- Australian Catholic University
Faculty of Education and Arts
Locked Bag 4115 DC
Fitzroy, Victoria 3065
Australia - +61 3 9953 3248
Terri Seddon
Latrobe University, Education, Emeritus
- I ask questions about the meaning of education and the nature of educational work given global-national transformatio... moreI ask questions about the meaning of education and the nature of educational work given global-national transformations in governance and the effects of educational privatisation. My research involves detailed studies of transnational topologies, where novel forms of learning and working affects educational change in Australia, Europe and through cross-national spaces and places -- social webs, networked projects and knowledge-building partnerships. This research agenda is centred by concepts of space-time-context and speaks into the discipline of comparative historical sociologies of learning and governing.edit
Educators, professionalism and politics offers ways of understanding how and with what consequences national systems of education and the work of education professionals are being reregulated in the context of contemporary global... more
Educators, professionalism and politics offers ways of understanding how and with what consequences national systems of education and the work of education professionals are being reregulated in the context of contemporary global transitions. Globalization does not just create transnational organizations, relations and practices; it also transforms nation-states by creating more complex education spaces that impinge on the work of educators and the learning that they enable, globally, nationally and locally.
This volume of the World Yearbook of Education focuses firmly on the educators themselves. It documents the way educators encounter and renegotiate ideas and practices that travel globally as they seek to enact their established professional projects. This framing recognises that educators’ spaces, work and identities are historically anchored in national institutional trajectories, but are both disturbed and renewed as globally mobile ideas and practices "touch down" within national systems of education.
The chapters examine the effect of global transitions on educators and education, and offers new perspectives on educational work in different parts of the world today. They challenge bleak assessments of teacher de-professionalization and idealistic narratives about professional development. Chapters highlight the significance of educators’ occupational boundary work and the resources and networks they mobilize through their professional projects as they make and remake education in national spaces. The volume tracks:
Re-regulatory trajectories evident in national education spaces and their impact on educators;
The way educators renegotiate globally mobile ideas, practices and national institutional trajectories, as they mediate global formations emerging in the national space; and
The kinds of mediations and resources that enable education professionals to engage with the politics of professionalization.
This volume of The World Yearbook of Education will be of great interest to Education researchers, graduate students, teacher educators and education policy-makers.
This volume of the World Yearbook of Education focuses firmly on the educators themselves. It documents the way educators encounter and renegotiate ideas and practices that travel globally as they seek to enact their established professional projects. This framing recognises that educators’ spaces, work and identities are historically anchored in national institutional trajectories, but are both disturbed and renewed as globally mobile ideas and practices "touch down" within national systems of education.
The chapters examine the effect of global transitions on educators and education, and offers new perspectives on educational work in different parts of the world today. They challenge bleak assessments of teacher de-professionalization and idealistic narratives about professional development. Chapters highlight the significance of educators’ occupational boundary work and the resources and networks they mobilize through their professional projects as they make and remake education in national spaces. The volume tracks:
Re-regulatory trajectories evident in national education spaces and their impact on educators;
The way educators renegotiate globally mobile ideas, practices and national institutional trajectories, as they mediate global formations emerging in the national space; and
The kinds of mediations and resources that enable education professionals to engage with the politics of professionalization.
This volume of The World Yearbook of Education will be of great interest to Education researchers, graduate students, teacher educators and education policy-makers.
Large-scale changes in work and education are key features of contemporary global transformations. On a local scale, these changes affect people's experiences of workplaces that are also learning places, where a significant politics of... more
Large-scale changes in work and education are key features of contemporary global transformations. On a local scale, these changes affect people's experiences of workplaces that are also learning places, where a significant politics of work plays out. This thought-provoking and empirically researched book questions prevailing debates about compliance in work, education and lifelong learning, and affirms the importance of debate and dissent within the current terms and conditions of work: the politics of working life in a globalised world. It examines the way human service work - teaching, nursing and social work - is being disturbed today and how these disturbances both constrain and enable collective identities in everyday practical politics. The book is structured by three main themes: disturbed work, disturbing work, and transforming politics. Coming to the view that this transforming politics is, at heart, a 'politics of we', it approaches this agenda through detailed empirical research in human service work in Europe, Australia and the USA, as well as through self-reflective theorising about doing academic work cross-nationally, using a distinctive global research methodology. Transforming politics is about the use and effects of power in everyday life. Contemporary global challenges require us to find cultural anchorpoints that support collective agency within a local and global ethic. Using power responsibly as an everyday practice throughout working lives is a way of approaching agency that offers new opportunities to build more sustainable workplaces, work practices and working lives. This book is written for postgraduate students, researchers, policy actors, planners, organisational and community development practitioners, professionals in education, work, and lifelong learning consultants in the US, Europe and Australia.
