Mapping government reforms in quality against higher education theory: is the relationship symbiotic?

In Australia, a review of the higher education sector is usually triggered by a change in government leadership, followed by the development and implementation of the government’s response in the form of a reform package to enact change. The aim of this study was to conduct an independent evaluation of a large-scale national government policy implementation. This article concludes that the 2003 Government Reform Package was successful in bringing attention to learning and teaching practice in the Australian higher education sector through three national initiatives: (1) Learning and Teaching Performance Fund; (2) Australian Learning and Teaching Council; (3) Australian Universities Quality Agency. These initiatives were implemented with the full delivery of the initial funding cycle, each initiative applied a different model of quality and these models were found to be aligned to Bigg’s theoretical model of teaching and learning and to have a symbiotic relationship.     

Developmental Relations Among Behavioral Inhibition,Anxiety, and Attention Biases to Threat and Positive Information

This study examined relations between behavioral inhibition (BI) assessed in toddlerhood (n = 268) and attention biases (AB) to threat and positive faces and maternal‐reported anxiety assessed when children were 5‐ and 7‐year‐old. Results revealed that BI predicted anxiety at age 7 in children with AB toward threat, away from positive, or with no bias, at age 7; BI did not predict anxiety for children displaying AB away from threat or toward positive. Five‐year AB did not moderate the link between BI and 7‐year anxiety. No direct association between AB and BI or anxiety was detected; moreover, children did not show stable AB across development. These findings extend our understanding of the developmental links among BI, AB, and anxiety.     

The Southern Manifesto: A Doctrine of Resistance 60 Years Later

ABSTRACT

This article illustrates the historic relationship between the Brown v. Board of Education decision and the school choice movement. It will discuss the immediate push back to Brown particularly from Southern states that were resistant to desegregating public schools; a move that would provide African-American parents with educational choice for their children. Within the United States Congress 101 members, most from formerly Confederate states, drafted what is commonly known as the Southern Manifesto intent on reversing the Court’s decision and urging states to defy the law. Sixty years after the signing of the Southern Manifesto, there is still a coalition pushing for “freedom of choice,” this time with a sincere interest in the well-being of students trapped in the nation's lowest-performing schools and a mandate for equal opportunity, racial, ethnic, and gender equality.     

Interpretations of literacy

The National Literacy Strategy (NLS) was introduced into schools in England in 1998 with the aim of raising the literacy attainments of primary‐aged children. The Framework for Teaching the Literacy Hour, a key component of the NLS, proposes an interpretation of literacy that emphasises reading, writing and spelling skills. An investigation of the Literacy Hour for pupils with a range of special needs raised questions about teachers' interpretation of literacy when children have severe and complex learning needs. The research suggested that a skill‐based view of literacy is limited and has the potential to exclude pupils who cannot access or produce written material by conventional means. These issues are discussed within the context of views drawn from contemporary literature. Implications for further research are identified.     

The importance of districts

Effectiveness studies have largely concentrated on the school as the unit of analysis, although an increasing number have directed their attention to the teacher as the main unit of interest. But policy is often directed through organisations at the district level or what is sometimes known as the Education Authority (EA). Few studies have explored their importance, but the seminal study by Willms (1987 Willms, J. D. 1987. Differences between Scottish Educational Authorities in their examinations attainment. Oxford Review of Education, 13(2): 211–232. [Taylor & Francis Online], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) stands out. This paper reports an analysis of 7 large national databases from England using 3-level multilevel models with pupils nested within primary schools that are in turn nested within districts. All tell the same story: The EA attended by pupils has almost no relevance to their progress.     

EDUCATING MEN WITH REFERENCE TO SOCIAL LEGISLATION

Abstract

A paramount task of religious education should be the exposing and redressing of social injustice. Two of the pervasive and perduring evils of our time are sexism and racism. With their insights into theological authenticity and their skills in both shaping attitudes and inspiring actions, religious educators are in potent positions to effect liberationist change. To do so, they must become comprehensively informed and profoundly committed. They must become transformed teachers of transforming truth.

I have looked at the South's beautiful churches with their lofty spires pointing heavenward. I have beheld the impressive outlines of their massive religious education buildings. Over and over I found myself asking, What kind of people worship here? Who is their God?     

Crossing the Line: Sport and the Limits of Civil Rights Protest

Scholars have ably considered the extent to which sport has been, and continues to be, a force for racial progress. What has been less comprehensively explored, however, are the unique difficulties encountered by athletes who have attempted to use sport to promote civil rights activism. Black athletes, and sympathetic white teammates, have faced considerable obstacles as sportsmen who supported the civil rights struggle. Sport has restricted the ability of sportsmen to successfully engage in civil rights activism. In the belief that it has provided an example of racial progress for the rest of society, in fact, sport has resisted the civil rights movement. This article explores the difficulties faced by athletes who attempted to be part of that movement.