Understanding the nature of school partnerships with business in delivery of vocational programmes in schools in Australia

This article seeks to provide a school perspective on the nature and quality of the partnerships which schools form with businesses in order to deliver work placements and workplace learning in Australia. It found that the ability of schools to engage with external partners depended on the ability of school leaders to define and communicate the role of VET within the school and its broader community. This dependence on individuals and leadership is vulnerable to changes in key personnel and the informality of some of the processes and relationships can lead to problems in monitoring, evaluating and replicating programmes. Our study shows that a balance is required between carefully documented processes and the flexibility required to operate programmes successfully. The study also noted the tension between the perceived needs of the school and those of industry. A successful partnership necessarily requires school flexibility – in the decisions as to what programmes should be offered and how work placements and timetabling should be organised.     

国外基础教育PPP办学模式的实践及启示

在基础教育面临公平和效率等不同层次和水平的挑战之际,许多发达国家和发展中国家通过采取公私合作伙伴关系(PPP)的形式扩大对私人部门的利用,以期改善基础教育服务供给和资金投放。作为达成基础教育目标的非传统途径,PPP在国外基础教育领域的实践已初具成效。探讨PPP的概念及其在国外基础教育领域的主要实践模式对我国基础教育公私合作具重要的启示和借鉴意义。     

我国教育领域的公私合作伙伴关系审视

本文分别对公私合作伙伴关系政策层面与项目层面的相关实践进行了梳理,探讨了公私合作伙伴关系实践中存在公私合作伙伴关系是一种有效动员、整合和优化社会教育资源的重要制度框架,在我国教育领域有着广泛实践,但相关的理论研究却比较缺乏。观念束缚、政策歧视、规制失衡等问题,并提出了转变观念、消除歧视和建立有效的监管体系与评价体系等对策。     

The role played by grandparents in family support and learning: considerations for mainstream and special schools

The twenty‐first century family faces many demographic changes. Despite this, the importance of intergenerational relationships remains. This article initially reviews the literature surrounding the role that grandparents play in their children's families, highlighting a growing body of research demonstrating the important support role that grandparents play in the lives of families with non‐disabled children. In contrast, there is limited research on the role played by and support needs of grandparents to families with disabled children. Recognising the significance of ‘family’ rather than purely ‘parent’‐based partnerships in UK schools, this article considers the role and importance of grandparents in schools; in particular, intergenerational learning, and how schools can begin to include grandparents and also provide support to meet grandparents' own support needs. Despite a limited literature on schools working specifically with grandparents of children with SEN, some policy and practice issues are discussed and areas for future consideration suggested.     

Stakeholder participation in international higher education partnerships: results of a survey of two sub-Saharan African universities

In the last few years, foreign institutions have increasingly sought to establish partnerships with African universities. Likewise, African universities have increasingly sought to establish linkages with foreign institutions. Different factors suggest that these partnerships will continue to be a major focus in the future. This study draws from a survey of a random sample of 468 university administrators, academic staff and postgraduate students at two major public universities in Tanzania and the Democratic Republic of Congo. It estimates the level of participation in international partnership activities and examines factors related to this participation. The study found that 4 in 10 stakeholders at the two institutions had participated in partnership activities, and that participation was a function of awareness of partnership opportunities, the use of technology and stakeholder status.     

Exploring how external stakeholders shape social innovation in sport for development and peace

The purpose of this study was to examine how innovative SDP organizations’ interactions with external stakeholders influence the social innovation process. Innovation represents the implementation of new or improved ways to promote social change. The authors conducted semi-structured interviews and focus groups with 48 SDP leaders representing organizations located across six continents. Innovative SDP agencies engaged in numerous non-financial relationships with a strong emphasis on collective learning, a shared willingness to spread the risk of innovation across organizational boundaries, and a reciprocal process for co-creating new and improved solutions for how sport can be used better to promote positive social change. Social innovation in the context of SDP emerged across different levels (intra-, inter-, and extra-group) from a collective and interactive process between SDP organizations and external stakeholders. Their innovation activities included identifying opportunities and generating ideas for implementing new practices and scaling creative solutions. This study extends the existing SDP literature and underscores the need to adopt a more specific external perspective when examining the process of innovation in sport organizations.     

集群式供应链的供应商伙伴关系管理研究——基于核心企业视角

首先阐述了基于集群式供应链的供应商伙伴关系发展与作用,然后分析实施供应商合作伙伴关系的组织措施与管理策略。     

From Distance Education to Online Learning: Practical Approaches to Information Literacy Instruction and Collaborative Learning in Online Environments

The increasingly ubiquitous nature of online learning has necessarily changed pedagogical approaches in the 21st century. This article will present an overview of the evolution of distance learning with a particular emphasis on current models and emerging methods of instruction for online learners. The authors detail how various learning management systems and tools as well as online learning objects can be used as mechanisms for creating a platform for student investment and ownership in the learning process. Additional discussion will focus on how these methods and approaches can enhance teaching, training, and peer collaboration within the library workplace.     

‘Korea … it's not really actually an Asian country’: Australian children's experiences of an intercultural school partnership programme

ABSTRACT

In Australia, intercultural understanding has been prioritised in education and curriculum documents at both federal and state levels. Alongside this educational priority, schools have also been encouraged to demonstrate ‘engagement’ with ‘Asia’, such as through a partnership with another school in the Asia-Pacific region. My research findings are based on an ethnographic study of Year 5 and 6 Australian children's experiences of an intercultural school partnership initiative through on-line classroom exchanges over a two-year period. Through a critical analysis of ‘complexity reduction’ I draw attention to the processes through which children made sense of perceived racial and cultural differences as part of their involvement in partnership activities and conclude with some reflections on the extent to which educational initiatives such as intercultural school partnership programmes that aim to foster intercultural understanding can do so without reinforcing unequal intercultural relations and stereotypes.     

Mode 2 knowledge and institutional life: Taking Gibbons on a walk through a South African university

This paper examines the response of a blackuniversity in South Africa to the challengesposed by the mode 2 knowledge thesis of MichaelGibbon. The case material is based on theFaculty of Engineering at the University ofDurban Westville, which in the period 1999–2000grappled with the implications of Gibbonsthesis for knowledge, inquiry and professionalidentity in a proposed university-industrypartnership. The author argues that entrenchedinstitutional rules and behaviours threaten toundermine any attempt to rethink the researchand practice of engineering education even whensuch restructuring appears to work in the bestinterest of students.