Introduction

This paper conceptualises think tanks and edu-businesses in relation to education policy work in the Australian polity. It situates the enhanced influence of both in relation to the restructured state, which has lost some key capacities in relation to the generation of research and ideas for policy. This restructuring has been strongly influenced by the techniques of new public management, the auditing of education through national and international testing and new forms of network governance, which have opened up spaces for the increased influence of think tanks and edu-businesses across the policy cycle in education. We see here the workings of a ‘polycentric state’. The paper also considers changing concepts of ‘evidence’, ‘expertise’ and ‘influence’ in respect of the involvement of think tanks and edu-businesses in circulating policy ideas and affecting policy development in Australian education. This introduction to this special issue of The Australian Educational Researcher serves as a provocation to further research on this new policy scenario.     

‘Capitalizing on sport’: sport,physical education and multiple capitals in Scottish independent schools

This paper draws on a research study into the existence and use of different forms of capital – including social, cultural and physical capital – in three independent schools in Scotland. We were interested in understanding how these forms of capital work to produce and reproduce advantage and privilege. Analysis is framed by a multiple capitals approach drawing on and developing the work of Putnam and especially Bourdieu. We suggest that sport plays a role with important effects for strong bonding and for the production of symbolic capital in the form of branding by each school.     

Researching the habitus of global policy actors in education

This paper reprises the argument for the emergence of a global education policy field and then focuses on the shared habitus of global and national policy actors and technicians. It is argued that this shared habitus is constituted as a reflection of and a contribution to the creation of the global education policy field. Bourdieu’s approach to habitus as both methodological tool and concept is used and the significance of the interview encounter to understanding habitus is argued. The authors also draw on the content of interviews with five elite policy-makers and technicians. It was found that the policy actors and technicians shared a similar middle-class embodied habitus; in terms of schemes of perception, they identified with a high-modernist confidence in both science and technology; they identified with a cosmopolitan outlook and sensibility; and demonstrated scientistic approaches that held real confidence in understanding the social through quantitative social science methods.     

The Continuous Learning Journey of a Certified Performance Technologist

In this article the author, a certified performance technologist (CPT), explains what led him to pursue the CPT designation and what he has learned since then. His learning journey is framed by the three phases of Shu‐Ha‐Ri, a martial arts concept. He tells of how he developed a foundational proficiency with the CPT performance standards before truly understanding the principles and foundational concepts behind the practices associated with the standards. In his early days, he studied the work of performance improvement masters and practiced their techniques, both interpersonal and analytical. In the years after earning the CPT designation, he strove for true mastery in applying hybrid techniques or ones of his own invention, all grounded in the CPT principles.     

Special educational needs support and consultancy in European schools

ABSTRACT

This article outlines the current state of development of special needs support and consultancy in four European countries: Holland, the Czech Republic, England and Wales, and Germany. Models of consultancy particular to the individual countries are also described. An attempt is made by the authors to determine the key features which allow for a common development in special needs support and consultancy work. They suggest that this might provide the basis for further critical     

Preventing Problem Behaviors in Children with Disabilities

Abstract

In this article, we describe an investigation in which a teacher taught four students with moderate mental retardation to read sight words using a progressive time‐delay procedure. Definitions of the target words were presented incidentally in the consequent statement. Through the small‐group arrangement, students had the opportunity to learn through observation the other students' target words and incidental information. All students acquired their target words and at least 50% of the incidental and observational words and definitions to which they were exposed. We interpret these data as suggesting that teachers should systematically include related nontargeted information in their instruction and provide opportunities for observational learning to occur.     

The Move Towards Managerialism: Perceptions of staff in “traditional” and “new” UK universities

Tertiary Education and Management - The raison d’être of higher education institutions is to educate individuals, undertake research, and disseminate knowledge into the public domain....     

Mediatizing educational policy: the journalistic field,science policy,and cross‐field effects

This paper is concerned to demonstrate the usefulness of the theory of Bourdieu, including the concepts of field, logics of practice and habitus, to understanding relationships between media and policy, what Fairclough has called the ‘mediatization’ of policy. Specifically, the paper draws upon Bourdieu’s accessible account of the journalistic field as outlined in On television and journalism. The usefulness of this work is illustrated through a case study of a recent Australian science policy, The chance to change. As this policy went through various iterations and media representations, its naming and structure became more aphoristic. This is the mediatization of contemporary policy, which often results in policy as sound bite. The case study also shows the cross‐field effects of this policy in education, illustrating how today educational policy can be spawned from developments in other public policy fields.