Educational Re-engagement as Social Inclusion: the role of flexible learning options in alternative provision in Australia

In this article, we interrogate the policy assumptions underlying a significant South Australian public education re-engagement initiative called Flexible Learning Options, formulated within South Australia’s social inclusion policy agenda, beginning in 2006. To this end, we applied Baachi’s ‘What’s the Problem Represented to be?’ policy analysis framework to a historical range of departmental Flexible Learning Options policy documents and evaluations to uncover how Flexible Learning Options (1) understands the problem of early school leaving, (2) defines the notion of being an ‘at risk’ young person and (3) interprets and enacts the intervention process for young people identified as ‘at risk’ of early school leaving. Our policy analysis indicates re-engagement in learning – as measured by improved retention – to be the key Flexible Learning Options policy driver, with schools ‘silently’ positioned as a significant part of the retention in learning problem. The Flexible Learning Options engagement in learning intervention directed at ‘high-risk’ students’ works to remove them from schools into places where personalised support and an alternative curriculum are made available. ‘Lower risk’ students are given a combination of in-school and off-school learning options. Our What’s the Problem Represented to be? analysis also reveals that (1) the notion of ‘risk’ is embodied within the young person and is presented as the predominant cause of early school leaving; (2) how the educational marketplace could work to promote Flexible Learning Options enrolment growth has not been considered; (3) schools are sidelined as first choice engagement options for ‘high-risk’ young people, (4) secondary school redesign and family intervention as alternative reengagement strategies have largely been ignored and (5) through withdrawal from conventional schooling, the access of many Flexible Learning Options to students to an expansive curriculum delivered by teachers within well-resourced school learning architectures has been constrained.

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Cutting the Hedge, Mowing the Lawn: The Role of Domestic Space in the Social Inclusion and Exclusion of Refugees in Rural Denmark

PsycEXTRA Dataset ◽

10.1037/e623252011-001 ◽

2010 ◽

Author(s):

Birgitte Larsen

Keyword(s):

Social Inclusion ◽

Domestic Space ◽

The Social

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Career Guidance: Living on the Edge of Public Policy

The Oxford Handbook of Career Development ◽

10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190069704.013.8 ◽

2020 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

John McCarthy ◽

Tibor Bors Borbély-Pecze

Keyword(s):

Public Policy ◽

Social Inclusion ◽

Career Guidance ◽

Evaluation Studies ◽

National Level ◽

Policy Instruments ◽

Economic Incentives ◽

Policy Formation ◽

Education And Employment

Public policy formation and implementation for career guidance provision are complex issues, not least because in most countries career guidance is a peripheral part of legislation for education, employment, and social inclusion. Policy solutions are compromises by nature. Regulations and economic incentives are the main policy instruments for career guidance provision, but there is often incoherence between the intentions of the regulations and the economic incentives provided for policy implementation. The intermediary organizations that serve to implement policy add significant variability to policy effects. International bodies and organizations have shown significant interest in the role of career guidance in education and employment policies through the undertaking of policy reviews, the formulation of recommendations for career guidance, and, in some cases, providing economic incentives to support their implementation. However, there is a dearth of evaluation studies of policy formation and implementation at the national level.

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Systemic Innovation Areas for Heritage-Led Rural Regeneration: A Multilevel Repository of Best Practices

Sustainability ◽

10.3390/su13095069 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 13 (9) ◽

pp. 5069

Author(s):

Aitziber Egusquiza ◽

Mikel Zubiaga ◽

Alessandra Gandini ◽

Claudia de Luca ◽

Simona Tondelli

Keyword(s):

Best Practices ◽

Environmental Sustainability ◽

Rural Areas ◽

Role Models ◽

Social Inclusion ◽

Work Support ◽

Community Capitals ◽

Community Capitals Framework ◽

Systemic Innovation

This paper presents the result of the analysis of the data gathered from 20 Role Models (RM) case studies regarding their successful heritage-led rural regeneration models. For the study and comparison of the narratives of these Role Models two tools were used: the Community Capitals Framework, which studied the transference of capitals in each process and the identification of six Systemic Innovation Areas that allow this capital transference. A multilevel repository of best practices has been developed allowing the identification of common features, mechanisms for mobilisation of capitals and required resources that will facilitate the replication in other rural areas. The results of this work support the acknowledgement of the contribution of culture, together with cultural and natural heritage, to economic growth, social inclusion and environmental sustainability in rural areas reinforcing the role of culture as the fourth pillar of sustainable development.

