The dynamics of individual teacher autonomy: A case study of teachers' work in a Queensland secondary school

The emphasis on collegiality and collaboration in the literature on teachers' work and school reform has tended to underplay the significance of teacher autonomy. This thesis explores the dynamics of teachers' understandings and experiences of individual teacher autonomy (as contrasted with collective autonomy) in an independent school in Queensland which promoted itself as a 'teachers' school' with a strong commitment to individual teacher autonomy. The research was a case study which drew on methodological signposts from critical, feminist and traditional ethnography. Intensive fieldwork in the school over five months incorporated the ethnographic techniques of observation, interviews and document analysis. Teachers at Thornton College understood their experience of individual autonomy at three interrelated levels--in terms of their work in the classroom, their working life in the school, and their voice in the decision-making processes of the school. They felt that they experienced a great deal of individual autonomy at each of these three levels. These understandings and experiences of autonomy were encumbered or enabled by a range of internal and external stakeholder groups. There were also a number of structural influences (community perceptions, market forces, school size, time and bureaucracy) emerging from the economic, social and political structures in Australian society which influenced the experience of autonomy by teachers. The experience of individual teacher autonomy was constantly shifting, but there were some emergent patterns. Consensus on educational goals and vision, and strong expressions of trust and respect between teachers and stakeholders in the school, characterised the contexts in which teachers felt they experienced high levels of autonomy in their work. The demand for accountability and desire for relatedness motivated stakeholders and structural forces to influence teacher autonomy. Some significant gaps emerged between the rhetoric of a commitment to individual teacher autonomy and decision-making practices in the school, that gave ultimate power to the co-principals. Despite the rhetoric and promotion of non-hierarchical structures and collaborative decision-making processes, many teachers perceived that their experience of individual autonomy remained subject to the exercise of 'partial democracy' by school leaders.

Education academics: Rules of engagement

Professor Carol Nicolls suggests that academics and postgraduate students in education should be consciously positioned to influence current and future policy. Through their research they could be contributing to the foundations for building the evidence base for good policy in education, and through their research and scholarship, be seen, where necessary, to publicly challenge the status quo in policy both now and in the future. All of this is more likely to ensure that we achieve the very best outcomes for all in education in Australia.

Teaching for Learning, Living and Serving

I offer four eclectic maxims for schooling. They do not represent a cohesive philosophy of schooling or education, but they are a sampling of my views which I hope reflect and honour the great life’s work of Phil Hughes.

Nursing physical assessment for patient safety in general wards: Reaching consensus on core skills

Aims and objectives To determine consensus across acute care specialty areas on core physical assessment skills necessary for early recognition of changes in patient status in general wards. Background Current approaches to physical assessment are inconsistent and have not evolved to meet increased patient and system demands. New models of nursing assessment are needed in general wards that ensure a proactive and patient safety approach. Design A modified Delphi study. Methods Focus group interviews with 150 acute care registered nurses (RNs) at a large tertiary referral hospital generated a framework of core skills that were developed into a web-based survey. We then sought consensus with a panel of 35 senior acute care RNs following a classical Delphi approach over three rounds. Consensus was predefined as at least 80% agreement for each skill across specialty areas. Results Content analysis of focus group transcripts identified 40 discrete core physical assessment skills. In the Delphi rounds, 16 of these were consensus validated as core skills and were conceptually aligned with the primary survey: (Airway) Assess airway patency; (Breathing) Measure respiratory rate, Evaluate work of breathing, Measure oxygen saturation; (Circulation) Palpate pulse rate and rhythm, Measure blood pressure by auscultation, Assess urine output; (Disability) Assess level of consciousness, Evaluate speech, Assess for pain; (Exposure) Measure body temperature, Inspect skin integrity, Inspect and palpate skin for signs of pressure injury, Observe any wounds, dressings, drains and invasive lines, Observe ability to transfer and mobilise, Assess bowel movements. Conclusions Among a large and diverse group of experienced acute care RNs consensus was achieved on a structured core physical assessment to detect early changes in patient status. Relevance to clinical practice Although further research is needed to refine the model, clinical application should promote systematic assessment and clinical reasoning at the bedside.

