Education Commons^™

This paper is an autoethnographic analysis of my experiences as a PhD candidate resident in a rural area of South Australia: a circumstance that is not unique but certainly rare. According to Ellis, Adams, and Bochner (2011), research that uses an autoethnographic approach describes and analyses personal experiences in order to understand cultural experiences. My circumstance as a highly-educated beneficiary of government subsistence presents a unique research opportunity: namely, to document social policies as both a recipient and an educated investigator. The aim of this paper is to expose the robust challenges that arise when individuals, who are reliant on …

There is increasing interest in the use of social media networking sites such as Facebook in engaging higher education students in learning and the broader university experience. Research indicates that Facebook has over 100 million active users worldwide, over half of whom log on to the site twice per day. The potential reach and opportunities for wide engagement in using social media is clear. However, institutions have approached its use with understandable caution given the very public and interconnected nature of these "risky" virtual spaces. Many universities have specific and explicit reference in their communications and code of conduct policies …

In 2006, an intensive one-year Graduate Diploma of Education course leading to registration as a teacher was introduced in universities in Queensland. In the first few years of the course there was concern from professional associations and schools that a one-year course (when compared with a four-year undergraduate course of two-year Graduate Diploma course) allowed insufficient time to 'become a teacher'. At James Cook University, the Cairns Professional Advisory Group (a board of representatives from professional experience schools, comprising teachers, principals and union and employer groups) expressed deep concern at the observed inability of some Graduate Diploma pre-service teachers to …

Indigenous literacy policy implementation in Queensland schools. The persistence of poor literacy outcomes for Indigenous students in Australia has been an educational policy focus for successive federal and state governments for decades. This book charts the implementation over three years through the perspectives of teachers, principals and administrators. It provides both a social archive and unique insight into policy implementation dynamics as they play out in systems and schools and gives understanding of the relationships between social contexts and educational outcomes for Indigenous students who do not speak English as their home language. Further, it gives voice to marginalised voices …

In 2007, a wholly-online Bachelor of Early Childhood Education degree was introduced into James Cook University School of Education's suite of pre-service teacher preparation programs. The online degree provides access and opportunity for (predominantly) women in the childcare or associated fields to gain qualifications as a teacher. The majority of students in the first and subsequent years of the program are mature-aged women with significant family and work commitments and have had little prior opportunity to engage in online technologies or in further education opportunities. The university has had a very successful face-to-face Peer Mentoring Program (PMP) for almost 20 …

This paper presents a study into the motivations, aspirations and characteristics of students who embarked on a new wholly-online early childhood teacher preparation program introduced at James Cook University in 2007. The inquiry contributes to a number of areas where there is currently little research. Australian studies into the experiences of first-year undergraduates focus on on-campus students, not on students who engage with tertiary studies wholly online, nor do they specifically relate to preservice teacher education. Contemporary research into e-learning is predominantly based on blended learning rather than solely online modes of study. In addition, there is little literature relating …