Kate O’connor
Biographic Data
| ID | 131206 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Kate O’connor |
| GIVEN NAMES | Kate |
| FAMILY NAME | O’connor |
| SIGNATURE | O’CONNOR K |
| AFFILIATIONS | La Trobe University |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-0190-7830 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 17 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 172 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 17 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2007 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 6 |
Too hard, too confronting: The reluctance of schools to publicly acknowledge harm
Despite having the largest caregiving responsibilities for children outside of families, schools are settings in which egregious forms of harm to children have occurred. As further allegations of non-recent and contemporary abuse of children in schools come to light, principals must decide whether to publicly acknowledge this harm and grapple with the complexities of how to do so.
Nothing to See Here: Researching Non‐Recent Child Abuse in Schools and the Politics of Silence
While institutions, including schools, have responsibilities to protect children from harm, responses to instances of child sexual abuse have often exhibited avoidance and denial. Recent public inquiries in Australia revealed that some institutions, particularly in the Catholic sector, employed a deliberate strategy of silence which was used to conceal abuse to protect their public image. In response, these inquiries called for silence to be repl…
Equity, curriculum form and state differences in Australian senior secondary education
This article considers differences and similarities in curriculum form between the senior secondary certificates offered across Australia, drawing on three different understandings of curriculum form, one focused on the grid or map of the curriculum and its core categories and levels of specification, one on the cultural assumptions underpinning significant policy reforms, and one on the internal relations between curriculum contents and the divi…
Temporality, Space and Place in Education and Youth Research
Racialization and Reproduction: Asian Immigrants and California’s Twentieth-Century Eugenic Sterilization Program
During the twentieth century, state health authorities in California recommended sterilization for over 20,000 individuals held in state institutions. Asian immigrants occupied a marginalized position in racial, gender, and class hierarchies in California at the height of its eugenic sterilization program. Scholars have documented the disproportionate sterilization of other racialized groups, but little research exists connecting the racist, gend…
Co-design with Integrated Care Teams: Establishing Information Needs
Identified was a wide range of future service information needs under the themes of Culture Building, Health System Needs, and Processes. We conclude with 4 key learning points on co-designing. 1. Ensure simplicity in format. 2. Interdisciplinary co-design and co-facilitation of workshops are beneficial. 3. Planning and preparation are key. 4. Co-designing can enhance communication for service improvement
Constructivism, curriculum and the knowledge question: Tensions and Challenges for Higher Education
In recent times, there has been a strong focus on moving university teaching away from a so-called ‘instructivist’, lecture-centred mode, in which the focus is on what teachers are doing, towards a more student-centred ‘constructivist’ approach, centred on active learning and students’ own constructions of knowledge. This paper considers the tensions and challenges raised by the ways in which constructivist ideas are being taken up in higher educ…
Ethics, archives and data sharing in qualitative research
This article investigates dilemmas in the archiving and sharing of qualitative data in educational research, critically engaging with practices and debates from across the social sciences. Ethical, epistemological and methodological challenges are examined in reference to open access agendas, the politics of knowledge production, and transformations in research practices in the era of data management. We first consider practical and interpretive …
What’s the problem with ‘policy alignment’? The complexities of national reform in Australia’s federal system
This article problematises contemporary debates in favour of ‘policy alignment’ by considering the complexities emerging from attempts to forge greater alignment of policies and processes across state schooling systems in the Australian federation. We begin by articulating our conceptual approach to policy alignment, after which we examine Australian and international debates relating to alignment in schooling policy. We then consider how policy …
Disproportionate Sterilization of Latinos Under California’s Eugenic Sterilization Program, 1920–1945
Objectives. To compare population-based sterilization rates between Latinas/os and non-Latinas/os sterilized under California’s eugenics law. Methods. We used data from 17 362 forms recommending institutionalized patients for sterilization between 1920 and 1945. We abstracted patient gender, age, and institution of residence into a data set. We extracted data on institution populations from US Census microdata from 1920, 1930, and 1940 and interp…
