Indigenous knowledges : informing and supporting Indigenous students during their first year at university

This paper critically examines dominant discourses informing First Year Experience programs delivered for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students participating in higher education. We interrogate traditional ‘deficit models’ through the recognition and acknowledgement of Indigenous knowledge at the cultural interface, the arena in which Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students encounter university for the first time. In this paper, we demonstrate how the First Year Experience programs for Indigenous students, developed and delivered by the Oodgeroo Unit, are conceptualised by Indigenous knowledges. By recognising Indigenous knowledges and experiences, and valuing these within the Western academy, we provide an alternative to these dominant mainstream discourses and perspectives for Indigenous students navigating their way through university. We argue that Indigenous standpoints provide tools through which Indigenous students can negotiate the cultural interface that exists within the university environment.

Transport simulation : beyond traditional approaches

In recent years, the transport simulation of large road networks has become far more rapid and detailed, and many exciting developments in this field have emerged. In this perspective, the authors describe the simulation of automobile, pedestrian and rail traffic, coupled to new applications, such as the embedding of traffic simulation into driving simulators, to give a more realistic environment of driver behavior surrounding the subject vehicle.

A review of non-traditional occupational therapy practice placement education : a focus on role-emerging and project placements

Practice placement education has been recognised as an integral and critical component of the training of occupational therapy students. Although there is an extensive body of literature on clinical education and traditional practice placement education models, there has been limited research on alternative placements.-------- This paper reviews the literature on various practice placement education models and presents a contemporary view on how it is currently delivered. The literature is examined with a particular focus on the increasing range of practice placement education opportunities, such as project and role-emerging placements. The drivers for non-traditional practice placement education include shortages of traditional placement options, health reform and changing work practices, potential for role development and influence on practice choice. The benefits and challenges of non-traditional practice placement education are discussed, including supervision issues, student evaluation, professional and personal development and the opportunity to practise clinical skills.--------- Further research is recommended to investigate occupational therapy graduates' perceptions of role-emerging and project placements in order to identify the benefits or otherwise of these placements and to contribute to the limited body of knowledge of emerging education opportunities.

Getting skilled for education, training and employment : Indigenous Cultural Knowledges and mainstream knowledges of mathematics

This abstract is a preliminary discussion of the importance of blending of Indigenous cultural knowledges with mainstream knowledges of mathematics for supporting Indigenous young people. This import is emphasised in the documents Preparing the Ground for Partnership (Priest, 2005), The Indigenous Education Strategic Directions 2008–2011 (Department of Education, Training and the Arts, 2007) and the National Goals for Indigenous Education (Department of Education, Employment and Work Relations, 2008). These documents highlight the contextualising of literacy and numeracy to students’ community and culture (see Priest, 2005). Here, Community describes “a culture that is oriented primarily towards the needs of the group. Martin Nakata (2007) describes contextualising to culture as about that which already exists, that is, Torres Strait Islander community, cultural context and home languages (Nakata, 2007, p. 2). Continuing, Ezeife (2002) cites Hollins (1996) in stating that Indigenous people belong to “high-context culture groups” (p. 185). That is, “high-context cultures are characterized by a holistic (top-down) approach to information processing in which meaning is “extracted” from the environment and the situation. Low-context cultures use a linear, sequential building block (bottom-up) approach to information processing in which meaning is constructed” (p.185). In this regard, students who use holistic thought processing are more likely to be disadvantaged in mainstream mathematics classrooms. This is because Westernised mathematics is presented as broken into parts with limited connections made between concepts and with the students’ culture. It potentially conflicts with how they learn. If this is to change the curriculum needs to be made more culture-sensitive and community orientated so that students know and understand what they are learning and for what purposes.

Recognising and respecting Torres Strait Islander mathematics knowledges and home languages through mainstream mathematics education [Abstract]

This abstract provides a preliminary discussion of the importance of recognising Torres Strait Islander knowledges and home languages of mathematics education. It stems from a project involving Torres Strait Islander Teachers and Teacher Aides and university based researchers who are working together to enhance the mathematics learning of students from Years 4-9. A key focus of the project is that mathematics is relevant and provides students with opportunities for further education, training and employment. Veronica Arbon (2008) questions the assumptions underpinning Western mainstream education as beneficial for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people which assumes that it enables them to better participate in Australian society. She asks “how de we best achieve outcomes for and with Indigenous people conducive to our cultural, physical and economic sustainability as defined by us from Indigenous knowledge positions?” (p. 118). How does a mainstream education written to English conventions provide students with the knowledge and skills to participate in daily life, if it does not recognise the cultural identity of Indigenous students as it should (Priest, 2005; cf. Schnukal, 2003)? Arbon (2008) states that this view is now brought into question with calls for both ways education where mainstream knowledge and practices is blended with Indigenous cultural knowledges of learning. This project considers as crucial that cultural knowledges and experiences of Indigenous people to be valued and respected and given the currency in the same way that non Indigenous knowledge is (Taylor, 2003) for both ways education to work.

