Megan Kimber

Politics and School Education in Australia: A Case of Shifting Purposes.

Purpose – The paper aims to argue that there has been a privileging of the private (social mobility) and economic (social efficiency) purposes of schooling at the expense of the public (democratic equality) purposes of schooling. Design/methodology/approach – The paper employs a literature review, policy and document analysis. Findings – Since the late 1980s, the schooling agenda in Australia has been narrowed to one that gives primacy to purposes of schooling that highlight economic orientations (social efficiency) and private purposes (social mobility). Practical implications – The findings have wider relevance beyond Australia, as similar policy agendas are evident in many other countries raising the question as to how the shift in purposes of education in those countries might mirror those in Australia. Originality/value – While earlier writers have examined schooling policies in Australia and noted the implications of managerialism in relation to these policies, no study has analysed these policies from the perspective of the purposes of schooling. Conceptualising schooling, and its purposes in particular, in this way refocuses attention on how societies use their educational systems to promote (or otherwise) the public good.

Ethical Dilemmas: A Model to Understand Teacher Practice.

Over recent decades, the field of ethics has been the focus of increasing attention in teaching. This is not surprising given that teaching is a moral activity that is heavily values‐laden. Because of this, teachers face ethical dilemmas in the course of their daily work. This paper presents an ethical decision‐making model that helps to explain the decision‐making processes that individuals or groups are likely to experience when confronted by an ethical dilemma. In order to make sense of the model, we put forward three short ethical dilemma scenarios facing teachers and apply the model to interpret them. Here we identify the critical incident, the forces at play that help to illuminate the incident, the choices confronting the individual and the implications of these choices for the individual, organisation and community. Based on our analysis and the wider literature we identify several strategies that may help to minimise the impact of ethical dilemmas. These include the importance of sharing dilemmas with trusted others; having institutional structures in schools that lessen the emergence of harmful actions occurring; the necessity for individual teachers to articulate their own personal and professional ethics; acknowledging that dilemmas have multiple forces at play; the need to educate colleagues about specific issues; and the necessity of appropriate preparation and support for teachers. Of these strategies, providing support for teachers via professional development is explored more fully.

The democratic deficit and school‐based management in Australia

Purpose: The paper seeks to apply the theory of the democratic deficit to school-based management with an emphasis on Australia. This theory was developed to examine managerial restructuring of the Australian Public Service in the 1990s. Given similarities between the use of managerial practices in the public service and government schools, the authors draw on recent literature about school-based management in Australia and apply the democratic deficit theory to it. ----- ----- Design/methodology/approach: This paper is conceptual in focus. The authors analyse literature in terms of the three components of the democratic deficit – i.e. the weakening of accountability, the denial of the roles and values of public employees, and the emergence of a “hollow state” – and in relation to the application of this theory to the Australian Public Service.----- ----- Findings: A trend towards the three components of the democratic deficit is evident in Australia although, to date, its emergence has not been as extensive as in the UK. The authors argue that the democratic principles on which public schooling in Australia was founded are being eroded by managerial and market practices.----- ----- Practical implications: These findings provide policy makers and practitioners with another way of examining managerial and market understandings of school-based management and its impact on teachers and on students. It offers suggestions to reorient practices away from those that are exclusively managerial-based towards those that are public-sector based.----- ----- Originality/value: The value of this paper is that it applies the theory of the democratic deficit to current understandings of school-based management.

The Australian public service under the Keating Government

Managerial restructuring of the Australian public service during the period of the Keating Government was designed to provide greater responsiveness on the part of public servants to ministers. Increased use of ministerial advisers and the formalisation of contract employment for departmental secretaries pointed to a possible erosion of responsible government norms, but this process was moderated by tension between the private sector practices being introduced and an adherence to the traditions of responsible government. We suggest that a pragmatic approach to public sector reform partly accounted for this unease and we speculate that the more ideological commitment to managerialism displayed by the Howard Government might indicate that responsible government within the Commonwealth Public Service is in further danger of erosion.

Quality assurance in higher education: for whom and of what?

Over the past two decades the quality assurance of higher education institutions has captured a growing interest as evidenced by the increasing number of national and transnational bodies engaged in this area. Yet as the first decade of the 21st century draws to a close, higher education systems and thus the regimes designed to ensure their quality are faced with significant complexity. Issues of accountability, authority and responsibility are paramount when responding to industry bodies, to globalisation and the transnational provision of higher education and to the use of market mechanisms. In this paper we raise some of the challenges for quality assurance for higher education presented by this growing complexity through the question, quality assurance in higher education, for whom and of what, highlighting our concern for a need to expand the centrality of accountability to include authority and responsibility as part of the quality assurance regimes for higher education.

