Would more highly-qualified teachers and trainers help to address quality problems in the Australian vocational education and training system? This project examines whether and how higher-level qualifications for vocational education and training (VET) teachers would improve quality in the VET system. Government documents and public commentary indicate that the VET sector suffers from some fairly serious quality problems. This is significant because VET provides training that underpins all Austr ....Would more highly-qualified teachers and trainers help to address quality problems in the Australian vocational education and training system? This project examines whether and how higher-level qualifications for vocational education and training (VET) teachers would improve quality in the VET system. Government documents and public commentary indicate that the VET sector suffers from some fairly serious quality problems. This is significant because VET provides training that underpins all Australian industries. Most VET teachers are qualified only to a Certificate IV level. A more highly qualified VET teaching workforce is likely to lead to improvements in quality; however there is currently no firm evidence to establish this link, as the 2011 Productivity Commission report on the VET workforce pointed out. This project aims to provide much-needed evidence to guide policy.Read moreRead less
School Exclusionary Policies and Practices and their Impact. This project aims to investigate how and why Australian schools use exclusionary practices to manage disorderly students. This project expects to generate new knowledge in the area of school discipline about the extent and impact of these practices. It will provide a detailed analysis of the political, legislative and policy frameworks that impact on exclusion rates. Expected outcomes of this project include alternative policy and prac ....School Exclusionary Policies and Practices and their Impact. This project aims to investigate how and why Australian schools use exclusionary practices to manage disorderly students. This project expects to generate new knowledge in the area of school discipline about the extent and impact of these practices. It will provide a detailed analysis of the political, legislative and policy frameworks that impact on exclusion rates. Expected outcomes of this project include alternative policy and practice recommendations for legislatures and education systems. This should provide significant benefits, such as reducing youth alienation from schooling; creating inclusive schools; reducing the financial burden of exclusion on individuals and governments; and improving the health and wellbeing of young people.Read moreRead less
Capacitating student aspirations in classrooms and communities in a high poverty region. This project studies the aspirations of students in a disadvantaged area, as cultural resources for completing school, accessing higher education and realising desirable futures. It will produce new concepts and research methods for increasing social equity by working closely with students and families, and making links between schools and communities.
Discovery Indigenous Researchers Development - Grant ID: DI0238938
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$16,670.00
Summary
Diversity and Discipline: The Impact of Punishment on Indigenous Students' Attitudes Toward Schooling. The research will focus on punishment as an organising principle of schools and from empirical research, will construct a discourse within which discipline as power can be discussed. The research offers a new approach to investigations on the disciplinary practices of schools and challenges the concept of regimes of punishment as a necessary adjunct to learning. At the same time, it develops ....Diversity and Discipline: The Impact of Punishment on Indigenous Students' Attitudes Toward Schooling. The research will focus on punishment as an organising principle of schools and from empirical research, will construct a discourse within which discipline as power can be discussed. The research offers a new approach to investigations on the disciplinary practices of schools and challenges the concept of regimes of punishment as a necessary adjunct to learning. At the same time, it develops an Indigenous methodology which calls on participants as co-researchers to tell their stories as a critical aspect of grounded research
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Evaluating the long-term costs and benefits of community-based initiatives. The ultimate benefit from the research is a more efficient allocation of public funds to provide public services, i.e. an increase in the gain derived from the government budget. The relative advantages of alternative methods of delivering government services are subject to significant uncertainty, which means that policy decisions are often poorly informed. Improvements in the accuracy of predicting the costs and benefi ....Evaluating the long-term costs and benefits of community-based initiatives. The ultimate benefit from the research is a more efficient allocation of public funds to provide public services, i.e. an increase in the gain derived from the government budget. The relative advantages of alternative methods of delivering government services are subject to significant uncertainty, which means that policy decisions are often poorly informed. Improvements in the accuracy of predicting the costs and benefits of complex community-based initiatives will help policymakers identify the set of initiatives that provide the best outcomes for the community they serve, as well as informing the optimal specification of the individual initiatives.Read moreRead less
