Imagining university education: the perspectives of young people impacted by low socio-economic status and disengagement from school. Significant effort is being made in Australia to increase the participation of students from low socio-economic status backgrounds in university education. This project will contribute to this effort by delivering knowledge on the perceptions of university education held by low socio-economic status young people aged 12-15 disengaged from school.
Mentoring and Indigenous Higher Education: Understanding how university students mentor Indigenous school students. Mentoring Indigenous school students by university students is an expanding initiative to address the education gap experienced by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. This project will investigate what works in successful mentoring between university students and young Indigenous Australians and what are 'mentoring best practices' with Indigenous young people. The projec ....Mentoring and Indigenous Higher Education: Understanding how university students mentor Indigenous school students. Mentoring Indigenous school students by university students is an expanding initiative to address the education gap experienced by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. This project will investigate what works in successful mentoring between university students and young Indigenous Australians and what are 'mentoring best practices' with Indigenous young people. The project builds on our research with the Australian Indigenous Mentoring Experience (AIME), a program engaging university students and Indigenous young people across Australia. Expected outcomes are new knowledge on university student mentoring of Indigenous school children and the design of 'remote' university student mentoring using communication technology.Read moreRead less
Institutional transitions to sustainable agriculture: An inter-disciplinary analysis of a novel common-property resource governance system. Efforts to overcome the severe degradation of land resources supporting agriculture and human communities continue to be constrained by institutions and social norms. The knowledge needed for a transition to sustainable agricultural landscapes through institutional change is inadequate. A collaboration between specialists in economics, politics, sociology, ....Institutional transitions to sustainable agriculture: An inter-disciplinary analysis of a novel common-property resource governance system. Efforts to overcome the severe degradation of land resources supporting agriculture and human communities continue to be constrained by institutions and social norms. The knowledge needed for a transition to sustainable agricultural landscapes through institutional change is inadequate. A collaboration between specialists in economics, politics, sociology, ecology and soil science at the University of New England and graziers in an upper Murray-Darling subcatchment will analyse the transition to a common-property institution on this subcatchment. It will make a distinctively Australian contribution to international efforts to understand such transitions, and serve as a model for progress towards sustainability elsewhere in Australia.
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Getting an Early Start to aspirations: Understanding how to promote educational futures in early childhood. Children from low socio-economic status (LSES) backgrounds are three times less likely to attend university than their high socio-economic status peers. For families without experience of higher education it is difficult to know how to encourage young children's aspiration for educational futures. This project aims to improve aspirations for educational futures in LSES early childhood sett ....Getting an Early Start to aspirations: Understanding how to promote educational futures in early childhood. Children from low socio-economic status (LSES) backgrounds are three times less likely to attend university than their high socio-economic status peers. For families without experience of higher education it is difficult to know how to encourage young children's aspiration for educational futures. This project aims to improve aspirations for educational futures in LSES early childhood settings. A social marketing intervention targeting parents, children and early childhood educators will be developed and longitudinal interviews will be conducted to understand the development of aspirations by LSES families with young children. The project will produce a unique 'education promotion' strategy for early childhood.Read moreRead less
Sparking Imagination Education: Transforming inequality in schools. This project will produce an Imagination Education Pedagogical Framework for use by teachers in schools. Imagination is recognised as beneficial for diverse groups of young people who experience educational inequality. This collaboration will support access to prominent industry insights on methods for using imagination practices to enhance educational equity. Using co-design with AIME and Social Ventures Australia, it will inve ....Sparking Imagination Education: Transforming inequality in schools. This project will produce an Imagination Education Pedagogical Framework for use by teachers in schools. Imagination is recognised as beneficial for diverse groups of young people who experience educational inequality. This collaboration will support access to prominent industry insights on methods for using imagination practices to enhance educational equity. Using co-design with AIME and Social Ventures Australia, it will investigate how these insights can be translated to school contexts to enrich Australian schooling in an environment under intensifying external pressures. The outcomes of this project will support national education agendas for embedding twenty-first century skills of imagination in Australian schooling.Read moreRead less
