CREEW'S News
July 2005
- Research News
- Publications
- Presentations
- Seminar Program
- Postgraduate News
- Centre News
- HRISS News
- Future CREEW's News
Research News
- CREEW was recently successful in winning a nationally competitive research grant of $49,450 through the National VET Research and Evaluation Program administered by the National Centre for Vocational Education Research (NCVER). The project, entitled Learning the Journey between ACE and VET: Good practice partnerships, will investigate and identify in qualitative terms the processes and outcomes that enhance connections between the Adult and Community Education (ACE) and Vocational Education and Training (VET) sectors to increase lifelong learning, community capacity building and skill needs in communities and regions. The Principal Researchers are Sue Gelade, Tom Stehlik and Peter Willis.
- Roger Harris, as Director for the Consortium - 'Supporting VET providers in building capability for the future', has submitted a progress report to NCVER, consisting of products and outcomes from four of the projects, plus a website, newsletters and ethics clearances. Click here for more information.
- From June to November this year, Tom Stehlik will be seconded to the Social Inclusion Unit, Department of Premier and Cabinet as part of a memorandum of agreement with the Hawke Research Institute for Sustainable Societies. During the six months secondment, Tom will undertake the role of Social Inclusion Research Fellow, to lead action research projects across a suite of Social Inclusion School Retention Reference initiatives.
- Six of the dot points marking the highlights and achievements of the Division of Education, Arts and Social Sciences for the week ending 27 May 2005 were about CREEW activities - well done everyone!
Publications
- Roger Harris and Michele Simons (also involving Carmel
McCarthy and Claire Ralfs) submitted a draft final report to NCVER
for internal and external review: Private training providers in
Australia: their characteristics and training activities.
Despite their increasing numbers and the significance of their role, relatively little research has been undertaken on the nature and extent of their contribution. Unwin (2003), referring to the United Kingdom, referred to the sector of private providers as the unseen world, where there is little professional development, a raw deal, no corporate voice and their clients are even more invisible. In Australia, this sector is similarly a training black box, where private providers are, so far, not included in official statistics except in the case of those in receipt of government funds. While a proportion of private providers in Australia do have a voice through the Australian Council for Private Education Training, and there have been a few investigations at the State level, the full extent of VET delivered by private providers is largely still a mystery (Robinson 2003). - Reid, A (2005) 'Rethinking approaches to national curriculum: Beyond the railway gauge metaphor' Unicorn Online Refereed Article (ORA) and Occasional Paper series, No. 9, Australian College of Educators, pp. 1-33 (ISBN 1 92081908 8)
Presentations
- Marie Brennan addressed a meeting of the Independent Secondary Schools Association of South Australia at St Peters College on Tuesday, May 31, on the topic of Challenges from recent research to the School Effectiveness and School Improvement traditions of school and curriculum change'.
- Judy Gill and Lia Bryant (School of Social Work and Social Policy) by invitation addressed the Law Council of Australia on gender equity and the legal profession. The Law Council is keen to partner Judy and Lia in ARC funded research.
- Roger Harris and Michele Simons presented a seminar entitled 'Future Directions for RTO's' at the 'VET Quality Forum 2005' held in Adelaide on 7 June. The session described their research into professional development practices and models for VET providers.
Seminar Program
- The seminar on 17 June, entitled ' The PhD experience', presented by Bruce Johnson, Sue Howard and Jenni Carter was extremely well attended. The seminar focussed on recent research that examined the collective experiences of recently completed UniSA doctoral students. Seven key issues identified for the research were; time, identity, personal strengths, system supports, relationships, work practices and emotions. The seminar provided the opportunity for PhD students to discuss personal issues relating to their PhD studies.
Postgraduate News
- Jeannie Daniels has been awarded the General Excellence Category Prize 2005 in the Women in Vocational and Adult Education (WAVE) Writers Awards. She has received a prize of $500.00 for her essay 'A place in the world: women, VET and the global economy', which discusses the implications of Objective One of Women: Shaping Our Future, the supporting paper to the National VET Strategy 2004-2010. Congratulations Jeannie!
- Anne Lawless will be the Guest Editor for the July 2005 edition of the Australian Journal of Adult Learning while Roger Harris will be in the UK presenting at the JVET Conference.
- Fiona Underwood is part of the project team awarded $7,000 prize money from the Chancellors Awards for Community Service to support transportation costs for an 11 week program that brings students from schools in the northern suburbs onto UniSAs Mawson Lakes campus to learn about university life. The program plays an important role in developing strong regional partnerships with local schools and for making university study worth serious consideration for hundreds of students in the area. Last year 86 students from eight schools took part in the project and in 2005 those numbers are expected to increase.
-
Bruce Johnson, as Dean of Research Students, commissioned a workshop for the Divisions postgraduate research students, entitled Mapping the Territories, held on 28 May. The session focussed on histories of methodologies and disciplines and was led by Marie Brennan, together with Margaret Peters and Vicki Crowley. Nearly 40 students participated and also came up with ideas for the Divisional research forum in August.
HRISS News
- The Hawke Research Institute has had a busy few weeks. We hosted several events including the much planned for and talked about symposium 'Global questions, global ideas', our inaugural Advisory Board and the official celebration of HRISS as a funded institute on 10 June.
- We also had a very successful 'Big Day In' on 16 June at the Stamford Grand, Glenelg. One of the outcomes of which has been a questionnaire circulated to HRISS staff , available on the Members access only site. The results will be summarised as a collective statement about the Hawke Research Institute and as an indication of the diverse ways in which sustainable societies are being developed. Please take a few minutes to complete and return this questionnaire your input is important.
- It looks as though the busy weeks will continue with several upcoming seminars and events so please keep an eye on our Calendar of Events or go the Events page for regular updates.
Centre News
- Professor Ian Davey, Pro Vice Chancellor: Research and Innovation, will be retiring from the university at the end of this academic year. Ian was a member of the first CREEW Advisory Committee in 2000 in his capacity at that time as Pro Vice Chancellor (Research & International), and has continued to take an interest in CREEW by contributing to several CREEW functions, such as attending as a guest speaker at Planning Days. A function to celebrate his career will be held on 28 October at 4pm at City West campus. For more information contact Kristy Johns.
Future CREEW's News
This newsletter reflects the activities and interests of some 80 members of CREEW. Please keep us informed about your activities, sending all contributions to Linda Rainey.