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Australian educators need to be very careful not to accept uncritically the comments on educational administration made by overseas visitors, particularly those from North America, who have been inclined to emphasise the great need for more local interest and responsibility in this country. The English experience as interpreted by the recent Maud Commission on Local Government seems to show that there is much to be gained from having a relatively large unit to decide on major questions of policy and finance, provided that there can be, beneath them, smaller authorities and bodies which have sufficient responsibility to ensure that local needs are understood and that local variations can bo made within the general framework. The English model may well have important implications for the administration of education in Australia.

Principals of traditional independent schools are invariably allocated by their governing bodies all duties and powers regarding discipline, programmes of study, selection and management of staff, and school activities generally. They are thus in a powerful position within their schools to facilitate effective and efficient responses to legitimate pressures for change, and to recognise and reject meretricious pressures for change. It seems reasonable to suggest that their willingness to accept this role will depend, in large part, on the particular educational values that they hold. The findings of a study which investigated the level of educational progressivism held by the principals of Queensland′s traditional independent schools are reported. These suggest that such principals are neither protagonists nor antagonists of educational change, although they strongly support the retention of traditional educational referents.

The Australian government's commitment to equal employment opportunity has resulted in the enactment of anti‐discrimination and affirmative action legislation at both the federal and state level and the development of a number of labour market, training and social policies specifically designed to remove impediments to women's employment. The Affirmative Action (Equal Employment Opportunity for Women) Act 1986 is pivotal to the removal of discrimination in organisations, but its effectiveness has been hindered by the restructuring of organisations on a divisional basis, a lack of understanding of the nature of equal employment opportunity (eeo) and the role of affirmative action programmes among some employers and employees, and the choices women make about their employment and training. A number of innovative policies have been developed by large organisations to deal with these barriers to the effectiveness of affirmative action programmes and the creation of eeo and they provide useful models for other organisations.

Reaction to supervision is a neglected area in the study of Educational Administration. In this study the reactions of teachers to inspectorial supervision were determined by asking a sample of the members of the Queensland Teachers Union to list five (if any) of the worst abuses that they personally had suffered under the inspectorial system, to list five (if any) outstanding experiences which had improved their teaching, and, if they desired, to make general comments on the inspectorial system. The results illustrate a finding of many studies of organizations that there are likely to be misperceptions between status levels. It was found that the inspectorial system has demeaned both teachers and inspectors in three senses: relations between them were inauthentic, they were forced to play a game of “cat and mouse” with each other and teachers were under pressure to be deceptive and unhealthily deferent to inspectors. Finally the results suggest that teachers vary in their orientations to inspectorial supervision. The implications of the findings for the nature and the quality of pupil‐teacher interaction are discussed.

This paper primarily examines the potential of the Australian Education Index (AEI) as a tool to map and monitor educational research. The authors provide a range of analyses that identify the thrust of research publications in Australia between 1984 and 1997. Key findings pertain to differences in the thrust of theses compared to other publications and to the overall stability in the pattern of research at the global or macro level. The authors also identify the strengths and weaknesses of the AEI with respect to its immediate use in monitoring research trends.

Older workers represent an increasingly important source of labour for organisations. Irrespective of age, a worker needs the appropriate skills and knowledge to be productive and to help the organisation achieve its strategic objectives. However, in many organisations, older workers are less likely to be offered training opportunities than their younger compatriots. This is due, in part, to negative stereotypical assumptions about older workers by managers. Learning and training are influenced by an individual’s career span and motivation. As a person ages, their work-related needs will change. There is a shift from growing and developing their career to a focus on security, maintenance, emotional satisfaction and mastery. Cognitive change takes place during a person’s life, and a gradual decline in primary mental abilities can be expected, but the notions of general decline are simplistic and misleading. A person is able to learn at any age and the older worker is capable of adjusting to changes in work. Many people assume that older workers are homogeneous but this is not the case. There are significant differences between older workers and these differences need to be acknowledged and understood. The organisational culture will affect learning and training opportunities for older workers, as will the attitudes of managers to older employees. Learning and training for older workers will also be influenced by the national culture and, in this chapter, selected Asian countries are discussed. The chapter concludes by offering recommendations regarding learning and training for older workers in organisations.

Globalization enables a better understanding of the modern world and inspires responsible actions that will change our future for the better. Even though the term globalization was introduced more than twenty years ago, little research has been directed towards the preparation of teachers for introducing this controversial, present-day phenomenon at the secondary school level. This paper is based on a qualitative study developed by the researchers to examine pre-service Social Studies teachers’ perceptions of the main benefits and challenges of teaching globalization and related global issues. The findings provide valuable insights into the importance of teaching controversial topics as well as what it means to teach globalization and global issues in the rapidly changing world.

This article brings a new, broad conceptual framework to the quest for understanding dynamic capability in organizations (i.e., “managing on the edge of chaos”). This approach rests on two major ideas: (i) a duality–paradox perspective and (ii) new typologies of organizational learning (OL) and individual action/thinking. A case of radical innovation at Microsoft provides a multilevel stimulus. Understanding it requires a focus on two dualistic challenges. For use in future ODC research and practical assessment, this broad new conceptual framework includes: (i) collaboration as a central concept; (ii) duality–paradox as a key source of conflicts that can threaten collaboration; (iii) five types of OL, (iv) four types of individual action/thinking, including paradoxical thinking, and (v) the proposition that “golden dualities” can be created from once-troubling duality situations (where critical collaboration was in danger) which have been transformed from the metaphorical “odd (contentious) couple” into a “productive (collaborative) partnership.”