CONSERVATIVE CYNICISM: POLITICAL CULTURE IN AUSTRALIA

Though not without its critics, the concept of political cultureis potentially of much value in aiding the explanation of politicalprocesses and behavior. Unfortunately, however, basic data onpolitical culture remains scarce for many countries, Australiaamong them. Although there is a good deal of impressionisticliterature outlining the contours of the Australian politicalculture, broadly defined, very little systematic evidence hasbeen adduced to test the many assertions made in these writings.This paper injects some empirical substance into the argument.Using the Australian National Social Science Survey 1984–87panel, based on a nationwide sample of 1311 respondents, itpresents evidence on five dimensions of mass political culturein Australia, namely, attitudes towards reliance on government,the responsiveness of government, citizen duty, authoritarianismand federalism. In addition to outlining the basic distributionsof public opinion on these dimensions, the paper uses multivariateanalysis to investigate both the causes and consequences ofthese attitudes.     

Effect of odor preexposure on acquisition of an odor discrimination in dogs

In two experiments, we investigated the impact of odor preexposure treatments on the acquisition of an olfactory discrimination in dogs. In the first experiment, four groups of dogs were each given five days’ odor-exposure treatment prior to discrimination training. Dogs in the exposure group were exposed to anise extract (S+) for 30 min daily. Dogs in the Pavlovian-relevant pairing group received six daily delayed-conditioning trials to the same S+. The Pavlovian-irrelevant pairing group received conditioning trials to almond extract (S'). Dogs in the control group received no pretreatment. All of the dogs were then trained to detect S+ from a background pine odor (an AX-vs.-X discrimination). The Pavlovian-relevant pairing group acquired the odor discrimination significantly faster than all of the other exposure and control groups, and the remaining groups acquired the discrimination at the same rate as the no-exposure control group. In a second experiment, we extended these results to a within-subjects design using an AX-versus-BX discrimination. Six dogs were simultaneously trained on two different odor discriminations, one discrimination in which the S+ was previously Pavlovian conditioned, and one discrimination in which the S+ was novel. All of the dogs learned the odor discrimination with the previously conditioned S+ faster than they learned the novel odor discrimination, replicating the results of Experiment 1, and demonstrating that familiarity in the form of Pavlovian conditioning enhances odor-discrimination training. The potential mechanisms of the facilitated transfer of a Pavlovian conditioned stimulus to discrimination training are discussed.     

PEDAGOGICAL DRIFT: THE EVOLUTION OF NEW APPROACHES AND PARADIGMS IN RELIGIOUS EDUCATION

This article considers issues raised by attempting to place spirituality in the context of religious education. While, this might appear to be the least problematic for marriages, or most obvious pairing of dancing partners, when considering how it can be addressed in other curriculum subjects, on closer inspection, perhaps it gives rise to some of the most disturbing issues formal education has to face. These issues range across interconnected themes related to philosophical inquiry, national context and tradition, social values, and the rights of citizens in democratic communities. The argument presented is that whether, when we interrogate these issues in the context of different social histories, with special reference to England and Wales, we find that the concept of spirituality questions current constructs of education and religious education.     

THE EDUCATIONAL POLICY OF THE INTERNATIONAL SUNDAY SCHOOL ASSOCIATION

Religion does not provide answers. In the quest for identity, it provides illuminating questions     

The historiography of British imperial education policy,Part I: India

Colonial education has been controversial and widely divergent interpretations have been offered from contrasting ideological perspectives. British imperial education policy was highly contended during the colonial era and remains a contentious issue amongst many contemporary historians and a critical review of the historiography of the subject is long overdue. British colonial education policy starts in India in 1813, the intention being to promote both Oriental culture and Western science. But a former Director of Public Instruction, writing in the 1920s, claimed that education had done far less for Indian culture than for the material and political progress of India. More recent academic writing about the history of education in British India has been both intermittent and of mixed quality. To date, much of the criticism of British policy appears to have been motivated more by emotion rather than by detailed scholarly analysis and this account argues that more ‘plodding’ in archives is urgently needed at the present time to substantiate, refine or refute the claims of India’s educational historians. This is the first part of a two‐part article, the second of which will deal with Africa and the rest of the colonial Empire.     

Contesting the 1944 McNair report: Lillian de Lissa’s working life as a teacher educator

This article explores teacher educator Lillian de Lissa’s working life in the first half of the twentieth century. In 1944 the McNair report criticised residential colleges and their female staff as isolated and intellectually impoverished. However, in Australia and then as the foundation Principal of Gipsy Hill Training College, de Lissa was not only committed to teaching and administration, but also to presenting and publishing her scholarly work nationally and internationally. Furthermore, she chaired the Nursery School Association for nine years, gave evidence at several government inquiries and lectured in the United States in 1943. This article focuses on the elements of de Lissa’s career that might be included in an academic curriculum vitae in order to challenge the McNair report and highlight her contributions to early childhood education and teacher education.     

Becoming a College Student: An Empirical Phenomenological Analysis of First Generation College Students

ABSTRACT

This article is an empirical phenomenological examination of the perceived security that first generation college students have in their identity as college students. First generation college students (FGCS) have been defined as students whose parents or guardians have not completed a 2- or 4-year postsecondary degree. Previous research (Davis, 2010; Peteet, Montgomery, & Weekes, 2015; Ward, Siegel, & Davenport, 2012) suggests that FGCS have a particularly difficult time finding confidence in their identities as college students, and that this exacerbates the difficulties that they face as students. The imposter phenomenon (IP) is the deep conviction that one is not good enough to deserve the title, responsibility, recognition, or job that one has (Clance, 1985). IP has been tied to FGCS both theoretically (Davis, 2010) and empirically (Peteet et al., 2015). This study examines the experience of overcoming IP by asking seven self-identified FGCS to describe the experience of recognizing their own identities as college students. There is an important difference that could be understood by separating students who experience that their confidence in this identity is authentic and those who do not. When students view college as in service to something greater, we found that they are uniquely impervious to the obstacles college students typically face. The discussion proposes two simple changes that can be made in service to help students navigate this transition in college student identity: the first is a suggestion for student advising and the second involves classroom instruction.