Teaching journalism students how to tell Indigenous stories in an informed way : a work integrated learning approach

Australian journalism schools are full of students who have never met an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Island person and who do not know their history. Journalism educators are ill-equipped to redress this imbalance as a large majority are themselves non-Indigenous and many have had little or no experience with the coverage of Indigenous issues or knowledge of Indigenous affairs. Such a situation calls for educational approaches that can overcome these disadvantages and empower journalism graduates to move beyond the stereotypes that characterize the representation of Indigenous people in the mainstream media. This article will explore three different courses in three Australian tertiary journalism education institutions, which use Work-Integrated Learning Approaches to instil the cultural competencies necessary to encourage a more informed reporting of Indigenous issues. The findings from the three projects illustrate the importance of adopting a collaborative approach by industry, the Indigenous community and educators to encourage students’ commitment to quality journalism practices when covering Indigenous issues.

Investigating homework as a social practice : a qualitative approach

This thesis examines the social practice of homework. It explores how homework is shaped by the discourses, policies and guidelines in circulation in a society at any given time with particular reference to one school district in the province of Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. This study investigates how contemporary homework reconstitutes the home as a pedagogical site where the power of the institution of schooling circulates regularly from school to home. It examines how the educational system shapes the organization of family life and how family experiences with homework may be different in different sites depending on the accessibility of various forms of cultural capital. This study employs a qualitative approach, incorporating multiple case studies, and is complemented by insights from institutional ethnography and critical discourse analysis. It draws on the theoretical concepts of Foucault including power and power relations, and governmentality and surveillance, as well as Bourdieu’s concepts of economic, social and cultural capital for analysis. It employs concepts from Bourdieu’s work as they have been expanded on by researchers including Reay (1998), Lareau (2000), and Griffith and Smith (2005). The studies of these researchers allowed for an examination of homework as it related to families and mothers’ work. Smith’s (1987; 1999) concepts of ruling relations, mothers’ unpaid labour, and the engine of inequality were also employed in the analysis. Family interviews with ten volunteer families, teacher focus group sessions with 15 teachers from six schools, homework artefacts, school newsletters, homework brochures, and publicly available assessment and evaluation policy documents from one school district were analyzed. From this analysis key themes emerged and the findings are documented throughout five data analysis chapters. This study shows a change in education in response to a system shaped by standards, accountability and testing. It documents an increased transference of educational responsibility from one educational stakeholder to another. This transference of responsibility shifts downward until it eventually reaches the family in the form of homework and educational activities. Texts in the form of brochures and newsletters, sent home from school, make available to parents specific subject positions that act as instruments of normalization. These subject positions promote a particular ‘ideal’ family that has access to certain types of cultural capital needed to meet the school’s expectations. However, the study shows that these resources are not equally available to all and some families struggle to obtain what is necessary to complete educational activities in the home. The increase in transference of educational work from the school to the home results in greater work for parents, particularly mothers. As well, consideration is given to mother’s role in homework and how, in turn, classroom instructional practices are sometimes dependent on the work completed at home with differential effects for children. This study confirms previous findings that it is mothers who assume the greatest role in the educational trajectory of their children. An important finding in this research is that it is not only middle-class mothers who dedicate extensive time working hard to ensure their children’s educational success; working-class mothers also make substantial contributions of time and resources to their children’s education. The assignments and educational activities distributed as homework require parents’ knowledge of technical school pedagogy to help their children. Much of the homework being sent home from schools is in the area of literacy, particularly reading, but requires parents to do more than read with children. A key finding is that the practices of parents are changing and being reconfigured by the expectations of schools in regard to reading. Parents are now being required to monitor and supervise children’s reading, as well as help children complete reading logs, written reading responses, and follow up questions. The reality of family life as discussed by the participants in this study does not match the ‘ideal’ as portrayed in the educational documents. Homework sessions often create frustrations and tensions between parents and children. Some of the greatest struggles for families were created by mathematical homework, homework for those enrolled in the French Immersion program, and the work required to complete Literature, Heritage and Science Fair projects. Even when institutionalized and objectified capital was readily available, many families still encountered struggles when trying to carry out the assigned educational tasks. This thesis argues that homework and education-related activities play out differently in different homes. Consideration of this significance may assist educators to better understand and appreciate the vast difference in families and the ways in which each family can contribute to their children’s educational trajectory.

