P.I.C.U., H.D.U., A.O.A. What treatment do we provide?: Current descriptions of the function of intensive care for inpatient Psychiatric Health Care.

Purpose – This paper adds to growing research of psychiatric intensive care units (PICU) by recounting descriptions of psychiatric intensive care settings and discusses the perceptions held by nurses of the organisational interfaces, arrangements and provisions of care in these settings. Design/methodology/approach – Data gathered from focus groups held with nurses from two PICUs was used to establish terminology, defining attributes, related concepts, antecedents, values, processes and concepts related to current practices. A literature search was conducted to permit a review of the conceptual arrangements and contemporary understanding of intensive care for people experiencing acute psychiatric illness based on the perspectives held by the nurses from the focus groups. Findings – Dissonance between service needs and the needs and management of individual patients overshadow strategies to implement comprehensive recovery-oriented approaches. Three factors are reported in this paper that influence standards and procedural practice in PICU; organisational structures; physical structures; and subtype nomenclature. Practical implications – Acute inpatient care is an important part of a comprehensive approach to mental health services. Commonly intensive acute care is delivered in specialised wards or units co-located with acute mental health inpatient units mostly known as PICU. Evidence of the most effective treatment and approaches in intensive care settings that support comprehensive recovery for improved outcomes is nascent. Originality/value – Current descriptions from nurses substantiate wide variations in the provisions, design and classifications of psychiatric intensive care. Idiosyncratic and localised conceptions of psychiatric intensive care are not adequately entailing effective treatment and methods in support of recovery principles for improved and comprehensive outcomes. The authors suggest that more concrete descriptions, guidelines, training and policies for provision of intensive psychiatric health care encompassing the perspective of nursing professionals, would reinforce conceptual construction and thus optimum treatments within a comprehensive, recovery-oriented approach to mental health services.

Empathy : narrative empathy and children's literature

The term empathy has only existed in English for a little over a hundred years, but the idea of feeling with another person is an old one. Because of its perceived connection to moral behaviour, empathy and its development are of great interest to educators, policy makers, psychologists, and philosophers. Reading children’s literature is often considered important for developing (among other things) children’s ethical and empathic understandings of society and its people. However, claims as to the impact of reading on readers’ ability to become more empathic, tolerant, and better people are divided. While many readers may attribute positive influences that authors and texts have had on shaping their attitudes and actions, there is no guarantee that a desirable affective and cognitive response will follow the reading experience. The complexity of readers and texts refuses to be reduced to simple universal statements about the capacity of narrative empathy to create a particular kind of empathic reader or person: fiction that engages a reader with the emotional plight of a character does not necessarily translate into actions in the real world towards people who are similarly suffering, marginalized, or victimized. This chapter asks: Does children’s literature foster empathy? There are two implicit features of this question: one concerns narrative empathy; the other concerns empathic reader response. The discussion will focus on how a selection of ‘multicultural’ picture books attempts to create narrative empathy by focussing on cultural and spatial differences.

(Re)imagining the world : children's literature's response to changing times

(Re)Imagining the world: Children’s Literature’s Response to Changing Times considers how writers of fiction for children imagine ‘the world’, not one universal world, but different worlds: imaginary, strange, familiar, even monstrous worlds. The chapters in this collection discuss how fiction for children engages with some of the changes brought about by new technologies, information literacy, consumerism, migration, politics, different family structures, cosmopolitanism, and new and old monsters. They also invite us to think about how memory shapes our understanding of the past, and how fiction engages our emotions, our capacity to empathize, our desire to discover, and what the future may hold. The contributors bring different perspectives from education, postcolonial studies, literary criticism, cultural studies, childhood studies, postmodernism, and the social sciences. With a wide coverage of texts from different countries, and scholarly and lively discussions, this collection is itself a testament to the power of the human imagination and the significance of children’s literature in the education of young people.

Revisiting educational equity and quality in China through confucianism, policy, research, and practice

The promotion of educational equity and improvement of educational quality in China are contextualised in tenets of Confucianism and policy directives, inspiring educational research and practice. In this paper, we first explore the historical and cultural roots of educational equity and quality through Confucianism and elaborate on the current policy priority that aims to address educational equity and quality. We then present an overview of research on equity and quality in Chinese education. Informed by Confucianism, policy, and research, we pose a framework to structure our investigation and analysis of three illustrative examples, namely the Special Post Teacher Plan, amalgamation of rural schools, and schooling of floating children. Drawing insights from Confucianism, policy, research, and practice, we conclude that the promotion of educational equity through high quality provision of education for disadvantaged groups can help to narrow the gap in educational quality currently existing in China.

