From ecological science to environmental education : a professional turning point?

This article explores the significance of a shift in young people’s professional career from ecological science to environmental education. The article reflects on the role of higher education in addressing social and political issues in environment and sustainability, and then provides an account of a course on environmental education research methodology at the Universidad Nacional Autfinoma de México. The course included participants with an academic and professional background in ecological science who were seeking a change in profession to that of environmental education. It became clear that a shift in profession entails the exploration of an alternative professional philosophy. We draw on some of the participants’ written biographical testimonies to identify some themes around ‘professional turning points’ and conclude that at least for some participants, there is a tension between science education that encourages ‘an aspiration to be objective’ and environmental education that encourages an ‘aspiration to respect the subjective’.

Applying social critical literacy theory to deaf education

This article explores social critical literacy theory and its application to deaf education. It argues that critical literacy offers an approach that can lead to engagement with and empowerment over written text, repositioning students as researchers of language. Texts that represent deaf people - if only through their absence - offer an opportunity for deaf students to engage in literate practices in meaningful contexts. An example of critical text analysis is provided using articles on a contested issue: cochlear implantation.

Informing decision-making in libraries: informetric research as input to LIS education and practice.(Library and Information Science).

Findings from informetric research represent an important background resource to add to the mix of information useful for resolving difficult and ongoing problems in specific library environments or information service settings. This paper provides examples of informetric research that can be useful input to decision-making in the field of library management and information service provision. This overview takes four of the challenges that Michael Buckland outlined for library research as a way of guiding the discussion of ways that informetric work can be used to inform library decision-making. (1) References are made to relevant informetric work undertaken or conducted in Australia, by Australian researchers, or with Australian data.

Informetrics includes both quantitative and qualitative methods, which when used in combination can provide a rounded set of findings that has great validity for management, policy and service applications. Quantitative methodologies are generally based on bibliometric techniques, such as mining and analysis of data from various bibliographic and textual databases. Qualitative methods include survey, case study and historical approaches. Used in combination, each set of findings adds richness and other perspectives to an analysis.

Macroeconomic impact of foreign aid to developing countries

The thesis looks at the macroeconomic impact of foreign aid. It is specially concerned with aid's impact on the public sector of less developed countries < LDCs> . Since the overwhelming majority of aid is directed to the public sector of LDCs, one can only understand the broader macroeconomic impact of aid if one first understands its impact on this sector. To this end, the thesis econometrically estimates " fiscal response" models of aid. These models, in essence, attempt to shed light on public sector fiscal behaviour in the presence of aid inflows, being specially concerned with the way aid is used to finance various categories of expenditures. The underlaying concern is to extent to which aid is " fungible" -that is, whether it finances consumption expenditure and reductions in taxation revenue in LDCs. A number of alternative models are derived from a utility maximisation framework. These alternatives reflect different assumptions regarding the behaviour of LDC public sectors and relate to the endogeniety to exogeniety> of aid, whether or not recurrent expenditure is financed from domestic borrowing and the determination of domestic borrowing. The original frameworks of earlier studies are extended in a number of ways, including the use of a public sector utility function which is fully consistent with expected maximising behaviour. Estimates of these models' parameters are obtained using both time-series and cross-section data, dating from the 1960s, for Bangladesh, India, Pakistan and the Philippines. Both structural and reduced-form equations are estimated. Results suggest that foreign aid to the official sector> is indeed fungible, albeit at different levels. Moreover, the overall impact of aid on public sector investment, consumption, domestic borrowing and taxation varies between countries. Generally speaking, aid leads to increases in investment and consumption expenditure, but reduces taxation and domestic borrowing. Comparative analysis does, however, show that these results are highly sensitive to alternative behavioural assumptions and, therefore, model specification.

