While university participation rates among Indigenous Australians have been on the rise in recent years, parity targets remain elusive. In this context, surprisingly little attention has been paid to how aspirations for higher education are formed and nurtured. Studies tend to focus on barriers to access, often in ways that position Indigenous…

The number of people forcibly displaced from their homes globally is at an all-time high, with some granted permanent residence and resettlement in countries like Australia. Students from refugee backgrounds attend Australian schools and how schools respond to their educational needs is increasingly a focus for research, school practice and policy…

First-in-family (FIF) males, often from low-socio-economic backgrounds, remain severely underrepresented in Australian higher education. Experiences with social life can be a significant determiner to their success at university as well as their prospects for future employment. This paper explores the experiences of two FIF males as they…

Recent rapid increase in the number of Australians of Asian backgrounds has significantly altered the demographic mosaic in schools. This has major ramifications for Australian classrooms with regards to the transnational exchanges now ubiquitous. In response, this paper proposes a view of cosmopolitanism as "transnational literacy" as…

The underrepresentation of males from particular equity groups in Australian universities continues despite recent gains in achievement. This article presents a case study of the transition of one Aboriginal student, Robbie, from a school located in the Western suburbs of Sydney to an urban Australian university. Drawing on recent theorisations of…

The transition from primary to high school can be a challenging process for students with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). During this time, research-based practices like home-school collaboration are crucial in facilitating a smoother transition. However, existing research indicates that the transition from primary to high school is a period of…

Digital media are beneficial for research of complex refugee issues, as they allow refugees to express their personal experiences of complex issues in ways that are not restricted by language barriers or limited in authenticity, while also offering researchers a way to systematically compare refugees' varied experiences. We used a computerised…

The School to University Pathways for Refugee Students (SUPRS) project was a two-year case study conducted with seven schools and three universities across urban and regional Australia that investigated the enablers and constraints faced by refugee background students transitioning from high school to university. Focus groups and interviews with…

An increasing number of culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) students from migrant and refugee backgrounds are enrolling in schools in the West. These students are exposed to challenges that may influence their mental health and wellbeing. At the same time, schools tend to play a critical role in promoting these students' social…

Given recent concerns around boys' literacy, this study examined multidimensional writing motivation and engagement among boys. We explored internal and external validity of 11 adaptive (e.g. self-efficacy for writing) and maladaptive (e.g. disengagement from writing) factors of writing motivation and engagement. The sample comprised 781 male…

It is well documented that the first-year experience is crucial to student success at university. The transition to university provides many challenges for students from a personal, social and academic perspective. Over several decades, universities across Australia have implemented strategies to improve the attrition rate of first year students.…

After much preparatory work, the Catholic Education Office in Western Australia determined to move Year 7 students from its more than 100 primary schools to secondary schools in 2009. This was the first time in the state's history that a major education system had embarked on such an undertaking. This system-wide shift presented a unique…

Adaptability is defined as appropriate cognitive, behavioral, and/or affective adjustment in the face of uncertainty and novelty. Building on prior measurement work demonstrating the psychometric properties of an adaptability construct, the present study investigates dispositional predictors (personality, implicit theories) of adaptability, and…

"Research Messages 2014" is a collection of summaries of research published by the National Centre for Vocational Education Research (NCVER) in 2014 in the context of changing economic, industrial, social and education conditions, organised under the following broad categories: (1) Productivity: to sustain and build Australia's human…

Starting high school can be a challenging but also exciting time for students. The focus of this paper lies with students' experiences of transition into secondary school. Sixteen students from one government school in New South Wales kept a journal for their first ten weeks in high school as a way of recording their experiences. Their journal…