Differentiated instruction has been shown to meet the needs of diverse learners, and can meaningfully improve individual student learning, however many teachers find it challenging to implement. This paper reports on a targeted professional development programme which was undertaken as a collaborative action research project. Results show many…

This paper reports on a participatory action research project that investigated how a resource called the Index for Inclusion was used by a secondary school community to improve school connectedness at a whole school level. The researchers worked with the Australian case study school over one year to engage in review, development, and change. This…

Numerous nations implement Student Perception Surveys (SPS) in their schools to assess teaching for student learning improvement. However, research suggests no significant change in teachers' practices following such student voice-based assessment initiatives, noting their struggle to act upon it. Utilizing the "pyramid of student voice"…

This research explored teachers' experiences of school and their work-related wellbeing, from the perspective that work-related wellbeing is an organisational responsibility. A single case study was enacted in an urban Western Australian secondary school to explore the relationship between school organisational health and teacher wellbeing. A…

This is an inquiry into my experience as a doctoral researcher undertaking an action research/narrative inquiry project investigating the emotion experienced in teacher practice. From the outset, I recognized my position as an active participant of the research -- a protagonist, a story-teller, a listener, a re-teller -- and facilitator. This…

Team participation in whole-school action research can assist the educational reform required for autistic students. Little is known about the experience of school community stakeholders engaged in the first stage of an implementation science process: evaluation of current practice. This study was designed to explore stakeholder experience and…

This paper focuses on a nested project within a three-year participatory research project, funded by the Australian Research Council. The project was undertaken in secondary schools across Victoria and South Australia and engaged over 100 students as coresearchers (ages 15-19) in understanding, critiquing, and transforming sexuality education…

Student voice initiatives such as Student Perception Surveys (SPS) are increasingly promoted by education authorities to assess teaching for learning improvement. Nevertheless, considerable ambiguity surrounds teacher and student consultation and involvement during the implementation of and response to SPS, suggesting students' scepticism in the…

This paper reports on an Action Research project that investigated the integration of Aboriginal and Western knowledge into science learning in a Montessori classroom in regional Queensland, Australia. Drawing on the local knowledge of fauna of community members, the study explored the teaching of science to 12 year 8-9 students in an Aboriginal…

Curriculum initiatives with intercultural educative aims are not uncommon in many schools around the world. This paper argues that these initiatives and their classroom implementation by teachers is strongly impacted and influenced by the prevailing neoliberal context of schooling. The findings of a project working with teachers on implementing…

Increasing numbers of students with identified special needs and disabilities attending Australian schools have enhanced the expectation that mainstream teachers will demonstrate competence in planning and teaching for an academically diverse range of students. A qualitative action research study explored how teachers at an Australian secondary…

In this (purportedly) Anthropocene epoch, are schools meaningfully learning with 'Earth in mind'? This paper explores the early stages of a participatory action research (PAR) project in an inner-urban Melbourne secondary school generating a postcolonial, place-responsive, ecopedagogy framework. The project, dubbed the "EcoTardis" by the…

Emerging posthuman paradigms are beginning to influence approaches to educational research and pedagogy, including the "common worlds" investigations of relations among children and wild animals in early childhood settings. This paper turns to child-animal encounters in a secondary school wetlands project to explore some of the…

What do young people believe sexuality education ought to be about? It is within the absence of a sustained and critical consideration of the possibilities and politics of engaging in research with rather than for young people in the reimagining of sexuality education that this paper is positioned. Data were generated as part of an 18-month Youth…

This paper describes the results of an action research project undertaken as a partnership between Macquarie University and Geography teachers from an independent school in regional New South Wales (NSW), Australia. The project focused on the teaching of river landforms and processes, a component of the Biophysical Interactions topic in the NSW…