Vitamin D in health and disease : an insight into traditional functions and new roles for the 'sunshine vitamin'

Vitamin D is unique among the vitamins in that humans can synthesize it via the action of UV radiation upon the skin. This combined with its ability to act on specific target tissues via Vitamin D Receptor’s (VDR) make its classification as a steroid hormone more appropriate. While Vitamin D deficiency is a recognized problem in some northern latitude countries, recent studies have shown even in sunny countries such as Australia, vitamin D deficiency may be more prevalent than first thought. Vitamin D is most well known for its role in bone health, however, the discovery of VDR’s on a wide variety of tissue types has also opened up roles for vitamin D far beyond traditional bone health. These include possible associations with autoimmune diseases such as multiple sclerosis and inflammatory bowel diseases, cancer, cardiovascular diseases and muscle strength. Firstly, this paper presents an overview of the two sources of vitamin D: exposure to ultraviolet-B radiation and food sources of vitamin D, with particular focus on both Australian and international studies on dietary vitamin D intake and national fortification strategies. Secondly, the paper reviews recent epidemiological and experimental evidence linking vitamin D and its role in health and disease for the major conditions linked to suboptimal vitamin D, while identifying significant gaps in the research and possible future directions for research.

Doing business : knowledges in the internationalised business lecture

This paper investigates the oracy (listening/speaking) genres enacted in an undergraduate entry point unit in the internationalised university of the 21st century, and the kind of knowledges these genres elicit and perform. This paper focuses on a series of lectures in the business studies unit and how anecdotal knowledge from both the lecturer’s and the students’ lived experiences was elicited as grist for the curriculum. The analysis of lecture talk suggests that the lecture today is no longer a monologic display of expert disciplinary knowledge bestowed upon the learner. Rather, it is increasingly a multimedia performance with an underlying ethic of engagement and interactivity. Of particular interest is the way international students’ knowledges were elicited to resource the internationalised curriculum with authenticity and insight. The knowledges thus assembled are analysed through Bernstein’s conceptual distinction between vertical and horizontal knowledge structures. The paper offers suggestions on how to maximise the potential and minimize the risks of this more interactive genre of lecture, with particular regard to enabling the participation of the international student.

Does Chinese traditional values matter in regulating China's company directors? Preliminary findings from surveys in Hong Kong

Much has been said about Chinese corporate governance and the new laws on companies. While most literature focuses on either the political or the legal doctrinal issues, this paper argues that Chinese traditional values do matter in Chinese corporate governance. The object of this paper is to report on the preliminary findings of a project supported by the General Research Fund in Hong Kong (HK). Thus far the survey results from HK respondents support our hypothesis. As such, traditional Chinese values should be on the agenda of the next round of company law reforms in China.

Best Practice

The overall theme for the 4th Biennial International Network of Indigenous Health Knowledge and Development (INIHKD)Conference was ‘Knowing Our Roots: Indigenous Medicines, Health Knowledges and Best Practices’. Conference activities were grouped around the following broad themes: •Building of Indigenous research capacity, partnerships and workforce; •Sharing of innovative, traditional and contemporary Indigenous knowledges, especially with respect to culturally-grounded interventions and evidenced-based “best and promising practices”; •Identification of successful Indigenous health policy solutions; and •Sharing of ethical, Indigenous-based research protocols and methodologies. This keynote plenary presentation focused on 'best practice' in research asking the questions: What kind of research will I do? What kind of research will I be? What is the contribution that I will make? what will be my legacy?

The rediscovery of traditional urbanism at Melrose Arch

Contemporary urban form, particularly in the cities of South Africa, lacks distinction and quality. The majority of developments are conceived as private and dislocated initiatives, surveiled enclaves with gated access being the only conduit to the outside world. Any concern for a positive contribution to the matrix of public activity is seldom a consideration. The urban form responds to the perception that traffic systems are paramount to the successful flux of the city in satisfying the escalating demands of vehicular movement. In contrast many of the urban centres around the world, the great historical centres of Europe, Americas and the Sub-Continent are admired and considered the ultimate models in urban experience. The colonnades, bazaars and boulevards hosting an abundance of street activity are the characteristics of such centres and are symptomatic of a city growth based on pedestrian movement patterns, an urbanism supportative of human interaction and exchange, a form which has nurtured the existence of a public realm. Through the understanding of the principles of traditional urbanism we may learn that the modernist paradigm of a contemporary suburbia has resulted in disconnected and separate land uses with isolated districts where a reliance on the car is essential rather than optional.

Web-based and traditional public participation in comprehensive planning : a comparative study

The present paper examines whether the potential advantages of the expanding practice of web-based public participation only complement the benefits of the traditional techniques, or are empowering enough to replace them. The question is examined in a real-world case of neighbourhood revitalization, in which both techniques were practiced simultaneously. Comparisons are made at four major planning junctions, in order to study the contributions of each technique to the qualities of involvement, trust, and empowerment. The results show that web-based participants not only differ from the participants of traditional practices, but they also differ from each other on the basis of their type of web participation. The results indicate that web-based participation is an effective and affective complementary means of public participation, but it cannot replace the traditional unmediated techniques.