AUSSIE EDUCATOR

 RESEARCH
   ARTICLES

There is a continuous supply of documents produced about all aspects of education both here and overseas.

It is often difficult to select only a few each month when so many, on so many aspects, are new and available [‘Life wasn’t meant to be easy’].

Wherever possible we have chosen Australian generated articles though not to the exclusion of quality articles from other parts of the world. We have also tried to include articles on all aspects and levels of education. In addition to including a new selection each month, we have retained links to the articles from previous months [without the previous comments]. These will continue to be added monthly until the end of the current year.

Hopefully you will find them both interesting and enlightening. The choice is yours.

The inclusions for January have been carried through from 2022

Access previous year listings using these links :

2024 Research Articles

18 January 2024 [1 December 2023 through to 2024]

A Summary of the Evidence on Inclusive Education

8/2016; Dr. Thomas Hehir, Dr. Todd Grindal, Brian Freeman, Renée Lamoreau, Yolanda Borquaye, Samantha Burke. ‘Across the globe, students with disabilities are increasingly educated alongside their non-disabled peers in a practice known as inclusion. Inclusion is prominently featured in a number of international declarations, national laws and education policies. These policies, coupled with the efforts of advocates for the rights of people with disabilities, have led to a substantial increase in the number of students with disabilities who receive schooling alongside their non-disabled peers.

In this report we sought to identify research that demonstrates the benefits of inclusive education not only for students with disabilities, but especially for students without disabilities, since evidence of benefits for the former is already widely known. This report is the result of a systematic review of 280 studies from 25 countries. Eighty-nine of the studies provide relevant scientific evidence and were synthesized and summarized below. There is clear and consistent evidence that inclusive educational settings can confer substantial short- and long-term benefits for students with and without disabilities’. Interesting detail that can be considered in conjunction with the entry on our recent home page about the same topic.

Promoting students’ safety and wellbeing : ethical practice in schools

8/2022; Anne Graham, Antonia Canosa, Tess Boyle, Tim Moore, Nicola Taylor, Donnah Anderson and Sally Robinson. The Australian Educational Researcher. ‘Although ‘child safety’ is now a national policy priority in Australia, there is little research exploring the practices in schools that contribute to children and young people’s felt sense of safety and wellbeing. Drawing on a mixed-method Australian Research Council [ARC] Discovery project, this article presents findings from interviews with school staff [N = 10], leaders [N = 5] and nine focus groups with students [N = 58], in primary and secondary schools in three Australian states [New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia].

We employ relational ethics, recognition theory and the theory of practice architectures to explore practices at school that support student wellbeing and safety. The findings contribute significantly to understanding the ‘bundled’ nature of current practices and the conditions that enable and constrain these. Close attention to these findings is critical as schools seek to operationalise the National Child Safe Principles and refine ongoing safeguarding procedures. The findings have informed the development of an online survey that is currently testing, on a much larger scale, which elements of ethical practice are most positively associated with students’ safety, wellbeing and recognition at school’.

The changing rationalities of Australian federal and national inclusive education policies

8/2022; Thom Nevill and Glenn C. Savage. ‘This paper analyses federal and national inclusive education policies in Australia spanning from 1992 to the present. Drawing upon the concept of ‘political rationality’, the paper examines how the modes of reason underpinning inclusive education policies have evolved over time. Three distinct phases of policy development are identified, which we suggest are characterised by three dominant rationalities : [1] standardisation, [2] the neo-social and [3] personalisation.

We argue that examining these rationalities reveals fundamental shifts in ways of thinking about and reasoning inclusive education in policy. We conclude by considering the implications of the different rationalities and single out the potential tensions emerging between rationalities of standardisation and personalisation as an area for future investigation’. Link the findings here with the first research item above and, as indicated there, the item on the home page from last month.

The relationship between teacher qualification and the quality of the early childhood education and care environmen

1/2017; A Campbell Systematic Review - Matthew Manning, Susanne Garvis, Christopher Fleming, Gabriel T.W. Wong. ‘This Campbell systematic review examines the current empirical evidence on the correlation between teacher qualifications and the quality of the early childhood learning environments. The review summarises findings from 48 studies with 82 independent samples. Studies included children from pre-kindergarten and kindergarteners prior to elementary/primary school and centre-based providers. The review shows a positive statistically significant association between teacher qualification and the quality of early childhood learning environment.

This finding is not dependent on culture and context given that the evidence is from several countries. While this study has focused on quantitative research outcomes, further research in this area may also want to include an analysis of qualitative data to explore the relationship between teacher qualification and the quality of early childhood learning environment. In addition, future studies may seek to establish a causal relationship between teacher qualification and classroom quality using natural experiments or non-experimental designs. Such analysis would complement current research and provide a more in-depth understanding of the early childhood learning environment’.

