While research into PhD programs and doctoral students' experiences has increased in recent years, fieldwork is overlooked as a source of learning and support. In education, the focus of this paper, fieldwork remains laced with notions of the anthropologist gathering data in a place that is not their own, which narrowly construct the role of the…

When most people think "King Island," they think of a place synonymous with premium Australian dairy products. But hidden away from the lush, green pastures of grazing cows is an island teeming with invertebrate and plant species. You could probably eat some of those too, but that wasn't the intent of the Bush Blitzers who set off to…

This is an inquiry into my experience as a doctoral researcher undertaking an action research/narrative inquiry project investigating the emotion experienced in teacher practice. From the outset, I recognized my position as an active participant of the research -- a protagonist, a story-teller, a listener, a re-teller -- and facilitator. This…

This paper analyzes how knowledge is reproduced as "universal" in contemporary higher education and how this production of universality influences the application of knowledge. Using a case study of clinical psychology, it describes the results of over two years of ethnographic fieldwork in a university and professional settings in…

This paper develops a cosmopolitical approach to multi-species inquiry in environmental education and its associated research. Drawing on Isabelle Stengers' concepts of "etho-ecology" and an "ecology of practices", the paper explores ethical and political questions of what it means to think-with nonhuman animals as sentient…

In qualitative methods, there are various approaches that can be used to answer particular social questions, for example ethnography and case study. Two studies conducted by different researchers in China and Australia using these approaches were described and analysed in order to find out their similarities and differences in terms of…

This paper investigates the teaching of fieldwork skills over the course of a student's geography education from Years 7 to 10. Relevant research is considered, and findings and discussion are drawn from a case study of the fieldwork program at an independent school in Melbourne. The rationale for this study is that a geography teacher will be…

In the wake of policy, technology, and ideological disruptions in Western higher education, it is in universities' interests to improve the quality of their learning and teaching to meet changed expectations. In some countries, particularly anglophone countries such as Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom, the medium for this…

While the importance of ethnographic research in developing new knowledge is widely recognised, there remains minimal detailed description and discussion of the actual practice and processes involved in completing ethnographic fieldwork. The first author's experiences and struggles as an ethnographer of a group of young men from two locations (a…

Plagiarism in higher education is a widespread and complex issue. Students' understanding of plagiarism differs as a result of combining their prior learning about referencing with their current experience of institutional policies and generic resources. Plagiarism was identified as a major learning issue in a core second-year undergraduate…

Research on engineering practice is scarce and sharing of qualitative research data can reduce the effort required for an aspiring researcher to obtain enough data from engineering workplaces to draw generalizable conclusions, both qualitative and quantitative. This paper describes how a large shareable qualitative data set on engineering…

Supporting pre-service teachers as they develop their understandings of teaching, learning and their identities as teachers is complex and multi-faceted work. I draw on self-study to explore my work in a new partnership model between a school in Victoria, Australia and a regional university. During 2013, I worked in both contexts and carried out…

Globally, national curriculum policies are up for renegotiation. These negotiations are shaped by international and national top-down accountability regimes, and an increasing turn towards curriculum centralization and standardization. The new Australian Curriculum (AC) is no exception. The AC is an important educational policy event, one in which…

This paper is the outcome of research conducted between June 2010 and January 2011 as part of understanding the building the education revolution (BER) a major policy initiative of the Australian Federal Government which commenced when Julia Gillard, now PM, was the Federal Minister of Education. The BER policy initiative was part of an economic…

This study analysed the extent to which student-led inquiry is supported by fieldwork booklet design. Roberts' (2003) framework for learning through inquiry was used as lens for analysing the presence of student-led inquiry in the design of nine fieldwork booklets. Observations of teaching practice from two fieldwork activities were also analysed…