Exploring the experiences of embedding Indigenous knowledge and perspectives on teaching practicum through interpretive phenomenology

In this paper, we discuss interpretive/hermeneutic phenomenology as a theoretical approach to explore the experiences of three stakeholder groups in embedding Indigenous knowledge and perspectives on teaching practicum, a project sponsored by ALTC. We begin by asking the phenomenological question ‘what is your experience of practice teaching?’ An open, explorative, phenomenological framework seeks the meanings of experiences, not truths, from the participants’ words themselves. Interpretive phenomenology is particularly suitable to explore educational experiences (Grumet, 1992; M. van Manen, 1990), as it provides rich ground for listening to the stakeholders’ lived experience and documenting it for interpretation. In an interpretive process, perspectives on lifeworlds, worldview and lenses get highlighted (Cunningham & Stanley, 2003). We establish how through various project stages, interpretive phenomenology gets to the essence of practice teaching experience creating a pedagogical ‘understanding’ of the essential nature of shared experience as lived by the participants (M van Manen, 2002). Thereby, it foregrounds voices of agency, dissent, acceptance and resistance. We consider how our research study focuses on the pedagogic voice of Indigenous pre-service teachers and the recognition of complex pedagogic fields in Indigenous education. We explain how this study seeks insights into their evaluation of pedagogic relations with two other education stakeholders – their practicum supervising teachers at schools and university staff involved practicum experience. As such, our study aims to support and develop long term, future-oriented opportunities for Indigenous pre-service teachers to embed Indigenous knowledge in the curricula. We conclude with some projections into the discourse on how Indigenous knowledge (IK) and perspectives might be diversely exemplified in pre-service teachers’ professional works (particularly E-portfolios). We speculate how this change could in turn maximise opportunities for Indigenous pre-service teachers, their supervising teachers and university staff to demonstrate leadership in their field through the creation of future tangible products such as units of work, resources, assessment and reflection tools. The processes contextualising the cultural interface of competing knowledge systems (Nakata, 2007) provide important analytical tools for understanding issues affecting student-teacher-mentor relationships occurring on practicum.

Cultural inhibitors to hearing the voices of child sexual abuse by church personnel

It is increasingly recognised that Christian Churches and their Institutions have historically been sites where the voices of survivors of child sexual abuse (csa) by Church personnel have not been effectively heard. This paper draws on data from a research project which sought the voices of Church Leaders who were identified as being pro-active in addressing csa within their individual denominations. From this research several key inhibitors to hearing survivor’s voices, within Churches of Australia, were identified. These key inhibitors include the culture of Churches themselves, gendered ideologies, constructions of leadership and the deployment of forgiveness. The identification of such factors creates space to learn more effective strategies for hearing the voices of survivors both within Churches and their organisations and externally. This paper goes beyond considering these factors to report on a collaborative project initiated, between Survivors Australia and Dr Death. This project specifically targets the voices of Australian Survivors of csa by Church leaders. It is hoped that this project will not only achieve the primary objective of hearing and valuing the voices of survivors of csa by Church leaders, but will also provide impetus for the creation of alternative ways of managing complaints of csa by Church leaders in Australia. Such complaints processes will be increasingly survivor focussed and include the creation of spaces where the voices of survivors are valued.

Overview of complex systems in sport

The complex systems approach offers an opportunity to replace the extant pre-dominant mechanistic view on sport-related phenomena. The emphasis on the environment-system relationship, the applications of complexity principles, and the use of nonlinear dynamics mathematical tools propose a deep change in sport science. Coordination dynamics, ecological dynamics, and network approaches have been successfully applied to the study of different sport-related behaviors, from movement patterns that emerge at different scales constrained by specific sport contexts to game dynamics. Sport benefit from the use of such approaches in the understanding of technical, tactical, or physical conditioning aspects which change their meaning and dilute their frontiers. The creation of new learning and training strategies for teams and individual athletes is a main practical consequence. Some challenges for the future are investigating the influence of key control parameters in the nonlinear behavior of athlete-environment systems and the possible relatedness of the dynamics and constraints acting at different spatio-temporal scales in team sports. Modelling sport-related phenomena can make useful contributions to a better understanding of complex systems and vice-versa.

