Sure, smaller classes would be good, but at what opportunity costs, asks Dean Ashenden
01 Mar 13 Comments (12)Evolutionary tinkering in revolutionary times
The current system of teacher education isn’t working for many students. Dean Ashenden looks at the alternatives, and their adversaries
15 Feb 13 Comments (15)Decline and fall?
Twenty-five years ago, John Dawkins dramatically reshaped higher education. His critics still fail to distinguish the good from the bad in his reforms, writes Dean Ashenden
22 Nov 12 Comments (9)Frank Gagliado’s schooling: a one-hundred year view
All’s not necessarily well in the classroom even when it ends well, writes Dean Ashenden
17 Oct 12 Comments (8)The revolution that became a crusade
The government has at last come up with the outline of a strategy for reforming schools, writes Dean Ashenden. The worry is in what the prime minister didn’t say
05 Sep 12 Comments (0)Gonski, again
Gonski’s recommendations can work if we keep in mind how they might fail, writes Dean Ashenden
02 Aug 12 Comments (0)Retro gastronomy
Dean Ashenden looks at Australians’ enthusiasm for new foods and our readiness to adapt, improvise and reinvent
28 Jun 12 Comments (0)Good at gardening, hopeless at engineering
Restless innovation saved Australian schools from their structural problems, writes Dean Ashenden. But now the strains are well and truly showing
13 Jun 12 Comments (2)Whose university website?
One vital question has been overlooked in the coverage of the federal government’s My University website, writes Dean Ashenden. Why duplicate a service that already exists?
05 Apr 12 Comments (5)Gonski’s review: another salvo in the Hundred Years’ War
Strongly argued, thoroughly evidenced, and unlikely to succeed. Dean Ashenden looks at the Gonski report on school funding
24 Feb 12 Comments (3)The strange career of the Australian conscience
Dean Ashenden traces the collaboration between anthropologists Baldwin Spencer and Frank Gillen, “bearers, shapers and captives of the Australian conscience”
10 Jun 10 Comments (3)Windschuttle, again
BOOKS | Keith Windschuttle brings the temperament of a barrister to his latest subject, the stolen generations, writes Dean Ashenden
15 Mar 10 Comments (4)Battle over a war
For three decades the Australian War Memorial has been the focus of a struggle between two ways of knowing the past, writes Dean Ashenden
02 Jun 09 Comments (0)They say they want a revolution
There’s plenty of scope for the federal government’s “revolution” in schooling but few signs of the ideas and resources it would require, writes Dean Ashenden
19 Feb 09 Comments (3)Luhrmann, us, and them
Two films made sixty years apart are a reminder of how hard it is to tell the story of Australia, writes Dean Ashenden
18 Dec 08 Comments (3)