VET in Schools 2022

7/2023; NCVER. ‘This publication presents information on VET in Schools, the vocational education and training [VET] undertaken by school students as part of their senior secondary certificate of education [SSCE]. Students can undertake VET through a school-based apprenticeship or traineeship pathway, or other pathway [the latter is referred to as ‘other VET in Schools students’]. Data are presented by the state or territory of the senior secondary assessment authority.

The information contained in this publication is, unless stated otherwise, derived from the National VET in Schools Collection, which is compiled under the Australian Vocational Education and Training Management Information Statistical Standard [AVETMISS], Release 8.0’. Interesting information in light of the Fee-Free emphasis on TAFE training positions and an active push to expand the ‘perceived’ value of such courses as opposed to those from other sources.

What needs to happen for school autonomy to be mobilised to create more equitable public schools and systems of education ?

9/2022; Amanda Keddie, Katrina MacDonald, Jill Blackmore, Ruth Boyask, Scott Fitzgerald, Mihajla Gavin, Amanda Heffernan, David Hursh, Susan McGrath-Champ, Jorunn Møller, John O’Neill, Karolina Parding, Maija Salokangas, Craig Skerritt, Meghan Stacey, Pat Thomson, Andrew Wilkins, Rachel Wilson, Cathy Wylie and Ee-Seul Yoon. ‘The series of responses in this article were gathered as part of an online mini conference held in September 2021 that sought to explore different ideas and articulations of school autonomy reform across the world. The conference was hosted by Deakin University and engaged with over 30 scholars from Australia, Canada, England, Ireland, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden and the United States. It centred upon an important question : What needs to happen for school autonomy to be mobilised to create more equitable public schools and systems of education ?.

The format of the conference was designed to foster comprehensive and critical discussion. Against the backdrop of these themes [see the Introduction for greater detail], the conference generated discussion and debate where provocations and points of agreement and disagreement about issues of social justice and the mobilisation of school autonomy reform were raised. As an important output of this discussion, we asked participants to write a short response [500–750 words] to the question : What needs to happen for school autonomy to be mobilised to create more equitable public schools and systems of education ?. The following [see Introduction section on the site] are the responses which range from philosophical considerations of the question, systems and governance perspectives, national particularities and teacher and principal perspective’.

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ADDITIONAL RESEARCH ARTICLES

Building World Class Learning Systems

6/2022; Geoff Masters. ‘Geoff Masters, CEO of the Australian Council for Educational Research [ACER], writes about how five jurisdictions that have performed unusually well on the OECD’s PISA assessment organise their school systems now and how these jurisdictions are aiming to transform their systems to better meet the changing economic and social context. In partnership with NCEE Masters has led a three-year study of the learning systems of British Columbia, Estonia, Finland, Hong Kong and South Korea to better understand the systems they have in place now and the direction of their reforms going forward.

He says that all five are aiming to better prepare young people for work and life and ensure equity of opportunity and high achievement for all students. He argues that while the systems these jurisdictions have built over the last half century have resulted in high achievement to date, there is a need for transformational change of each to maintain that level of achievement going forward. A book and set of jurisdiction case studies based on this study will be released over the next year. Read the summary paper here, or watch a video [see the above page - 9:55] of a conversation between NCEE CEO Anthony Mackay and Masters about these issues’.

Conduct Becoming. The importance of the Behaviour Curriculum

10/2023; Tom Bennett. ‘Behaviour in many schools in the UK is often far below what it could be - or what parents would hope it to be. For decades it has been ignored at a policy level, and as a result it has decayed at the school level. But Ministers in England have started to take this pressing problem seriously. Behaviour has started to dominate national school strategy and the results are starting to show. The revised School Behaviour Guidance was completely rewritten to emphasise the importance of what I coined The Behaviour Curriculum - the idea that behaviour could [and must] be explicitly taught to children, to help them understand how to successfully navigate the complex social environment of a school. Another key area of reform was the National Behaviour Survey - an attempt to create a data-led understanding of what behaviour was like in English schools.

In Australia, it is clear there has been some progress in improving the state of behaviour in schools. I am aware the Senate’s Education Committee is looking into solutions to address the issue of classroom disruption and disorder. And it is good to see that Australia’s Education Ministers have accepted the recommendations of an independent review into teacher training to ensure all new teachers will be taught about evidence-based classroom management. Australia’s policymakers must strive toward their own ‘golden thread’ of reform - and that must include behaviour among the priorities. By no means has the UK yet achieved everything in education reform that is needed, but we have made progress that could be readily adapted in Australia’s school systems’. [Tom Bennett, Professor of School Behaviour and School Behaviour Advisor to the Department of Education, UK].

