Students in disadvantaged schools are often seen as lacking in ability, motivation and appropriate academic skills. In a practitioner-university collaborative project which investigated literacy, information and communication technologies and educational disadvantage, student researchers made short films about new technologies in their school. The authors discuss positive metaphors that their films brought to mind for us: apprentice theorists, word players, cadet film producers, novice researchers and global communicators.
A selection of 30 year ten students from NSW Priority Action Schools experienced university for the first time last week building robots with engineers from the UTS Faculty of Engineering and IT. The Make a Real Robot Project is part of an ongoing outreach program run by UTS during the school holidays to grow the aspirations of students who face many challenges to gaining a degree.
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.
The National VET Equity Advisory Council (NVEAC) has been established to provide high level advice to the Ministerial Council for Tertiary Education and Employment (MCTEE) to guide equity reform in the national training system.
This study investigated the opportunities and barriers that currently exist for cross-portfolio support for students with disabilities and their families at school sites. Many respondents provided an example of successful collaboration that had resulted in improved service provision. These examples ranged from work placement opportunities for school leavers to a joint hospital/school project to provide occupational therapy for preschoolers.
The ‘Social inclusion in education’ roundtable is an opportunity for policy officials and Australia’s social sciences researchers to share knowledge of what we know and don’t know about the question of social inclusion in education.The purpose of the briefing paper is to support the roundtable discussion by providing participants with background to the current policy discussion, a summary of the findings and current research investigations, and to match this information to the primary topics for discussion.
Speaking on ‘Engaging the Community as Partners in Social Inclusion,’ Senator Stephens set out the importance of partnerships and collaboration in tackling educational disadvantage.
This paper outlines research investigating the practice and conceptualisation of university-community engagement, in historical perspective and in the immediate context of neo-liberal hegemony in policy, through an international comparative case study of university-community educational initiatives. It aims to consider possibilities and constraints in achieving social justice outcomes through collaborative university-community educational initiatives.
The Parliamentary Secretary for Social Inclusion and the Voluntary Sector, Senator Ursula Stephens this morning addressed the 7th Annual Australian University Community Engagement Alliance National Conference in Launceston. Speaking on ‘Engaging the Community as Partners in Social Inclusion,’ Senator Stephens set out the importance of partnerships and collaboration in tackling educational disadvantage.
