Recognising Uniqueness in the Technology Key Learning Area: The Search for Meaning

The purpose of this study was to investigate areas of significance which were related to the understanding of technology and technology education, identified by teachers introducing the key learning area, technology, into their primary school classrooms for the first time. Working from Australia's national document on technology education, A Statement on Technology for Australian Schools (Curriculum Corporation, 1994), two teachers wrestled with how to fit this new curriculum area into their current classroom programs, their understandings of technology as a phenomenon and with their beliefs about teaching and learning in general. The study showed that the teachers made sense of technology education as it related to, from their perspectives, ideas about and aspects of primary school classrooms with which they felt comfortable. Implications for professional development include the need to acknowledge and value the prior experiences and understandings of primary teachers. The challenge for teachers in implementing technology education is gaining a conceptualisation of the learning area, which in some respects, is very like other more familiar learning areas in the primary curriculum, but in many other respects, unique. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Reservation wages, market wages and unemployment: Analysis of individual level panel data

Using individual level panel data, we analyse the divergence between the reservation wages of individuals who are out of work and their predicted market wages, focusing upon identifying the factors that influence the potential divergence. In addition, using propensity score matching techniques, we explore the implications of such divergences for future employment and wages. Our findings suggest that having reservation wages that are high relative to the predicted market wage influence both future employment and future wages.     

The gender reservation wage gap: Evidence from British Panel data

Our findings suggest the existence of a gender reservation wage gap. The presence of children, particularly pre-school age children, plays an important role in determining the proportion of this gap that can be explained by individual characteristics.     

Chinese International Students. An Avant‐Garde of Independent Travellers?

Though most long‐haul Chinese travellers participate in group‐based tours, many young Chinese are now travelling overseas to acquire educational qualifications. These ‘study tourists’ travel independently around their place of study, often accompanied by friends and relatives whom they are hosting. Understanding the characteristics of such independent behaviours may offer insights into China's future outbound travel market. This study of 1400 Chinese studying in Australia highlights distinctions between independent student travellers and youth travellers more generally such as backpackers. The findings challenge established typologies of independent youth travellers and raise prospective implications for marketers. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Addressing Gender-Based Violence: A Critical Review of Interventions

This article highlights the progress in building a knowledgebase on effective ways to increase access to justice for womenwho have experienced gender-based violence, offer quality servicesto survivors, and reduce levels of gender-based violence. Whilerecognizing the limited number of high-quality studies on programeffectiveness, this review of the literature highlights emerginggood practices. Much progress has recently been made in measuringgender-based violence, most notably through a World Health Organizationmulticountry study and Demographic and Health Surveys. Evenso, country coverage is still limited, and much of the informationfrom other data sources cannot be meaningfully compared becauseof differences in how intimate partner violence is measuredand reported. The dearth of high-quality evaluations means thatpolicy recommendations in the short run must be based on emergingevidence in developing economies (process evaluations, qualitativeevaluations, and imperfectly designed impact evaluations) andon more rigorous impact evaluations from developed countries. JEL codes: J16, K42, I18     

The Flexible–Rigid Paradox of Employment Relations at Royal Mail (UK)

This article examines how flexibility and rigidity equally pose a dilemma for management and trade unions. It explores the issue by examining a range of features within the employment relationship at the Royal Mail in the UK. It seeks to demonstrate how, in practice, both management and trade unions can require, pursue and argue for different and competing combinations of flexibility and rigidity. It concludes that it is analytically more useful to examine the content and form of the 'flexible–rigid mix' and explore how this is mediated by political, social and operational/technical processes.     

Expense Preference Behavior and Contract-Management: Evidence from U.S. Hospitals

This paper reports on a study of expense preference behavior in a conditional sample of hospitals (before and after adoption of contract-management arrangements) using an extension of Mester's (1989) test. To identify expense preference parameters, input demand equations are considered in addition to the cost function and are estimated jointly with the cost function as a system of nonlinear equations. Based on this test, contract managers do not appear to be cost minimizers, although they tend to exhibit lower expense preference behavior than salaried managers. The importance of our results, however, goes beyond a single industry because we have shown that estimates of expense preference depend critically upon the particular input demand being studied. Studies that hitherto have relied on single input demand equations or on the cost function alone may have to be reinterpreted in this light.