Lesley Vidovich
Biographic Data
| ID | 763056 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Lesley Vidovich |
| GIVEN NAMES | Lesley |
| FAMILY NAME | Vidovich |
| SIGNATURE | VIDOVICH L |
| AFFILIATIONS | The University of Western Australia |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 17 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 60 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 17 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1997 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2022 |
| H-INDEX | 5 |
Breaking the mould
Curriculum has become a core element of universities' competitive positioning, internationally and nationally. This paper presents a longitudinal analysis of policy processes and outcomes associated with 'radical' university curriculum reforms that resulted in divergence from institutions' own historical patterns and national conventions and traditions. The empirical investigations draw on a policy trajectory conceptual framework and focus on how…
Internationalisation in practice in Australian independent secondary schools
The phenomenon of internationalisation of education in the twenty-first century has developed more rapidly and has been the subject of more research in higher education than in the schooling sector. This paper conducts a comparative analysis of the perspectives of school leaders, teachers and students about ‘internationalisation in practice’ in two case-study Australian independent secondary schools that adopted different approaches to internatio…
Converting RPL into academic capital
Recognition of prior learning (RPL) requires an assessment of the equivalence and transferabilityof learning acquired in one context to another. However, this study’s examinationof the institutional policies and practices of three Australian universities reveals thatRPL can also be understood as a Bourdieuian process of ‘capital conversion’, where anindividual’s economic, social and cultural capital are assessed as being equivalent to ‘academicex…
Recognition of prior learning (RPL) policy in Australian higher education
The Bourdieuian concept of ‘position-taking’ is applied in this analysis of recognitionof prior learning (RPL) policy and practice in Australian higher education.Data from institutional documents and participant interviews indicate that,within RPL policy, the universities selectively employ prevailing discourses of‘quality’ and ‘equity’ to reinforce or potentially improve their reputation andsymbolic power in the !eld of higher education. There i…
Governance and trust in higher education
The adoption of more corporate models of governance is a contemporary trend in higher education. In the early 2000s, the Australian Government legislated national governance protocols for universities, using the policy lever of financial sanctions. These more corporate‐style governance protocols followed similar changes in the UK, consistent with a historical pattern of Australia borrowing policy ‘on trust’ from its former colonial ruler. However…
Students ‘at‐risk’ policy
Within a context of global reform agendas that promote economic ideologies in education the discourses surrounding ‘school failure’ have shifted from ‘individual risk’ to ‘a nation at‐risk’. Enhancing the quality of schooling through improving educational outcomes and standards for all, and thereby reducing ‘school failure,’ is simultaneously constructed as enhancing both social justice and a nation’s economic advantage in the global marketplace.…
Policy ‘partnerships’? Power dynamics in curriculum reform
In curriculum policy, discourses of ‘policy partnerships’ and ‘communities of practice’ have become increasingly prevalent and were reflected in Western Australian curriculum policy processes from the mid‐1990s to the late 2000s – a period of significant, highly contested change. This paper presents the findings of an empirical study into the impact of curriculum reform on the changing dynamics within and between the government and non‐government…
Changing accountabilities in higher education as China ‘opens up’ to globalisation
This paper focuses on changing accountability policies/practices in higher education as China rapidly ‘opens up’ to the global knowledge economy. It reports empirical findings from two case study universities, using respondents’ voices, and then raises issues for critical reflection. Increasingly prescriptive and punitive neo‐liberal accountabilities have come to prevail in Chinese higher education, although ‘new’ accountability mechanisms have n…
Towards internationalizing the curriculum in a context of globalization
The primary focus of this paper is two case study schools, one in Singapore and one in Australia, which have both been actively pursuing an agenda to build a unique internationally‐oriented curriculum, in a context of globalization, but also within the constraints set by national/State curriculum frameworks, examinations and league tables. Interviews were used to collect data in each school, and then cross‐case analysis was conducted to reveal bo…
Global–national–local dynamics in policy processes
This paper moves beyond a conceptualization of globalization as a top‐down imposition of policy directions ‘from above’ to focus on the active two‐way dynamics between global, national and local levels of policy processes. Arguably, the particular ‘case’ examined here of ‘quality’ policy is especially appropriate as quality policy and golbalization rose to prominence in educational discourses at roughly the same time during the 1990s, suggesting …
Negotiating curriculum demands of ‘the Church’ and ‘the state’
