School improvement has become a goal in many education systems globally, with the mantra of 'whole school change' adopted as key to achieving that goal. However, whole school change is complex and interpreted variously. In Australia, a case in point is the drive to lift literacy outcomes. Drawing on qualitative data from a study of literacy…

Students with disruptive behaviour in the Australian state of New South Wales (NSW) are increasingly being educated in separate "behaviour" schools. There is however surprisingly little research on how students view these settings, or indeed the mainstream schools from which they were excluded. To better understand excluded students'…

Australia's higher education policy settings have signalled a shift towards marketisation. As a consequence, Australian universities have become increasingly competitive, and as they seek to compete for students in higher education markets, they begin to resemble commercial organisations. This article examines the challenges confronting the…

In this article, we report on our initial work with the International School Leadership Development Network. In doing so, we present two cases of principals leading high-need schools, and conclude with some key observations in relation to what is distinctive about leading these schools. The first case features a principal leading a suburban school…

This groundbreaking volume considers the ultimate fate of the comprehensive high school as individuals enter the twenty-first century. Contributors consider whether the question of the high school's seeming demise is exaggerated and why it is experiencing the many problems that it does. Essays focus on the United States, the United Kingdom,…

This article presents the author's reflection on his experiences of teacher evaluation implemented in South Africa and his interest in researching this contentious topic in South Australia. He is of the opinion that his research will serve as a source of knowledge generation to teachers with respect to: a) "greater personal, professional and…

This paper examines the ways in which school teachers and university faculty can work together for the purposes of school reform, professional development and educational research. The paper describes the ongoing interactions between teachers and university personnel in two sites in Australia. Each case considers the ways in which the interaction…

Schools need sustainable reform to meet the challenges of rapid and constant change and higher community expectations. Sustainable school reform is best achieved when teachers and school leaders: (1) understand what is happening in the broader community and the implications this has for schools (being contextually literate); (2) run their schools…

This is the first in a series of articles which will examine the results of a qualitative, longitudinal study of school improvement initiatives from the perspective of school stakeholders. The article captures the responses of students from a low socio-economic status school in NSW, Australia to a school initiative that restructured the learning…

The introduction of middle schooling in Australia has brought about changes to the working conditions of many teachers including finding themselves in teacher teams. The formation of such teams has been identified as critical to Australian middle school reform with teacher teams underpinning several of the fundamental components of a middle school…

The primary purpose of the study is to determine the opinions of educators about the "master teacher" concept within the school system. The concept of the "master teacher" refers to the ideological approach used to implement a "master teacher" initiative or programme in the school reform process. The primary school…

This autoethnography focuses on a study undertaken during the writers 15 month employment in a Muslim girls' school in the United Arab Emirates. The paper outlines a school improvement project in the Abu Dhabi Emirate and the imposition of an Australian curriculum on the schools involved in this program. The teachers in these schools were exposed…

The research reported here demonstrates the need for greater subtlety in the practice of policy than appears to be evident in many parts of the globe. Based upon an ethnographic study of school reform, this paper heeds Appadurai's call for those researching the "global diaspora of ideas" to pay attention to the contextual conventions…

A great deal of educational policy proceeds as though teachers are malleable and ever-responsive to change. Some argue they are positioned as technicians who simply implement policy. However, how teachers go about their work and respond to reform agendas may be contingent upon many factors that are both biographical in nature and workplace…

This paper identifies the ways in which the Productive Pedagogies framework has been refined as a research tool for evaluating classroom practice within a current study into issues of school reform in Queensland. Initially emerging from the landmark Queensland School Reform Longitudinal Study (1998-2001), the Productive Pedagogies has been taken…