School: Education

This unit information may be updated and amended immediately prior to semester. To ensure you have the correct outline, please check it again at the beginning of semester.

  • Unit Title

    Leading Educational Change: Policy, Practice and Impact
  • Unit Code

    EDU6610
  • Year

    2026
  • Enrolment Period

    1
  • Version

    1
  • Credit Points

    20
  • Full Year Unit

    N
  • Mode of Delivery

  • Unit Coordinator

    A/Prof Matthew BYRNE

Description

In this unit, students will critically examine Australian national and state education policies, including the debates and forces that shape policymaking. Policy implications for leadership roles and responsibilities are examined, focusing on accountability, organisational culture, school autonomy, workforce planning, and societal change.

Learning Outcomes

On completion of this unit students should be able to:

  1. Critically analyse the global, national, and state-level education policies that influence educational systems and leadership practice in Australia.
  2. Assess the implications of education policies for leadership roles, responsibilities, and ethical decision-making within diverse school contexts.
  3. Develop strategies for leading and managing policy-driven change, with attention to organisational culture, accountability, and school autonomy.

Unit Content

  1. Debates and forces that shape policy making.
  2. Key global, national and state education policies.
  3. Policy implications for leadership roles, responsibilities and accountabilities.
  4. Frameworks for enacting policy driven change.
  5. Strategies for leading positive school culture and workforce planning.

Learning Experience

Students will attend on campus classes as well as engage in learning activities through ECU's LMS

JoondalupMount LawleySouth West (Bunbury)
Semester 2Not OfferedNot OfferedNot Offered

For more information see the Semester Timetable

Additional Learning Experience Information

This unit is designed to provide students with a broad range of critical analytic skills and professional knowledge described in the Unit Outline and Syllabus. This will be facilitated through reading, discussion and reflection in class. Students are required to supplement these experiences by engaging with asynchronous online learning activities. Students will contribute to creating a supportive, professional and collegiate group culture. Teamwork and team discussion are essential components of success in this unit.

Assessment

GS1 GRADING SCHEMA 1 Used for standard coursework units

Students please note: The marks and grades received by students on assessments may be subject to further moderation. All marks and grades are to be considered provisional until endorsed by the relevant School Progression Panel.

ONLINE
TypeDescriptionValue
ReviewCritical review of current educational policies40%
Case StudyLocalised policy study60%

Disability Standards for Education (Commonwealth 2005)

For the purposes of considering a request for Reasonable Adjustments under the Disability Standards for Education (Commonwealth 2005), inherent requirements for this subject are articulated in the Unit Description, Learning Outcomes and Assessment Requirements of this entry. The University is dedicated to provide support to those with special requirements. Further details on the support for students with disabilities or medical conditions can be found at the Access and Inclusion website.

Assessment

Students please note: The marks and grades received by students on assessments may be subject to further moderation. Informal vivas may be conducted as part of an assessment task, where staff require further information to confirm the learning outcomes have been met. All marks and grades are to be considered provisional until endorsed by the relevant School Progression Panel.

Academic Integrity

Integrity is a core value at Edith Cowan University, and it is expected that ECU students complete their assessment tasks honestly and with acknowledgement of other people's work as well as any generative artificial intelligence tools that may have been used. This means that assessment tasks must be completed individually (unless it is an authorised group assessment task) and any sources used must be referenced.

Breaches of academic integrity can include:

Plagiarism

Copying the words, ideas or creative works of other people or generative artificial intelligence tools, without referencing in accordance with stated University requirements. Students need to seek approval from the Unit Coordinator within the first week of study if they intend to use some of their previous work in an assessment task (self-plagiarism).

Unauthorised collaboration (collusion)

Working with other students and submitting the same or substantially similar work or portions of work when an individual submission was required. This includes students knowingly providing others with copies of their own work to use in the same or similar assessment task(s).

Contract cheating

Organising a friend, a family member, another student or an external person or organisation (e.g. through an online website) to complete or substantially edit or refine part or all of an assessment task(s) on their behalf.

Cheating in an exam

Using or having access to unauthorised materials in an exam or test.

Serious outcomes may be imposed if a student is found to have committed one of these breaches, up to and including expulsion from the University for repeated or serious acts.

ECU's policies and more information about academic integrity can be found on the student academic integrity website.

All commencing ECU students are required to complete the Academic Integrity Module.

Assessment Extension

In some circumstances, Students may apply to their Unit Coordinator to extend the due date of their Assessment Task(s) in accordance with ECU's Assessment, Examination and Moderation Procedures - for more information visit https://askus2.ecu.edu.au/s/article/000001386.

Special Consideration

Students may apply for Special Consideration in respect of a final unit grade, where their achievement was affected by Exceptional Circumstances as set out in the Assessment, Examination and Moderation Procedures - for more information visit https://askus2.ecu.edu.au/s/article/000003318.

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