Bill Atweh

ACTION RESEARCH IN PRACTICE: Partnerships for Social Justice in Education

This book presents a collection of stories from action research projects in schools and a university. This collection is more than simply an illustration of the scope of action research in education - it shows how projects that differ on a variety of dimensions can raise similar themes, problems and issues. The book begins with theme chapters discussing action research, social justice and partnerships in research. The case study chapters cover topics such as: * school environment - how to make a school a healthier place to be * parents - how to involve them more in decision-making * students as action researchers * a state system - a collaborative effort between university staff and a state education department * gender - how to promote gender equity in schools * improving assessment in the social sciences * staff development planning * doing a PhD through action research * writing up action research projects.

Beginning teachers becoming professionals through action research

Abstract This article describes the conduct of and acquired understandings from a study designed to promote the professional growth of a group of beginning primary school teachers through participatory action research. The beginning teachers collaborated with university academic staff during the design and conduct of the study. A key component of the study was the formation of action research cells of participating teachers with each group focusing on particular aspects of teaching, for example, assessment, catering for gifted and talented students, and inclusivity in the classroom teaching programme. The overall findings from the study, from the view of the university researchers, are presented and reflected upon in this article. The implications of using action research for the professional growth of beginning teachers are also discussed.

Students as researchers: engaging students’ voices in PAR

A recent evaluation of a students‐as‐researchers project in Brisbane, Australia found that the use of participatory action research offers a means by which marginalised students, teachers, and university researchers can work collaboratively towards positive outcomes for the participants and their schools. In discussing the relevant theory and the issues identified in focus groups and interviews held with the young researchers, we, firstly, consider the exclusion of some student voices from education discourse. We then identify the features of students as researchers programmes, focusing on the Student Action Research for University Access (SARUA) project, which promote student voice on educational issues. Thirdly, we discuss the outcomes for participating schools in engaging with the students’ voices through the project. Finally, we identify some features of the collaborative relationship that may obstruct genuine collaboration.

Students as Researchers: rationale and critique

The paper explores the background and implementation of a project in which school students researched the factors which affect the decision to remain at school or leave at 16. The two major concerns of the project were equity and access to higher education. It was the result of a collaboration between researchers from the University of Birmingham, school teachers and school students. A critique is offered of the method of students as researchers focusing upon five main issues, organisation, time, equity, research style and clashing cultures.

Mathematics Education in International and Global Contexts

Mathematics education is arguably the most internationalised subject in higher education. This is reflected in the number of international conferences, exchanges and publications in the field. While a number of publications have addressed the internationalisation of mathematics education theory and research, the term globalisation is perhaps less familiar in the mathematics education literature. This chapter presents a theoretical construct towards the study of globalisation and internationalisation in mathematics education and identifies some key issues under each construct and that may require further discussion and research. These issues are illustrated by three case studies from Australia, East and Southeast Asia and Latin America. The chapter concludes by a discussion of global collaboration in mathematics education.

The Australian mathematics curriculum: A move forward or back to the future?

The release of the Australian curriculum: Mathematics has generated considerable debate in the education community. Some educators warn that this debate has centred on mathematical content and skills, setting the conditions for a ‘back to basics’ movement in line with the political rhetoric that accompanied the national curriculum development. But the Shape of the Australian curriculum: Mathematics document contains a commitment to provide a futures-oriented curriculum. This article provides a critical analysis of the released curriculum document in the light of these claims. It questions whether the direction taken in the curriculum demonstrates a futuristic view of mathematics education. It considers whether the document is aligned with a national focus on education for citizenship, identified in past government declarations on education as the basis for the development of the national curriculum, and the role of technology in teaching mathematics based on decades of theorising and research in this area.

The Australian curriculum : Continuing the national conversation

The purpose of this article is to identify some key areas of the Australian curriculum that remain sites of struggle and contestation. We propose that there remain a number of contentious points in relation to the national curriculum. These points relate variously to the content and form of the curricular documents; assumptions about knowledge, learning, teaching and assessment; questions about the aims and rationale of these documents; and whether the documents deal with wider economic, cultural and technological changes. These points set the scene for a continuation of the conversation about the national curriculum and provide a framework for considering the issues raised in the remaining five articles in this Special Issue on the Australian curriculum.

On PAR with young people: learnings from the SARUA project

Abstract The Student Action Research for University Access (SARUA) is a participatory action research project between groups of senior high school students, their schoolteachers and university staff. During the 8 years of its activities in at least 17 high schools in the greater metropolitan area of Brisbane, Australia significant learnings have developed about working with students on projects that affect their own lives. This article problematises aspects of partnerships and collaboration between two diverse cultures of the university and the school and discusses the benefits of such collaboration, some of the challenges faced and the responsibilities of the university partners in facilitating action research with young people.

Globalized curriculum or global approach to curriculum reform in mathematics education

The mathematics education community has shown considerable awareness of the international status of their discipline. While internationalization of the discipline is not a new phenomenon, globalization is a relatively recent term in educational discourse. This paper presents a theoretical model towards the study of globalization and internationalization in mathematics education based on previous publication by the authors. Secondly, it identifies some key issues that have been discussed in the literature and that may require further discussion and research in the field. In particular it discusses the issue of similarity of mathematics education curricula around the world. The concept of a global curriculum is rejected in favor for more internationalized approach to curriculum reform based on collaboration between mathematics educators.

Social (In)Justice) and International Collaborations in Mathematics Education.

The literature mathematics education contains several references to issues related to social justice, including gender, racial and multicultural aspects, and perhaps to a lesser degree, socioeconomic factors. More commonly, this literature discusses social justice in terms of “equity” and “equal opportunity”. However, very rarely the term social justice is theorised. This chapter aims to: (a) present a theoretical discussion of the construct “social justice” from a variety of perspectives, and (b) apply the theoretical discussion to raise issues of social justice behind several types of international contacts and collaborations between educators in the discipline