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Blind faith in Australia's education 'system' is failing our kids

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Blind faith in Australia's education 'system' is failing our kids

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Have you heard of 'Flat-Earth education'? It's a phrase I am using as a provocation to highlight a problem - the unquestioning acceptance of the everyday structures and practices of education, including education research.

Unquestioning acceptance suggests blind faith, the consequences of which play out in continuing concerns over student performance and the working lives of teachers.

We all share an understanding of what education is and how it works, but this creates an unconscious bias. Picture: Getty Images

"Education is flat" might be a claim made by those, I will call them 'flat educationers' (akin to flat earthers), who consider the landscape of education to be, in its basic features, fixed.

For flat educationers, education is these features: students and teachers, subjects and year levels.

Most of us have attended some form of school, and through this experience we share an understanding of what education is and how it works. But this creates an unconscious bias.

The Australian Universities Accord cannot ignore climate change

We lived this experience as students, gradually moving through school as if climbing a long and well-worn staircase, each flight a year level, surrounded by other students, coaxed and prodded (perhaps led) by teachers.

Every individual step on this staircase was an achievement, often an assessment task as part of one of the many subjects we encountered.

Embedded in this analogy are those very basic structural features of education: students and teachers, subjects and year levels.

The presence of these ubiquitous features is rarely questioned. They are bound together in a fateful bargain sketched out by an overarching narrative: the curriculum.

The curriculum - not just its content but as a connecting narrative - is the established source of authority. Much is invested nationally in sustaining its rise and supremacy. The main characters are, again, students and teachers, subjects and year levels.

The curriculum story has a message about how to conduct one's life as a student, learner and teacher. Picture: Getty Images

The moral of the curriculum story is a firm message about how to conduct one's life as a student or learner; and for the educators among us, as a teacher.

Many current day flat earthers push against other sources of authority from an identity-driven position, and flat educationers have the curriculum story as their identity, or 'bible' of sorts.

Armed with this narrative, flat educationers rail against attempts to question the authority of the curriculum. And further, they strengthen adherence to this narrative by all manner of measures designed to illuminate how well students are being students (and teachers are being teachers), like the fabled PISA testing regime.

Learning by knowing, by doing, by being

With this broader application, PISA conveys a different message: that the curriculum narrative isn't adequate to achieving the broader aims of education claimed by most politicians and argued for by education experts.

In Australia, the two primary goals of education are (1) the Australian education system promotes excellence and equity, and (2) all young Australians become conﬁdent and creative individuals, successful lifelong learners, as well as active and informed members of the community.

Public protests by school students are challenging the moral of the curriculum story. Picture: Getty Images

These goals are not foundational to the curriculum narrative. Descriptions of these goals contain scant mention of education's structural features. Addressing this severe misalignment requires more than a garden makeover - the landscape itself needs to be remade.

The profound inadequacy of the curriculum narrative is spotlighted during eruptions of agency. Prominent among these is the growing cohort of school refusers, many of whom feel excluded by an education system failing to meet their needs.

School refusal needs a national response

Like most of us, the Minister is a product of the curriculum narrative, using it to push against other sources of authority. Flat educationers believe that if there are problems with education, they stem from people not adhering to the curriculum narrative closely enough.

Getting past our education problems demands focusing on research that exposes the deep-seated lack of vision by interrogating the structural features of the curriculum narrative.

This involves challenging what we take for granted when we use the words 'student' and 'teacher', 'subject' and 'year level', to enable exploration of new ideas.

We need to challenge what we mean by the words student and teacher, subject and year level. Picture: Getty Images

This kind of education research is not immediately empirical, collecting evermore data as evidence of adherence or non-adherence to the curriculum narrative.

This impacts how we determine the relevance of education research. At the same time, it necessitates opening ourselves up to recognising and admitting that the curriculum foundation story we currently adhere to is flawed; it is a mirage.

Education is anything but flat.

Banner: Getty Images

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Professor John QuayFaculty of Education, University of Melbourne

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Blind faith in Australia's education 'system' is failing our kids

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To improve Australia's education system, we need to move away from the idea that the basic features of education are fixed, says University of Melbourne expert.

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Lack of workers with 'soft skills' demands a shift in teaching

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Lack of workers with 'soft skills' demands a shift in teaching

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Surveys of the key skills employers seek in graduates continue to place so-called "soft skills" - like verbal and written communication skills, the ability to work collaboratively in teams and to influence others - in the top ten. But a 2016 report found that other skills - such as critical thinking, problem-solving, attention to detail, and writing - top the list of missing skills among job-seekers.

These skills are rated as being important across all jobs and industries. And employees not having these skills costs businesses thousands of dollars per year.

In the first major review in two decades, the New South Wales Higher School Certificate syllabus is set to focus on ensuring students are more work-ready. The changes will put an emphasis on depth and rigour across key subject areas including English, maths, the sciences and history.

Developing these skills in young people will require not only a shift in subject matter, but also a change in how students are taught. Only one in ten Australian teachers have recently participated in professional development to help students develop generic, transferable skills for future work.

The change of emphasis in the English curriculum appears well-placed given the importance of communication skills - and that current graduates are seen to lack these.

How important are these skills?

A US survey has found miscommunication costs businesses with up to 100 staff an average of US$420,000 per year. Even more staggeringly, in another study, 400 businesses with at least 100,000 employees each claimed that inadequate communication cost an average of US$62.4 million per company per year.

A study of science recruiters found 60% of respondents rated the ability to work collaboratively as most important, followed by adaptability (45%) and interpersonal relationship building (41%). Most respondents felt that applicants were lacking in these skills, particularly in critical thinking.

Notably, this study showed that employers considered soft skills as important as academic ability. Yet both current and potential employees are often reported as being "deficient" in these same skills.

It may appear that these core communication skill requirements of employers have not changed much over time. But the emphasis on collaborative work has altered dramatically. A Harvard Business Review study found that the time managers and employees spend on collaborative activities has increased by more than 50% in the past 20 years.

Modern workplace environments reflect this shift. Open-plan workplaces designed to increase interaction and collaboration are the norm. So, in addition to the job's requirements, workplace design means these interpersonal and influencing skills are more important than ever.

In the past, you could escape difficult personalities and noisy co-workers by shutting the office door. The design of the modern workplace, coupled with the increased requirement to collaborate across teams and divisions, underscores the importance of increasing the soft-skill capacity of current and future employees.

What do employers want?

Employers are specifically recruiting for social capital skills - that is, employees who have well-developed influencing skills - to assist in building networks and the employer's brand.

Where these roles were once seen as the domain of senior managers and marketing teams, the requirement for these influencing skills now extends across organisations.

As a result of these changes, the approach to developing soft skills is being examined. A 2016 report from a joint federal government and OECD workshop underscored the importance of developing adaptability in young people, as well as enterprise skills that can be applied across a wide range of contexts.

Similarly, a report by the Foundation for Young Australians suggests that future jobs will demand transferable enterprise skills such as communication, critical thinking and presentation skills 70% more than jobs of the past.

Demand for these critical thinking skills has risen 158% in early-career job ads in the last three years alone. And early-career job ads requiring presentation skills pay an average of A$8,853 more than those that don't.

Universities have come in for criticism from industry and corporate recruiters who argue that master of business administration programs need to be relevant and do more to develop leadership, communication and soft skills.

More needs to be done with educators, industry and government working together to ensure young people will be equipped with the skills they need for future jobs.
Special thanks to George Hrivnak, Associate Dean of Learning and Teaching, Bond University Business School, for his assistance in the preparation of this article.

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Lack of workers with 'soft skills' demands a shift in teaching

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Surveys of the key skills employers seek in graduates continue to place so-called "soft skills" - like verbal and written communication skills, the ability to work collaboratively in teams and to influence others - in the top ten.

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The robots are coming for your job! Why digital literacy is so important for the jobs of the future

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The robots are coming for your job! Why digital literacy is so important for the jobs of the future

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With automation a real threat to future jobs, school curricula have to keep up with the times. www.shutterstock.com

In a report released this week, the Foundation for Young Australians (FYA) claims that up to 70% of young people are preparing for jobs that will no longer exist in the future. The report also raises concerns about decreasing entry-level occupations for school leavers and the impacts of automation.

In another recent report, the Committee for Economic Development of Australia predicts that:

almost five million Australian jobs - around 40% of the workforce - face the high probability of being replaced by computers in the next 10 to 15 years.

Some of the jobs most at risk of being automated include office administration staff, sales assistants, checkout operators, accounting clerks, personal assistants and secretaries.

The collapse of Australia's manufacturing industries, the end of the mining boom and the impact of disruptive technologies is having a significant impact on the employment prospects, not only for workers being laid off from car factories and mine sites, but also for the students who are in our schools, TAFE colleges and universities.

In response to the changing work demands, a report by PriceWaterhouseCoopers argues for a focus on developing Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM) as three-quarters of the fastest-growing jobs require these skills. The FYA report also makes the case for increased emphasis on developing digital literacy and the implementation of a digital technologies curriculum in primary school.

At the heart of addressing the demands of the new work order is literacy, which is becoming more high-stakes than ever before.

Why literacy is high-stakes

Literacy is often thought of as something that happens in school, yet low levels of functional literacy of adults are also a major concern.

Low literacy levels have a significant impact on the health, education and employment opportunities of workers and are connected to lower salaries, lower employment rates, poor health and housing, crime and poverty.

The question of how workers will be able to navigate the changing employment landscape with low literacy levels is an important one. We also need to strengthen our training opportunities through TAFE and the Vocational Education and Training (VET) system for workers seeking to transition from manufacturing and unskilled labour to the new working economy.

from www.shutterstock.com

At the same time, the question of how we are preparing students in our schools for the new work order also bears serious consideration.

Is digital literacy the answer?

The increasing importance of digital literacy can no longer be overlooked, with the FYA report claiming that over 50% of Australian workers will need to:

be able to use, configure or build digital systems in the next 2 - 3 years.

Digital literacy includes skills such as coding, data synthesis and manipulation, as well as the design, use and management of computerised, digital and automated systems. Success in the new work order requires these skills alongside lateral thinking, innovation, problem-solving, collaboration and entrepreneurship. Add these to the traditional literacy skills of reading and writing and you have a very complex picture of what literacy is.

As such, our understanding of what literacy is and how it should be measured needs to be expanded from a simple view of reading and writing to one that encompasses a range of skills.

We are in a transition phase from old manufacturing industries, mining and the service sector economy to one that is about digital disruption, renewables and socially driven enterprise. As such, we need an education system that is responsive to the major shifts in Australia's social, cultural and economic fabric.

from www.shutterstock.com

Teaching computer coding in schools is a good start, but is it enough to address the significant challenges of preparing young Australians for an uncertain world of work?

Perhaps a more thoughtful review of the curriculum is needed than the one recently conducted by Kevin Donnelly, who argues that:

computers should not be used in the early years of primary school where more traditional teaching methods need to prevail.

The current review of the curriculum has a backward-looking approach, with its recommendations to delay computing until Year 9 and to focus on basic literacy and numeracy in primary school. We need a school curriculum that has a clear focus on the future, not a "back-to-the-basics" 1950s approach to literacy learning.

A recent report from the UK House of Lords provides some useful clues for what they call "future-proofing" young people:

Digital literacy fosters creativity and innovation, underpinning job creation

Digital literacy complements traditional literacy and more effort is needed to lift outcomes across all domains

Digital literacy is important not only in schools but also in further education

Stronger links need to be made between industry and education providers

There needs to be universal access to digital technologies and for all people to have access to digital literacy learning opportunities.

We need to do all of these things, and the sooner the better, before the robots come for all our jobs.

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The robots are coming for your job! Why digital literacy is so important for the jobs of the future

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In a report released this week, the Foundation for Young Australians (FYA) claims that up to 70% of young people are preparing for jobs that will no longer exist in the future. The report also raises concerns about decreasing entry-level occupations for school leavers and the impacts of automation.

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Preparing young people for work: do we really have a crisis?

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Preparing young people for work: do we really have a crisis?

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VET in schools won't necessarily get you a job right out of school, but it's a good start. Provence of British Columbia/Flickr

In the last 12 months, Australian governments of all persuasions have alluded to a crisis in how we prepare young people for trade and technical jobs. These concerns come in response to a decline in uptake of apprenticeships and concerns about youth unemployment.

A national framework for vocational education and training (VET) for secondary school students released at the end of 2014 set a clear objective for schools in preparing young people for the world of work.

Governments across the country are announcing funding for state-of-the-art trade training facilities. The federal government is also talking up the importance of closer ties between schools and industry, with the piloting of the controversial P-Tech model.

If the policy objective is to support young people in getting sustainable employment, is building a few new trade training schools the way to go? Do we need greater input from business in schools? Is there really a problem with current approaches to trade training in schools?

Existing vocational training programs in schools

Nationally, VET in Schools is already available in more than 90% of secondary schools. Almost a third of 16-year-olds undertake some form of VET in Schools.

Far from being a niche program, each year more than 250,000 students do a VET in Schools program in areas ranging from aged care to hairdressing, baking to picture framing, horticulture to marine tourism. The programs allow students in the latter years of high school to study towards a vocational qualification, while at the same time earning credits towards finishing school.

A common criticism of VET in Schools is that it has a lack of industry voice in its development and delivery. This has been one rationale for piloting of the P-Tech model - where companies sponsor schools to train young students to be job-ready for their organisation.

Currently, VET in Schools programs are developed in consultation with industry, as well as the VET sector. The focus in this collaborative work is two-fold: what is appropriate for school-aged young people to be studying; and what skills are most relevant to employers.

Outcomes of VET in Schools

For young people completing VET in Schools, relatively high numbers move on to post-school education and training. In Victoria, 68.9% of VET in Schools students continue in post-school education and training.

Transition to post-school study is slightly lower in New South Wales and Queensland, with 62.2% and 55.8% of VET in Schools students going on to further study after high school.

If the main purpose of having VET available to students still at school is providing skills for employment, what role does it play in helping them get jobs? This is where VET in Schools comes in for the most criticism.

For young people hoping to convert their VET in Schools experience to a post-school job, opportunities for full-time, secure employment are declining. Increasing numbers of VET in Schools students are unemployed or entering part-time work without continuing in any form of training. Why is this the case?

VET in Schools is a pathway, not a ticket to a job

Historically, completing high school and/or a low-level trade certificate meant the possibility of getting an entry-level job. Today, the expectation that young people can enter the labour market directly from school and access sustainable employment is a fantasy.

The capacity of VET in Schools, or secondary school generally, to prepare young people for direct entry to work is impacted by the changing nature of the labour market. Good jobs with career potential require post-school qualifications. The low-level qualifications (Certificates I and II) that dominate VET in Schools programs have limited value to employers looking for skilled workers.

So, what should governments be focusing on if they want to improve how we train young people for trade and technical jobs?

A recent study of VET in Schools found vocational education programs in schools should be promoted as a pathway to higher-level post-school VET study, rather than as a pathway directly to jobs without further training.

Achieving this requires greater support for schools in making sure young people understand how to combine a VET in Schools program with their other school studies in a way that gives them the best chance of continuing in post-school training. For example, a student undertaking allied health needs to be doing biology and psychology, and a student hoping to continue into an electrical apprenticeship needs to be doing maths and science.

Strengthening trade training is not simply a question of funding new facilities. While the communities lucky enough to host a new trade training facility would certainly benefit, the resourcing could be better used in supporting schools everywhere to adjust their support of young people, and their use of VET in Schools, in response to the realities of today's labour market.

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Preparing young people for work: do we really have a crisis?

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The money going into shiny new trade schools would be better spent teaching students about their post-school options outside of university.

