For the last two decades, the Australian Federal Government has taken responsibility for funding disability employment services, and the states and territories are responsible for accommodation, respite, and community access services (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, 2004-2011). Replacing the existing Commonwealth State Territory…

An overview of positive and negative potential effects of the setting of compulsory exit-level standards in literacy and numeracy for students completing their final years of schooling is presented. The overview rests on studies completed primarily outside Australia, reflecting the reality of such practices not having been implemented widely in…

In this article we address several tensions and dilemmas that are impacting on Australian principals and other school leaders. The first section explores areas associated with improving teaching and learning and includes discussion of education trends, the construction of new learning environments and the implication of these for more…

Federal and State Government policies and curricula mandate the uptake of emergent digital technologies within schools. Recent research focusing on the propagation of adolescent-produced sexual images via digital technologies, more commonly known as sexting, highlights the need for an examination of the risks associated with the use of digital…

Education is facing significant political and contextual challenges that will impact its future. This study employs a Delphi methodology to investigate teacher educators' views of current trends and their consequences for teacher education futures. Interviews were conducted with a sample of expert teacher educators drawn from eight countries. This…

Background: Many in education argue for the importance of incorporating teacher judgements in the assessment and reporting of student performance. Advocates of such an approach are cognisant, though, that obtaining a satisfactory level of consistency in teacher judgements poses a challenge. Purpose: This study investigates the extent to which the…

While the introduction of NAPLAN in 2008 has always been a source of contention for many teachers, and is regarded by some as an expression of bureaucratic control and therefore a challenge to professional autonomy, the development of the My School Website provided a more serious threat. This publication of school performances is viewed by many…

Higher education policies related to quality assurance are implemented in many countries. The purposes of such policies are to ensure the provision for high-quality education, university accountability and transparency in the use of public funding and meeting the needs of the diverse stakeholders. The current Australian Higher Education Quality…

Impending changes in Australian education brings forth the expected transformation of teachers working in schools. Three key points for transforming Australian schools has been identified by Gillard (2008a) including the improvement of quality teaching, ensuring every child benefits and mandating transparency and accountability. A number of…

The National Assessment Program--Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN)--is conducted through standardized tests that are administered to all Australian students in Years 3, 5, 7, and 9. It was implemented in 2008 by the same Labor government that introduced My School (www.myschool.edu.au). Enjoying bipartisan political support and popular with the public…

The renewal of quality assurance in Australian higher education comes at a time when the higher education sectors in Australia and around the world are experiencing a number of key challenges. These include: ongoing decline in public funding of universities; the massification of higher education and demand for it during global recession;…

This essay is a critique of the scientific and policy rationales for transnational standardization. It analyzes two examples of policy export: early childhood standards in one of North America's oldest Indigenous communities and the ongoing development of international standards for university teaching. It examines calls for American education to…

This paper explores the nature of teachers' professional development (PD) practices in special needs/special education settings in Australia under current neoliberal and managerial conditions. The research is based on individual interviews with teachers from a juvenile justice centre and a dedicated special needs school in a regional city in the…

This paper explores Rizvi and Lingard's (2010) idea of the "local vernacular" of the global education policy trend of using high-stakes testing to increase accountability and transparency, and by extension quality, within schools and education systems in Australia. In the first part of the paper a brief context of the policy trajectory…

Large-scale school/university partnerships for the enhancement of teacher professionalism and teacher professional learning have been part of the teacher development landscape in Australia for the past two decades. This paper takes a historical perspective on Australian school/university partnerships through detailing three national projects over…