Accessing high-quality career development to support successful transitions into post-compulsory education and employment can be a challenge for newly arrived students of refugee and migrant backgrounds. In Australia, not-for-profit organisations provide career guidance to students within schools that enrol refugee and migrant families. Through…

This paper discusses the community engagement program, "Refugee Action Support" (RAS) at the University of Western Sydney. RAS is a partnership program between the Australian Literacy and Numeracy Foundation, The NSW Department of Education and Training and the university. The Refugee Action Support program prepares pre-service teachers…

In a world increasingly globalised, it is crucial that preservice teachers are equipped with a range of pedagogical knowledges, understandings and practices related to diversity and difference. This paper reports on the implementation and learning outcomes of a teacher preparation initiative in an Australian university called Refugee Action…

Purpose: This paper aims to: extend the concept of "The learning organization" to "The learning community," especially disadvantaged communities; demonstrate how leaders in a migrant community can achieve positive change at the personal, professional, team and community learning levels through participatory action learning and…

Describes an education program designed to improve the literacy of Australian students from non-English speaking migrant backgrounds and to increase their knowledge of Australian history. (HTH)

This publication contains abstracts of documents concerning the transition from school to work that were published in Australia since August 1980. The abstracts are arranged in the following categories: (1) social and educational developments in policy analysis and research; (2) programs involving proposals, reports, and evaluations; (3) program…

Describes the National Curriculum Project, an effort in curriculum renewal set up within the Australian Adult Migrant Education Program. The rationale for and the effectiveness of a collaborative approach between teachers and curriculum specialists in school-based English-as-a-Second-Language curriculum development are discussed. Project…

The role of collaborative research to support curriculum change is discussed, drawing on experiences with the Australian Adult Migrant English Program during a period of extensive change. The research undertaken was to assess the impact of competency-based curriculum on classroom practice and course design. The research project engaged 30…

While much attention has been given to the language problems of newly developing nations and to the various phases of planned language development such as graphization, standardization and modernization, not enough attention has been given to language planning that would serve the needs of minority groups in nations such as Australia where the…

The cultural diversity of Australia and the status of multicultural education in Australian schools are examined. The first part of the paper discusses Australia as one of the most culturally diverse nations in the world. The author points out that Australia's delay in establishing a concept of multicultural education results from the fact that…

This part of the Australian newsletter from the National Clearinghouse on the Transition from School to Work is organized into eight sections. Following a description of the clearinghouse in the first section, the newsletter contains two sections of brief descriptions of current research projects and news items. In the fourth section, three books…

A collection of papers on the Australian experience with early intervention for children with disabilities gives regional overviews, describes specific intervention programs, and discusses a variety of issues. Overviews are given of early intervention in Australia in general, New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, South Australia, Western…