Tony Taylor

A Bleak Outlook: Academic Staff Perceptions of Changes in Core Activities in Australian Higher Education, 1991-96.

ABSTRACT A survey of the perceptions of academic staff from three representative universities to recent higher education reform in Australia has revealed a high level of concern in many areas of academic responsibility and a dismal assessment of future prospects. This article reports responses to issues involving the mainstream activities of teaching and research as well as to the standard of undergraduate students and the extent of academic freedom. The quality of new students, of teaching and research are all identified as in decline. Changes in university management to a more corporate style are seen as a threat to academic freedom. Established research universities are concerned that scarce research funds are being stretched too far. This perception is leading to new divisions in the unified higher education sector.

Avoiding the Hoops: A study of recognition of prior learning processes in Australian faculties of education

Recognition of prior learning (RPL) refers to recognition of non-credentialled or informal learning. In the university context, there are difficulties in determining the appropriateness and extent of experiential learning since there is no research-based modelling to guide the process. This article draws on an Australian Research Council grant project which aims to draw up research-based, nationally applicable protocols and procedures for RPL in education faculties in Australia. It concludes that there is room for greater development of procedures for recognising prior learning than exists in many faculties of education.

Learning from Experience: Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) and professional development for teachers

Abstract This paper outlines recent developments in Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) with particular reference to the application of RPL in the education and training of teachers. Furthermore it suggests that RPL will become an increasingly important aspect of professional development programmes and puts forward some ideas for the establishment of successful professional development programmes which, by using predetermined credit, incorporate RPL in a simple and effective fashion. At the same time the paper advises university faculties of education to approach RPL processes cautiously and carefully.

Movers and Shakers: high politics and the origins of the National Curriculum

ABSTRACT This paper provides a narrative account of politics surrounding the introduction of the National Curriculum to English and Welsh schools, and in particular the struggles between leading politicians, ministries, government agencies and Her Majestys Inspectorate. The paper argues that Secretary of State Kenneth Bakers victory over Prime Ministerial advisers led to an over‐complex and unmanageable framework which in a few years led to an unprecedented alliance of opposing interest groups and the conditions for a major government climbdown.

Howard's End: A Narrative Memoir of Political Contrivance, Neoconservative Ideology and the Australian History Curriculum.

In August 2006, Australias conservative prime minister John Howard convened a history summit in Canberra. The purported goal of the summit was the framing of a nationally-acceptable curriculum in Australian history. However, as this article suggests, Howards hidden intention was to use the summit as a device for introducing a narrowly traditionalist syllabus that would be personally pleasing to the prime minister. As it happened, Howards plan encountered resistance from members of the history education community and, after several diversions and alarms, was discarded when the conservative coalition government was defeated in the general election of November 2007. The author was closely involved in these proceedings and this article constitutes a contextualisd memoir of events.

The Politics Are Personal: "The Australian" vs the Australian Curriculum in History.

This article reviews the relationship between the conservative newspaper The Australian and the development of a national history curriculum in Australia. The lead author surveyed the major Australian press in the five-year period between 2007 and 2012 and found clear patterns of difference between The Australian and other press outlets in relation to education in general and history curriculum in particular. Using Jonathan Haidts five-point model of moral values, the article analyses the behaviour of the press in Australia in relation to history education as a feature of moral preferences. Extending from this analysis, it then highlights a number of cases of press campaigns in The Australian targeted against individuals including one academic involved in the development of a national curriculum. The article demonstrates that a culture of aggressive conservatism exercised in this Murdoch press outlet reaches beyond the field of conventional political debate to constitute a serious and concerning influence in the dynamics of curriculum policy development.

An Australian case study in partnership: rural decline, the unstable curriculum and grassroots professional development

Abstract Gourmet PD is a Professional Development (PD) programme for rural teachers in the Australian State of Victoria. Although it began in a small way in 1995, it is, in 1998, catering for the PD needs of over 4000 rural teachers. At a time of economic, social and educational crisis in rural Victoria, the success of Gourmet PD, which runs counter to rural decline, is founded on its grassroots philosphy, its culture of active partnership and its ability to match practice with theory. This article describes the political, social and educational context of Gourmet PD, its structure and process, and accounts for its success

Constructing the Australian School History Curriculum: Ideology, High Politics and the History Wars in the Howard Years

In mid-2006, John Howard, conservative prime minister of Australia, convened a national history summit. The purported objective of the occasion was a commonly agreed national approach to the teaching and learning of Australian history in schools, a controversial issue at that time. This chapter, based on the personal involvement of the author in the process, outlines the background to the summit, details the inside story of the occasion and explains the political background to the John Howard’s hidden agenda in calling the 2006 history summit. This chapter discusses the events surrounding the Australian version of school history wars 2005-2007 as a memoir, but also as a study in high politics that deliberately emphasises the motivations and actions and roles of individuals, often quite obscure individuals, in the mechanics of political action and education policy formulation at the federal level.

Arthur Balfour and educational change: The myth revisited

Abstract This article explores the political background to the 1902 Education Act, and argues that Balfours commitment to the measure was founded more an political expediency than a desire to initiate major educational reform. It concludes that Balfours interest in education was, at best, lukewarm, at worst, apathetic.