social interactions that reproduce conventional and limiting notions of gender construction and that ‘undoing gender’ refers to social interactions that reduce gender difference and open up other possibilities. In this paper we consider how educational institutions can be strategic sites of influence in undoing gender and we investigate some ways that gender is ‘undone’ through the example of the work of the Science, Engineering and Information Technology Women’s Group (SEITWG) located in the Faculty of Science and Technology at Federation University Australia. For this purpose, a self-study methodology understood as a professional reflection was used. The paper explores how the informal coalition of SEITWG works as ‘wilful subjects’, on the one hand, coming up against some of the ‘brick walls’ of dominant discourse that attempt to limit women’s participation in STEMM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics, and medicine). On the other hand, SEITWG attempts to move beyond the restrictions of conventional gender narratives to encourage more women to participate in STEMM by foregrounding the presence of women already active in the area; mentoring women students and staff; supporting a range of their colleagues’ endeavours to research and teach for inclusion; embedding gender analysis into the curriculum; and promoting workplace cultural change.
Description:
Research on gender and education in industrialised and developing countries suggests that schools and universities are sites of ‘doing’ rather than ‘undoing’ gender. Deutsch (2007) contends that ‘doing gender’ refers to social interactions that reproduce conventional and limiting notions of gender construction and that ‘undoing gender’ refers to social interactions that reduce gender difference and open up other possibilities. In this paper we consider how educational institutions can be strategic sites of influence in undoing gender and we investigate some ways that gender is ‘undone’ through the example of the work of the Science, Engineering and Information Technology Women’s Group (SEITWG) located in the Faculty of Science and Technology at Federation University Australia. For this purpose, a self-study methodology understood as a professional reflection was used. The paper explores how the informal coalition of SEITWG works as ‘wilful subjects’, on the one hand, coming up against some of the ‘brick walls’ of dominant discourse that attempt to limit women’s participation in STEMM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics, and medicine). On the other hand, SEITWG attempts to move beyond the restrictions of conventional gender narratives to encourage more women to participate in STEMM by foregrounding the presence of women already active in the area; mentoring women students and staff; supporting a range of their colleagues’ endeavours to research and teach for inclusion; embedding gender analysis into the curriculum; and promoting workplace cultural change.
Description:
The article examines different types of work–family pressures amongst people working within the Australian university sector. We were specifically interested in work–family experiences between domestic and migrant Australians. Among the major findings, domestic Australians experience greater levels of work–family imbalance across most of the measures used. Limitations and implications for future research are discussed.
Description:
This article considers the barriers to higher education currently faced by rural students in Australia. Three barriers to participation in higher education for rural students that appear consistently in the literature are financial pressures, family and community attributes, and physical location. Results of recent studies in this area suggest that these factors often coexist to create one, complex and intertwined barrier which needs to be approach by all involved in a collaborative and cooperative way in order to provide rural people with equitable access to higher education.