Using auto-ethnography, I write my story as Mexican international student in the role of pre-service teacher in Australia. I focus on exploring my socio-political status and its relationship to assuming a position to respond to education policies about working with students from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander backgrounds, and teaching…

The recent review of Australian Curriculum represents an opportunity to significantly change the teaching of primary mathematics in Australia and perhaps elsewhere. The current curriculum document presents content in a linear and compartmentalized manner that dominates its structure and doesn't explicitly accentuate the links and connections found…

This article presents the authors' critique of lessons proposed by the Partnership for 21st Century Skills (P21). The authors initiate a discussion about content that they hope will play out in schoolhouses and statehouses across the country. They take on a different task: they present a handful of lesson ideas from P21 that could enhance studies…

It is argued that religious studies, offered in Australian public schools, are justified for their value in a liberal arts education, particularly as they support examination of three principles: skepticism, exclusivity, and relativism. These criteria are applied in assessment of religious education in New South Wales, Queensland, and Victoria.…

In the latter part of last year a Macquarie University academic aroused outrage with his comments over the supposed links between race and criminality. For his colleagues and the union alike, the case provided a difficult example of the clash of shared academic values and the right to speak. Here four participants in the controversy-- from NTEU's…

The questions of the range of appropriate offerings for the secondary curriculum is a subject of much debate in Australia. The legitimacy of women's studies is examined, as well as ways in which women's studies might be offered in the secondary school curriculum. (RM)

A literacy teacher discusses how she raised with her class the issues surrounding Pauline Hanson, an Australian Member of Parliament opposed to multiculturalism. She describes how she used the opportunity to discuss differences between fact and opinion, as well as racism. (SK)

This paper is concerned with placing conflict resolution and nonviolent alternatives firmly at the center of peace education. A brief review of theoretical tendencies in peace education in Australia is offered, and how this is consonant with, and different from, what is actually taught in Australian schools. Some discussion also is given about the…

This comparison is based on the authors' selective review of literature, observations of Montessori preschools in America and Australia, and experience in early childhood teacher education in Australia. The discussion explores general educational objectives, curricula, children's activities, instructional approaches, and teacher role in preschools…

Discusses curriculum statements produced in Victoria containing different views on how to teach English. States that the differences are due to the beliefs that either language is learned as a whole and with a purpose, or in parts as directed by the teacher. (EL)

Considers aims of masters degrees in education against background of controversy about distance teaching of such courses; examines components of masters course design via distance teaching experience in Australia and United Kingdom; considers design requirements of the advanced project and specifies necessary support facilities; and describes…

Discusses the nature of information and considers objective versus subjective views of information; examines concepts dealing with information practice, including access to and use of information; and discusses impacts on the education of information professionals based on a course offered at the University of Technology (Australia). (Contains 13…

Outlines the processes undertaken at Kuring-gai College of Advanced Education to identify an appropriate basis for a course to educate information professionals to work in a range of positions inside and outside the library setting. The philosophies, assumptions, and beliefs of the course design team are presented. (Author/CLB)

Describes how James Cook University (Australia) structured feminist cultural studies into a freshman undergraduate course on communications, media, and education. When students were able to "freelance" with media texts, teachers could generate and access student knowledge outside the parameters of normative content and skills set in…

Compares the author's preservice work in second language learning 30 years ago to that undertaken by her students now. Notes that the goal of this education is to inspire in each student a love and respect for language teaching. Reflects on the adaptation of traditional approaches to language teacher education to the needs of preservice students…