Concept maps are used to assess student and cohort learning of sustainable development. The concept maps of 732 first-year engineering students were individually analyzed to detect patterns of learning and areas that were not well understood. Students were given 20 minutes each to prepare a concept map of at least 20 concepts using paper and pen.…

The discourses and practices of neoliberalism, including government policies for education and training, public debates regarding standards and changed funding regimes, have been at work on and in schools in capitalist societies since at least the 1980s. Yet we have been hard pressed to say what neoliberalism is, where it comes from and how it…

The increasing number of families in which both partners work has focused attention on the relationship between work and family environments, and the consequences when employers and employees attempt to balance work and family responsibilities. This qualitative study explored whether the connections between family and work life were identified as…

Response to an article on multiculturalism and the status of community languages in Australia, focusing on issues of language maintenance and shift emerging from the article and adding examples from other countries. Questions addressed include who is responsible for maintaining community languages, which are maintained, how this is done, and why,…

A response to an article on multiculturalism and the status of community languages in Australia makes a distinction between multilingualism and multiculturalism, and in public policy, between respecting and embracing diverse cultures. Multiculturalism and public attitudes about freedom of speech are also examined. (MSE)

Response to an article on multiculturalism and status of community languages in Australia finds three areas in which the author's optimism appears not to be justified: argument that placing economic value on languages automatically works in favor of linguistic minorities; assumption that minority languages all have similar economic value; and…

A response to an article on multiculturalism and the status of community languages in Australia focuses on the issue of "backlash" against public policy for immigrants, and discusses the link between language planning and social planning. The role of elites and "counterelites," interest and pressure groups, in the successful…

A response to an article on multiculturalism and the status of community languages in Australia argues that efforts to maintain any minority language within immigrant communities should be tempered by critical assessment of what is to be achieved, for whom, and why. The original article's author responds. (MSE)

A response to an article on multiculturalism and the status of community languages in Australia focuses on three aspects of the article: (1) proposed links between global capitalism, nation-state development, migration, and language policy; (2) the meaning ascribed to "cultural democracy;" and (3) implications of language policy issues…

This report provides an overview of funding arrangements implemented as a result of the 1992 Australian National Training Authority (ANTA) Agreement. The Agreement sought to establish a unified national system of vocational education and training (VET) with joint Commonwealth, state and territory responsibility. The report discusses the outcomes…

A response to an article on multiculturalism and the status of community languages in Australia looks at the situation in Singapore, in which the government created policy supporting development of selected languages, and examines the positive economic consequences of the policy. Effects on educational and manpower policy are also considered. (MSE)

This paper argues that present institutional settings in rural Australia are inadequate for bringing about a culture that is fair and inclusive. A vision for rural Australia based predominantly on a market economy and its attendant policies and institutions allows the "means" (the market) to determine the ends and may lead to an…

Discusses the status of community languages and school language programs in Australia, amid changing public policy, makes suggestions for managing linguistic diversity, and considers what happens when a community language becomes a desired commodity for the whole population. Considers historical context for development of pluralistic policies in…

Contributors from Australia, Canada, England, New Zealand, and the United States describe how primary-age children in these anglophone countries are learning in the language of their home. The book demonstrates that monolingual schooling in a multicultural society fails to meet the needs of bilingual children. It argues that linguistic minorities…

Until the 1970s, social norms dictated that women provided care for their families and men were employed for pay. The rapid increase in paid work for women has resulted in an untenable model of work and care in which all employees are assumed to be unencumbered with family responsibilities and women who care for their families are dismissed as…