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"This volume considers the ways in which educational research is being shaped by policy across the globe. Policy effects on research are increasingly influential, as policies in and beyond education drive the formation of a... more
"This volume considers the ways in which educational research is being shaped by policy across the globe. Policy effects on research are increasingly influential, as policies in and beyond education drive the formation of a knowledge-based economy by supporting increased international competitiveness through more effective, evidence-based interventions in schooling, education and training systems.
What consequences does this increased steering have for research in education? How do transnational agencies make their influence felt on educational research? How do national systems and traditions of educational research - and relations with policy - respond to these new pressures? What effects does it have on the quality of research and on the freedom of researchers to pursue their own agendas?
The 2006 volume of the World Yearbook of Education explores these issues, focusing on three key themes:
* globalising policy and research in education
* steering education research in national contexts
* global-local politics of education research.
What consequences does this increased steering have for research in education? How do transnational agencies make their influence felt on educational research? How do national systems and traditions of educational research - and relations with policy - respond to these new pressures? What effects does it have on the quality of research and on the freedom of researchers to pursue their own agendas?
The 2006 volume of the World Yearbook of Education explores these issues, focusing on three key themes:
* globalising policy and research in education
* steering education research in national contexts
* global-local politics of education research.
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"Enormous change to Australian education over the past decade has created a maelstrom of debate among politicians, teachers and academics about the direction of education. Beyond Nostalgia: Reforming Australian Education distils this... more
"Enormous change to Australian education over the past decade has created a maelstrom of debate among politicians, teachers and academics about the direction of education. Beyond Nostalgia: Reforming Australian Education distils this ongoing debate into a concise account of developments in education, and provides a positive framework for finding a way forward. It examines the:
* shifting relationship between government and education
* implications of commercialising education
* broader social factors, such as globalisation, which impact on education
* prospects, challenges and opportunities for Australian education in the new millennium.
With contributions from 12 highly regarded education professionals, this insightful and accessible book is important for policy makers, undergraduate students, academics and educators, as well as anyone concerned with education reform.
The polarised and exclusionary debate about education has created walls of silence. Reconstructing a sensible debate about educational reform is imperative for the long-term future of Australian education and the people, young and old, who pass through it."
* shifting relationship between government and education
* implications of commercialising education
* broader social factors, such as globalisation, which impact on education
* prospects, challenges and opportunities for Australian education in the new millennium.
With contributions from 12 highly regarded education professionals, this insightful and accessible book is important for policy makers, undergraduate students, academics and educators, as well as anyone concerned with education reform.
The polarised and exclusionary debate about education has created walls of silence. Reconstructing a sensible debate about educational reform is imperative for the long-term future of Australian education and the people, young and old, who pass through it."
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A brief narrative description of the journal article, document, or resource. In the late 1980s a new concept entered the educational lexicon in Australia--"award restructuring," or paid training leave for teachers. However, by 1993 the... more
A brief narrative description of the journal article, document, or resource. In the late 1980s a new concept entered the educational lexicon in Australia--"award restructuring," or paid training leave for teachers. However, by 1993 the term had disappeared from public view. What began as a new politics of work developed into a complex debate about governance and leadership in Australian education. This book documents both the public and less visible processes in teacher-award restructuring. The book presents the views of state government teacher employers, teacher union officials, and academics in education, and evaluates the outcomes and the long-term significance of the movement. Chapters include the following: (1) "Approaching Teacher Award Restructuring" (Terri Seddon); (2) "The Context of Teacher Award Restructuring" (Terri Seddon); (3) "Teacher Award Restructuring in New South Wales" (Geoff Baldwin and Fenton Sharpe); (4) "Award Restructuring--the Teaching Profession" (Sharan Burrow); (5) "Award Restructuring in Schools: Educational Idealism Versus Political Pragmatism" (Max Angus); (6) "Award Restructuring: A Catalyst in the Evolution of Teacher Professionalism?" (Barbara Preston); and (7) "Whatever Happened to Teacher Award Restructuring?" (Terri Seddon).
