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The Australian Centre for Student Equity and Success acknowledges Indigenous peoples across Australia as the Traditional Owners of the lands on which the nation’s campuses are situated. With a history spanning more than 60,000 years as the original educators, Indigenous peoples hold a unique place in our nation. We recognise the importance of their knowledge and culture, and reflect the principles of participation, equity, and cultural respect in our work. We pay our respects to Elders past, present, and future, and consider it an honour to learn from our Indigenous colleagues, partners, and friends.

You are reading: Congratulations! ARC Fellowships for 2014

NCSEHE is pleased to congratulate Dr Philip D Parker at Australian Catholic University, who has been awarded an Australian Research Council (ARC) Discovery Early Career Fellowship for his project, “Closing the Disadvantaged Gap: Self-Beliefs and Task Value as Drivers of Educational Choices During the Post High School Transition.”

“Australia’s economic future requires education to close the gap between disadvantaged and advantaged students. Even successful interventions, however, typically increase the gap with advantaged students benefitting more. Whilst most efforts focus on test scores, evidence suggests that non-cognitive outcomes (such as, self- concept, task value, motivation and social context) are critical in closing the gap. This project will test these predictions for successful educational transitions by disadvantaged students, using an innovative blend of multiple large-scale primary and secondary data sources, and new, evolving statistical models. This project will provide potential actions for strengthening the economic and social future of disadvantaged youth in Australia and beyond.”

and to Associate Professor Valerie Harwood from the University of Wollongong, who has received an ARC Future Fellowship for her project, which aims to improve aspirations for educational futures in LSES early childhood settings:

“Children from low socio-economic status (LSES) backgrounds are three times less likely to attend university than their high socio-economic status peers. For families without experience of higher education it is difficult to know how to encourage young children’s aspiration for educational futures. This project aims to improve aspirations for educational futures in LSES early childhood settings. A social marketing intervention targeting parents, children and early childhood educators will be developed and longitudinal interviews will be conducted to understand the development of aspirations by LSES families with young children. The project will produce a unique ‘education promotion’ strategy for early childhood.”

NCSEHE looks forward to working with both Fellows in 2014 following these exciting projects.

 

The Australian Research Council (ARC) is a statutory agency with a mission to “deliver policy and programs that advance Australian research and innovation globally and benefit the community.” More details on ARC funding can be found here.