Improving educational outcomes : Why don’t remote schools in Australia measure up ?

*/2022; Karen Cornelius and Kerrie Mackey-Smith. ‘The link between one’s postcode and probable school ‘success’ is well recognised. For those in remote Australian schools, it is an indicator that the further one lives from the metropolis, the less likely they are to be successful. Improved educational outcomes are desirable for students in remote communities to broaden their future life choices. This paper considers what neo-conservative policies around ‘improvement’ and ‘success’ - argely formed and mandated in metropolitan centres of education governance - mean for students living in remote locations’.

‘Using an example of leading a remote Australian school, we consider if educational success for students in remote schools can be readily evidenced through standardised testing alone. We also consider what this means for teachers, teaching in a remote site. This article draws primarily on the experiences of a school leader conducting an autoethnography, following their three-year tenure as a leader in a remote school. Through applied qualitative inquiry, drawing in particular on reflexive self-study, the paper explores one remote school’s response to calls from governments for ‘improvement’.

Investigating teacher influence on student engagement in high schools

3/2022; Jeff Thomas & Manoj Nair. ‘Student engagement is a pivotal contributor to academic achievement, retention, and well-being, and yet the role of teacher influence on engagement is poorly understood. This is in part due to the contextual and ‘hidden’ nature of student engagement and, as such, levels of student engagement are assumed through observable factors such as attendance and conduct. It is also due to the difficulty in mapping student engagement simultaneously with understanding the teacher practices used to influence it.

This article reports on a pre-post case study in which student survey and teacher focus group data were analysed together, revealing the nature and depth of association between the practices adopted by teachers and student engagement. By comparing the change of engagement at a class or homegroup level, it was possible to identify how approaches used by teachers impacted various elements of engagement. Furthermore, it found a high correlation between teacher practices and change in student engagement at a class or homegroup level, providing the opportunity for teachers to learn what practices were effective in their specific context’.

The desks have changed; it must be NAPLAN time : How NAPLAN affects teaching and learning of Mathematics

*/2022; Linda Cranley, Christine Robinson, Gregory Hine and Dee O’Connor. ‘The National Assessment Program - Literacy and Numeracy [NAPLAN] was introduced into Australian schools in 2008. Since NAPLAN’s standardised tests are now regarded as high-stakes assessment, how well students perform has now become much more important. The findings presented in this paper pertain to students’ experiences of how NAPLAN has affected their learning of mathematics. This investigation makes a contribution to understanding student experiences of high-stakes testing, from an Australian perspective. To best ascertain students’ experiences of NAPLAN and to gain an understanding of how NAPLAN affected the teaching and learning of mathematics, a qualitative approach to research design was selected’.

Individual NAPLAN results are provided to parents and schools and then school-based results are published online, contributing to the high-stakes nature of this assessment [Ragusa & Bousfield, 2017]. With international research suggesting that pressure to perform well in such high-stakes testing results in increased student anxiety [Howell, 2017; Huberty, 2004], this paper presents findings on how the political agenda support of NAPLAN have altered the pedagogies teachers implement in the lead-up to NAPLAN and how this has affected students’ learning experiences. The findings presented in this Cranley, Robinson, Hine, & O’Connor 1307 article emanated from a larger study that investigated how NAPLAN affected the specific teaching and learning of mathematics for students in a Western Australian primary school

What needs to happen for school autonomy to be mobilised to create more equitable public schools and systems of education ?

9/2022; Amanda Keddie, Katrina MacDonald, Jill Blackmore, Ruth Boyask, et al. ‘The series of responses in this article were gathered as part of an online mini conference held in September 2021 that sought to explore different ideas and articulations of school autonomy reform across the world [Australia, Canada, England, Ireland, the USA, Norway, Sweden and New Zealand]. It centred upon an important question: what needs to happen for school autonomy to be mobilised to create more equitable public schools and systems of education ? There was consensus across the group that school autonomy reform creates further inequities at school and system levels when driven by the logics of marketisation, competition, economic efficiency and public accountability’.

‘Against the backdrop of these themes, the conference generated discussion and debate where provocations and points of agreement and disagreement about issues of social justice and the mobilisation of school autonomy reform were raised. As an important output of this discussion, we asked participants to write a short response to the guiding conference question. The following are these responses which range from philosophical considerations, systems and governance perspectives, national particularities and teacher and principal perspective’.

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