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This paper examines research into initial teacher education in light of current Australian policy initiatives concerned with both the quality of research conducted in higher education and the quality of teacher education programs. The... more
This paper examines research into initial teacher education in light of current Australian policy initiatives concerned with both the quality of research conducted in higher education and the quality of teacher education programs. The purpose of the paper is to explore some ways ...
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The 'blue marble' photograph published in 1972 offered an iconic image of the earth. Take from the Apollo 17 spacecraft at a distance of 45,000 kilometres, it shows a small blue and white planet in the vast darkness of space. That... more
The 'blue marble' photograph published in 1972 offered an iconic image of the earth. Take from the Apollo 17 spacecraft at a distance of 45,000 kilometres, it shows a small blue and white planet in the vast darkness of space. That image prompted romantic and sometimes apocalyptic self-understandings of humanity relative to the immensity of the universe. It extended people's horizons and imaginaries from the relational intimacies of families, clans and communities, beyond the bordering and ordering of nation-states, towards the idea of earth as an imaginable social whole - a system that had to be self-sustaining. Such narratives helped to make everyday life knowable and actionable, reminding people of their responsibilities and stewardship of the plant. They prompted scientific debates about extending the geological time-scale beyond the Holocene, the warm period since the end of the last ice age, to recognize the Anthropocene, when human activities leave geological trace...
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Complementary therapies have an increasing popularity. This case study explores the experience of a nurse who practises complementary therapies within the health care system where there is a still a widespread of skepticism within the... more
Complementary therapies have an increasing popularity. This case study explores the experience of a nurse who practises complementary therapies within the health care system where there is a still a widespread of skepticism within the medical profession. It is considered by the nurse that it is a \u27luxury\u27 to include these therapies in nursing practice.<br /
This chapter considers how teacher education and ideas about quality teacher professionalism are complicated by contemporary changes in educational governance. We approach teacher education as a multi-scaled assemblage of uneven... more
This chapter considers how teacher education and ideas about quality teacher professionalism are complicated by contemporary changes in educational governance. We approach teacher education as a multi-scaled assemblage of uneven space-times (McLeod, Sobe, & Seddon, 2018) and document the practice architectures (Kemmis, Wilkinson, Edwards-Groves, Hardy, Grootenboer, & Bristol, 2014) and the experienced relationalities, spatialities and temporalities (Barbousas & Seddon, 2018) that teacher educators must navigate if they are to realise TEMAG reforms. We trace the effects of 2014 reforms of teacher education recommended by the Teacher Education Ministerial Advisory Group (TEMAG) and endorsed by the Australian Commonwealth Government in two ways. First, using a policy perspective, we track how TEMAG reforms offered a novel vocabulary that prioritised ‘classroom-ready teachers’ and their preparation through ‘integrated partnerships’ between schools, universities and school systems. We show how that discourse, privileging partnerships, created regulatory discursive arrangements that were not specifically Australian, but an expression of the global trajectory towards network governance in education. Second, we illustrate how that trajectory towards network governance was realised in Australia through space-times that bridged between education policy and practice. We illustrate some of the space-times that are unfolding between levels of government, regulatory agencies and as professional teacher educators engage with schools. We suggest this respatialisation of teacher education raises significant questions about ‘who knows’ teacher education.
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questions were couched in relation to AVETRA and what counted as acceptable practice within this new professional organisation of VET researchers. The second annual conference of AVETRA, held at RMIT in Melbourne, was an appropriate time... more
questions were couched in relation to AVETRA and what counted as acceptable practice within this new professional organisation of VET researchers. The second annual conference of AVETRA, held at RMIT in Melbourne, was an appropriate time to reflect on these questions, to canvas the dilemmas experience by AVETRA members and to clarify directions for the future of research in VET. My paper provided the opportunity to consider these issues in more depth. I organised the paper as a way of reflecting concerns in AVETRA back to the membership, making my contribution a vehicle for feedback and for thinking about the work that might be tackled within AVETRA to advance VET research. Importantly, my aim in shaping the paper in this way was to permit multiple voices within the AVETRA membership to be heard in the debate about VET research as a way of clarifying the profile and enhancing the capacity of this VET research community. To this end, first I conducted a straw poll of AVETRA members b...
global educator ’ capacity in the VET workforce
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A thorough analysis of change in Australian education; featuring contributions from 12 education professionals, it examines the effects of reform and restructuring throughout the sector to thereby map the possibilities for the ongoing... more
A thorough analysis of change in Australian education; featuring contributions from 12 education professionals, it examines the effects of reform and restructuring throughout the sector to thereby map the possibilities for the ongoing redesign of Australian education.