Patient preferences for receiving remote communication support for lifestyle physical activity behaviour change: The perspective of patients with musculoskeletal disorders from three hospital services

This study examined patients’ preference ratings for receiving support via remote communication to increase their lifestyle physical activity. Methods People with musculoskeletal disorders ( n=221 of 296 eligible) accessing one of three clinics provided preference ratings for “how much” they wanted to receive physical activity support via five potential communication modalities. The five ratings were generated on a horizontal analogue rating scale (0 represented “not at all”; 10 represented “very much”). Results Most (n=155, 70%) desired referral to a physical activity promoting intervention. “Print and post” communications had the highest median preference rating (7/10), followed by email and telephone (both 5/10), text messaging (1/10), and private Internet-based social network messages (0/10). Desire to be referred was associated with higher preference for printed materials (coefficient = 2.739, p<0.001), telephone calls (coefficient = 3.000, p<0.001), and email (coefficient = 2.059, p=0.02). Older age was associated with lower preference for email (coefficient = −0.100, p<0.001), texting (coefficient = −0.096, p<0.001), and social network messages (coefficient = −0.065, p<0.001). Conclusion Patients desiring support to be physically active indicated preferences for interventions with communication via print, email, or telephone calls.

Policing expert testimony in a death investigation: Medical opinion as legal fact

Within coronial investigations, pathologists are called upon to given evidence as to cause of death. This evidence is given great weight by the coroners; after all, scientific ‘truth’ is widely deemed to be far more reliable than legal ‘opinion’. The purpose of this paper is to examine the ontological and epistemological status of that evidence, from the perspectives of both the pathologists and the coroners. As part of an Australian Research Council Linkage Grant, interviews were conducted with seven pathologists and 10 coroners from within the Queensland coronial system. Contrary to expectations, and the work of philosophers of science, such as Feyerabend (1975), pathologists did not present their findings in terms of unequivocal facts or objective truths relating to causes of death. Rather, their evidence was largely presented as ‘educated opinion’ based upon ‘the weight of evidence’. It was actually the coroners who translated that opinion into ‘medical fact’ within the proceedings of their death investigations, arguably as a consequence of the administrative necessity to reach a clear-cut finding as to cause of death, and on the basis of their own understanding of the ontology of medical knowledge. These findings support Latour’s (2010) claim that law requires a fundamentally different epistemology to science, and that science is not entirely to blame for the extravagant truth-claims made on its behalf

Documenting the inevitable: Voting behaviour at the 2013 Australian election

This chapter uses data from the 2013 Australian Election Study (AES), conducted by Clive Bean, Ian McAllister, Juliet Pietsch and Rachel Gibson (Bean et al. 2014) to investigate political attitudes and voting behaviour in the election. The study was funded by the Australian Research Council and involved a national survey of political attitudes and behaviour using a self-completion questionnaire mailed to respondents on the day before the 7 September election. The sample was a systematic random sample of enrolled voters throughout Australia, drawn by the Australian Electoral Commission. Respondents were given the option of returning the completed questionnaire by reply-paid mail or completing the survey online. Non-respondents were sent several follow-up mailings and the final sample size was 3955, representing a response rate of 34 per cent. The data were weighted to reflect population parameters for gender, age, state and vote.