Vision, Viability and Value: Three perspectives on the performing arts across cultures, context and nations

How can we reach out to institutions, artists and audiences with sometimes radically different agendas to encourage them to see, participate in and support the development of new practices and programs in the performing arts? In this paper, based on a plenary panel at PSi#18 Performance Culture Industry at the University of Leeds, Clarissa Ruiz (Columbia), AnuradhaKapur (India) and Sheena Wrigley (England) together with interloctorBree Hadley (Australia) speak about their work in as policy-makers, managers and producers in the performing arts in Europe, Asia and America over the past several decades. Acknowledged trailblazers in their fields, Ruiz, Kapur and Wrigley all have a commitment to creating a vital, viable and sustainable performing arts ecologies. Each has extensive experience in performance, politics, and the challenging process of managing histories, visions, stakeholders, and sometimes scarce resources to generate lasting benefits for the various communities have worked for, with and within. Their work, cultivating new initiatives, programs or policy has made them expert at brokering relationships in and in between private, public and political spheres to elevate the status of and support for performing arts as a socially and economically beneficial activity everyone can participate in. Each gives examples from their own practice to provide insight into how to negotiate the interests of artistic, government, corporate, community and education partners, and the interests of audiences, to create aesthetic, cultural and / or economic value. Together, their views offer a compelling set of perspectives on the changing meanings of the ‘value of the arts’ and the effects this has had for the artists that make and arts organisations that produce and present work in a range of different regional, national and cross-national contexts.

Promoting handwashing with soap behaviour in Kenyan schools : learning from puppetry trials among primary school children in Kenya

While previous research clearly shows that handwashing with soap can prevent many serious illnesses and deaths among children in developing countries, handwashing rates remain low in countries like Kenya. This PhD study explored conditions needed for a successful handwashing with soap initiatives in primary schools in Kenya. It explored the use of puppetry as an approach in communicating hygiene messages as a form of interactive, community-driven method. The research considered a range of conditions that affect such interventions including infrastructure; hardware and software; policy that influence health programs; different actors who have a role to play; and factors affecting sustainability.

Children and young people using public space : models of rights, optimism and wellbeing

This presentation discusses topics and issues that connect closely with the Conference Themes and themes in the ARACY Report Card. For example, developing models of public space that are safe, welcoming and relevant to children and young people will impact on their overall wellbeing and may help to prevent many of the tensions occurring in Australia and elsewhere around the world. This area is the subject of ongoing international debate, research and policy formation, relevant to concerns in the ARACY Report Card about children and young people’s health and safety, participation, behaviours and risks and peer and family relationships.

Let the children (and young people) play-where, how, why?

This paper reports on current research work with children and young people on the importance of public and private space for good health, wellbeing, social, educational and developmental outcomes. In many urban locations in Australia and elsewhere, public space is under attack from developers and attempts by authorities to control public space (Watson 2006). Private space in the home and garden-backyard is also under attack from development densification and trends towards bigger houses on smaller plots of land where gardens disappear altogether or a postage stamp remains (Gleeson and Sipe 2006). At the same time public policy advocates the benefits of outdoor exercise, set alongside fears about using public space exacerbated by notions of ‘stranger danger’ and control measures such as child and youth ‘curfews’. In this increasingly complex context, it is important to discover what children and young people value and need most in using private (home) and public space. In conjunction with the University of Otago, New Zealand, children and young people are consulted to discover how they use public space in parks and shopping centres and home space and the issues encountered and their proposals for improvement, to better inform policy debate, planning and formulation (ARACY 2009).

Countering the Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder epidemic: a question of ethics?

Recently in Australia, another media skirmish has erupted over the problem we currently call “Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder”. This particular event was precipitated by the comments of a respected District Court judge. His claim that doctors are creating a generation of violent juvenile offenders by prescribing Ritalin to young children created a great deal of excitement, attracting the attention of election-conscious politicians who appear blissfully unaware of the role played by educational policy in creating and maintaining the problem. Given the short (election-driven) attention span of government policymakers, I bypass government to question what those at the front line can do to circumvent the questionable practice of diagnosing and medicating young children for difficulties they experience in schools and with learning.