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Globalising processes are shifting the established nation-building project of twentieth-century national education systems. This historic axis between education and territorialised state power is being re-spatialised and remade as a... more
Globalising processes are shifting the established nation-building project of twentieth-century national education systems. This historic axis between education and territorialised state power is being re-spatialised and remade as a globally networked, lifelong learning educational order. Political sociology of education theorises these de- and re-territorialising trajectories; yet the practical processes of remaking educational spaces are less well documented. The concept of ‘boundary work’ provides a lens for understanding the interplay between political and sociological processes that remake educational spaces over time and scale. Analysing two visions of education at the start of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, I track the shifting configuration of actors and processes involved in boundary work. I argue that educational spaces are ‘things of boundaries’ and lifelong learning reforms indicate processes of boundary work involving emergent educational actors: ‘professionals-who-educate’.
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Vongalis, Athena and Seddon, Terri 2001, Futures for teachers? Unravelling global agencies development agendas in education and training and lifelong learning, in Travelling Policy/Local Spaces: Globalization, Identities and Education... more
Vongalis, Athena and Seddon, Terri 2001, Futures for teachers? Unravelling global agencies development agendas in education and training and lifelong learning, in Travelling Policy/Local Spaces: Globalization, Identities and Education Policy in Europe. Proceedings of the ...
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Web 2.0 technologies or 'social web' (eg. Facebook, Twitter) are said to have democratic potential in engaging, mobilizing and communicating with young citizens worldwide. Yet there is limited research, especially in Australia, to... more
Web 2.0 technologies or 'social web' (eg. Facebook, Twitter) are said to have democratic potential in engaging, mobilizing and communicating with young citizens worldwide. Yet there is limited research, especially in Australia, to confirm these claims. The Networking Young Citizens project investigates the way Web 2.0 technologies contribute to young people's citizenship participation. Documenting the way young people talk about and use Web 2.0 to participate in their social networks, and the way schools talk about and use Web 2.0 technologies to support citizenship teaching and learning in schools, reveals actual and possible ways of using the social web to form young citizens.
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Scholarship is readily seen as a requirement in higher education and is not commonly associated with vocational education and training (VET) institutions. However, the increasing prevalence of VET institutions delivering higher education... more
Scholarship is readily seen as a requirement in higher education and is not commonly associated with vocational education and training (VET) institutions. However, the increasing prevalence of VET institutions delivering higher education qualifications has raised questions as to the place of scholarship in these institutions. This report uses Boyer's four forms of scholarship - delivery, integration, application and teaching - to explore how scholarship is implemented across the different tertiary education sectors. Whilst the VET sector may not use the term 'scholarship', aspects of these four forms are being practised. The authors conclude with a number of strategies to enhance scholarly practice in VET institutions.
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This article builds on studies of network governance in education by Ball, and Liebman and Sabel. These studies examine the way governance is realized through the coordination of actors, decision-making processes, and stakeholder... more
This article builds on studies of network governance in education by Ball, and Liebman and Sabel. These studies examine the way governance is realized through the coordination of actors, decision-making processes, and stakeholder motivations in collective decisions. It presents a case study of policy reform in Chinese education by tracking proposals for the Modern Enterprise System, in which Chinese stateowned enterprise schools were transferred to the Ministry of Education. This paper overviews this system of schooling from kindergarten to adult and university education. It documents policy implementation by showing how this centralized policy proposal is coordinated through actions and resource transactions between actors at different levels of government and schools. It argues that network governance is an effective and legitimate way of formulating and implementing Chinese education policy.
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The recent Review of Australian Higher Education (the Bradley Review) has recommended the formation of a tertiary education s ector to formalise the increasingly blurred higher and vocational education boundaries. The growth in delivery... more
The recent Review of Australian Higher Education (the Bradley Review) has recommended the formation of a tertiary education s ector to formalise the increasingly blurred higher and vocational education boundaries. The growth in delivery of higher education programs by TAFE institutes is contributi ng to these blurred boundaries and the debates surrounding the emerging notions of a terti ary education sector. The delivery of higher education programs in TAFE institutes has cr eated significant challenges for teachers working in these settings. They work withi n a TAFE culture but confront the regulatory frameworks demanded of higher education providers. Scholarship is a particularly problematic issue because it has not b een an expectation in TAFE providers but is a key feature in higher education. This pape r examines the emerging nature of scholarship in TAFE providers offering higher educa tion programs. We report on an analysis of AUQA audit reports and associated docum entation,...
