The COVID-19 pandemic has posed a real -- albeit rare -- test for human and organisational resilience worldwide, including those in the higher education sector. In this paper, I reflect on my observations of the pandemic's impacts that have rippled through the university sector in Australia in the first three quarters of 2020. The pandemic has not…

This paper discusses the PhD research process from my perspective as an Aboriginal man. The paper illuminates how I navigated my way through a Western academic system using an Aboriginal framework. I give insights into the dynamics at play in both academic and traditional ways of knowing, being and doing. As an Aboriginal researcher, I was intent,…

Design thinking is becoming more commonly used as a collaborative, problem-solving approach in higher education outside design disciplines. With the pivot to remote and online learning in response to Covid-19 and lockdown measures, many educators have had to rethink their practice and collaboration in design thinking, without the usual recourse to…

In this article, the author comments on two highly cited articles and how they link to wider trends in higher education research. The two papers in question, Angela Brew's article from 2003, "Teaching and research: New relationships and their implications for inquiry-based teaching and learning in higher education" and Gerlese Akerlind's…

Excellence in Research for Australia has a number of limitations: inputs are counted as outputs, time is wasted, disciplinary research is favoured and public engagement is discouraged. Most importantly, by focusing on measurement and emphasising competition, ERA may actually undermine the cooperation and intrinsic motivation that underpin research…

In this essay, Ian Hardy argues that a research process involving generalizing from professional educational practice can and should inform the work of educators, including academic researchers, policymakers, and practitioners, but that these generalizations need to be derived from, and in dialogue with, the complexity and specificity of actual…

Looking in classrooms is one of the most basic requirements of school improvement, and yet it is one of the least practised skills of teachers and one of the most contentious methods of educational researchers. When it does occur, it is difficult to agree on what to look for and even more difficult to agree on what is seen. This paper outlines an…

Educational action is a species of praxis in both an Aristotelian sense and a post-Marxian sense: in the first, it involves the morally informed and committed action of the individual practitioners who practise education; in the second, it helps to shape social formations and conditions for collectivities of people. In this paper, it is argued…

The globalized nature of modern society has generated a number of pressures that impact internationally on countries' policies and practices of science education. Among these pressures are key issues of health and environment confronting global science, global economic control through multi-national capitalism, comparative and competitive…

This contribution is set in the context of the burgeoning of practitioner inquiry in Australia, taking account also of various European and North American initiatives, against the background of the notion of action research as an emancipatory project. Practitioner inquiry, under these conditions, requires that the work move beyond a utilitarian…

Alan Reid's (2004) article, Towards a culture of inquiry, constructed a sharply focused challenge to the wave of neo-conservative educational research and policy-making sweeping the Western world at the time. In contrast to the familiar deficit constructions of individual teachers needing injections of knowledge, Reid envisions teachers as…

Evident from the responses to the author's paper is the fact that other researchers in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia have had cause to consider the issues that contribute to the complexities of involving people with intellectual disabilities, who may not be able to provide their own consent, in research. Comments by Aman and…

Critics of education research in the recent years have pointed the finger at what they saw as its low quality, impact, and "value for money." In the context of the Research Assessment Exercise, particular concerns have been raised about applied and practice-based educational research and how best to assess its quality. This contribution…

Presents the idea of teachers as researchers in Australia. Summarizes each study presented in Research in Science Education, volume 30. (YDS)

Explores the antagonism between the theoretical and practical aspects of journalism education in Australia. (HTH)