A gendered educational agenda : what's wrong with 10 Things I Hate About You?

Both William Shakespeare's play The Taming of the Shrew (1593) and the film 10 thing I hate About You (Gil Junger, 1999) contain tropes of gender and education and gendered education, and both represent and perform 'education'. That is, they depict characters undergoing a range of educational experiences and in turn educate their audience about what it means to be educated appropriately. It seems fitting then that these pairng of texts has been popular with high school teachers who, more often than not, use them as ways into teaching Shakespeare to contemporary adolescents. I suggest that the play-film pairing can be more productively introduced into the classroom as texts that offer critical readers the opportunity to contest the values of education and gender contatined within them, rather than as tools to reintroduce outdated notions of gendered agency and cultural authority. Indeed it is precisely because 10 Things is unequivocally a romantic comedy that aims to work within the audience's comfort zone that we must seriously interrogate the cultural politics of gender and education it promotes.

The International Film and Television School in Cuba : for a stronger media culture in the global south

A little-known facet of Cuban internationalism is the Cuba shares in the education of young people who want to help build a stronger media culture that represents voices from the global South. Cuba was instrumental in the establishment and operation of the International Film and Television School at San Antonio de los Baños. The Cuban government provided the location and buildings for the school, and among the range of international media professionals who teach the students are selected Cuban professors from the Institute of the Arts, based n Havana. The International Film and Television School is supported by funding from Spain and other countries, and by the willingness of international media professionals to teach short courses for little more than an honorarium. Cuba used to provide full scholarships for student from the South to study a two-year course in film or television, but now charges fees for its three-year diploma course.

Television content for the 21st century classroom

This thesis examines the confluence of digital technology, evolving classroom pedagogy and young people's screen use, demonstrating how screen content can be deployed, curated, and developed for effective use in contemporary classrooms. Based on four detailed case studies drawn from the candidate's professional creative practice, the research presents a set of design considerations for educational media that distill the relevance of the research for screen producers seeking to develop a more productive understanding of and engagement with the school education sector.

Systemic racism: the hidden barrier to educational success for Indigenous school students

Explanations for poor educational experiences and results for Australian Indigenous school students have, to a great extent, focused on intended or conscious acts or omissions. This paper adopts an analysis based on the legislation prohibiting indirect racial discrimination. Using the elements of the legislation and case law it argues that apparently benign and race-neutral policies and practices may unwittingly be having an adverse impact on Indigenous students' education. These practices or policies include the building blocks of learning, a Eurocentric school culture. Standard English as the language of assessment, legislation to limit schools' legal liability, and teachers' promotions.

A new educational technology for media and communication studies : mapping media in Australia and Sweden

This chapter reports on Australian and Swedish experiences in the iterative design, development, and ongoing use of interactive educational systems we call ‘Media Maps.’ Like maps in general, Media Maps are usefully understood as complex cultural technologies; that is, they are not only physical objects, tools and artefacts, but also information creation and distribution technologies, the use and development of which are embedded in systems of knowledge and social meaning. Drawing upon Australian and Swedish experiences with one Media Map technology, this paper illustrates this three-layered approach to the development of media mapping. It shows how media mapping is being used to create authentic learning experiences for students preparing for work in the rapidly evolving media and communication industries. We also contextualise media mapping as a response to various challenges for curriculum and learning design in Media and Communication Studies that arise from shifts in tertiary education policy in a global knowledge economy.

Public knowledge beyond journalism : infotainment, satire and Australian television

This thesis examines the changing relationships between television, politics, audiences and the public sphere. Premised on the notion that mediated politics is now understood “in new ways by new voices” (Jones, 2005: 4), and appropriating what McNair (2003) calls a “chaos theory” of journalism sociology, this thesis explores how two different contemporary Australian political television programs (Sunrise and The Chaser’s War on Everything) are viewed, understood, and used by audiences. In analysing these programs from textual, industry and audience perspectives, this thesis argues that journalism has been largely thought about in overly simplistic binary terms which have failed to reflect the reality of audiences’ news consumption patterns. The findings of this thesis suggest that both ‘soft’ infotainment (Sunrise) and ‘frivolous’ satire (The Chaser’s War on Everything) are used by audiences in intricate ways as sources of political information, and thus these TV programs (and those like them) should be seen as legitimate and valuable forms of public knowledge production. It therefore might be more worthwhile for scholars to think about, research and teach journalism in the plural: as a series of complementary or antagonistic journalisms, rather than as a single coherent entity.

Enhancing students' self-concepts and related constructs: A critical longitudinal analysis capitalising on and combining promising enhancement techniques for educational settings

Enhancing children's self-concepts is widely accepted as a critical educational outcome of schooling and is postulated as a mediating variable that facilitates the attainment of other desired outcomes such as improved academic achievement. Despite considerable advances in self-concept research, there has been limited progress in devising teacher-administered enhancement interventions. This is unfortunate as teachers are crucial change agents during important developmental periods when self-concept is formed. The primary aim of the present investigation is to build on the promising features of previous self-concept enhancement studies by: (a) combining two exciting research directions developed by Burnett and Craven to develop a potentially powerful cognitive-based intervention; (b) incorporating recent developments in theory and measurement to ensure that the multidimensionality of self-concept is accounted for in the research design; (c) fully investigating the effects of a potentially strong cognitive intervention on reading, mathematics, school and learning self-concepts by using a large sample size and a sophisticated research design; (d) evaluating the effects of the intervention on affective and cognitive subcomponents of reading, mathematics, school and learning self-concepts over time to test for differential effects of the intervention; (e) modifying and extending current procedures to maximise the successful implementation of a teacher-mediated intervention in a naturalistic setting by incorporating sophisticated teacher training as suggested by Hattie (1992) and including an assessment of the efficacy of implementation; and (f) examining the durability of effects associated with the intervention.

Inward exporting of professional services : lessons from an exploratory study of Australian educational firms

Inward export activities for services companies have been largely neglected in the literature. Little is known about how professional service firms export to overseas consumers who travel to the domestic market of the firm. This study utilizes a resource-based perspective (RBV) to explore the main barriers and drivers of export performance for professional education services. A case study of Australia’s education industry, as well as interviews with executives from four Australian education institutions, was conducted. Findings show that inward exporters confront most barriers in the domestic market where the service is provided, and drivers of export performance combine firm- and country-specific resources.