Searching for the public: School funding and shifting meanings of ‘the public’ in Australian education
School funding is a principal site of policy reform and contestation in the context of broad global shifts towards private- and market-based funding models. These shifts are transforming not only how schools are funded but also the meanings and practices of public education: that is, shifts in what is ‘public’ about schooling. In this paper, we examine the ways in which different articulations of ‘the public’ are brought to bear in contemporary d…
California’s Sterilization Survivors: An Estimate and Call for Redress
From 1919 to 1952, approximately 20 000 individuals were sterilized in California’s state institutions on the basis of eugenic laws that sought to control the reproductive capacity of people labeled unfit and defective. Using data from more than 19 000 sterilization recommendations processed by state institutions over this 33-year period, we provide the most accurate estimate of living sterilization survivors. As of 2016, we estimate that as many…
National agendas in global times: Curriculum reforms in Australia and the USA since the 1980s
This paper provides a comparative analysis of national curriculum reforms in Australia and the USA, set against the backdrop of global trends since the 1980s. The analysis is driven by an interest in the reconstitution of national policy spaces in global times, and draws particularly upon Stephen Carney’s notion of global policy-scapes as a way of understanding the complex and disjunctive flows of transnational policy ideas and practices. The pap…
Disciplinary representation on institutional websites: Changing knowledge, changing power
This paper analyses shifts in the representation of history and physics as named organisational units on Australian university websites over the last 15 years in the context of broader questions about the production of knowledge in contemporary times. It derives from a broader project concerned with disciplinarity, changing university contexts and emerging conceptions of teaching and research. The paper points to a significant reduction in the nu…
The Virtues of Openness: Education, science and scholarship in the digital age
This is an important book that comes at a critical time for education. The book pre-dates the global rise of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) but provides a comprehensive oversight of the broade
Preparing US teachers for critical global education
While recognising the nature and significance of the theoretical bases and dimensions of the range of theoretical orientations that inform the literature on global and international education, the central aim of this paper is to describe in a more concrete way ‘critical global education (CGE)’, an approach to global education that seeks to educate students about the causes and consequences of global injustices and that aims to support students to…
You choose to care”: Teachers, emotions and professional identity
You choose to care”: Teachers, emotions and professional identity
National agendas in global times: Curriculum reforms in Australia and the USA since the 1980s
This paper provides a comparative analysis of national curriculum reforms in Australia and the USA, set against the backdrop of global trends since the 1980s. The analysis is driven by an interest in the reconstitution of national policy spaces in global times, and draws particularly upon Stephen Carney’s notion of global policy-scapes as a way of understanding the complex and disjunctive flows of transnational policy ideas and practices. The pap…
Disproportionate Sterilization of Latinos Under California’s Eugenic Sterilization Program, 1920–1945
Objectives. To compare population-based sterilization rates between Latinas/os and non-Latinas/os sterilized under California’s eugenics law. Methods. We used data from 17 362 forms recommending institutionalized patients for sterilization between 1920 and 1945. We abstracted patient gender, age, and institution of residence into a data set. We extracted data on institution populations from US Census microdata from 1920, 1930, and 1940 and interp…
The Virtues of Openness: Education, science and scholarship in the digital age
This is an important book that comes at a critical time for education. The book pre-dates the global rise of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) but provides a comprehensive oversight of the broade
Searching for the public: School funding and shifting meanings of ‘the public’ in Australian education
School funding is a principal site of policy reform and contestation in the context of broad global shifts towards private- and market-based funding models. These shifts are transforming not only how schools are funded but also the meanings and practices of public education: that is, shifts in what is ‘public’ about schooling. In this paper, we examine the ways in which different articulations of ‘the public’ are brought to bear in contemporary d…
California’s Sterilization Survivors: An Estimate and Call for Redress
From 1919 to 1952, approximately 20 000 individuals were sterilized in California’s state institutions on the basis of eugenic laws that sought to control the reproductive capacity of people labeled unfit and defective. Using data from more than 19 000 sterilization recommendations processed by state institutions over this 33-year period, we provide the most accurate estimate of living sterilization survivors. As of 2016, we estimate that as many…
