This paper suggests that complex practice dilemmas call for thick stories of masterful practice that don't ignore the tensions and ambiguities involved. The paper draws on an Australian study of policing as a fruitful example. Academic commentary suggests policing is beset with practice dilemmas unique in their complexity. However, empirical…

National education reform agendas are increasingly prevalent in school systems around the world. Whilst we have a substantial body of research exploring the ways in which schools manage change agendas, there is less discussion of the impacts these agendas may have on beginning teachers and their retention in the profession. Here I report on a…

While there has been worldwide interest in Japanese Lesson Study as a model for teacher professional learning, there has been less research into authentic implementation of the problem-solving lesson structure that underpins mathematics research lessons in Japan. Findings from a Lesson Study project involving teachers from three Victorian primary…

The aim of this study was to investigate the role of the instructional leader when introducing digital technology into the mathematics teaching in the Australian Curriculum. The research reported here involves the principal and five teachers from one school and is part of a larger study. Results indicated that principal-led "crucial…

Despite significant investment in school one-to-one device programs, little is known about which aspects of program implementation work and why. Through a comparison of two implementation models, adopter-diffusion and saturation, and using existing data from the One Laptop per Child Australia laptop program, we explored how factors of…

A Victorian government initiative called "The Primary Science Specialists Professional Learning Program" is designed to tackle students' falling interest in science by investing in the building of teacher capacity. The aims of the initiative are: to improve the science knowledge base of all teachers and therefore increase teachers'…

Academic development has had an approximately forty-year history within Australian higher education, paralleling the major expansions and changes in the sector, both nationally and internationally. Its principal concerns have been the improvement of teaching and the professional development of the academics who teach. The history of academic…

The claim by universities to be "international" has spread world-wide over the last two decades and this has been largely interpreted to mean the recruitment and support of international students. Little attention has been paid to what this means for curriculum development. This study was carried out to explore disciplinary…

There are movements internationally towards curricula that incorporate values and citizenship education. In Australia, this movement has been illustrated with the adoption of a national curriculum in values education. This has arisen from the perceived need for citizens to hold values around the rights and responsibilities of functioning within a…

This paper investigates the complex interactions that occur as teachers meet online to justify and negotiate their assessment judgements of student work across relatively large and geographically dispersed populations. Drawing from sociocultural theories of learning and technology, the technology is positioned as playing a role in either…

This study aims to add to the growing research related to the implementation of non-traditional writing tasks in classrooms to encourage science literacy. A secondary reanalysis methodology was employed to review student interviews collected as a part of several individual studies during a ten year research program. This method established an…

Objective: To record the views of individuals whose main professional role is community liaison on dental health education material for culturally and linguistically diverse communities. Methods: Tape-recorded interviews were undertaken, reviewed by two individuals and themes identified. Results: Twenty four individuals were interviewed out of a…

In the context of low fertility and Australia's ageing population, a national longitudinal telephone survey, "Negotiating the Life Course" (NLC), asks women about their childbearing intentions. This paper uses conversation analysis (CA) to examine interaction between an interviewer and respondents on one NLC question about the likelihood…