Bringing universities to account? Exploring some global and local policy tensions
Increased accountability is at the centre of widespread educational reforms which feature the rhetoric of deregulation in many countries across the globe. Not only have educational systems, institutions and practitioners been required to be more accountable, but arguably the nature of accountability has also changed from professional and democratic to managerial and market forms. In particular, within the hegemonic discourses of the market ideolo…
That Chameleon 'Quality
(2001). That Chameleon 'Quality': The multiple and contradictory discourses of 'quality' policy in Australian higher education. Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education: Vol. 22, No. 2, pp. 249-261
Privatization and competition policies for Australian universities
Quality Teaching and Learning in Australian and South African Universities
Over the last decade universities across the world have been grappling with quality and quality assurance issues. In several countries national policies on higher education quality assurance have been evolving, mostly with the purpose of putting external systems of quality assurance in place. In many instances, these policies and systems had less effect on the quality of teaching and learning than had been expected. This paper serves as a compari…
Quality policy in Australian higher education of the 1990s
In the last decade ‘quality’ has assumed the status of one of the meta-discourses across many domains of public policy, including education. This paper focuses on the specific example of quality policy in Australian higher education of the 1990s, and in particular, on the micro level of quality policy practice as experienced by academic practitioners in 6 universities. As such, it forms a follow-up to an article published earlier in the Journal o…
The recontextualisation of ‘quality’ in Australian higher education
In the education policy arena, the notion of ‘quality'as a mechanism for increasing accountability to stakeholders has risen to prominence in the 1990s, as part of the micro‐economic reform agenda of many national governments. This study analyses the way in which policy makers in Australian higher education have recontextualised the notions of quality adopted in other countries to reconstruct a uniquely Australian version. Further, the study anal…
Changing accountabilities in higher education as China ‘opens up’ to globalisation
This paper focuses on changing accountability policies/practices in higher education as China rapidly ‘opens up’ to the global knowledge economy. It reports empirical findings from two case study universities, using respondents’ voices, and then raises issues for critical reflection. Increasingly prescriptive and punitive neo‐liberal accountabilities have come to prevail in Chinese higher education, although ‘new’ accountability mechanisms have n…
Towards internationalizing the curriculum in a context of globalization
The primary focus of this paper is two case study schools, one in Singapore and one in Australia, which have both been actively pursuing an agenda to build a unique internationally‐oriented curriculum, in a context of globalization, but also within the constraints set by national/State curriculum frameworks, examinations and league tables. Interviews were used to collect data in each school, and then cross‐case analysis was conducted to reveal bo…
Global–national–local dynamics in policy processes
This paper moves beyond a conceptualization of globalization as a top‐down imposition of policy directions ‘from above’ to focus on the active two‐way dynamics between global, national and local levels of policy processes. Arguably, the particular ‘case’ examined here of ‘quality’ policy is especially appropriate as quality policy and golbalization rose to prominence in educational discourses at roughly the same time during the 1990s, suggesting …
Bringing universities to account? Exploring some global and local policy tensions
Increased accountability is at the centre of widespread educational reforms which feature the rhetoric of deregulation in many countries across the globe. Not only have educational systems, institutions and practitioners been required to be more accountable, but arguably the nature of accountability has also changed from professional and democratic to managerial and market forms. In particular, within the hegemonic discourses of the market ideolo…
Quality policy in Australian higher education of the 1990s
In the last decade ‘quality’ has assumed the status of one of the meta-discourses across many domains of public policy, including education. This paper focuses on the specific example of quality policy in Australian higher education of the 1990s, and in particular, on the micro level of quality policy practice as experienced by academic practitioners in 6 universities. As such, it forms a follow-up to an article published earlier in the Journal o…
Internationalisation in practice in Australian independent secondary schools
The phenomenon of internationalisation of education in the twenty-first century has developed more rapidly and has been the subject of more research in higher education than in the schooling sector. This paper conducts a comparative analysis of the perspectives of school leaders, teachers and students about ‘internationalisation in practice’ in two case-study Australian independent secondary schools that adopted different approaches to internatio…
Students ‘at‐risk’ policy