Deleuze and music : a creative approach to the study of music

The work of Gilles Deleuze has influenced an increasing number of music scholars and practicing musicians, particularly those interested in experimental, electronic and popular music. This is despite the notoriously complex nature of his writings, and the specialised theoretical vocabulary that he employs. This thesis both demystifies some of the key terms and concepts of this vocabulary, before demonstrating how Deleuze’s ideas may be put to work in new and fruitful ways; this is achieved with specific reference to the relationships that music has with thought, time and machines. In Chapter 1, Deleuze’s understanding of the power of thought is examined, in particular his approach to communication, transcendence and immanence, and the “powers of thought.” Each of these concepts helps us to understand Deleuze’s work within broad problem of how to think about music immanently: that is, how to maintain that thought and music are both immanent aspects of life and experience. Chapter 2 examines time within a Deleuzian framework, linking his work on cinema with the concept of the “refrain”; both of these areas prove crucial to his understanding of music, as seen in Deleuze’s approach to the work of Varese, Messiaen, and Boulez. In addition, Deleuze’s understanding of time proves fruitful in examining various aspects of music production, as seen in contemporary electronic dance music. Finally, Chapter 3 looks at the concept of the machine, as developed by Deleuze and Guattari, with reference to the sorts of “machinic” connections that a Deleuzian approach encourages us to seek out in music. Once again, examples from contemporary electronic music are presented, in relation to the notions of becoming and subjectivity. Throughout these chapters, Deleuze’s broad understanding of philosophy as the “creation of concepts” is deployed. This means introducing new ideas and specific types of music that encourage creative and novel engagements with the study of music.

An investigation of the impacts of Excellence in Research for Australia : a case study on accounting for research

This is the first study to explore the way Excellence in Research for Australia (ERA), a research assessment exercise introduced in the Australian higher education sector in 2010, fostered the development of strategically oriented Management Accounting technologies in the form of Performance Management Systems (PMS) to achieve research excellence within an Australian university. It identifies ERA's intended and unintended consequences. While ERA enabled the creation of tighter controls in the PMS of faculties, departments and individual academics within the university, enhancing its reported research performance, the impact on academics was low job satisfaction, increased workload and a higher focus on research than teaching.

Biophilic urbanism : harnessing natural elements to enhance the performance of constructed assets

Creating climate resilient, low-carbon urban environments and assets is a policy goal of many governments and city planners today, and an important issue for constructed asset owners. Stakeholders and decision makers in urban environments are also responding to growing evidence that cities need to increase their densities to reduce their footprint in the face of growing urban populations. Meanwhile, research is highlighting the importance of balancing such density with urban nature, to provide a range of health and wellbeing benefits to residents as well as to mitigate the environmental and economic impacts of heavily built up, impervious urban areas. Concurrently achieving this suite of objectives requires the coordination and cooperation of multiple stakeholder groups, with urban development and investment increasingly involving many private and public actors. Strategies are needed that can provide ‘win-win’ outcomes to benefit these multiple stakeholders, and provide immediate benefits while also addressing the emerging challenges of climate change, resource shortages and urban population growth. Within this context, ‘biophilic urbanism’ is emerging as an important design principle for buildings and urban areas. Through the use of a suite of natural design elements, biophilic urbanism has the potential to address multiple pressures related to climate change, increasing urban populations, finite resources and human’s inherent need for contact with nature. The principle directs the creation of urban environments that are conducive to life, delivering a range of benefits to stakeholders including building owners, occupiers and the surrounding community. This paper introduces the principle of biophilic urbanism and discusses opportunities for improved building occupant experience and performance of constructed assets, as well as addressing other sustainability objectives including climate change mitigation and adaptation. The paper presents an emerging process for considering biophilic design opportunities at different scales and highlights implications for the built environment industry. This process draws on findings of a study of leading cities internationally and learnings related to economic and policy considerations. This included literature review, two stakeholder workshops, and extensive industry consultation, funded by the Sustainable Built Environment National Research Centre through core project partners Western Australian Department of Finance, Parsons Brinckerhoff, Townsville City Council CitySolar Program, Green Roofs Australasia, and PlantUp.

