This study explores the language habitus and practices in one Vietnamese immigrant family in Melbourne. It contributes to research on family language policy in multicultural contexts. Using a Bourdieusian framework to explore the interrelationships between language beliefs, practices and management in a nuanced way, the article discusses how the…

The calls for family-school partnerships have been strong within the literature and educational policy within Australia, however, there is little research that demonstrates what such partnerships might look like. Much of the research demonstrates a one-way street approach where schools focus on educating families, particularly parents, to build…

Families are children's first and most important teachers. However, their ability to support children's learning and development at home varies due to knowledge, skills, and confidence. Family interventions aimed at increasing parents' skills are labour-intensive and expensive. In contrast, text messages are low-cost and scalable. Text messages…

Background: Historically the voices of people with intellectual disability have been occluded by barriers imposed by research practice. More recently, adaptive research approaches have been proposed to enhance the inclusion of people with intellectual disability in qualitative research. Method: This article presents an adaptive interviewing…

Autistic children commonly experience mealtime difficulties; however, it is unknown what makes an effective transdisciplinary mealtime service for autistic children. This study used a realist evaluation framework to explore caregivers' and therapists' perceptions of the contexts, mechanisms and associated outcomes of a transdisciplinary mealtime…

This cross-sectional quantitative study investigated parents' perceptions of the quality of family-centered practice in an early intervention service for young children who are deaf or hard of hearing through the use of the Measures of Processes of Care (MPOC-56). The results indicated that the majority of families accessing the service were…

This paper presents a small-scale Critical Participatory Action Research (CPAR) study, investigating school leaders' efforts to enhance families' engagement in their children's learning, through classroom teachers' use of social media. The study occurred within three Australian primary schools, situated within a culturally and linguistically…

Background and aims: Participatory research involves academic partners working together with the community that is affected by research to make decisions about that research. Such approaches often result in research that is more respectful of, and responsive to, community preferences -- and is vital in the context of autism research with…

Background: Through the filtering of information, the creation, and reinforcement of stereotypes, media moulds attitudes and set agendas on critical social issues including public policy and disability. Methods: This study explored Australian media representations of the care of people with intellectual disability during a crucial period in…

This national study explored the role of digital technologies in early childhood education and care settings and whether they could contribute to quality improvement as reported by educators and assessors of quality in Australia. In this paper, data from Stage 2 of the Quality Improvement Research Project were used, which comprised 60 Quality…

The COVID-19 pandemic has created significant challenges for Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) services and families, impacting family access to services and their communication and engagement with educators. This study aimed to examine parents' perspectives of family engagement with ECEC services during the pandemic. Primary caregivers in…

An approach to action research of innovative and disruptive socioecological understandings of young people's wellbeing, resilience, and engagement in middle school was piloted with a coalition of school principals, lead teachers, police, and community development professionals by an RMIT research team. This coalition was built around the…

Currently, an almost exclusively female workforce provides the government mandated adult supervision of Australian primary and secondary school students enrolled in distance education, including geographically isolated learners. These Remote Education Tutors (RETs) include unpaid family support providers and externally employed governesses and…

Deciding on an educational setting for children who are deaf or hard of hearing (DHH) is a complex process that is not well understood. In the present study, the researchers' objective was to understand the factors caregivers consider when choosing a school for their child. Six caregivers of children who were DHH participated in semistructured…

This research considers strategies used by school leaders to engage, involve, and support families and local communities to assist their children to become more able readers. Data were collected from five case study schools in Tasmania where participants had attended the Principals as Literacy Leaders (PALL) program. The data shows that principals…