This project is focused on the second element noted by the Australian Industry Skills Committee (AISC) to streamline the national vocational education and training (VET) system so that it can better respond to the needs of industry -- faster development of qualifications. It looks at the vocational qualification development processes in different…

This paper reports on the findings from a survey of academics responsible for undergraduate programmes in English and examines the extent to which they were aware of recent reform of A level English and had made, or are making, changes to their courses as a result. Our findings demonstrate that relatively low numbers felt that they had a strong…

Social demand for higher education has more than doubled in the past 20 years. However, only one-third of all countries' higher education systems are enrolling more than 50% of the traditional age cohort. Despite major advancements in achieving higher levels of access and participation, inequalities and inequities in higher education persist and…

Languages sit firmly in the skill-set of the 21st-century graduate. In an increasingly multicultural and multilingual job market, monolingual graduates are at a disadvantage: as the recent Born Global report (2016) notes, "multilingualism has now become the new normal". The contributions in this collection are imbued with this idea and…

Schools are currently being asked to collaborate and compete with each other. Britain's 1988 Education Reform Act and the Technical and Vocational Initiative (TVEI) seem to promote conflicting school development models. This paper explores these policies' background and investigates how one TVEI cluster is responding to this challenge. Conclusions…

The "T-MEDIA" project analysed and documented how teachers exploit the use of projection technologies--data projectors and interactive whiteboards (IWBs)--to support learning in secondary-school subject lessons. The research involved collaboration between university researchers and four pairs of UK teachers (of English, mathematics,…

Examines head teachers' accounts of the extent and significance of interschool networking between primary schools, secondary schools, and across the primary/secondary divide, in five groups of schools in the United Kingdom. Analyzes the types of collaboration and the tension between conflict and collaboration for schools within the networks.…

Only in the last few years have researchers in the United Kingdom focused their attention upon improving "failing" or "ineffective" schools. While there is much contemporary interest in schools in difficulty, few research studies have focused exclusively upon leadership practices and approaches. This study's prime aim was to…

A study examined the practical issues involved in providing continuity/progression for students who had undertaken General National Vocational Qualifications (GNVQs) and National Vocational Qualifications (NVQs) programs at key stage 4 of the British National Curriculum, and who were moving on to further study in post-16 colleges. Data were…

Discusses findings from the Successful Schools Project, a two-year national project involving 10 secondary schools in England and Wales which aimed to identify strategies for involving parents in their adolescents' education. Describes three elements critical to the development and maintenance of school-family partnerships at the secondary level:…

Discusses the subtle and not-so-subtle ways in which science department heads (HoDs) encourage optimal work from a traditional mix of teachers. (Author/WRM)

A major in-depth study reveals major weaknesses in the links between schools and the careers service. Career officers are often so marginalized that the quality of career guidance offered to pupils is undermined. The British government's plans to place the career service under Training and Enterprise Councils control might hinder awareness of the…

The concept of secondary teacher training as a partnership between schools and higher education was formalized in Great Britain during the early 1990s. This paper considers how aspects of this new policy are working in the context of the Post Graduate Certificate of Education course, highlighting the partnership concept and individual…

Interviews with 58 parents (71% working class) and 15 teachers in a British secondary school suggested that working-class parents were committed to children's education but view school as separate from their everyday culture. Parents and teachers viewed their roles as a division of labor, reinforcing parents' view of teachers as professional…

Outlines findings from study funded by the National College for School Leadership that explored effective leadership in a group of secondary schools in challenging circumstances. Highlights the key characteristics and features of leadership approaches adopted, and argues that the heads in the study operated a shared or distributed model of…