Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE190101141
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$340,383.00
Summary
Globalising school reform through online teacher professional learning. This project aims to explore how new online modes of professional learning can inform professional knowledge and practice in teaching. The project will examine how international forms of evidence and expertise, and emergent private policy networks, are reshaping teacher knowledge, learning and practice in Australia and the United States of America. Through interviews, Internet and social media searches and document analysis, ....Globalising school reform through online teacher professional learning. This project aims to explore how new online modes of professional learning can inform professional knowledge and practice in teaching. The project will examine how international forms of evidence and expertise, and emergent private policy networks, are reshaping teacher knowledge, learning and practice in Australia and the United States of America. Through interviews, Internet and social media searches and document analysis, the project will highlight the changing nature of evidence-informed solutions, and create opportunities for teachers and policymakers to learn how to use professional learning and evidence to influence local schooling practices. The project will enhance teacher professional learning on student learning outcomes, as well as potentially improve the cost-effectiveness of delivering professional development programs for teachers.Read moreRead less
An investigation of the declining supply of school principals in Australia. Leadership is critical when reforming schools for new knowledge economies. Yet international and Australian anecdotal evidence suggests a declining supply of applicants for school leadership. This study investigates the existence, extent and nature of, and explanations for, this paradox across three states and all education systems against international trends. Its unique contribution lies in its focus on (i) interaction ....An investigation of the declining supply of school principals in Australia. Leadership is critical when reforming schools for new knowledge economies. Yet international and Australian anecdotal evidence suggests a declining supply of applicants for school leadership. This study investigates the existence, extent and nature of, and explanations for, this paradox across three states and all education systems against international trends. Its unique contribution lies in its focus on (i) interactions between institutional structures, cultures and professional identity,(ii) context and location, (iii) the interplay of gender, race and ethnic difference. Innovative research methods, both qualitative and quantitative, will produce evidence to inform policy development on principal recruitment, selection, induction and professional development.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE190101140
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$383,157.00
Summary
The role of teacher expertise, authority and professionalism in education. This project aims to provide new insights about the role of education in modern democratic societies, with a particular focus on teachers and teacher expertise. Specifically, the project will use case studies from three Western Democracies - Australia, United Kingdom, and the United States of America - to investigate the role of teachers in these education systems, and the ways in which contemporary policy and practice is ....The role of teacher expertise, authority and professionalism in education. This project aims to provide new insights about the role of education in modern democratic societies, with a particular focus on teachers and teacher expertise. Specifically, the project will use case studies from three Western Democracies - Australia, United Kingdom, and the United States of America - to investigate the role of teachers in these education systems, and the ways in which contemporary policy and practice is impacting their professional expertise and authority in their classrooms and schools. Using an innovative approach to comparative case studies, this project will advance knowledge about the relationship between schools, professional expertise and democracy, and the role of teachers within these spaces.Read moreRead less
Beyond global discourses of data: Storying learning in marginalised schools. Globally, Australian school education is seen as under-performing. Consequently, attention to data, particularly numeric and standardised test data, in schools have become pervasive. This project aims to understand how teachers and educators in schools and school systems actually engage with a broader conception of data for enhanced learning, on a truly global scale, particularly in schools serving struggling communiti ....Beyond global discourses of data: Storying learning in marginalised schools. Globally, Australian school education is seen as under-performing. Consequently, attention to data, particularly numeric and standardised test data, in schools have become pervasive. This project aims to understand how teachers and educators in schools and school systems actually engage with a broader conception of data for enhanced learning, on a truly global scale, particularly in schools serving struggling communities. This project will reveal the myriad ways educators in diverse settings - England, Australia, Singapore and Bangladesh - engage with data. The project will re-conceptualise how data are understood globally, and will provide significant benefits including informing education policy-making and improving teaching practices.Read moreRead less
How do teachers learn to enact the Australian Curriculum? A question of policy in practice. This project aims to show how teachers learn to engage with the new curriculum in the context of increasingly standardised national and international educational reforms. This is significant for determining whether the 'Australian Curriculum' will result in its projected benefits. This project aims to reveal how policy support for the new curriculum influences teacher learning in diverse schooling setting ....How do teachers learn to enact the Australian Curriculum? A question of policy in practice. This project aims to show how teachers learn to engage with the new curriculum in the context of increasingly standardised national and international educational reforms. This is significant for determining whether the 'Australian Curriculum' will result in its projected benefits. This project aims to reveal how policy support for the new curriculum influences teacher learning in diverse schooling settings in a broadly neoliberal, global context.Read moreRead less