On application of structural decomposition for process model abstraction

Real world business process models may consist of hundreds of elements and have sophisticated structure. Although there are tasks where such models are valuable and appreciated, in general complexity has a negative influence on model comprehension and analysis. Thus, means for managing the complexity of process models are needed. One approach is abstraction of business process models-creation of a process model which preserves the main features of the initial elaborate process model, but leaves out insignificant details. In this paper we study the structural aspects of process model abstraction and introduce an abstraction approach based on process structure trees (PST). The developed approach assures that the abstracted process model preserves the ordering constraints of the initial model. It surpasses pattern-based process model abstraction approaches, allowing to handle graph-structured process models of arbitrary structure. We also provide an evaluation of the proposed approach.

ACE research briefing paper 007 : Ken Talbot - an entrepreneur's contribution to the growth of the Australian Mining Industry

Ken Talbot was one of Australian mining’s most successful entrepreneurs and rose to the top of his industry to become one of Australia’s wealthiest men. Although the nation’s resources industry is synonymous with global names such as Xstrata, BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto, Ken was an individual who made a big impact on the development and growth of the sector. This case study examines Ken’s achievements, his transition from employee to entrepreneur, and the qualities that enabled him to succeed at such a high level. In particular, it focuses on his Jellinbah and Coppabella mining developments that directly led to the creation of Macarthur Coal and the Talbot Group. By the time of his premature death in an African plane crash in 2010, Ken had amassed a fortune estimated at almost $1 billion and was aged just 59. The last publically available Talbot Group annual report for calendar year 2009 showed that the investment portfolio of the group returned 113 per cent that year. Even throughout the global financial crisis the portfolio made a positive return on investment of no less than 10 per cent. Ken’s sense of mateship and his tremendous people skills were keys to his success in the mining industry and the wider community. In addition to excelling in business, he is also remembered for his philanthropy and leaving 30 per cent of his estate to charity through the Talbot Family Foundation.

Spotlight on ... Philately : a tale of two postage stamps - following the things

I found it on eBay: ‘Jamaica GB used in 1858 6d x 2 sg Z5 used on piece A01 [Kingston] 1858’. Offered for sale by a stamp dealer on the Isle of Man was a scrap of blue paper, apparently part of an old envelope or torn off a sealed, folded letter, on which was stuck an attached pair of British postage stamps, each bearing the image of a young Queen Victoria

Directing experience : an exploration of active analysis and visual cognition theory in the training of contemporary directors

The focus of this research is the creation of a stage-directing training manual on the researcher's site at the National Institute of Dramatic Art. The directing procedures build on the work of Stanislavski's Active Analysis and findings from present-day visual cognition studies. Action research methodology and evidence-based data collection are employed to improve the efficacy of both the directing procedures and the pedagogical manual. The manual serves as a supplement to director training and a toolkit for the more experienced practitioner. The manual and research findings provide a unique and innovative contribution to the field of theatre directing.

