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.     

Datafication,testing events and the outside of thought

Education is undergoing various transformations due to new data-driven educational technologies and the management of educational data through data infrastructures. These technologies are frequently promoted to parents and the profession as being ‘revolutionary’ because they represent a new generation of learning. While computer adaptive tests may arguably improve various efficiencies, the argument that they will revolutionise education requires evaluation. In this paper we draw on the philosophy of Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari to theorise (a) the desire for data amongst policymakers and (b) the effects of data infrastructures as systems that coordinate educational thought. We argue that, rather than revolutionising learning as promised, datafication in computer-based modes merely offers more intense expressions of longstanding possibilities for learning. We describe three types of events—breaks, cracks and ruptures—and argue that data-events translate cracks (imperceptible changes that constitute learning) into breaks (information), but either cannot generate rupture (difference) or represent rupture as error. However, the intensification of learning through datafication may, we suggest, rupture educational thought more broadly.     

Yesterday’s conservationists: how were they educated about the outdoors and the environment?

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of early-life educational experiences on the development of environmental attitudes among historical conservation individuals. Five key individuals who were active in conservation and environmental issues were identified in this study. Specifically, the goal was to discover what caused conservation and environmental ideals and behaviors among the historical figures chosen for this study. The factors found to be consistent in influencing the environmental attitudes of historical environmental/conservation scholars are interaction with nature (alone or with friends), family and education (reading).     

In need of review: Developing Sensory Provision in Northern Ireland’s Mainstream Primary classrooms

The impact of Sensory Processing Difficulties across a range of Special Educational Needs is well researched. More recently, the impact on children’s mental health and well-being, linked with anxiety, depression and self-injurious behaviours, have redirected international research to consider the holistic benefits of sensory provision, for those with special educational provision and the wider classroom population. A SMART SURVEY was designed to collate empirical evidence regarding current sensory awareness and provision in mainstream primary schools throughout Northern Ireland, in a time efficient manner. Out of 809 schools, 164 (20.27%) fully completed the online survey. Findings indicate that Special Educational Needs Coordinator confidence in developing practice, supporting staff and children was limited and impaired by insufficient and inconsistent training opportunities. While healthcare research recommends provision by trained professionals, Occupational Therapy input was limited (n = 34; 24.8%), resulting in practice that could be detrimental rather than beneficial to children’s progress. Respondents identified a need for sensory training for teachers (n = 124; 93.94%) to ensure that the impact of Sensory Processing Difficulties on the holistic development of all children is understood. Pupil voice was undervalued (n = 5; 3.6%). Active involvement of children in the process of evaluation and intervention is recommended to enhance pupil autonomy and well-being.     

The pedagogy of saneness: a schizoaffective storying of resisting sane pedagogy

This article is an autoethnographic account of a ‘schizoaffective’ sufferer learning about and navigating the environs of saneness as a graduate student resisting traditional sane pedagogic structures. Culling from theories found in adult education, Whiteness Studies, and Mad Studies to show that saneness can be conceptualized as a site of critical pedagogy, the author narrates numerous ways in which saneness is embedded in schools and society. In addition, he describes how sane performativity is taught and made educational by inducting a new notion into educational studies: the pedagogy of saneness.     

‘What Do You Read,My Lord?’ Oral and Silent Reading in Shakespeare’s Plays

ABSTRACT

There are many references to reading, and some to writing, in Shakespeare’s plays; a list is provided in an Appendix. They are analysed for what they reveal about the social status of literacy in Shakespeare’s day, and the references to reading are analysed further according to oral v. silent reading, and whether characters have company on stage, or are (or believe themselves to be) alone. Only a few characters are depicted as illiterate, sometimes for comic effect, more often for purposes of the plot. All persons of rank, and most others, are depicted as literate. It seems that in Shakespeare’s time, even among the highly educated, the practice of oral reading for varied purposes, even when alone, was still alive. One effect was, serendipitously, to give Shakespeare the freedom to manipulate reading practices plausibly, and brilliantly, for his own purposes.     

Computer adaptive testing,big data and algorithmic approaches to education

This article critically considers the promise of computer adaptive testing (CAT) and digital data to provide better and quicker data that will improve the quality, efficiency and effectiveness of schooling. In particular, it uses the case of the Australian NAPLAN test that will become an online, adaptive test from 2016. The article argues that CATs are specific examples of technological ensembles which are producing, and working through, new subjectivities. In particular, CATs leverage opportunities for big data and algorithmic approaches to education that are symptomatic of what Deleuze saw as the shift from disciplinary to control institutions and societies.     

Issues in development of the test battery for Australian sign language morphology and syntax

In this article, we outline the initial stages in development of an assessment instrument for Australian Sign Language and explore issues involved in the development of such a test. We first briefly describe the instruments currently available for assessing grammatical skills in Australian Sign Language and discuss the need for a more objective measure. We then describe our adaptation of an existing American Sign Language test, the Test Battery for American Sign Language Morphology and Syntax. Finally, this article presents some of the data collected from a group of deaf native signers. These data are used to demonstrate the range of variability in key grammatical features of Australian Sign Language and to raise methodological issues associated with signed language test design.