'Zero tolerance' and drug education in Australian Schools

For a decade in Australia, drug education in schools has been shaped by the approach of harm minimization adopted by state and national governments alike. Harm minimization has been accepted broadly by drug educators, and has encouraged schools to deepen their commitment to drug education, allowed them to communicate honestly with students, and to respond to instances of drug use in a less confrontational and more caring manner. Despite those advances, the notion of 'zero tolerance' within schools has been promoted recently by protagonists in the formulation of drug policy and it is mentioned in the recently published national school drug education policy. This article suggests that the adoption of a zero tolerance policy will end the consensus among drug educators, reduce the efficacy of drug education, lead to more punitive treatment of youthful drug experimenters, while doing nothing to reduce drug use. It concludes the existing policy of harm minimization offers schools more scope to address drug issues in a constructive manner than does zero tolerance, which in practice may inflate the harmful effects on young people of drug use

School performance in Australia: is there a role for quasi-markets?

Recent changes to the organisation of Australia's education system have raised the possibility of implementing wide-ranging market reforms. In this article we discuss the scope for introducing reforms similar to the United Kingdom's 'quasi-market' model. We discuss the role of school league tables in providing signals and incentives in a quasi-market. Specifically, we compare a range of unadjusted and model-based league tables of primary school performance in Queensland's public education system. These comparisons indicate that model-based tables which account for socio-economic status and student intake quality vary significantly from the unadjusted tables

United Nations Sustainable Development Goals: Promoting health and well-being through physical education partnerships

The United Nations recently approved the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) which forms a guideline policy for all nations. While the UN have strongly advised that partnerships are essential for the implementation of these global goals, within local communities there is little evidence of how this is best done or what it looks like in practice. This paper shares a health and wellbeing community initiative that achieves goals three and four of the SDGs, and in doing so models how to implement physical education partnerships as advocated by the UN. The highly successful innovative initiative is “Best Start: A community collaborative approach to lifelong health and wellness” (2011–2014).This paper shares a health and wellbeing partnership, modelling implementation of physical education (PE) advocated by the United Nations (UN). The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) exemplifies global efforts towards equality, specifically Goal 3 and 4 address health and wellbeing. The purpose of this paper is to provide insights into cross sector “partnerships”, identified as essential for the implementation of the SDGs. This is significant as the UN acknowledge a present gap of information on partnerships in action and a need for reporting from the ground level. The project “Best Start: A community collaborative approach to lifelong health and wellness”, began as a partnership between a university and nearby schools and quickly grew to involve Australian Registered Training Organisations, the local health industry, Education departments and sport governing bodies. The collaborations involved pre-service teachers teaching Health and PE lessons to children in a disadvantaged socio-economic area, creating valuable learning experiences for stakeholders. Local and global communities were involved in research and reform. The project creatively optimised resources available through state, Australian and international connections. International partnerships enabled identification of unique contextual opportunities. Programme planning was strengthened with data gathered from an England and Wales Ofsted awarded Primary Physical Education course. Various methods, including; semi-structured interviews, reflective journal, observations, document analysis, and Student Evaluation of Teaching Units (SETU) were adopted. SETU is valid and reliable data collected by the university for the purposes of research. The findings support that partnerships enable SDG implementation and the research paper offers direction for localisation

Education for citizenship in South Australian public schools: a pilot study of senior leader and teacher perceptions

Preparing students for informed and active citizenship is a core goal of education and schooling in Australia. The ways schools educate and prepare young Australians for citizenship involves a range of processes and initiatives central to the work of schools, including school ethos, mission, extra-curricular activities and community-based participation. With regard to the formal curriculum, the recent introduction and implementation of the first ever Federal Australian curriculum includes provision for a new subject – Civics and Citizenship. Research evidence from other nations suggests that schools understand, approach and enact education for citizenship in a multitude of ways, yet how Australian schools construct this aspect of their work is currently under-researched. In this context, and drawing on data from interviews with school leaders and teachers of year six-eight (11-14 year olds) students in a small sample of South Australian primary and secondary schools, we explore perceptions and current approaches to education for citizenship. Our findings suggest (i) that while school leaders and teachers value education for citizenship, they do so for different reasons; (ii) that schools place values as central to education for citizenship; and, (iii) that community involvement is typically understood as occurring within rather than beyond the school

National Assessment Program : science : Year 6 : 2003 : technical report

This report describes the technical aspects of the National Year 6 Science Assessment and summarises the main activities associated with the data collection, the data collection instruments and the analysis and reporting of the results. Chapter 2 reviews the sample design for the assessment and describes the sampling process and the sample achieved. Chapter 3 summarises the test development and implementation procedures and the procedures for instrument construction and compliance with the test specification. Chapter 4 reviews the assessment administration procedures, discusses the cleaning of data collected in the assessment and the treatment of missing data and invalid students. Chapter 5 addresses the main features of the procedures used for weighting the student data and the replication procedures used to account for the sample design. Chapter 6 summarises the results of the analyses undertaken, concentrating on the results of the Rasch analysis and providing information about the calibration procedures for item locations and student ability estimates. Chapter 7 describes and analyses the procedures undertaken to review the quality of the links between the various test forms and for the equating of the various test forms and their scaling for reporting. Chapter 8 discusses the results in terms of students proficiency on the scientific literacy scale. The scale links students results to descriptions of their understandings and skills in the assessment domain. Chapter 9 comments on some issues that may be relevant in the 2006 iteration of the sample study and may need further consideration in terms of the test construction, its equating to the 2003 assessment and its analysis

