Showing papers in "Australian Journal of Education in 1995"

Methodological Issues in Educational Performance and School Effectiveness Research: A Discussion with Worked Examples

Abstract: There has been a growing awareness among educational researchers of the consequences of using data-analytic models that fail to account for the inherent clustered or hierarchical sampling structure...

Federal/State Mediations in the Australian National Education Agenda: From the AEC to MCEETYA 1987–1993

Abstract: Drawing on research interviews and relevant document analysis, this paper analyses the changing forms of the national education agenda as it was developed and modifed in the Australian Education Co...

Markets in Education: A Theoretical Note

Abstract: The development of market relations is a striking feature of education in Australia and comparable countries Education continues to produce non-market outputs (‘use values’) as well as market outputs, but participation in schooling is being reworked as market consumption; schools, TAFE institutions and universities are now required to sell themselves, and a range of services is provided on full cost basis This article re-theorises markets in education, drawing on political economy and social theory (including the literature on post-modernism) It defines educational markets and describe four types of commodity produced: positional goods, self goods, training goods and knowledge goods Post-compulsory education's long-standing role, as a vast competition for scarce social position, constitutes a form of market (one ordered by both government and private interests), and is the platform on which more orthodox economic markets in training and knowledge goods are being erected

Sex Differences at the NSW Higher School Certificate after Adjustment for the Effects of Differential Selection

Abstract: Sex differences in Higher School Certificate achievement were analysed by adjusting for differential selection. A general ability criterion, favouring neither sex, was developed by modifying the Tertiary Entrance Score (TES). For each course, sex differences in achievement were displayed over eight Key Learning Areas (KLAs). Contrary to many studies based on a more restricted set of courses, it was found that females outperformed males overall. In five KLAs, females outscored males; in two, the results were mixed; and in one (Mathematics) males outscored females. Although the female TES median was 15 marks higher, males performed slightly better at high TES levels. The explanation given was that males tend to specialise in more highly intercorrelated courses than females, which creates variance in their aggregate.

Critical Pedagogy in the Age of Global Capitalism: Some Challenges for the Educational Left.

Abstract: Partant d'une analyse ideologique et philosophique de la situation politique actuelle, l'A. s'interroge sur la voie que doit suivre l'enseignement et la pedagogie

Gender Differences in Bullying Experiences and Attitudes to Social Relationships in High School Students

Abstract: The study examines gender differences in the self reports of students as bullies or victims and their attitudes to social relationships within the school. Students were drawn from Year 8 in seven N...

Book Review: Understanding Teaching: Curriculum and the Social Context of Schooling:

Abstract: The myopia of the Part One limits the vision and effectiveness of Part Two. I have no doubt that many of the strategies outlined in the behavioural, cognitive and management approaches and the discussion of teacher behaviours and perceptions would contribute to more compliant students and controlled classrooms. Whether such approaches will prove equal to the task of maintaining institutional equilibrium against the tide of history is a question not confronted. This is not to say that there is little that is useful in this text. The discussion of teacher behaviour and perceptions is most worthwhile. My impatience wells around its disconnection from more searching analysis of the construction of schools, teachers and students. These comments will not detract from the popularity, I fear, of this teacheroriented text. Canadian film-maker Denys Arcand's Jesus ofMontreal springs to mind as a metaphor for the impact of texts such as this, and there are many. The film depicts a revisionist staging of the Passion Play. A group of young actors are commissioned to rewrite the crucifixion of Christ. They reach beyond the intentions of the church which simply seeks modernisation to broaden its appeal (apologies to Harry M. Miller). Their's is a play that demonstrates irony upon irony in the production of a religious tract. In its first staging a woman, mesmerised by the performance of 'Jesus', embraces him and declares herself as a true believer. Unable to read between the lines, to grasp complexity or irony, she is taken by what she believes she is witnessing. So too, I suspect, for many readers of Fontana's book. Many will see more in this book than is actually written.