What’s the problem with ‘policy alignment’? The complexities of national reform in Australia’s federal system
This article problematises contemporary debates in favour of ‘policy alignment’ by considering the complexities emerging from attempts to forge greater alignment of policies and processes across state schooling systems in the Australian federation. We begin by articulating our conceptual approach to policy alignment, after which we examine Australian and international debates relating to alignment in schooling policy. We then consider how policy …
Preparing US teachers for critical global education
While recognising the nature and significance of the theoretical bases and dimensions of the range of theoretical orientations that inform the literature on global and international education, the central aim of this paper is to describe in a more concrete way ‘critical global education (CGE)’, an approach to global education that seeks to educate students about the causes and consequences of global injustices and that aims to support students to…
Constructivism, curriculum and the knowledge question: Tensions and Challenges for Higher Education
In recent times, there has been a strong focus on moving university teaching away from a so-called ‘instructivist’, lecture-centred mode, in which the focus is on what teachers are doing, towards a more student-centred ‘constructivist’ approach, centred on active learning and students’ own constructions of knowledge. This paper considers the tensions and challenges raised by the ways in which constructivist ideas are being taken up in higher educ…
Disciplinary representation on institutional websites: Changing knowledge, changing power
This paper analyses shifts in the representation of history and physics as named organisational units on Australian university websites over the last 15 years in the context of broader questions about the production of knowledge in contemporary times. It derives from a broader project concerned with disciplinarity, changing university contexts and emerging conceptions of teaching and research. The paper points to a significant reduction in the nu…
Ethics, archives and data sharing in qualitative research
This article investigates dilemmas in the archiving and sharing of qualitative data in educational research, critically engaging with practices and debates from across the social sciences. Ethical, epistemological and methodological challenges are examined in reference to open access agendas, the politics of knowledge production, and transformations in research practices in the era of data management. We first consider practical and interpretive …
You choose to care”: Teachers, emotions and professional identity
Preparing US teachers for critical global education
While recognising the nature and significance of the theoretical bases and dimensions of the range of theoretical orientations that inform the literature on global and international education, the central aim of this paper is to describe in a more concrete way ‘critical global education (CGE)’, an approach to global education that seeks to educate students about the causes and consequences of global injustices and that aims to support students to…
The Virtues of Openness: Education, science and scholarship in the digital age
This is an important book that comes at a critical time for education. The book pre-dates the global rise of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) but provides a comprehensive oversight of the broade
Disciplinary representation on institutional websites: Changing knowledge, changing power
This paper analyses shifts in the representation of history and physics as named organisational units on Australian university websites over the last 15 years in the context of broader questions about the production of knowledge in contemporary times. It derives from a broader project concerned with disciplinarity, changing university contexts and emerging conceptions of teaching and research. The paper points to a significant reduction in the nu…
National agendas in global times: Curriculum reforms in Australia and the USA since the 1980s
This paper provides a comparative analysis of national curriculum reforms in Australia and the USA, set against the backdrop of global trends since the 1980s. The analysis is driven by an interest in the reconstitution of national policy spaces in global times, and draws particularly upon Stephen Carney’s notion of global policy-scapes as a way of understanding the complex and disjunctive flows of transnational policy ideas and practices. The pap…
Searching for the public: School funding and shifting meanings of ‘the public’ in Australian education
School funding is a principal site of policy reform and contestation in the context of broad global shifts towards private- and market-based funding models. These shifts are transforming not only how schools are funded but also the meanings and practices of public education: that is, shifts in what is ‘public’ about schooling. In this paper, we examine the ways in which different articulations of ‘the public’ are brought to bear in contemporary d…
California’s Sterilization Survivors: An Estimate and Call for Redress