Are Australia's Universities in Deficit? A Tale of Generic Managers, Audit Culture and Casualisation.

Managerial changes to Australian universities have had considerable impact on employees. In this article, we consider some of these changes and apply a theory known as the democratic deficit to them. This theory was developed from the democratic critique of managerialism, as it has been applied in the public sector in countries with Westminster-type political systems. This deficit covers the: weakening of accountability through responsibility being replaced with responsiveness, denial of public values through the use of private-sector performance practices and hollowing out of the state through the contracting out and privatisation of public goods and services and the redefinition of citizens as customers and clients. We suggest that the increased power of managers, expansion of the audit culture and the extensive use of contract employment seem to be weakening the democratic culture and role of universities in part by replacing accountability as responsibility with accountability as responsiveness.

Teaching Reflection for Service-Learning

In this chapter, we discuss an approach for teaching pre-service teachers how to critically reflect on their experiences in a Service-learning program in an advanced subject about inclusive education. The approach was informed by critical social theory, with the expectation that students would engage in transformational learning. By explicitly teaching the students to engage in critical reflective thinking (Fishbowl discussions) and examine the depth of their critical reflection against a heuristic (the 4Rs reflection framework), the final-year Bachelor of Education students were able to gain a deeper understanding of the subject and experience transformational learning. We provide contextual information about the Service-learning program and discuss critical social theory for transformational learning, as well as how the teaching team taught critical reflection. Based on the evidence gathered from the students, we consider lessons learned by the teaching team and provide recommendations for teaching reflection in Service-learning programs.

The Purpose and Place of Mentoring for Women Managers in Organisations: An Australian Perspective

Mentoring has been identified as an important career development activity for women managers. Over the last four decades, organisations world-wide have implemented formal mentoring programs for women and for members of minority groups in recognition of the personal and professional benefits mentoring provides, not only for mentees but also for mentors. This chapter reviews the literature on mentoring and the contribution it can make to the career development of women managers. It reviews several inter-related bodies of literature: women’s representation in management positions worldwide; theories and frameworks of mentoring; empirical research exploring the impact of mentoring relationships on women managers’ career development; current illustrations of formal programs offered to women managers in the public and private sectors in Australia; and some critical issues that continue to impact women managers in relation to mentoring relationships. The chapter concludes by making an argument for further research on gender and mentoring.

Blogging the 2009 Queensland state election

The internet has become important in political communication in Australia. Using Habermass ideal types, it is argued that political blogs can be viewed as public spheres that might provide scope for the expansion of deliberative democratic discussion. This hypothesis is explored through analysis of the group political blog Pineapple Party Time. It is evident that the bloggers and those who commented on their posts were highly knowledgeable about and interested in politics. From an examination of these posts and the comments on them, Pineapple Party Time did act as a public sphere to some degree, and did provide for the deliberative discussion essential for a democracy, but it was largely restricted to Crikey readers. For a deliberative public sphere and democratic discussion to function to any extent, the public sphere must be open to all citizens, who need to have the access and knowledge to engage in deliberative discussion.

International Service-Learning: Preparing Teachers for Inclusion

Abstract In this chapter, we consider the impact of an international service-learning experience on six final year pre-service teachers’ preparedness to be inclusive teachers in terms of Kiely’s (2004) “transforming forms” (p. 9). These forms are “political,” “intellectual,” “moral,” “cultural,” “personal,” and “spiritual.” The analysis of the six participants’ reflection logs completed on return to university, and interviews undertaken 12 months after the experience, revealed four categories (personal growth, relationships with others, wider societal views, and impact on teaching) that encompass movement toward these transforming forms. We begin the chapter by considering service-learning frameworks and theories, drawing out our understanding of Kiely’s (2004) “transforming forms” (pp. 9–11). Following this discussion, we provide an overview of our program and the six participants. We then analyze the data from participants’ reflection logs and interviews. From our analysis, we suggest that all six participants showed some movement toward one or more of the “transforming forms.” Finally, we draw conclusions about the usefulness of Kiely’s framework for planning and reflecting on an international service-learning experience to prepare pre-service teachers to be inclusive teachers. We conclude that keeping in mind Kiely’s “transforming forms” when planning, reflecting on, and evaluating an international service-learning experience can better prepare students to be inclusive teachers.