Pursuing equity in high poverty rural schools: improving learning through rich accountabilities. Poor performance of students in schools located in high poverty communities is a pressing educational problem for Australia, with educational disadvantage in poor rural communities in particular demanding amelioration. The evidence suggests the equity and quality of schooling outcomes are centrally important to the nation's economic future, the strength of Australian democracy, social inclusion and a ....Pursuing equity in high poverty rural schools: improving learning through rich accountabilities. Poor performance of students in schools located in high poverty communities is a pressing educational problem for Australia, with educational disadvantage in poor rural communities in particular demanding amelioration. The evidence suggests the equity and quality of schooling outcomes are centrally important to the nation's economic future, the strength of Australian democracy, social inclusion and a unified nation. In strengthening policy and practice knowledge about educative usage of performance data and the development of rich forms of accountability, the research will advance the academic literature and provide an evidence base for success of the national partnership on low socio-economic status schools.Read moreRead less
Supporting teachers and teaching in flexible and non-traditional schools . This project aims to address a critical gap in knowledge about the experiences and conditions of people who teach in flexible and non-traditional schools in Australia. These schools provide a second chance at education for young people with challenging behaviours and/or learning problems. This project expects to generate new knowledge about the experiences and needs of these teachers, using a combination of in-depth resea ....Supporting teachers and teaching in flexible and non-traditional schools . This project aims to address a critical gap in knowledge about the experiences and conditions of people who teach in flexible and non-traditional schools in Australia. These schools provide a second chance at education for young people with challenging behaviours and/or learning problems. This project expects to generate new knowledge about the experiences and needs of these teachers, using a combination of in-depth research methods. Expected outcomes include detailed understanding of support needs for this workforce. This will significantly benefit teachers, sponsors and principals through recommendations on best practice management of this important work, along with evidence-based training artefacts for staff recruitment and retention.
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Reducing self-harm and suicidal behaviours in young people in WA. Aims: reduce self-harm and suicidal behaviours in young people by upskilling teachers and providing resources to respond rapidly to students at risk via an innovative intervention with near real-time measures of changes in vulnerability.
Significance: self-harm and suicidal behaviours are increasing at alarming rates in young people. Schools are ideally placed to respond but many struggle to do so. New regular measures and advance ....Reducing self-harm and suicidal behaviours in young people in WA. Aims: reduce self-harm and suicidal behaviours in young people by upskilling teachers and providing resources to respond rapidly to students at risk via an innovative intervention with near real-time measures of changes in vulnerability.
Significance: self-harm and suicidal behaviours are increasing at alarming rates in young people. Schools are ideally placed to respond but many struggle to do so. New regular measures and advanced machine learning algorithms measuring change in risk in real time will enable schools to respond in a timely and effective manner
and save lives.
Expected outcomes: a new intervention to reduce self-harm and suicidal behaviours in young people that measures fluctuations in risk via a Temporal Vulnerability Index.Read moreRead less
Building connections: schools as community hubs. This project aims to support school systems and planning authorities enhance engagement between schools and local communities. The key objective is to advance the cost-effective development of the infrastructure required to deliver community programs and services from school sites, in addition to education programs for school-aged students. The project expects to generate new knowledge about how best to plan, design, govern and manage facilities a ....Building connections: schools as community hubs. This project aims to support school systems and planning authorities enhance engagement between schools and local communities. The key objective is to advance the cost-effective development of the infrastructure required to deliver community programs and services from school sites, in addition to education programs for school-aged students. The project expects to generate new knowledge about how best to plan, design, govern and manage facilities and infrastructure to enable schools to operate successfully as more than a school, encouraging the development of resilient and connected communities. The outcomes are expected to include a development framework for maximising schools as community hubs.Read moreRead less
Punish them or engage them? Identifying and addressing productive and unproductive student behaviours in South Australian schools. This project will provide a contemporary understanding of productive and unproductive student behaviour, which is a key educational concern in Australia. Evidence will be obtained to inform educational decisions to engage and promote positive student behaviour and improve academic achievement.