Access, achievement and the spatial distribution of curriculum in senior secondary schooling

Project Timeline:  2018 – December 2025.

This project examines potential inequalities in access to curriculum and achievement in senior secondary schooling. This research began with analysis of the NSW senior secondary certificate, known as the Higher School Certificate (HSC). It is evolving to include other Australian jurisdictions.

The research involves a comprehensivestudy of curriculum access and achievement in the NSW HSC with reference to the sociocultural characteristics of students and schools. It does so in order to understand the individual and institutional (school) level influences on access to—and achievement in—the NSW HSC. Individual characteristics will include prior achievement of students, family background, socioeconomic status (SES), residential location, gender, migration status, and whether students identify as Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander (ATSI). At the school level we are examining types of schools, subject availability, ability streaming, community characteristics, and location.

This is a large-scale data analysis project that draws on school and individual level data from state and territory education systems in Australia.

By examining access and achievement at a state or territory level, we can better understand why some students choose certain subjects, the opportunities their subject choices afford, and the broader influences on their subject choices and subsequent achievement. By understanding access and achievement at an individual level, we can also gain insight into social and economic influences on student subject selections, while examination at a school level allows insight into issues of school competition and the decisions of school leadership in relation to subject offerings.

Publications

• Dean, J. & Roberts, P. (2021 in press) History, Space and Schooling Inequality Among Indigenous Australians. In E J. Done & H Knowler International Perspectives on Exclusionary Pressures in Education: How Inclusion becomes Exclusion. Palgrave Macmillan.
• Dean, J. & Roberts, P. (2021). Knowledge, justice and equity: Access to the academic curriculum among Indigenous school students in Australia. In T. Neimann,  J. J. Felix, J. Shliakhovchuk, & L. L. Hindman. Policy and Practice Challenges for Equality in Education. IGI Global.
• Dean, J., Roberts, P. & Perry, L. (2021). School equity, marketisation and access to the Australian senior secondary curriculum. Educational Review, 1-21. https://doi.org/10.1080/00131911.2021.1909537
• Roberts, P. (2019) Poorer NSW students study subjects less likely to get them into uni. The Conversation.
• Roberts, P., Dean, J., & Lommatsch, G. (2019). Still Winning? Social Inequity in the NSW Senior Secondary Curriculum Hierarchy. Rural Education and Communities research group. University of Canberra. Centre for Sustainable Communities Monograph Series No.1.
• Roberts, P. (2016). Place, rural education and social justice: A study of rural teaching and curriculum politics (Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Charles Sturt University).

Related Products

• ARC DECRA: Engaging rural knowledges for sustainable futures: spatial justice and rural schooling
• ARC Discovery Project: Building rural knowledges: connecting classrooms, communities and learners with curriculum