The emotional aspects of children's social relations have generally been marginalised in social science discourse. Children, who participated in the Australian segment of the Children's Understandings of Well-being (CUWB) project used various media to 'voice' the importance for their well-being of emotional relatedness with family, friends,…

How should educators teach about one of the most complex and pressing issues of our times? This paper presents an empirically-grounded framework to help educators understand the opportunities and challenges of engaging youth around the topic of migration, including migration involving refugees. It stresses the importance of inviting youth to…

Limiting exposure to sunlight during childhood can significantly reduce the risk of skin cancer. This was the first national study to assess the sun protection policies and practices of early childhood services across Australia. It also examined the key predictors of services' sun protection practices. In 2007, 1017 respondents completed a…

In October 2008, the Australian Learning and Teaching Council released the final report for the commissioned project "ePortfolio use by university students in Australia: Informing excellence in policy and practice". The Australian ePortfolio Project represented the first attempt to examine the breadth and depth of ePortfolio practice in…

This article is essentially written as two linked parts. The first part considers how space, spatiality and history can contribute to understanding and "doing something about" the sustainability of rural communities. This is done by extensive reference to Soja's (1989 & 1996) space and spatial theorising and selective perspectives of…

This article examines shifts in educational and social governance taking place in Queensland, Australia, through Education Queensland's Industry School Engagement Strategy and Gateway Schools program. This significant educational initiative is set within the context of Queensland's social investment agenda first articulated in its education policy…

This support document accompanies the NCVER report, "A Review of Indigenous Employment Programs," hereafter the "Report" [ED499667]. It contains explanatory notes on evaluation methodology, plus additional details on developments in labor market assistance and reviews of the literature relating to the evaluation of such…

A discussion of language policy in Australia chronicles the history and context of policy formation and looks at the role of the National Languages and Literacy Institute. The paper first examines the phases and processes of both explicit and unofficial policy-making on language issues in Australia, highlighting the role that language…

The Australian Tertiary Education Commission (TEC) report, which describes a politically preferred version of the higher education system, is put into historical, economic, and political perspective and criticized for its style and content. The workings of the public agencies concerned with higher education are outlined. (MSE)

This paper reports on research in progress in Melbourne secondary schools in which a community language is taught to students from a range of backgrounds. The programmes are described and contextualised. The project is developing models and strategies to enable schools to cater for the needs of secondary schools of students with and without home…

Activities at Edith Cowan University (Australia) in support of the maintenance of Aboriginal languages and Aboriginal English are discussed. Discussion begins with an examination of the concept of language maintenance and the reasons it merits the attention of linguists, language planners, and language teachers. Australian policy concerning…

This paper clarifies the problems of meaning and translation into practice of concepts of "quality" in higher education by examining a quality improvement program at Griffith University (Queensland, Australia). The paper notes that Australian government agencies have advanced a quality assurance (QA) approach concerned with the…

This book is a study of the diffusion and transformation of the kindergarten around the turn of the twentieth century, concentrating most centrally on the power of local cultures to respond to and reformulate borrowed ideas. Eleven case studies represent western and nonwestern national histories, various religious traditions, and a range of…

The Australian Language Levels Project (ALL) is involved in the development of the guidelines for curriculum activities in both Languages-other-than-English (LOTE) and English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL), in Australia. The ALL Project developed two kinds frameworks that contain guidelines with a degree of flexibility needed to be adapted to…

The evolution and activities of the National Languages and Literacy Institute of Australia Limited during its first three years are described. The institute consists of a complex network of activities across Australia, including; a research and policy coordination center in Canberra; nine research and development centers specializing in various…