‘Be yourself and have a ball’ : using a school and community based health education model to build young women’s resilience and connectedness

Recognition of the important role schools play in the promotion of student wellbeing can be seen in the growing number of polices and programs being implemented in schools across the Australia. This paper reports on some initial data from focus group interviews with year 9 and 10 girls involved in the pilot of a health and physical activity intervention designed to connect them to their local community and reconnect them with their school and their peers. The aim of the program was to build connectedness and resilience by engaging young women in non-traditional physical activities whilst providing them with a sound understanding of health issues relevant to adolescent girls. Situated in a relatively isolated rural community 200 kilometers south east of Melbourne the program was overwhelmingly delivered by regional and local agencies in conjunction with the local secondary school. The intervention was built on a partnerships model designed with the purpose of increasing participation and access for young women whilst building a sustainable program run in partnership between the school and local agencies and services. The initial data from this pilot indicates the program is having a positive impact on the young women’s sense of self and their bodies, their relationships with their peers and in reducing bullying behaviour amongst the girls. However the data raises some important questions around the adequacy of school-based health education, and the sustainability of approaches designed to be delivered by outside agencies rather than classroom teachers.

Assessment of indigenous older peoples ’ needs for home and community care in remote central Australia

The Home and Community Care (HACC) program in Australia provides services which supports older people to live at home. Individual HACC organisations are generally responsible for initial assessment of eligibility and need of clients presenting for services. This paper reports on a project which aimed to develop an understanding of the various approaches to assessment of client needs in Central Australia. The majority of clients in this geographical area are indigenous. The project was initiated in recognition of the primary importance of assessment in determining service access and service delivery and of the particular challenges faced by service providers in remote areas. This paper discusses key project findings including the client group and services provided, initial needs assessment and care planning processes. Evident inconsistencies in practice reflect a variety of complex contextual factors. Staff in remote areas have an inadequate knowledge base to draw upon to assist them with assessment and care planning decisions, and further research and professional development is required.

Climate change and community response in the Borough of Queenscliffe

The Borough of Queenscliffe (BoQ) occupies a unique place among coastal Victorian locations. Situated at the tip of the Bellarine Peninsula, the Borough has approximately 3000 permanent residents, one third of who are over 60 years old. The Borough is also the smallest in Victoria, covering a total area of 13 square kilometres. BoQ is also unique because of its location. The Borough is almost totally surrounded by water and much of this is classified as maritime national park. The Swan Bay Marine Reserve is a Ramsar site and is therefore a wetland of international significance. The Borough relies heavily on tourism for its economic livelihood.

This paper begins with an overview of the BoQ in geographic, demographic and economic terms and then discusses the possible effects and impacts of climate change, as they relate to this small community. These sections are viewed from environmental, economic and social perspectives. Environmental impacts include the erosion of the coastal sand dune system and the loss of habitat for the orange-bellied parrot. Social impacts include the health effects and dangers of flooding for low-lying housing. Various indicators of community response are described, particularly the activities of the local climate change action group. Their strategy can essentially be described as a ‘push upward and downward’ approach. Innovative actions to implement this strategy are described in the paper.

Social capital : an analytical tool for exploring lifelong learning and community development

In her recent contribution to the British Educational Research Journal, Pauline McClenaghan identified the link between social capital and community development, particularly community development education, as a core area where scholarly and policy interests overlap. She concluded that the concept of social capital is unable to grapple with the complex social divisions that characterise contemporary Europe. The authors of this article question her account on three main grounds: the definition of social capital, which they hold is overly narrow, and does not deal with what Woolcock calls the ‘linking’ role of social networks; the presentation of the theoretical foundations of community development, which they believe is flawed in certain key respects; and a lack of clarity in the relationship between the research and the findings reported. The authors then present their own theoretically informed account of social capital as a means of understanding the role of community development, the challenges that it can face and the role of adult education for community development.

Identifying linkages between generations and community development: the effect on residential and retail property

In the analysis of property markets, especially the retail and residential sectors, increasing importance is being given to the role of demography. The impact of economic influences such as interest rate movements, inflation and changes in the labour market are well documented and although these variables are clearly important, they do not incorporate the changing characteristics of the local inhabitants who actually provide the demand. However, demography can provide an invaluable insight into retail and residential property trends, especially over the long term, and are assisted by reliable population datasets with a relatively high level of detail. For example, the emergence of the 'baby boom' generation shift had a substantial effect on demand for retail and housing products, although little consideration has been given to the effect from the subsequent cohorts, namely generations X, Y and Z.

This paper examines the role of demography when researching property markets, with the focus placed on demographic shifts. It discusses trends in a range of demographic variables that have been observed in society. In addition, it highlights linkages with property markets, especially residential and retail property, and draws inferences for long term trends. The study concludes that when conducting research into property markets, it is essential to have a thorough understanding of various demographic variables to predict how they affect demand. An appreciation of the drivers behind generations will assist property researchers to identify future needs, and the subsequent effect this will have on community development involving retail and residential property.

