David Osworth, Kathleen Mary Winn Cunningham, Suzy Hardie, Peter Moyi, Mary Gaskins and Natalie Osborne Smith
This study aims to analyze the experiences of a closed cohort of aspiring leaders and connects the university and school district partnership relationship to building the…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to analyze the experiences of a closed cohort of aspiring leaders and connects the university and school district partnership relationship to building the leadership capacity of the cohort. This study builds on previous literature in district-university partnerships and leadership preparation. Powerful learning experiences (PLEs) and interpersonal-intrapersonal leadership development models serve as frames to examine how aspects of successful leadership preparation programs were present.
Design/methodology/approach
This qualitative study was conducted with a team of researchers from the university and school district and relies on data from semi-structured interviews with students from the closed cohort.
Findings
Researchers identified three major themes of aspiring leaders' preparation experience: confidence building, reflection and mindset change.
Originality/value
This study contributes to the emerging literature on PLEs by illustrating how this type of partnership creates opportunities for powerful learning experiences for aspiring school leaders.
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Keywords
The following is an annotated list of materials dealing with information literacy including instruction in the use of information resources, research, and computer skills related…
Abstract
The following is an annotated list of materials dealing with information literacy including instruction in the use of information resources, research, and computer skills related to retrieving, using, and evaluating information. This review, the eighteenth to be published in Reference Services Review, includes items in English published in 1991. A few are not annotated because the compiler could not obtain copies of them for this review.
Sonal Nakar and Richard G. Bagnall
Vocational education and training (VET) in Australia has for some time been driven by an agenda of “reasonable adjustment”, in which practices are modified to ensure equitable…
Abstract
Purpose
Vocational education and training (VET) in Australia has for some time been driven by an agenda of “reasonable adjustment”, in which practices are modified to ensure equitable access and participation by disadvantaged students. However, the growing marketization of VET has instead encouraged the use of more flexible approaches to attract and retain students from diverse backgrounds. They have thus paralleled and confounded reasonable adjustment practices for inclusive development. This study sought to identify the moral dilemmas experienced by VET teachers arising from implementing reasonable adjustment practices.
Design/methodology/approach
This phenomenological research project used in-depth conversational interviews with 19 experienced VET teachers from a diversity of teaching fields to identify moral dilemmas experienced as arising from changes in their workplace contexts.
Findings
One of the identified dilemmas was responding flexibly to heightened student diversity, to which study participants largely responded by prioritising the economic imperative over social inclusion. Well-intended actions thus led to unintentionally damaging outcomes, raising important ethical questions about the relative value of economic and social development outcomes and the role of reasonable adjustment in their attainment. The study also highlights the lack of appropriate VET teacher training in managing ethical conflicts to minimise risks to themselves and their employing organizations.
Originality/value
As a case study of inclusive development policies in practice, this research may be seen as a cautionary tale for inclusive development policies in other countries with similarly strong VET economic and socially inclusive development policies for sustainability. The paper thus opens a dialogue for critical reflection on the current problems in a reasonable development approach in the field of comparative and international education. Those two parallel agendas have presented VET teachers and trainers with ethically challenging situations in which the economic and social development imperatives are experienced as being conflict with each other.
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Beverley Jackling, Paul de Lange, Jon Phillips and James Sewell
The purpose of this paper is to identify the underlying motivations of Australian and international students for studying accounting and entering the accounting profession.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to identify the underlying motivations of Australian and international students for studying accounting and entering the accounting profession.
Design/methodology/approach
The study reports results from a cohort of second‐year accounting students drawing on the theory of reasoned action (TRA) to assess intentions and behaviours in making decisions, particularly in relation to employment choice. The study utilises a validated attitude to accounting scale (AAS) which measures how the accounting profession is viewed by students generally, and more specifically, differences in attitudes towards accounting and the accounting profession between Australian and international students.
Findings
The study finds that students have a positive attitude towards accounting as a profession. However, there are significant differences between Australian and international students' levels of interest in accounting and attitudes towards the work of accountants.
Research limitations/implications
It is recognised that the differences in attitudes towards accounting between Australian and international students may be linked with motivations to pursue accounting based on personal, cultural and social influences. A limitation of the study is that international students are treated as a homogeneous group.
Practical implications
The findings of the study have implications for marketing accounting education internationally; in particular, acknowledging the impact of different attitudes towards accounting by international students.
Originality/value
The study not only addresses motivation to study accounting but also attitudes towards the accounting profession. By applying the TRA, the study has identified that government policy may influence motivation of international students towards accounting and the accounting profession.
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For 28 years Alaska, like the vast majority of the nation, has struggled with growing prison populations and shrinking budgets. In 1995, the Alaska Department of Corrections…
Abstract
For 28 years Alaska, like the vast majority of the nation, has struggled with growing prison populations and shrinking budgets. In 1995, the Alaska Department of Corrections, faced with sanctions unless they ameliorated their crowded prison conditions, looked to the popular practice of contracting out its correctional operations by sending 650 prisoners to a private out-of-state prison. But, as the costs of prisoner litigation and transportation mounted, the state began to consider building its own private prison, a decision which many state lawmakers and business entrepreneurs argued would allow the state to stretch scarce dollars by providing cheaper and better quality prisons, return millions of dollars to the state economy, and create permanent jobs. In this decision case, students are required to put themselves in the role of the Alaska Legislature to determine whether they should permit the building and operation of a private prison in one of Alaska's remote communities. The students must analyze and juggle the complex and often competing set of objectives, values, and political tensions intrinsic to all privatization decisions.
Kylie Peppler, Anna Keune, Maggie Dahn, Dorothy Bennett and Susan M. Letourneau
Science museums provide a context for developing and testing engineering activities that support visitors in creating personally meaningful objects. This study aims to propose…
Abstract
Purpose
Science museums provide a context for developing and testing engineering activities that support visitors in creating personally meaningful objects. This study aims to propose that narrative design elements in such engineering activities can foster empathy to support engineering engagement among girls ages 7–14.
Design/methodology/approach
Taking a constructionist approach to engineering design, the authors present results from an observational study (n = 202 girls) of engineering activities across three museums that were designed to foster girls’ engineering engagement by integrating narrative elements aimed to foster empathy in activities. Using quantitative counts from observation protocols, the authors conducted statistical analyses to explore relationships between narrative, engineering and empathy.
Findings
Linear regression demonstrated a statistically significant relationship between empathy and increased numbers of engineering practices within museum activities. Additionally, this led us to explore the impacts the potential narrative design elements may have on designing for empathy – multiple linear regressions found both narrative and empathy to be independently associated with engineering practices. Overall, the authors found that using narrative to design activities to elicit empathy resulted in girls demonstrating more engineering practices.
Originality/value
The authors offer design ideas to foster aspects of empathy, including user-centered design, perspective-taking, familiarity and desire to help.