From 1919 to 1952, approximately 20 000 individuals were sterilized in California’s state institutions on the basis of eugenic laws that sought to control the reproductive capacity of people labeled unfit and defective. Using data from more than 19 000 sterilization recommendations processed by state institutions over this 33-year period, we provide the most accurate estimate of living sterilization survivors. As of 2016, we estimate that as many…
Disproportionate Sterilization of Latinos Under California’s Eugenic Sterilization Program, 1920–1945
Objectives. To compare population-based sterilization rates between Latinas/os and non-Latinas/os sterilized under California’s eugenics law. Methods. We used data from 17 362 forms recommending institutionalized patients for sterilization between 1920 and 1945. We abstracted patient gender, age, and institution of residence into a data set. We extracted data on institution populations from US Census microdata from 1920, 1930, and 1940 and interp…
What’s the problem with ‘policy alignment’? The complexities of national reform in Australia’s federal system
This article problematises contemporary debates in favour of ‘policy alignment’ by considering the complexities emerging from attempts to forge greater alignment of policies and processes across state schooling systems in the Australian federation. We begin by articulating our conceptual approach to policy alignment, after which we examine Australian and international debates relating to alignment in schooling policy. We then consider how policy …
Ethics, archives and data sharing in qualitative research
This article investigates dilemmas in the archiving and sharing of qualitative data in educational research, critically engaging with practices and debates from across the social sciences. Ethical, epistemological and methodological challenges are examined in reference to open access agendas, the politics of knowledge production, and transformations in research practices in the era of data management. We first consider practical and interpretive …
Constructivism, curriculum and the knowledge question: Tensions and Challenges for Higher Education
In recent times, there has been a strong focus on moving university teaching away from a so-called ‘instructivist’, lecture-centred mode, in which the focus is on what teachers are doing, towards a more student-centred ‘constructivist’ approach, centred on active learning and students’ own constructions of knowledge. This paper considers the tensions and challenges raised by the ways in which constructivist ideas are being taken up in higher educ…
Temporality, Space and Place in Education and Youth Research
Racialization and Reproduction: Asian Immigrants and California’s Twentieth-Century Eugenic Sterilization Program
During the twentieth century, state health authorities in California recommended sterilization for over 20,000 individuals held in state institutions. Asian immigrants occupied a marginalized position in racial, gender, and class hierarchies in California at the height of its eugenic sterilization program. Scholars have documented the disproportionate sterilization of other racialized groups, but little research exists connecting the racist, gend…
Co-design with Integrated Care Teams: Establishing Information Needs
Identified was a wide range of future service information needs under the themes of Culture Building, Health System Needs, and Processes. We conclude with 4 key learning points on co-designing. 1. Ensure simplicity in format. 2. Interdisciplinary co-design and co-facilitation of workshops are beneficial. 3. Planning and preparation are key. 4. Co-designing can enhance communication for service improvement
Equity, curriculum form and state differences in Australian senior secondary education
This article considers differences and similarities in curriculum form between the senior secondary certificates offered across Australia, drawing on three different understandings of curriculum form, one focused on the grid or map of the curriculum and its core categories and levels of specification, one on the cultural assumptions underpinning significant policy reforms, and one on the internal relations between curriculum contents and the divi…
Too hard, too confronting: The reluctance of schools to publicly acknowledge harm
Despite having the largest caregiving responsibilities for children outside of families, schools are settings in which egregious forms of harm to children have occurred. As further allegations of non-recent and contemporary abuse of children in schools come to light, principals must decide whether to publicly acknowledge this harm and grapple with the complexities of how to do so.
Nothing to See Here: Researching Non‐Recent Child Abuse in Schools and the Politics of Silence
While institutions, including schools, have responsibilities to protect children from harm, responses to instances of child sexual abuse have often exhibited avoidance and denial. Recent public inquiries in Australia revealed that some institutions, particularly in the Catholic sector, employed a deliberate strategy of silence which was used to conceal abuse to protect their public image. In response, these inquiries called for silence to be repl…
Sociology (13 works) · Political science (12 works) · Law (7 works) · Global Educational Policies and Reforms (6 works) · Pedagogy (6 works) · Psychology (5 works) · Social science (5 works) · Engineering (4 works) · Epistemology (4 works) · Politics (4 works)