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It’s time business schools prepared their graduates for potential workplace misconduct

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It’s time business schools prepared their graduates for potential workplace misconduct

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"At PwC, (our purpose) is to build trust in society and solve important problems", says one recruitment invitation. While another promises: "As one of our grads, you can expect to work on high-impact, meaningful and purpose-led projects"

This is the wording used in invitations circulated this year by two of the so-called big 4 accounting firms to final year business students.

Each year graduate employers spruik their job opportunities to soon-to-graduate students in a competitive process that promises much for up to 5,000 successful candidates.

So how should final year students respond when all four prominent graduate recruiters are caught engaging in unethical business practices as revealed in the ongoing Senate inquiry examining consultants?

And how well have business schools prepared students to navigate such challenges?

What of the recent graduate recruits already working in these organisations, such as at PwC - will they be rounded up as part of those "we will be naming ... who did anything wrong" or included in the 1,500 staff to be spun off into a new entity?

Problematic cultures exist in other sectors

The revelations about the big four resonate with the earlier scandals uncovered across the banking and finance sector in Australia, leading to the Prudential Inquiry into the Commonwealth Bank of Australia (2018) and Royal Commission into Misconduct in the Banking, Superannuation and Financial Services Industry (2019).

The CBA inquiry identified "culture" as a key lever in addressing misconduct, demonstrated by a widespread sense of complacency from the top down; normalised bad behaviour, reactive rather than proactive responses to risk; favouring of consensus over constructive criticism and a lack of critical thinking.

Are such practices endemic to the whole industry and can announced measures such as divestment of some government business and a single set of standards deal with these issues? Or is this simply a rushed response to protect the financial interests of the firm?

What of the role of business schools, responsible for educating graduates who go on to lead financial institutions and consulting services? How well prepared are their graduates to navigate ethical challenges as they arise?

Business schools stand accused of perpetuating a corporate culture that prioritises maximising shareholder profit to the detriment of broader stakeholder concerns in their teaching.

In the fallout of the banking royal commission, we held a public forum to look at the role of business schools.

Read more: Tax advisers who promote exploitation schemes to face $780 million penalty

This was followed by a qualitative research project investigating the experiences of a cross section of students and graduates in navigating ethical challenges in their corporate internships and graduate roles.

Students find the theory doesn't always match the practice

Based on a series of focus groups, exposure to normalised bad behaviour surfaced early in the experiences of student interns.

They reported a lack of preparedness for their early placements and inadequate supervision: "you just don't have the knowledge to ask the right questions. The amount of responsibility I got ... was too early."

This meant many students did not feel they had the ability to be heard - carrying out important tasks without adequate guidance, while lacking the seniority to have concerns taken seriously. "Dodgy practices" became normalised, and students felt compromised.

Most felt university could better prepare them, with a more real-world approach to ethical issues: "at uni basically everything you do is black or white ... so textbook compared to what it's like in the industry."

Recent graduates who had entered the workforce in the last five years took a pragmatic approach, with career aspirations front of mind. Having secured a graduate position for themselves, there was concern about "rocking the boat". One reported: "It's sometimes hard to raise something to a manager, not because of fear of getting punished, but more of like a respect factor".

Read more: How reliance on consultancy firms like PwC undermines the capacity of governments

For longer-term graduates, questionable practices, weak HR, disinterested management, and the emotional cost of choosing to leave a workplace due to unethical practice were key themes: "So, the system isn't set up where if people do the right thing they'll be protected. Everything's set up for the companies to protect their own interests."

Business schools and recruiters need to change their approach

What emerged clearly from the data is the need to fix workplace culture, and greater accountability by both business schools in their teaching approaches and graduate recruiters in their supervision of intern and graduate programs.

The joint aim must be to equip students and graduates with " the agency to enact personal and social responsibility ".

As the big four accounting firms' reputations continue to unravel, it's essential they adopt ways to minimise the lack of trust in what they do and tackle the complex cultural underpinnings of organisational misconduct.

Business schools also have a role. They need to fix the disconnect between what is delivered in the curriculum and real-world experience.

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It's time business schools prepared their graduates for potential workplace misconduct

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Many business school graduates feel a gulf between on-the-job experience and study. This means they lack the skills to navigate ethical and other challenges in the workplace.

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Why school kids need more exposure to the world of work

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Why school kids need more exposure to the world of work

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All students need to experience the world of work, particularly work of the future, long before they leave school, according to a new report out today.

The latest Mitchell Institute report, Connecting the worlds of learning and work, says collaborating with industry and the community is vital to better prepare children and young people for future work and life. And governments need to play a leading role to ensure this happens.

Read more: Partnering with scientists boosts school students' and teachers' confidence in science

Jobs in the digital age, and the skills and capabilities required to do them are transforming at an unprecedented rate.

Schools alone cannot be expected to foster the complex combinations of STEM (science, technology, engineering, maths), digital and transferable skills, like collaboration, problem solving and communication, that young people will need in their future careers. That's in addition to core skills like literacy and numeracy.

Bringing together the classroom and the workplace has broad public benefits, but can be challenging to do in practice.

Read more: Mining young minds: the challenges of private interests and education

Why is this important?

Exposure to the world of work provides opportunities for students to build connections with professionals outside their usual family networks, and to learn by "doing" in real world contexts.

This offers some valuable benefits - enriching school learning, building students' employability, and helping them develop the capabilities (such as problem solving, collaboration, and resilience) that we know are valued in work and life.

Read more: Lack of workers with 'soft skills' demands a shift in teaching

Some students already have access to valuable experiences like industry mentoring and entrepreneurship programs at school, but this isn't the case for all students.

With young people spending longer in formal education, many might not connect with the world of work until their 20s.

For these students, once they complete their education, the " new work reality " is the average transition time from education to full-time work is now up to five years, compared to one year in 1986.

Traditionally, practical industry-focussed learning was anchored in vocational education and training, but participation rates in vocational pathways are declining.

Read more: Vocational education and training sector is still missing out on government funding: report

Shaping career choices

Young people's pathways are formed early - with career aspirations often following traditional gender stereotypes, and tending to reflect students' interest and achievement in traditional school subjects. A lack of interest in STEM subjects at age 10 is unlikely to change by age 14.

Varied opportunities to engage with the world of work, through career talks, mentoring, and excursions to job sites can be valuable from primary school through to secondary school, particularly for students at risk of disengagement.

Early exposure is critical to ensure that students can make informed decisions about future career pathways.

Read more: Careers education must be for all, not just those going to university

Haven't we heard this before?

There have been attempts to put school-industry partnerships on the national agenda over the past decade, but they still haven't reached every school.

As the recent Gonski 2.0 Review found:

"While many models of school-community engagement exist in Australia, school-community engagement to improve student learning is not common practice and implementation can be ad hoc."

We haven't yet found a way to bring the workplace and the classroom together in an effective way.

What's stopping this?

We need to address some systemic barriers to enable partnerships with industry to flourish in all schools:

Partnerships take time and resources for schools to initiate and manage - yet things that can be widely measured, like NAPLAN and ATAR, tend to be prioritised

We know teachers are central to making partnerships work - but many don't have the time, or the training to know how to engage effectively with industry

There are many structural and administrative blockers that add layers of complexity for schools and industry partners. These include child safety requirements, occupational health and safety, and procurement policies for new equipment that are different in each state and territory.

Policymakers must design systems that make partnerships easier and ensure they are effective and available in all schools across Australia.

Here's what governments can do
1. Track school-industry partnerships to ensure equity and help planning
Governments need to track where partnerships are happening, what they involve, how effective they are, and who is missing out. This information can inform government reforms that ensure resources are allocated equitably across the education system, and assist schools and industry to plan effective partnerships.
2. Support teachers by giving them time and resoources
Partnerships need time and resources. We need to give teachers time to engage in partnerships and provide them with professional learning and support to more easily facilitate effective partnerships. This may include using intermediaries, which come in many forms, such as industry peak bodies, government agencies and not-for-profit organisations.
3. Address barriers to make it easier for all to take part
For partnerships to be successful everywhere, governments need to address the structural barriers (regulatory and governance issues), information barriers (finding partners to connect with and understanding how to meet both school and industry needs), and equity barriers (ensuring the schools that benefit the most are connected to suitable industry partners).

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Why school kids need more exposure to the world of work

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All students need to experience the world of work, particularly work of the future, long before they leave school, according to a new report out today. The latest Mitchell Institute report, Connecting the worlds of learning and work, says collaborating with industry and the community is vital to better prepare children and young people for future work and life.

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Understanding emotions is nearly as important as IQ for students’ academic success

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Understanding emotions is nearly as important as IQ for students’ academic success

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Understanding emotions is nearly as important as IQ for students’ academic success

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Students who can regulate tough emotions will achieve more. Anxiety will not impair their test performance. They can push through the boredom and frustration to master dull or difficult material.

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What’s ability got to do with it? Why we should be mindful of measuring intelligence

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What’s ability got to do with it? Why we should be mindful of measuring intelligence

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For some, the theory of multiple intelligences is a source of frustration rather than illumination. kidpixo

We have had the Singing Detective. Now we can have singing intelligence. We can also have the circular argument that grounds it: we can sing because we have singing intelligence, and we have singing intelligence because we can sing.

Once the idea of multiple intelligences(MI) is embraced there is no limit to the number which can be invented: political; organisational; business; money-making; criminal; alcoholic; psychiatric; religious. When reading the books on MI, one is drawn to the conclusion that there are as many types of human intelligence as there are types of human ability. Is the ability to make a cup of coffee an example of "coffee-making intelligence"?

The study of intelligence began before World War I, with the French government believing that some children were too dull to benefit from its grand schools, and therefore deciding to construct a short test to separate those having natural ability from the unfortunates who did not.

Accordingly, Alfred Binet and Theo Simon constructed tests of cognitive functioning and formed them into a scale for schoolchildren. As cognitive ability increases with age, norms had to be obtained for different ages and individuals' scores related thereto. Later, the practice was adopted of dividing the "mental age" by the chronological age to obtain a ratio called the "intelligence quotient" or IQ. The Binet test was revised at Stanford University in 1916 and this version was widely used by American psychologists.

The construction of intelligence tests depended on the use of statistical techniques of correlation to assess the extent to which one item 'went with' another. The aim was to select a number of different problems for their power to tap a similar type of ability and graduate them according to difficulty. Items that failed to meet these criteria were discarded as not tapping the same kind of ability. The research therefore produced separate tests of skills: numeracy, vocabulary, pattern perception.

To the surprise of many psychologists, the scales which had been purified to assess separate abilities always correlated positively with one another. The correlations were not high, but were never negative. This led English psychologist Charles Spearman to invent a mathematical method of extracting what was common to groups of tests. This process of 'factor analysis' produced a large common factor, which he called g (for general intelligence) and a smaller specific factor for each test. Spearman concluded that a two-factor theory of intelligence was needed: each performance consisted of an element of general intelligence and an element specific to the task.

In Chicago in 1938, L.L. Thurstone used a different statistical method and found five factors that were more involved than others in successful performances and named them "primary mental abilities".

The disagreement between Spearman and Thurstone triggered a heated debate. The Americans were offended by Spearman's theory, and the English (except Spearman) were unmoved. Some bemused observers speculated that the different results arose from cultural biases: English society was divided by social class and regarded the generalist as having the higher intellect, whereas American society was aggressively democratic and preferred a theory which gave relatively equal status to specialised accomplishments.

In the 1920s, Cyril Burt argued that inheritance was a strong influence in intelligence, but this idea has never been popular in the US. Long after Burt's death, American psychologists claimed that he had fudged the figures to favour his theory. The circumstantial evidence appears to support this accusation. Whether a vested interest in egalitarianism led the Americans to play detective cannot be known, but falsifying one set of scientific results is not sufficient to invalidate the theory that heredity is a factor in general intelligence. It is much more difficult to imagine that heredity is an important factor in, say, moral intelligence.

American psychologists and educators have consistently proselytised for the adoption of MI. The rationale is that if teachers are encouraged to view intelligence in this light, they will be less likely to downgrade students who show weakness in one subject, but will seek to locate their possible strengths in other subjects. As is well known, teachers' attitudes to students' IQs can generate self-fulfilling prophecies in students' levels of performance - known as the Pygmalion Effect.

In 1983, the American theory was revived with the publication of Howard Gardner's Frames of Mind in which seven intelligences were identified: linguistic; mathematical; musical; kinesthetic; spatial; interpersonal; intrapersonal. While the MI theory became popular with educationalists, theoretical psychologists were less impressed and asked Gardner why he promoted only seven intelligences. Their irony was overlooked as other intelligences were quickly invented: emotional; spiritual; moral; existential; naturalist. Howard has accepted the latter but has reservations about the others.

In the 1990s science journalist Daniel Goleman wrote Emotional Intelligence and asserted (without evidence) that EQ is twice as important for worldly success as IQ. After more than twenty years of research, there is no accepted definition of emotional intelligence and no definitive test of EQ. Some psychologists believe that EQ includes everything related to 'success' that is not measured by IQ. Others have concluded that EQ is theoretically unsound and empirically unsupported.

One of the appealing aspects of MI theory is that it allows all people to be intelligent in their own way and thus maintain self-esteem. One may be deficient in mathematical intelligence, but espousing particular values can serve as a self-enhancing substitute. For example, many lost souls have been told that their ability to inspire others, and be inspired in their turn (by charlatans, leaders, psychologists) is a sign of their "spiritual intelligence".

When we leave the intellectual slums of spiritual intelligence, we encounter such books as Moral Intelligence by Doug Lennick and Fred Kiel, who assert that morally intelligent individuals value integrity, responsibility, compassion and forgiveness. The authors insist that if people wish to prosper, they must praise and promote these values and to assist readers they offer a test of moral intelligence. Unsurprisingly, morally intelligent people invert the values espoused by Machiavelli and popularised by such television programs as Yes Minister.

So, who is intelligent? People with high moral intelligence who believe that honesty is the best policy? Or people with low moral intelligence who agree with Machiavelli that those who tell the truth get their heads bashed in?

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What's ability got to do with it? Why we should be mindful of measuring intelligence

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We have had the Singing Detective. Now we can have singing intelligence. We can also have the circular argument that grounds it: we can sing because we have singing intelligence, and we have singing intelligence...

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The strange links between intelligence and prejudice

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The strange links between intelligence and prejudice

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Most people think they're above average intelligence. But we can't all be above average. from pixabay.com, CC BY-SA

Human judgement often becomes less accurate when we train it on ourselves. Self appraisals commonly flatter our strengths and minimise our weaknesses. The average man overstates his height by 1.2cm and the average woman understates her weight by 1.4kg.

Judgements of our bodily dimensions may be prone to distortion but they are constrained by the brute facts of physical reality. A short person cannot claim to be tall without losing credibility.

However, when we judge our psychological characteristics we are not constrained in the same way. We may be remarkably inaccurate in our self assessments, as if we were observing our mental capacities in a fun-house mirror.

Self-assessed intelligence

These judgement biases have been studied in assessments of general cognitive ability or intelligence. Intelligence can be assessed formally using psychometric tests but it can also be informally estimated. Researchers have examined whether people's estimates of their intelligence accurately reflect their psychometric intelligence.

Two striking findings have emerged from this research. First, people tend to hold inflated impressions of their own intelligence: most people think they are above average.

This is an example of the "better-than-average" effect, a widespread illusion of personal superiority. The illusion has been documented in people's appraisals of their personality, health, work performance, relationship satisfaction and driving skill. People also tend to believe they are above average in their immunity to judgement biases.

A second key finding is that people's self-assessed intelligence is poorly calibrated. There is only a weak relationship between self-assessed and psychometric intelligence.

Suppose we collected a sample of 100 people and selected one person whose self-assessed intelligence was in the top 50. There is only a roughly 60% chance they would be in the top 50 on psychometric intelligence, not much better than a coin toss.