Sensuous geography : the role of sensuous experience and their contemporary implications in public squares, a Lefebvrian approach

This paper explores the sensuous relationship amongst people and the physical elements located in public squares. The research focuses on the study of sensuous geography and its social implications in contemporary city context. Case studies were drawn from various Western countries. A Lefebvrian approach was utilized to analyse the research findings. The study has generated a preliminary sensuous geography checklist for public squares that can predict the degree of popularity and experiential qualities of public squares. However, limits existed in the paper as sensory experiences are conditioned by individual, socio-cultural and climatic influences. The study suggests further integrated approach is needed in this field of study. The research findings indicated that better knowledge of sensuous geography is important in the design and planning disciplines.

Building knowledge capabilities : an organisational learning approach

The communal nature of knowledge production predicts the importance of creating learning organisations where knowledge arises out of processes that are personal, social, situated and active. It follows that workplaces must provide both formal and informal learning opportunities for interaction with ideas and among individuals. This grounded theory for developing contemporary learning organisations harvests insights from the knowledge management, systems sciences, and educational learning literatures. The resultant hybrid theoretical framework informs practical application, as reported in a case study that harnesses the accelerated information exchange possibilities enabled through web 2.0 social networking and peer production technologies. Through complementary organisational processes, 'meaning making' is negotiated in formal face-to-face meetings supplemented by informal 'boundary spanning' dialogue. The organisational capacity building potential of this participatory and inclusive approach is illustrated through the example of the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Library in San Jose, California, USA. As an outcome of the strategic planning process at this joint city-university library, communication, decision-making, and planning structures, processes, and systems were re-invented. An enterprise- level redesign is presented, which fosters contextualising information interactions for knowledge sharing and community building. Knowledge management within this context envisions organisations as communities where knowledge, identity, and learning are situated. This framework acknowledges the social context of learning - i.e., that knowledge is acquired and understood through action, interaction, and sharing with others. It follows that social networks provide peer-to-peer enculturation through intentional exchange of tacit information made explicit. This, in turn, enables a dynamic process experienced as a continuous spiral that perpetually elevates collective understanding and enables knowledge creation.

Socio-Spatial Approaches To Literacy Studies: Rethinking the Social Constitution and Politics of Space

Literacy studies have begun to examine the spatial dimension of literacy practices in a way that foregrounds space, and that considers space as constitutive to human relations and practices. This chapter provides an introduction to spatial literacy research, providing a guide to key theorists, themes, and studies that have shaped historical and new developments in spatial approaches to literacy practice and pedagogy. It begins by reconceptualising socio-spatial approaches to literacy research and defines terms. Intersections with related social theories are examined, with an emphasis on critical approaches and the politics of space. It clarifies the relationship between socio-spatial and socio-cultural paradigms, revisiting the spatial in seminal socio-cultural research. It covers new ground,including networks, flows, and deterritorialisation of literacy practice. The chapter concludes with challenges and recommendations for future language research and educational practice.

Open educational resources in China : a governmentality analysis

Using a sociological approach, this study examines China’s reform of open educational resources (OER), which has prompted significant changes to the nation’s higher education sector. Through an analysis of the policy processes that have driven the reform, this study demonstrates that the reform has involved and brought significant changes to its participants as resource administrators, providers, and receivers. By using governmentality as a poststructuralist analytical framework, this study shows the particular ways in which the reform process has been governed and the ways in which the governing practices have changed the conduct of higher education. The study reveals the power relations exercised through the reform and offers a critique of China’s higher education sector.

