Australia’s 1988 Bicentennial: national history and multiculturalism in the primary school curriculum

As in many countries, such as Germany, Turkey, the United States and Japan the history/culture wars of the past two decades have increased public interest in what is taught in schools. This has resulted in rigorous debates in the general community, encouraged and sustained through regular media coverage. Partly as a response to this, History has been designated as a separate subject in the first wave of planning and implementation of the Australian National Curriculum. Two of the reasons for this include first, to recognise the importance of teaching historical skills as a distinct subject; and second there is an ongoing bipartisan political interest in privileging history disciplinary knowledge and content to ensure that national history narratives are taught to students. To contribute meaningfully towards the development and implementation of a National Curriculum, it is important to understand past curriculum constructions, so that the disciplinary knowledge and content of history remains independent, and not subsumed within current (or future) political trends. Based on examples of national history from the Queensland Social Studies syllabus and government endorsed sourcebooks in the lead-up to the 1988 Bicentennial of British colonisation of the Australian continent, this article examines the influence and role of multiculturalism in History teaching in primary schools. Particular attention is paid to Indigenous representations and British heritages, as an example of two groups that have often been represented as binaries to each other throughout Australian history. An analysis of the curriculum materials illuminates the differences between multiculturalism and history—highlighting how the two are merged at the expense of accurate historical knowledge and concepts, particularly in the area of national history. This study will demonstrate that as a result of the infiltration of multiculturalism into history content within the Social Studies curriculum, historical knowledge becomes silenced in the school curriculum – resulting in vague and sometimes historically inaccurate information being presented to students; and the privileging of certain types of multiculturalism.     

Academic progress in the 16–19 curriculum: some senior staff perceptions of current monitoring systems and operational procedures

In outlining its programme of target-setting for post-16 provision in 1997, the DfEE sought to promote the monitoring of academic progress in order to raise achievement both at institutional level and also at the individual student level. This article, based on research conducted in schools and colleges in North and West Yorkshire, focuses on the latter and examines senior staff perceptions of current monitoring systems and operational procedures. The article gives an overview of the main systems used and how these are adapted to suit the circumstances of a particular institution. The authors suggest that in general the implementation of target-setting has been viewed positively, largely due to the current flexibility for senior staff to adapt whatever system best suits their needs. It recommends that this should be seen as a strength of the current situation and that the introduction of more uniform systems should be avoided if it is at the expense of meaningful procedures adapted to local requirements.     

Research Experiences of Staff within a Specialist UK Higher Education Institution: Challenges,opportunities and priorities

The study discussed here was based on a collective case approach involving a specialist UK higher education institution. Six individual interviews were carried out with a cross-sectional sample of the institution’s staff members. Additional information was gained through observations and examination of relevant documents. These data were interrogated with the purpose of exploring how the institution had made the transition from a teacher training college to a teaching-led higher education institution with a particular commitment to developing research capacity. This analysis yielded a number of key findings: first, the institution had experienced a cultural shift, with research forming a more noticeable profile; second, practitioner-oriented research was the dominant research endeavour; and third, there appeared to be an incomplete understanding of the potential of research to change a staff member’s career and teaching practice. The article concludes by giving consideration to the implications of the findings.     

Gendered Relationships on Television: Portrayals of Same-Sex and Heterosexual Couples

Although intimate heterosexual couples often exhibit power imbalances in gender role behaviors, with one partner more dominant and the other more submissive, it is unclear whether the same is true for homosexual relationships. Anecdotal evidence, however, suggests that television portrays both heterosexual and homosexual couples as gendered. This content analysis of intimate relationships on television examined whether heterosexual and homosexual couples are portrayed as gendered, finding evidence of gendering for both homosexual couples and heterosexual couples. Possible implications of these gendered portrayals for viewers' perceptions and behaviors include cultivation of negative stereotypes and modeling of gender-typed behaviors.     

Synthesizing Pedagogies and Engaging Students: Creating Blended eLearning Strategies for Library Research and Writing Instruction

Twenty-first century students need consideration, ideas, and face-to-face work to enable their success in acquiring new information. Twenty-first century skills are generally described as core competencies such as collaboration, digital literacy, critical thinking, and problem solving. Collaborative work between the classroom instructor and the librarian builds digital reference and research materials to follow a scaffolded research project specifically from start to finish. This article identifies reference opportunities and the importance of online and face-to-face student support. Instead of a linear approach to information literacy, this article demonstrates a chunked eLearning in-context performance support style.     

Content analysis of shyness portrayals in television advertising

This study tested the hypotheses that shyness is under‐represented in television advertising and that among shy characters, women and children are over‐represented. Network commercials were content‐analyzed for their characterizations of inhibited behaviors. Results indicated that shyness was rarely exhibited and, within the shy portrayals, men and children were more likely to be depicted as shy.     

The transition from a university college to a university: a United Kingdom study

Tertiary Education and Management - As a result of policy changes, nearly all university colleges in the UK have been redesignated as universities. This transition was studied in one such...     

Undergraduate Degree Awards in Teacher Education: constant standards in a changing context

In the past, assessment in higher education has been treated as a matter determined by, and confidential to, Boards of Examiners. In future, however, this may have to change in response to a number of changes in the context of higher education. The student population is more diverse and is taking an increasing control of the curriculum through the modularisation of courses. Student charters instil expectations that details of assessment procedures will be made explicit and published. Awards may increasingly be challenged. This paper examines a number of issues which will have to be debated more openly in the future. They include the statistics of aggregating component grades into degree classes, the widening range of skills covered by higher education courses and the most appropriate formats for summative reporting. The paper aims not to offer answers but to help to clarify some of the questions around which debate will be required.     

The River of Learning: building relationships in a university,school and community Indigenous widening participation collaboration

In this article, findings of a qualitative study of an Indigenous widening participation program are presented. The program, River of Learning, has been in existence since 2010 and represents a powerful collaboration between a rural high school in New South Wales (NSW) Australia, a metropolitan university, Indigenous Elders and non-Indigenous community members. An analysis of the narrative data generated through individual and group interviews with stakeholders provided findings with respect to the program including how it has contributed to the building and strengthening of university and community relationships and how important the interaction with Indigenous Elders and school and university staff is in development of confidence to engage in higher education in the Indigenous students. These findings are discussed and the article concludes with reflections on the learnings generated through such university, school and community collaborations and what these may mean in ensuring greater Indigenous representation in higher education in Australia in the future.