If we combine the inflation and poor calibration of self-assessed intelligence, we arrive at a situation like the one shown below. Let's take 100 people from the general population and divide them evenly into those who are above (blue) and below (red) average on psychometric intelligence. Let's also divide them into those people (let's say 80, a conservative estimate) who estimate their intelligence to be above average (dark) and those who estimate it to be below average (light).

The table makes a few sobering points. Only a slender majority of people (58%) accurately estimate where they sit relative to others. A large minority of people (36%) incorrectly estimate they are above average, dwarfing the group (6%) who underestimate their intelligence.

Most people who have above average intelligence correctly estimate they are above average. However, most people who have below average intelligence mistakenly make the same estimate.

This pattern exemplifies the "Dunning-Kruger effect". That cognitive bias involves a tendency for people with relatively low ability to overestimate their ability, in part because they lack the capacity to recognise their lack of competence.

Intelligence, self-assessed intelligence and prejudice

Research on self-assessed intelligence shows the people who think they are above average are not the same as those who are above average. This discrepancy reveals itself powerfully in an article published this month by a team of Belgian psychologists.

The researchers examined a sample of Belgian adults from the general community. The sample completed a psychometric intelligence test and estimated their intelligence on a scale from 0 (least intelligent Belgian) to 100 (most intelligent Belgian). The average estimate was 67: roughly 85% of the sample believed themselves to be above average. The two ways of assessing intelligence were very weakly related.

The study also employed a measure of subtle racism, included because greater psychometric intelligence is associated with lesser prejudice. The researchers explored whether psychometric and self-assessed intelligence had the same or different links to racism.

Remarkably the two ways of assessing intelligence had opposite associations with subtle racism. As expected, higher psychometric intelligence was associated with lower racism, largely because more intelligent people thought about social groups in less crudely categorical ways. However, higher self-assessed intelligence was associated with higher levels of racism.

The explanation for this finding is that people who estimate their cognitive ability to be higher than others tend to perceive the social world vertically in terms of superiority and inferiority. Such people are high in "social dominance orientation", an anti-egalitarian ideology linked to prejudice.

Similar findings have been found in studies of narcissism. Narcissistic people believe they are superior, have inflated estimates of their intelligence, and they also tend to hold more prejudiced attitudes.

In essence, the Belgian study shows that being intelligent undermines group prejudice, but believing one is superior to others in intelligence reflects and promotes it. When people make assessments of their intelligence they are estimating a cognitive strength, but perhaps also revealing an attitudinal weakness.

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The strange links between intelligence and prejudice

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People tend to hold inflated impressions of their own intelligence: most people think they are above average.

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‘Please do not assume the worst of us’: students know AI is here to stay and want unis to teach them how to use it

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‘Please do not assume the worst of us’: students know AI is here to stay and want unis to teach them how to use it

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‘Please do not assume the worst of us’: students know AI is here to stay and want unis to teach them how to use it

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Students understand there are limitations with ChatGPT, but they know it will have a huge impact on their careers.

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DIY degree? Why universities should make online educational materials free for all

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DIY degree? Why universities should make online educational materials free for all

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This article is part of our series on big ideas for the Universities Accord. The federal government is calling for ideas to "reshape and reimagine higher education, and set it up for the next decade and beyond". A review team is due to finish a draft report in June and a final report in December 2023.
As part of the federal government's bid to overhaul higher education, the Universities Accord discussion paper is seeking to "widen" opportunities for people to access university. It also wants to "grow a culture" of lifelong learning in Australia. As the review team note, most people in Australia who study at university are under 35.

Lifelong learning can help to ensure that workforce skills are up to date and that jobs in high demand can be filled, as well as enabling people to create new job opportunities through innovation.

These issues need to be approached in many ways. And will inevitably include proposals for shorter forms of learning as well as addressing the financial cost of attending university.

My proposal - also outlined in this journal article - is that a proportion of educational resources generated by publicly funded universities should be made public and freely available.

This could radically expand opportunity and flexibility and potentially allow students to design their own degrees, by doing multiple different units from different universities.

This idea is not completely new

There is a precedence for this idea. The international Plan S initiative is led by a group of national research funding organisations. Since 2018, it has been pushing for publicly funded research to be published in open-access journals or platforms.

Australian chief scientist Cathy Foley similarly wants all Australian research to be "open access, domestically and internationally, and for research conducted overseas to be freely available to read in Australia".

When it comes to university learning, a 2019 UNESCO report encouraged member states to make higher education educational resources developed with public funds free and freely available.

In a March 2023 report, the Productivity Commission recommended the federal government require "all universities to provide all lectures online and for free". The commission said this would increase transparency in teaching performance and encourage online learning.

Read more: These 5 equity ideas should be at the heart of the Universities Accord

But this also has the ability to make to higher education more accessible.

There is already plenty of international experience sharing educational materials online - including the global Open Educational Resources public digital library. This includes resources from early learning through to adult education.

The Productivity Commission says universities would not lose income by making educational resources open access. This is because universities "sell" credentials, not resources. It is also argued overworked academics can save time by using materials created by others.

But there is resistance from institutions and academics, including a perception free resources will be poor quality and take a lot of time to create. There is also a lack of technological tools to adapt resources. This may explain why open education has not yet taken off in Australia.

How would this work?

My plan would require open online sites to host educational materials produced by academics. These would need to be moderated or curated and published under an open access license.

It would include a peer review system for educational materials like the one already used for research publications. Academics could get credit for publishing, updating or reviewing resources and the publication of education output would be included in the university metrics.

This could also help reverse the current downgrading of teaching in Australian universities in favour of research.

There could be three types of users:

students who access materials through the university that produced them, as per current practice

individual students outside the university that created the materials who access materials for their own learning at whatever stage of life they are relevant to them

other organisations, including other universities, that then contextualise and deliver the materials to their students.

What kind of materials are we talking about?

The Productivity Commission has talked about "lectures" being made available for free. But lectures are not a good way of transmitting information, especially online. For one thing, they do not promote critical thinking.

My plan proposes whole courses or at least sections of courses with assessments, would be provided. This includes text, videos and software and can include course planning materials and evaluation tools.

An indication of the academic level to which the course speaks, and the amount of possible credit, should also be provided.

Read more: We need to change the way universities assess students, starting with these 3 things

What about accreditation?

Accreditation of learning should be considered as part of this.

The OERu is an international organisation where partner universities (including Penn State in the US and Curtin University in Australia) offer free access to online courses. Students pay reduced fees if they want to submit assignments, which can earn them microcredits towards a degree offered by one of the partners.

A more radical option would be to develop a system where students collect microcredits from whatever source they wish and present them to an accrediting body for an academic award rather than enrolling in a particular degree course.

Suggested recommendations

As it prepares its draft report, the accord review team should recommend:

most university-generated educational material should be public and free

as an interim goal, within three years, 10% of all public university courses should be freely available online

an organisation should be created to develop the infrastructure needed to do this. This includes, open repositories, a peer review system for open educational materials, and systems for offering microcredits to students and academic credit to academics who take part.

Why is this a good idea?

The Productivity Commission says making this material public will encourage higher quality teaching, empower students and assist in lifelong learning. On top of this, there is the potential for true reform of the educational landscape.

Read more: Higher education must reinvent itself to meet the needs of the world today. Enter the distributed university

It provides opportunities for collaboration between universities, rather than a competitive business model. And it would make teaching more important, rather than an "inconvenient task" by those seeking academic advancement through research.

Finally, it would genuinely make learning more accessible and more affordable, no matter who you are or where you live.

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DIY degree? Why universities should make online educational materials free for all

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This article is part of our series on big ideas for the Universities Accord. The federal government is calling for ideas to "reshape and reimagine higher education, and set it up for the next decade and beyond". A review team is due to finish a draft report in June and a final report in December 2023.

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5 reasons kids still need to learn handwriting (no, AI has not made it redundant)

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5 reasons kids still need to learn handwriting (no, AI has not made it redundant)

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The world of writing is changing.

Things have moved very quickly from keyboards and predictive text. The rise of generative artificial intelligence (AI) means bots can now write human-quality text without having hands at all.

Recent improvements in speech-to-text software mean even human "writers" do not need to touch a keyboard, let alone a pen. And with help from AI, text can even be generated by decoders that read brain activity through non-invasive scanning.

Writers of the future will be talkers and thinkers, without having to lift a finger. The word "writer" may come to mean something very different, as people compose text in multiple ways in an increasingly digital world. So do humans still need to learn to write by hand?

Handwriting is still part of the curriculum

The pandemic shifted a lot of schooling online and some major tests, such as NAPLAN are now done on computers. There are also calls for cursive handwriting to be phased out in high school.

However, learning to handwrite is still a key component of the literacy curriculum in primary school.

Parents may be wondering whether the time-consuming and challenging process of learning to handwrite is worth the trouble. Perhaps the effort spent learning to form letters would be better spent on coding?

Many students with disability, after all, already learn to write with assistive technologies.

But there are are a number of important reasons why handwriting will still be taught - and still needs to be taught - in schools.

1. Fine motor skills

Handwriting develops critical fine motor skills and the coordination needed to control precise movements. These movements are required to conduct everyday school and work-related activities.

The refinement of these motor skills also leads to handwriting becoming increasingly legible and fluent.

We don't know where technology will take us, but it may take us back to the past.

Handwriting may be more important than ever if tests and exams return to being handwritten to stop students using generative AI to cheat.

Read more: Why cursive handwriting needs to make a school comeback

2. It helps you remember

Handwriting has important cognitive benefits, including for memory.

Research suggests traditional pen-and-paper notes are remembered better, due to the greater complexity of the handwriting process.

And learning to read and handwrite are intimately linked. Students become better readers though practising writing.

3. It's good for wellbeing

Handwriting, and related activities such as drawing, are tactile, creative and reflective sources of pleasure and wellness for writers of all ages.

This is seen in the popularity of practices such as print journalling and calligraphy. There are many online communities where writers share gorgeous examples of handwriting.

4. It's very accessible

Handwriting does not need electricity, devices, batteries, software, subscriptions, a fast internet connection, a keyboard, charging time or the many other things on which digital writing depends.

It only needs pen and paper. And can be done anywhere.

Sometimes handwriting is the easiest and best option. For example, when writing a birthday card, filling in printed forms, or writing a quick note.

Read more: How much does handwriting matter?

5. It's about thinking

Most importantly, learning to write and learning to think are intimately connected.
Ideas are formed as students write. They are developed and organised as they are composed. Thinking is too important to be outsourced to bots!

Teaching writing is about giving students a toolkit of multiple writing strategies to empower them to fulfil their potential as thoughtful, creative and capable communicators.

Handwriting will remain an important component of this toolkit for the foreseeable future, despite the astonishing advances made with generative AI.

Writing perfect cursive may become less important in the future. But students will still need to be able to write legibly and fluently in their education and in their broader lives.

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5 reasons kids still need to learn handwriting (no, AI has not made it redundant)

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The world of writing is changing. Things have moved very quickly from keyboards and predictive text. The rise of generative artificial intelligence (AI) means bots can now write human-quality text without having hands at all. Recent improvements in speech-to-text software mean even human "writers" do not need to touch a keyboard, let alone a pen.

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Canada doesn't fully fund its private primary schools, and Australia shouldn't either

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Canada doesn't fully fund its private primary schools, and Australia shouldn't either

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The former NSW education minister and now head of the UNSW Gonski Institute, Adrian Piccoli, suggested in recent days Australian governments should fully fund all non-government primary schools.

In an opinion piece published by the Sydney Morning Herald, Piccoli wrote this would fix inequality - as long as non-government schools also stopped charging fees and followed the same enrolment and accountability rules as public schools.

He wrote:

This idea is neither new nor radical. Canada has operated this way for decades and find themselves with an education system far more equitable and much higher performing than Australia.

As a researcher with expertise on the Canadian education system, I think there are several aspects of this claim worth clarifying and examining more closely.

Canada doesn't fully fund private schools

It's important to note there is no such thing as "Canadian" education. In Canada, under the terms of the constitution, each province holds the jurisdiction and autonomy to set their own educational policies. So, there is no overarching ministry or agency at the federal level, meaning education policy remains highly decentralised.

Canada remains an outlier, globally, as it does not grant any central body control over education across the country - which comes as a surprise to many.

Funding remains quite complex in all jurisdictions (try to understand how funding formulas work even in Australia!). But to the second point, in Canada, only some (five) of the ten provinces provide partial funding to private schools while in three of the provinces (Ontario, Alberta and Saskatchewan) Catholic schools are fully funded as part of a separate, but also public, school system.

Read more: Australian primary private schools should be fully funded by governments - but banned from charging fees

For example, in British Columbia a tiered system allows some private schools to receive up to 50% funding from the government, while in Quebec such funding can top out at 60% .

In Ontario, where I teach, private schools receive no government funding. It should also be noted that, overall, well over 90% of all students across Canada attend public schools.

Read more: Fewer students are going to public secondary schools in Australia

In short then, Canada as a whole does not provide significant taxpayer dollars to support private schools.

In effect, the idea being put forward - that all primary private schools should be publicly funded and required to abide by certain policies, rules and accountability measures - is essentially the idea of enhancing school choice through something akin to charter schools, which have emerged in Canada and many other countries.

Charter schools in Canada

Charter schools can be best understood as a hybrid of public and private schools.

Though they vary by name and context, the idea of charter schools is to allow private educational providers the opportunity to secure public funding for their schools. In the United States, where charter schools have proliferated, charters can also be run as for-profit entities.

In Canada, only one province, Alberta, allows for charter schools to exist. These schools are fully funded by the government and as such, must abide by the rules and policies set out by the government.

Currently, there are just 13 schools operating, but recent legislation is set for them to expand. Alberta's charter schools include a school for children who are " academically gifted," an Indigenous school and a school for children learning English.

Read more: Charter schools: What you need to know about their anticipated growth in Alberta

While Canada has received its fair share of accolades in recent years - such as appearing in the top ten countries for reading, maths and science in recent PISA tests - such assertions are often based strictly on measures such as standardised testing. Nevertheless, these findings highlight strong outcomes in both educational quality and equity in a country which maintains a robust K-12 public education system.

While there are gaps and room for improvement across all levels and systems, public education remains a public good which is intended to serve the needs of all. Funding for private forms of education and the false promises of "school choices" are often misguided efforts which actually continue to drive educational inequalities and inequities.

There is no one-size-fits-all approach to educational success and no silver bullet to enacting effective educational reform. But supporting local, universal and accessible public schools still provides the best opportunity to meet the needs of all students.

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Canada doesn't fully fund its private primary schools, and Australia shouldn't either

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The former NSW education minister and now head of the UNSW Gonski Institute, Adrian Piccoli, suggested in recent days Australian governments should fully fund all non-government primary schools. In an opinion piece published by the Sydney Morning Herald, Piccoli wrote this would fix inequality - as long as non-government schools also stopped charging fees and followed the same enrolment and accountability rules as public schools.

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8 out of 10 teachers think education news is negative and demoralising. Some have even left because of it

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8 out of 10 teachers think education news is negative and demoralising. Some have even left because of it

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8 out of 10 teachers think education news is negative and demoralising. Some have even left because of it

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A survey of 268 teachers found 85% considered education news coverage to be generally negative. And 81% found it demoralising.

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One quarter of Australian 11-12 year olds don't have the literacy and numeracy skills they need

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One quarter of Australian 11-12 year olds don't have the literacy and numeracy skills they need

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Children from disadvantaged backgrounds, very remote areas, and Indigenous Australians are up to two times more likely to start school developmentally vulnerable than the national average.

In 2018, 21.7% of Australian five year olds (70,308 children) were not developmentally ready when they started school. And in Year 7, nearly 25% of students (72,419) didn't have the required numeracy and literacy skills.

Our report, Educational Opportunity in Australia 2020, is the first to examine Australia's performance against the goals set out in the Alice Springs (Mparntwe) Declaration, a national statement agreed to by Australian education ministers in 2019.

