Faculty of Education - Research Publications
Permanent URI for this collection
Search Results
1 - 10 of 30
-
ItemEffectiveness, difference and sociological research(Routledge, UK, 2002-12)For Australian sociology of education, Making the Difference (Connell, Ashenden, Kessler and Dowsett 1982) was not just a major argument, and a ‘classic’ point of reference. It was also an event, an intervention in ways of doing research and speaking to practice, a methodology, a textual style. In some respects its influence on the latter dimensions has been even more pervasive and long-lasting than its influence as argument or theory. It seemed, simultaneously, to mark the high point of Reproduction theories of schooling (though its authors did not see it in this way) and also a thoughtful and orchestrated attempt to intervene in the processes. For a considerable time both before and after the publication of the book itself, the research team was a prominent roadshow in Australia, speaking to and writing for many specific audiences: teachers, teacher unions, parents, press. The book itself was designed to be read by a much wider audience than the standard sociological texts, and it succeeded in this aim. Subsequently it has become more commonplace to see research and writing as constructing and powerful practices, not just neutral paths to knowledge or communication, but Making the Difference helped to show other researchers what different ways of embarking on this might look like.
-
ItemWho is “us”? students negotiating discourses of racism and national identification in Australia( 2003)This article explores the political beliefs and the forms of reasoning about racism, national identity and Other developed by young Australian women and men from different ethnic and class backgrounds. The interviews on which the discussion is based are drawn from a larger longitudinal study of Australian secondary school students which examines how young people develop their sense of self and social values over time. The present article here has two overall purposes: to add to understandings of how the cultural logic of racism functions in one national setting, and to consider political reasoning about race and ethnicity in relation to processes of young people’s identity positioning. Three main lines of argument are developed. The first concerns students’ positioning of themselves vis a vis the current ‘race debate’ in Australia, and in relation to us as researchers, including their negotiation of the protocols for speaking about ‘race’ and racism. This includes consideration of the methodological and political effects of white Anglo women asking question about racism and ethnicity to ethnic-minority students who are routinely constituted as ‘Other’: what blindnesses and silences continue to operate when posing questions about racism directly? A second and related focus is the range of emotional responses evoked by asking questions about racism and about an Australian politician [Pauline Hanson], who has been prominent in race debates. Third, we examine young people’s construction of ‘us and them’ binaries and hierarchies of Otherness and whiteness. We argue throughout that reasoning about race, national identity and Others, and the taking up of ‘political positions’, is intimately linked to identity formation and to how we imagine ourselves in the present, the past and the future.
-
ItemSocial justice and the middle( 2000)‘Social justice’ is not a straightforward concept; and nor is the question of what schools do in relation to it. In this article we want to elaborate a little on the first of these claims, and illustrate the second by choosing to talk about two ‘middle’ or ‘ordinary’ high schools and their apparent impact on the students in them whom we followed in a longitudinal study from 1993 when they were in grade 6 to the present year, when most have finished school.
-
ItemRepresenting class in qualitative research(Australian Clearinghouse for Youth Studies, 2000)In 1993, with Julie McLeod, I began a seven-year qualitative, longitudinal study of young people in Australia. The 12 to 18 Project1 was intended as a longitudinal study to investigate (i) the development of young people’s gendered identity in Australia now, and (ii) schooling’s contribution to social inequalities: the way in which different schools interact with and produce differentiated outcomes for different types of young people. It was a project inspired by the fact that we had both spent many years studying education, gender formation, inequalities, changing cultural and policy discourse and wanting to design a new type of study to take us further with these interests. It was also a study whose design was influenced by two film series, both of them also concerned, in different ways, with representing social differences and development of individual identity and outcomes over time.
-
ItemConversations With Gay, Lesbian and Bisexual Secondary School Students: A Sexual Diversity Training Kit for School Communities( 2004-04)'Conversations' is a training kit designed to raise awareness around issues of sexual and gender diversity in schools and other youth sector communities. It is made up of 10 edited interviews with young people who identified as gay, lesbian or bisexual that were conducted in the mid-late 1990's; a research report; and other materials designed to support the delivery of the training.
-
ItemeGovernance practice and potential in the local government sector( 2003)This paper presents initial findings of a research project into the current extent of, demand for, and strategic inhibiters / facilitators to / for the development of electronic governance (eGovernance) in the local government sector in Australia. Undertaken by members of the sector in Victoria, in conjunction with the Centre for Public Policy of the University of Melbourne, the project is will produce a final detailed strategic report by the middle of 2004. Based on the results of survey data collected by members of the project team during 2002-3, this paper argues that the local government sector, as typified by municipalities in the state of Victoria , can be seen to have an interest in a broad range of activities that fall under the rubric of eGovernance as defined within.
-
ItemPornography, protection, prevarication: the politics of internet censorship(University of NSW Law School, 2000-03)A short article that discusses the development of internet censorship laws in Australia, the politics surrounding them, and the symbolic nature of this legislative regime.
-
ItemPolitical Big Brother site masks curious agenda(australia.internet.com, 2001)Outlines some of the interesting characteristics of political campaigning aimed at youth in the 2001 Australian federal election using online webpages.
-
ItemAustralian Adult Industry Censorship Survey 2002 Summary of Findings(Centre for Public Policy, University of Melbourne, 2002-02)Thus summary document presents the findings of a survey of members of the Australian Adult Industry undertaken in the first quarter of 2002. The aims of the research project were to determine the impact of the Broadcasting Services Amendment (Online Services) Act 1999 on commercial operators of adult services and product sales in Australia.Overall, while the total response rate to the survey as was low, sixty respondents participated in the research project, comprised of companies from all parts of the Australian Adult Industry. The research found that, in relation to Internet censorship:* Awareness of the law was reasonably high* Limited action was taken in response to the law* The law had limited impact on the industryIn Addition, with regards to the use of new media by commercial operators: *Website growth rates remain steady *Advertising remains the primary function of adult industry websites*The ratio of eCommerce providers to non-providers continues to rise*Continued growth in eCommerce is anticipated.
-
ItemCivil rights: how indigenous Australians won formal equality(University of Queensland Press, 2005)Australians know very little about how Indigenous Australians came to gain the civil rights that other Australians had long taken for granted. One of the key reasons for this is the entrenched belief that civil rights were handed to Indigenous people and not won by them.In this book John Chesterman draws on government and other archival material from around the country to make a compelling case that Indigenous people, together with non-Indigenous supporters, did effectively agitate for civil rights, and that this activism, in conjunction with international pressure, led to legal reforms. Chesterman argues that these struggles have laid important foundations for future dealings between Indigenous people and Australian governments.