Bons professores em um terreno perigoso: rumo a uma nova visão da qualidade e do profissionalismo

Ideas about what makes a good teacher are important in thinking about educational reform, and have come into focus recently. These ideas are contested and open to change. The first part of this paper traces models of the good teacher in Australia from the colonial-era good servant, through an ideal of the autonomous scholar-teacher, to contemporary lists of teacher competencies. The second part looks more closely at the incoherent but insistent way the good teacher is now defined under neoliberal governance by teacher registration authorities. The third part of the paper makes proposals for a new understanding of good teachers: based on understanding the labour process and occupational dynamics of teaching, the intellectual structure of Education studies, and the overall logic of education itself.Ideias sobre o que caracteriza um "bom professor" são importantes para se possa refletir a respeito da reforma educacional, e elas têm ganhado destaque recentemente. Essas ideias são controversas e estão abertas a mudanças. A primeira parte deste artigo examina modelos do que é considerado um "bom professor" na Austrália, desde os bons servidores da era colonial, passando pelo ideal do professor erudito autônomo, até as atuais listas de competências dos docentes. A segunda parte examina mais detalhadamente o modo pelo qual as autoridades responsáveis pelo registro e credenciamento de professores, em governos neoliberais, definem um "bom professor". A terceira parte oferece propostas para uma nova compreensão do conceito de "bom professor", baseadas no entendimento do processo de trabalho e da dinâmica ocupacional do ensino, na estrutura intelectual dos estudos sobre a Educação e na própria lógica da educação como um todo

National Assessment Program : Civics and Citizenship Years 6 and 10 Report 2007

The 2007 National Civics and Citizenship Sample Assessment report is the second to be published on Civics and Citizenship in the cycle of three-yearly sample assessments conducted by MCEETYA as part of its National Assessment Program (NAP). The assessment measured students’ civic knowledge and understanding and their citizenship participation skills and dispositions. The assessment was conducted in October 2007 with 7,059 Year 6 students from 349 schools and 5,506 Year 10 students from 269 schools participating. The participating students were from both government and non-government schools. Results of the assessment show that nationally, 54 per cent of Year 6 students achieved or bettered the Year 6 proficient standard and 41 per cent of Year 10 students achieved or bettered the Year 10 proficient standard. This represents a slight improvement on the 2004 assessment of 3 per cent for Year 6 students and 2 per cent for Year 10 students. The proficient standard represents a “challenging but reasonable” expectation for typical Year 6 and 10 students to have reached by the end of each of those years of study. The report also found that students performed better where their schools provided them with opportunities to participate in civics and citizenship activities and also in school governance activities such as voting and decision-making at school

Effekte von Morphin, Fentanyl und Ketamin auf leukozytäre Funktion, Transkriptionsfaktoren und Interleukin-8-Synthese

