This paper examines the values of the CHE principles of Connectivity, Humanness and Empathy as a guiding framework for maximizing the ethical and methodological advantages of semi-structured ...interview research practices. The authors draw from two separate educational studies and apply the CHE principles to analyse and evaluate the effectiveness of decision-making in facilitating sustainable relationships with the participants in each study. Findings highlight that dialogical relations with participants were evident in both studies, and identify significant junctures where decision-making and actions influenced effective rapport-building and respectful and reciprocal relationships with participants in the research. The CHE principles emerge as providing a robust framework for educational researchers to employ when auditing their decision-making prior to and during their engagement in qualitative interviews.
Remote Education Tutors (RETs) enact crucial roles in Australian distance schooling, by living with families who reside in geographically isolated locations and supporting their school age children's ...learning. As part of a larger research project, this paper presents a study of four RETs derived from semi-structured interviews conducted in their respective home schoolrooms. Informed conceptually by Bronfenbrenner's socio-ecological systems theory (1979, 1986), the thematic analysis generated four substantive themes related to the participants' lives and work: pedagogical competencies; healthy relational dynamics; optimism with a solution focus; and substantive occupation. More broadly, the RETs contribute indispensably to the educational success and the lifestyle sustainability of the school age children with whom they work, yet currently there is no formal recognition of that contribution, just as there is no viable career pathway for RETs seeking to become qualified teachers. Accordingly, they are as occupationally invisible as the remote living families whom they serve.
This paper investigates the complex factors that lead to early career teachers (ECTs) deciding to leave the profession. It extends prior studies to show the associations that different elements of ...preservice education (PSE), early career support, and on-the-job satisfaction have with the intention to leave the profession. The study uses data from 2,144 Australian ECTs to explore these relationships. Results highlight the importance of teachers' collegial relationships with their peers, and replicate prior findings showing the significance of mentoring and induction programs. Results show that elements of job satisfaction are strongly associated with intention to leave the profession, leading to a number of implications for achieving the twin goals of higher teacher retention and job satisfaction. Author abstract
Kalwant Bhopal and Patrick Danaher examine 'race', identity and gender within education and explore the difficulties of relating these concepts to the experience of students in higher education. In ...drawing together the experience of local and international students in the UK and in Australia, they examine the ways identities are understood and conceptualized within higher education in local contexts and on a global level. They consider the complexity of 'race', gender and identity in relation to education within the context that education continues to be dominated by predominantly white, middle class values and perspectives. Identity and Pedagogy in Higher Education examines the extent to which education as a vehicle for change in the light of the controversial debates surrounding race and gender inequalities.
While diversity and commonality are not necessarily contradictory aspirations in relation to contemporary teaching in higher education, they exist potentially in a state of dynamic tension, fostered ...by market-based and government-induced policies that strive to have the largest and widest possible client- or customer-base, while reducing costs by standardising delivery and assessment. This paper explores this dynamic tension between diversity and commonality through three empirical cases of different types of students at Central Queensland University in Australia: Indigenous, pre-undergraduate and international students. The paper presents an analytical synthesis of the particular teaching strategies developed by academic staff working with students in each case: experiential learning, transformative learning and culturally-situated pedagogy. The authors argue that these strategies constitute a potentially effective means of helping to resolve the dynamic tension between, and of unravelling the Gordian knot linking, diversity and commonality in Australian contemporary higher education.
This paper investigates the complex factors that lead to early career teachers (ECTs) deciding to leave the profession. It extends prior studies to show the associations that different elements of ...preservice education (PSE), early career support, and on-the-job satisfaction have with the intention to leave the profession. The study uses data from 2,144 Australian ECTs to explore these relationships. Results highlight the importance of teachers' collegial relationships with their peers, and replicate prior findings showing the significance of mentoring and induction programs. Results show that elements of job satisfaction are strongly associated with intention to leave the profession, leading to a number of implications for achieving the twin goals of higher teacher retention and job satisfaction.
The article on which this paper reflects "Exploring a Cross-Institutional Research Collaboration and Innovation: Deploying Social Software and Web 2.0 Technologies to Investigate Online Learning ...Designs and Interactions in Two Australian Universities" presented elements of a research project investigating learning interactions in online courses at two Australian universities. This paper revisits that earlier account of researching "classrooms without walls" by distilling and updating the authors' propositions and by examining these propositions' potential wider applicability. The twin foci of this examination relate to effective online learning designs and innovative cross-institutional research collaborations. For "Exploring a Cross-Institutional Research Collaboration and Innovation: Deploying Social Software and Web 2.0 Technologies to Investigate Online Learning Designs and Interactions in Two Australian Universities," see EJ1001776.
We consider the problem of estimating multiple related Gaussian graphical models from a high dimensional data set with observations belonging to distinct classes. We propose the joint graphical ...lasso, which borrows strength across the classes to estimate multiple graphical models that share certain characteristics, such as the locations or weights of non‐zero edges. Our approach is based on maximizing a penalized log‐likelihood. We employ generalized fused lasso or group lasso penalties and implement a fast alternating directions method of multipliers algorithm to solve the corresponding convex optimization problems. The performance of the method proposed is illustrated through simulated and real data examples.
Worldwide, scholarship and policy-making develop new ideas and models for the role of higher education and research in society and economy. This development points to changing relationships and ...boundaries between the public and private spheres in higher education including their public and private steering and funding, public-private partnerships between universities and firms, the rise of private higher education and of business models in the management of universities. The contributions to this edited volume investigate into the dynamics of blurring boundaries between the public and the private in higher education and their consequences for the university.
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