Laura B. Perry

Developing intercultural understanding and skills: models and approaches

Researchers from a range of disciplines have been theorising and empirically examining intercultural competence and intercultural education for decades. This review article synthesises the research literature about these concepts around three questions: What is intercultural competence? How can it be developed? And how can it be measured? Our aim is to provide an overview of current theories and empirical findings, as well as to show gaps in the literature.

Conceptualizing Education Policy in Democratic Societies

Although theorists and policy makers agree that schooling should be democratic, what this exactly means often varies. This article establishes a conceptual model for analyzing education policy in democratic societies, based on the key concepts of equality, diversity, participation, choice, and cohesion. The model facilitates the design, evaluation, comparison, and analysis of education policy in democratic societies. It also facilitates analysis of the interrelationship of the five concepts and the ways in which they both complement and conflict with each other. By providing an integrated view of the five democratic values, the model can help policy makers and analysts balance competing demands on education policy. Finally, the model improves understanding of the ways in which educational systems continually adjust to changing theory and economic, political, and social forces, and therefore, it has the potential to help explain and predict educational change.

Access to academic curriculum in Australian secondary schools: a case study of a highly marketised education system

This study examines how access to academic curriculum differs between secondary schools in Australia, a country whose education system is marked by high levels of choice, privatisation and competition. Equitable access to academic curriculum is important for both individual students and their families as well as the larger society. Previous research has shown that students from lower socio-economic backgrounds are less likely to study academic curriculum than their more advantaged peers. Less is known, however, about the extent to which this pattern is related to differential provision of curriculum between schools. We found that low socio-economic schools offer students less access to the core academic curriculum subjects that are important for university entry. We also found that the breadth and depth of courses offered is related to school sector (private or public) and socio-economic context. Previous research has shown that choice and competition are inequitable because they frequently increase school social segregation and ‘cream-skimming’. Our findings show another inequitable consequence, namely that choice and competition limit access to high-status academic curriculum in working-class communities.

School socioeconomic status and student outcomes in reading and mathematics: A comparison of Australia and Canada

Previous research has established that student outcomes are strongly associated with the socioeconomic composition of a school, also known as school socioeconomic status. Less is known, however, about the ways in which the relationship varies for different students, schools and national education systems. Here, we conduct a secondary analysis of an international dataset to examine the strength of the relationship between school socioeconomic status and achievement in math and reading for Canada and Australia. The history, economy and culture of these two countries are similar, as are many aspects of their education systems. One important difference, however, is the degree to which their education systems are marketised. Our findings show that in both countries, school socioeconomic status is strongly associated with academic achievement for all students, regardless of their individual socioeconomic status. Nevertheless, the relationship between school socioeconomic status and academic achievement is substantially stronger in Australia than in Canada. We conclude that student outcomes are more equitable in Canada than in Australia, and suggest that this may be due to differences in the ways in which the two education systems are funded and structured.

The Seeing and the Seen: Contrasting Perspectives of Post-Communist Czech Schooling.

This study analyses both foreign (primarily western European and North American) and Czech perspectives of Czech schooling in the post‐communist era. Qualitative content analysis is performed on documentary sources written by scholars about Czech schooling. The analysis examines which topics are highlighted, what are the main patterns and what is the overall perspective of the document. The analysis is guided by theory from intellectual history about the social construction of ‘Eastern Europe’. The study finds that Western perspectives of post‐communist Czech schooling are mostly negative and are typically based on common sense notions and casual observation rather than comprehensive knowledge and thorough research. It therefore concludes that Western perspectives of Czech schooling are influenced by the social construction of Eastern Europe. Ironically, many of the Western scholars use the concept of democracy to justify this distorted viewing of Czech schooling as an ‘Other’ to that in the West.

Explaining the achievement gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous students: An analysis of PISA 2009 results for Australia and New Zealand

This study investigates the relative roles of home and school variables in accounting for achievement gaps between Indigenous and non-Indigenous students in Australia and New Zealand. Using data from the Programme for International Student Assessment [PISA] 2009, our findings show that achievement gaps between Indigenous and non-Indigenous students are associated with both home and school resources, not only in terms of unequal allocations but also in relation to differences in the rates at which home and school affordances are converted into positive educational outcomes. In both countries, home resources accounted for more of the achievement gap than differences in schooling resources. However, the achievement gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous students is substantially larger in Australia than in New Zealand, apparently related to greater inequity in the allocation of school resources. We suggest that education policymakers in Australia ensure a more equitable allocation of school resources between Indigenous students and their non-Indigenous peers.

American Academics and Education for Democracy in Post-Communist Europe

This edited volume brings together historians of education and comparative education researchers to study the educational reconstruction projects that Americans have launched in post-conflict settings across the globe. For well over a century Americans have seen the reform of schools as key to creating social stability and conditions of peace. The contributors to this volume examine the ideals embedded in and effectiveness of American education reform projects in the Philippines and Cuba after the Spanish-American War, in Europe after World War I, in Japan and Germany after World War II, in the aftermath of the Cold War, as well as U.S. initiatives currently underway in Afghanistan and Iraq.

How do learning environments vary by school sector and socioeconomic composition? Evidence from Australian students

We examine how students’ perspectives of their learning environments vary between private and public schools in Australia. Previous research has shown that educational outcomes do not vary by school sector in most countries after controlling for student social background. Little is known, however, about the ways in which different students’ educational experiences vary across sectors. Australia is a good case study for examining this question, because it has one of the largest private school sectors in the world. We used a large and nationally representative dataset to compare sector differences across five measures of learning environments while accounting for the average socioeconomic composition of the school. Very few differences large enough to be considered educationally substantive were found between sectors. On two measures, however, student perspectives varied substantially within sectors and across school socioeconomic contexts. Overall, classroom disciplinary climate varied the most across school sectors and socioeconomic contexts, and teacher scaffolding and structuring strategies varied the least.

Improving lecture quality through training in public speaking

Lecturing is a common instructional format but poor lecturing skills can detract from students’ learning experiences and outcomes. As lecturing is essentially a form of public communication, training in public speaking may improve lecture quality. Twelve university lecturers in Malaysia participated in a six-week public speaking skills training programme. A quasi-experimental, mixed-methods design was employed to measure participating lecturers’ satisfaction with the programme, changes to their lecturing practices, and changes in student results. All lecturers expressed satisfaction with the programme and felt that they had developed a new set of lecturing skills, and improved ability to impart knowledge to their students. The programme was also associated with a substantial improvement in student results. By contrast, lecturers from the comparison group showed a decline in student results. The results suggest that a short course in public speaking skills can be a cost-effective way to improve teaching and learning outcomes.

How accessible is IB schooling? Evidence from Australia

This study examines access to International Baccalaureate schools in Australia. It is important to examine whether, as a highly regarded form of rigorous academic education, IB programmes are available to a wide range of students. We examine the location of schools in Australia that offer one or more of the IB Primary Years Programme, Middle Years Programme or Diploma Programme, their fees and admissions policies, and what types of students they enrol. The findings show that most schools in Australia that offer any of these three IB programmes are located in affluent communities of large cities, are privately-funded, charge moderate to high fees, and enrol mostly students from privileged socioeconomic backgrounds.