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Flexible learning options for the degree MMedVet (Chir) : to the editor

Journal of the South African Veterinary Association ◽

10.4102/jsava.v74i2.500 ◽

2003 ◽

Vol 74 (2) ◽

Author(s):

P. Bland-van den Berg ◽

P. Stadler ◽

P.H. Turner

Keyword(s):

Flexible Learning ◽

Learning Options

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Psychosocial Links Between Internet Use and Mental Health in Later Life: A Systematic Review of Quantitative and Qualitative Evidence

Journal of Applied Gerontology ◽

10.1177/0733464815595509 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 36 (12) ◽

pp. 1471-1518 ◽

Cited By ~ 40

Author(s):

Anna K. Forsman ◽

Johanna Nordmyr

Keyword(s):

Mental Health ◽

Systematic Review ◽

Social Inclusion ◽

Internet Use ◽

Healthy Aging ◽

Positive Association ◽

Later Life ◽

Individual Level ◽

Information And Communication

Research on the role of information and communication technology (ICT) use for active aging is limited. The aim of this systematic review is to investigate the link between Internet use and mental health among older adults. The review was conducted based on searches in 9 electronic databases (2002-2014). A meta-synthesis approach was applied, examining quantitative (18) and qualitative (14) studies. The findings from the synthesis of quantitative statistical data indicate an overall positive association between Internet use and mental health and its psychosocial covariates in later life. The psychosocial links between Internet use and mental health identified from the qualitative data were (a) enhanced interpersonal interaction at individual level, (b) increased access to resources within the community, and (c) empowered social inclusion at society level. The results highlight the multi-level psychosocial links between Internet use and mental health, which may be applied in initiatives targeting healthy aging in various settings.

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Urban Policy in theNewScotland: The Role of Social Inclusion Partnerships

Space and Polity ◽

10.1080/1356257042000309634 ◽

2004 ◽

Vol 8 (3) ◽

pp. 309-319 ◽

Cited By ~ 6

Author(s):

CHRIS MCWILLIAMS ◽

CHARLIE JOHNSTONE ◽

GERRY MOONEY

Keyword(s):

Urban Policy ◽

Social Inclusion

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The role of the internet in testimony: the case of the ‘Forgotten Australians’

Media Culture & Society ◽

10.1177/0163443714545002 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 36 (8) ◽

pp. 1151-1167 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Barbara Adkins ◽

Donna Hancox

Keyword(s):

Web 2.0 ◽

Social Inclusion ◽

Church And State ◽

The Internet ◽

Case Examples ◽

Abuse And Neglect ◽

The Uk ◽

Past Experiences ◽

National Museum Of Australia

This article examines the case of the Forgotten Australians as an opportunity to examine the role of the internet in the presentation of testimony. ‘Forgotten Australians’ are a group who suffered abuse and neglect after being removed from their parents – either in Australia or in the UK – and placed in Church- and State-run institutions in Australia between 1930 and 1970. The campaign by this profoundly marginalized group coincided with the decade in which the opportunities of Web 2.0 were seen to be diffusing throughout different social groups, and were considered a tool for social inclusion. We outline a conceptual framework that positions the role of the internet as an environment in which the difficult relationships between painful past experiences and contemporary injunctions to remember them, are negotiated. We then apply this framework to the analysis of case examples of posts and interaction on websites with web 2.0 functionality: YouTube and the National Museum of Australia. The analysis points to commonalities and differences in the agency of the internet in these two contexts, arguing that in both cases the websites provided support for the development of a testimony-like narrative and the claiming, sharing and acknowledgement of loss.

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