This paper details how educational policy is developed in an educational authority in a political environment of a hung parliament. The paper begins by looking briefly at the difficulties facing educational policy rollout in Tasmania during the years 2000-2011, and then details how an educational policy dealing with school closures was reshaped in…

In the language of the Tebrikunna (Cape Portland) clan, "Carne Neemerranner" is "telling ground". It is also what we call the research methodology designed for "Meeting at Bark Hut", a recent community-engaged Aboriginal history project conducted in northeast Tasmania. The project examined, retraced and explored one…

This paper reports on early findings from a pilot study into student retention beyond Year 10. Located in rural, regional and disadvantaged communities in Tasmania, the research has implications at State, national and international levels. It is being funded by a nationally competitive Australian Research Council Linkage grant and the Tasmanian…

In 2000, Paula Wriedt, the Tasmanian Minister for Education, gave instructions for her department to begin the development of a K to 10 statewide curriculum, soon to become known as the Essential Learnings Framework, or simply, ELs. The curriculum was an integrated one, doing away with traditional subjects, or disciplines, such as mathematics,…

Background: LaVigna, Christian, and Willis (2005) reported on a project where Institute for Applied Behaviour Analysis (IABA) staff trained a professional team in New Zealand (NZ) to provide behavioural services that met defined criteria. The NZ team was then trained to train other practitioners to meet the same professional standards. However, no…

This paper examines the skills required of volunteers in the voluntary sector organisations that operate in three rural Tasmanian communities. It reports how volunteers acquire those skills and reveals the challenges faced by voluntary sector organisations in rural communities whose industries and, following from this, community members have a…

Some young people are labelled more "at-risk" of harming themselves through various behaviours, such as having sex, than others. However, such distinctions between young people are ambiguous, as youth itself is imagined as inherently risky. At-risk discourse has fuelled the existing links between youth and risk, and morality and risk. It…

The curriculum policies for students with special needs across Australia have been reviewed. The Curriculum Framework in the Australian Capital Territory is used to inform their school based curriculum. The Northern Territory Curriculum Framework describes what learners are expected to achieve and what learners have achieved. The New South Wales…

Bridging the disciplinary divides is reflective of the nature of learning and work in the 21st century. Yet the new Australian curriculum suggests schools are likely to be increasingly trapped within the disciplinary boundaries (Reid, 2009). In this article, we report a small case study which investigated the assumption that integrative approaches…

The significance of findings from a qualitative Tasmanian study, which investigated the part played by informal learning in positive ageing, is highlighted by the increasing proportion of the Australian population in the "Third Age" cohort of active, independent people aged 65 years and over. Semi-structured interviews, conducted by a…

Libraries have limited budgets and Collection Development Librarians can be faced with difficult decisions in the spending of their allocated funds. This paper discusses how the Tasmanian Polytechnic Launceston Campus Library discovered a gap in their collection and addressed this situation without funding. The Library wished to purchase fiction…

This paper discusses the emerging field of place-based education or place-based pedagogy--an approach that seeks to enhance children's perspective of "place" via school and community related environmental projects. Place-based education is proposed as an approach that enables students to establish a connection to a place, its people, and…

Current research demonstrates relationships between child abuse and neglect, homelessness and criminal activity. This report presents key findings from analysis of a data set linking three community-sector data collections: Supported Accommodation Assistance Program (SAAP), juvenile justice supervision, and child protection notifications and…

This paper outlines early findings from the Tasmanian-based Social Norms Analysis Project (SNAP). The Social Norms model is presented as a theoretically informed, evidence-based model for reducing alcohol-related harm in youthful populations by utilising the complex and often positive contributions peer groups make to adolescent health and…

This paper reports on the development and use of a classroom observation reflection tool designed to measure the extent to which pedagogies acknowledged in the literature as contributing to effective teaching of mathematics for numeracy are present in classrooms. The observation schedule was used in conjunction with a record of classroom activity…