The aim of this research is to investigate the intergenerational changes that have occurred in Australian Jewish day schools and the challenges these pose for religious and Jewish education. Using a grounded theory approach according to the constant comparative method (Strauss 1987), data from three sources (interviews [296], observations [27],…

This article looks at the gender dimension of religious missions administered by the Presbyterian Church in the inland Australia as represented in Beth Beckett's life memoir written in 1947-1955. It is aimed at obtaining general ideas on the involvement of women, as the wives of missionaries. Focusing on the experience of Beth Beckett, it argues…

A discussion about the current state of special education, more specifically the field of emotional and behavior disabilities (EBD), in Australia cannot take place without first providing an overview of the Australian education system. Education comes under the jurisdiction of state and territory responsibility. The federal government coordinates…

At the University of New England in the rural town of Armidale, Australia, preservice teachers undertake courses in contextual studies in education, introducing the idea that context frames the curriculum. Some students, however, struggle to appreciate the relationship between curriculum and context, principally because socioeconomic dynamics and…

High fee-charging non-government schools for boys comprise a small but significant sector of the Australian schooling market. In different ways in different historical periods these schools have represented themselves as being concerned with more than just an instrumental or utilitarian education, making both explicit and implicit claims about the…

This study investigated the contributions peer review makes to the formation of preservice teachers of religious education within the context of Christian higher education. The participants were postgraduate students undertaking a preservice teacher training course at Australian Catholic University, Australia (Melbourne campus). Those training to…

The paper draws initially on theoretical literature describing schools and universities as, necessarily, dialogic learning communities, which is then applied to an investigation into the use of peer review in teacher education in an Australian university. The empirical research described was completed with pre-service teachers of religious…

This article focuses on the continuing impact of recuperative masculinity politics in the schooling of economically advantaged boys (elite and middle class); yet, it also indicates resistance to this politics. An understanding that the gender order is unstable and that variants of hegemonic masculinity continue to morph in the context of…

The impetus for curriculum change should ultimately be to improve student learning. Implementing change can be very stressful and diminish a teachers' sense of well-being and thereby minimise the chances of successful or effective change. Drawing on a recent study that investigated how faculty leaders managed curriculum change in religious…

Integration or connectedness between faith and learning is a core aim of Protestant evangelical colleges and universities. It is pursued in a number of different ways in the academic programs of these institutions, even in commercially oriented courses that they offer, such as graphic design. However, the different ways that practical and…

Teaching is emotional work. This is especially the case in the first years of teaching when new teachers are particularly vulnerable. By understanding changes in teacher emotions in the early years of teaching, we hope to identify strategies that might ultimately reduce teacher attrition. As part of a larger study of the transition of new teachers…

In an educational environment it was recently found that some faculty leaders of religious education managed curriculum change by paying attention to the spiritual dimension in order to help teachers to engage in implementing change. Attention to the spiritual dimension in this context provided opportunities for those likely to be alienated by…

This paper looks at the role participatory action research played in beginning curriculum conversations in sexual health for young Australian Muslims. Sexual health education has been the cause of much dissension among the local, national and international Muslim community. There is also a general lack of consensus in many Australian Islamic…

This paper explores a number of examples of what appeared to be recurring symbolic expressions of spirituality found in my recent research into the spiritual experiences of children in Victorian State primary schools. These expressions appeared in drawings and in conversation. In this paper I use hermeneutic phenomenology and a multidisciplinary…

The latter part of the twentieth century saw huge movements of people across many areas of the globe through government-organized migration programs, through extended career pathways, and through the growing numbers of refugees and displaced persons as a result of war, famine, drought and other devastating scenarios. This has led to the rise of…