The degree of job satisfaction experienced by site-based construction professionals

The construction industry worldwide is having problems attracting and retaining skilled workers. This study analyses a series of factors affecting job satisfaction of site-based construction professionals employed in medium to large scale metropolitan construction firms in Melbourne, Australia. The industry survey carried out identified salary as the strongest determinant of job satisfaction. However, many respondents reported being dissatisfied with pay levels when compared to other industries and the number of work hours expected. The greatest causes of dissatisfaction were related to difficulties in maintaining a work-life balance. The indicator "Variety, interest and challenge" was the most frequently cited positive aspect of a career in construction. Given the shortage of skilled construction workers in Australia, it is important for companies to maximise the retention of site-based construction professionals and ensure that key job satisfaction indicators are met.

Cervical cancer services for Indigenous Women: Advocacy, Community-Based Research and Policy Change in Australia

Collaborative research undertaken in the state of Queensland, Australia, resulted in major changes in cervical cancer screening and treatment for Indigenous women. Guided by an Indigenous statewide reference group and with an Indigenous researcher playing a lead role, qualitative data were collected using interviews, focus groups, and larger community meetings; and case studies were conducted with health workers and community members from diverse rural, remote and urban communities, to explore the different cultural and structural factors affecting understanding and awareness of cervical cancer and Indigenous women's use of and access to health services for screening, diagnosis and treatment. These data were supplemented by an analysis of clinical data and health service checklists. We discuss the methodology and summarize the key social and structural factors that discourage women from presenting for screening or returning for follow-up. These include women's misunderstanding of cervical cancer screening, fear of cancer, distrust of health services, poor recall and follow-up systems, and the economic and social burden to women presenting for treatment. We describe how the research process and subsequent activities provided Indigenous women with a vehicle for their own advocacy, resulting in important policy and program changes.

Power and production in site-based management: the responses of women secondary principals to structural reform in South Australian education

After describing and analysing the purpose and shape of structural reform in Australia, the author uses the data gained from interviews with 16 South Australian women principals, to examine its effects on the work of principals. She uses her analysis to issue some warnings about the current moves to Local School Management in South Australia

Traversing theory and transgressing academic discourses : arts-based research in teacher education

Pre-service teacher education is marked by linear and sequential programming which offers a plethora of strategies and methods (Cochran-Smith & Zeichner, 2005; Darling Hammond & Bransford, 2005; Grant & Zeichner, 1997). This paper emerges from a three year study within a core education subject in preservice teacher education in Australia. This ‘practitioner’ research (Zeichner, 1999) engaged the problematics of authentic and meaningful learner-centred teaching and learning through an arts-based curriculum. Over the period of the study, two hundred and eighty pre-service teachers participated in a ‘dialogical performance’ (Conquergood, 2003) of pedagogy about curriculum and assessment through the construction of art about curriculum and assessment. The possibilities of an arts-based pedagogy in pre-service education were affirmed by the research. An enacted epistemological move by the teacher educators led to similar shifts by the students. This opened a space for the reappearance of learner through engagements with identities, positionings and agency. This was an act of ‘putting theory to work’ (Lather, 2006, 2007) and invoked transgressive practices of academic discourses.

Development of enhanced curriculum through student-based research

The introduction of the new “Early Years Learning Framework” (DEEWR, 2009 has shifted, the focus in Early Childhood Centres (ECC) from incidental learning through play, to planning curriculum with play as the vehicle to achieve learning. Our Teaching and Learning Grant Project was intended to identify instances of educator practice that fit with the new framework, and video practitioners’ sessions to select vignettes to use as part of an Early Childhood Science Education Unit. The method of identifying and collecting such illustrations is examined here for its feasibility as a research design to collect data to explore a range of educator practices that fit with the new framework. The data collection method was found useful for these purposes.

"Flows and catchments" : a mixed method study utilising nvivo to facilitate cross-disciplinary collaboration incorporating practice-based research

This paper responds to the problem of how Practice-Based Research (PBR) can be usefully incorporated into a cross-disciplinary, Mixed Method project design, by considering a non-conventional use of the NVivo qualitative analysis software package. NVivo also proves valuable in maximising the creative-arts practice interdisciplinary potential within PBR itself. The ensuing discussion centres around Deakin University’s ‘Flows and Catchments’ research and teaching initiative.