The statement aims for a quality education system for all young people, that supports them to be creative and confident individuals, successful learners and active and informed members of the community.

But our report finds students' location and family circumstances continue to play a strong role in determining outcomes from school entry to adulthood.

While this crisis in educational inequality isn't new, it's likely to get a lot worse, as COVID-19 increases levels of student vulnerability and remote learning widens gaps in achievement.

Disadvantaged children missing out as school progresses

The Alice Springs declaration sets two ambitious goals:

the Australian education system promotes excellence and equity. In part, this is about ensuring all young Australians have access to high-quality education, inclusive and free from any form of discrimination

all young Australians become confident and creative individuals, successful lifelong learners, and active and informed members of the community. This includes all children having a sense of self-worth, self-awareness and personal identity that enables them to manage their emotional, mental, cultural, spiritual and physical well-being.

The declaration was signed last year, and builds on previous ones signed in Hobart, Adelaide and Melbourne over three decades. It recognises the role education plays in preparing young people to contribute meaningfully to social, economic and cultural life.

Read more: The Melbourne Declaration on Educational Goals for Young Australians: what it is and why it needs updating

Our report uses the best available data to paint a comprehensive picture of Australia's performance against the above important goals.

It shows the gap in academic learning as well as other key areas, such as creativity and confidence, is clear from school entry and usually grows over time.

Analysis in our report tracked students' learning from when they started school in 2009 to when they were in Year 5 in 2014. It showed that in literacy and numeracy for instance, the gap between the proportion of children from the most disadvantaged and advantaged families meeting relevant standards grew from 20.6 percentage points at school entry to 27.2 percentage points in Year 5.

The report also shows too many students in the senior years of school are not developing key skills. In 2018, 27.8% of 15 year olds (88,314) didn't meet or exceed the international benchmark standards in maths, reading and science.

While some students receive the support they need to catch up to their peers, many don't.

A lot of young people are also not developing the qualities needed to confidently adapt to challenges in adulthood and contribute to their communities.

The report shows that in 2017, 28.1% (110,410) of 23 year olds were not confident in themselves or the future and 29.9% were not adaptable to change and open to new ideas. It shows 38.1% (145,056) of 23 year olds were not actively engaged in their community and 33.2% were not keeping informed about current affairs.

Additionally, many young Australians are not being well prepared and supported to find and secure meaningful employment. Overall, according to the 2016 census, nearly 30% of 24 year olds (112,695) weren't in full-time education, training or work.

Around half of all 24 year old Indigenous Australians, and one in three of the most disadvantaged Australians, were not engaged in any work or education, compared to 15% nationally.

This failure to address educational inequality reproduces and amplifies existing poverty across generations. It saps productivity, undermines social cohesion and costs governments and communities billions of dollars.

On an individual level, it hampers young people's search for secure employment and is connected to poorer health and lower quality of life.

What should we do?

There are no quick ways to fix educational inequality, but there are several key improvements that will make a difference.

Closing gaps in participation and lifting the quality of early childhood education services - particularly in disadvantaged communities where services tend to be lower quality - should be one of our highest priorities. Early childhood education is critical to giving every child the best possible start. Evidence shows preschool raises children's chances of being developmentally ready for school in key areas by around 12 percentage points.

Read more: Preschool benefits all children, but not all children get it. Here's what the government can do about that

Despite efforts through the Gonski reforms, there is still significant room to improve how Australia targets funding and support to schools with the highest level of need. We need to address the imbalance in resources between advantaged and disadvantaged Australian schools, which is the worst in the OECD.

This is not just about money, but building strong leadership and teaching capability in every school. High quality teaching is proven to be critical to improving student outcomes. We also need to support high quality use of data and assessment to tailor teaching to students' needs, provide feedback and measure progress.

Read more: How to get quality teachers in disadvantaged schools - and keep them there

Government projections show 90% of employment growth in the next four years will require education beyond school. This means we must prepare young people for an economy requiring higher levels of skill than ever. We need to rethink existing models of tertiary education to make it accessible to all students.

Addressing educational inequality is as much about what happens outside the classroom as inside. Nurturing every child's development and well-being is best achieved through a partnership between schools, families, communities and other support services.

Australia cannot afford education systems that fail so many students. That's not just in economic terms - because the cost of lost opportunity is even greater down the track - but also in human terms. We know the social and health costs of disengaging in education are significant.

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One quarter of Australian 11-12 year olds don't have the literacy and numeracy skills they need

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Children from disadvantaged backgrounds, very remote areas, and Indigenous Australians are up to two times more likely to start school developmentally vulnerable than the national average. In 2018, 21.7% of Australian five year olds (70,308 children) were not developmentally ready when they started school.

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Why is the Australian government letting universities suffer?

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Why is the Australian government letting universities suffer?

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On March 30, the federal government announced JobKeeper - a A$130 billion wage subsidy for employees to limit the economic devastation of COVID-19. Employers are eligible for the A$1,500 a fortnight payment to staff if the business' revenue had fallen over a specified period by 30% or 50%, depending on their size.

This excluded most universities. But the government soon announced the threshold for JobKeeper would be lowered to 15% for charities, giving hope to universities, which are not-for-profit organisations. That is, until the government clarified "this lower turnover decline test does not apply to universities".

And while some universities were still eligible by their calculations, the government made two other changes to JobKeeper that seemed targeted at ensuring university staff couldn't get any help from the government. This is despite Universities Australia's estimate around 21,000 jobs will be lost.

While the government has provided some help to universities in the form of its higher education relief package - which guarantees funding for domestic students already budgeted for - it won't fill the gap in revenue lost due to international students.

Read more: For most universities, there's little point to the government's COVID-19 assistance package

This will likely result in mass staff lay-offs and may risk some universities' financial viability. It will also severely curtail Australia's research capacity.

So, why has the Australian government taken successive steps specifically to exclude universities from its business continuity funding?

Research and the culture wars

Australian conservative politicians have a long history of attacking researchers.

We saw this in the Coalition's "waste watch" committee, to keep track of allegedly unnecessary spending, established by John Howard when he was opposition leader in 1986. One of the committee's prominent targets was a project to research working mothers' child rearing in Ancient Rome.

The Coalition's antagonism towards research was evident in their secret rejections in 2005, 2017 and 2018 of more than 11 grants recommended by the Australian Research Council for research in history, music, and art history. Education minister in 2018, Simon Birmingham, mocked one of the grants on Twitter.

The Coalition's attitude is also on display in attacks by some MPs on climate change research, presumably because it challenges the primacy of narrow economic interests.

But conservatives have long supported universities as institutions. Many senior Liberal politicians have multiple university degrees: Scott Morrison has an honours degree in science from UNSW; Josh Frydenberg has four degrees - one from Oxford and one from Harvard; Mathias Cormann has two; Dan Tehan, three; Marise Payne, two; Simon Birmingham, at least one; Christian Porter, four; and Greg Hunt at least three.

So in many ways, universities support conservatives' personal, material and political self interests. And yet the Coalition is undermining them by, in part, rejecting a motion moved by Labor and the Greens to extend JobKeeper to universities.

Read more: More than 70% of academics at some universities are casuals. They're losing work and are cut out of JobKeeper

Conservatives also appear to oppose universities on ideological grounds. Examples include former Prime Minister Tony Abott's criticisms of ANU for divesting from fossil fuel industries; education minister Dan Tehan's review into universities allegedly suppressing the right kind of free speech; some conservative politician's dislike of universities declining to host a Ramsay Centre celebrating Western civilisation, and failing to sufficiently celebrate Anglo-Australians' historical legacy.

This is part of what is commonly called a " cultural war" against organisations such as the CSIRO, the Bureau of Meteorology, the ABC, the creative arts, museums and other cultural institutions that don't support conservative ideology.

From elite to universal systems

There is also a structural explanation for conservative governments' antipathy to contemporary universities. This is related to universities' transition from elite to mass to universal systems of education.

These transitions were described by the distinguished US higher education scholar Martin Trow. In his important 1973 paper, Trow explained that elite, mass, and universal systems of higher education have different approaches to admission, curriculum, pedagogy, assessment and quality assurance. They also have different social roles.

He explained that participation is a privilege in elite systems, where fewer than 15% of the relevant age group enrol in higher education. Participation is an advantage in mass systems of higher education, where up to half of the relevant age group enrol in higher education. But not participating becomes a disadvantage in universal systems, where more than half participate in higher education.

Read more: Universities have gone from being a place of privilege to a competitive market. What will they be after coronavirus?

Conservative governments were happy to support elite systems of higher education. In 1959, the Liberal Menzies government greatly increased university funding. It also developed state universities into a national system by establishing the Australian Universities Commission which regulated universities' enrolments and recommended the allocation of federal funds.

Conservative governments also supported higher education's transition to a mass system from 1967. But they preferred most of this expansion to be in institutions different from universities. These Colleges of Advanced Education were funded for teaching by Menzies and subsequent governments at a much lower rate than universities, and were not funded to conduct research.

The colleges were incorporated into existing universities or formed their own universities in 1989.

A liberal strand of conservative higher education policymakers in Australia and the UK also supported the transition to universal higher education from the early 2000s. They removed government limits on university enrolments to give freer play to higher education markets and to students' interests.

This demand-driven system encouraged the expansion of universal or open access systems, as Trow later called them.

Read more: Demand-driven funding for universities is frozen. What does this mean and should the policy be restored?

But conservatives, such as former education minister Simon Birmingham, complained such policies led universities to lower standards by admitting low quality students.

As Trow also noted in 1973, the demand for higher education has importantly been social as much as economic. But conservatives complain universities offer "useless" degrees, such as in Arts, not sufficiently tied to graduate jobs.

The incumbent conservatives in Australia and the UK prefer to limit higher education to students and programs they deem worthy. They have reimposed enrolment caps in Australia and the UK.

For this strand of now-dominant conservatives, universal higher education should be like any other universal service: targeted, transactional, fee-for-service and preferably privatised.

Excluding universities from JobKeeper is another way of keeping universities in their place.

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Why is the Australian government letting universities suffer?

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On March 30, the federal government announced JobKeeper - a A$130 billion wage subsidy for employees to limit the economic devastation of COVID-19. Employers are eligible for the A$1,500 a fortnight payment to staff if the business' revenue had fallen over a specified period by 30% or 50%, depending on their size.

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In this 'job-ready' era, it's worth looking at how a US-style broader education can benefit uni students

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In this 'job-ready' era, it's worth looking at how a US-style broader education can benefit uni students

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The Job-Ready Graduates Package is nearing the end of its first full semester of implementation. Its basic premise is that the main reason the modern Australian university exists is to train the next generation in areas of economic need.

"Universities must teach Australians the skills needed to succeed in the jobs of the future," said the then federal education minister, Dan Tehan, when introducing the package. His successor, Alan Tudge, has described this task as universities' "core business".

Read more: The government's funding changes are meddling with the purpose of universities

As former University of Melbourne vice chancellor Glyn Davis has pointed out, our universities have always had a strong focus on professional vocational preparation. Yet even alongside enhanced international research rankings, Australian higher education has drifted further towards massified vocational training over the past decade (the demand-driven era). The 2020 legislation accentuated this trend, in terms of both the government's "job-ready" rhetoric and financial incentives to deter enrolment in courses deemed to lack immediate vocational focus.

This reshaping of the meaning of higher education raises significant concerns. If our universities are to retain some balance between the imperatives of education and training, perhaps the time has come to reimagine the possibilities.

One way of doing so is to consider the merits of North American-style "general education". How might it be applied in Australia's quite different system?

Contrasting models of higher education

To use very broad categorisations, Australian undergraduate education essentially follows the English (not Scottish) model. It is based on three-year discipline-specific courses that prepare graduates for employment. Comparable European systems enhance this with deeply integrated industry apprenticeships.

In contrast, the traditional North American system works on the basis of a four-year bachelor's degree. Roughly a third to a half of that comprises elective studies, before the student selects a major.

If the English/European undergraduate systems prioritise depth of specialisation, the North American system prioritises breadth. The former assumes general education is the job of secondary schooling. The latter provides advanced general education well into university. Technical professional training is provided largely at postgraduate level.

Models of general education

"Gen ed" is itself diverse, and each model has its own benefits.

Some approaches simply prioritise "breadth requirements". This ensures students deepen their experience of a range of disciplines in their first and second years. They can then choose their major in a more informed way.

Other models focus more strategically on developing transferable skills - critical thinking and problem solving, teamwork, leadership, adaptability, communication and so on. These skills are applicable across industries.

Some have a strong focus on civics and global citizenship. It is worth noting the attraction of North American gen ed for many Asian universities, including institutions in Hong Kong, Taiwan and mainland China.

Further, "core curriculums" have different emphases. Some programs have a decidedly " great books" approach focusing on intellectual and literary heritage. Others have more mission-focused curriculums such as those developed by American Catholic universities.

Of course, such models are not mutually exclusive. Aspects of each can be productively combined.

Read more: Pandemic widens gap between government and Australians' view of education

Why bother with gen ed?

Admittedly, arguments based on affordability and immediate employability contribute strongly to the case for specialised undergraduate degrees. But is the education of the average 17 or 18-year-old matriculant sufficiently broad and deep to then focus simply on career training?

Further, significant specialisation is already baked into Australian Year 11-12 schooling. This is a result of ATAR scores inevitably being prioritised in the quest for entry into professional undergraduate courses. For many students, broad education in the humanities and the natural and social sciences is heavily curtailed by the age of 14-15.

In this context, gen ed advocates point to the intrinsic, if hard to quantify, benefits of a citizenry that is highly and broadly educated and critically trained. They also cite the pragmatic benefits to both individual long-term prospects and to the economy as a whole.

Can gen ed work in Australia?

As long as the three-year undergraduate degree continues to shoulder the burden of pre-employment professional training, significant gains in this area will be difficult. Australia's most ambitious recent effort in this regard is the so-called Melbourne Model. As its framers concluded, moving unilaterally to a North American four-year undergraduate structure is currently untenable.

Read more: Monash v Melbourne Model: one size doesn't fit all

Meanwhile, professional accreditation requirements within three-year vocational degrees leave little room for elective subjects.

Nonetheless, several Australian institutions already carve out limited space for broader strategic educational goals. Examples include the core curriculum programs run by Bond (focusing on transferable skills), ACU and UNDA (focused on the Catholic intellectual tradition).

Amid the fetishisation of "job-readiness", Australian universities would do well to look at creative ways to develop a more holistic educational experience for all their students. This would contribute to the long-term benefits of broadly educated and critically skilled graduates.

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In this 'job-ready' era, it's worth looking at how a US-style broader education can benefit uni students

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The Job-Ready Graduates Package is nearing the end of its first full semester of implementation. Its basic premise is that the main reason the modern Australian university exists is to train the next generation in areas of economic need.

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'A lot of us can relate to struggling to keep on top of everything.' This is what mature-age students need from online higher education

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'A lot of us can relate to struggling to keep on top of everything.' This is what mature-age students need from online higher education

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"I completed high school 20 years ago and wanted a 'little break' before furthering my study. That 'little break' was extended as my family grew. Life happened, and I never quite found the right time to keep my promise to myself to go to uni - until now!" "This is my first teaching period in uni. I'm 36 years old. I live with my wife and two very active kids. When I'm not being a chef, cleaner and taxi driver (you know the list), I'm working as a learning support officer at our local school. I haven't written an academic essay in over 15 years!"
These are common introductions of my mature-age students. They often share their family backgrounds, nervousness, excitement and responsibilities they have to juggle as they begin their uni journey. In sharing, they "feel a sense of solidarity seeing others post about their concerns", as one student put it.

National Centre for Student Equity in Higher Education (NCSEHE)

Students in general say a critical issue in the shift to online higher education has been a lack of adequate support, interaction and engagement with academic staff and peers.

More than 430,000 students are aged 25 years and older. That's 39.1% of the total domestic higher education enrolment, and mature-age students account for 22% of first-year undergraduates.

