How might fourth graders address the problem of measuring the size of a leaf? And why might their classroom teachers choose such a shape to measure? One group of fourth-grade students in an urban Australian school were interested in knowing the sizes of leaves on a passionfruit vine growing at their school. The children were excited after a visit…

Public schools have a mandate to educate children in a way that is safe, effective, and cost efficient. The risks involved in achieving that mandate have become increasingly complex, and the need to manage those risks has never been greater. The emergence of widespread, interconnected risks, such as cyber risks and data management, infrastructure…

Universities face increasing pressure not only to embed interprofessional education within health education curricula but also to prepare graduates as catalysts of change for interprofessional, team-based approaches to health care delivery. Currently, few leadership programmes exist that support the expansion of interprofessional education. This…

Fine art education provides students with opportunities to acquire knowledge and skills to respond creatively to their experience of society and culture. Fostering creative ways of knowing, thinking and doing requires studio learning conditions that promote the exploration of embodied perceptions, material sensibilities and conceptual ideas that…

This paper draws on David Harvey's theories of absolute and relational space in order to critique geographically bound school choices of the gentrified middle-class in the City of Melbourne, Australia. The paper relies on interviews with inner-city school choosers as generated by a longitudinal ethnographic school choice study. I argue that the…

Pre-service teachers need to be prepared to teach in both rural and urban contexts. Preparation to teach multi-grade classes in rural schools is excellent preparation for teaching any class, including urban single-grade classes. Based on our previous research and experience, we designed a unit to prepare our pre-service teachers for the issues…

Multilingual classrooms are the normal learning contexts for most children throughout the world. However not all such contexts are identical. This distinction is not always made in the literature. In this paper the multilingual context for classrooms in many urban classrooms in Australia is described before exploring a possible model that might be…

"MyScience" ("www.myscience.edu.au") is a pioneering primary science initiative that uses a distinctive team approach, with primary teachers, primary students and volunteer mentor scientists working collaboratively as students conduct authentic scientific investigations to find answers to their own questions. The initiative is…

From 1999-2005, the Mathematics in Indigenous Contexts (MIC) project was implemented by the Board of Studies, New South Wales (NSW), in conjunction with the NSW Department of Education and Training, and academics from two universities. MIC project members worked with schools and communities at two sites: a primary school in an urban community in…

The driving premise of this paper is that students should be schooled in built and natural environments that afford them ways of understanding of how their daily physical actions and social choices affect the earth. Views of prominent philosophers and scholars in support of this premise are described. Next, four cases illustrate how schools can…

"Which school should I choose for my child?" For many parents, this question is one of the most important of their lives. "School choice" is a slogan being voiced around the globe, conjuring images of a marketplace with an abundance of educational options. Those promoting educational choice also promise equality, social…

This paper describes an approach to urban renewal, called the Multi-Function Polis (MFP), which emphasizes education as a key factor in a renewal process that includes development of 21st century industries such as information technology, telecommunications, and environmental management. Focusing on Adelaide, Australia, as an example, the paper…

Despite calls for a more nuanced approach to issues of gender and equity that recognizes how broader relations of gender and power continue to produce injustices for many females, essentialized accounts expressing concern about boys' poor educational performance remain the most common refrain in dominant equity discourses across Western contexts.…

This paper discusses representations of women teachers' work in early twentieth-century state schools, especially well-qualified and experienced women who taught in the city of Adelaide, South Australia. While there is a range of discourses that could be applied to these members of the profession, the paper focuses on three discourses in…

In this article, the author reports findings from a project designed to explore approaches for improving students' mathematical learning outcomes in relation to the base ten number system. The project explored the role of a commonly used teaching activity, referred to in the project as the "base ten game," in developing children's…