Educational research has long been the subject of lively and agitated debate, not least because of its diversity. Ranging in scope from academic development and broad-scale policy research through to student engagement and discipline-specific research, it includes methods of traditional academic inquiry and investigations and also less traditional…

Processes of national research assessment, such as Excellence in Research for Australia (ERA) are a type of audit technology that confronts and steers established institutional identities and traditions. This nexus between policy and practice drives boundary work that diffracts prevailing policy logics, organisational practices, and habits of…

Three education-related organisations have been communicating for years about working together to enhance the relationship between teaching, teacher education and research. The current policy context surrounding teaching in Australia is clearly one that calls for greater alignment across all components and stages of the teaching profession,…

Research assessment exercises aim to identify research quantity and quality and provide insights into research capacity building strategies for the future. Yet with limited knowledge of the ecology of Australian educational research, there is little chance of understanding what research audits might contribute towards a capacity building agenda…

This paper argues for approaches to research methodologies that interrupt the machinic metaphors and relationships for living circulating in so much VET research. Using the schematic of "cyborg as a figuration" and Wilson's (2009) four epistemological interventions (witnessing, situating, diffracting, acquiring) the authors practice a form of…

The Adult Literacy and Numeracy Australian Research Consortium (ALNARC) received sponsored research funding to study adult literacy and numeracy, network with field-based stakeholders, and disseminate findings. It studied these three layers of participant involvement and response to the sponsored research program: research leaders; sponsored…

The issue of how the outcomes of research on vocational education and training (VET) are influenced by categories that frame thinking about research and learning was explored. Special attention was paid to the following issues: (1) the role of researchers' culture and race in identification of adult learning principles; (2) the need for…