Universities might aspire to teaching excellence, but do they enable academic teachers to make good teaching decisions? Using a critical realist perspective, a qualitative interview study in England and Australia explored academics' experiences of teaching decisions and their responses to strategic, institutional and departmental teaching policy…

This study explored the perceptions of 25 secular teachers employed in American, Australian, and Israeli Jewish religious schools regarding disparities between their secular identity and their school's religious habitus. It also examined the ways these teachers cope with such disparities. Findings suggest that teachers' challenges were anchored in…

Youth sport policies are increasingly driven by health concerns and social issues, and focus on broad participation outcomes. Given the significant financial investment in, and critique of, such policies internationally, this study aimed to examine the implementation of Sporting Schools (SS), a $100 million programme intended to increase…

Neoliberal policies promoting school autonomy reform in Australia and internationally have, over three decades, appropriated earlier social democratic discourses of parental participation and partnership in school governance. Recent school autonomy reforms have repositioned school council/boards within a narrow frame of accountability and…

This book explores how peer reviews are used in school improvement, accountability and education system reform. Importantly, these issues are studied through numerous international cases and new empirical evidence. This volume also identifies and describes barriers and facilitators to the development, use, sustainability and expansion of school…

Students who have followed routes to Western universities other than the 'traditional' one--that is, an uninterrupted path from school to university--face greater challenges to their democratic participation in higher education than their "traditional" counterparts. Until recently, universities have predominantly expected students with…

The Skills for Jobs White Paper and funding and accountability consultation set out the Government's plans to introduce a greater focus on the outcomes of learning, including a new Skills Measure that looks at the employment and other outcomes that learners achieve. Will this give colleges and providers greater freedom to deliver for learners, or…

This paper investigates increases in the identification of special educational needs in the New South Wales (NSW) government school system over the last two decades, which are then discussed with senior public servants working within the NSW Department of Education and Communities (DEC). Participant narratives indicate deep structural barriers to…

The "Disability Standards for Education 2005" (the Standards) are subordinate legislation to the "Disability Discrimination Act 1992" (the DDA). They do not create new obligations, but seek to clarify education providers' responsibilities under the DDA and ensure that students with disability can access and participate in…

Internationally, Australia's tertiary education system, comprising the higher education and vocational education and training (VET) sectors, is highly regarded, with both sectors subject to ongoing national review and reforms. This paper explores in detail the multiple issues that lie at what might be termed the "boundaries and…

The effect of technology-enhanced learning (TEL) strategies in higher education has arguably been transformative despite the not-insignificant barriers existing in this context. Throughout the discourse very little attention has been paid to those primarily responsible for this implementation--academic teaching staff. This paper aims to highlight…

Within this article, we thematically present common challenges associated with the role of the rural principal. In this literature review, we delimit our search to work published from 2003-2013. A limitation of this study is that it represents data predominantly from American, Canadian, and Australian rural settings, restricting a global…

Teacher appraisal is viewed by bureaucrats as a means of effecting organisational change in schools. It is for this reason that educational policy leaders have turned to technical competency as a way of accounting for teachers' performance in classrooms. In other words, teachers' work is now subject to minute scrutiny by the observation of…

Response to Intervention (RTI) is a popular if controversial initiative developed largely in the USA, but which is, as yet, little known in general education in Australia. However, this may change given the increased attention to accountability in recent times. The national NAPLAN and international PISA assessments are leading to pressure being…

As we navigate through a new form of economic era where science, technology, knowledge and services will replace consumer goods as drivers of growth, and the workplace will increasingly value creative abilities, there appears a need for an educational paradigm shift. However, within an Australian context of increasing school accountability, a…