Within a context of global reform agendas that promote economic ideologies in education the discourses surrounding ‘school failure’ have shifted from ‘individual risk’ to ‘a nation at‐risk’. Enhancing the quality of schooling through improving educational outcomes and standards for all, and thereby reducing ‘school failure,’ is simultaneously constructed as enhancing both social justice and a nation’s economic advantage in the global marketplace.…
Converting RPL into academic capital
Recognition of prior learning (RPL) requires an assessment of the equivalence and transferabilityof learning acquired in one context to another. However, this study’s examinationof the institutional policies and practices of three Australian universities reveals thatRPL can also be understood as a Bourdieuian process of ‘capital conversion’, where anindividual’s economic, social and cultural capital are assessed as being equivalent to ‘academicex…
Governance and trust in higher education
The adoption of more corporate models of governance is a contemporary trend in higher education. In the early 2000s, the Australian Government legislated national governance protocols for universities, using the policy lever of financial sanctions. These more corporate‐style governance protocols followed similar changes in the UK, consistent with a historical pattern of Australia borrowing policy ‘on trust’ from its former colonial ruler. However…
That Chameleon 'Quality
(2001). That Chameleon 'Quality': The multiple and contradictory discourses of 'quality' policy in Australian higher education. Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education: Vol. 22, No. 2, pp. 249-261
Privatization and competition policies for Australian universities
Policy ‘partnerships’? Power dynamics in curriculum reform
In curriculum policy, discourses of ‘policy partnerships’ and ‘communities of practice’ have become increasingly prevalent and were reflected in Western Australian curriculum policy processes from the mid‐1990s to the late 2000s – a period of significant, highly contested change. This paper presents the findings of an empirical study into the impact of curriculum reform on the changing dynamics within and between the government and non‐government…
Breaking the mould
Curriculum has become a core element of universities' competitive positioning, internationally and nationally. This paper presents a longitudinal analysis of policy processes and outcomes associated with 'radical' university curriculum reforms that resulted in divergence from institutions' own historical patterns and national conventions and traditions. The empirical investigations draw on a policy trajectory conceptual framework and focus on how…
Quality Teaching and Learning in Australian and South African Universities
Over the last decade universities across the world have been grappling with quality and quality assurance issues. In several countries national policies on higher education quality assurance have been evolving, mostly with the purpose of putting external systems of quality assurance in place. In many instances, these policies and systems had less effect on the quality of teaching and learning than had been expected. This paper serves as a compari…
The recontextualisation of ‘quality’ in Australian higher education
In the education policy arena, the notion of ‘quality'as a mechanism for increasing accountability to stakeholders has risen to prominence in the 1990s, as part of the micro‐economic reform agenda of many national governments. This study analyses the way in which policy makers in Australian higher education have recontextualised the notions of quality adopted in other countries to reconstruct a uniquely Australian version. Further, the study anal…
The recontextualisation of ‘quality’ in Australian higher education
In the education policy arena, the notion of ‘quality'as a mechanism for increasing accountability to stakeholders has risen to prominence in the 1990s, as part of the micro‐economic reform agenda of many national governments. This study analyses the way in which policy makers in Australian higher education have recontextualised the notions of quality adopted in other countries to reconstruct a uniquely Australian version. Further, the study anal…
Quality policy in Australian higher education of the 1990s
In the last decade ‘quality’ has assumed the status of one of the meta-discourses across many domains of public policy, including education. This paper focuses on the specific example of quality policy in Australian higher education of the 1990s, and in particular, on the micro level of quality policy practice as experienced by academic practitioners in 6 universities. As such, it forms a follow-up to an article published earlier in the Journal o…
Privatization and competition policies for Australian universities
Quality Teaching and Learning in Australian and South African Universities
Over the last decade universities across the world have been grappling with quality and quality assurance issues. In several countries national policies on higher education quality assurance have been evolving, mostly with the purpose of putting external systems of quality assurance in place. In many instances, these policies and systems had less effect on the quality of teaching and learning than had been expected. This paper serves as a compari…
Bringing universities to account? Exploring some global and local policy tensions
Increased accountability is at the centre of widespread educational reforms which feature the rhetoric of deregulation in many countries across the globe. Not only have educational systems, institutions and practitioners been required to be more accountable, but arguably the nature of accountability has also changed from professional and democratic to managerial and market forms. In particular, within the hegemonic discourses of the market ideolo…