Independent learning and the use of resources: VCE Australian studies

Abstract: Independent learning and the use of resources are important to most, if not all, Victorian Certificate of Education subjects. This paper reviews the literature on independent learning, preference for resources and the teaching of information skills and then reports on a study carried out during 1990 which focused on the VCE subject, Australian Studies. The study included an examination of attitudes of teachers to independent learning, the use of resources by students and teachers and the level of students' information skills. A significant finding was that many students were not competent in using resources and few teachers were trained in teaching information skills. Information skills teaching was ad hoc and only limited moves had been made to integrate it into the curriculum on a co-ordinated, whole-school basis.

The Decline in the Standing of Educational Credentials in Australia.

Abstract: Since the 1960s, there has been a major expansion in the number of people holding post-school educational credentials, and the proportion of the full-time workforce with those credentials. The penalties of not holding credentials, in terms of the incidence and duration of unemployment, are increasingly severe. At the same time, there has been a long-term decline in the income associated with degree and trade qualifications, relative to all incomes. Thus rising needs for education coincide with declining returns from education, and this is one of the sources of claims about declining standards. Human capital theory does not understand these trends well, and the notions of credentialism, and of education as a positional good, are a better basis of explanation.

Disjuncture between Pathways Policy and Student Outcomes: Experience of Early School Leavers

Abstract: The shift in public attitudes and government policy on retention rates has led to a preoccupation with post-compulsory education at a national level. Consequently those who do not continue with their education now find themselves in a policy vacuum. The policy is framed in terms of pathways, but the experience of these early school leavers is one of uncharted territory. This article reports in the findings of a recent longitudinal study of early school leavers and its implications for policy formation. It draws attention to misleading assumptions and expectations written into the policy frameworks, which point to disjunctures between policy goal-setting and the actual outcomes for the client groups subject to those policies

Scale economies in Australian secondary schools

Abstract: The estimation of scale economies has been hampered by inadequate conceptualisation of a production function for schooling and limited data on educational outcomes. Therefore most studies, especially in Australia, have approached the question indirectly through analyses of per student expenditure and patterns of curriculum provision in schools of different sizes. In these terms, the evidence suggests that the gains from increasing school size are relatively limited.

Education's Shadow? towards an Understanding of Violence in Schools

Abstract: The issue of social violence has received increasing attention by policy makers and commentators on public matters The dominant approach to interpreting social violence emphasises individual pathological behaviour Educators facing the reality of violent behaviour in schools are offered only limited approaches for coming to terms with both the reality and the interpretation of this social trend The paper offers a critical cultural analysis, one that opens the way to a consideration of several factors at the centre of the violence phenomenon In particular, it considers the construction of certain forms of masculine identity that are a result of tension between the contradictions inherent in the imperative of hyper-rationality, on the one hand, and the deep cultural logic which privileges adult status over that of the younger generation, on the other The analysis of these trends includes some specific curriculum considerations

Tracing Bio-Political and Eugenic Connections in Education and Treatment of ‘Youth Problems’

Abstract: Against a backdrop of increasing popular concern about teenage street ‘gangs’, student violence in schools, high levels of youth joblessness and its perceived relationship to crime, substance abuse, suicide and homelessness, this article explores some of the biological explanations of ‘juvenile anti-social behaviour’. One of the many spheres in which eugenics has been influential is education, particularly in its application of psychology, intelligence testing and similar mechanisms for ensuring citizenship and the self-governance of young people. The article contextualises and critically analyses some of the current debates about education and young people within a critical historical analysis of eugenics.

Pathways in Post-Compulsory Education—From Metaphor to Practice

Abstract: Recent official reports have advocated that schools reformulate their curricula in terms of the future pathways of their graduates, and redefine their assessment criteria in terms of the competencies demanded by the restructuring of the Australian economy. ‘Pathways’ is interpreted by some as a ‘human capital’ metaphor for measuring educational outcomes in terms of economic purpose. The metaphor also seems to assume that genuine pathways already exist or can be readily constructed. This article reports on extensive consultation with five schools in three states to test the implementation of pathways goals within school programs. These schools initiated changes for 1993 to provide structures that link in-school and post-school pathways for their students. They apply a pathways focus to curriculum and school organisation, which provides a model for future school practice.

