An update on peer review and research data

Key points

• Technological advances in the amounts of data that researchers generate and use are causing problems for the scholarly communication system.
• How, when and by whom should quality checks and assurance be integrated into this – already overloaded – ecosystem?
• This paper outlines the challenges, illustrates some current initiatives and posits possible directions for the future.

     

A sociocultural analysis of the ethics of involving children in educational research

ABSTRACT

This article explores the ethical complexities of involving children in research in the contexts of their families, schools and communities. We argue for an approach that is dynamic, reflexive, responsive and informed by an understanding of how local cultures impact on and shape negotiations and practices around ethical issues and processes. We use different sociocultural lenses to analyse the complexities of ethical processes and practices at the beginning of a research project which explored children’s informal and everyday learning. The article contributes to ethical debates about involving children with research through foregrounding the multiplicities and complexities that emerge when researchers are attentive to the practices and values of the settings that children’s and researchers’ lives traverse.     

Job satisfaction among academic staff: An international perspective

This study examined aspects of academics'satisfaction with theirjob across the eight nations (Australia, Germany, Hong Kong, Israel, Mexico,Sweden, UK, USA). Interesting patterns emerged across countries reflectingdifferences in the international academic climate. The study also exploredpatterns of job satisfaction and dissatisfaction more closely for theAustralian data, and examined the impact of context elements, includingworking climate and atmosphere, on general levels of job satisfaction.Results indicated that factors related to the environment in which academicswork, including university atmosphere, morale, sense of community, andrelationships with colleagues, are the greatest predictors of jobsatisfaction. Implications for university management and governing bodiesare discussed.     

The research grant application process. Learning from failure?

Increasing competition for federal government research funds has resulted in a large number of good projects not being funded. This situation is unlikely to change in the near future and has generated uncertainty and frustration amongst many who are dependent on external funding for their research. In this context it is particularly important that the aims of federal government funding agencies are communicated effectively and that the procedures they establish to allocate research funds are seen as credible by the academic research community. This article reports the results of a survey which investigated the research grant process from the point of view of unsuccessful applicants from four universities for large 1991 initial Australian Research Council grants. The findings identify a number of limitations in the operations of the peer review mechanism as used by this Council and question the adequacy of the advice and instructions provided by the ARC to those nominated to review research proposals. The findings also raise questions concerning how the lists of external assessors are compiled as well as how these external assessors are later matched with individual applications.     

Transitions in Leisure Careers and Their Parallels in Work Careers: The Effect of Constraints on Choice and Action

Careers are increasingly characterized by multiple jobs and employers, and thus the issue of transitions between career components and through career stages is of greater importance than in the past. Transitions have also been extensively studied in the context of serious leisure. This paper uses findings from the literature on serious leisure and leisure constraints to develop propositions about the role of transitions in work careers and the effects that constraints have on transitions.     

Looking at Learning as Preparation for Teaching

One of the more heated and consequential debates in teacher education today concerns the instructional methods used in preparation programs and the knowledge and skills that teacher candidates should acquire. In this study, I examine looking at learning as a pedagogical approach to transition teacher candidates from the technical conceptions of teaching that they bring to the field toward a conception that more closely aligns with the research on how people learn for understanding (National Research Council 2000, 2005). Data are taken from responses given by teacher candidates to a writing prompt administered at the course outset and field reports they submitted following field assignments that required them to detail moments of learning as they presented volunteer learners with materials they selected to spark their curiosity and elicit exploration. The approach is an application of Duckworth’s critical exploration methodology (2006) in the field of teacher education and responds to the call of leaders in the field of teacher education to articulate a “pedagogy of teacher education” that is grounded in theory (Grossman, 2005) and reflects the nature of teaching for understanding itself (Loughran, 2006).     

Supporting school teachers’ rapid engagement with online education

Educational technology research and development - In response to Philipsen et al.'s (Educ Technol Res Dev 67:1145–1174, 2019) article titled “Improving teacher professional...