Mature-age, online students are identified as the most vulnerable to not completing their degree. That happens to about 43% of them compared to 30% of those aged 20 to 24 and 21% for students who enrol straight out of school.

Given the inconsistent completion outcomes for mature-age students compared to younger and on-campus students, a different approach is needed. This means universities must take account of the particular needs and circumstances of mature-age students.

"I think a lot of us can relate to the idea of struggling to keep on top of everything."

Who are these students?

" Mature age" refers to adults who enter their course based on work experience or who have not studied recently. They are more likely to have responsibility for others and be in the paid workforce.

Growing numbers of students are entering fully online higher education. And students 25 years and older are more strongly represented in online studies than face-to-face studies.

A 2019 study of mature-age learners highlighted the following challenges of studying online:

uncertainty in abilities leading to a "narrative of disadvantage" and a feeling of stepping into a space where they feel they do not belong

first-year, mature-age students consider withdrawing from their studies at higher rates

enrolment in university may be rooted in previous negative educational experiences - traditionally, the status quo in higher education has not served students at the margins.

Online teaching compounds existing weaknesses

In the shift to online, many education providers are making the same mistakes by continuing with impersonal teaching methods. Students aged 25 and over rate engagement as the least satisfactory aspect of their online courses.

Active engagement tends to drop off as the teaching period progresses. (The proxy measures of "engagement" are active presence and involved participation.)

Further, education has commonly had an emphasis on subordination. Cue the "domineering teacher" portrayed by antagonist Terence Fletcher in the 2014 film Whiplash. One-way information transmission and an expectation of passive knowledge acquisition have overshadowed relationships between teaching staff and students.

The challenge, then, is to start off in a way that develops a culture of trust, collegiality, openness and contribution.

'It resonates!' Recognising experiences and skills

Mature-age students are starting online higher education with a variety of aptitudes, knowledge, opinions and values. These backgrounds affect how students engage with and construe information. The online experience should encourage connection, active participation and critical thinking.

The language of education is shifting to incorporate students as "stakeholders", "co-constructors" and "active participants". Such terms have a powerful effect.

In 1930, psychologist and educational reformer John Dewey advocated for empowering learners by honouring their lived experiences and capabilities. Reforms of the 1960s and '70s began shifting education toward autonomy, allowing for reflection, independence and flexibility. More recent geopolitical movements, driven by social media, are, once again, prompting an upturn in education that emphasises discussion, openness and independent thought.

It's essential that these themes be re-created in today's digital learning environments.

"You made me feel like I am not alone in this. I was anxious and afraid that I won't be able to keep up."

Emerging from the 2019 study of mature-age students were several key recommendations:

understand and value the circumstances and experiences of this cohort

communication and personal contact are vital

embed timely, proactive support.

In such environments, educators must be given the time to get to know their students' situations and experiences. They can then reach out to support them. In essence, Dewey argued for educators to meet learners where they are, wherever that may be.

"I have felt I was always able to contact you and receive helpful advice. It means a lot - especially for newcomers like me!"

These suggestions are in line with the findings and recommendations of the recent Macklin Review of post-secondary education and training in Victoria. Times of growth and uncertainty call for greater adaptability, empathy and innovation. This will feed into student retention, progression and ultimately an undergraduate qualification.

To government and institutions: online education, and of mature-age students in particular, must be approached differently. Education can only act as the great social equaliser if the growing cohort of mature-age students are engaged and supported to reach their academic goals.

To current and emerging mature-age learners: well done to you! You are seen and being heard.

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'A lot of us can relate to struggling to keep on top of everything.' This is what mature-age students need from online higher education

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"I completed high school 20 years ago and wanted a 'little break' before furthering my study. That 'little break' was extended as my family grew. Life happened, and I never quite found the right time to keep my promise to myself to go to uni - until now!"

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How China has been transforming international education to become a leading host of students

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How China has been transforming international education to become a leading host of students

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When Australians think of international education and China, they typically consider the country as a source of international students - Australia's largest. But China is now one of the leading host countries of international students in the world.

China's level of international education policymaking over the past decade, backed up by strategic priorities, has been unprecedented.

My recently published research shows Chinese universities are learning to reconcile the different forces of local, national and global demands. They aim to:

calibrate to the Chinese government's grand scheme of national rejuvenation

expand their global reach and market influence

enhance their professional impact and managerial efficiency

respond to the community repercussions of growing numbers of international students.

A top study destination in the making

China was on the way to becoming a top destination for studying abroad well before the COVID-19 pandemic.

By 2018, 492,185 international students from 196 countries studied in mainland China. They were enrolled in 1,004 higher education institutions.

International student numbers had doubled since 2009, when 238,184 were enrolled. Back in 1978 the total was a mere 1,236.

Read more: The rise of China: a threat or opportunity for Australian universities?

The Study in China Initiative, Liuxue zhongguo jihua, first appeared in 2010 in the National Outline for Mid- and Long-Term Education Planning and Development.

The growth of the initiative over the past decade echoes across China's laws, five-year plans, guidelines and action plans, and government decisions, opinions, regulations, notices and explanations.

2010 was a turning point

Between 2007 and 2009, the Chinese Ministry of Education had signalled against reckless pursuit of international student enrolments at the expense of quality education. This was a fleeting period of slight uncertainty for the sector.

In 2010, state policymaking re-endorsed mass international education in China. Study in China was to be built into a global education brand.

The plan specified annual enrolment targets, culminating in 500,000 students in 2020. This included 150,000 degree-seeking students. Yearly targets were set to develop exemplary sites, programs and courses for international education.

The overall goal was to make China the largest study abroad destination in Asia by the end of the decade. This was achieved in 2017-2018.

Subsequent state policies focused on legal, financial and administrative improvements. Increasing funding was made available through national, local, government and corporate scholarships and stipends for international students.

Education's place in a broader global strategy

The mid-2010s defined the orientation of international education in China. The Study in China Initiative was subsumed under the new global strategy, the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). It is a "road map" for China's higher education to step onto the world stage.

Read more: Why is there so much furore over China's Belt and Road Initiative?

Study in China is part of the core political discourse of national rejuvenation.

We can see this in the official 2019 Study in China Guide. The guide depicts the BRI as a core strength and essential knowledge about China. It powerfully demonstrates China's market aspirations and appeal to international students.

The Chinese government's Silk Road Scholarship Program sponsors 10,000 new international students a year from countries participating in the Belt and Road Initiative. Universities can apply for state funding to run a BRI talent development site for large cohorts of these students.

Research grant schemes fund studies that improve the quality of international education, while supporting BRI work in infrastructure, trade, culture and diplomacy.

The Belt and Road Initiative is central to China's rapid shift from major importer to rising exporter of international education. In 2017, 317,200 international students came from BRI countries, 64.85% of the total.

Focus shifts to quality assurance

Quality improvement was not new in the policy discourse on Study in China. However, substantive progress has been made since 2017.

Compared to its 2000 version, the 2017 Administrative Measures for the Enrolment and Development of International Students by Universities and Schools (Order 42) emphasised systematic quality enhancement in four areas:

development of relevant university regulations

rigorous assessments for admissions and scholarships

systematic planning of teaching and staff development

development of quality control mechanisms.

The 2018 Quality Assurance Standards for Higher Education of International Students is the first of its kind in China. The 2019 Quality Accreditation Rules for International Higher Education established China's first external qualification accreditation and assurance system for international education.

One quality indicator concerns the composition of international students. Degree-seeking students became the majority (52.44%) of international students in China for the first time in 2018. Their numbers had increased by more than 350% from 36,387 in 2006 to 178,271 in 2018. They include bachelor, master and doctoral students who study abroad for at least one year.

A balancing act for Chinese universities

Chinese universities have benefited from the escalating scale and influence of the Study in China Initiative.

However, my research shows they are under the stress of having to respond to multiple, often competing pressures.

An example of this is academic language and associated ideological tension. English is the dominant language in the academic world and in global trade. Most international students in Chinese universities study in English-taught programs.

But shifting political and community perceptions of the English language have stepped up internal pressures on Chinese universities. The legitimacy of English as the lingua nullius of global knowledge production is under challenge.

Read more: Beyond the black hole of global university rankings: rediscovering the true value of knowledge and ideas

Another clear policy shift encourages convergent management of domestic and international students. There is pressure to integrate international students into the regular operations of Chinese universities. The rise in international student numbers has created a need to increase managerial efficiency.

This shift is also a response to community perception. International students benefit from more flexible testing arrangements and greater access to elite universities and scholarships, compared to domestic students. International students are spared the gruelling competition of Gaokao, the national college entrance examination.

In addition, breaches of rules and regulations by international students have often gone unaddressed.

Chinese universities are having to weigh up competing considerations of state aspiration, market appeal, corporate consolidation, professional enhancement and community pressures.

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How China has been transforming international education to become a leading host of students

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When Australians think of international education and China, they typically consider the country as a source of international students - Australia's largest. But China is now one of the leading host countries of international students in the world. China's level of international education policymaking over the past decade, backed up by strategic priorities, has been unprecedented.

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When English becomes the global language of education we risk losing other - often better - ways of learning

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When English becomes the global language of education we risk losing other - often better - ways of learning

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When English becomes the global language of education we risk losing other – often better – ways of learning

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The language gap in international education is also a wealth gap that leaves too many students with limited options.

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Open access to higher education is about much more than axing ATARs

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Open access to higher education is about much more than axing ATARs

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The importance of higher education for the growth and development of society is generally accepted. But openness and access to education for all is essential to maximise its benefits. Leaders in higher education must be ready to examine what it will take to achieve this.

What do we mean by open access? Higher education should provide access for as many people as possible to reach their full potential as individuals. It is a priority in the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals because inequality is emerging as a key threat to societal development.

Openness in education depends on the democratisation of societies and, with it, the democratisation of information and knowledge. Nobel Prize-winning Indian economist Amartya Sen described development as freedom. That is, development that enhances meaningful and quality living.

In this context, openness broadly refers to flexible, fair, welcoming and unprejudiced access to higher education. Openness of access requires adherence to basic purpose values - the promotion of self-regulated life-long learning, self-determination and personal agency. Enabling citizens to realise these aspirations contributes to strengthening our democracy.

So what will it take?

Changes in mindset will be non-negotiable for open access. Removing barriers, challenging assumptions and finding innovative means to ensure access and support are important starting points.

Torrens University and Think Education, like other institutions such as ANU and Swinburne, recently announced the Australian Tertiary Admissions Rank (ATAR) will no longer be the only thing that determines students' entry into university. We now have alternative entry pathways. Systematic support and monitoring to ensure student success will be critical.

Read more: Students are more than a number: why a learner profile makes more sense than the ATAR

Higher education openness should also be understood in terms of the choice and flexibility it allows individuals. Service delivery needs to respond to personal circumstances and learning and support needs. It enables people to choose between different types or modes of access, geographical locations, synchronous (learning with others at same time) or asynchronous (learning individually in one's own time) activity - in timeframes that suit their circumstances.

This is why online or hybrid learning is essential. At Torrens University, students can choose face-to-face or online study - or both - to undertake their studies.

Importantly, online offerings must never compromise on quality. Students studying remotely must not be worse off than students learning face-to-face.

Offering choice through innovation

To help secondary students consider their options, higher education providers pulled together a series of virtual expos this year. Technology enabled these expos to reach almost 20,000 students across Australia and New Zealand. These expos showed how the higher education sectors in Australia and New Zealand can adapt, innovate and collaborate to ensure no one lacks choices.

Read more: New learning economy challenges unis to be part of reshaping lifelong education

It is important to understand that the ideas of openness and inclusive learning environments do not refer to having no norms or boundaries. Openness or open access to higher education depends on the values, ideology and practices of each institution. Equally important are regulatory and societal systems that provide the freedoms and incentives for institutions to develop complementary approaches and capacity.

In South Africa, for example, the higher education and school systems were transformed to open opportunities for all. Policies to increase participation among disadvantaged communities included financial and academic support throughout the education journey.

A set of enabling values and mechanisms will be critical. This means putting in place ideology that gives people the right and the means to participate. It involves creating an ethos that ensures every person is welcome in the education system.

A full spectrum of support services will be just as important. But why? And what will they be?

Well, while you may open up education for all, remote locations as well as lack of resources in secondary schools could be barriers. So you need arrangements in place to ensure access. Adjustments to entrance requirements and financial support might also be needed to deliver on the promise of education for all.

Read more: Poorer NSW students study subjects less likely to get them into uni

Time to come down from the ivory tower

In higher education, the institutionalised roles of knowledge creators and education providers require them to lead and support societal development through the creation of knowledge that supports innovation. This equips citizens with the social and human capital they need to prosper.

This advancement of human well-being will necessitate breaking down existing barriers between higher education and society. It requires coming down from the ivory tower where a monopoly over knowledge, knowledge creation and distribution has been institutionalised. It means reviewing entrance requirements, policies and procedures that result in exclusion.

Read more: After coronavirus, universities must collaborate with communities to support social transition

This is not to suggest it will be straightforward.

Higher education providers function in a complex and dynamic environment. Each institution will have to carefully choose the focus and scope of its activities. Institutions will have to follow up with strategies, systems and processes that open their boundaries to interaction with industry, society, decision-makers and government, while providing for individual choice and participation.

At Torrens University, Think Education and Media Design School, for example, we collaborate with industry from the outset as we build our curricula. This engagement continues throughout the student journey - through work-integrated learning, our "success coaches" and teaching staff who are industry leaders in their own right.

Openness is therefore not only a matter of access to higher education. It is an inclusive process of opening entrance opportunities, followed by a purpose-driven support environment that aims to prepare successful graduates to contribute to society.

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Open access to higher education is about much more than axing ATARs

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The importance of higher education for the growth and development of society is generally accepted. But openness and access to education for all is essential to maximise its benefits. Leaders in higher education must be ready to examine what it will take to achieve this. What do we mean by open access?

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South African universities have taken to online teaching: but it can't be permanent

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South African universities have taken to online teaching: but it can't be permanent

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Emergency remote learning shouldn't be confused with carefully crafted online curricula. GettyImages

The uptake of educational technology in South Africa's higher education sector has been highly uneven and very slow. Before the pandemic, most courses offered in South African universities had some form of Learning Management System presence. Students could access course guides and readings, upload their assignments, and possibly communicate with their lecturer and peers via forums. But beyond that, many academics seemed to resist making use of the technology, even though it could allow for greater engagement and interactive learning.

And then 2020 happened and suddenly everyone found themselves thrown into the online world. The country's higher education sector can be proud of the rapid pivot that was made as universities rushed to ensure that academics had the skills to teach online and that students had the hardware, software and data needed to learn from home. Collaborations between universities were central to the successes. Educational technologists across the sector worked tirelessly to support staff and students.

The online pivot has opened the eyes of many naysayers to the benefits of blended learning, whereby students can work at their own pace. There is much that the sector can reflect upon as universities start to return to face-to-face teaching.

But emergency remote learning shouldn't be confused with carefully crafted online curricula. Many academics and students were struggling with the technical skills of it all and had little time to consider knowledge creation. It was often a case of getting through the syllabus rather than ensuring true epistemic access - helping students to understand how each field generates knowledge.

Education inequalities are worse online

While the pandemic experience has undoubtedly hastened the uptake of educational technology in higher education, it does not point to an entirely online future. There are at least three reasons for this.

Successes were partial. While those of us working in higher education can be proud of how we've maintained our educational responsibilities in the pandemic, this was not without costs. Academics have spoken of burn-out and depression, and many students have had to endure extreme mental health issues.

Most universities have done their utmost to ensure that students stay in the system and succeed in their studies. At times this has meant cutting sections of the syllabus, offering additional assessment opportunities, and adapting the examination schedule. There is no doubt that students lost out educationally in the pandemic. Certainly, it has meant fewer opportunities for vital extra-curricular learning and peer engagement.

