Stephen Crump

Young people, education and hope: bringing VET in from the margins

Vocational Education and Training (VET) plays an important role in the reshaping of upper secondary school curriculum. Retention to the end of secondary education in Australia went from 35% in 1980 to 72% in 2000. This increase caused major problems for the senior school curriculum which historically prepared students for university entrance but now has to serve multiple purposes. While the purposes of VET suit different groups, our interest is those students alienated from, reluctant to complete, or attempting re-entry into senior secondary education. Our objective is to understand policy reforms in this area, in order to assist stopping the spiral of disadvantage in which these young people are caught. We shall argue that VET has the potential to re-engage young people with education. With the labour market becoming more knowledge-based, such re-engagement becomes increasingly important. We ask to what extent is the post-compulsory curriculum serving student and family ambitions for employment in a way that is equitable and inclusive?

Robbing public to pay private? Two cases of refinancing education infrastructure in Australia

This paper will explore private sector participation in public sector education in the Australian context, focusing on case studies of Queensland and New South Wales, with reference to developments in other states and territories and internationally. In Australia, most states and territories have PPP policies and key projects include the Southbank redevelopment in Brisbane and the ‘New schools’ Project in Sydney. The case studies are both supported by Labor state governments and typify the state of affairs nationally, For Queensland, the Southbank TAFE Institute and Brisbane State High School have been brought into a new education precinct in order to ‘free up’ the system by outsourcing non‐core services and ‘free up’ valuable inner‐city land. In NSW, nine new public schools are being built by a private consortium, for a cost of

Changing times in the classroom: teaching as a 'crowded profession'

100 million as part of a program totaling

Gender and Curriculum: power and being female

5 billion in areas under‐serviced by government schools. Yet despite a concerted effort to sell the value of PPPs, Australians appear to be ambivalent about ‘privatization’ of public services. This paper will look at whether PPPs are robbing the public sector to pay the private sector, and where this strategy is taking Australia and the future of our education systems.

Education and the Three ‘P's: policy, politics and practice A review of the work of S. J. Ball

Abstract This article reports on a study of teachers in New South Wales (Australia) and their practices surrounding outcomes assessment and reporting, which took place in 2003 and 2004 as a follow-up to a major study in 1995. The study explored whether the main focus of a teachers work involves planning, teaching, assessing, rewarding and sharing in their classroom and with colleagues, and whether this focus suffered many distractions in the flurry of reforms of the past decade. One example of ‘changing times’ in the classroom has been the devolution of school management, which caused a number of diversions of energy and time away from teaching and learning. Yet even in the area of curriculum schools were struggling with a range of issues, many brought on by the advent of outcomes-based curricula. In seeking to change what happens in schools, teachers argued that they needed clear and well-argued reasons to change. This article thus provides an update on the relevant research, beginning with national and international experiences, before a discussion of workload, the place of parents and school organizational effects. One finding is that alongside a ‘crowded curriculum’, teaching has become a ‘crowded profession’. The article concludes with reflections on how changing times in the classroom mean social reform as well as educational reform, in which teaching and learning shape effects and consequences from educational events so that knowledge grows through experiences, measuring possibilities not outcomes.

Pragmatic policy development: problems and solutions in educational policy making

Abstract Focusing on gender relations in a working class co‐educational school, this paper reports on the differences in power, status and control when male and female students interact with school‐based curricular processes. The research site provided an interesting arena for the empowerment of pupils, particularly female, through a negotiated school‐based curriculum fragment of the total school organisation. This paper aims to portray teacher/student negotiations in the context of classwork and classroom behaviour and the making of appropriate subject selections, a process which portrays an experimental interaction between students and the organisation and authority of the school. The research identified areas linked closely to emerging shifts in female student career options, as well as reflecting perspectives relevant to policy and theory development for the 1990s.

Satellite Lessons: Vocational Education and Training for Isolated Communities

Theories of organisation actually become ideologies, legitimisations for certain forms of organisation. They deploy arguments in terms of rationality and efficiency to provide control. The limits that they impose upon the conception of organisations actually close down the possibility of considering alternative forms of organisation. This is nowhere more clearly evident than in the current application of management theories to schools. Such theories marginalise empirical studies of school practice and dismiss the folk‐knowledge’ of teachers as irrelevant. They are as significant for what they exclude as for what they include (Ball, 1987, p. 5).

Changing identities and performance of post-compulsory educational providers

Educational reforms and legislative initiatives in Australia and internationally during the late 1980s imposed new political solutions on to the problems experienced in educational settings. This paper aims to explore the significance of education to politics, through a brief history and reference to comparative studies. While schools in western democracies have always operated within a political context, the paper argues that the radical conservatism of the 1990s makes it even more important that educators take on an assertive policy role. One possibility is identified through reference to a research‐based procedure identified as ‘pragmatic policy development’.

The Development of Vocational Education and Training in a Senior Secondary Certificate of Education

Abstract At the Western Institute of Technical and Further Education (WITAFE) in New South Wales (NSW), vocational education and training (VET) courses are being delivered to students in isolated homesteads and remote Aboriginal communities by Interactive Distance eLearning (IDL). IDL provides satellite-supported two-way broadband voice, one-way video and Internet access for school-age and adult distance education. Adults commonly access VET courses offered by WITAFE using the equipment provided to their children who are students of a ‘School of the Air’ or through community facilities in remote Aboriginal communities. By providing lessons via satellite to isolated students TAFENSW is helping to counter long-standing inequities in distance and rural education by decreasing the digital divide and assisting with rural renewal. Through a case study, this paper examines the influence of the provision of IDL and Internet access for adult students in isolated homesteads in NSW and also the benefits and challenges of teaching and learning with IDL.

DOCUMENTS AND DEBATES 'e-ducation': electronic, emotionless and efficient?

In recent times, many reports have argued for educational providers across the sectors to think creatively about how to best meet the learning needs of post-compulsory education students. These developments aimed to cater for the education and training needs of the full spectrum of students whether judged by ability, age or employment expectations. They also lead to increasing the variety of vocational and professional education provision and pathways, improved modes of career support, and relaxed controls over access to different sectors for qualifications and accreditation.