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Welcome to Volume 54 of the Australian Journal of Education. We
start the new year with a varied and stimulating set of articles. It has
long been my belief that the Australian Journal of Education should
stimulate debate, not just report it. In recent issues I think we have
been doing more of this, and this issue continues that trend.
In the opening article, Catherine Scott will challenge the
cherished beliefs of many of our readers. Research on learning styles,
she argues, provides no basis for the widespread belief that different
teaching strategies should be employed for children with different
learning styles. The wholesale endorsement of this idea by schools and
education authorities flies in the face of the research evidence, and
risks disadvantaging some children by not presenting them with the full
range of learning opportunities. This paper will excite many and anger
some. Even better, it may stimulate a continuing debate.
Kristina Gottschall and her colleagues, Natasha Wardman, Kathryn
Edgeworth, Rachael Hutchesson and Sue Saltmarsh, take a fascinating look
at the values underlying the marketing approaches adopted by certain
elite boys schools in New South Wales. A careful study of a set of
school prospectuses reveals a range of hidden and possibly unintended
messages. To what extent do these messages reflect exclusivity and to
what extent do they reflect gender stereotypes? It is difficult to read
this article without wondering what might be learned from a similar
study of elite girls schools, of which there are many.
Nobody likes to be seen as ignorant but Michael Singh identifies
the virtue in being aware of what we don't know, particularly when
charged with the responsibility of educating international students from
backgrounds so varied that there will always be much that we do not
know. Used wisely, he argues, ignorance can be a facilitator of, rather
than an impediment to, learning.
Three articles in this issue directly consider important policy
issues. Lawrence Ingvarson provides a comprehensive account of recent
Australian developments for the recognition and reward of accomplished
teachers. With education authorities, state and federal, public and
independent, seemingly unanimous on its necessity, there is sorry
confusion on what it might mean and how it should be done. A careful
reading of this article by those with the power to make decisions might
result in wiser decisions being made.
Laura Perry and Andrew McConney have found an ingenious way to
examine the complex relationship of achievement with individual and
school socio-economic status. The results that they present are vivid
and may have more persuasive power than the complex statistics to which
we have become accustomed. In presenting their results, they raise a
host of policy issues, one of which (government funding mechanisms) is
taken up in detail by Louise Watson and Chris Ryan. Although all
governments would claim that their policies are aimed at providing
greater equality of opportunity, the evidence presented in this article
suggests that the effect is in the opposite direction. By studying how
the increased funding to independent schools has been deployed, Watson
and Ryan find little evidence that it has been used to increase
accessibility through lower school fees, and much evidence of it being
used to increase provision while maintaining the relative level of fees.
To the extent that this is so, funding that one might expect to increase
the choices available to less financially advantaged parents may in fact
be disadvantaging them further, while denying them that choice. If this
is so, governments--state, territory and federal--need to know this, and
to consider their policy responses.
As if this were not enough, we have two reviews: Noel
Pearson's Quarterly Essay Radical hope: Education and equality in
Australia, reviewed by Quentin Beresford and Jan Gray, and Rosalyn
Black's Beyond the classroom: Building new school networks,
reviewed by Libby Tudball. While it may be unusual for this journal to
review a periodical publication that will no longer be available on the
bookstands when we go to press, my judgement is that the issues raised
by Noel Pearson's work are so important that AJE readers should be
encouraged to seek it out in their libraries or to take steps to obtain
copies by mail order. If the publication of this review has this effect,
it will have been well worth the effort that the two reviewers have
given it.
Finally, a word for the unsung heroes of the Australian Journal of
Education. We are well served by our Editorial Board and our team of
Associate Editors, and their names are (rightly) up in lights in every
issue of the journal. Seldom recognised but greatly appreciated, is the
enormous contribution made by a large team of volunteer reviewers,
without whose specialised knowledge and conscientious effort the journal
could not function. So in this issue I pay tribute to all of those, as
well as the Editorial Board members and Associate Editors, who have
contributed reviews during 2009:
Andrea Allard, Angelika Anderson, Chi Baik, Robyn Beaman, Quentin
Beresford, Bob Birrell, Jill Blackmore, Trevor Bond, Sid Bourke, Gavin
Brown, Gerald Burke, Doug Clarke, Max Coltheart, Deborah Corrigan, John
Cresswell, Jan Currie, Charlotte Danielson, Scott Dickson, Andrew
Dowling, Daniel Edwards, Colin Evers, Peter Fensham, David Fergusson,
John Firth, Marilyn Fleer, Barry Fraser, Erica Frydenberg, Rob Gilbert,
Jan Gray, Patrick Griffin, Richard Gunstone, John Hattie, John Hedberg,
Deborah Henderson, Tony Herrington, Chris Hickey, Alyson Holbrook,
Wesley Imms, Lawrence Ingvarson, Moshe Israelshvili, Nicola Johnson,
Matthew Kearney, Mary Anne Kennan, Chris Kilham, Sue Kilpatrick,
Elizabeth Kleinhenz, Sue Knight, Betty Leask, Ramon Lewis, Michelle
Lonsdale, Kaye Lowe, Norman McCulla, Tim Macdonald, Helen McGrath, Julie
McLeod, Caroline Mansfield, Tony Mercurio, Gavin Moodie, Kate Moore,
Justen O'Connor, Debra Panizzon, Shane Pill, Kaye Plummer, Scott
Poynting, Leonie Rennie, Sheldon Rothman, Fiona Rowe, Catherine Scott,
Terri Seddon, Richard Selleck, Umesh Sharma, Phillip Slee, Kim
Snepvangers, Elizabeth Stacey, Irene Styles, Peter Sullivan, Sue
Thomson, Sue Towns, Russell Tytler, Dianne Vella-Brodrick, Anthony
Welch, Gerry White, Joel Windle, Rui Yang, Robyn Young.
Take a bow, all of you!
Glenn Rowley
Australian Council for Educational Research