Multiplier effects of the structural and cultural dynamics of a multi-campus college on the learning community in which it is established: From theoretical perspectives to empirical evidence

New South Wales DET and Ministerial literature suggests that the reframing of several years 7 - 12 comprehensive high schools and integrating them into a multi-campus college, comprising years 7 – 9/10 middle schools and a senior campus with years 10/11 – 12 cohorts, creates increased opportunities for students to improve their academic outcomes. To date, research literature on this debate is not readily available. Highlighting the application of a Dynamics Paradigm to enhance an understanding of educational change, this paper reports the results of a four years' study which provides empirical evidence of the impact of the establishment of a multi-campus college on students, teachers, principals and parents in the relevant community.Using the Dynamics Paradigm as a cognitive lens, quantitative and qualitative data from four case studies was analysed with the assistance of the Likert-Scale analytical tool and QSRNVivo software respectively. The analysis revealed that given contextual contingencies, the structural-cultural dynamics consequent upon the establishment of a multi-campus college are associated with a synergesis of positive multiplier effects which offer students greater opportunity for improved outcomes than the orthodox comprehensive high school.The paper concludes that the Dynamics Paradigm offers a theoretical framework for extending an understanding of change in an educational setting and that the structural-cultural dynamics of a multi-campus college represent a new way of delivering secondary education in New South Wales DET schools and deserve much more consideration from the DET, greater focus from educational researchers and renewed public debate

How successes of collaborative school partnerships offer hope for framing collegial school leaderships of the future

Current conceptualisation of school principalship characterises the principal as the person in the ‘hot seat’ and ‘lonely at the top’ (Crowther et al. 2000). The present research found that the establishment of school partnerships in NSW led to attractive principalship and offered hope for improved and more attractive school leadership

Multigrade pedagogy and practice: Accelerating millennium development goals for sub-Saharan Africa

Wood, DL ORCiD: 0000-0002-5018-2725Global initiatives such as the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) process, the Education for All (EFA) movement and the UN Decade on Education for Sustainable Development (DESD) highlight the growing recognition of the vital role that education plays in improving health, social inclusion and driving economic development in a knowledge based society. Multigrade teaching is a common practice in many primary schools throughout the developing countries for achieving improved access to education for all primary school aged children. This paper reports the findings of a study which involved a situational analysis of the perceptions of stakeholders in Zambian multigrade contexts. The study found that the educational human and physical infrastructure in rural Zambia is in a poor state, which makes it highly unlikely that the MDGs projected for 2015 will be achieved. Capacity building involving the training of teachers and the effective use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) to motivate learners, facilitate innovative teaching and learning, and enhance multigrade education are suggested as possible engines to drive the realisation of MDGs, by 2015. It is argued that failure to provide effective multigrade teaching and access to the appropriate use of ICTs will commit millions of children in the developing countries to the vicious cycle of extreme poverty, unemployment, hunger, ignorance and disease. © Common Ground, Charles Kivunja, D. Wood, All Rights Reserved

Multigrade pedagogy and practice: Accelerating millennium development goals for sub-Saharan Africa

Global initiatives such as the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) process, the Education for All (EFA) movement and the UN Decade on Education for Sustainable Development (DESD) highlight the growing recognition of the vital role that education plays in improving health, social inclusion and driving economic development in a knowledge based society. Multigrade teaching is a common practice in many primary schools throughout the developing countries for achieving improved access to education for all primary school aged children. This paper reports the findings of a study which involved a situational analysis of the perceptions of stakeholders in Zambian multigrade contexts. The study found that the educational human and physical infrastructure in rural Zambia is in a poor state, which makes it highly unlikely that the MDGs projected for 2015 will be achieved. Capacity building involving the training of teachers and the effective use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) to motivate learners, facilitate innovative teaching and learning, and enhance multigrade education are suggested as possible engines to drive the realisation of MDGs, by 2015. It is argued that failure to provide effective multigrade teaching and access to the appropriate use of ICTs will commit millions of children in the developing countries to the vicious cycle of extreme poverty, unemployment, hunger, ignorance and disease. © Common Ground, Charles Kivunja, D. Wood, All Rights Reserved

Writing for publication group:professional development situated in the interstices of academia and performativity

Abstract: This article features nine ‘narratives of experience’ illustrative of academics engaged in an alternative Professional Development (PD) activity, referred to as Writing for Publication, in a regional Australian university. Each narrative adopts a critical stance to academic practice situated in what Ball defines as a ‘culture of performativity’ perpetuated by a ‘global neoliberal environment’. Contrary to professional development built primarily around sporadic content-provision and credential-based activities, Writing for Publication represents an alternative approach to professional development, a loose-coupling model, that gives validation to academics engaged in navigating dominant neoliberal discourses driving higher education filtered through the interstices or sites for identity-creation, agency formation and emerging communities of practice.</p

Writing for publication group: professional development situated in the interstices of academia and performativity

This article features nine ‘narratives of experience’ illustrative of academics engaged in an alternative Professional Development (PD) activity, referred to as Writing for Publication, in a regional Australian university. Each narrative adopts a critical stance to academic practice situated in what Ball defines as a ‘culture of performativity’ perpetuated by a ‘global neoliberal environment’. Contrary to professional development built primarily around sporadic content-provision and credential-based activities, Writing for Publication represents an alternative approach to professional development, a loose-coupling model, that gives validation to academics engaged in navigating dominant neoliberal discourses driving higher education filtered through the interstices or sites for identity-creation, agency formation and emerging communities of practice