Culture makes you stronger : Aboriginal women’s voices from the South Coast of NSW

This paper will describe a community based research project examining the health and wellbeing of a sample of Aboriginal women in Australia, and present preliminary findings of a community needs analysis. The Shoalhaven Koori Women’s Study (SKWS) is being led by an Aboriginal woman based within Waminda, an Aboriginal women’s community controlled service located on the South Coast of NSW. The community needs analysis is the first stage of the SKWS, and aims to explore Aboriginal women’s perceptions and experiences of wellness and wellbeing, including issues related to their personal strengths, health and social priorities, support needs and that of their families. Thirty Aboriginal women were interviewed using a survey that included closed and open ended questions. Methods used to administer the survey included yarning and Dadirri (deep listening), two valid and culturally safe approaches for data collection with Aboriginal people. Adopting these approaches ensured Aboriginal protocols were maintained and upheld throughout the research process. This enabled scientific rigour while also ensuring activities were culturally safe. Key findings of the survey will be presented, and how Waminda is modifying service delivery to better respond to the health and social priorities of Aboriginal women in the Shoalhaven region will be discussed. Community feedback of survey results will occur to validate the analysis from the community perspective.

The cooling steam of the Polar Express : historical origins, properties and implications of performance capture

As the first academically rigorous interrogation of the generation of performance within the global frame of the motion capture volume, this research presents a historical contextualisation and develops and tests a set of first principles through an original series of theoretically informed, practical exercises to guide those working in the emergent space of performance capture. It contributes a new understanding of the framing of performance in The Omniscient Frame, and initiates and positions performance capture as a new and distinct interdisciplinary discourse in the fields of theatre, animation, performance studies and film.

The location patterns of artistic clusters : a metro- and neighborhood-level analysis

Analysing census and industry data at the metro and neighbourhood levels, this paper seeks to identify the location characteristics associated with artistic clusters and determine how these characteristics vary across different places. We find that the arts cannot be taken overall as an urban panacea, but rather that their impact is place-specific and policy ought to reflect these nuances. However, our work also finds that, paradoxically, the arts’ role in developing metro economies is as highly underestimated as it is overgeneralised. While arts clusters exhibit unique industry, scale and place-specific attributes, we also find evidence that they cluster in ‘innovation districts’, suggesting they can play a larger role in economic development. To this end, our results raise important questions and point toward new approaches for arts-based urban development policy that look beyond a focus on the arts as amenities to consider the localised dynamics between the arts and other industries.

Time, space, and text in the elementary school digital writing classroom

Theorists of multiliteracies, social semiotics, and the New Literacy Studies have drawn attention to the potential changing nature of writing and literacy in the context of networked communications. This article reports findings from a design-based research project in Year 4 classrooms (students aged 8.5-10 years) in a low socioeconomic status school. A new writing program taught students how to design multimodal and digital texts across a range of genres and text types, such as web pages, online comics, video documentaries, and blogs. The authors use Bernstein’s theory of the pedagogic device to theorize the pedagogic struggles and resolutions in remaking English through the specialization of time, space, and text. The changes created an ideological struggle as new writing practices were adapted from broader societal fields to meet the instructional and regulative discourses of a conventional writing curriculum.

Profiling human resource management practices in innovative firms

It has been argued that different bundles or configurations of human resource practices can improve innovation performance, but there is little empirically-based research that provides details of the practices utilised by different types of innovative firms. This study aimed to identify how different types of firms vary their HR practices to build organisation-specific innovation capabilities. The paper presents findings from a qualitative study of 26 innovative Danish firms categorised as technology-based, knowledge-intensive, or hybrid in their industry orientation. The findings highlight that knowledge-intensive firms have notably different profiles of HRM practices to technology-based firms, suggesting that firms utilise different practices to build innovation capacity depending on the core capabilities required for success in their respective industries. This paper contributes by demonstrating how HR practices differ across types of firms rather than relying on a universal perspective or one best way to design and implement HR practices.

STAC living. Promoting efficient multi-residential buildings in subtropical climates.

STAC is a mobile application (app) designed to promote the benefits of climate-aware urban development in Subtropical environments. Although, STAC is primarily tool for understanding climate efficient buildings in Brisbane, Australia, it also demonstrates how other exemplary buildings operate in other subtropical cities of the world. The STAC research and development team applied research undertaken by the Centre for Subtropical Design (Brisbane) to profile buildings past and present that have contributed to the creation of a vibrant society, a viable economy, a healthy environment, and an authentic sense of place. In collaboration with researchers from the field of Interaction Design, this knowledge and data was collated, processed and curated for presentation via a custom mobile application designed to distribute this important research for review and consideration on-location in local settings and for comparison across all other global subtropical regions and projects identified by this research. This collaboration adopted a Design-based Research (DBR) Methodology guided by the main tenets of research and design iteration and cross-discipline collaboration in real-world settings, resulting in the formulation of contextually-sensitive design principles, theories, and tools for design intervention. Combined with significant context review of available technology and data and subsequent case study analysis of exemplar design applications.

Edible materials in design fabrication

Current practice based research explores the organic properties of edible materials such as rice-paper to contemplate possible material usage from garment manufacture, landscape interventions and temporary architectural canopies/facades. Research outcomes have been published through The International Conference on Designing Food and Designing for Food, London 2012, and in Burke, Anthony + Reinmuth, Gerard (Eds.) (2012) 'Formations: New Practices in Australian Architecture.' Australian Pavilion 13th International Architecture Exhibition la biennale di Venezia.

