Religious education leaders promote the religious identity of the school as well as foster a sense of connectedness through building school community. However, these leaders who play a key role in this area are at times the ones who feel the least connected to the school community and are more likely than other leaders to resign from the position…

Education plays an important role in the successful settlement and life outcomes of young people from refugee backgrounds. Because of this, research into young people from refugee backgrounds in education systems tends to focus on examples of "good practice" in terms of how these young people experience education. Yet, examples of good…

Arts programs are increasingly recognized for their role in promoting student development and cohesive school communities. Yet, most Australian schools are left to navigate a landscape characterized by shifting policy goals and external providers of diverse quality and intent. Drawing on interviews with 27 stakeholders from 19 Catholic primary…

This paper analyses the composition, distribution, and history of school funding in Australia through a spatial lens (Soja 2010). We explore multi-scalar school funding policy through three layers of economic maldistribution. We sketch the funding disparities between the three school sectors (public, Catholic, and independent) exposing a spatial…

This book arose from commissioned research by the National Catholic Education Commission (NCEC) on the alignment and effectiveness of 'A Framework for Formation for Mission in Catholic Education' (NCEC, 2017). It articulates contemporary best practice, and traces the experience of the Catholic Church in pursuing formation as integral to mission.…

The OECD's PISA is seen as a 'global yardstick' against which countries measure the quality of their education systems. In 2018 PISA included an assessment of global competence. This paper starts with the premise that in using a single global instrument to 'measure' this phenomenon, PISA claims standardisation over contextually rich data that can…

This study examines the factors that shape secondary schools' offerings of academic curricula. While academic curricula provide many benefits to individuals and the larger society, inequalities in opportunities to study these subjects may exist between schools, even in comprehensive secondary education systems. We examine the Australian case as a…

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…

In Australia, there is a national education agenda for school improvement with an increasing focus on how school leaders can fulfil this agenda. As school principals are arguably faced with increasing demands, the importance of school middle leaders is increasing. This article presents the initial findings from a larger project on middle…

This paper claims a central role for school leaders (principals or head-teachers) in the enactment of social justice policy in schools, who act as key agents or 'gate keepers' for what counts as social justice in their contexts of practice. Social justice means different things in different contexts depending on where leaders -- who use policy as…

This paper reports an investigation of values-driven system led policy reform in a Catholic Education Diocese which serves a diverse Australian education community of historically marginalised students, families and communities. The research focused on the development and progressive implementation of a centrally designed, innovative model of…

Assuming religious education to be the same as other subject areas of a Catholic school's curriculum by, for example, applying the outcomes based philosophy and language of other subject areas to religious education renders a category mistake. A prominent notion in the work of metaphysical philosopher Gilbert Ryle, a category mistake arises when…

Student participation at school is receiving heightened attention through international evidence connecting it to a range of benefits including student learning, engagement, citizenship and wellbeing, as well as to overall school improvement. Yet the notion of student participation remains an ambiguous concept, and one that challenges many deeply…

Purpose: Through discussion of research about the leadership of two schools, this paper explores the complexity of school leadership and how various contextual elements interact with the work of principals in schools that are attempting to create inclusive, rich, worthwhile and unique schools. A systems thinking leadership and context model is…

This paper examines prime minister Robert Menzies decision to support science education in Australian schools in 1963. This was a landmark shift in policy for the federal government, but in many ways mirrors the decision of Eisenhower who brought down the National Defense Education Act (NDEA) in 1958. The paper uses a transnational approach to…