This study explored factors that encouraged female teachers to become principals in Catholic composite and secondary schools in Western Australia. Composite schools include both primary and secondary students. The study used a constructivist paradigm, specifically that of interpretivism and employed a symbolic interactionist perspective to explore…

This paper discusses educational insights drawn from a mixed-methods study in Religious Education (RE). The study involved 238 teachers and school leaders, working in 65 Catholic schools in Western Australia (WA). The focus of the study was the educators' perceptions of a large-scale, standardised assessment (LSA) called "The Bishops'…

Exemplary religious education (RE) teachers were identified by school based RE leaders and interviewed as part of an ongoing study of the implementation of a new senior high school religious education program in Catholic schools in NSW, Australia. Contextualisation was provided by examining dominant social influences utilising Dobbelaere's concept…

The importance of religious questioning in establishing and maintaining religious affiliation is well recognised. Questions and how teachers respond to them is also a critical aspect of strong pedagogy and is an important part of teacher training and formation. Many curriculum documents in religious education assume that student questions are an…

The relationships between RE leaders in Catholic education and their schools and their religious communities may be ambiguous. RE leaders often appear disconnected from both 'ordinary' teacher issues and 'ordinary' leadership issues because of their religious responsibilities. In this innovative research project, the authors have explored RE…

Teacher self-efficacy is understood as a teacher's belief in his or her ability to successfully accomplish a specific teaching task in a particular context. Studies have been undertaken to determine preservice teachers' self-efficacy in particular curriculum areas, but none have been completed that relate to the teaching of Religious Education…

This replicated research project [see Hine, G. S. C. (2019). Reasons why I didn't enrol in a higher-level mathematics course: Listening to the voice of Australian senior secondary students. "Research in Mathematics Education," 21(3), 295-313. https://bibliotheek.ehb.be:2102/10.1080/14794802.2019.15999982019] explored the reasons why senior secondary…

While the COVID-19 global pandemic has resulted in numerous lockdowns, understanding how teachers experience the shift to remote learning and the person focussed skills and capacities they employ during this time is vital. We draw from an online qualitative study to examine questionnaire data from 137 Australian teachers. Using the four dimensions…

Background: Schools are at the forefront of promoting positive mental health and wellbeing through the implementation of evidence-based actions. Few Australian studies however have explored the views and experiences of school staff and parents as to what best supports secondary school students who struggle with positive mental health. Aims: This…

Students with blindness and low vision (BLV) are less likely to choose mathematics as a subject in the senior secondary years which may negatively impact future employment opportunities. Using a longitudinal qualitative methodology, three interviews were recorded with a student who is legally blind over a six-year period. Findings suggest that…

While consent forms part of the Health, Wellbeing and Relationships strand of the New South Wales (NSW) Personal Development, Health and Physical Education (PDHPE) curriculum in Australia, it is not consistently or effectively delivered within schools. The recent e-campaign, "Teach Us Consent" in NSW, drew attention to the alarmingly…

While the preference for university by school leavers has been researched extensively, this article seeks to explore if religious influence might also come to play when selecting a university, with particular reference to Australia, a country whose higher education environment is largely made up of public, secular universities. The data used is…

The Scriptural metaphor, 'Into the Deep', characterises a trial Religious Education curriculum within a Catholic diocese of Australia. Teacher developers (n = 40) and teacher implementers (n = 85) from 37 schools responded to the influence of six Religious Education Development Principles (REDP), and statements on the implementation processes at…

Online streaming has transformed instructional videos into a seemingly ubiquitous part of learning and teaching in secondary schools. Much of the research into video use in secondary education has either proposed best practices or focused on a-typical pedagogies like flipped learning and distance education. The use of videos in mainstream…

A higher proportion of students are privately educated in Australia, compared with many other nations. In this paper, we tested the assumption that private schools offer better quality education than public schools. We examined differences in student achievement on the National Assessment Programme: Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) between public,…