Gudaga goes to school study: methods used in understanding school transitions and early education experiences of an urban Aboriginal cohort

The Gudaga Goes to School Study described the transition to school and early education experiences of 117 urban Aboriginal children and their families. This paper outlines the methods and design of the study. A life course approach, employing multidimensional and multi-theoretical frameworks was used to capture the complexity of issues surrounding the transition and early school experiences with multi-methods used to collect data from children, parents and teachers. Quantitative data included questionnaires, checklists and educational assessments to track children’s academic progress, school attendance, and social/emotional/behavioural development. Qualitative data consisted of semi-structured interviews and focus groups to gain the perspective of stakeholders. Children also participated using photography and drawing mediums. The community controlled study was conceived, designed and conducted in close consultation with the local Aboriginal community.     

Cultural capital and agency: connecting critique and curriculum in higher education

This paper explores some of the unresolved tensions in higher education systems and the contradiction between widening participation and the consolidation of social position. It shows how concepts of capital derived from Bourdieu, Coleman and Putnam provide a powerful basis for critique, but risk a deficit view of students from less privileged backgrounds. These students are more likely to attend lower‐status institutions and engage with an externally focused curriculum. The paper argues for greater attention to agency, and community and familial capital, in conceptualising the resilience of those from less privileged backgrounds. While the recognition of ‘voice’ is important, a curriculum that acknowledges the context independence of knowledge is essential if these students are not to be further disadvantaged.     

The measurement of classroom management self‐efficacy: a review of measurement instrument development and influences

Teachers' self‐efficacy (SE) in their classroom management capabilities is thought to be an important factor in teachers' overall judgements of their teaching SE. Low SE in classroom management has been linked to teacher attrition and burnout, and reduced student learning outcomes. This article provides the first comprehensive review of classroom management as a factor in the construct of teacher SE. Twenty‐five peer‐reviewed articles published from 1984 to 2009 that reported on the use of SE scales containing at least one novel classroom management self‐efficacy (CMSE) item were reviewed. The validity and reliability of CMSE scales and items were found to be very good, with classroom management items pertaining to maintaining order and control the most frequent category included. Approximately one in four items in the SE scales reviewed was CMSE item, and, in general, CMSE items were not linked explicitly to classroom management research or contemporary psychological or philosophical approaches.     

‘You're not just learning it,you're living it!’ Constructing the ‘good life’ in Australian university online promotional videos

Online promotional videos on Australian university websites are a form of institutional branding and marketing that construct university experience in a variety of ways. Here we consider how these multimedia texts represent student lifestyles, identities and aspirations in terms of the ‘good life’. We consider how the ‘promise of happiness’ is deployed to appeal to perceived consumer desires within the local student market, as well as within the highly competitive global knowledge economy. These texts position university students as youthful, attractive, active and fun, and depict student life as being about leisure and pleasure. Such representations promote cultural and social entitlement to the ‘good life’ as if synonymous with choice, participation and success in higher education. Learning and scholarship are depicted as secondary activities. We also contend that claims to cosmopolitanism and consumerism are framed by racialised entitlements where Whiteness remains both a commodity and norm.     

Teachers working in culturally diverse classrooms: implications for the development of professional standards and for teacher education

This paper reports the outcomes of a survey to investigate the level of cultural understanding and confidence for teachers working in culturally diverse classrooms. The survey was administered to teachers in primary and secondary schools in an Australian regional city. The aim of analysis was to determine the direction and strength of association of six demographic variables with measures of cultural awareness among teachers and confidence in supporting the learning of students. It found that teacher responses to working in culturally diverse classrooms varied according to levels of familiarity with the cultural groups concerned and with the level of schooling within which the teacher worked. The paper outlines the implications of these findings for the development of professional standards and for teacher education. It discusses how these findings contribute to further investigations into the extent to which teachers understand cultural diversity and their confidence as literacy instructors.     

Girl's Education in Zambia: Everyone's Responsibility -- A Policy Framework for Participatory Process

This paper is based on a panel in which the four authors participated at the 10th World Congress of Comparative Education Societies in Cape Town in July 1998. The overall focus of the panel was on how an initiative to promote girl's education in Zambia -- involving governments, NGOs, donor organizations, teachers and girls themselves -- has influenced policy development to the point where the Zambian Ministry of Educaion now has clear directives on girl's education. The authors analyse some of the important factors that contributed to this outcome.     

Quality Child Care: At Whose Expense?

Quality child care is related to the number of adequately prepared practitioners who are available to children on a long-term basis. Unfortunately, child care practitioners subsidize the true cost of quality child care by working for substandard wages, few benefits, and little recognition of their true worth. The need for adequate compensation for qualified caregivers is the most critical issue facing the profession, because adequate compensation enables trained and educated caregivers to remain in the field, invest in professional development, and it also attracts new students into the field. The true cost of quality should be shared by all members of society, for everyone benefits from investing in the citizens of the future.