Adolescent receptivity to the health curriculum in western Australian high schools

Abstract: Adolescents comprise a substantial proportion of the at risk population for sexually transmissible diseases and AIDS. They are also potentially amenable to the curricular influences of the high school. This study uses adolescents' perspectives and concerns regarding their sexuality and sexual relationships in which receptivity to the messages of health and sexuality curricula by adolescents provides the central focus for the investigation

Book Review: Rethinking the School: Subjectivity, Bureaucracy, Criticism

Abstract: This is one of those rare books where, after having read it, I am not at all certain what I should say. It is extremely provocative and yet very maddening at one and the same time, a book that is insightful and yet filled with overstatements. Since I and the tradition(s) out ofwhich I come are subject to criticism by Hunter, I want to be cautious in my comments about it. Hunter's claims are something like this, though for reasons of space I am simplifying. Schooling as we know it cannot be understood using our accepted, critical modes of interpretation. Rather a 'genealogical' approach (Foucault, with the addition of some Weber) illuminates a different story. School systems are 'a hybrid of two radically autonomous \"technologies ofexistence\": an apparatus of government that sought the social transformation of the citizenry in accordance with the objectives of the state; and a system of pastoral discipline that operated by inculcating the means of ethical self-reflection and selfcultivation' (p.64). Thus, though they have distinct histories, the needs of the state and a Christian pastoral pedagogy ultimately conjoin to create the modern school. Liberal and marxist theories miss this history and, for Hunter, the latter in particular takes a position which unconsciously simply reflects its own search for status and its wedded ness to assumptions which actually support the system it so wants to criticise. Because of this, he asserts, it is probably wise for all of us to be more accepting of schools as they now are and to be more pragmatic and limited in what we hope to accomplish. Thus the postmodern emphasis on the local and on smaller reforms which are not linked to any grand design and grand social criticism is more than a little evident in the volume. Hunter is clear that this is a polemical essay. It is meant to stimulate serious discussion, not to offer proof in any usual sense. He instantiates his general points with discussions of the Karmei Report and certain gender equity programs in Australia. Parts of his analysis are very interesting, particularly his discussion ofIQ testing and the ways the government itselfmust generate a logic which criticises itself in order to justify its own expansion, its own definition of social/educational needs and problems, and its own 'gaze'. His creative reading of some of the major figures in the history of western schooling (e.g. KayShuttleworth and Stow) also provides a thoughtful reinterpretation of these texts. Yet this said, the book has a number ofproblems, some minor but some more serious. First, and oddly for someone committed to post modern critique, his own analysis is so filled with binary oppositions of right and wrong, good and bad, that it sometimes undercuts the theoretical position he wants to take. Second, he has fallen into unfortunate stereotypes of the traditions he wishes to interrogate, as ifliberals are all like Gutmann, and 'dialecticians' (whatever that means, since this is his word, not mine) like Bowles and Gintis (what is now widely considered a very outmoded position) and, say, Giroux and myself are all the same and all somehow agree on the basic logics which stand behind our positions. This is simply not the case. In the process, he evacuates any sense of class dynamics and treats the state as if it floats in thin air. Finally, by staying at the level of the theories which stood behind some of the developments he talks about-one of his favorite examples is the playgroundhe often is too abstract about how and why things such as playgrounds actually came into schools. The story is much more complex thaahe describes and is filled with some of the very dynamics that he dismisses much too readily (see, for example, Reese, 1986). The issue is not playgrounds. Hunter is too either/or. Book Reviews

Using Cognitive Structures and Cognitive Dispositions to Analyse Values in Vocational Education

Abstract: This paper conceptualises value positions in education in terms of cognitive dispositions derived from critical theory and cognitive structures derived from cognitive science. Categorisations of value positions in general, adult and vocational education are analysed for commonalities and differences and it is argued that these categorisations need to be understood in terms of both cognitive dispositions and cognitive structures. This argument is synthesised from the inadequacies of existing taxonomies of curricular orientations where they tend to confine the treatment of cognitive structures to a single category of value positions, even though all categories either explicitly or implicitly rely on attaching importance to various cognitive structures. The conceptualisation of values in terms of both cognitive dispositions and cognitive structures is applied to various vocational educational goals, including contemporary governmental goals. The utility of this framework in examining such goals is discussed.

