Faculty of Education - Research Publications
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ItemThe 'facts of the case': gender equity for boys as a public policy issue(SAGE, 1999)Despite the trend toward gender studies in the social sciences, studies of masculinity have been largely absent from educational research. This volume presents a collection of the current critical scholarship on the creation of masculinities in schools, relations among competing definitions of masculinity and femininity, and linkages between masculinity and school practices. With contributions from the leading scholars in the field, Nancy Lesko studies masculinities in North American, Australian, and British schools. This book covers all levels of schooling, from preschool to graduate school, and school settings from computer labs to football fields. This fascinating addition to Sage’s Research in Men and Masculinities Series provides a thoughtful examinationof how masculinities are constructed among teachers, students, and administrators, locating these analyses within broader social, economic, and ideological contexts. Masculinities at School is a must read for scholars of education, sociology, men’s studies and gender studies.
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ItemGender equity and the boys debate: what sort of challenge is it?(Taylor & Francis, Ltd., 1997)Recently public and policy discussions about gender equity have become strongly concerned with boys. This article discusses some aspects of the form, the context and the implications of these developments in Australia (and notes some points of similarity and difference with developments in the UK). It focuses on three main areas: the ways examination and other 'indicators' have been used in public policy constructions of gender inequality; secondly the issue of what types of reforms constitute gender equity as a project; and thirdly, the issue of research agendas and the entry of masculinity to gender research.
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ItemDoes education need the concept of class like a fish needs a bicycle, or is class more like water in the fish-in-water problem?( 2006)Class is not only a dated concept that derives from 19th century industrialization and from old world social formations, but is one that is most at home in attempts to do theory and research in particular ways: to build models, identify causal factors, pin down truths, identify lynch-pins of change. In more recent times, theories and models of class have been troubled by social movements of women and race, by changes to the forms of work and the relationships of labour, and by theories more ready to show how research categories do violence than what they might effect for good. This paper takes the case of Australia in the early 21st century and a longitudinal qualitative study of young Australian students going through different school experiences to revisit the value of working with class and gender and class/gender as conceptual lenses in qualitative research, and specifically in relation to longitudinal identity-making in the context of school. The paper argues that in the light of feminist theories, and of major social and work changes in countries like Australia, there is no way to have a model of class that is adequate, and that there are multiple issues rather than a single question which theorists concerned with class work on. Nevertheless, it is argued, that to omit some concept of class in our discussions and research is to deprive research of categories and a history of discussions that can usefully feed what is noticed and attended to and taken as sources of concern. The paper illustrates a perspective on education research which argues against reducing research debates to searches for one perfect model, and for attending to the effects that particular and imperfect ways of doing research can have in particular situations and times.The paper takes up two aspects of the use of ‘class’ in education research and policy. The first concerns class as a tool of policy analysis, where it illustrates some problems of working without or with this concept,
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ItemTertiary education policy in Australia(Centre for the Study of Higher Education, 2013)The chapters focus on most of the main policy issues facing tertiary education in Australia in the last five years and in the three years to come. The chapters are research-based but prepared in a reader-friendly style to enhance discussion. They do not form a unified whole: there is no party line and some authors differ from others. The value of these chapters lies in their expertise. The authors are at the cutting edge of the issues they discuss. We hope that by treating the issues seriously here, other voices (lay and expert) will be encouraged and knowledge will advance, enabling better policies. Discussion alone does not achieve good government, but it provides better conditions for that objective. (From introduction)