Human trafficking heroes and villains: Representing the problem in anti-trafficking awareness campaigns

Since the declaration by the United Nations that awareness raising should be a key part of efforts to combat human trafficking, government and non-government organisations have produced numerous public awareness campaigns designed to capture the public’s attention and sympathy. These campaigns represent the ‘problem’ of trafficking in specific ways, creating heroes and villains by placing the blame for trafficking on some, while obscuring the responsibility of others. This paper adopts Carol Bacchi’s ‘What is the problem represented to be?’ framework for examining the politicisation of problem representation in 18 anti-trafficking awareness campaigns. It is argued that these campaigns construct a narrow understanding of the problem through the depiction of ‘ideal offenders’. In particular, a strong focus on the demand for commercial sex as causative of human trafficking serves to obscure the problematic role of consumerism in a wide range of industries, and perpetuates an understanding of trafficking that fails to draw a necessary distinction between the demand for labour, and the demand for ‘exploitable’ labour. This problem representation also obscures the role governments in destination countries may play in causing trafficking through imposing restrictive migration regimes that render migrants vulnerable to traffickers.

Reconstructing identity of older people in using day care services in Taiwan: A grounded theory study

Adult day care centers provide a means whereby frail or disabled older people can remain living at home particularly when their family care-givers engage in waged work. In Taiwan, adult day care services appear to meet the cultural needs of both older people and their families for whom filial care is vital. Little research attention has been paid to the use of day care services in Taiwan, the uptake rate of which is low. This grounded theory study explored the ways in which older people and family care-givers construct meanings around the use of day care services in Taiwan. The research methodology drew on the theoretical tenets of symbolic interactionism and methods were informed by the grounded theory. In-depth interviews with 30 participants were undertaken. Reconstructing identity in a shifting world is the core category of the study and reflects a process of reframing whereby older people came to new definitions of social responsibility and independence within the context of the day care center. The implications of the findings is that the older people, rather than seeking to be relieved of social responsibilities, worked very hard to frame and reframe a social role. Rather than letting the institutions undermine or disrupt their identity, the older people worked to actively negotiate and redefine the meaning of self. Thus, although reluctant to come to use the services at the outset, they found a way to manage their lives independently. Social roles and responsibilities as older parents were retained. This study explored the process of meaning construction of day care use and the ways in which this process entailed a reconstruction of the identities of the participants. The evidence from this study underlines the importance of recognizing and acknowledging subjectively conceived identities as work that older people undertake, when in care, to render their lives meaningful.

Diffusing research into routine midwifery practice

This research applied Greenhalgh et al's (2005) organisational change theoretical framework and a case study method approach to explore the process of implementing a smoking cessation intervention for pregnant women. The study was carried out according to the principles laid down in the National statement on ethical conduct in human research, produced by the National Health and Medical Research Council, Australia. Ethical approval for the research was sought and received from Queensland University of Technology human research ethics committee, prior to the start of the study. The sample constituted four participants who had been involved in the process of disseminating a training programme for midwives to implement a smoking cessation intervention. Eight semi-structured interviews were undertaken with these participants and the interviews and background programme data were subjected to theoretical analysis. The data were analysed through the lens of the Greenhalgh et al (2005) framework. The result was a disaggregation and (re)aggregation of data in the formation of an analytical outcome (Charmaz, 2006).

Decision-making in a death investigation: Emotions, families and the coroner

The role of the coroner in common law countries such as Australia, England, Canada and New Zealand is to preside over death investigations where there is uncertainty as to the manner of death, a need to identify the deceased, a death of unknown cause, or a violent or unnatural death. The vast majority of these deaths are not suspicious and thus require coroners to engage with grieving families who have been thrust into a legal process through the misfortune of a loved one's sudden or unexpected death. In this research, 10 experienced coroners discussed how they negotiated the grief and trauma evident in a death investigation. In doing so, they articulated two distinct ways in which legal officers engaged with emotions, which are also evident in the literature. The first engages the script of judicial dispassion, articulating a hierarchical relationship between reason and emotion, while the second introduces an ethic of care via the principles of therapeutic jurisprudence, and thus offers a challenge to the role of emotion in the personae of the professional judicial officer. By using Hochschild's work on the sociology of emotions, this article discusses the various ways in which coroners manage the emotion of a death investigation through emotion work. While emotional distance may be an understandable response by coroners to the grief and trauma experienced by families and directed at cleaner coronial decision-making, the article concludes that coroners may be better served by offering emotions such as sympathy, consideration and compassion directly to the family in those situations where families are struggling to accept, or are resistant to, coroners' decisions.