Barriers to indigenous education and educational research reform in Australia

Across all Indigenous education sectors in Australia there continues to be extensive debate about the appropriateness of proposed assessment criteria, curriculum content, language of instruction, pedagogical approaches, research practices and institutional structures. Until relatively recently, policy initiatives targeting these issues have been developed and implemented separately and without reference to the interrelated nature of the barriers that confront Indigenous peoples in their attempts to challenge mainstream educational and research practices that potentially marginalise their individual and collective interests. Increasingly, these issues are being linked under the banner of 'Indigenous education reform', and the potential for collective Indigenous community action is being realised. The current Indigenous education reform process in Australia is concerned with reversing the trend associated with patterns of academic underachievement by Indigenous students in the nation's school systems. Concurrently, reforms in the area of Indigenous education research are concerned with achieving fundamental changes to the way Indigenous education research is initiated, constructed and practised. Mainstream institutions. Indigenous peoples and non-Indigenous peoples have different interests in the outcome of the resolution processes associated with proposals to reform Indigenous education and research practices. It is through investigation of stakeholder positioning in relation to key issues, and through reference to stakeholder interests in the outcome of negotiated resolutions, that a critical approach to analysing Indigenous education and research reform initiatives can be achieved. The three case studies contained within this portfolio represent an attempt to investigate the patterns of contestation associated with the delivery of primary school education for Aboriginal students in the Northern Territory and the problems associated with implementing reformed Indigenous education research guidelines. This research has revealed pervasive mainstream community and institutional support for assimilatory policies and a related lack of support for policies of Indigenous community 'self-determination1. This implies insufficient support within the Nation-State for Indigenous proposals for education and research reforms that legitimise the incorporation of Indigenous languages and cultural knowledge and that aim to re-position Indigenous peoples as central to the construction and delivery of education and educational research within their own communities. Common barriers to the implementation of reformed institutional structures and educational and research practices have been identified across each of the three case studies. The analysis of these common barriers points to a generalised statement about the nature of the resistance by mainstream Australians and their institutions to Indigenous community proposals for educational and research reforms. This research identifies key barriers to Indigenous Australian education and research reforms as being: Resurgent mainstream community and institutional support for assimilatory policies implies a lack of support for increasing the level of Indigenous community involvement in the construction and delivery of education and educational research; Mainstream institutional commitment to the principles of economic rationalism and the incorporation of corporate managerialist approaches reduces the potential for Indigenous community involvement in the setting of educational and research objectives; The education and social policy agendas of recent Australian governments are geared toward the achievement of national economic growth and the strengthening of Australia's position in the global economy. As a direct result, the unique cultural identities and linguistic heritages of Indigenous peoples in Australia are marginalised; Identified 'disempowenng' attitudes and practices of educators, researchers and institutional representatives continue to impact negatively upon the educational outcomes of Indigenous students; Insufficient institutional support for the development of mechanisms to ensure Indigenous community control over all aspects of the research project continues to impede the successful negotiation of research in Indigenous community contexts; The promotion of 'deficit' educational approaches for Indigenous students reinforces the marginalisation of their existing linguistic and cultural knowledge bases; The relationship between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples in Australia continues to be constrained by the philanthropically based 'donor-recipient' model of service delivery. The framing of Indigenous peoples as recipients of mainstream community benevolence has ongoing disempowering and negative consequences; Currently proposed national Indigenous education policies and programmes for the implementation of these polices do not adequately take into account the diversity in linguistic, political, cultural and social interests of Indigenous peoples in Australia; Widespread 'institutional racism' within mainstream educational institutions perpetuates the disadvantage experienced by Indigenous students and Indigenous community members who aim to derive benefit from education and educational research.

Angiotensin II receptor imbalance associated with neonatal cardiac growth restriction is a prelude to adult cardiac hypertrophy

The Hypertrophic Heart Rat (HHR) displays spontaneous cardiomyocyte hypertrophy in association with an apparent reduction in myocyte number in adulthood. This suggests the possibility of reduced hyperplasia or increased apoptosis during early cardiac development. The angiotensin AT1 and AT2 receptor subtypes have been implicated in both cellular growth and apoptosis, but the precise mechanisms are unclear. The aim of this study was to determine the relationship between cardiac AngII receptor expression levels and neonatal cardiomyocyte growth and apoptotic responses in the HHR compared with the Normal Heart Rat (NHR) control strain. Cardiac tissues were freshly harvested from male HHR and NHR at several developmental stages (p2 and 4, 6, 8, 12wks). HHR cardiac weight indices were considerably smaller than NHR at day 2 (4.330.19 vs 5.010.08 mg/g), but ‘caught-up’ to NHR by 4 weeks (5.100.15 vs 5.160.11 mg/g). By 12 weeks, HHR hearts were 27% larger than NHR. Tissue AT1A and AT2 mRNA expression levels were quantified by real-time RT-PCR. Relative to NHR, HHR neonatal hearts exhibited a 4.6-fold higher AT2/AT1 mRNA expression ratio. Cultured neonatal cardiomyocytes were infected with AT1A and/or AT2 receptor-expressing adenoviruses to achieve a physiological level of receptor expression (150 fmol receptor protein/mg total cell protein). In addition, to emulate receptor expression in neonatal HHR hearts, cells were co-infected with AT1A and AT2 receptors at a 4:1 ratio. Apoptosis incidence was studied by morphological analysis after 72 hours exposure to 0.1 M AngII. When infected with the AT1A receptor alone, a higher proportion of HHR myocytes appeared apoptotic than NHR (22.7 4.1% vs 1.1 0.6%, P 0.001). This implies that intrinsic differences predispose HHR cells to accentuated AT1-mediated apoptosis. Interestingly, the bax-1/bcl-2 mRNA expression ratio was significantly higher (50%) in HHR neonatal hearts. When cells were co-infected with AT1A and AT2 receptors, evidence of apoptosis in HHR cells virtually disappeared (0.4 0.1%). These findings suggest a novel capacity of AT2 receptors to counteract accentuated AT1A receptor-induced apoptosis in the HHR in early cardiac growth.