Australia's disabling income support system: Tracing the history of the disability pension from 1908 to today

This article is based on a historical-comparative policy and discourse analysis of the principles underpinning the Australian disability income support system. It determines that these principles rely on a conception of disability that sustains a system of coercion and paternalism that perpetuates disability and referred to as disablism. The article examines the construction of disability in Australian income support across four major historical epochs spanning the period 1908-2007. Contextualisation of the policy trajectory and discourses of the contemporary disability pension regime for the time period 2008-now is also provided. Two major themes were found to have interacted with the ideology of disablism. This article argues that a non-disabling provision based on social citizenship, rather than responsible or productive citizenship, counters the tendency for authoritarian and paternal approaches. [Abridged]

Child-centered teaching, redemption, and educational identities: A history of the present

Child-centeredness runs a familiar route in educational narratives. From Rousseau to Pestalozzi to Froebel to present day systems of childcare and schooling, childcenteredness is thought to have shifted the treatment of children into closer harmony with their true nature and hence into more sensitive and civilized forms of rearing. The celebratory air surrounding its deployment in education has been pervasive and difficult to contest partly because of the emotive alliances that have been drawn between child-centeredness and progressivism. That is, child-centeredness has been positioned as superseding a harsh, medieval ignorance of children while preventing present-day authoritarian strategies of domination. Child-centeredness is thus presently constituted as a soft space, as a deeply sensitive middle ground, between ignoring children and dominating them completely.

A design history of design: Complexity, criticality & cultural competence

Les histoires de l’art et du design ont délaissé, au cours desquatre dernières décennies, l’étude canonique des objets, des artistes/concepteurs et des styles et se sont tournées vers des recherches plus interdisciplinaires. Nous soutenons néanmoins que les historiens et historiennes du design doivent continuer de pousser leur utilisation d’approches puisant dans la culturelle matérielle et la criticalité afin de combler des lacunes dans l’histoire du design et de développer des méthodes et des approches pertinentes pour son étude. Puisant dans notre expérience d’enseignement auprès de la génération des « milléniaux », qui sont portés vers un « design militant », nous offrons des exemples pédagogiques qui ont aidé nos étudiants et étudiantes à assimiler des histoires du design responsables, engagées et réflexives et à comprendre la complexité et la criticalité du design.

Book Review "Selling sex: a hidden history of prostitution", R. Frances, UNSW Press, Sydney, 2007

In the opening pages of Selling Sex we are introduced to 'Joy', a statue of a young female sex worker which stood in East Sydney for eighteen months during 1995- 1997. Following complaints by local residents, the statue was removed from public view and returned to its owner. Evidently, Joy was considered a reminder of the community's 'bad old days', when it was better known for prostitution than restaurants. In a nation in which almost every sizable community has proudly erected monuments to military men, the removal of Joy reveals much about labour and gender relations in Australia. For Frances, the removal of Joy is symbolic, our historical treatment of sex workers having parallels with our treatment of the convicts. This work sets out to give these women (male prostitutes do not figure in this history) a voice and break with the stereotypes of 'abandoned whores' or 'sad victims'. It also sets out to place the sex industry in the broader national and international context in which it has historically operated...

The biology and natural history of Tripogon loliiformis (Poaceae, Chloridoideae), an Australian resurrection grass

Tripogon loliiformis is a desiccation-tolerant grass that occurs throughout mainland Australia. There has been recent interest in this species as a model system for understanding desiccation tolerance in a native grass at the structural, molecular and physiological levels. However, not much is known about the biology and natural history of this species, despite its widespread geographic distribution and remarkable capability of withstanding prolonged drying. We provide an overview of the genus by consolidating information from a wide variety of sources. We report a variety of new and interesting observations on the general biology, ecology and desiccation response of T. loliiformis and conclude by highlighting areas for future research.

'Mutiny on the Bounty': The genetic history of Norfolk Island reveals extreme gender-biased admixture

Background The Pacific Oceania region was one of the last regions of the world to be settled via human migration. Here we outline a settlement of this region that has given rise to a uniquely admixed population. The current Norfolk Island population has arisen from a small number of founders with mixed Caucasian and Polynesian ancestry, descendants of a famous historical event. The ‘Mutiny on the Bounty’ has been told in history books, songs and the big screen, but recently this story can be portrayed through comprehensive molecular genetics. Written history details betrayal and murder leading to the founding of Pitcairn Island by European mutineers and the Polynesian women who left Tahiti with them. Investigation of detailed genealogical records supports historical accounts. Findings Using genetics, we show distinct maternal Polynesian mitochondrial lineages in the present day population, as well as a European centric Y-chromosome phylogeny. These results comprehensively characterise the unique gender-biased admixture of this genetic isolate and further support the historical records relating to Norfolk Island. Conclusions Our results significantly refine previous population genetic studies investigating Polynesian versus Caucasian diversity in the Norfolk Island population and add information that is beneficial to future disease and gene mapping studies.

Problem-based learning in an e-learning environment: A case study at Griffith University School of Medicine

Increasing numbers of medical schools in Australia and overseas have moved away from didactic teaching methodologies and embraced problem-based learning (PBL) to improve clinical reasoning skills and communication skills as well as to encourage self-directed lifelong learning. In January 2005, the first cohort of students entered the new MBBS program at the Griffith University School of Medicine, Gold Coast, to embark upon an exciting, fully integrated curriculum using PBL, combining electronic delivery, communication and evaluation systems incorporating cognitive principles that underpin the PBL process. This chapter examines the educational philosophies and design of the e-learning environment underpinning the processes developed to deliver, monitor and evaluate the curriculum. Key initiatives taken to promote student engagement and innovative and distinctive approaches to student learning at Griffith promoted within the conceptual model for the curriculum are (a) Student engagement, (b) Pastoral care, (c) Staff engagement, (d) Monitoring and (e) Curriculum/Program Review. © 2007 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.