Student knowledge of curriculum literacies as they enter high school

This study explores students' perceptions of their learning, particularly their knowledge of writing, in their first year of high school. Conducted in a large regional high school, the researcher worked with two Year 8 teachers in the subjects of English, Science and History to apply Systemic Functional Linguistics in the development of lessons with a specific focus on writing. This Design Based Research project revealed how external and internal factors are impacting on teachers' abilities to improve students' knowledge and understandings of how specific subjects organise and represent information, particularly through writing.

Predicting Australian adults' sun-safe behaviour : examining the role of personal and social norms

Objectives To address the scarcity of comprehensive, theory-based research in the Australian context, this study, using a theory of planned behaviour (TPB) framework, investigated the role of personal and social norms to identify the key predictors of adult Australians' sun-safe intentions and behaviour. Design The study used a prospective design with two waves of data collection, 1 week apart. Methods Participants were 816 adults (48.2% men) aged between 18 and 88 years recruited from urban, regional, and rural areas of Australia. At baseline, participants completed a questionnaire assessing the standard TPB predictors (attitude, subjective norm, and perceived behavioural control [PBC]), past behaviour, behavioural intention, and additional measures of group norm for the referent groups of friends and family, image norm, personal norm, personal choice/responsibility, and Australian identity. Seventy-one per cent of the participants (n = 577) reported on their sun-safe behaviour in the subsequent week. Results Via path modelling, past behaviour, attitude, group norm (friends), personal norm, and personal choice/responsibility emerged as independent predictors of intentions which, in turn, predicted sun-safe behaviour prospectively. Past behaviour, but not PBC, had direct effects on sun-safe behaviour. The model explained 61.6% and 43.9% of the variance in intention and behaviour, respectively. Conclusions This study provides support for the use of a comprehensive theoretical decision-making model to explain Australian adults' sun-safe intentions and behaviours and identifies viable targets for health-promoting messages in this high-risk context.

Energy Efficiency Resources for Undergraduate Engineering Education: Final Report

This report presents the findings of an investigation of energy efficiency resources for undergraduate engineering education, undertaken by web-based research, conversations with educators, and a university survey. The investigation draws on the results of a number of previous investigations undertaken by the research team for NFEE related to energy efficiency education and presents the following findings and recommendations, as explained in greater detail in the body of the report. The findings suggest that even though certain EE concepts and principles have been identified by lecturers as being important there is little to no coverage of a number of these concepts in some programs/courses. Similarly, many topics relating to the most important EE workforce skills and significant shortages as identified in industry research, do not rate highly in terms of both perceived importance by lecturers, or coverage within existing courses. Overall, these findings suggest that despite growing awareness of the importance of EE in both industry and academia, the current depth and breadth of EE content in courses does not reflect this. It confirms that efforts in these areas can be better supported.

Out of the Box Festival for 3 to 8 year olds (Artistic Director)

The Out of the Box Festival was founded in 1994 by the Queensland Performing Arts Centre and has been held biannually ever since both within and around the centre in what is now known as the Cultural Precinct at Southbank. It is unique in Australia in that it caters entirely to children aged 8 years and under, with a highly curated program of ticketed performance events, workshops and free arts-based events. It is attended by school and kindergarten groups and by families, and besides engaging children in high quality arts experiences, the festival is also a platform for advocating the developmental and educational benefits of the arts for children. Dr Mark Radvan was the artistic director of the 2008 festival, with responsibility for developing the curatorial direction of each festival, for creating and programming its events, and for working with festival partners The Queensland Art Gallery, The Queensland Museum, The State Library of Queensland and The Queensland Theatre Company. Radvan designed selected and commissioned works to demonstrate how the arts create memorable, celebratory and immersive experiences that stimulate children’s imagination, their curiosity and confidence about the material world and the cultures of its people. A core event was an outdoor music and dance performance space featuring entirely Indigenous performers that was not only the beating heart of the festival, but served to underlie the importance of mainstreaming awareness of our first peoples in the increasingly culturally diverse communities of children attending.

Teaching dispute resolution in the first year for law student well-being

At the QUT Law School, the most recent curriculum review responded to an increasing demand from the profession for law graduates to be equipped with dispute resolution knowledge, skills and attitudes. From 2015, a compulsory dispute resolution subject will be a critical part of an intentionally designed core first year curriculum. It is important for the Law School at QUT that no graduate of the new curriculum will leave our institution without real world dispute resolution knowledge and skills. This initiative is also grounded in evidenced-based research about the benefits for student well-being that derive from the subject content and pedagogy of dispute resolution. This paper explains why teaching dispute resolution in the first year of the law degree is an important strategy for promoting the well-being of law students.

Developing and evaluating approaches for utilising injury data to support product safety initiatives

With increasing concern about consumer product-related injuries in Australia, product safety regulators need evidence-based research to understand risks and patterns to inform their decision making. This study analysed paediatric injury data to identify and quantify product-related injuries in children to inform product safety prioritisation. This study provides information on novel techniques for interrogating health data to identify trends and patterns in product-related injuries to inform strategic directions in this growing area of concern.