Reimagining learning spaces : A research report for the Queensland Council for Social Science Innovation

The purpose of the Reimagining Learning Spaces project was to conduct an empirical study that would result in findings to inform the design and use of physical school facilities and examine the ways in which these constructions influence pedagogy. The study focused on newly-established school libraries in Queensland, many of which had been established with funding from the Federal Government’s Building the Education Revolution economic stimulus program. To explore the field, the study sought multiple perspectives that included those of school students as well as teacher-librarians and other key school staff, addressing the following focus question: - How does the physical environment of school libraries influence pedagogic practices and learning outcomes? Further research questions that guided the inquiry included: - What are the implications for teacher-librarians when transitioning into a new library learning space? - How do members of the school community (principals, teachers, teacher-librarians and students) experience the creation of a new school library learning space? - How do school students imagine the design and use of engaging library learning spaces? An extensive review explored Australian and international literature based on the research questions, focused on the following major areas: • School library renewal: trends in reimagining the place of libraries in virtual and real space • School libraries as learning spaces: the expanded role of school libraries in whole-school pedagogical support. • The role of teacher-librarians in new times • Built environments and the implications for learning • Learners and learning in newly established spaces • Learning space design: perspectives, research and principles • Pedagogical principles and voices of experience • Transitions to newly created learning spaces Approach Using an innovative qualitative research design, Reimagining Learning Spaces investigated learner and teacher perspectives across three intersecting domains exploring: - Imagined spaces: learners’ imaginative concepts of learning within engaging learning environments; - Emerging spaces: experiences of teacher-librarians in the transition into new spaces for learning, and - Established spaces: learners’ and teachers’ perceptions of ways in which the physical environment influences and shapes pedagogy. Seven schools that had recently benefitted from the BER program became the research sites at which data were collected from teacher-librarians, teachers, school leaders and students. With this range of participants, an appropriately diverse set of data collection tools was developed, including video interviews, drawings, and focus groups. Evocative narrative case studies (Simons 2009) were developed from the data, representing the voices of users of learning spaces. Key findings The study’s findings are presented in this report and complemented by an array of visual materials on the project web site http:// The report includes: • a set of seven cases studies that reveal nuanced experiences of designing and creating school libraries, based on the narrative of key stakeholders (teacher-librarians, teachers, students and principals) • thematic discussion of student imaginings of their ideal school library, based on drawings and narrative of students at the seven case study schools • critical analysis of the case study and student imaginings, focusing on implications for (re)designing school learning spaces and pedagogy, and responding to the study’s overarching research question - .17 recommendations to support: designing, transitioning and reimagining pedagogy; leadership; and policy development

Convergent media policy : the Australian case

This chapter considers the implications of convergence for media policy from three perspectives. First, it discusses what have been the traditional concerns of media policy, and the challenges it faces, from the perspectives of public interest theories, economic capture theories, and capitalist state theories. Second, it looks at what media convergence involves, and some of the dilemmas arising from convergent media policy including: (1) determining who is a media company; (2) regulatory parity between ‘old’ and ‘new’ media; (3) treatment of similar media content across different platforms; (4) distinguishing ‘big media’ from user-created content, and: (5) maintaining a distinction between media regulation and censorship of personal communication. Finally, it discusses attempts to reform media policy in light of these changes, including Australian media policy reports from 2011-12 including the Convergence Review, the Finkelstein Review of News Media, and the Australian Law Reform Commission’s National Classification Scheme Review. It concludes by arguing that ‘public interest’ approaches to media policy continue to have validity, even as they grapple with the complex question of how to understand the concept of influence in a convergent media environment.

Literacy education in a changing policy environment : introduction

Literacy has long been at the heart of discussions about improving the quality and equitable distribution of educational outcomes. The last decade, however, has seen a dramatic redirection of policy effort in this regard. The effects of this policy redirection are playing out now; it may be that new policy emphases may have consequences for how educators think about what matters in literacy, how they can, and should, make judgements about what matters, and how they can, and should, act on those judgements. This issue of the Journal focuses on the changing landscape of policy and practice in literacy education. Educators in many countries have encountered increasingly intensive government moves to centralise and standardise school education. In Australia national testing of literacy and numeracy began relatively recently. The results for individual schools have been publically reported since 2009. Following trialling in 2010 and 2011, most states and sectors are now beginning to implement new Australian curriculum in English, Mathematics, Science and History...

