This article explores factors contributing to unequal patterns of access to languages other than English (LOTE) in Australian universities. A critical analysis of qualitative and quantitative data generated through interviews, surveys and document analysis reveals that underrepresentation in LOTE courses in Australian universities is attributable…

Attempts to make higher education more equitable more readily succeed at the aggregate (sector) level than at the institutional, with students from disadvantaged groups being overrepresented in low-status institutions. It is suggested that this is because policies of "fairness" (i.e. proportional representation) dominate the contemporary…

Israeli students ranked in the bottom third of the countries surveyed by PISA 2012 in mathematical literacy, while the gap between the highest and lowest scores was the second largest in the OECD. This paper explores which variables led to disparities in mathematical literacy between different socioeconomic levels and between Israeli Arabs and…

This article investigates the consequences of an expansion of domestic university places in Australia after 2009 for inequalities in access to tertiary education. I focused on how different individual-level socioeconomic factors were influencing not only the likelihood of continuing education at the tertiary level but also a type of institution…

The purpose of this study was to compare students' and teachers' perceptions of differentiated practices, student engagement, and the qualities of an effective teacher by fostering student voice. Participants included 802 students and 867 teachers from Northern Sydney government schools in Australia. The researcher used a convergent parallel mixed…

What is it that teacher-educators "do"? This paper draws on interview data with Deans/Heads of Schools of Education in the Australian context to explore this question by asking: How is the teacher-educator produced as a category of academic worker? Using critical approaches to discourse analysis, the paper presents two interlocked…

The intersection of sport and education is a potentially powerful site for the production of class and gender. This paper examines how the relationship between sport and education can also serve to (re)produce ideas about "race". Drawing on research conducted during my time as a coach of the first XV rugby team at an elite private school…

This article reports the findings of a study on the nature of parent-school engagement at an academically selective public high school in New South Wales, Australia. Such research is pertinent given recent policies of "choice" and decentralization, making a study of local stakeholders timely. The research comprised a set of interviews…

Current selection test procedures for any higher-learning program rely on evidence of attainment in a specific domain (Gagné, 1995; Boyle & Radocy, 1987; Subotnik, & Jarvin, 2005). Pertinent to the assessment and selection of gifted young musicians for elite programs is the notion of obvious talent being due to all or a combination of…

In this paper we offer a unique contribution to understandings of schooling as a site for the production of social class difference. We bring together the rich body of work that has been conducted on middle-class educational identities, with explorations of the centrality of the feminine in representations of class difference from the field of…

This comparative analysis investigates the influence of neo-liberal and inclusive discourses in "special" education policy-making in New South Wales, Scotland, Finland and Malaysia. The centrality of competition, selectivity and accountability in the discourses used in New South Wales and Malaysia suggests a system preference for…

This article explores parents' use of private tutoring services for their primary school children in Sydney, Australia's largest city. Using Bernstein's theories of invisible and visible pedagogies, we look, through the eyes of a small group of middle-class Chinese-background interviewees, at the tensions between certain pedagogic forms associated…

How are elite schools caught up in the changing processes of globalisation? Is globalisation a new phenomenon for them? This paper focuses on the globalising practices that selected elite schools adopt. It also explores how globalisation is impacting on the social purposes of elite schools, which conventionally have been to serve privileged social…

This paper examines the relative merits of early and delayed offer schemes in attracting under-represented students to university. Following the introduction of a demand-driven system and the establishment of national growth and equity targets, Australian universities have increased the number of offers made to students before the release of…

The reciprocal effects model (REM) predicts a reciprocal relation between academic self-concept and academic achievement, whereby prior academic self-concept is associated with future gains in achievement, and prior achievement is related to subsequent academic self-concept. Although research in this area has been extensive, there has been a…