The experiences of deaf and hard of hearing students at a Queensland University: 1985–2005

This article reports on the experiences of deaf and hard of hearing students at a Queensland university, which offers an extensive deaf student support program. Seventy‐two current students and graduates since the program’s inception twenty years ago completed a survey about their experiences, highlights, challenges and use of communication tools and support services at university. Findings indicate, both quantitatively and qualitatively, that students valued the specialised support services they received, although challenges in accessing the academic curriculum remained for many students. In the important area of social factors, many students reported enjoying satisfying friendships and a sense of belonging with other deaf people, often for the first time, while others experienced feelings of social isolation in a largely hearing peer group. Overall, deaf and hard of hearing students who had attended Griffith over the 20 years had a high rate of graduation, comparing favourably with other university students.     

Science capital or STEM capital? Exploring relationships between science capital and technology,engineering, and maths aspirations and attitudes among young people aged 17/18

We previously proposed that science capital (science-related forms of cultural and social capital) can be used as a theoretical lens for explaining the patterned nature of aspirations and educational participation among young people aged 11–16. Building on these findings, the present article investigates whether science capital is related to post-18 aspirations to pursue further STEM study and whether science capital can be extended to related disciplines including engineering, maths and technology. Specifically, we report on correlational analyses exploring the relationships between science, technology, engineering and maths attitudes and science capital. Drawing on data from a new survey of 7,013 17/18 year old English secondary school students, analyses showed that science capital, while strongly related to engineering and physical science future study aspirations, was not strongly related to the pursuit of either maths or technology postsecondary study. The findings also suggest that engineering and maths attitudes have a stronger relationship to science capital than attitudes relating to technology. We conclude with a discussion of the implications of these findings and propose that science capital might be more usefully applied to “SEM,” with links to technology fields and aspirations needing further exploration.     

Who says we are not attracting the best and brightest? Teacher selection and the aspirations of Australian school students

Internationally, the quality of teachers is a growing focus of educational reform, with new policies attempting to ensure that only the ‘best and brightest’ are selected for the teaching profession. This article tests the assumption underpinning these developments that prospective teachers lack the desired academic and personal qualities. Drawing on data on the career aspirations of 6492 Australian school students in Years 3–12, we investigated who, among these students, expressed interest in teaching and their reasons for doing so. Using logistic regression, we found that interest in teaching was widespread and prior academic achievement was not a significant predictor. Thematic analysis of reasons expressed for interest in teaching indicated that working with children and/or in specific subject areas, altruism, and perceptions of personal suitability for the job dominated student responses. These data provide a counter-narrative to the primacy, in policies for teacher recruitment and selection, of needing to attract ‘better’ students. We argue that policies for improving teacher quality should also capitalise on the widespread interest in teaching among school students. Without such a discursive broadening, we caution that current attempts to attract the ‘best and brightest’ risk undermining the very goals espoused.