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.…

Challenges two assumptions of the Gerbner cultivation analysis: that commercial television content is uniform in its symbolic messages about society's values, and that television viewing is habitual (ritual) rather than selective. Overall, both assumptions are found flawed; discarding them, however, serves to strengthen rather than weaken the…

It is argued that ethics should be taught in general and subject-specific curricula in Australian universities and that recent developments in Australia give ethics-enhanced priority. Current initiatives and specific administrative and instructional issues are discussed. An interdisciplinary approach to applied ethics instruction is advocated over…

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,…

Reports an examination of the social values of senior students in a high school with a culturally and linguistically diverse population in South Australia. Social-value patterns were determined using the Schwartz Values Questionnaire and compared with those of a control group of Australian-born students of Australian parents from culturally and…

Dominant academic narratives about "the body" occur within two major camps. The first is derived from "classical social theory", and takes a macroscopic focus. The contrasting perspective is what Sharp ("Extended forms of the social", "Arena Journal", 1, pp. 221-237, 1993) refers to as "post-classical…

In September 1999, over 3000 Australian students in 115 schools representing all schooling sectors participated in the Australian component of the IEA Civic Education study. In this paper, the focus in particular is on Australian students' democratic values and on their attitudes towards participation and social action. The results suggest that…

This paper reports a three-year study of Praxis Inquiry based developments in teacher education undertaken by an international consortium of university colleagues who have worked in Australia, Iceland, Latvia, and the United Kingdom. Our study suggests that the attainment of inclusive community responsive pedagogies--in schools and in teacher…

Australian aboriginal unemployment stands at somewhere between 45 percent and 80 percent, a situation caused, according to certain observers, by aboriginal attitudes and values regarding work and by educational disadvantage, not by anything in the working environment. According to this view, aborigines are said to be lacking in motivation, to…

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)

This paper describes a Community Links Program (CLP) which preservice teachers completed as part of their third year early childhood Bachelor of Education course. The study examined preservice teachers' perceptions of the effectiveness of the CLP in challenging them to reflect on their values and beliefs and in preparing them for teaching. It…

This paper reports on the objectives and specifications of an "educative leadership" project that aims to synthesize experience, research, and theory and to develop complementary inservice and postgraduate learning materials. Researchers and theorists are now addressing the lack of philosophical machinery in educational administration.…