That Chameleon 'Quality
(2001). That Chameleon 'Quality': The multiple and contradictory discourses of 'quality' policy in Australian higher education. Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education: Vol. 22, No. 2, pp. 249-261
Towards internationalizing the curriculum in a context of globalization
The primary focus of this paper is two case study schools, one in Singapore and one in Australia, which have both been actively pursuing an agenda to build a unique internationally‐oriented curriculum, in a context of globalization, but also within the constraints set by national/State curriculum frameworks, examinations and league tables. Interviews were used to collect data in each school, and then cross‐case analysis was conducted to reveal bo…
Global–national–local dynamics in policy processes
This paper moves beyond a conceptualization of globalization as a top‐down imposition of policy directions ‘from above’ to focus on the active two‐way dynamics between global, national and local levels of policy processes. Arguably, the particular ‘case’ examined here of ‘quality’ policy is especially appropriate as quality policy and golbalization rose to prominence in educational discourses at roughly the same time during the 1990s, suggesting …
Negotiating curriculum demands of ‘the Church’ and ‘the state’
Changing accountabilities in higher education as China ‘opens up’ to globalisation
This paper focuses on changing accountability policies/practices in higher education as China rapidly ‘opens up’ to the global knowledge economy. It reports empirical findings from two case study universities, using respondents’ voices, and then raises issues for critical reflection. Increasingly prescriptive and punitive neo‐liberal accountabilities have come to prevail in Chinese higher education, although ‘new’ accountability mechanisms have n…
Students ‘at‐risk’ policy
Within a context of global reform agendas that promote economic ideologies in education the discourses surrounding ‘school failure’ have shifted from ‘individual risk’ to ‘a nation at‐risk’. Enhancing the quality of schooling through improving educational outcomes and standards for all, and thereby reducing ‘school failure,’ is simultaneously constructed as enhancing both social justice and a nation’s economic advantage in the global marketplace.…
Policy ‘partnerships’? Power dynamics in curriculum reform
In curriculum policy, discourses of ‘policy partnerships’ and ‘communities of practice’ have become increasingly prevalent and were reflected in Western Australian curriculum policy processes from the mid‐1990s to the late 2000s – a period of significant, highly contested change. This paper presents the findings of an empirical study into the impact of curriculum reform on the changing dynamics within and between the government and non‐government…
Governance and trust in higher education
The adoption of more corporate models of governance is a contemporary trend in higher education. In the early 2000s, the Australian Government legislated national governance protocols for universities, using the policy lever of financial sanctions. These more corporate‐style governance protocols followed similar changes in the UK, consistent with a historical pattern of Australia borrowing policy ‘on trust’ from its former colonial ruler. However…
Recognition of prior learning (RPL) policy in Australian higher education
The Bourdieuian concept of ‘position-taking’ is applied in this analysis of recognitionof prior learning (RPL) policy and practice in Australian higher education.Data from institutional documents and participant interviews indicate that,within RPL policy, the universities selectively employ prevailing discourses of‘quality’ and ‘equity’ to reinforce or potentially improve their reputation andsymbolic power in the !eld of higher education. There i…
Converting RPL into academic capital
Recognition of prior learning (RPL) requires an assessment of the equivalence and transferabilityof learning acquired in one context to another. However, this study’s examinationof the institutional policies and practices of three Australian universities reveals thatRPL can also be understood as a Bourdieuian process of ‘capital conversion’, where anindividual’s economic, social and cultural capital are assessed as being equivalent to ‘academicex…
Internationalisation in practice in Australian independent secondary schools
The phenomenon of internationalisation of education in the twenty-first century has developed more rapidly and has been the subject of more research in higher education than in the schooling sector. This paper conducts a comparative analysis of the perspectives of school leaders, teachers and students about ‘internationalisation in practice’ in two case-study Australian independent secondary schools that adopted different approaches to internatio…
Breaking the mould
Curriculum has become a core element of universities' competitive positioning, internationally and nationally. This paper presents a longitudinal analysis of policy processes and outcomes associated with 'radical' university curriculum reforms that resulted in divergence from institutions' own historical patterns and national conventions and traditions. The empirical investigations draw on a policy trajectory conceptual framework and focus on how…
Political science (16 works) · Sociology (14 works) · Higher education (12 works) · Public Administration (12 works) · Public relations (11 works) · Higher Education Governance and Development (10 works) · Law (10 works) · Public Administration (10 works) · Economics (9 works) · Global Educational Policies and Reforms (8 works)