Welcome to Curriculum and Leadership Journal. The journal ispublished by Education Services Australia (ESA) as a free online service for the Australian and New Zealand school education communities, with the support of the Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership (AITSL).
Curriculum and Leadership Journal aims to provide comprehensive coverage of issues concerning school education leaders in Australia and New Zealand, while also aiming for a broad international perspective. Its audience includes senior staff in schools, officers in education authorities, teacher educators, professional association staff, consultants, journalists, and researchers.
The journal takes up issues and trends relating to primary and secondary education. Core subject areas are curriculum, leadership and management, technology, pedagogy, the teaching profession, and assessment. Vocational and careers education at the secondary school level are covered, as well as the transition from school to work and higher education. There is also some coverage of early childhood education, particularly in terms of the transition to school.
The journal appeared weekly between February 2003 and April 2011 and is now published fortnightly, on alternative Fridays during school terms. Readers are able to receive an email alert each Friday prior to each issue’s publication.
The web-based version of the journal has now been complemented by an interactive digital edition. This image-rich version of the journal contains selected content from the fortnightly web version. Developed initially for iPads, it will be free to download and available at the App Store.
The journal’s contents
The Articles section contains feature material written for the journal by educational leaders and other experts.
The Abstracts section contains summaries of articles and conference papers selected from a wide range of education journals and published conference proceedings. The abstracts offer links to help readers to access the full text of articles and papers summarised.
Tables of contents are listed for journals and conference proceedings published in print or online.
The New Publications section offers regular updates on new print- or web-based books and reports.
What's New provides news and announcements from the school education community.
The journal site also provides
A calendar listing details of upcoming events.
Links to a wide range of websites for organisations, databases and other sites offering resources for school leaders.
A Back issues section offering access to archived copies of the journal. Each edition since February 2005 is separately archived. Material from back issues published in 2003 and 2004 can be accessed via the site's search engine.
The articles, papers, books and reports summarised in Curriculum and Leadership Journal are selected for their perceived value to readers, according to criteria such as subject relevance, currency, authoritativeness of source, and authoritativeness of author. The most common sources for articles are academic or professional journals, periodicals from school education authorities, and newspapers. Conference papers are selected from published conference proceedings.
How to access the full text of articles and papers summarised in the journal
Access to material published free of charge on the web
To access articles, papers and reports on the web, click on the title of the item, which is hyperlinked to the full text. A new browser window will open containing the full text of the piece on the publisher’s website. Full text articles can also be accessed via the ‘View full article free online’ link that appears under the abstract.
Access to material available for a fee on the web
To access articles available for a fee from the publisher, click on the 'Purchase full text online from the publisher' link that appears under the abstract. A new browser window will open to a relevant section of the publisher’s website. Curriculum and Leadership Journal does not have any commercial relationship with the publishers concerned.
Access to material available only in printed form
To access printed articles, papers, books and reports, click on the link to the publisher provided with the summary of the text. Readers may then wish to ask the publisher for a complimentary copy of the item, subscribe to the journal, or negotiate other forms of access.
Readers may also wish to access library copies of the item. The National Library of Australia provides a national directory of library websites covering libraries at universities and government departments, as well as state libraries. See also the National Library of New Zealand's catalogues and the Te Puna Web Directory of New Zealand libraries and Pacific Island websites.
The journal's archive of material from back copies
Curriculum and Leadership Journal has been published since February 2003. The journal website provides access to all articles, abstracts, tables of contents, new publications and What’s New items published since the commencement of the journal.
Each edition since February 2005 is separately archived. They can be accessed via the Back Issues button. Past editions published in 2003 and 2004 are no longer separately archived.
All content published since February 2003 can be accessed via the website's search engine.
The search engine: simple searches using the Search box
The simplest way to search is by entering a word or phrase in the Search box on the top left of the screen.The search engine retrieves articles, abstracts, journal and conference contents listings, new publications and news items from all issues of the journal by searching across a range of indexes.
Sample searches
Teacher will find all items containing the word teacher.
Teacher training will find all items containing the word teacher and the word training.
“longitudinal study of teacher change” will find items containing the phrase longitudinal study of teacher change.
“longitudinal study of teac” will find items containing any phrase that begins with ‘longitudinal study of teac’ such as ‘longitudinal study of teacher change’, ‘longitudinal study of teachers’ etc.
Teacher training “primary education” will find all items containing the word teacher and the word training and the phrase ‘primary education’.
Assessment or reporting will find all items containing assessment or reporting or both.
(Assessment or reporting) (queensland or tasmania) will find all items containing assessment or reporting or both which also contain either queensland or Tasmania or both.
Class will find class, classes, classification etc.
“wom*n” will find items containing woman or women. Note the need for double inverted commas.
Advanced searches
The advanced search enables users to limit their search by various criteria using drop down menus. Click on the ‘Advanced search’ box beside the search box, top left of screen.
The Advanced search function allows limiting of results by:
Key Learning Area. To select more than one KLA, hold down the Control key when clicking on each KLA to be searched
Subject Heading.To select more than one subject heading, hold down the Control key, when clicking on each subject to be searched.
Periodical title. This option will limit results to abstracts or tables of contents from a particular peridical.
Date of publication in Curriculum and Leadership Journal. Note: this is not the same as the date on which the original article etc. being summarised was originally published, which is not searchable. Date searches can be done with just a lower range (start date), just a higher range (end date), or a range (start and end dates). Date ranges are exclusive, searching after/before that date, but not including that date.
Other tips when using Advanced Search
In the Advanced search, only the first search text field can be used for Full Text searching.
The searcher must fill in each successive search text field to have the one below included in the search criteria. Eg. filling out only the third search text field will yield no results from the search.
Searches can be limited by KLAs, Periodicals and date ranges regardless of whether one two or all the search text fields are filled in.
The staff of Curriculum and Leadership Journal
Tony Sullivan is the journal's editor and project manager. He has worked for Education Services Australia and one of its former companies, Curriculum Corporation, since 2002. He has previously held positions at the State Library of Victoria in research and knowledge management, and at RMIT as lecturer and tutor. He holds a B A (Hons) from the University of Melbourne and a Graduate Diploma in Library and Information Studies from RMIT, and is currently completing a Master of Communication course at RMIT. Tony has been a parent representative on the councils of two public primary schools in Victoria. Contact: tony.sullivan@esa.edu.au, (w) 03 9207-9679, (mob) 0422-097060.