Fostering global digital citizenship: diaspora youth in a connected world. This project aims to identify the global digital citizenship dimensions of diaspora youth’s everyday digital media use. The project intends to use a new approach in order to investigate how these practices can be fostered through digital citizenship policy and programs to improve the inclusion and participation of culturally diverse youth and maximise their effectiveness. Expected outcomes include advances in understandin ....Fostering global digital citizenship: diaspora youth in a connected world. This project aims to identify the global digital citizenship dimensions of diaspora youth’s everyday digital media use. The project intends to use a new approach in order to investigate how these practices can be fostered through digital citizenship policy and programs to improve the inclusion and participation of culturally diverse youth and maximise their effectiveness. Expected outcomes include advances in understandings about the opportunity and capacity of diaspora youth experience. Findings will be used to strengthen digital citizenship initiatives in Australian secondary schools, connect them more closely to global citizenship education programs, and enhance the engagement of a diverse student body.Read moreRead less
Parent involvement goes online: New ecologies of school-home relations. This project aims to: identify forms of digital exclusion and inclusion impacting on parents’ ability to support their children’s education; produce a new conceptual model of technologically mediated school-home relationships; and provide a comprehensive map of school-home connected digital tools and services. Combining a detailed survey of 500 school leaders with innovative networked case studies across three schools and 18 ....Parent involvement goes online: New ecologies of school-home relations. This project aims to: identify forms of digital exclusion and inclusion impacting on parents’ ability to support their children’s education; produce a new conceptual model of technologically mediated school-home relationships; and provide a comprehensive map of school-home connected digital tools and services. Combining a detailed survey of 500 school leaders with innovative networked case studies across three schools and 18 families, this will be the first national study to comprehensively describe and analyse home-school partnerships in the digital age. It will provide policy and educational leadership with a roadmap for addressing barriers to digital inclusion, as schools advance their integration of digital platforms. Read moreRead less
Educational and career aspirations in the middle years of schooling: understanding complexity for increased equity. This project examines the complex relationships among factors that shape the career and educational aspirations of students in the middle years of schooling across three New South Wales regions. The study will inform interventions designed to achieve greater participation in schooling and higher education for students from low socio-economic status backgrounds.
The Political Sociology of the Australian Jewish Community. This project will examine the internal dynamics of the Australian Jewish community, its institutional structure, and responses to internal and external pressures, including terrorism. The study will analyse the interaction of the Jewish community with the broader Australian society, including relations between the internalised norms of the community and the demands made by participation in a pluralist society. Primarily sociological a ....The Political Sociology of the Australian Jewish Community. This project will examine the internal dynamics of the Australian Jewish community, its institutional structure, and responses to internal and external pressures, including terrorism. The study will analyse the interaction of the Jewish community with the broader Australian society, including relations between the internalised norms of the community and the demands made by participation in a pluralist society. Primarily sociological and political in approach, the study will also explore previously unexamined archives. The project will develop an improved model for Jewish community leadership which may also be useful for other communities.Read moreRead less
Constructing regionally appropriate anti-racism strategies for Australia. Racism is an international social scourge, and Australia is not immune from its injurious effects. The experience of racism degrades senses of belonging and generates disaffection, leads to ill-health and restrictions of mobility, as well as other social and individual pathologies. Reducing racism will strengthen Australia's social fabric. This project tests the utility of anti-racism templates and does so in rural as well ....Constructing regionally appropriate anti-racism strategies for Australia. Racism is an international social scourge, and Australia is not immune from its injurious effects. The experience of racism degrades senses of belonging and generates disaffection, leads to ill-health and restrictions of mobility, as well as other social and individual pathologies. Reducing racism will strengthen Australia's social fabric. This project tests the utility of anti-racism templates and does so in rural as well as urban Australia. The templates will be usable by local authorities and NGOs in framing their anti-racism efforts.Read moreRead less