International virtual networking capabilities and firm performance: A study of international entrepreneurial Australian SMEs

The Internet is a critical resource for a new generation of small and medium sized enterprise. Specifically, the Internet is important for small entrepreneurial firms in pursuing international opportunities through increased digital integration. As such, the Internet has been identified as a key enabler of international entrepreneurship (Reuber & Fischer, 2011). By facilitating international business for many entrepreneurial SMEs, the Internet has the ability to increase the quality and speed of communications, lower transaction costs, and facilitate the development of international networks. Although the Internet has been found to play a pivotal role in the creation of international relationships and is a mechanism for the creation of international growth opportunities in SMEs (Mathews & Healy, 2008), the role of the international entrepreneurial decision-maker in the development of international virtual networks for leveraging opportunities in internationalisation remains unclear. The findings of this research indicate that developing an ‘international virtual network capability’ forms an important part of the firm’s resource and more specifically dynamic capability base, which is just one component of a firm’s resource bundle that builds towards successful internationalisation via an Internet platform.

Indigenous epistemology : creating an international Indigenous higher education space in the wake of the western “university of excellence”

Interest in the participation of Indigenous peoples in higher education has, in recent times, gained momentum with an increasing number of advocates challenging the global history of culturally inept policies and practices imposed within the western higher education system. To address the challenges being presented by Indigenous communities and other groups (often relegated under the banner of disadvantaged or equity) Western Universities are promoting a shift toward inclusive policies and practices. Frustrated with the offerings of the Western Higher Education system, a global movement of Indigenous academics, Elders and knowledge holders are developing strategies to meet the educational needs of their own communities, in order to find a way forward. The mobilization of Elders and Indigenous academics has resulted in the development of a global higher education network which is proving to be a significant force in changing the position of Indigenous participation in higher education. The World Indigenous Network Higher Education Consortium (WINHEC) has presented a significant challenge to those barriers within the western higher education system that has historically demonstrated an inability to develop culturally inclusive practices within their institutions. This paper examines the development of a world Indigenous higher education movement and its contribution to the history of the “university” within the context of western higher education institutions. Outlined in this examination will be a synopsis of the development of the “University of Excellence” and the creation of an international Indigenous space within higher education.

Development of gas sensing technology for ground and airborne applications powered by solar energy : methodology and experimental results