Book Review: Managing Classroom Behaviour (2nd rev. ed. of Classroom Control):

Abstract: A relevant and interesting history of constructivism is presented by David Hawkins. He shows that constructivism, a recently coined term, as a theory has existed since at least the time of Socrates. In a short segment about Dewey, he reflects on the problems faced by 'progressive schools' because of their beliefthat children would pursue their own learning without responsive adult participation, and he agrees with Dewey that the role of the investigative teacher is essential. Hawkins also emphasises the importance of the balance between practice and theory found in this book. The elementary and secondary school projects of the 1960s and after, of which I was a part, too often reflected the belief that the delineation of rich subject matter and investigative style could be spread across the land by innovators who, like myself, lacked experience as teachers of children or adolescents. We learned much, ... but good teachers, more fully involved, could have taught us far more, and added more usefully to their own repertoires. It should be a basic principle of constructivist inquiry to start where the action is. Clearly The content ofscience will be valuable as a resource in both preservice and inservice teacher education courses and could well be used as a text where suitable. It also should be considered worthwhile in schools and resource centres. With our schools increasingly accountable for both the professional development of members of staff and the development of curriculum that meets the needs of individual and often changing school environments, this could be an important and valuable book to have on hand. With the ever increasing autonomy and competition between schools, the insights in this book might even give curriculum planners an edge over schools clinging to more traditional ideas of what constitutes the teaching and learning of science. Although some chapters have their share of'eduspeak', it is still quite easy to scratch the surface and find a depth of both scholarly and practical ideas. Those involved in science education will inevitably relate to many of the experiences and take heart in the positive, enthusiastic nature that pervades most of the chapters. Social attitudes towards science are changing and there is pressure to provide meaningful, non-elitist science experiences for all students. The content of science is a highly productive step in the right direction.

Book Review: The Simulation and Gaming Yearbook: Volume 2

Abstract: focus on Victoria was to be expected. There is, however, a wider justification for a consideration of the Victorian situation. Arguably, the Kennett government has implemented new right and market policies and practices in education more extensively and more systematically than any other Australian state or territory. Yet, in varying degrees, the same trends are evident in every state. Victoria can be seen as a possible template for educational futures across Australia. It behoves us all, then, to continue to monitor its changes and their consequences. I found particularly insightful the articles by Marginson ('Emerging patterns of education in Victoria'), Blackmore ('Devolution and the "new" disadvantage') and Angus ('Teacher: Object of policy or professional participant'). Marginson outlines the four parts of the Kennett government's strategy to cut back the state system of schooling: 'massive reductions in spending and teaching positions, school closures, the Schools of the Future program and standardised testing'. So far as the Schools of the Future project is concerned, he sees an agenda which seeks three related changes: breaking the link between school and community by reconstituting parents as 'consumers'; changing the relationship between school and government so that accountability processes to central policy control for school management are more than commensurate with their 'freedom' in staffing and funding; and making state schools compete with each other in a market situation. Standardised testing enables schools to be compared in such a situation, and it also ensures that they teach to the desired curriculum -that which is tested. Blackmore problematises the nature of devolution, asserting that 'self-managing schools of themselves will not achieve the claims made of them', and arguing that, in a market situation, devolution will exacerbate the discrepancies between the advantaged and the disadvantaged. Angus provides a nice contrast of metaphors and discourses: for example, 'reception of policy' is contrasted with 'implementation' of policy; the teacher is an object of policy or a professional participant in the education process; there are 'ligatures' and 'options' for educational change. There are a few minor annoying features in the book. I am a substantial user of indexes; here, unfortunately, there is none. Second, if, as I presume, authorial intentionality is not to be denied, some briefbiodata on each ofthe writers would have been helpful. Finally, though the book is generally well produced, there were a few too many typos; some seriously impeded the sense of the text. However my only substantive complaint is that none ofthe writers seem to have seriously considered the possibility of a logical new right 'final solution' for the problem of state schooling: its abolition. Think about it: those who have the means can afford to attend private academies. Those who do not may be trained in a variety ofl.T. ways (or not at all)-after all technology and distance tutorials will be much cheaper than professional teachers. This is not quite what the liberal and libertarian left meant in the sixties when they coined the slogan, 'School is dead!'. But what material use will there be for the underclasses in the Darwinian world of the postindustrial and the postmodern?