Moral (rather than "corporate") accountability in education is essential; so is a human-centered leadership approach. Findings from an Australian study that investigated elementary principals' responsiveness to teachers' learning show how these leaders exercised their moral, professional, and contractual accountability to support a…

This chapter is part narrative and part commentary. In the first part of the chapter, the authors tell the story of their experiences over the past decade in supporting the work of classroom teachers and the systemwide monitoring of student achievement. In the second part of the chapter they reflect on the connections between the pieces of this…

Over the last decade, in both Australia and Britain, universities have been under increasing pressure to make themselves accountable for the extent to which they cultivate in their students transferable skills and "attributes" that will prepare them for the rapidly-changing world of employment. The Government's "Striving for…

Provides case studies of Australian children who fail for social reasons. The role of social factors operating within the schools is stressed along with the lost curriculum. That factors operating in school failure are in fact social problems is suggested. [Available from Publications Branch, Education Department of Victoria, 234 Queensberry…

Through a review of literature on the subject, this paper discusses the dangers of political influence on the demand for educational accountability in Australian schools. Some areas of universities and colleges should remain free from vertical or political accountability, the paper warns. These areas include the values of liberalism and free…

A description of course accreditation in Australian colleges of advanced education considers the development of the present system, procedures followed at state and national levels, strengths and weaknesses of the present system, and possible future directions. A discussion of what accreditation is and what purposes it might achieve and a brief…

Australian education is competing with other areas of government spending for funding, and its advocates must increasingly legitimize their claims. Education decision-makers must work to get as much funding as possible to its programs and ensure that program output accommodates the wishes of those producing them and those funding them. (MSE)

This document is a chapter in "The Principles and Practice of Educational Management," which aims to provide a systematic and analytical introduction to the study of educational management. The structure of the book reflects the main substantive areas of educational leadership and management, and most of the major themes are covered in…

After a comparison of institutional autonomy and government influence patterns in Australian and United States higher education institutions, it is concluded that variety in balances is possible and does exist. These balances can be altered to suit state needs and also free independent institutions for their own purposes. (MSE)

Describes how research training in Australia is shaped by the knowledge economy and emphasis on "fast" supervision that results in timely degree completion. This pressure limits development of subject-specific methods skills, general research skills, and employability skills. Reconfiguration of the research culture may be necessary. (SK)

Australian researchers studied principals' responses to the Principal Performance Appraisal procedure. Interviews and a survey indicated principals were positive about the appraisal process, but they saw a considerable discrepancy between actual and ideal reasons for its introduction. They saw positive benefits if it focused on professional…

It is proposed that, although recent higher education policy in Australia has been criticized for trying to make higher education more accountable, its real flaw is that it took too restricted a view of constituencies, objectives, and procedures, focusing on accountability to the government rather than accountability to the public. (MSE)

Examines Western Australian high-school teachers' receptivity to a systemwide educational change, the use of (mandated) student-outcome statements. Teachers' receptivity is related to their beliefs about the change and to their attitudes and beliefs about its nonmonetary cost benefits, significant- other support, and comparison with the previous…

Discusses issues of accountability for gender reform in education given changing politics accompanying globalization processes. Argues that globalization processes work in contradictory ways. While market liberal ideologies and practices underpinning globalization threaten to undermine gains in educational equity, there may be possibilities for a…

The Victorian Age was a period of great confusion, of great hope and great despair, of a bourgeois assault upon the aristocracy, of an evangelical assault upon the establishment, of the raised voices of the Wesleyans in the Welsh valleys. In Australia, of course it was the threat of the Yellow Peril and of Russian invasion as well as the emerging…