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Studies of europeanisation have made a significant contribution to knowledge about education and how it has respatialised since the turn of the 21st century. This line of inquiry initially historicised the 1990s as a means of researching... more
Studies of europeanisation have made a significant contribution to knowledge about education and how it has respatialised since the turn of the 21st century. This line of inquiry initially historicised the 1990s as a means of researching the emerging European space of education, but then morphed into studies of governing through the field of comparative policy studies. The research on governing Europe made the space of education visible in particular ways, which raises questions about the space of experiencing Europe: specifically, about how education is seen by professionals and with what effects. This paper uses the concept of ‘space-time’ to investigate the respatialisation of education. We review three case studies that historicise the europeanisation of education to problematise the space of governing, conceptualise the space of experience at three scales and illustrate how these entangled transnational topologies, analytic borderlands and spaces of orientation re-made the spac...
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This introduction to the special issue questions the idea of ‘Brexit shock’. It uses this discursive theme to focus on the way policy discourse that unfolds through the space of governing Europe has become disconnected from everyday... more
This introduction to the special issue questions the idea of ‘Brexit shock’. It uses this discursive theme to focus on the way policy discourse that unfolds through the space of governing Europe has become disconnected from everyday discourses that unfold through the space of experiencing Europe. This dilemma identifies the point of departure for this special issue, which focuses on experiencing Europe.
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In the lead-up to the 2007 Australian federal election, Labor candidate Kevin Rudd described climate change as the “great moral challenge of our generation”. In the years since then, the heat in Australia has been rising – in terms of... more
In the lead-up to the 2007 Australian federal election, Labor candidate Kevin Rudd described climate change as the “great moral challenge of our generation”. In the years since then, the heat in Australia has been rising – in terms of both temperature and climate politics –, but government action has slowed down. Endorsement of economic growth is prioritised, with only intermittent recognition of environmental costs. At grassroots level, citizens’ attitudes are influenced by social norms. This kind of social learning is a major constraint on sustainability. Therefore, it seems useful to consider how educators might help build sustainable futures. To understand how historical context entangles social learning in ways that complicate policies associated with Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) and practices of Education for Sustainability (EfS), the author of this paper draws on the concept of “space of orientation”. Focusing on adult education, she traces the contradiction between “globalisation” and “sustainability” through policy logics, relational practices in Australian adult education and the “necessary utopia” which provides a point of reference for making futures. She argues that spaces of orientation are a critical resource in this era of intensifying conflicts of interest between economic priorities of globalisation and environmental priorities intended to slow global warming, because they mediate context and orient learning in ways that clear a path towards sustainability through the entangled histories of this present.RésuméDéveloppement durable et apprentissage social : recontextualiser l’espace d’orientation – Pendant la période précédant l’élection fédérale de 2007 en Australie, le candidat travailliste Kevin Rudd évoqua le changement climatique comme étant le « grand défi moral pour notre génération » . Depuis cette date, l’Australie s’est échauffée – à la fois en termes de température et de politique climatique –, mais l’action gouvernementale a connu un ralentissement. Le soutien à la croissance économique est prioritaire, accompagné d’une reconnaissance irrégulière des coûts environnementaux. Au niveau local, les comportements des citoyens sont influencés par les normes sociales. Ce type d’apprentissage social est un sérieux obstacle à la pérennité. Il semble par conséquent opportun d’examiner comment les éducateurs pourraient contribuer à édifier des avenirs pérennes. En vue de cerner comment le contexte historique influence l’apprentissage social au point de complexifier les politiques associées à l’éducation pour le développement durable et les pratiques de l’éducation pour un avenir viable, l’auteure s’inspire du concept « d’espace d’orientation ». Se concentrant sur l’éducation des adultes, elle traque la contradiction entre « mondialisation » et « pérennité » dans la logique des politiques, les pratiques relationnelles dans l’éducation des adultes en Australie, et « l’utopie nécessaire » qui fournit un point de repère pour construire des avenirs. Elle affirme que les espaces d’orientation sont une ressource décisive à cette époque d’intensification des conflits d’intérêts entre priorités économiques de la mondialisation et priorités environnementales destinées à ralentir le réchauffement planétaire; en effet, ils établissent un contexte et orientent l’apprentissage de sorte à tracer clairement la voie vers la pérennité à travers les historiques enchevêtrés du présent.