Designing an innovative approach to engage students in learning science : the evolving case of hybridized writing

Innovations are usually attributed to ideas generated in the minds of individuals. As we reflect upon the evolving design of an online project to engage students in learning science through hybridized writing activities we propose a more distributed view of the process of innovative design. That is, our experience suggests ideas are generated in the activity of interacting with human and material resources that expand and constrain possibilities. This project is innovative in that it is a new educational response to the problem of disengagement of students in science, and has proven to be effective in changing classroom practice and improving students’ scientific literacy. In this chapter, we identify the antecedents and trace the evolution of the project. This account illuminates the innovative design process, presents a summary of the evidence for the effectiveness of the project, and identifies future directions for further development and research. Keywords: Science learning, hybridized writing, case study, innovative approach

Literacy Theories for the Digital Age: Social, Critical, Multimodal, Spatial, Material and Sensory Lenses

Literacy Theories for the Digital Age insightfully brings together six essential approaches to literacy research and educational practice. The book provides powerful and accessible theories for readers, including Socio-cultural, Critical, Multimodal, Socio-spatial, Socio-material and Sensory Literacies. The brand new Sensory Literacies approach is an original and visionary contribution to the field, coupled with a provocative foreword from leading sensory anthropologist David Howes. This dynamic collection explores a legacy of literacy research while showing the relationships between each paradigm, highlighting their complementarity and distinctions. This highly relevant compendium will inspire readers to explore new frontiers of thought and practice in times of diversity and technological change.

Parent-teacher engagement : a coteaching and cogenerative dialoguing approach

The accumulated evidence from more than four decades of education research strongly suggests that parent involvement in schools carries significant benefits for students as well as for the success of schools (e.g., Henderson & Mapp, 2002). Governments in Australia and overseas have supported parent involvement in schools with a range of initiatives while parent groups have indicated a strong desire for expanded school roles that include participation in formal educational processes namely curriculum, pedagogy, and assessment. Research has also signalled the need for teachers to engage parents rather than adopt traditional parent-school involvement practices so that parents can participate as joint educators in their children's schooling alongside teachers (Pushor, 2001). Actually improving the quality of contact and relationships between parents and teachers to enable engagement however remains problematic. Coteaching and cogenerative dialoguing originally emerged as an innovative approach in the context of teaching secondary school science. Coteaching brings together the collective expertise of several individuals to expand learning opportunities for students while cogenerative dialogues refer to sessions in which participants talk, listen, and learn from one another about the process (Roth & Tobin, 2002a). Coteaching and cogenerative dialoguing reportedly benefits students academically and socially while rewarding educators professionally and emotionally through the support and collaboration they receive from fellow coteachers. These benefits ensue because coteaching theoretically positions teachers at one another's elbows, providing new and different understandings about teaching based on first-hand perspectives and shared goals for assisting students to learn. This thesis proposes that coteaching and cogenerative dialoguing may provide a vehicle for improving quality of contact and relationships between parents and teachers. To investigate coteaching and cogenerative dialoguing as a parent-teacher engagement mechanism, interpretive ethnographic case study research was conducted involving two parents and a secondary school teacher. Sociological ideas, namely Bourdieu's (1977) fields, habitus, and capitals, together with multiple dialectical concepts such as agency|structure (Sewell, 1992) and agency|passivity (Roth, 2007b, 2010) were assembled into a conceptual framework to examine parent-teacher relationships by describing and explaining cultural production and identity construction throughout the case study. Video and audio recordings of cogenerative dialogues and cotaught lessons comprised the chief data sources. Data were analysed using qualitative techniques such as discourse and conversation analysis to identify patterns and contradictions (Roth & Tobin, 2002a). The use of quality criteria detailed by Guba and Lincoln (2005) gives credence to the way in which ethical considerations infused the planning and conduct of this research. From the processes of data collection and analyses, three broad assertions were proffered. The findings highlight the significance of using multiple coordinated dialectical concepts for analysing the affordances and challenges of coteaching and cogenerative dialogues that include parents and teachers. Adopting the principles and purposes of coteaching and cogenerative dialoguing promoted trusting respectful relationships that generated an equitable culture. The simultaneous processes and tensions between logistics and ethics (i.e., the logistics|ethics dialectic) were proposed as a new way to conceptualise how power was redistributed among the participants. Knowledge of positive emotional energy and ongoing capital exchange conceived dialectically as the reciprocal interaction among cultural, social, and symbolic capitals (i.e., the dialectical relationship of cultural|social|symbolic capital) showed how coteaching and cogenerative dialoguing facilitated mutual understandings, joint decision-making, and group solidarity. The notion of passivity as the dialectical partner of agency explained how traditional roles and responsibilities were reconfigured and individual and collective agency expanded. Complexities that surfaced when implementing the coteaching and cogenerative dialoguing approach were outweighed by the multiple benefits that accrued for all involved. These benefits included the development of community-relevant and culturally-significant curricula that increased student agency and learning outcomes, heightened parent self-efficacy for participating in and contributing to formal educational processes, and enhanced teacher professionalism. This case study contributes to existing theory, knowledge and practice, and methodology in the research areas of parent-teacher relationships, specifically in secondary schools, and coteaching and cogenerative dialoguing. The study is particularly relevant given the challenges schools and teachers increasingly face to meaningfully connect with parents to better meet the needs of educational stakeholders in times of continual, complex, and rapid societal change.

