Subject guides: Education & Curriculum Studies: Databases for Education

Education databases

Use Library databases to search for journal articles, book chapters and reports.

Databases are online collections of resources that you can search to find information. Some databases cover a particular subject area and some cover a range of disciplines. Most library databases require a unikey login.

When searching databases think of synonyms, broader, narrower and related terms for the concepts you are searching. Use the features in the systems to refine your search (such as limiting by peer review or date), making the results more relevant.

BOOLEAN OPERATORS are used in database searching:

AND narrows your search, use AND to combine different concepts

OR broadens your search, use OR to combine synonyms or related terms

ERIC : Educational Resources Information Center (1966 - present)
A+ Education
PsycInfo via OvidSP (1806 - present)
Education & Curriculum Studies Databases
This is a list of databases relevant to Education

Multidisciplinary databases

Multi-disciplinary databases
Includes Google Scholar Database
News Services
Includes Factiva Newspaper Database

Thesauri

The way in which a concept, topic or subject is described varies greatly across disciplines. In some disciplines subject and concept descriptors are very precise and in others there are multiple descriptors/terms that may relate to a specific concept. Education and the Social Sciences frequently have a multiplicity of relevant search terms. Specialist thesauri will help you explore the terminology that relates to your research area and the particular database you are searching. Thesauri may help you to focus or broaden your search, help you locate synonyms and related terms for your concepts. Many database have a thesaurus built into the search options.

Australian Thesaurus of Education Descriptors
For use with the A+ Education Database. This is officially the Australian Thesaurus of Education Descriptors, these terms are used to index in the A+ Education Database.
Thesaurus of ERIC Descriptors (Thesaurus)
Education Resources Information Centre, Use these Descriptors when searching the ERIC database. This Thesaurus of ERIC Descriptors, is a list of education-related terms - sometimes called controlled vocabulary - used by ERIC to organise database materials by subject. The Thesaurus is a tool for finding documents relevant to a searcher's area of interest.
AIATSIS Pathways Thesaurus
A thesaurus for subjects relating to Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander studies, language groups and people, and place names.
ScOT Schools online thesaurus
The Schools Online Thesaurus (ScOT) provides a controlled vocabulary of terms used in Australian and New Zealand schools. Managed by Education Services Australia
Voced Plus Thesaurus
VOCED Tertiary Education Resource Database. This website contains a list of subjects and keywords used to classify all items indexed in the VOCEDplus database which is freely available.
Family Database Thesaurus
From Australian Institute of Family Studies. This thesaurus can be used with Family: Australian Family & Society Abstracts Database. Useful for social work, sociology and social policy topics.
American Society for Indexing Online Thesaurus
Lists a variety of thesauri, authority files and lists of controlled vocabulary available online.

Finding theses

An academic dissertation or thesis is a large research paper written by students in order to complete their master's or doctoral degrees (PhD).

TROVE
Free resource. Find Australian Theses using TROVE.
Australian Education Research Theses Database/ ACER
NOTE: Click on link on page then select Usyd to access database. Over 20,000 theses are listed dating back to 1919, and over 7,500 of these are available in full text. It also includes some overseas theses on Australian education topics.
EBSCO Open Dissertations
Open access, freely available dissertations

A+ Education via Informit Online
Unikey required. The A+Education Database indexes Australian theses. Search for your topic, combine this with a search for Document Type: Theses
Terms & Conditions (pdf)
Dissertations & Theses Global via Proquest
Unikey required. This is a major source for doctoral dissertations and masters theses, particularly from the USA, with full-text links from 1997 to present.
Terms & conditions

More information on finding theses
University of Sydney or other Universities

Streamed media databases

Films for Action
A free database of films for social change.

Education in Video Series: Volume 1 & 2 (Alexander Street)
Unikey required. Includes video content of demonstrations, lectures, documentaries, primary-source footage of students and teachers in actual classrooms.

TV News
Unikey required. Australian free-to-air television news, current affairs and selected documentaries.
Kanopy Streaming Video Platform
Unikey required. Access to hundreds of documentaries and films, stream directly to your computer or TV.

ERIC - the essential education database

ERIC : Educational Resources Information Center (1966 - present) via Proquest
via OvidSP
via WEB
via Ebsco
Important database for education
References journal articles and unpublished documents on educational theory and practice. Indexes research on education policy and practice in development contexts.

ERIC on OVID Video Tutorial
Comprehensive instruction about searching ERIC via the OVID platform
Video: How ERIC can help you write a research paper
This video walks you through the process of writing a research paper using the free version of ERIC on the web https://eric.ed.gov

International Education Database

Database of Research on International Education
This free searchable database is managed by the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER) and contains details of more than 16 200 books, articles, conference papers and reports on various aspects of international education from publishers in Australia and abroad.

Citation databases

Web of Science Core Collections
A curated collection, containing over 21,100 peer-reviewed, high-quality scholarly journals published worldwide (including Open Access journals) in over 250 sciences, social sciences, and arts & humanities disciplines. Conference proceedings and book data are also available. Contains cited references.
Scopus
Scopus is a large multidisciplinary database covering published material in the humanities and sciences. It also provides citation analysis of authors and subject areas.
Google Scholar
Google Scholar is multidisciplinary database, it provides links to cited references. You will often get large search results so to refine your search by date or use the advanced search function.

Image databases

Google Arts and Culture
All the major art museums and history and cultural museums have put their image databases on this site. Browse by medium, theme, artist, art movements and more.
British Library Flickr Commons Images
Over one million images on Flickr Commons for anyone to use, remix and re-purpose.
CSIRO Science Image
The CSIRO allows anyone to freely use, repost and transform the collection’s 4000+ high definition images and videos. Includes environmental, industrial, agricultural and technological research images, a wonderful resource for teachers & students.
Getty Search Gateway
Free images from the Getty Museum
Images from National Museum of Australia
Over 20,000 images to use for assessment tasks and in the classroom.
The Met Free Images
Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY. To identify these images, look for the OA Public Domain icon directly below the image.
NASA Image and Video Library
Search, discover and download NASA images, videos and audio files covering aeronautics, astrophysics, earth science, human spaceflight, and more. Users now can embed content in their own sites and choose from multiple resolutions to download.
NGA Images
More than 53,000 open access digital images up to 4000 pixels each are available free of charge for download and use.
Pexels - website of free images
All photos on Pexels are licensed under the Creative Commons Zero (CC0) license. This means the pictures are completely free to be used for any legal purpose.
Pixabay free images
ll contents are released under Creative Commons CC0, which makes them safe to use without asking for permission or giving credit to the artist - even for commercial purposes.
Moving and Still images - list of resources
From the Library's Contemporary Art Guide.