Professor Margaret Vickers
Professor Margaret Vickers has research expertise in the areas of:
- Youth in transition: staying on / dropping out of school
- Senior secondary curricullum
- Engaging young people from backgrounds of socio-educational disadvantage
- Education of children with refugee backgrounds
- Student participation in part-time employment
Professor Vickers has authored several studies on secondary schooling for socially and economically vulnerable populations, on early school leaving and youth in transition. She is known for her large-scale quantitative analyses of variations in high school completion rates over time, in relation to demographic factors, and curriculum and assessment regimes. Using the Longitudinal Surveys of Australian Youth data, she has written about the effects of VET in school programs on high school completion rates and the effects of students’ participation in part-time employment in relation to early leaving. With a team of UWS and CSU researchers, and in partnership with the NSW Department of Education and Training, she is currently leading a research project focussed on the implications and effects of the decision to raise the school leaving age in NSW. Over the past three years she has also been working in Western Sydney schools with African refugee groups and with community organizations including the Australian Literacy and Numeracy Foundation and the Australian National Schools Network. Through a series of inter-linked research and action programs, she and her colleagues have developed strategies for providing support for African refugee students and their teachers. Her research mostly has an applied focus, as the major part of her career was spent working on policy issues for the Paris-based OECD, for the Australian Commonwealth government, and in on a range of curriculum development and research projects in the USA.
Qualifications
BSc (Melbourne), MSc (Melbourne), MEd (Harvard), EdD (Harvard)
Selected Publications
Books
Connell, R., Campbell, C., Vickers, M., Welch, A., Foley, D., Bagnall, N., (2006) Education, Change and Society, Oxford: Oxford University Press
Ferfolja, T., Vickers, M., McCarthy, F. E., Naidoo, L. and Brace, E. (in press) Crossing Borders: African Refugees, Teachers and Schools. Sydney: Common Ground
Chapters
Vickers, M. H .(in press) The Senior Secondary Curriculum in New South Wales: Academic traditions face issues of retention. In Yates, L., Collins, C. and O’Connor, K. Australia’s Curriculum Dilemmas: State perspectives and changing times
Vickers, M. H. (2010). Youth Transition. In RW Connell et al, Education, Change and Society. Melbourne: Oxford University Press.
Vickers, M. H. (2010). Gender. In RW Connell et al, Education, Change and Society. Melbourne: Oxford University Press.
Vickers, M. H. (2010). Curriculum. In RW Connell et al, Education, Change and Society. Melbourne: Oxford University Press.
Vickers, M. H. & Ha, T. (2007) The imagined curriculum: Who studies computing and information technology subjects at the senior secondary level? in J. Lynch (ed), Gender and IT: Challenges for Computing and Information Technology education in Australian secondary schools, Sydney: Australian Curriculum Studies Association and Common Ground Publishers.
Vickers, M. H. (2007) Reversing the lens: Transforming teacher education through service learning, in S. Billig and S. Gelmon (eds), From Passion to Objectivity: International and Cross-Disciplinary Perspectives on Service Learning Research, North Carolina: Information Age Publishing.
Journal Articles
Ferfolja, T & Vickers, M. H. (2010) Supporting refugee students in school education in Greater Western Sydney. Critical Studies in Education, 51 (2), 149-162
McCarthy, F. & Vickers, M. H. (2008). Digital Natives, dropouts and refugees: Educational challenges for innovative cities. Innovation, Management, Policy & Practice, 10: (2-3), 257-268.
Vickers, M. H. (2005) School, work and social change: Revisiting the gender equity debate, Pacific Asian Education, 17 (2), 46-58.
Vickers, M. H. (2005) In the common good: The need for a new approach to funding Australia’s schools, Australian Journal of Education, 49 (3), 264-277.
Vickers, M. H. (2004) Markets and Mobilities: Dilemmas facing the comprehensive neighbourhood school, Melbourne Studies in Education, 45 (2), 1-22.
Vickers, M. H., Harris, C. & McCarthy (2003) University-Community Engagement: Exploring Service Learning Options within the Practicum, Australia- Pacific Journal of Teacher Education, 32 (2), 129-141.
Vickers, M. H. & Lamb, S. (2002) Why state policies matter: the influence of Curriculum policy on participation in post-compulsory education and training, Australian Journal of Education, 46 (2), 172-188.
Reports
Ferfolja, T., McCarthy, F., Naidoo, L. & Vickers, M. H. (2009). The Refugee Action Support (RAS) program evaluation. Bankstown: The University of Western Sydney.
Lamb, S. & Vickers, M. H. (2006) Variations in VET provision across Australian schools and their effects on student outcomes, LSAY Research Report No 48, Melbourne: ACER.
Lamb, S.; Teese, R.; Walstab, A.; Vickers, M. & Rumberger, R. (2004). Staying on at school: Improving school retention in Australia. Queensland Department of Education.
Polesel, J., Teese, R., Davies, M., Helme, S. & Vickers, M. (2003). VET in Schools: Culture, Policy, and the Employment and Training Impact. NCVER: Adelaide.
Vickers, M. H., Lamb, S, & Hinkley, J. (2003) Student Workers in High School and Beyond: the Effects of Part-Time Employment on Participation in Education, Training and Work, LSAY Research Report No 30, Melbourne: ACER.
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