Using a Capability Maturity Model to build on the generational approach to student engagement practices

The generational approach to conceptualising first year student learning behaviour has made a useful contribution to understanding student engagement. It has an explicit focus on student behaviour and we suggest that a capability maturity model interpretation may provide a complementary extension of that understanding as it builds on the generational approach by allowing an assessment of institutional capability to initiate, plan, manage, evaluate and review institutional student engagement practices. The development of a Student Engagement, Success and Retention Maturity Model (SESR-MM) is discussed along with its application in an Australian higher education institution. In this case study, the model identified first, second and third generation approaches and in addition achieved a ‘complementary extension’ of the generational approach, building on it by identifying additional practices not normally considered within the generational concept and indicating the capability of the institution to provide and implement the practices.

Industry-school partnerships : an ecological approach

Internationally, Industry-School Partnerships (ISPs) are a ubiquitous government approach for enabling school to work transitions. Significant benefits of ISPs for centralised bureaucracies that are seeking to address common educational problems include: i) cost reduction; ii) supply to geographically dispersed locations, and; iii) industry access to innovative education solutions. In Queensland, there exists a government led ISP, the Gateway to Industry Schools Program. Under this initiative is the Queensland Minerals and Energy Academy, a lead industry organisation for 34 schools and 17 multinational sponsor companies. Acquiring an understanding of this strategic ISP is critical, given the current Resources Industry boom, and the workforce skills shortage experienced in Australia. This review paper adopts Ecological Systems Theory as a lens to understand the inner workings of ISPs. Acknowledging that ISPs will remain a key feature of government policy, this paper seeks to further illuminate the role of ISPs in transitioning young people from school to the working world.

Adapting an argumentation framework for online discourse analysis : a knowledge building approach

The use of online tools to support teaching and learning is now commonplace within educational institutions, with many of these institutions mandating or strongly encouraging the use of a blended learning approach to teaching and learning. Consequently, these institutions generally adopt a learning management system (LMS), with a fixed set of collaborative tools, in the belief that effective teaching and learning approaches will be used, to allow students to build knowledge. While some studies into the use of an LMS’s still identify continued didactic approaches to teaching and learning, the focus of this paper is on the ability of collaborative tools such as discussion forums, to build knowledge. In the context of science education, argumentation is touted as playing an important role in this process of knowledge building. However, there is limited research into argumentation in other domains using online discussion and a blended learning approach. This paper describes a study, using design research, which adapts a framework for argumentation that can be applied to other domains. In particular it will focus on an adapted social argumentation schema to identify argument in a discussion forum of N=16 participants in a secondary High School.