Food waste, power, and corporate social responsibility in the Australian food supply chain

By examining corporate social responsibility (CSR) and power within the context of the food supply chain, this paper illustrates how food retailers claim to address food waste while simultaneously setting standards that result in the large-scale rejection of edible food on cosmetic grounds. Specifically, this paper considers the powerful role of food retailers and how they may be considered to be legitimately engaging in socially responsible behaviors to lower food waste, yet implement practices that ultimately contribute to higher levels of food waste elsewhere in the supply chain. Through interviews with key actors in the Australian fresh fruit and vegetable supply chain, we highlight the existence of a legitimacy gap in corporate social responsibility whereby undesirable behaviors are pushed elsewhere in the supply chain. It is argued that the structural power held by Australia’s retail duopoly means that supermarkets are able to claim virtuous and responsible behaviors, despite counter claims from within the fresh food industry that the food supermarkets’ private quality standards mean that fresh food is wasted. We argue that the supermarkets claim CSR kudos for reducing food waste at the expense of other supply chain actors who bear both the economic cost and the moral burden of waste, and that this is a consequence of supermarkets’ remarkable market power in Australia.

Strategies for improving safety and health of ethnic minority construction workers

The construction industries of developed countries are faced with an aging workforce and a shortage of recruits. It is common for migrant workers/ethnic minorities (EMs) who are already part of the society to join the construction industry. With increasing involvement of EMs in the construction industry, effective strategies for improving their safety and health are urgently needed. The existing body of knowledge is mainly derived from research conducted in English-speaking countries with Western cultures. Research on safety of migrant/EM construction workers in multidialect Asian countries with Eastern cultures has been lacking. This study aimed to identify various strategies for improving the safety and health of EM construction workers from the Asian perspective. Twenty-two face-to-face semistructured interviews were performed with safety professionals in Hong Kong followed by two rounds of Delphi survey with 18 safety experts to verify the interview findings and rank the relative importance of the strategies. The study unveiled 14 strategies for improving the safety performance of EM workers. The three most important ones identified were: (1) to provide safety training in EM native languages; (2) that government and industry associations should play an active role in promoting health and safety awareness of EM workers, and; (3) to encourage EM workers to learn the local language. This study contributes to filling the research gap by evaluating the strategies for improving safety of migrant/EM construction workers in Asian countries with Eastern cultures in which English is not the first language. Research findings would assist occupational health and safety experts and relevant stakeholders in designing strategies for improving the safety and health of EM workers, which will ultimately improve overall safety performance of the construction industry.

Safety of Repair, Maintenance, Minor Alteration, and Addition (RMAA) Works: A New Focus of Construction Safety

"Safety of RMAA works is an almost uncharted topic of rising importance internationally. Small construction contractors are particularly dependant on RMAA work, especially during times of recession, and they undertake more risks on these jobs than large companies do. This book is based on unique international research and consultancy projects which detail, investigate, and suggest solutions to the specific challenges of safety in RMAA works, based on case studies. Starting with an overview of safety in the wider construction industries of developed countries, the first half of this book also provides a comprehensive summary of relevant rules, regulations, and the resulting safety performances. The systems in the UK, US and Hong Kong are described and contrasted, giving the reader an understanding of how different regulatory approaches have yielded a variety of results. From this solid introduction, specific problems observed in RMAA work are examined through case studies, with reference to the underlying cultural and demographic factors, and a variety of practical engineering and management solutions are explored. This important and practical international work is essential reading for postgraduate students of health and safety in construction, construction project management, or construction in developing countries, as well as policy-makers and construction project managers."--Publisher website