This paper reviews existing literature to identify the changing nature of the Australian education policy field. Through this analysis, it is argued that an international paradigm of testing, propagated by comparative performance data, disseminated by multinational agencies and non-government organisations, is leading to a global audit culture,…

Recommendations arising from the "Review of Australian Higher Education" (Bradley, Noonan, Nugent & Scales, 2008) see universities aiming to increase enrolments of school leavers generally and those from low socioeconomic status backgrounds particularly. Similar trends in other countries have had mixed success. Enrolments of…

This paper examines primary school-aged children's lived experiences of the National Assessment Program--Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) tests. NAPLAN emulates the neoliberal accountability agendas of English and US education systems, with results published on the My School website. Research on the impact of NAPLAN to date has focused…

Many international students aim beyond their country boundaries by moving away from home and studying abroad. This longitudinal design addressed a gap in current research, by linking together antecedent life goals and motivations on entry to students' studies, to predict exit achievement scores, to provide information concerning optimising…

This paper examines the choices and destinations of prospective university students from three regional areas in Victoria. The study is based on information collected for tertiary applicants in the Gippsland, Bendigo and Mildura areas, all of which host a local university campus. Using application and enrollment data, we examine the choices that…

This paper presents a comparative discourse analysis of the learning support policy in New South Wales, Australia and New Zealand. The dominant discourses in both policies are identified and analysed in terms of how they determine the manner in which students experiencing difficulties with learning are included in schools. It is argued that the…

Development of module has great impact on literacy today. This paper highlights the challenges and experiences of the researchers in an academic institution where the research project which initially began as part of an academic research initiative expanded to helping a marginalized community in need. Literacy pedagogy has to be relevant to the…