Prevalence, trends and associated socio-economic factors of obesity in South Asia

Aim Worldwide obesity levels have increased unprecedentedly over the past couple of decades. Although the prevalence, trends and associated socio-economic factors of the condition have been extensively reported in Western populations, less is known regarding South Asian populations. Methods A review of articles using Medline with combinations of the MeSH terms: 'Obesity', 'Overweight' and 'Abdominal Obesity' limiting to epidemiology and South Asian countries. Results Despite methodological heterogeneity and variation according to country, area of residence and gender , the most recent nationally representative and large regional data demonstrates that without any doubt there is a epidemic of obesity, overweight and abdominal obesity in South Asian countries. Prevalence estimates of overweight and obesity (based on Asian cut-offs: overweight ≥ 23 kg/m(2), obesity ≥ 25 kg/m(2)) ranged from 3.5% in rural Bangladesh to over 65% in the Maldives. Abdominal obesity was more prevalent than general obesity in both sexes in this ethnic group. Countries with the lowest prevalence had the highest upward trend of obesity. Socio-economic factors associated with greater obesity in the region included female gender, middle age, urban residence, higher educational and economic status. Conclusion South Asia is significantly affected by the obesity epidemic. Collaborative public health interventions to reverse these trends need to be mindful of many socio-economic constraints in order to provide long-term solutions.

A cross-discipline and collaborative approach to identifying the predictors of environmentally friendly and health protective behaviour

Background. As a society, our interaction with the environment is having a negative impact on human health. For example, an increase in car use for short trips, over walking or cycling, has contributed to an increase in obesity, diabetes and poor heart health and also contributes to pollution, which is associated with asthma and other respiratory diseases. In order to change the nature of that interaction, to be more positive and healthy, it is recommended that individuals adopt a range of environmentally friendly behaviours (such as walking for transport and reducing the use of plastics). Effective interventions aimed at increasing such behaviours will need to be evidence based and there is a need for the rapid communication of information from the point of research, into policy and practice. Further, a number of health disciplines, including psychology and public health, share a common mission to promote health and well-being. Therefore, the objective of this project is to take a cross-discipline and collaborative approach to reveal psychological mechanisms driving environmentally friendly behaviour. This objective is further divided into three broad aims, the first of which is to take a cross-discipline and collaborative approach to research. The second aim is to explore and identify the salient beliefs which most strongly predict environmentally friendly behaviour. The third aim is to build an augmented model to explain environmentally friendly behaviour. The thesis builds on the understanding that an interdisciplinary collaborative approach will facilitate the rapid transfer of knowledge to inform behaviour change interventions. Methods. The application of this approach involved two surveys which explored the psycho-social predictors of environmentally friendly behaviour. Following a qualitative pilot study, and in collaboration with an expert panel comprising academics, industry professionals and government representatives, a self-administered, Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) based, mail survey was distributed to a random sample of 3000 residents of Brisbane and Moreton Bay Region (Queensland, Australia). This survey explored specific beliefs including attitudes, norms, perceived control, intention and behaviour, as well as environmental altruism and green identity, in relation to walking for transport and switching off lights when not in use. Following analysis of the mail survey data and based on feedback from participants and key stakeholders, an internet survey was employed (N=451) to explore two additional behaviours, switching off appliances at the wall when not in use, and shopping with reusable bags. This work is presented as a series of interrelated publications which address each of the research aims. Presentation of Findings. Chapter five of this thesis consists of a published paper which addresses the first aim of the research and outlines the collaborative and multidisciplinary approach employed in the mail survey. The paper argued that forging alliances with those who are in a position to immediately utilise the findings of research has the potential to improve the quality and timely communication of research. Illustrating this timely communication, Chapter six comprises a report presented to Moreton Bay Regional Council (MBRC). This report addresses aim's one and two. The report contains a summary of participation in a range of environmentally friendly behaviours and identifies the beliefs which most strongly predicted walking for transport and switching off lights (from the mail survey). These salient beliefs were then recommended as targets for interventions and included: participants believing that they might save money; that their neighbours also switch off lights; that it would be inconvenient to walk for transport and that their closest friend also walks for transport. Chapter seven also addresses the second aim and presents a published conference paper in which the salient beliefs predicting the four specified behaviours (from both surveys) are identified and potential applications for intervention are discussed. Again, a range of TPB based beliefs, including descriptive normative beliefs, were predictive of environmentally friendly behaviour. This paper was also provided to MBRC, along with recommendations for applying the findings. For example, as descriptive normative beliefs were consistently correlated with environmentally friendly behaviour, local councils could engage in marketing and interventions (workshops, letter box drops, internet promotions) which encourage parents and friends to model, rather than simply encourage, environmentally friendly behaviour. The final two papers, presented in Chapters eight and nine, addresses the third aim of the project. These papers each present two behaviours together to inform a TPB based theoretical model with which to predict environmentally friendly behaviour. A generalised model is presented, which is found to predict the four specific behaviours under investigation. The role of demographics was explored across each of the behaviour specific models. It was found that some behaviour's differ by age, gender, income or education. In particular, adjusted models predicted more of the variance in walking for transport amongst younger participants and females. Adjusted models predicted more variance in switching off lights amongst those with a bachelor degree or higher and predicted more variance in switching off appliances amongst those on a higher income. Adjusted models predicted more variance in shopping with reusable bags for males, people 40 years or older, those on a higher income and those with a bachelor degree or higher. However, model structure and general predictability was relatively consistent overall. The models provide a general theoretical framework from which to better understand the motives and predictors of environmentally friendly behaviour. Conclusion. This research has provided an example of the benefits of a collaborative interdisciplinary approach. It has identified a number of salient beliefs which can be targeted for social marketing campaigns and educational initiatives; and these findings, along with recommendations, have been passed on to a local council to be used as part of their ongoing community engagement programs. Finally, the research has informed a practical model, as well as behaviour specific models, for predicting sustainable living behaviours. Such models can highlight important core constructs from which targeted interventions can be designed. Therefore, this research represents an important step in undertaking collaborative approaches to improving population health through human-environment interactions.