Citizenship, community, public space and the marginalisation of children and young people

Throughout Australia (and in comparable urban contexts around the world) public spaces may be said to be under attack by developers and also attempts by civic authorities to regulate, restrict, rebrand and reframe them. A consequence of the increasingly security driven, privatised and surveilled nature of public space is the exclusion and displacement of those considered flawed and unwelcome in the ‘spectacular’ consumption spaces of many major urban centres. In the name of urban regeneration, processes of securitisation, ‘gentrification’ and creative cities discourses can refashion public space as sites of selective inclusion and exclusion. In this context of monitoring and control procedures, children and young people’s use of space in parks, neighbourhoods, shopping malls and streets is often viewed as a threat to the social order, requiring various forms of punitive and/or remedial action. This paper discusses developments in the surveillance, governance and control of public space used by children and young people in particular and the capacity for their displacement and marginality, diminishing their sense of place and belonging, and right to public space as an expression of their civil, political and social citizenship(s).

Children's exposure to domestic violence in Australia

Children's 'witnessing' or exposure to domestic violence has been increasingly recognised as a form of child abuse, both in Australia and internationally. Although it is difficult to accurately assess the scope of the problem, research has demonstrated that a substantial amount of domestic violence is witnessed by children. As this paper outlines, witnessing domestic violence can involve a range of incidents, ranging from the child 'only' hearing the violence, to the child being forced to participate in the violence or being used as part of a violent incident. In this paper, current knowledge about the extent of children's exposure to domestic violence in Australia is described, along with the documented impacts that this exposure can have on children. This includes psychological and behavioural impacts, health and socioeconomic impacts, and its link to the intergenerational transmission of violence and re-victimisation. Current legislative and policy initiatives are then described and some community-based programs that have been introduced in Australia to address the problem of children's exposure to domestic violence are highlighted. The paper concludes that initiatives focused on early intervention and holistic approaches to preventing and responding to children's exposure to domestic violence should be considered as part of strategies developed to address this problem.

Aboriginality and the Northern Territory intervention

This thesis examines the construction of Aboriginality in recent public policy reasoning through identifying representations deployed by architects and supporters of the Commonwealth’s 2007 Northern Territory Emergency Response (the intervention). Debate about the Northern Territory intervention was explicitly situated in relation to a range of ideas about appropriate Government policy towards Indigenous people, and particularly about the nature, role, status, value and future of Aboriginality and of Aboriginal people and Torres Strait Islanders. This project involves analysis of constructions of Aboriginality deployed in texts created and circulated to explain and justify the policy program. The aim of the project is to identify the ideas about Aboriginality deployed by the intervention’s architects and supporters, and to examine the effects and implications of these discourses for political relationships between Indigenous people and settlers in Australia. This thesis will argue that advocates of the Northern Territory intervention construct Aboriginality in a range of important ways that reassert and reinforce the legitimacy of the settler colonial order and the project of Australian nationhood, and operate to limit Aboriginal claims. Specifically, it is argued that in linking Aboriginality to the abuse of Aboriginal children, the intervention’s advocates and supporters establish a political debate about the nature and future of Aboriginality within a discursive terrain in which the authority and perspectives of Indigenous people are problematised. Aboriginality is constructed in this process as both temporally and spatially separated from settler society, and in need of coercive integration into mainstream economic and political arrangements. Aboriginality is depicted by settler advocates of intervention as an anachronism, with Aboriginal people and cultures understood as primitive and/or savage precursors to settlers who are represented as modern and civilised. As such, the communities seen as the authentic home or location of Aboriginality represent a threat to Aboriginal children as well as to settlers. These constructions function to obscure the violence of the settler order, provide justification or moral rehabilitation for the colonising project, and reassert the sovereignty of the settler state. The resolution offered by the intervention’s advocates is a performance or enactment of settler sovereignty, representing a claim over and through both the territory of Aboriginal people and the discursive terrain of nationhood.