School leadership and special education: challenges,dilemmas and opportunities from an Australian context

This article examines the personal and professional attributes of school leaders in relation to special educational needs and disability (SEND) and assesses the extent to which these might be sufficient to give such professionals the confidence necessary to be role models for their staff. Data were collected via a survey of a randomly selected set of Australian school leaders, in both special and mainstream schools. This included principals from all sectors of the Australian school system. The study was based on the premise that school principals place as much importance on the need to be instructional leaders as they do on being managers. The study was informed by an assumption that in order to be successful as a school leader in respect of SEND, a school principal requires a deep pedagogical knowledge and a clear understanding of children's developmental milestones. The study found that school leaders expressed a need to develop further understanding of how to differentiate the taught curriculum in order to identify and support school‐wide quality teaching and learning processes for students with SEND.     

Stamina, speed and adventure: Australian women and competitive cycling in the 1890s

The scholarship surrounding women's cycling in Australia during the 1890s is slim. However, a focus on female competitive cycling, just one of many diverse cycling activities that women pursued in this era, reveals a rich seam of information. Accordingly, this paper surveys endurance riding, adventure touring and racing, introducing new historical and biographical detail and highlighting the significance of competitive cycling for women in the late nineteenth century. The discussion shows that women's competitive cycling constituted a significant component of Australian cycling history, and helped to re-define women's identity in an era when feminine roles were in flux and the traditional gender order was being contested.     

Brand personality in higher education: anthropomorphized university marketing communications

While the university prospectus is recognized as an important marketing communication tool for higher education recruitment strategies, it has become overlooked as many researchers have focused on other communication channels, such as social media and websites. Although focus has been placed upon Higher Education Institution (HEI) brand differentiation, little is known about the similarities and differences between institutional marketing communications utilized to build their brands. This research seeks to explore and analyze the prospectuses of the top 10 HEIs in the UK and to draw comparison between their relative positions using a brand personality lens. While the brand personality trait of sincerity was common for all of the HEIs, there was clear differentiation on the basis of other traits, demonstrating that brand personality deepens our understanding of HEI positioning. Two main brand personality groupings were evident among the top 10 institutions: excitement and competence.