Editorial Issue 2,2025

The second issue of the Australian Journal of Education for 2025 has an inadvertent focus on research conducted in primary school settings, with the first four articles addressing different issues in primary education. The final research article focuses on post-secondary education and the equity programmes in place in secondary schools to support student participation in higher education. We then have a review of a book focusing on pedagogy in higher education settings.

The first article, by Cheryl Kickett-Tucker, Jennifer Dodd, Juli Coffin, Deborah Johnson, Donna Cross, and Sophie Karangaroa, reports on findings from the Moombaki (where the river meets the sky) study “Cultural Learnings: Strengthening Aboriginal children’s well-being and educational outcomes by connecting urban children to identity, culture, country, and kin”. Twenty-six Aboriginal educators and community members and 45 non-Aboriginal educators and school leaders took part in eight yarning circles conducted in three primary schools in Boorloo (Perth). Four circles were conducted with Aboriginal community members and Aboriginal educators, two with non-Aboriginal educators and executive staff, and two were combined, involving both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal educators in the same meeting. The findings focus on the experiences of the Aboriginal educators when working with non-Aboriginal educators and highlight challenges in providing culturally safe environments for staff and students alike, and remaining gaps in understanding among non-Aboriginal educators and school leaders. At the same time, there are examples provided of how collaboration between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal educators can work to benefit all. The authors conclude by highlighting three key areas to be addressed in the pursuit of culturally responsive education systems – education and awareness for all school staff, structural and institutional change, and changes to teacher education requirements to include pre-service training and ongoing professional development to develop teachers’ cultural competence and responsiveness.

In the second article, Tanya Serry, Lisa Furlong, Pamela Snow, Tessa Weadman, and Caitlin Stephenson make use of the opportunity provided by periods of remote teaching and learning during the COVID-19 pandemic to explore parents’ perspectives of reading instruction in the first years of primary schooling. The shift from classroom-based instruction to remote teaching and learning necessitated increased parental involvement in their children’s learning during these periods, and thus increased parents’ awareness of the instructional methods being used to teach their children reading and spelling. The authors interviewed 19 parents (including guardians, parents, and grandparents) who had managed the remote learning of a child in the first two years of primary school (Foundation/Prep or Year 1) during the COVID-19 pandemic and conducted both deductive and inductive thematic analysis of the resulting transcripts. Key themes identified included acknowledgement of and gratitude towards teachers, including less formal communication and collaboration experienced, the unexpected views into strategies employed in classrooms and their own child’s journey in reading and spelling (positive and negative experiences) and for some parents, a sense of urgency to become more involved to ensure that their child had opportunities to succeed, such as modifying materials to better suit their child or seeking alternative approaches to better support their child’s needs. Findings suggest that parents of beginning readers became more actively involved in and aware of the early reading instruction process as a direct result of their involvement in remote teaching during the COVID-19 pandemic; however, the authors suggest that insights from this particular time period can be applied to encourage greater involvement and awareness among parents around early reading instruction.

The mental health of our young people is a key concern for schools, as indicated by the proliferation of programs focusing on supporting well-being and mental health in school students. Growing with Gratitude (GWG) is a universal prevention program based on positive psychology that aims to prevent anxiety and depression in primary-school-aged children. In this article, Jasmine Turner, Rachel Roberts, Junwen Chen, and Michael Proeve report on an evaluation study of the effectiveness of GWG, assessing whether children had increased levels of well-being and reduced levels of anxiety and depression after completing the program compared with students in a control condition. Resilience, gratitude, and emotion regulation were also measured as secondary outcomes of the program. The study included 537 students in Years 3–5, clustered in 27 classes across nine schools. 15 classes were randomly allocated to the intervention (nine GWG lessons to be delivered once a week over nine weeks) and the other 14 classes to the waitlist control condition. Students’ anxiety and depression and well-being were measured as outcomes at five time points (baseline, mid-program, post-intervention, and 6-month and 12-month follow-up). Analysis of the results found no statistically significant differences for primary (well-being, anxiety, and depression) or secondary outcomes (resilience, gratitude, and emotion regulation) between the conditions at any time point, although the authors did note some positive impact of the GWG program for children with clinically significant levels of anxiety and depression at baseline. Implementation fidelity, measured via a teacher survey each week of the nine-week program, was poor across the trial, only three of the 14 classes completing more than 70% of the program. The authors note that this highlights broader challenges with implementing prevention programs in primary schools and call for greater support for teachers and tailoring of programs to better align with school environments.

