'Respect Study' the Treatment of Religious Difference and Otherness: An ethnographic investigation in UK schools

Understanding and appreciating the beliefs and practices of others feature prominently among the aims and purposes of Religious Education in UK schools. Drawing on ethnographic data from the ‘Does RE Work?’ project, this paper presents two conceptions if ‘in/entoleration’ a deliberate process of inculcating tolerance in pedagogy. Entoleration, akin to enculturation, encourages sympathetic and transformative encounter with others’ beliefs. Intoleration, akin to indoctrination, risks eliding both difference and encounter in the service of a pre-determined aim of nurturing uncritical tolerance. The former is categorised by pedagogies of encounter with the other as person, while the latter often focuses on externals and strangeness

Australian Art and Design Curriculum

The Australian art and design curriculum is informed by the country’s status as an island continent as well as a specific historical and contemporary cultural milieu. Australia is the smallest continent and the only one surrounded by water, and is administered by one national federal government. Australia is the sixth largest country in area after Russia,Canada, China, the USA, and Brazil. However, one of the key historical and contemporary challenges for Australia in educational provision relates to the size and distribution of its population of 24million people, which is small relative to the landmass.This brings a suite of social and political ecologies into the purview of curriculum organization and authority. In terms of population dispersal and differentiation, diverse populations are largely concentrated in cities mostly along the coastal fringe, in addition to smaller rural communities and large unpopulated remote regions. High levels of postwar immigration, alongside religious and cultural diversity, ensure a wide range of approaches to curriculum design, implementation, resourcing, and impact

The retention of year 11/12 Chinese in Australian schools: A relevance theory perspective

Along with the rise of China, Chinese language education has become increasingly important. However, the tally of students studying Chinese in Australian schools resembles a rollercoaster: until Year 10 it streams upwards, but at Years 11 and 12 it plunges down. Drawing on interviews and focus group discussions with school teachers in Western Australia, this paper investigates the rollercoaster phenomenon through the lens of Relevance Theory. In particular, it explores students' motivations and the priorities of schools and the government, to build a better understanding of the causal factors underpinning the poor retention of students in Year 11/12 Chinese. The findings show that the three major stakeholders- students, school authorities and government - take a relevance-driven and effect/cost-guided approach to language learning, seeking minimum costs and maximum benefits. The implication is that to retain students in their senior years, the optimal relevance of Chinese language education needs to be asserted. This study calls for policies and practices based on Relevance Theory, if Chinese, and other language programmes, are to be successful in the future