Similarity grouping of Australian universities

The Unified National System of Australian Universities was created out of universities, institutes of technology and colleges of advanced education. In this study similarity clustering of universities within this system is attempted based on two data sets: one based on evaluative ratings and the other on quantitative performance indicators. With the exception of three traditional universities that tended to cluster together across data sets no consistent clustering emerged. Within data sets there was no tendency for the emergent clusters to reflect the origins of the institutions in any consistent manner. It is suggested that the Unified National System has not reduced diversity.     

Conflict resolution and children’s behaviour: observing and understanding social and cooperative play in early years educational settings

This paper draws from continuing research into the growth of sociability and cooperation in young children. It began in the mid‐1980s and has continued periodically in a range of early years educational settings across the 3–6 age range. The research has underpinned the development of an observational tool. This tool – the Social Play Continuum or SPC – has been used in personal and paired data collection by the author and jointly with early years educators. This paper draws from play observations of nursery children (aged 3–4 years) and reception class children (aged 4–5 years) in one school. The focus here is on conflict in play and its interpretation. The paper considers a relationship with stress in children’s lives and its potential impact on playful learning needs. The author advocates increases in playful learning and pedagogies rather than engagements with conflict resolution programmes. Three data‐based vignettes contextualise children’s play to illustrate the need to deepen understanding through observation about the nature of conflicts – with peers and with adults – and the wider implications for playful pedagogies.     

Connecting with place: implications of integrating cultural values into the school curriculum in Alaska

Many authors primarily from industrialised nations discuss human relationships with the natural environment in the context of global environmental issues, and highlight the close relationships that ‘traditional’ societies have with nature. There is a growing trend among indigenous people in North America to restore such a connection with the land through place‐based education. This article reports on progress on such a programme at Russian Mission School in rural Alaska in the period 2002–2007 and its implications for sustainability. The programme actively seeks to integrate the community’s cultural values and activities into their curriculum. This has resulted in raising pupils’ academic skills and confidence, and seems to be bridging a gap of distrust between the school and community. An ethnographical approach was adopted with a mixed research design based primarily on participant observation, supported by semi‐structured interviews, written surveys, and conversations with stakeholders, student writings and secondary sources. The initial fieldwork in 2002 was followed up five years later.     

Educating for Uncertainty in a Changing World: Issues within an Australian remote indigenous context

Following the theme of 'educating for uncertainty in a changing world', this article delves into some of the issues that emerge for remote area indigenous Australians when change, cultural maintenance and an uncertain future collide. As a minority culture living alongside a Western colonizing culture, indigenous Australians confront a range of issues. This is particularly the case, as this paper argues, in the field of vocational education and training (VET). By discussing the establishment of the current VET system developed for a 'mainstream' context, and contrasting this to the remote area context, the article highlights the differences between the two and provides a basis for understanding the issues that arise. A discussion of the current social and political milieu furthers an understanding of these issues, which coalesce around the notions of control and access. It is apparent that these key notions remain pivotal if remote indigenous Australians are to educate for uncertainty in a changing world.