The digital divide is real. The extreme inequalities in South Africa and globally have been laid bare. Universities and the department of higher education and training found themselves in a financial and logistical nightmare of ensuring that all students had access to hardware and data. Negotiating with service providers for reduced data costs was time consuming. Students who rely on the residence system found themselves shouldering family responsibilities, and often working in homes that were not conducive to studying. And rural students without access to signal were truly left behind.

Most accounts of the digital divide focus on physical access. What has been overlooked are the challenges of providing epistemic access online.

Epistemic access is hard in person. Online it's even tougher. The higher education sector is not particularly good at ensuring that students do more than get through the content. But the real role of higher education is to bring students into a transformative relationship with knowledge. This entails far more than the transmission of facts.

Academics should be role-modelling the norms and values of the field and how it is that we come to read and write in such different ways in mathematics, marketing or medicine. Teaching like this helps students understand how knowledge is made and how they can contribute to it themselves.

Teaching towards epistemic access with epistemic justice is even more complex. This means trying to understand what students bring with them and what they value and hope for. It means thinking about the ways a discipline may be excluding students.

Teaching with all this in mind is a minefield. It involves deep reflection on the often taken-for-granted norms and values of the field and how to make these explicit to students. It involves being vulnerable and open to learning from students. It involves providing opportunities for students to "try on" the practices of the field in a carefully scaffolded manner, with regular feedback.

Doing this in person is immensely tough. Doing this online is at another level.

Making sense of philosophy, physics or physiology may be possible in a carefully crafted online curriculum, but taking on the disposition of a philosopher, physicist or physiologist through online engagements is of another order. Education is about so much more than taking on facts. It is about becoming a specialist kind of knower who can contribute to their field in ways that serve the public good, and who is willing to take on the responsibilities of their educational privileges alongside the personal benefits it brings.

Wikipedia offers immediate access to knowledge on almost every issue taught in universities. YouTube videos of science experiments and medical procedures abound. It's not access to knowledge that is the problem, it is access to education.

Education should change who we are and how we understand our role in the world.

Technology offers all manner of opportunities to enhance the educational experience, and we should reflect on our successes and sustain these. But taking universities entirely online is only ever going to be a stop-gap response to the pandemic. The sooner students are safely back in class the better.

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South African universities have taken to online teaching: but it can't be permanent

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The uptake of educational technology in South Africa's higher education sector has been highly uneven and very slow. Before the pandemic, most courses offered in South African universities had some form of Learning Management System presence.

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Homeschooling is on the rise in Australia. Who is doing it and why?

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Homeschooling is on the rise in Australia. Who is doing it and why?

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This is the first article in our four-part series on homeschooling in Australia. The series will answer common questions including whether homeschooled children have enough opportunities for socialisation, and how their outcomes compare with children who attend formal schooling.
Home education is a legally recognised alternative to enrolling a child in school in all Australian states and territories. Children need to be enrolled in either a school or home education from around the age of 6 until completion age (around 17 years-old). If the parent chooses home education, they must apply to the state or territory authority for permission.

In most states and territories, the parent or a hired registered teacher is responsible for the education of the child, usually at the child's home. Any parent, regardless of their educational background, is legally able to apply for, and homeschool their child.

Parents must submit a plan for their home education, which, in most cases, should show an alignment between their child's learning and the national curriculum. Parents can buy a program, but in most cases, they develop their own, in line with their philosophies of education.

Read more: Record numbers of children are now homeschooled, but who's keeping an eye on the parents?

How many Australian children are being homeschooled?

Across Australia, there are around 20,000 homeschooled students and the numbers are growing. Around 1,100 students were being homeschooled in Queensland in 2013. By 2018, this had increased to 3,232 students.

This means there are around the same number of homeschooled students in Queensland as the population of Brisbane State High School.

The numbers are rising in other states too. In New South Wales an estimated 4,700 students were enrolled in homeschool in 2017 compared to around 3,300 in 2013. Around 5,300 children were being homeschooled in Victoria in 2018, compared to 3,545 children in 2013.

These numbers may not tell the whole story as they only represent families who have registered to homeschool their child. Research suggests there may be thousands who haven't registered, and so are homeschooling their children "illegally".

Why do families choose to homeschool?

There are many reasons parents choose to educate their children at home. For some families it will be because of religious beliefs. Geography or financial reasons might stop these families from accessing a suitable private school.

Other families might be ideologically opposed to mainstream schooling and see it as an unnecessary or inappropriate intrusion into family life.

Some of the biggest growth in home education is in the "accidental" home education group. These are families for whom school was a first choice, but it did not work. There are many reasons school may not have worked, but often it's down to special educational need. These families would traditionally have moved their children around between schools but are now homeschooling instead.

Studies suggest families who take their children out of school, when they have a special need, and homeschool are more satisfied with their child's education than when they were in traditional school.

Read more: School is not always a safe place for students with disability - this has to change

The rise in homeschooling also appears to have links to worldwide changes in education. Many parents see schools as failing their children including for cultural reasons, and believe homeschooling is a suitable alternative. Some families feel schools are not meeting their primary objectives of education and (healthy) socialisation for their children.

What about assessments?

After a period of time (in Queensland, for instance, it's ten months) parents report to their state or territory's education department on their homeschooled child's progress. The reporting requirements differ across states and territories.

For some states, such as NSW and WA, the report is delivered to a person who visits the family. For others, such as Queensland, the parent writes the report and sends it to the department.

Unlike traditional schools, parents don't usually "assess" their child's learning through exams or assignments. The reports must show progress in key areas. Some homeschooled students might choose to participate in NAPLAN testing while others won't do any testing at all.

Homeschooled students can choose to go for an ATAR and do a school-based apprenticeship or traineeship, even though they don't do assessment.

Is it the same as distance education?

Some parents may like the idea of home education but feel they want a more school-like experience. They may choose to enrol their children in distance education.

While it's also conducted at home, distance education is not home education and the enrolment counts as a "school". Because it's technically a school, distance education students are not counted among home education numbers.

The differences are many. Home education is conducted by the parent, but distance education is a school program delivered by teachers at home frequently using the internet. It is also usually delivered to a group of children, rather than a family.

There are private and public distance education schools. Some states, such as New South Wales, limit the enrolment to students who are geographically isolated or may be experiencing a special need that stops them from going to school. In others, such as Queensland, any child can enrol in a distance education school.

What about outcomes?

The volume and quality of the research on outcomes for children in home schooling is limited. In Australia, studies have focused on NAPLAN results. These suggest home-educated students score higher than state averages across every measure. The effect continues even if the child returns to school.

These children may be doing well because they receive one-on-one attention. Or it could be because the child's learning is personalised and the child has agency over their learning.

Read more: Evidence of home schooling success erased from inquiry report

Studies from the US, where there is far more data, suggest home-educated students enjoy benefits in reading, language, maths, science and social studies. And many families there cite dissatisfaction with schools' achievements as a reason to home educate. There is no difference between home education in the USA and Australia.

The rise in numbers poses issues for education departments and government authorities charged with managing the practise. They may not be set up to deal with large, and increasing, numbers of registrations. For most departments of education, the numbers of families choosing home education has traditionally been low.

In addition, authorities may be unable to police those families who choose not to register.

The increasing choice of home education is an issue that should be on the radar of every state and territory education authority.

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Homeschooling is on the rise in Australia. Who is doing it and why?

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This is the first article in our four-part series on homeschooling in Australia. The series will answer common questions including whether homeschooled children have enough opportunities for socialisation, and how their outcomes compare with children who attend formal schooling. Home education is a legally recognised alternative to enrolling a child in school in all Australian states and territories.

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'Insulting' and 'degrading': budget funding for childcare may help families but educators are still being paid pennies

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'Insulting' and 'degrading': budget funding for childcare may help families but educators are still being paid pennies

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The government has committed an additional A$1.7 billion over five years to reduce the cost of childcare for around 250,000 families with more than one child. Another $1.6 billion is going into ensuring each four-year-old child gets 15 hours of preschool a week.

But these budget announcements, framed in part as being a boost for women's participation in the workforce, hold no good news for the early childhood workforce - 95% of whom are women.

The increase in families using early childhood education and care relies on the stability of the workforce. At the moment, however, an increasing number of educators are leaving the profession due to low pay, feeling undervalued and too much time spent on paperwork.

Problems for early childhood educators

More than 150,000 educators and teachers work in the early childhood education and care sector. Most of the sector's workforce are certificate III and diploma qualified educators, but an increasing proportion are degree-trained teachers.

In 2019, workforce projections for the five years to May 2024 suggested the sector would need an additional 30,000 educators (a 20% increase) and 7,000 teachers (a 16% increase).

These projections do not take account the impact of COVID-19 and may not reflect the current conditions. The beginning of the pandemic - when parents started taking their children out of early childhood education - saw an exodus of educators. This was especially the case for casuals who weren't eligible for JobKeeper.

Prior to the pandemic, the sector suffered from a turnover rate of up to 30% per year. This is compared to an average turnover of around 18% in the general workforce.

Read more: Early childhood educators are leaving in droves. Here are 3 ways to keep them, and attract more

The majority of early childhood educators earn less than the national average of $1,460 per week. The average annual salary for an educator is $49,556 per year.

Our research with more than 70 Australian early childhood educators found 60% feel emotional exhaustion at least once a month, and 20% at least once a week.

We also found the rates of physical injuries, including stress on the body and falls and slips, were higher among early childhood educators than the national average.

Psychologically and physically unhealthy work environments, and a lack of policy support, play a key role in why childcare educators are leaving the sector.

What we need to do

These are all not new problems.

But responses to our recent online survey show the additional pressures of COVID-19 have pushed the early childhood workforce to breaking point. One participant wrote:

Being deemed essential during COVID, yet completely dismissed in terms of our own needs has been incredibly demeaning. The fact that this country relies on childcare to keep everyone working, yet doing nothing to keep educators safe or financially compensated has been insulting and degrading [...] This is a systemic problem and it is wearing us down.

Another said:

The well-being of early childhood educators during the COVID crisis didn't even reach the lowest rung on the priority ladder. It highlighted for me how undervalued we are in society and has been an integral factor in my decision to leave the sector.

The International Labour Organization, which brings together governments, workers and employers to set labour standards, notes early childhood educators are central to realising universal provision of quality childhood education and care.

Making the early childhood workforce strong and sustainable must be seen as essential to the national interest.

Workforce well-being is one of the focus areas of the proposed early childhood education and care National Workforce Strategy. But the strategy only stresses increased supports once educators' well-being is compromised, rather than helping to prevent it.

The strategy recognises service providers and management have clear responsibilities for educators' well-being. But this also means every organisation must adhere to a consistent set of accountability measures.

To ensure all early childhood education workplaces support educators' well-being, specific standards could be included in our existing National Quality Framework for early childhood education and care. The quality of childcare centres themselves have improved due to having to meet certain standards in the framework. Educators' well-being can be included as part of this overall quality.

Read more: One-third of all preschool centres could be without a trained teacher in four years, if we do nothing

Making the work environment safer might also decrease the alarmingly high rates of injury in the sector. This could lead to lower workers' compensation premiums for businesses.

Schemes could be established so savings are shared between employers and employees in the form of increased wages. At the end of the day, early childhood education is a public good, so governments need to play a bigger role in finding solutions to these problems.

Implementing policy options such as these might mean cracks that are getting deeper might mend instead of completely giving way. If we really care about investing in the quality of early childhood education, we also need to invest in those who do the educating and caring.

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'Insulting' and 'degrading': budget funding for childcare may help families but educators are still being paid pennies

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The government has committed an additional A$1.7 billion over five years to reduce the cost of childcare for around 250,000 families with more than one child. Another $1.6 billion is going into ensuring each four-year-old child gets 15 hours of preschool a week.

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How flexischools could help close the gap in Indigenous education

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How flexischools could help close the gap in Indigenous education

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This year marked the tenth year of the Australian government reporting on targets made to close the educational gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australian students. The report card showed some slow gains, but overall it was another national wake-up call. New policy approaches are needed to improve educational outcomes for Indigenous peoples.

One aspect of education that has been overlooked in Indigenous education policy over the past decade is the growth of "flexischools" around the country.

Read more: Flexischools have a lot to teach mainstream schools

Flexischools support young people who have been excluded (formally through expulsion or otherwise) from mainstream education to re-engage with education. With the recent reminder there's still a long way to go in improving educational outcomes for Indigenous young people, it's timely to look at what's happening in flexischools. We need to consider what role they play in closing the educational gap and why they have been overlooked.

Why look for gaps?

Policy approaches to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander education in Australia remain focused on the "closing the gap" rhetoric from the government. To some, this means Indigenous education policy is framed around measuring educational success against non-Indigenous metrics.

The logic of much of this policy is flawed from the outset. Classroom education research has identified a wide range of factors outside schools that have impacts on educational outcomes.

Social, cultural and economic capital (or lack thereof) means Indigenous students are expected to overcome hundreds of years of entrenched systemic racism and disadvantage, attributed to colonisation, with limited changes to the schooling system.

AAP/Mick Tsikas

There is a need to look more closely and critically at aspects of Indigenous education that have been relatively ignored. This may help answer crucial questions about how to improve the system.

Flexischools and Indigenous young people

The term flexischools describes a myriad of educational programs or school sites operating outside mainstream education. There are two defined types of flexischools. One focuses on changing the young person to meet the needs of system. The other involves changing the system to meet the needs of the young person, in the short or long term.

The flexischools at the heart of this article are aimed at changing educational provision to meet the needs of young people. These sites appear to be engaging very high numbers of Indigenous young people.

Recent estimates indicate about 35% of students attending flexischools are Indigenous. This is high when considering Indigenous students represented 5.6% of all school students in 2017.

What we know and what we need to know

Policymakers could look at this large proportion of Indigenous flexischool students to help understand why they are pushed out of mainstream schooling, what they want to get out of education and, potentially, "what works".

There have been limited studies on Indigenous students in flexischools. One small study found evidence of high numbers of both Indigenous students and staff working in them.

A recent study on the voices of Indigenous staff reported Indigenous people are choosing flexischools as a desirable place to work in education because of the focus on relationships.

Read more: Stop focusing on 'the problem' in Indigenous education, and start looking at learning opportunities

There is no national published data on exactly how many Indigenous young people are enrolled in flexischools. There is no published data on whether flexischools participate in NAPLAN testing. There is no published data on the number of year 12 completions. There are no large-scale studies that investigate the short-term and long-term outcomes for Indigenous students.

Author provided, Author provided

The general absence of flexischools in policy aimed at closing the gap is problematic because significant numbers of Indigenous young people attend them. But transparency and accountability are very limited in a number of ways.

The lack of data for flexischools skews closing the gap data, because the same data are not being collected for the large proportion of Indigenous students in flexischools. This means we don't have a full picture of where all Indigenous young people are in terms of literacy and numeracy.

We need to understand how flexischools ensure Indigenous people are in positions of leadership when there are high numbers of Indigenous young people in these schools. Having Indigenous leadership and governance is vital for accountability to the growing numbers of Indigenous peoples and communities interacting with these schools.

Having Indigenous teachers and leaders in schools is important because Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students "cannot be what they cannot see".

We need to understand why the work being done in flexischools isn't being done by mainstream schools. The latter receive additional funding for Indigenous students, yet some Indigenous students are still being pushed out of the mainstream.

Lessons to be learned

While more research may be needed on the academic outcomes of students who attend flexischools, research is finding they are successful in attracting, welcoming and supporting youth who, voluntarily or under duress, have left mainstream schools.

Flexibility, a focus on relationships and an inquiry-led curriculum seem more conducive to keeping young Indigenous and non-Indigenous people engaged. Flexischools generally focus on acceptance rather than discipline, and social justice over regimented learning.