Next, Katy Meeuwissen, Tracy Logan, Kate Highfield, and Deborah Pino-Pasternak report on their investigation into teacher conceptualisations of play and its place in primary education. Their study relied on Parker et al.’s (2022) Framework for Quality Learning Through Play as a theoretical lens and used a mixed method approach. Questionnaire responses were collected from 238 practicing teachers in primary school settings (foundation through to Year 6) across Australia. The quantitative and qualitative results were integrated and reported under three conceptual themes – knowledge and benefits of play, value of play, and beliefs about play as pedagogy, with these themes aligning with dimensions identified in Parker et al.’s (2022) framework. Results revealed clear acknowledgement of the developmental benefits of play, with slightly lower endorsement of the benefits of play in the development of academic skills. Respondents’ beliefs about implementing play into classroom practice and teacher’s facilitation roles varied substantially, with seemingly contradictory attitudes being expressed by some respondents. The authors note that such findings highlight the complexity of implementing play as a meaningful pedagogical tool in primary education, with school contexts, curriculum requirements, and tensions between child-led and teacher involvement all contributing to challenges for Australian teachers and their international colleagues alike.

For the final article of this issue, we shift focus from primary education to secondary education and beyond. Jessica Arnup, Ben Edwards, and Sally Baker present findings from their examination of the goals and activities of university-run equity initiatives in schools, and the characteristics of the schools these initiatives take place in. Their study drew on nationally representative survey data from 244 secondary schools and over 15,000 Year 10 students in Australia, collected in 2022 for the GENERATION study (Edwards et al., 2024). Analysis of responses to the school questionnaires showed that approximately one-quarter of secondary schools in Australia reported receiving an equity initiative, that is, a program operating in their school that was aimed at increasing higher education enrolments from students in under-represented groups. Over half of the schools indicated that the main goal of the program was to provide information about applying or attending university, with fewer programs aimed towards increasing interest in specific courses, such as STEM. More than half of the schools reported that programs were targeted at students in their final year of schooling (Year 12), and students in four equity groups – students from lower socioeconomic backgrounds, Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander students, students located in regional and remote areas, and students whose families had no experience with higher education (those who are ‘first in family’ to attend university). Results of logistic regression analyses indicated that school size (in terms of student enrolments) and distance from a university campus were both statistically significant predictors of the presence of an equity program in a school, with the odds of having programs significantly higher in larger (compared to smaller) schools and in schools within 5km of a university campus compared to schools more than 20kms away from a university. These findings raise questions about whether the initiatives are effectively targeting students outside universities’ ‘catchment’ areas. With most programs focusing on students in the final years of schooling and on providing information, rather than more active forms of support, the authors conclude that the goals and implementation of university outreach may need to be revisited if real change is to be achieved.

Kindness is one thing we could all do with more of in our lives, and so our issue ends with a book review from Laura Kotevska of ‘Enacting a pedagogy of kindness: A guide for practitioners in higher education’ edited by Grant and Pittaway (2024).

In closing for this issue, I would like to take this opportunity to acknowledge the contribution made by Katie McDowell who, after 12 years of editorial service to the Australian Journal of Education, will be greatly missed by us all. We wish her well and know that some very fortunate community programs will benefit from Katie’s passion and persistence in the next chapter of her career.

Keep reading and learning!