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The role of universities in nation building and cohesive citizen formation is challenged by globalization. In Australia, these effects are visible in the growth of international student enrollments that have made education a major... more
The role of universities in nation building and cohesive citizen formation is challenged by globalization. In Australia, these effects are visible in the growth of international student enrollments that have made education a major “export” industry, and in deep uncertainties that now surround what it means to be a “university,” do “academic work,” and form cohesive citizenry. There is evidence that marketization, the restructuring of public enterprises so that they operate on the basis of market choice, has shifted the values and ethics of higher education in Australia. But it is less clear how these developments affect the relation between higher education, citizenship, and social cohesion—“the willingness of members of a society to cooperate with each other in order to survive and prosper” (Scanlon Foundation, 2015).
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The euphemism ‘21st century contexts’ is often used to capture the transition from solid twentieth century education towards more uncertain social and educational conditions. These contextual narratives acknowledge the complexities of... more
The euphemism ‘21st century contexts’ is often used to capture the transition from solid twentieth century education towards more uncertain social and educational conditions. These contextual narratives acknowledge the complexities of contemporary education that make decision-making, professional practice and leadership seem difficult. But they rarely explain the context of uncertainty, which, as research suggests, is linked to rapid change in practices of governing and their effects on nation states, the inter-state order, and established national educational knowledge-authority orders. This disjuncture raises questions about how, and with what effects, contexts shape educators ways of knowing and doing education. I use the concept of ‘educational space–time’ to understand how educators contextual understandings are implicated in educational change by drawing examples from studies of educational change in different historical periods and governing regimes. I argue that the way educators navigate change and uncertainty has effects on learning and citizenship but should also acknowledge the effects of changes in governing regimes. Contextual understandings that acknowledge shifts in governing–learning regimes can open the way to educational work that is not locked into binary choices between territorial government or multilateral governance.
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While history teachers educate students about globalisation as a historical concept, globalisation's forces have reshaped our roles as teachers over the same period. Teacher educators here reflect on what they see as the challenges... more
While history teachers educate students about globalisation as a historical concept, globalisation's forces have reshaped our roles as teachers over the same period. Teacher educators here reflect on what they see as the challenges for education inside and outside the classroom.
Research Interests: Sociology, Social Theory, Sociology of Culture, Sociology of Education, Cultural Policy, and 13 moreGlobalization, Teacher Education, Sociology of Knowledge, Learning and Teaching, Political Science, Nationalism, Epistemology of the Social Sciences, Cultural Globalization, Agora, Classical and Contemporary Social Theory, Historical and Comparative Sociology, Sociology of the State, and Ágora
A decade ago, Stephen Ball described the growing globalisation of education reform as a mechanism, above all, for reforming educators, characterising it as ‘the struggle over the teacher's soul’ (2...
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There is now a large body of quite recent work across a range of different academic and practical disciplines and fields which could be grouped under the headings of &quot;Knowledge&quot; or &quot;Learning&quot; in... more
There is now a large body of quite recent work across a range of different academic and practical disciplines and fields which could be grouped under the headings of &quot;Knowledge&quot; or &quot;Learning&quot; in organisations (Burton-Jones, 1999; Organisation for Economic Cooperation ...
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Research Interests: Geography, Latin American Studies, Political Economy, Sociology of Education, Educational Research, and 9 moreUrban Studies, Latino Studies, Comparative Ethnic Studies, Social Welfare, Research Assessment, Aesthetics and Visual Culture, Travelling Policies, Representations of Poverty, and The Cultural Politics of Architecture and Urban Design
Human service work is being reconfigured by welfare state reforms driven by neo-liberal globalization. Sectors are being merged, ‘hybrid’ occupations formed and occupational boundaries renegotiated. Yet time is rarely considered in the... more
Human service work is being reconfigured by welfare state reforms driven by neo-liberal globalization. Sectors are being merged, ‘hybrid’ occupations formed and occupational boundaries renegotiated. Yet time is rarely considered in the study of such boundary work. This article conceptualizes time as generated by human action, in different orders that may operate in tension with one another. Three case studies of reform in educational work, from Finland, England and Germany, each illustrate a particular configuration of these competing time orders. The article concludes by arguing for a politics of time to create a more democratic climate for education and other human services work.