Read more: Infographic: Are we making progress on Indigenous education?

If flexischools are doing Indigenous education better than mainstream schools, we should invest in researching how they work. We should also ask them to track outcomes the same way mainstream schools do. We need more accurate (and inclusive) data when looking at whether the educational gap is closing to give us the whole picture.

In the long term, though, we should aspire for there to be no need for flexischools. We should aim for all schools in Australia to provide high-quality education to all Australian students, including Indigenous young people.

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How flexischools could help close the gap in Indigenous education

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This year marked the tenth year of the Australian government reporting on targets made to close the educational gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australian students. The report card showed some slow gains, but overall it was another national wake-up call. New policy approaches are needed to improve educational outcomes for Indigenous peoples.

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What's the point of education? It's no longer just about getting a job

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What's the point of education? It's no longer just about getting a job

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For much of human history, education has served an important purpose, ensuring we have the tools to survive. People need jobs to eat and to have jobs, they need to learn how to work.

Education has been an essential part of every society. But our world is changing and we're being forced to change with it. So what is the point of education today?

The ancient Greek model

Some of our oldest accounts of education come from Ancient Greece. In many ways the Greeks modelled a form of education that would endure for thousands of years. It was an incredibly focused system designed for developing statesmen, soldiers and well-informed citizens.

Most boys would have gone to a learning environment similar to a school, although this would have been a place to learn basic literacy until adolescence. At this point, a child would embark on one of two career paths: apprentice or "citizen".

On the apprentice path, the child would be put under the informal wing of an adult who would teach them a craft. This might be farming, potting or smithing - any career that required training or physical labour.

Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA

The path of the full citizen was one of intellectual development. Boys on the path to more academic careers would have private tutors who would foster their knowledge of arts and sciences, as well as develop their thinking skills.

The private tutor-student model of learning would endure for many hundreds of years after this. All male children were expected to go to state-sponsored places called gymnasiums ("school for naked exercise") with those on a military-citizen career path training in martial arts.

Those on vocational pathways would be strongly encouraged to exercise too, but their training would be simply for good health.

Read more: Guide to the classics: Homer's Iliad

Until this point, there had been little in the way of education for women, the poor and slaves. Women made up half of the population, the poor made up 90% of citizens, and slaves outnumbered citizens 10 or 20 times over.

These marginalised groups would have undergone some education but likely only physical - strong bodies were important for childbearing and manual labour. So, we can safely say education in civilisations like Ancient Greece or Rome was only for rich men.

While we've taken a lot from this model, and evolved along the way, we live in a peaceful time compared to the Greeks. So what is it that we want from education today?

We learn to work - the 'pragmatic purpose'

Today we largely view education as being there to give us knowledge of our place in the world, and the skills to work in it. This view is underpinned by a specific philosophical framework known as pragmatism. Philosopher Charles Peirce - sometimes known as the "father of pragmatism" - developed this theory in the late 1800s.

There has been a long history of philosophies of knowledge and understanding (also known as epistemology). Many early philosophies were based on the idea of an objective, universal truth. For example, the ancient Greeks believed the world was made of only five elements: earth, water, fire, air and aether.

Read more: Where to start reading philosophy?

Peirce, on the other hand, was concerned with understanding the world as a dynamic place. He viewed all knowledge as fallible. He argued we should reject any ideas about an inherent humanity or metaphysical reality.

Pragmatism sees any concept - belief, science, language, people - as mere components in a set of real-world problems.

In other words, we should believe only what helps us learn about the world and require reasonable justification for our actions. A person might think a ceremony is sacred or has spiritual significance, but the pragmatist would ask: "What effects does this have on the world?"

Education has always served a pragmatic purpose. It is a tool to be used to bring about a specific outcome (or set of outcomes). For the most part, this purpose is economic.

Why go to school? So you can get a job.

Education benefits you personally because you get to have a job, and it benefits society because you contribute to the overall productivity of the country, as well as paying taxes.

But for the economics-based pragmatist, not everyone needs to have the same access to educational opportunities. Societies generally need more farmers than lawyers, or more labourers than politicians, so it's not important everyone goes to university.

You can, of course, have a pragmatic purpose in solving injustice or creating equality or protecting the environment - but most of these are of secondary importance to making sure we have a strong workforce.

Pragmatism, as a concept, isn't too difficult to understand, but thinking pragmatically can be tricky. It's challenging to imagine external perspectives, particularly on problems we deal with ourselves.

How to problem-solve (especially when we are part of the problem) is the purpose of a variant of pragmatism called instrumentalism.

Contemporary society and education

In the early part of the 20th century, John Dewey (a pragmatist philosopher) created a new educational framework. Dewey didn't believe education was to serve an economic goal. Instead, Dewey argued education should serve an intrinsic purpose: education was a good in itself and children became fully developed as people because of it.

Much of the philosophy of the preceding century - as in the works of Kant, Hegel and Mill - was focused on the duties a person had to themselves and their society. The onus of learning, and fulfilling a citizen's moral and legal obligations, was on the citizens themselves.

Read more: Explainer: what is inquiry-based learning and how does it help prepare children for the real world?

But in his most famous work, Democracy and Education, Dewey argued our development and citizenship depended on our social environment. This meant a society was responsible for fostering the mental attitudes it wished to see in its citizens.

Dewey's view was that learning doesn't just occur with textbooks and timetables. He believed learning happens through interactions with parents, teachers and peers. Learning happens when we talk about movies and discuss our ideas, or when we feel bad for succumbing to peer pressure and reflect on our moral failure.

Photo by Alexander Dummer on Unsplash

Learning would still help people get jobs, but this was an incidental outcome in the development of a child's personhood. So the pragmatic outcome of schools would be to fully develop citizens.

Today's educational environment is somewhat mixed. One of the two goals of the 2008 Melbourne Declaration on Educational Goals for Young Australians is that:

All young Australians become successful learners, confident and creative individuals, and active and informed citizens.

But the Australian Department of Education believes:

By lifting outcomes, the government helps to secure Australia's economic and social prosperity.

A charitable reading of this is that we still have the economic goal as the pragmatic outcome, but we also want our children to have engaging and meaningful careers. We don't just want them to work for money but to enjoy what they do. We want them to be fulfilled.

Read more: The Melbourne Declaration on Educational Goals for Young Australians: what it is and why it needs updating

And this means the educational philosophy of Dewey is becoming more important for contemporary society.

Part of being pragmatic is recognising facts and changes in circumstance. Generally, these facts indicate we should change the way we do things.

On a personal scale, that might be recognising we have poor nutrition and may have to change our diet. On a wider scale, it might require us to recognise our conception of the world is incorrect, that the Earth is round instead of flat.

When this change occurs on a huge scale, it's called a paradigm shift.

The paradigm shift

Our world may not be as clean-cut as we previously thought. We may choose to be vegetarian to lessen our impact on the environment. But this means we buy quinoa sourced from countries where people can no longer afford to buy a staple, because it's become a "superfood" in Western kitchens.

If you're a fan of the show The Good Place, you may remember how this is the exact reason the points system in the afterlife is broken - because life is too complicated for any person to have the perfect score of being good.

All of this is not only confronting to us in a moral sense but also seems to demand we fundamentally alter the way we consume goods.

And climate change is forcing us to reassess how we have lived on this planet for the last hundred years, because it's clear that way of life isn't sustainable.

Contemporary ethicist Peter Singer has argued that, given the current political climate, we would only be capable of radically altering our collective behaviour when there has been a massive disruption to our way of life.

If a supply chain is broken by a climate-change-induced disaster, there is no choice but to deal with the new reality. But we shouldn't be waiting for a disaster to kick us into gear.

Making changes includes seeing ourselves as citizens not only of a community or a country, but also of the world.

Read more: Students striking for climate action are showing the exact skills employers look for

As US philosopher Martha Nussbaum argues, many issues need international cooperation to address. Trade, environment, law and conflict require creative thinking and pragmatism, and we need a different focus in our education systems to bring these about.

Education needs to focus on developing the personhood of children, as well as their capability to engage as citizens (even if current political leaders disagree).

If you're taking a certain subject at school or university, have you ever been asked: "But how will that get you a job?" If so, the questioner sees economic goals as the most important outcomes for education.

They're not necessarily wrong, but it's also clear that jobs are no longer the only (or most important) reason we learn.
Read the essay on what universities must do to survive disruption and remain relevant.

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What's the point of education? It's no longer just about getting a job

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For much of human history, education has served an important purpose, ensuring we have the tools to survive. People need jobs to eat and to have jobs, they need to learn how to work. Education has been an essential part of every society. But our world is changing and we're being forced to change with it.

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India's impressive new education policy could create opportunities for Australian universities and young people

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India's impressive new education policy could create opportunities for Australian universities and young people

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In recent days, the Indian government approved a new education policy - the first for 34 years. The policy comes after an expert group produced a draft report last year.

Read more: India is reforming education for the first time since 1986 - here's why Australia should care

What's in the policy?

The National Education Policy (NEP) is an impressive document. It would help deliver a school curricula that's more flexible and multidisciplinary, and less exam-focused.

It is also ambitious: the Indian government plans to have 50% of 18-21 year olds enrolled in university by 2030, an almost doubling of enrolment in ten years.

Among many notable features, the report focuses on universities as sites for holistic student development; calls for multidisciplinary approaches that combine physical, emotional, moral, social, intellectual and aesthetic learning; and seeks to break down the distinction between "curricular" and "extra-curricular" activities, for example via internships and community-related work.

"Service" is a key theme running through the document. Drawing on historical examples of India's contributions to university development, the report calls for a new focus on universities as sites in which faculty and students serve their local and regional communities to help fulfil the public mission of universities. As the National Education Policy notes on page 33:

The purpose of quality higher education is, therefore, more than the creation of greater opportunities for individual employment. It represents the key to more vibrant, socially engaged, cooperative communities and a happier, cohesive, cultured, productive, innovative, progressive, and prosperous nation.

Building on this vision, the National Education Policy sets out a series of sweeping changes to university education in the country. These include:

establishing a single national regulatory body to oversee all aspects of university functioning

setting up a National Research Foundation

introducing four-year multidisciplinary degrees with multiple exit options (after one, two, three or four years)

encouraging internationalisation, for example through allowing foreign universities to operate in India

developing a set of elite multidisciplinary universities geared towards achieving the standing of Ivy League institutions in the US. The National Education Policy sees India as becoming a "world teacher" ( vishwa guru).

Will it work?

There are many issues to think through in relation to implementation. For example, it is not wholly clear how the National Education Policy's move to introduce a new national test for university sits alongside the emphasis on moving away from exams. Moreover, the process through which universities that currently work in specialist areas transition to become fully multidisciplinary institutions may be difficult.

The National Education Policy will require careful negotiation with state governments, who share responsibility for education, as well as consideration of how to ensure the benefits of educational change occur in all regions of India and benefit communities underrepresented in higher education.

Read more: India Tomorrow part 6: what young Indians want

But these comments must be read in context: the National Education Policy navigates numerous complexities quite effectively and contains a wealth of important ideas.

What does it mean for Australia?

The policy allows for universities in the top 100 in the world to set up in India. Ultimately, this might encourage some Australian universities to start facilities in India. But this change will require the passing of a new law, and foreign universities are unlikely to build new facilities in India in the short term.

What is more likely in the short and medium term is that Australian universities will use the National Education Policy and its emphasis on internationalisation and flexibility as an opportunity to enhance collaboration in specific areas such as:

the co-development of new subjects and programs

the collaborative design of open and distance learning products and facilities, such as virtual classrooms

greater joint PhD supervision between Indian and Australian researchers

the development of post-doctoral research opportunities that bridge both countries building on the example of the New Generation Network developed by the Australia India Institute

greater research collaboration on areas of mutual interest, for example in relation to water, health, education, energy, information technology, and the successful implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals

greater reflection between Australian and Indian higher educational institutions on how universities engage with industry, government and the community

building on the principle of India as a " vishwa guru ", efforts by Australian educator and administrators to examine what can be learnt from India's history of education.

Such collaboration could improve the quality, diversity and relevance of university education and research in India and Australia. It could widen understanding within both countries of the contributions of the other globally.

It could also help both countries reflect on the role of universities in the 2020s and beyond, a theme woven through the National Education Policy and now deserves much greater global discussion.

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India's impressive new education policy could create opportunities for Australian universities and young people

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In recent days, the Indian government approved a new education policy - the first for 34 years. The policy comes after an expert group produced a draft report last year. Read more: India is reforming education for the first time since 1986 - here's why Australia should care The National Education Policy (NEP) is an impressive document.

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For the first time, Closing the Gap has a higher education target - here's how to achieve it

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For the first time, Closing the Gap has a higher education target - here's how to achieve it

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The new National Agreement on Closing the Gap has a higher education target for the first time.

It's also the first time an agreement between governments on Indigenous issues was negotiated and signed by Indigenous Australians. The Coalition of Aboriginal Peak Organisations represented Indigenous Australians.

Read more: We have 16 new Closing the Gap targets. Will governments now do what's needed to meet them?

Endorsed by the National Cabinet on July 30 this year, the ten-year agreement replaces the 2008 National Indigenous Reform Agreement.

To reach the higher education target, universities and vocational education providers must overcome the educational and social barriers Indigenous students face. Higher education providers can also have an impact on all the agreement's target areas as well as the reform agenda set out in the agreement.

What is the target?

The higher education target is for 70% of Indigenous Australians between 25 and 34 years of age to have a tertiary qualification by 2031.

In 2016, 42.3% of Indigenous Australians in this age group had tertiary qualifications at the target's required level. The proportion had more than doubled from 18.9% in 2001. By contrast, however, 72% of non-Indigenous Australians had such qualifications in 2016.

The target includes all university qualifications and those in vocational education above Certificate III level. Tertiary qualifications at these levels prepare Indigenous Australians for jobs.

Helping students take the next step

Year 12 completions are one factor with an impact on tertiary outcomes. It is encouraging to see growing numbers of Indigenous students completing high school. In 2020 this target was on track.

However, schools need to ensure Indigenous students who complete Year 12 are academically equipped for further university education and/or vocational training. More focus is needed on educational attainment in schools. Options for Indigenous students can also be broadened, including stronger pathways in secondary school mathematics and science.

Many Indigenous students are the first in their family to enter higher education. To support their journey, universities and vocational education providers need to develop long-term relationships with schools and Indigenous communities.

Read more: After coronavirus, universities must collaborate with communities to support social transition

What higher education providers can do

Indigenous university enrolments continue to grow. In fact, Indigenous enrolments increased by about 100% over the decade from 1996.

Source: AIHW analysis of Department of Higher Education Statistics Collection, Author provided

However, Indigenous attrition rates continue to be high. This is a key issue that demands attention.

Source: AIHW analysis of Department of Higher Education Statistics Collection, Author provided

A number of things can be done to improve university completions and lower attrition rates. Targeted education support is sometimes needed for Indigenous students who have gaps in their earlier education. Universities should also continue to provide appropriate social and cultural support.

The university sector has already taken some important steps to address these issues. It's important to maintain the momentum for reform, particularly while we respond to the challenges posed by COVID-19.

Indigenous students are enrolled in vocational education at a higher rate than their non-Indigenous peers. However, enrolments tend to drop off significantly above Certificate III level. There is, however, some evidence this pattern is changing.

Educational strategies to improve literacy and numeracy will improve progression to higher levels of vocational education. Strong regional links between employers and vocational education will help ensure training lines up with jobs.

Leading change in other ways

Higher education providers also can contribute across all priorities in the Closing the Gap agenda. The new agreement has 16 targets. The targets cover: health, early childhood and child protection, education, housing, employment, community safety, language and land.

Higher education providers can better equip all their students to engage with these priorities over their professional lives. Embedding Indigenous knowledge in curricula is a key to this. So too is research undertaken to investigate Indigenous disadvantage and identify strategies to improve the quality and impact of Indigenous services.