Teaching workforce development through integrated partnerships. This project aims to understand integrated school-university partnerships’ effects on schools as workplaces and as learning spaces for beginning teachers. Australian governments endorse integrated partnerships to enhance the quality of teaching and address changing environments, but the effects of these partnerships on teaching workforce development are unknown The project will research partnerships as complex and entangled networks ....Teaching workforce development through integrated partnerships. This project aims to understand integrated school-university partnerships’ effects on schools as workplaces and as learning spaces for beginning teachers. Australian governments endorse integrated partnerships to enhance the quality of teaching and address changing environments, but the effects of these partnerships on teaching workforce development are unknown The project will research partnerships as complex and entangled networks, develop a theory of partnership work, and identify practical models that inform partnership development and capacities and strategies necessary in partnership work. The project is expected to contribute to the renewal of teaching workforce development in Australia.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE140100421
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$378,442.00
Summary
The Creative Turn: An Australia wide Study of Creativity and
Innovation in Secondary Schools. The Melbourne Declaration's Educational Goals for Young Australians advocate that all young Australians should become 'confident and creative individuals' for whom 'critical and creative thinking are fundamental to becoming successful'. This project addresses how creativity and innovative thinking can be nurtured in Australian secondary schools, to help learners better meet the needs of emerging twent ....The Creative Turn: An Australia wide Study of Creativity and
Innovation in Secondary Schools. The Melbourne Declaration's Educational Goals for Young Australians advocate that all young Australians should become 'confident and creative individuals' for whom 'critical and creative thinking are fundamental to becoming successful'. This project addresses how creativity and innovative thinking can be nurtured in Australian secondary schools, to help learners better meet the needs of emerging twenty-first century creative economies, particularly as they are developing in the Asia-Pacific region. This project addresses this imperative by seeking to define, measure and cultivate creativity in Australian schools and, ultimately, to develop a new theoretical framework with which to compare these findings internationally. Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE200100686
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$373,668.00
Summary
Unemployment in remote Australia: exploring policy reform impacts. This project aims to produce policy-relevant knowledge about the effects of the Australian Government's changing remote employment policies in four remote Indigenous communities. These policies have not yielded positive outcomes to date; more empirical evidence is needed. This project will be the first to explore the lived experiences of employment service practitioners & participants through an innovative policy analysis and eth ....Unemployment in remote Australia: exploring policy reform impacts. This project aims to produce policy-relevant knowledge about the effects of the Australian Government's changing remote employment policies in four remote Indigenous communities. These policies have not yielded positive outcomes to date; more empirical evidence is needed. This project will be the first to explore the lived experiences of employment service practitioners & participants through an innovative policy analysis and ethnography. It will deliver significant benefits, such as elevating marginalised policy subjects' voices/experiences in policy debates, contributing to efforts at improving employment/social outcomes, & speaking to debates about how the state can work effectively with remote Indigenous communities to improve outcomes.Read moreRead less
A comparison of housing wealth and the welfare behaviour of Australians and Britons. This comparison of housing wealth as a cushion against adverse life course events in Australia and the UK will improve understanding of how government interventions impede or promote homeowner ability to unlock housing equity to meet welfare needs and uncover types of events precipitating housing equity withdrawal, and the ways this helps or hinders wellbeing in subsequent years of a household's life course. Giv ....A comparison of housing wealth and the welfare behaviour of Australians and Britons. This comparison of housing wealth as a cushion against adverse life course events in Australia and the UK will improve understanding of how government interventions impede or promote homeowner ability to unlock housing equity to meet welfare needs and uncover types of events precipitating housing equity withdrawal, and the ways this helps or hinders wellbeing in subsequent years of a household's life course. Given the paucity of knowledge about consequences of housing equity withdrawal, anticipated national benefits of this research include greater appreciation of sensible and sustainable use of housing equity withdrawal and sound management of the accompanying debt. Outcomes will impact positively on the priority area, Ageing Well, Ageing Productively.Read moreRead less
‘Grantsmanship’ in the social sciences: an international comparative study. University-based social scientists spend considerable time each year applying for competitive research grants. It is a significant undertaking for universities and individuals. Taking an international comparative approach the project aims to offer original in-depth insight into how so-called ‘grantsmanship’ is undertaken, how it is learned and how it is experienced. It investigates how different policy and institutional ....‘Grantsmanship’ in the social sciences: an international comparative study. University-based social scientists spend considerable time each year applying for competitive research grants. It is a significant undertaking for universities and individuals. Taking an international comparative approach the project aims to offer original in-depth insight into how so-called ‘grantsmanship’ is undertaken, how it is learned and how it is experienced. It investigates how different policy and institutional contexts influence such work and how social scientists negotiate scientific and strategic exigencies in the process of proposal writing. Such analysis aims to enhance understanding of the contemporary mechanisms that shape social scientific practice and stimulate professional, political and public debate central to democratic well-being.Read moreRead less