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For many years the EERJ Roundtable has been a standing event within the European Conference on Educational Research (ECER). In a discursive style it addresses issues related to contemporary relationships between educational research and... more
For many years the EERJ Roundtable has been a standing event within the European Conference on Educational Research (ECER). In a discursive style it addresses issues related to contemporary relationships between educational research and educational policy in Europe. The changing educational landscape, together with shifting practices and discourses of educational research, prompted researchers to discuss the need for increased self-governance. It was taken up as the topic for the 2013 EERJ Roundtable and couched as a question: What is the possibility of a ‘moot’ for educational research in Europe? This article reports on the 2013 Roundtable. Its three short presentations and subsequent audience discussion have been summarised and reflected upon to make a case for a moot: a self-governing space for educational research. It reveals ECER, and particularly the EERJ Roundtable, as a scholarly and a political arena where the interplay between research, policy and larger patterns of social...
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Sociology of education is caught in a dilemma. The study of education and society that unfolded through the twentieth century produced educational vocabularies that spoke into education policy and practice about inequality and social... more
Sociology of education is caught in a dilemma. The study of education and society that unfolded through the twentieth century produced educational vocabularies that spoke into education policy and practice about inequality and social justice. Now that sociologically informed educational discourse is marginalised by individualistic economic-psychological vocabularies that read inequality as individual deficits and aspirations. The question is, how can sociology of education speak into contemporary educational knowledge and construct vocabularies that re-open dialogue about social justice? In this article, the concept of ‘knowledge space’ is used to understand the situated enactment of sociological practice that disciplines sociological knowledge about education. A mobile methodology is used to report on three knowledge spaces that locate sociological practice and frame sociological knowledge. The article argues that global transitions have re-scaled and re-ordered the relation between the sovereign and governmental spatial powers that previously centred education. These shifts trouble education and its perceived applications, and also divide national from supra-national sociologies of education. Reconciling these sociologies requires studies of intersecting spaces, scales and the mobilities that fabricate educations and societies. It demands explicit attention to methodological choices, but also offers spaces of possibilities for renewing sociology of education as a powerful discourse.
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""Enormous change to Australian education over the past decade has created a maelstrom of debate among politicians, teachers and academics about the direction of education. Beyond Nostalgia: Reforming Australian Education... more
""Enormous change to Australian education over the past decade has created a maelstrom of debate among politicians, teachers and academics about the direction of education. Beyond Nostalgia: Reforming Australian Education distils this ongoing debate into a concise account of developments in education, and provides a positive framework for finding a way forward. It examines the: * shifting relationship between government and education * implications of commercialising education * broader social factors, such as globalisation, which impact on education * prospects, challenges and opportunities for Australian education in the new millennium. With contributions from 12 highly regarded education professionals, this insightful and accessible book is important for policy makers, undergraduate students, academics and educators, as well as anyone concerned with education reform. The polarised and exclusionary debate about education has created walls of silence. Reconstructing a sensible debate about educational reform is imperative for the long-term future of Australian education and the people, young and old, who pass through it.""
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... distinctions in higher education and VET in responding to student's aspirations for engagement ... development of distinctive features of VET and higher education learning cultures in Australia. ... In the final section we argue... more
... distinctions in higher education and VET in responding to student's aspirations for engagement ... development of distinctive features of VET and higher education learning cultures in Australia. ... In the final section we argue that recognising and appreciating these practical forms of ...
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This paper queries the appropriateness of notions of ‘relative autonomy’. It argues that rather than autonomy, historical analyses show considerable coherence in both the qualitative character and rhythm of development of different facets... more
This paper queries the appropriateness of notions of ‘relative autonomy’. It argues that rather than autonomy, historical analyses show considerable coherence in both the qualitative character and rhythm of development of different facets of social life. The argument is developed through an examination of the relationship of schooling, state and society. A theoretical framework for conceptualising the relationship of schooling, state and society is outlined. This framework, and the argument for coherence, is then illustrated through an examination of the restructuring of the Australian State and New South Wales schooling at the turn of the twentieth century.
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Australian public policy adopted the concept of lifelong learning in the 1980s and harnessed it to human capital theory to articulate a new policy emphasis on ‘up-skilling’ the Australian labour force. This paper addresses the question of... more
Australian public policy adopted the concept of lifelong learning in the 1980s and harnessed it to human capital theory to articulate a new policy emphasis on ‘up-skilling’ the Australian labour force. This paper addresses the question of how this conception of lifelong learning has fared in practice as Australian Commonwealth government policies, including those related to education and training, have shifted to embrace strong market orientations and priorities. Have the policy objectives of a more highly trained labour force been met or has the concept of lifelong learning become increasingly uncoupled from links with the nation-building exercise of preparing Australia for the ‘information age’?
