Significant efforts have now been made to identify the generic competencies required to succeed across different workplace contexts. The aims of this paper were to: (i) outline factors that contributed to the increased demand for generic competencies seen over the last three decades; and (ii) review the early generic competency frameworks…

There have been various published histories of Australasian universities but none as rich as the two most recent relating to the universities of Sydney (1991) and Melbourne (2003). The latter, in particular, was the catalyst for this exploratory study. How was it that at a time when many major British cities lacked a university institution, towns…

This paper follows an empirical study of how teachers were represented in British newspapers during the 1990s. Its purpose is to describe some of the findings arising from a comparison of the data and representations of teachers in educational research literature. The topic of teacher representation was a matter of personal interest to the…

This paper reflects on the relevance and applicability of "key transferable skills" to the higher education curriculum. Although they are regarded as having common currency within universities, it is argued that their uncritical acceptance devalues and distorts the nature and character of the teaching and learning employed in academe.…

This paper examines the rationale for ethnic schooling in former British colonial territories in East Africa and Southeast Asia. Critics, especially of British rule in Malaya and Singapore, have traditionally claimed that ethnic schools were established as part of a British political strategy of "divide et impera". An examination the…

For too long, leadership has been researched and written about without taking account of context and societal culture. This article takes as its context under researched multi-ethnic urban schools, and looks at leadership--specifically five successful head teacher case studies--of these schools. The research project that it reports was carried out…

It was the Indian political leader G. K. Gokhale who described "The Report of the Indian Education Commission 1882-83" as "one of the weightiest and most interesting documents ever published in India." Long recognized as one of the most informative documents about the history of nineteenth century education in British India it…