Traditional communities remain a dominant feature in the Pacific and are key players in land and sea management. Fostering improved climate literacy is therefore essential to equip communities to respond to the current and future challenges posed by climate change in the region. Increased understanding and development of skills to respond to the…

In this article, literacy, which is conceived of as a set of cognitive skills, is juxtaposed with a sociocultural orientation that sees literacy as a set of social practices for the production of meaning. Cognitive, skills-based pedagogies treat literacy as universal, autonomous, and independent of context, whereas sociocultural literacy…

This article offers a critical policy analysis of the curriculum within English Catholic maintained schools. It highlights one of the policy challenges faced by the Catholic Church in England, that is to say, the reconstruction of a "Catholic" curriculum. Drawing on the author's research it outlines the historical context of policy…

This paper examines the internationalization of postsecondary education in Australia and Canada. The author discusses the contextual similarities and differences between the two countries, the shifting rationale "from aid to trade" behind Australia's internationalization attempts and some of the reasons for Australia's success.…

Those who work within adult higher education know there is something unique about their perspective on academic life. Employed in the adult education arena in one capacity or another since 1993, the author has had the privilege of working at an institution with a small adult program and an institution with a very large adult program. In this…

This paper outlines the complex contemporary milieu of Australian teacher education within which curriculum leaders responsible for designing teacher education programs must make their program design decisions. Particular attention is paid to the collision of vertical ("hierarchical" or "academic rationalist") and horizontal…

The Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER) is one of the world's leading educational research centres. ACER's mission is to create and promote research-based knowledge, products and services that can be used to improve learning across the life span. This annual report describes ACER's milestones and accomplishments for the 2013-2014…

Motivations to reform curriculum in post-conflict, or post-colonial states are often driven by the need to (re) construct a cohesive and publicly legitimated national identity that is starkly different to that which existed prior. This paper explores the context behind such action in the Timor-Leste (East Timor) and some challenges which policy…

This paper reflects on the process of curriculum development in 21 tertiary education institutions in the Southern Philippines. Assisting capacity-building of the teaching profession is an ongoing need in developing countries, but rarely does it extend to pre-service education. In this study of one aspect of a three year AusAid-funded education…

This essay responds to and develops ideas set out in Robert Davis' 1999 essay "Can there be a Catholic curriculum?" It takes the measure of far-reaching changes that have taken place in curriculum studies and strategic educational thought in the intervening period as the process of globalisation has intensified. It re-engages with the…

This paper argues for the re-integration of academic development (AD) and a academic language and learning (ALL) practitioners in Australian higher education. This argument is made as universities aim to develop internationally recognised, inter-disciplinary and standards-based curricula against the backdrop of international comparative education…

At the 2013 Annual Conference of the National Association for Multicultural Education (NAME), Dr. Carl Grant was invited to deliver the Rose Duhon Sells Lecture. He presented a history on the National Association for Multicultural Education (NAME). The initial vision of multicultural education was created and carried out by several scholars, who…

Schools are queer places. Who would have thought that a book focusing on gender and sexual diversity in schools would even be necessary today? But in a time where education seems to have regressed in its liberalism, coupled with increased accessibility to information and knowledge, Elizabeth Meyer's Gender and Sexual Diversity in Schools: An…

India and China are two fast growing economies of the world and need large skill based manpower to sustain the economic growth. The existing formal higher educational system in these countries will not be able to meet the demand of the economy. The paper will try (i) to compare the development of economy and distance education in India and China…

The sixth-form college sector is often marginalised in policy and academic discourse, where the much larger school and further education sectors dominate. This paper sets out to describe the sector's key features, assess its position within the wider education system and consider its future in an increasingly competitive education market. The…