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ABSTRACT This paper reflects on the geography of Australian educational research in the context of the ERA 2010 and 2012 assessments results. These results reflect significant changes to the nature of educational research over the past... more
ABSTRACT This paper reflects on the geography of Australian educational research in the context of the ERA 2010 and 2012 assessments results. These results reflect significant changes to the nature of educational research over the past decades, where this research is conducted and by whom. We recap the historical changes to the formation of educational institutions and their impact on research outputs to demonstrate that interdisciplinary work is growing in a context where there has been a shift in research outputs away from the traditional area of school education. The ERA results demonstrate a high level of research activity in the intersections between previously distinct discipline areas, particularly in the scholarship of teaching and learning. The future of ERA itself is addressed in order to propose interventions that might make a difference to an ecology that is anchored in traditions and tends towards inertia. Finally, we argue that efforts by universities to build research capacity are likely to continue to be competitive, to focus on the individual rather than on departments and schools, and to be subject to an increasingly pervasive culture of accountability. Against this discourse of accountability, and an accompanying loss in autonomy and creative ‘think-time’, we propose that academics in education actively engage in a community of research. We conclude with interventions designed to build a high-quality, analytical and theoretically intensive research culture to underscore educational research in Australia.
Research Interests: Sociology, Education, Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, Higher Education, Educational Research, and 11 moreErasmus, Scholarship of Learning and Teaching, Higher Education Policy, Education Research, Future, Boundaries, Educational, Strategic, Research Excellence Framework, Interventions, and Research frameworks
ABSTRACT Processes of national research assessment, such as Excellence in Research for Australia (ERA) are a type of audit technology that confronts and steers established institutional identities and traditions. This nexus between policy... more
ABSTRACT Processes of national research assessment, such as Excellence in Research for Australia (ERA) are a type of audit technology that confronts and steers established institutional identities and traditions. This nexus between policy and practice drives boundary work that diffracts prevailing policy logics, organisational practices, and habits of mind. We use this notion of ‘boundary work’ as an analytical lens for understanding the nature and effects of ERA in the Australian educational research space. This paper explains the methodology that informed the AARE–ACDE research reported in Strategic Capacity Building for Australian Educational Research. It documents the policy logic of ERA and the way it cuts across the established ecology of educational research, revealing social and symbolic work that is remaking the boundaries of educational research. We report on the historical trajectory of Australian educational research, the way ERA codes research outputs, and how educational researchers are repositioning in this shifting research space. We argue that there are specific loci of boundary work where capacity building in Australian educational research can make a difference to future educational knowledge building.
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Research Interests:
Research Interests:
In education, and in much popular commentary, nationalism and globalization are often seen to be opposing forces. In the modern world, education has been fundamental to nation-building and the construction of national identity (Readings,... more
In education, and in much popular commentary, nationalism and globalization are often seen to be opposing forces. In the modern world, education has been fundamental to nation-building and the construction of national identity (Readings, 1996). In a globalizing world this construction of nation is challenged by global developments relayed through economic, political, social and cultural processes. The reach and power of transnational corporations, the growth of cross-national experience through immigration, refugee movements and ...
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Research Interests:
ABSTRACT Educational research has long been the subject of lively and agitated debate, not least because of its diversity. Ranging in scope from academic development and broad-scale policy research through to student engagement and... more
ABSTRACT Educational research has long been the subject of lively and agitated debate, not least because of its diversity. Ranging in scope from academic development and broad-scale policy research through to student engagement and discipline-specific research, it includes methods of traditional academic inquiry and investigations and also less traditional modes of research. However, the topography of Australian educational research and the characteristics of the people who undertake this complex body of work are unclear. In this paper we explore some of the complexities of the Australian educational research community, drawing on the findings of a national online survey of academics who identified as researching in the field of education from within and outside education schools and faculties. The survey attracted 504 responses from 38 of Australia’s 39 universities, and just over two-thirds of respondents were located in a school or faculty of education. We draw on the results to answer the questions of who is undertaking educational research and who how they might be supported. We utilise a conceptual model that ‘segments’ the educational research workforce represented by the survey respondents, and we conclude by indicating strategies that might be utilised to address research barriers indicated by educational researchers.