Video analytics for the detection of near-miss incidents on approach to railway level crossings

Recent modelling of socio-economic costs by the Australian railway industry in 2010 has estimated the cost of level crossing accidents to exceed AU$116 million annually. To better understand causal factors that contribute to these accidents, the Cooperative Research Centre for Rail Innovation is running a project entitled Baseline Level Crossing Video. The project aims to improve the recording of level crossing safety data by developing an intelligent system capable of detecting near-miss incidents and capturing quantitative data around these incidents. To detect near-miss events at railway level crossings a video analytics module is being developed to analyse video footage obtained from forward-facing cameras installed on trains. This paper presents a vision base approach for the detection of these near-miss events. The video analytics module is comprised of object detectors and a rail detection algorithm, allowing the distance between a detected object and the rail to be determined. An existing publicly available Histograms of Oriented Gradients (HOG) based object detector algorithm is used to detect various types of vehicles in each video frame. As vehicles are usually seen from a sideway view from the cabin’s perspective, the results of the vehicle detector are verified using an algorithm that can detect the wheels of each detected vehicle. Rail detection is facilitated using a projective transformation of the video, such that the forward-facing view becomes a bird’s eye view. Line Segment Detector is employed as the feature extractor and a sliding window approach is developed to track a pair of rails. Localisation of the vehicles is done by projecting the results of the vehicle and rail detectors on the ground plane allowing the distance between the vehicle and rail to be calculated. The resultant vehicle positions and distance are logged to a database for further analysis. We present preliminary results regarding the performance of a prototype video analytics module on a data set of videos containing more than 30 different railway level crossings. The video data is captured from a journey of a train that has passed through these level crossings.