Monitoring gases for environmental, industrial and agricultural fields is a demanding task that requires long periods of observation, large quantity of sensors, data management, high temporal and spatial resolution, long term stability, recalibration procedures, computational resources, and energy availability. Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) and Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) are currently representing the best alternative to monitor large, remote, and difficult access areas, as these technologies have the possibility of carrying specialised gas sensing systems, and offer the possibility of geo-located and time stamp samples. However, these technologies are not fully functional for scientific and commercial applications as their development and availability is limited by a number of factors: the cost of sensors required to cover large areas, their stability over long periods, their power consumption, and the weight of the system to be used on small UAVs. Energy availability is a serious challenge when WSN are deployed in remote areas with difficult access to the grid, while small UAVs are limited by the energy in their reservoir tank or batteries. Another important challenge is the management of data produced by the sensor nodes, requiring large amount of resources to be stored, analysed and displayed after long periods of operation. In response to these challenges, this research proposes the following solutions aiming to improve the availability and development of these technologies for gas sensing monitoring: first, the integration of WSNs and UAVs for environmental gas sensing in order to monitor large volumes at ground and aerial levels with a minimum of sensor nodes for an effective 3D monitoring; second, the use of solar energy as a main power source to allow continuous monitoring; and lastly, the creation of a data management platform to store, analyse and share the information with operators and external users. The principal outcomes of this research are the creation of a gas sensing system suitable for monitoring any kind of gas, which has been installed and tested on CH4 and CO2 in a sensor network (WSN) and on a UAV. The use of the same gas sensing system in a WSN and a UAV reduces significantly the complexity and cost of the application as it allows: a) the standardisation of the signal acquisition and data processing, thereby reducing the required computational resources; b) the standardisation of calibration and operational procedures, reducing systematic errors and complexity; c) the reduction of the weight and energy consumption, leading to an improved power management and weight balance in the case of UAVs; d) the simplification of the sensor node architecture, which is easily replicated in all the nodes. I evaluated two different sensor modules by laboratory, bench, and field tests: a non-dispersive infrared module (NDIR) and a metal-oxide resistive nano-sensor module (MOX nano-sensor). The tests revealed advantages and disadvantages of the two modules when used for static nodes at the ground level and mobile nodes on-board a UAV. Commercial NDIR modules for CO2 have been successfully tested and evaluated in the WSN and on board of the UAV. Their advantage is the precision and stability, but their application is limited to a few gases. The advantages of the MOX nano-sensors are the small size, low weight, low power consumption and their sensitivity to a broad range of gases. However, selectivity is still a concern that needs to be addressed with further studies. An electronic board to interface sensors in a large range of resistivity was successfully designed, created and adapted to operate on ground nodes and on-board UAV. The WSN and UAV created were powered with solar energy in order to facilitate outdoor deployment, data collection and continuous monitoring over large and remote volumes. The gas sensing, solar power, transmission and data management systems of the WSN and UAV were fully evaluated by laboratory, bench and field testing. The methodology created to design, developed, integrate and test these systems was extensively described and experimentally validated. The sampling and transmission capabilities of the WSN and UAV were successfully tested in an emulated mission involving the detection and measurement of CO2 concentrations in a field coming from a contaminant source; the data collected during the mission was transmitted in real time to a central node for data analysis and 3D mapping of the target gas. The major outcome of this research is the accomplishment of the first flight mission, never reported before in the literature, of a solar powered UAV equipped with a CO2 sensing system in conjunction with a network of ground sensor nodes for an effective 3D monitoring of the target gas. A data management platform was created using an external internet server, which manages, stores, and shares the data collected in two web pages, showing statistics and static graph images for internal and external users as requested. The system was bench tested with real data produced by the sensor nodes and the architecture of the platform was widely described and illustrated in order to provide guidance and support on how to replicate the system. In conclusion, the overall results of the project provide guidance on how to create a gas sensing system integrating WSNs and UAVs, how to power the system with solar energy and manage the data produced by the sensor nodes. This system can be used in a wide range of outdoor applications, especially in agriculture, bushfires, mining studies, zoology, and botanical studies opening the way to an ubiquitous low cost environmental monitoring, which may help to decrease our carbon footprint and to improve the health of the planet.

The child pose : the role of the nonhuman natural world in recovery from psychological trauma

This thesis by creative work explores relationships among human beings, the nonhuman natural world and language. It addresses the central research question: 'How can a novel embody a narrative of recovery from psychological trauma in which recovery is primarily a function of the character's subjective interaction with nature?' The novel, 'The Child Pose', tells the story of a woman's recovery from psychological trauma. The thesis draws on the psychoanalytic theory of Jacques Lacan, who saw the human subject as fundamentally split and alienated, and therefore inherently vulnerable to being destabilised by trauma. Situating the narrative of recovery within the emerging fields of ecocriticism and ecopsychology, the research constructs psychological recovery through interaction with nature as a transformation of subjectivity: the creation of a new, more stable and connected kind of subject, which Jordan (2012) has called 'the ecological subject'.

Psychological predictors of injury in elite athletes

The Queensland Academy of Sport (QAS) supports over 600 high-level athletes across 20 sports. Given the high cost of injuries (e.g., time out of sport and consequent detraining, expense of rehabilitation, adverse social and economic effects), comprehensive injury management and prevention has become a priority for the QAS. Considering the potential for developing cost-effective, preventative programs, knowledge gained by examination of psychological screening predictors of injury may also prove beneficial for the broader sports medicine community. Aims were to: Objectively summarise existing injury characteristics, including the creation of population-specific norms for scholarship holders at the QAS. Assess relationships between injuries, specific medical factors (e.g., asthma, back pain) and psychological risk factors including life stress, mood, previous psychological diagnoses and disordered eating behaviour over a three-year period. Evaluate the effectiveness of the psychological component of the QAS Health Screening Questionnaire.