Belinda Tynan

Negotiating the university research culture: collaborative voices of new academics

This paper contributes to the wider discussion of the collaborative research process and the situation of new academics in the early stages of their research careers. It draws on our lived experience through several collaborative research projects and is descriptive and autobiographical in nature. As such, it provides an opportunity for our voices as female academics to be heard in a different way. We suggest that collaborative research can both enhance research skills and empower early career researchers (particularly female academics). Further, we reassert the importance of collaborative research at a time when higher education policy has tended to encourage individualism and competition between researchers. As a methodology to reflect purposefully on our lived experience as co‐researchers, we have used a qualitative design based on collaborative memory work. From the evidence presented in our stories, we have made some suggestions for developing successful collaborative research partnerships, both for individuals and institutions.

Individual Perseverance: A theory of home tutors' management of schooling in isolated settings

This article reports a study of parents’ management of the education of primary school‐aged children in their care in remote and rural locations of Western Australia. It presents a theory of the ways in which these parents, in the role of home tutors, “manage” the schooling of their children in a distance education regime in isolated settings. The home tutors in this study were mothers in families isolated by physical distance from centres in Western Australia, which usually provide educational, medical, financial, and retail services. In this environment, at the time of data collection, schooling was supported by print, that is, “sets” of learning materials, and by a regular schedule of interactive lessons through Schools of the Air when atmospheric conditions permitted. The conditions of outback Western Australia “present some of the worst conditions for use of electronic equipment” (Tomlinson, Schooling in rural Western Australia: The ministerial review of schooling in rural Western Australia. Perth, Australia: Education Department of Western Australia, 1994, p. 91). Moreover, the nature of station life on isolated sheep or cattle properties (stations) is such that mothers frequently have multiple and sometimes conflicting roles (that is, cook, housekeeper, station hand, business partner, accountant, first aid officer, wife, mother, and teacher). This qualitative study was concerned with how parents “manage” their schoolroom work as “home tutors,” using grounded theory techniques for gathering and analysing data. The term “manage” comes from the theoretical framework of symbolic interaction (Blumer, Symbolic interactionism: Perspective and method. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1969), and in this article refers specifically to the ways in which the home tutors juggle their multiple roles.

Preliminary findings: early childhood student teachers' perception of their confidence and competence

Abstract The purpose of this pilot study was to examine early childhood student teachers’ perceptions of their confidence and competence in the subject areas of the New Zealand Curriculum Framework (NZCF). The preliminary findings are presented from an analysis of questionnaires, testing and focus group interviews. Study design and methods of collecting data are detailed. The students indicated their own perceptions of their confidence and competence in various subject areas and three influences bcame apparent from their responses. Teacher educators may find these preliminary results informative and instructive for the design of preservice early childhood education programmes.

Global Challenges and Perspectives in Blended and Distance Learning

Global Challenges and Perspectives in Blended and Distance Learning highlights the perspectives, challenges, and current practices within higher and distance education around the world. This reference source brings together a unique view of global research essential for academics, managers and leaders, researchers, and practitioners for a timely view of research themes in higher education and distance education.