Community-based environmental education : government and community, economics and environment

This thesis contends that government focus on policy implicitly defines community education as a means of overcoming barriers to government-initiated change, rather than as an input to governmental decision-making. The role of education is thus viewed as instrumentalist rather than as dialectical in nature. I argue that this role has been reinforced and driven by economic rationalism, as a mechanism related to scientific theory and practice. The thesis addresses the role of government in non-institutional community-based environmental education. Of interest is environmental education under the dominance of economic rationalism and as expressed in government-derived policy, in its own right, and as enacted in two government funded animal management projects. The main body of data, then, includes a review of some contemporary environmental policies and two case studies of 'policy in practice'. Chapter One provides an overview of environmentalism as it has emerged as part of the discourse of Western political systems. Recognised as part of this change is a move to environmentalism embued with the rhetoric of economic theory. The manifestation of this change can be seen in an emphasis on management for the natural environment's use as a resource for humans. Education under this arrangement is valued in terms of its ability to support initiatives that are perceived as economically viable and economically advantageous, maintaining centralised control of decision-making and serving the interests of those who profit from this arrangement. Government-derived environmental policies are presented in Chapter Two. They provide evidence of the conjoining of environment with economic rationalism and the adoption of a particular stance which is both utilitarian and instrumentalist. Emerging from this is an understanding of the limitations placed on environmental debates that do not respond to complex understandings of context and instead support and legitimate centralisation of decision-making and control. Chapter Three presents an argument for an historical approach to environmental education research to accommodate contextual dimensions, as well as scientific, economic and technical dimensions, of the subject under study. An historical approach to research, inclusive of biographical, intergenerational and geographical histories, goes some way to providing an understanding of current individual and collective responses to policy enactment within the two study sites. It also responds to the concealing of history which results from the reduction of environmental debates to economic terms. With this in mind, Chapters Four and Five provide two historical case studies of 'policy in practice'. Chapter Four traces the workings of a rabbit control project in the Sutton Grange district of Victoria and Chapter Five provides an account of a mouse plague project in the Wimmera and Mallee regions of Victoria. The Sutton Grange rabbit project is organised and controlled by district landholders while the Wimmera and Mallee mouse project is organised and controlled by representatives from a scientific organisation and a government agency. Considered in juxtaposition, the two case studies enable an analysis of two somewhat different expressions of the 'role of government'. Chapter Six investigates the competing processes of community participation in governmental decision-making and Australia's system of representative democracy, Despite a call for increased community participation, the majority of policies remain dominated by governmental rhetoric and ideology underpinned by a belief in impartiality. The primacy of economics is considered in terms of government and community interaction, with specific reference to the emergence of particular conceptual constructions, such as cost-benefit analysis, that support this dominance. Of specific importance to this thesis is the argument that economic theory is essentially anthropocentric and individualist and, thus, necessarily marginalises particular conceptions of environment that are non-anthropocentric and non-individualistic. Finally, Chapter Six examines two major interrelated tensions; those of central interests and community interests, and economic rationalism and environmentalist. Chapter Seven looks at examples of theories and practices that fall outside the rationality determined by scientistic knowledge. It is clear from the examination of environmental policy within this thesis that the role ascribed to environmental education is instrumentalist. The function of education is often to support, promote and implement policy and its advocated practices. It is also clear from the examination of policy and advocated processes that policy defines community education as a means of manifesting change as determined by policy, rather than as an input to governmental decision-making. The domination of scientific, economic and technocratic processes (and legitimation of processes) allows only for an instrumentalist approach to education from government. What is encouraged by government through the process of change is continuity rather than reform. It promotes change that will not disrupt the governing hegemony. Particular perspectives and practices, such as a critical approach to education, are omitted or considered only within the unquestioned rationale of the dominant worldview. Chapter Seven focuses on the consequence of government attention to policy which implicitly defines community education as a means of overcoming barriers to change, rather than as an input to governmental decision-making. Finally a list of recommendations is put forward as a starting point to reconstruct community-based environmental education. The role considered is one that responds to, and encourages engagement in, debates which expose disparate views, assumptions and positions. Community ideology must be challenged through the public practices of communication and understanding, decision-making, and action. Intervention is not on a level that encourages a preordinate outcome but, rather, what is encouraged is elaborate consideration of disparate views and rational opinions, and the exposure of assumptions and interests behind ideological positions.

Learning to be drier : a case study of adult and community learning in the Australian Riverland

This article explores the adult and community learning associated with 'learning to be drier' in the Riverland region of South Australia. Communities in the Riverland are currently adjusting and making changes to their understandings and practices as part of learning to live with less water. The analysis of adult and community learning derived from this research identifies six different forms of learning. These are, learning to produce, learning to be efficient, learning to survive, learning to live with uncertainty, learning to be sustainable and learning to share. These forms of learning do not occur in isolation and separately from each other but to the contrary are occuring simultaneously with and alongside each other. Further, it is argued that the people and communities in the Riverland, through learning to live with the effects of climate change and less water, are at the forfront of learning to be drier.

Research on school and community-based curriculum practice in aboriginal, multicultural and migrant education

This research studies some key problems in relation to curriculum reform in multicultural and migrant education: social concepts of multicultural education, divergent curriculum theories informing practice, the facilitation process in regard to project self-study and action research and the development of cultural perspectives in general curriculum pedagogy.

Australian women artists and domesticity in the twentieth century

The professionalism of women artists around the turn of the century coincided with the growing expectation that female members of the family should do the housework formerly done by domestic servants. The Women's Art Register was the research base for the compilation of a twentieth century history of Australian women artists and their attitude towards domesticity and housework. The authors work as located within this artistic tradition is also discussed.

School and community partnerships in socially critical environmental education : research as environmental activism

Through a critical ethnography of a school and community, this study identifies and describes-in-action an approach to environmental education that supports the socially critical aspirations of many contemporary environmental education activists and examines its fate in the policy context of educational restructuring.  The study provides a critical analysis and exploration of environmental education and environmental activism within the context of social change.