‘Power,regulation and physically active identities’: the experiences of rural and regional living adolescent girls

Drawing on interpretations of Foucault's techniques of power, we explored the discourses and power relations operative between groups of girls that appeared to influence their participation in Physical Education (PE) and outside of school in sport and physical activity (PA) in rural and regional communities. Interviews and focus groups were conducted in eight secondary schools with female students from Year 9 (n = 22) and 10 (n = 116). Dominant gendered and performance discourses were active in shaping girls’ construction of what it means to be active or ‘sporty’, and these identity positions were normalised and valued. The perceived and real threat of their peer's gaze as a form of surveillance acted to further perpetuate the power of performance discourses; whereby girls measured and (self) regulated their participation. Community settings were normalised as being exclusively for skilled performers and girls self-regulated their non-participation according to judgements made about their own physical abilities. These findings raise questions about the ways in which power relations, as forged in broader sociocultural and institutional discourse–power relations, can infiltrate the level of the PE classroom to regulate and normalise practices in relation to their, and others, PA participation.     

The more,the better? Intensity of involvement in private tuition and examination performance

Private tuition, or “shadow education”, has become a prominent feature in many countries internationally. A number of studies have found that such tuition is associated with improved examination performance and enhanced access to tertiary education. However, these studies have generally not taken into account important attitudinal differences between tuition participants and nonparticipants or explored variation in the intensity of young people's involvement in paid tuition. This paper uses a large-scale survey of upper secondary students in the Republic of Ireland to explore the impact of different levels of involvement in private tuition on student performance. Multilevel regression and propensity score matching techniques indicate no significant performance advantage accruing to involvement in private tuition when adequate account is taken of key differences between participants and nonparticipants. All else being equal, even relatively high levels of involvement in private tuition do not enhance academic performance.     

Photographic Methods

Peter Smyth's A Guide to Marine Photography (New York: Norton, 1974---$12.50)

Charles Swedlund's Photography: A Handbook of History Materials, and Processes (New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1974---$9.95, paper)     

The Origins of the International Standard Classification of Education

This article recalls the earliest attempts to compile international educational statistics going back into the 19th century and retraces the steps that led up to the formulation and adoption of the International Standard Classification of Education in both its original and revised versions. It is in large part the story of how international educational statistics came to be developed. Source documents that have long been out of print and/or not easily accessible to readers outside UNESCO are quoted at length.     

Making ‘space’: young people put at a disadvantage re-engaging with learning

Young people who disengage or disconnect from school are often demonised within the media and the wider public imagination, from a largely individualized and pathological positioning. Policy explanations and responses are often unhelpful in their focus on a range of ‘deficit’ attributes – poverty, poor parenting, dysfunctional families, low familial achievement, aspiration and motivation, and other ‘at risk’ categories. This paper offers a different explanatory framework that foregrounds the experiences of some young people who had disengaged from school and resumed learning under a very different set of conditions to the ones that had exiled them from schools in the first place. Using a socio-spatial framework, the paper explores the notion of ‘relational space’ as it was appropriated and reclaimed by these young people, in explaining how they saw themselves as constructing viable and sustainable learning identities for themselves.     

‘Man enough to do it’? Girls and non‐traditional subjects in lower secondary education

This article examines the processes influencing the choice of non‐traditional subjects by girls in lower secondary education in the Republic of Ireland. In particular, we focus on the traditionally ‘male’ craft technological subjects, namely Materials Technology (Wood), Metalwork and Technical Graphics. Analyses are based on detailed case studies of 12 secondary schools, placing them in the context of national patterns of subject take‐up. Strong gender differentiation persists in the take‐up of these technological subjects. Commonalities are evident across schools in the way in which the subjects are constructed as ‘male’. However, some students, both female and male, actively contest these labels, and school policy and practice regarding subject provision and choice can make a difference to take‐up patterns. It is argued that the persistent gendering of subjects has implications for the skills acquired by students, their engagement in education, and the education, training and career opportunities open to them on leaving school.     

Higher degree research supervision: from practice toward theory

This paper presents our theorizing about the complex nature of higher degree research supervision. The intent is to make a contribution to the current debates about higher education generally, and supervision of higher degree research students in particular. We add to the pedagogy of supervision by extending its scope to and beyond the supervisory relationship via our tripartite view of supervision. We see supervision as a creative, synergistic relationship interweaving activities concerning (1) the student, (2) knowledge and (3) the research project. From our perspective, the discourse of supervision has been relatively silent on this third element until now.     

Losing our way? Challenging the direction of teacher education in Australia by reframing it around the Socially Just School

In this discursive and wide-ranging paper I want to do two things: first, to interrogate the conditions that led to, and continue to wreak havoc as a result of, the Global Financial Crisis (GFC), and that underpin current policy approaches to teacher education in Australia and other western countries; and second, to move in the direction of puncturing the status quo by proffering an alternative orientation to teacher education deriving from some of my own research that is informed by what I am calling the Socially Just School. My argument is that teacher education could benefit from moving away from the ideological conditions that have produced the GFC and instead be informed by an approach to schooling around notions of social justice.