Year 12 students in Big Picture Learning schools across Australia now use portfolios and interviews to apply for and gain entry to their first choice of university degree. They receive admission on the strength of portfolio evidence mapped to a new non-ATAR qualification, known as the International Big Picture Learning Credential (IBPLC). Since…

Parent-generated revenue in public schools, in the form of fee-giving or fundraising, is fast developing as a robust source of financial revenue for public schools in OECD countries. In this paper we draw on a comprehensive empirical dataset of parent-generated financial revenue for public schools located in New South Wales, Australia. We draw on…

The long-term benefits of academically selective schools have not been thoroughly explored in the Australian context. This research draws on data from a longitudinal study of Australian young people (n = 2933) and utilises Nearest-neighbour matching techniques to explore whether individuals who attend academically selective schools have better…

Despite adolescent girls' superior school achievement and high career aspirations, fewer women than men achieve career eminence. Understanding early influences on the development of gifted girls' career-related values and aspirations may help to explain this discrepancy in career outcomes. This article reports findings from a qualitative,…

This paper concerns the pedagogical work affect does in an Australian Year 11 literature classroom. Thinking with Ahmed's framing of affect from the viewpoint of cultural politics, I consider how affect aligns some bodies within particular social groups and situates some outside. Three key moments of affective charge are drawn from observations:…

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to examine whether Australian Islamic schools, by dint of their unique status within Australian private schooling, may be construed as elitist or exclusivist premised on markers such as religious affiliation, school age, history, location, reputation and non-curricular excellences such as affluence and alumni.…

This study examines how access to the academic curriculum creates patterns of inequality in Australian schools. Examining students' access to the academic curriculum gives an indication of how schooling is structured to support students in pursuing higher education opportunities. To date, little research attention has been given to the…

This study compared the profile of those who, after initial failure to be selected, choose to reapply to study medicine with those who did not reapply. It also evaluates the chance of a successful outcome for re-applicants. In 2013, 4007 applicants to undergraduate medical schools in the largest state in Australia were unsuccessful. Those who…

'Asian whiz kids' perfect test scores.' 'Selective schools and tiger parents.' These types of headlines highlight the increased visibility of academically successful students from Asian migrant backgrounds, in Australia and other Western countries. They also point to anxiety about the perceived aggressive 'tiger' parenting often associated with…

Recent rapid increase in the number of Australians of Asian backgrounds has significantly altered the demographic mosaic in schools. This has major ramifications for Australian classrooms with regards to the transnational exchanges now ubiquitous. In response, this paper proposes a view of cosmopolitanism as "transnational literacy" as…

This paper draws upon research into the nature of teachers' learning practices in the context of current policy conditions in the state of Queensland, Australia. The research explores how teachers in one school in the north of the state responded to policy pressure to adopt a specific standardised approach to "explicit teaching",…

Israeli students ranked in the bottom third of the countries surveyed by PISA 2012 in mathematical literacy, while the gap between the highest and lowest scores was the second largest in the OECD. This paper explores which variables led to disparities in mathematical literacy between different socioeconomic levels and between Israeli Arabs and…

This article investigates the consequences of an expansion of domestic university places in Australia after 2009 for inequalities in access to tertiary education. I focused on how different individual-level socioeconomic factors were influencing not only the likelihood of continuing education at the tertiary level but also a type of institution…

The purpose of this study was to compare students' and teachers' perceptions of differentiated practices, student engagement, and the qualities of an effective teacher by fostering student voice. Participants included 802 students and 867 teachers from Northern Sydney government schools in Australia. The researcher used a convergent parallel mixed…

What is it that teacher-educators "do"? This paper draws on interview data with Deans/Heads of Schools of Education in the Australian context to explore this question by asking: How is the teacher-educator produced as a category of academic worker? Using critical approaches to discourse analysis, the paper presents two interlocked…