The report makes a distinctive contribution to our understanding of the different ways that families support post-school transitions. The authors collected data from in-depth interviews with Learning for Life students and members of their families. The stories derived from the interview process provide insights into the worlds and family contexts of our students and also about the types of support they need to build on their strengths in achieving the post-school goals that they are setting for themselves.
Engaging social and professional communities around students with high educational needs has come to be seen as an active protective process for these students. This paper examines the role of state and local agencies (education, health, families, communities, and criminal justice) in documenting but not altering student trajectories towards life failure.
This paper discusses the historical context of the NSW AECG and the NSW Aboriginal Education Policy, and emphasises the need for culturally inclusive policies with relevant policy implementation strategies. It also highlights the relationship between Indigenous educational disadvantage and colonisation, demonstrating the need for dominant educational frameworks to be inclusive of Indigenous ways of knowing, being and doing.
This article considers the possibility that school-based uses of new technologies might actually exacerbate the educational disadvantage of already disadvantaged social groups – particularly, learners from low socio-economic status populations. It draws on some recent international studies that indicate how minority, poor and urban students may be less likely to receive exposure to computers for higher-order learning than their economically and socially advantaged peers, and to have teachers who have received professional development on technology use.
This article provides an alternative perspective on what it means to ‘do school’ in a disadvantaged community, particularly in the way that disadvantage is reproduced for marginalised students. It explores the mobility of teachers (temporarily) working in a small secondary school located in an economically depressed regional community in Australia, characterised by high levels of unemployment, high welfare dependency and a significant indigenous population.
The Australian government has adopted a ‘social inclusion agenda’ that aims to bring together social and economic policies in order to reduce disadvantage in the Australian community. Increasing participation and success in education and training is a key aspect of the social inclusion agenda. The government acknowledges that low levels of skill and education attainment contribute to disadvantage because they are associated with poorer labour market experiences and non-participation in the labour force.
In this paper the author provides a broad overview of outreach and student engagement strategies
used in Australian universities and raise key issues in regard to improving access to higher
education for disadvantaged and under-represented students.
The Australian Flexible Learning Framework Strategy Stage 2 investigates: women learners in VET; rural and remote learners; isolated learners in metropolitan areas, and the concept of the “digital divide” to determine the extent to which it is a significant factor impeding or facilitating VET provision around Australia.
