Implementing Online Counselling in Australian Secondary Schools: What Principals Think

Today’s young people have integrated the online world into their everyday reality and schools have generally accepted the importance of technology in the education process. However, there has been limited use in schools of technology to counsel young people, although early indications suggest that school counsellors may be prepared to offer synchronous online counselling if they were supported by school principals. The aim of this study was to investigate Australian secondary school principals’ views about using an online format for counselling in schools. There were 33 principals who participated and they indicated technological competency and acknowledged the benefits of using technology in the counselling process. The principals were generally supportive of the provision of online school counselling, although their major concern was the need for more counsellors and the impact on the workload of current counselling staff. A few principals, however, were unconvinced about offering online counselling and had a fundamental preference for face-to-face communication experiences for students. Strategies for facilitating the acceptance of online counselling by principals and guiding implementation in schools are proposed.     

Exploring Visual Displays involving Beanie Baby Data

This article describes the learning experiences of young children meeting stem-and-leaf plots for the first time.     

Pedagogic democracy versus pedagogic supremacy: migrant academics’ perspectives

ABSTRACT

This paper investigates the underexplored area of othering of migrant academics within their teaching context. Nine personal narratives of migrant academics’ teaching were analysed qualitatively for indications of pedagogical othering. Migrant academics indicated the need to align their own pedagogic values and practices with that of their host institutions they work in as they felt their own values and practices were considered less desirable. We argue, from a Gramsci’s hegemonic perspective, that the pedagogic adaptation by migrant academics aimed at improving student learning is not problematic in itself, but more problematic is the inequality of opportunity for migrant academics to contribute to pedagogical decisions which can meaningfully influence the departmental culture. Lack of pedagogic democracy where the ‘home’ academic environment has a monopoly of knowledge and a hegemonic position regarding learning and teaching can compromise the student-learning experience by limiting articulation of alternative pedagogical perspectives by the migrant international academics.     

Careers in the environment in Australia: surveying environmental jobs

Internationally, commentators have identified a growing demand for environmental expertise. Matching this has been an expansion in the range of environmental careers available to workers: from environment protection and bio‐physical areas, to local government operations, environmental auditing, assessment, and management. However, in Australia there is no overall picture of the types of jobs graduates in this sector have undertaken, which has limited the advice that can be given about environmental careers. To redress this situation a survey was conducted with 600 respondents working in the environment professions in Australia. The results identified a wide range of professional areas; these are grouped into 12 subcategories for three main environmental employment sectors: Environmental protection (19% of respondents), Conservation and preservation of natural resources (26%), Environmental Sustainability (55%). Respondents mainly had a bachelor‐level degree; however, a substantial proportion had an honours degree or postgraduate qualification. Respondents strongly recommended undertaking work experience to acquire key general skills that they identified as important for working in the environment sector. A related suggestion was for tertiary environmental courses to have a practical focus that produces ‘work‐ready’ students. Comparison with the situations in the UK, Canada and the USA and are also offered regarding the results and trends, and suggestions for further research.     

Framing the benefits of higher education participation from the perspective of non-completers

ABSTRACT

Ensuring that students of all backgrounds are smoothly transitioned through the stages of access, participation and completion in higher education has been the focus of much public policy and research in recent decades. Subsequently, public policy discourse treats those who do not complete their higher education degrees as unsuccessful, despite a lack of research considering the beneficial outcomes of non-completing students. Evidence of beneficial outcomes of higher education participation without completion has potential to challenge the deficit-centric discourse of completion dependent on a binary view of success and failure. This article details a critical discourse analysis of responses to a 2017 survey of university non-completers asked ‘were there any benefits from the time you spent doing an [sic] incomplete degree?’. This study finds that non-completers experience a wide range of benefits from incomplete studies despite the dominant discourse discounting their experiences as unsuccessful. Additionally, this study presents a critique of framing surveys of non-completing students within the normative bounds of success as completion in higher education, and instead calls for a more nuanced construction of success in higher education.     

Haredi education in Israel: fiscal solutions and practical challenges

ABSTRACT

With a fertility rate that nearly triples the national average and increased political power that accompanies demographic growth, Haredi (ultra-Orthodox) Jews in Israel are becoming an increasingly important piece of the country’s diverse national mosaic. This raises economic concerns: Haredi women earn low wages, while most Haredi men do not work. Meanwhile, like all Israeli citizens, Haredim receive expensive government services, including funding for ultra-Orthodox schools.

Haredi schools focus on religious instruction at the expense of core subjects, and comprise a barrier to economic and social integration. Whether other Israelis should be responsible for financing an education that provides limited positive externalities is debatable. More importantly, Haredi population growth and attitudes towards work and education might jeopardise Israel’s long-term economic outlook. Potential policy solutions include decentralisation of governmentservices, including education or financial incentives for curricular modernisation.