Exploring first year teachers’ identity transformation through theatre-based research

Why are beginning teachers leaving the profession in large numbers? Are they leaving because of their dissatisfaction with teaching? Are they leaving because of the conditions of their work that shape their identity? Teacher identity work emphasises it is important beginning teachers understand their professional identity as something shifting, fluid and emerging – not fixed. These and other water metaphors – such as ‘washout’, ‘sink or swim’, and ‘thrown in the deep end’ – are often used to describe beginning teachers’ experiences. Such words and metaphors assist to portray the fluid and unpredictable nature of identity transformation. However, these survival terms also influence beginning teachers to believe that their transition to teaching will be difficult. Recently there has been an increased concern over beginning teacher attrition linked to the difficulties they encounter in their early years of teaching. Yet the conditions of beginning teachers’ work in Victorian schools in Australia – including the contractual nature of employment of first year (1yr) teachers – encourage these 1yr practitioners to view their work as semi-permanent. As a result these 1yr teachers do not see themselves as teaching for extended periods of time, as was once the case. Throughout 2011 twelve 1yr teachers shared their experiences of identity transformation in semi-structured interviews with the researcher. Their interview data was analysed through a theatre-based research method, examining how first experiences shape teachers’ future practice and identity. This presentation includes excerpts from the theatre-based research performance ‘The First Time’, and expands on the methodological approaches taken to analyse the data in a way that reflects the fluid and unpredictable nature of teachers’ identity formation and transformation. This qualitative study allows categories of description to emerge from the data rather than pre-determining categories of investigation. As such the processes of scripting, rehearsing, and performing, were utilised to analyse and re-present the data. In an aim to uncover questions that have been buried by answers, the research is oriented as a phenomenographic inquiry. This mode of inquiry seeks to describe, analyse, and understand the qualitatively different experiences 1yr teachers undergo in their identity formation and transformation. The results of this research reveal that beginning teachers’ identity transformation through their first experiences have both individual features specific to each teacher’s roles and aspirations, and extra-individual factors such as interactions, affiliations, and status, which shape their identity. Categories of description that have emerged from the analysis include survival, liminal, and hegemonic discourses, artifacts as symbols of belonging, and the impact of the contractual nature of teaching. Implications of this research focus on the importance for beginning teachers to develop an understanding of the transformative nature of identity in relation to the practice of teaching, to counter the negative preconceptions beginning teachers are told to expect as rites of passage upon entering the profession. The research outcomes have implications for teacher educators and in-service teachers negotiating the waters of an ever-changing profession.

Performing beginning teachers’ ‘firsts’: exploring a theatre-based research method

Theatre-based research methods have been employed in a variety of ways to transcend more traditional research methods, and bring research findings to a broader and relevant audience. Performing research to an 'expert' audience is transformative in nature. The audience share a collective understanding of the material presented, where their understandings can be challenged or confirmed. The ethical responsibilities of the theatre-based researcher are therefore paramount in presenting the research in a manner that respects the research participants, and allows the audience to make informed judgements.This paper outlines my experience in devising and performing 'The First Time' - a performance about twelve beginning teachers' firsts. The performance was constructed from their interview data and performed by teachers - most of who are drama teachers – in order to sensitively represent the real stories of the research participants. The research was framed within a practice theory approach (Schatzki 2001) with a focus on the transformation of practices situated within a particular time and place. The method of performing the research to an 'expert' audience of performing arts practitioners, teachers, and teacher educators created an opportunity for both the transformation of teaching practice and the transformation of theatre.The research findings focus on the importance of creativity and flexibility in an approach to both research and teaching. The outcomes of my research have implications for theatre-based researchers, as well as teacher educators, in-service teachers, and beginning teachers. All these practitioners are continually negotiating the waters of their ever-changing professions.

Collaborative reflective experience and practice in education explored through self-study and arts-based research

Eight teacher educators used self-study methodology to engage in reflective practice to overcome their isolation as individual teachers and researchers, and to facilitate professional development. Their research question asked: How can we continue to develop our teaching practice to ensure we are high quality, contemporary teacher educators? They contributed collaboratively in one overarching research project as well as through several focussed projects that explored issues in their individual teaching practices including: sustainability, creativity, curriculum design, pedagogy, assessment, and the learning experiences for students. This paper explores the outcomes from collaborative inquiry that five of the eight educator/researchers engaged in during a research-writing retreat. It documents their experience using arts-based strategies in which drawings were created about their experiences of engaging in a collaborative project and smaller focussed self-study projects. Analysis involved inquiring into each other’s drawings through recorded conversation. The metaphoric representations found through analysing the drawings provided insight into participants’ teaching practices and identities as teacher educators. Six months later when the participants had developed their projects further and used other artsbased methods to understand these experiences, they reflected on the key issues for their teaching practices that had arisen from undertaking this Collaborative Reflective Experience and Practice in Education research. Arts-based inquiries and reflective analysis over six months, constitute this paper. The experiences and analyses are shared to show how creating and sharing metaphoric meaning of visual representations is useful in self-study research to drill down into the real issues. Importantly, this in-depth sharing provides authentic interdisciplinary links when individual educators share their own approaches to teaching in their disciplined area. Findings suggest that gaining new insights into each other’s discipline-based approaches to teacher education through these methods, revealed different responses to pedagogical challenges and allowed for new possibilities for understanding the landscape of teacher education.