Read more: How a university can embed Indigenous knowledge into the curriculum and why it matters

The agreement has a particular focus on Indigenous-led initiatives.

An important reform is shared decision-making between governments and Indigenous Australians. The agreement also outlines reforms to strengthen the Indigenous community-controlled services sector. Finally, there is a focus on Indigenous-led evaluation and data management.

To that end, it is important that universities and vocational education providers think about how they can lead change. They should consider how they invest in Indigenous leaders within the sector. They should also consider the quality of the Indigenous partnerships they develop.

The National Agreement on Closing the Gap presents some new challenges for higher education providers. The first is to focus on improving educational outcomes for Indigenous Australians. However, these providers have a broader contribution to make; their role in producing the knowledge and workforce for change is equally important.

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For the first time, Closing the Gap has a higher education target - here's how to achieve it

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The new National Agreement on Closing the Gap has a higher education target for the first time. It's also the first time an agreement between governments on Indigenous issues was negotiated and signed by Indigenous Australians. The Coalition of Aboriginal Peak Organisations represented Indigenous Australians. Read more: We have 16 new Closing the Gap targets.

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Education in Afghanistan was a battlefield long before the Taliban returned

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Education in Afghanistan was a battlefield long before the Taliban returned

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In the two decades that followed the fall of the Taliban regime in 2001, significant progress was made in education in Afghanistan. By 2017, the number of schools had more than quintupled. School enrolment, from grades one to twelve, had reached 9.2 million pupils, 39% of whom were girls. This represented almost a tenfold rise in enrolment, up from just under one million children (almost none of whom were girls) in 2001.

The recent return of the Taliban has therefore raised serious concerns about the future of education - girls in particular. But to understand the prospects, you first have to understand what has come before.

In 2016, we conducted a small-scale study to examine how violent campaigns carried out by the Islamic State (IS) had affected education in Afghanistan. The defeat of IS in Syria and Iraq had pushed Islamist fighters to seek sanctuary in poorly governed regions of Afghanistan.

We interviewed dozens of educators, politicians and teachers in Kabul and Jalalabad, the provincial centre of Nangahar province, which is to the east of the capital. We wanted to understand how these complex security dynamics were affecting education.

We found that Afghanistan's schools were caught between deteriorating security conditions, weak governance and systemic corruption. Rebel groups, including IS and the Taliban, were capturing schools and educational spaces to extort resources and radicalise young people. This was happening throughout the vast rural areas that remained largely under the control of the Taliban, at the same time as the US-supported government was in power in Kabul.

These rebel groups were indoctrinating students into hating both the west and the Afghan government institutions on the grounds that they promoted western values by repressing Islam and Afghan cultural identity. They also encouraged young people to carry out attacks on the US-led coalition forces.

Education can fuel conflict

National governments and international communities supporting education in conflict-affected contexts generally view it as a vehicle for peace and sustainable prosperity. Education is indeed a means of empowering learners. It creates new visions and employment opportunities to help students secure a stable livelihood.

This, however, is a slow process. And education systems are rarely neutral. For education to lead to social change, long-term political commitment is crucial.

Without ensuring equity in access and outcomes, along with conflict-sensitive planning and delivery, increased access to schools alone cannot promote peace and social justice. On the contrary, as research has shown, education can be used to create and fuel conditions of violent conflict.

It does so by hardening socioeconomic inequalities, and promoting values and ideas that are perceived to be repressive and a threat to local ethnic, religious and cultural groups. Imported models of education are seen to be imposed on these groups.

Several factors play into the ways in which education can fuel conflict. These include unequal access to education; biased history being promoted for political purposes; textbooks being manipulated; and hatred against certain groups being encouraged. All of these issues have contributed to Afghanistan's educational development.

The urban-rural divide

While school enrolment - and university attendance - has increased in Afghanistan over the last two decades, educational progress has largely been concentrated in urban areas. This meant that even as urban populations were able to use education as a ticket out, rural communities were left open to attacks from the Taliban and IS.

Despite the developments in education, few inroads were made into mending divisions between the Pashtun-dominated Taliban and different minority ethnic communities such as Hazaras, Tajiks and Uzbeks, who have long faced persecution. Education could have been a significant tool for national reconciliation through recognition of ethnic, religious and linguistic diversity.

For the duration of the western military presence in Afghanistan, the Kabul government clashed with conservative forces, criminal groups and local warlords, including the Taliban, over control of the education system, resources and the curriculum to girls' education.

Key education appointments were repeatedly made not on the basis of merit, but to consolidate power and influence in the provinces. There have been reports of widespread corruption across the school sector. Consequently, large amounts of education funding served the personal interests of the political elites rather than benefiting most deprived Afghan communities.

The Taliban's return to power and the departure of western forces has put an end to the radical political discourse that has served these militant groups for 20 years, in the sense that the Taliban have justified their struggle as resistance to western occupation.

Nevertheless, the three problems we identified in our research - insecurity, corruption and weak governance - will continue to be major barriers for Afghan children in accessing education. Even though the Taliban have expressed a commitment to education for girls and to employment rights for women, it remains to be seen whether their ideology has really changed. Only time will tell whether education policies and content in the new Taliban era will promote ethnic and religious tolerance, cultural diversity and global citizenship.

The safety of learners and their schools will also depend on how the Taliban govern the country and the new conflict dynamics, involving ethnic groups and ISIS-K, an extremist group that refutes the Taliban's supposedly moderate political ideology.

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Education in Afghanistan was a battlefield long before the Taliban returned

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In the two decades that followed the fall of the Taliban regime in 2001, significant progress was made in education in Afghanistan. By 2017, the number of schools had more than quintupled. School enrolment, from grades one to twelve, had reached 9.2 million pupils, 39% of whom were girls.

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Local, face-to-face support offers a lifeline for uni students in regional and remote Australia

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Local, face-to-face support offers a lifeline for uni students in regional and remote Australia

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For university students living out of reach of a campus and studying online, the growing presence of Regional University Centres is proving to be a lifeline in times of COVID-19. An early evaluation shows these centres in regional and remote Australia are highly effective in supporting students who have been historically under-represented at university and are at high risk of not completing courses. As one student said:

"I probably would not have persisted with the course if I had not seen [their centre's learning skills adviser] to help me."

Managed locally by indepedent, not-for-profit boards formed from community members, the number of centres has grown to 26 around the country. These centres collaborate with universities to offer face-to-face learning communities for students in regional and remote areas. Within each centre are quiet study spaces, computers, internet, study support and the company of peers.

Read more: We can put city and country people on more equal footing at uni - the pandemic has shown us how

Why are these centres needed?

People in regional and remote Australia are about half as likely as those living in major cities to have a university qualification. This educational divide starts early, with high school students from these areas being about 30% less likely on average to complete year 12 than their city-based peers.

Yet research indicates this is not because these young people don't want to go to university. Both the cost and the physical and emotional disruption of leaving home are the key barriers for students and their families.

The pandemic has led to a greater appreciation and expansion of online learning. It has given more regional and remote students of all ages the flexibility to stay and study within their local communities. Studying regionally is also more likely to lead to regional work, which boosts the local economy.

Read more: Why regional universities and communities need targeted help to ride out the coronavirus storm

The shift to online learning has thrust the challenges of online study into the spotlight. Until recently only a minority experienced these challenges. Now there is more awareness of the need to improve support for online students, including those outside major cities.

The challenges of online learning include technology and internet connectivity problems, which are more likely in regional and remote Australia. Isolation from teachers and other students can be another barrier.

Regional University Centres are helping students to overcome these challenges. At each of the centres, they can study, link up with other students, have access to high-speed internet and information technology and get help with their study skills.

Of the 26 centres across Australia, 13 are operating within the Country Universities Centre (CUC) network. A student at one these centres said:

"I have unreliable internet as I live 20km from town. Having access to CUC has helped so much. I am more motivated to continue with my studies because I love going there."

Read more: Will Australia's digital divide - fast for the city, slow in the country - ever be bridged?

Early evaluations show centres are effective

The number of Regional University Centres has steadily increased around the country since 2018. This growth has been fuelled by community willpower and funded by a combination of governments and local industry. Early evidence from CUC evaluations is starting to show the positive impact on students.

One example is the Learning Skills Advisor (LSA) program begun in 2020 to provide generic academic skills sessions across the CUC network. The first in-house evaluation provides an interesting snapshot of the students who came to LSA sessions from March 2020 to July 2021, and of the impact of the program in general.

Students from government equity categories were strongly represented. They included students from low socioeconomic status (SES) (72%) and Indigenous (9%) backgrounds. As well, 53% were the first in their families to be at university, 65.5% were aged 25 and over, and 46% were studying part-time.

Other research tells us that part-time, mature-age, low-SES, Indigenous and online students have been historically under-represented at university. If they do manage to get to university, they are more likely to withdraw without qualification.

The recent snapshot tells us the centres are reaching the students most at risk.

Read more: Where are the most disadvantaged parts of Australia? New research shows it's not just income that matters

Student feedback is very positive

The positive impacts of the LSA program are clear. The evaluation found:

93% of participating students reported feeling more confident about their studies

96% were more motivated

97.5% achieved higher grades

95% were more likely to continue with their studies.

Students said they found the practical information helpful.

"I learned about different ways to look up information. There were ideas about how to arrange information and structure essays more efficiently."

"I learned to reference as I go, add the reference to my bibliography as I found the source."

As students' confidence improved, so did their grades and their motivation to continue. Their responses make this clear:

"Managed a HD/D average. I attribute this to the support I have received from [LSA]."

"Gave me the edge on exam day."

"My confidence is up and my marks are following suit."

They also valued having a space to study, with the facilities they need:

"Perfect study space, away from distractions and everything that is needed right in the one place."

These preliminary evaluation findings are highly encouraging. They show that the right type of locally available support can encourage and motivate regional and remote students. Building their confidence and skills helps them to persist and succeed.

Read more: New research shows there is still a long way to go in providing equality in education

A more formal evaluation of the CUC student experience is under way. The results are due to be published in early 2022.

The early results indicate that Regional University Centres are successfully complementing the online education universities are providing. The physical space, technology and face-to-face support the centres offer are making a difference.

This is a win-win, not only for students and universities, but also for the economic, social and educational capital of regional, rural and remote communities.
The author acknowledges the help of Monica Davis, CEO, and Chris Ronan, Equity & Engagement Director, of the Country Universities Centre in the writing of this article.

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Local, face-to-face support offers a lifeline for uni students in regional and remote Australia

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For university students living out of reach of a campus and studying online, the growing presence of Regional University Centres is proving to be a lifeline in times of COVID-19. An early evaluation shows these centres in regional and remote Australia are highly effective in supporting students who have been historically under-represented at university and are at high risk of not completing courses.

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Remote learning is even harder when English isn't students' first language. Schools told us their priorities for supporting them

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Remote learning is even harder when English isn't students' first language. Schools told us their priorities for supporting them

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The COVID-19 pandemic has left large numbers of students, teachers and families grappling with the challenges of remote learning. Remote learning can be particularly challenging for students who are learning English as an additional language or dialect ( EAL/D students).

We wanted to find out about schools' experiences of teaching and supporting these students during the 2020 and 2021 lockdowns in Victoria. We interviewed ten classroom teachers and EAL/D curriculum leaders across primary and secondary levels in urban, regional and rural schools. We identified three key areas of concern for these students:

well-being - issues such as language barriers compounded their feelings of isolation and disconnection

access to resources such as digital devices, the internet and learning materials

loss of in-school structural supports.

Read more: Victoria and NSW are funding extra tutors to help struggling students. Here's what parents need to know about the schemes

These issues affect large numbers of students. About one in four primary and secondary school students in Victoria are from language backgrounds other than English. The proportion is similar in NSW.

We know from a range of studies that, even in the most favourable conditions, the reality of remote learning has often had a negative impact on students' learning and well-being. Although the information about what works for online teaching is expanding, EAL/D-specific information is lacking.

Early findings from our ongoing research show that for many EAL/D educators complex social, emotional, material and geographic factors compounded the challenges of engaging EAL/D learners during remote learning. The following three points illustrate these challenges and how educators adapted.

Making well-being the priority

Student well-being was the most important consideration for these educators. It's a prerequisite for real engagement in remote learning.

Schools are often a space of identity validation and belonging for new arrivals. The remote learning experience left many students feeling isolated and disconnected. This was sometimes compounded when issues such as low digital literacy and language barriers affected students' support at home.

To overcome these issues, the role of teachers often expanded into areas such as supporting families by connecting with social services, mothers' groups and foodbanks. This trend was even clearer in rural and regional areas where the school often became the central point of support for EAL/D students and their families.

Read more: Students' well-being must always be the priority. Here are 5 tips to help them through lockdown

Well-being was also an issue for EAL/D educators and multicultural education aides (MEAs). Supporting students and families to navigate the new remote learning platforms and procedures was extremely difficult when resources and time were limited. EAL/D teachers often work part-time or across more than one school. As one participant said:

"We worked harder in remote learning than I've ever worked in my life in those early stages, and so I guess the learning curve was to sit back and say, 'Hey, it's okay. We can't fix the world. We need to actually look after ourselves.' "

Ensuring access to resources

Access to devices and the internet caused some issues in the initial remote learning phase. This gradually became less of a barrier as resources were distributed to families. All participants stressed the important role of education aides and interpreters in supporting teachers and students to use these devices effectively.

"They [students] struggle [...] particularly at the secondary level. They struggle because the platforms that the secondary schools use are foreign to these students. So, in lockdown, it takes an enormous amount of time to upskill these students."

Read more: Schools are moving online, but not all children start out digitally equal

Teachers and aides invested large amounts of time in developing resources in students' first languages that were suitable for remote learning. This task of creating resources was even more challenging in areas with fewer multicultural education aides and interpreters due to relatively lower numbers of EAL/D students.

Overcoming loss of in-school support

How EAL/D students are integrated in mainstream classes also presented many challenges. In regular face-to-face teaching, these students may get support from peers or education aides to help them in classes such as humanities, science and mathematics. Providing this support in the online learning space often proved difficult.

If teachers of other subjects were not aware of strategies to support EAL/D students in their classes, this left some students feeling excluded, isolated and overwhelmed. Strategies can range from differentiating learning sequences to meet the learner's needs, to providing structured opportunities for them to use their knowledge in and of other languages.

Participants also commented on how teaching strategies that help EAL/D learners in mainstream classes often greatly benefit all learners, including monolingual English speakers. Empowering all teachers with the knowledge and strategies to support EAL/D learners in both face-to-face and remote classes was a way to create inclusive environments for all students. As one participant said:

"So, they've got to understand - the teachers have to - instead of watching content, content, content and I've got to get this much done in five weeks, let's relook and let's have another think about this and see what we can do. What can we do differently so that they can access something in this curriculum? That they [the students] can bring something to it."

Read more: Students in Melbourne will go back to remote schooling. Here's what we learnt last time and how to make it better

Building on students' strengths

A final key message is the importance of viewing EAL/D learners through an asset rather than a deficit lens. A deficit lens tends to frame students for what is "lacking" (English proficiency) and overlooks the rich linguistic and cultural repertoires of these students.

The notion of plurilingual competencies, where students are supported to use all their language knowledge to engage in learning, is a recent addition to the EAL curriculum in Victoria. This requires all teachers, not just EAL/D teachers, to develop an awareness of students' plurilingual resources and encourage them to use this knowledge to enhance their learning.

School leadership can play a vital role here by supporting a whole-school approach to inclusive EAL/D practices.

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Remote learning is even harder when English isn't students' first language. Schools told us their priorities for supporting them

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The COVID-19 pandemic has left large numbers of students, teachers and families grappling with the challenges of remote learning. Remote learning can be particularly challenging for students who are learning English as an additional language or dialect ( EAL/D students).