In der hier vorliegenden Arbeit wird der Einfluß der in der Anästhesie gebräuchlichen Analgetika Morphin, Fentanyl und Ketamin auf die Funktion neutrophiler Granulozyten dargelegt. Dazu wurden immunologische, durchflußzytometrische und molekularbiologische Untersuchungsverfahren eingesetzt. Die untersuchten Substanzen modulieren die Funktion, transkriptionelle Regulation und Proteinexpression von Granulozyten in unterschiedlicher Weise. Morphin hemmt die Funktion neutrophiler Granulozyten konzentrations- und zeitabhängig. Erstmals wird dargestellt, daß der inhibitorische Effekt von Morphin auf die Phagozytose und den Oxidativen Burst durch die Freisetzung von NO als second messenger hervorgerufen wird. Die verminderte Expression von Komplement-, Fcg- und CD14-Rezeptoren korreliert mit diesen Funktionseinschränkungen. Zudem reguliert Morphin die intrazelluläre Signaltransduktion und führt dadurch zu einer Minderung der LPS-induzierten DNA-Bindungsaktivität der Transkriptionsfaktoren NF-kB und AP-1. Die hemmende Wirkung von Morphin auf transkriptionsregulierende Proteine wird in dieser Arbeit erstmals an humanen Leukozyten nachgewiesen. Dabei stellt die Morphin-abhängige Freisetzung von NO das Schlüsselereignis für die hemmenden Effekte von Morphin dar: Durch NOS-Antagonisten kann die Morphin-induzierte Hemmung von Rezeptorenexpression, Granulozytenfunktion und Transkriptionsfaktoren verhindert werden, während NO-Donoren die Morphin-Wirkung imitieren. Die Blockade von Opiatrezeptoren mit Naloxon hebt die inhibierende Wirkung von Morphin ebenfalls auf, so daß eine Bindung an NO-freisetzende µ-Rezeptoren auf Granulozyten als kausaler Mechanismus angesehen werden kann. Die Inhibierung der Transkriptionsfaktoren NF-kB und AP-1 korreliert im Vollblut nicht mit einer verminderten Produktion von IL-8 als NF-kB- bzw. AP-1-abhängigem Mediator. Die exakten intrazellulären Mechanismen und die funktionelle Bedeutung dieser Granulozyten-inhibierenden Effekte von Morphin auf das Entzündungsgeschehen müssen in zukünftigen Untersuchungen geklärt werden. Fentanyl zeigt weder aktivierende noch inhibierende Wirkungen auf Granulozytenfunktion und Expression von Oberflächenrezeptoren. Grundlage hierfür kann die mangelnde Affinität von Fentanyl für die auf Leukozyten exprimierten Opiatrezeptoren sein. Basierend auf der Annahme, daß diese Substanz immunologisch inert ist, wurden Effekte auf transkriptionelle Regulation und Proteinsynthese nicht untersucht. Ketamin hemmt die Granulozytenfunktion und die Expression von Komplement-, Fcg- und CD14-Rezeptoren konzentrationsabhängig, wobei die Dauer der Ketamin-Inkubation nicht von Bedeutung ist. Erstmals wird in dieser Arbeit ein inhibitorischer Effekt von Ketamin auf die LPS-induzierte DNA-Bindungsaktivität der Transkriptionsfaktoren NF-kB und AP-1 beschrieben, wobei konsekutiv die leukozytäre Produktion von IL-8 auf transkriptioneller Ebene gehemmt wird. Das Ausmaß der Hemmung durch Ketamin hängt dabei von der zur Stimulation eingesetzten LPS-Dosierung ab. Im Gegensatz zu Morphin-induzierten Veränderungen sind diese Effekte unabhängig von NO als second messenger und werden nicht durch Opiat- oder NMDA-Rezeptoren vermittelt. Damit unterscheiden sich die Signaltransduktionswege Ketamin-vermittelter Effekte auf Immunzellen grundlegend von denjenigen, die für die anästhetische und psychomimetische Wirkung dieser Substanz im ZNS verantwortlich sind. Enantiomer-spezifische Effekte spielen für die immunsupprimierende Wirkung von Ketamin nur eine untergeordnete Rolle. Folgestudien sind erforderlich, um die an der Ketamin-abhängigen Inhibierung beteiligten intrazellulären Mediatoren und Stoffwechselwege in Leukozyten zu definieren. Der in dieser Studie erstmals zur Untersuchung von Analgetika-induzierten Veränderungen von Transkriptionsfaktoren angewandte durchflußzytometrische Vollblut-Assay weist eine hohe Reproduzierbarkeit auf, ermöglicht eine verläßliche und schnelle Quantifizierung des nukleären NF-kB- bzw. AP-1-Gehalts und liefert mit klassischen Verfahren vergleichbare Ergebnisse. Bei dieser Technik kann auf eine Zellseparation verzichtet werden, so daß die physiologischen Zustände im Vollblut berücksichtigt werden. Eine eventuelle Anwendung dieses Verfahrens zum Screening von Risikopatienten in Anästhesie und Intensivmedizin sollte in zukünftigen Untersuchungen evaluiert werden. Der differente Einfluß dieser Analgetika auf das Immunsystem sollte bei den verschiedenen Indikationen in Anästhesie, Intensivmedizin und Schmerztherapie Beachtung finden und in klinischen Studien weiter abgeklärt werden, um nicht nur eine effiziente Analgesie zu erzielen, sondern auch um etwaige Vor- bzw. Nachteile einer Immunmodulation durch diese Substanzen berücksichtigen zu können

'Language Background Other Than English': a problem NAPLaN test category for Australian students of refugee background

Since 2008 Australia has held the National Assessment Program: Literacy and Numeracy (known as NAPLAN) for all students in years 3, 5, 7 and 9. Despite the multilingual character of the Australian population, these standardized literacy and numeracy tests are built on an assumption of English as a first language competency. The capacity for monitoring the performance of students who speak languages other than English is achieved through the disaggregation of test data using a category labelled Language Background Other than English (LBOTE). A student is classified as LBOTE if they or their parents speak a language other than English at home. The category definition is so broad that the disaggregated national data suggest that LBOTE students are outperforming English speaking students, on most test domains, though the LBOTE category shows greater variance of results. Drawing on Foucault’s theory of governmentality, this article explores the possible implications of LBOTE categorisation for English as a Second Language (ESL) students of refugee background. The article uses a quantitative research project, carried out in Queensland, Australia, to demonstrate the potential inequities resultant from such a poorly constructed data category