Children's transition to school has been widely investigated, but most studies do not clearly define its starting point. By drawing on the cultural-historical concept of the social situation of development, and selecting 'role adjustment' as the unit of analysis, this paper seeks to clearly define the starting point of children's transition to…

There is a consensus that the crises children encounter during the transition period might impact negatively on children's learning and development. However, from cultural-historical perspective, qualitative leap in development can hardly be achieved without crises. This paper, drawing upon cultural-historical theory as the framework and by using…

Social adjustment is one of the most difficult and long-lasting challenges for international students who study in a new country. This paper uses a case study of cooperative painting activity conducted in Australian setting, in which two Chinese and three other students from different countries participated, in order to assess the efficiency of…

Many overseas trained teachers migrate to Australia in search of different lifestyles. In their endeavour to find suitable teaching positions in public secondary schools, overseas trained teachers often confront multiple challenges. This study explored the different issues that 12 overseas trained teachers experienced before obtaining a teaching…

Australia is a country of ongoing migration that embraces diversity, creative expression and cultural activity. Membership of community music groups by older people can enhance life quality, and may provide a space through which cultural and linguistic identity may be shared and celebrated. This qualitative phenomenological case study explores…

This paper reports on a qualitative research study exploring the socialisation experiences of immigrant secondary mathematics teachers practising in Australia. Teacher perception of differences in the ways their respective home and the Australian (host) cultures value aspects of mathematics teaching and learning was observed to lead to dissonance.…