(Re)Visioning the Centre: Education reform and the ‘ideal’ citizen of the future

Discourses of public education reform, like that exemplified within the Queensland Government's future vision document, Queensland State Education‐2010 (QSE‐2010), position schooling as a panacea to pervasive social instability and a means to achieve a new consensus. However, in unravelling the many conflicting statements that conjoin to form education policy and inform related literature ( ), it becomes clear that education reform discourse is polyvalent ( ). Alongside visionary statements that speak of public education as a vehicle for social justice are the (re)visionary or those reflecting neoliberal individualism and a conservative politics. In this paper, it is argued that the latter coagulate to form strategic discursive practices which work to (re)secure dominant relations of power. Further, discussion of the characteristics needed by the ‘ideal’ future citizen of Queensland reflect efforts to ‘tame change through the making of the child’ ( , p. 201). The casualties of this (re)vision and the refusal to investigate the pathologies of ‘traditional’ schooling are the children who, for whatever reason, do not conform to the norm of the desired school child as an ‘ideal’ citizen‐in‐the‐making and who become relegated to alternative educational settings.     

The paradox of Scotland: limited credit transfer in a credit-based lifelong learning system

On paper, Scotland has a highly permeable, unified system of lifelong learning underpinned by the Scottish Credit and Qualifications Framework. Recent reports suggest that the reality is less positive. This paper examines credit transfer in Scotland across three interfaces: between general and pre-vocational learning and vocational education and training (VET); within VET; and between VET and university degrees. It finds that credit transfer across the first two interfaces is limited; credit transfer at the third interface is more frequent but often problematic. One explanation is that the system is designed around credit accumulation rather than credit transfer; this, together with other features of the Scottish system, means that a degree of permeability is built in without the need for formal credit transfer. But a second explanation highlights the epistemological, institutional and political barriers to a unified system. The paper illustrates the importance of distinguishing among different types of credit system and the limitations of credit and qualifications frameworks as agents of change in the face of the institutional logics of national education and training systems. The capacity of cross-national credit systems to support mobility between national systems should not be exaggerated.     

Policies,actors and sustainability transition pathways: A study of the EU’s energy policy mix

Policies and politics are crucial elements of sustainability transitions. Transition pathways unfold as a result of continuous struggles of actors over policy goals and instruments. Taking a policy mix perspective, we study policies and policy preferences of key industry actors in the ongoing energy transition at the level of the European Union. We introduce two central analytical dimensions for transition pathways: the degree of sustainability (here: renewable energy ambition) and the degree of disruption (here: whether to pursue centralized or decentralized energy system configurations). We find that the current EU energy policy mix is heterogeneous with respect to the issue of (de-)centralization, whereas most policies and actors express high or moderate ambitions for renewable energy. Our paper makes three contributions. It demonstrates how actors and policy preferences can be explicitly included in the study of policy mixes. To the literature on transition pathways, we introduce sustainability as another key dimension in addition to disruption. Lastly, we propose a novel methodology for analyzing the politics of transition pathways.     

Pathways to Employment and Quality of Life for Apprenticeship and Traineeship Graduates with Disabilities

People with disabilities have low participation rates in employment and vocational education and training. Thirty adults with disabilities were sampled from an Australian longitudinal study of economic and social outcomes achieved by graduate apprentices and trainees. Participants were surveyed and interviewed to identify pathways from high school to 12-months post-graduation and completed the Quality of Life Questionnaire (QOL.Q). Career pathways incorporated experiences facilitating career development including continuous engagement in vocational activities and support from school personnel and external disability agencies. A year following graduation, 87% were in paid work, 53% remained with the training employer, and 40% continued with vocational education. Positive quality of life (QoL) outcomes were associated with employment, employee benefits and satisfaction with work and social connections. Our research demonstrated that apprenticeships and traineeships led to positive graduate employment outcomes and career pathways for adults with disabilities. Positive employment outcomes were associated with enhanced QoL for participants.     

The Australian teachers’ federation (1921–1991)

In the context of international consensus that the knowledge economy requires more highly educated people, the Australian federal, state and territory governments agreed on a set of policies and targets for lifting the minimum level of educational attainment of young people, which are analysed in Part 1 of this paper. This Compact with young Australians will have the most impact on the quarter of young people who in the past would have left school early. The second part of the paper explores the transition experiences of early leavers who move on to a ‘second chance’ school. Based on their experiences, the paper concludes that to genuinely enable more young people to complete senior secondary education requires recognition of a broad range of benefits, rather than focusing mainly on economic outcomes, and support for re-entry through second chance education rather than coercing young people to remain in mainstream schooling.     

“Because uni is totally different than what you do at TAFE”: protective strategies and provisions for diploma students traversing their first professional experience placement at university

Students who enrol in a Bachelor of Education (Early Childhood Education) at the Institute of Early Childhood, Macquarie University, with a Diploma in Children’s Services attained from a Technical and Further Education (TAFE) institution or a Registered Training Organisation (RTO) often experience challenges in their first professional experience unit. Utilising a phenomenological approach to understand the students’ previous knowledge and experiences as they navigated through their first professional experience unit, this qualitative study identified factors including institutional structures and course content as challenging to the diploma student. To ensure diploma students can successfully transition to and participate in their first professional experience unit at university, all stakeholders including the university, the academics teaching the students, and the students themselves need to commit to a multilevel support programme. Key findings from this study support the previous research on this student cohort.     

绿色化学应用型人才实践能力探微

培养大学生绿色化学实践能力是实施绿色教育的重要内容,是造就应用型人才的需要;要通过有效的教育教学改革,为大学生搭建实践平台,广开实践渠道,培养具有绿色意识和实践技能的新型人才.     

通往繁荣的路径——美国哈佛教育研究生院报告述评

2011年,哈佛教育研究生院发布了题为《通往繁荣的路径——完成培养青年人为21世纪做准备的任务》的重要报告。报告分析了美国近20年来在培养青年人过程中失败的原因,并提出发展一个多途径系统,增强工商业雇主在教育中的参与,建立新的美国青年人的社会契约。报告提出的多途径系统能否成为修正美国教育改革道路的正确方向还需要更多时间和实践的检验。     

组织学习能力对企业战略变革的作用和作用路径实证分析

组织学习能力和战略变革是近年来心理学、知识管理学和企业管理学研究的热点问题之一。从界定两者的内涵出发,分析组织学习能力对企业战略变革的作用和作用路径,并利用结构方程模型进行实证分析,得到的结论可为如何通过开展组织学习活动,提高战略变革的成功率提供一些方法和指导。     

Understanding Asian American women's pathways to school leadership

Little is known about Asian American women administrators in the public schools. The study sought to understand the pathways of Asian American women to school leadership. In-depth interviews and researcher reflective memos were the primary data sources. The participants included 15 Asian American female school administrators in two states. We found that the women's career trajectories were similar yet unique; they were manifestation of the women's intersected experiences of gender, race–ethnicity, and age, situated in particular time and place. Often than not, the women had to negotiate their leadership aspiration and advancement through raced and gendered expectations. Others' encouragement and mentoring were instrumental for the women's development of self-knowledge and demystification of the leadership process. Most women taught at least 10–15 years before entering leadership. The women of earlier generations had far less career mobility and slim, if not absent, mentoring opportunities.