'I don't really care about what someone else's studied' : Drinking guidelines and the government of pleasure

This paper examines data from a Drinkwise Australia funded research project that investigated the cultural drivers of drinking in 14-24 year-old Australians. The research included two studies. In one we conducted interviews and focus groups with administrators and young people in a range of sporting clubs and in the other we interviewed 60 young people aged 20-24 about their drinking biographies. The drinking biographies study is the focus of this paper. At the time of interviewing the draft guidelines on low-risk drinking were released by the NH&MRC and we asked our participants what they knew about them and if they would affect their drinking patterns. The responses to these questions are examined in light of O’Malley and Valverde’s claim that pleasure is silenced and/or deployed strategically in liberal governance discourses about drugs and alcohol (2004: 25). This is despite the fact that research indicates that pleasure is an important motivation for drinking.

Gifted education, professional development and the contemporary landscape of teachers' work : challenges and choices

This paper examines the perspectives of primary school teachers, administrators and personnel working in eastern suburban Melbourne as they consider the rationale for, and the purposes of, gifted education within the broader landscape of teachers' work. The data for this presentation are drawn from a single case qualitative case study where semi-structured interviews were held four years after the school participated in the Bright Futures gifted professional development. The school proudly proclaims a tradition of scholarship and excellence within a friendly, caring, cooperative and democratic ethos. Teachers welcomed the opportunity to express their thoughts, sentiments and opinions on curriculum, assessment and reporting practices, their attitudes to the aims of gifted education, the selection of children for pull-out programs, and their views to school management and to parents in relation tho these matters. Using a Foucoultian framework, I analyse how teachers juggle many goals within the complex reality of daily classroom teaching, and how they are wedged between the power of formal school rhetoric and educational policy working to improve learning outcomes for all students. This, in turn, has significant repercussions for addressing the needs of gifted students and generates considerable ambivalence about the implementation of gifted programs. I propose that such responses are important elements in the contemporary landscape of teacher's work

Western Australia intercultural arts research project : an investigation into culturally and linguistically diverse art and artists in Western Australia

Background: The introduction of the Australia Council's 'Arts in a Multicultural Australia Policy' (AIMAP) (2000) represented a shift in how the arts in multicultural communities were viewed. It has long been recognised that the arts play a significant role in promoting social cohesion, social policy goals, economic growth, and shaping a nation’s sense of identity. However, prior to the introduction of this policy, multicultural arts was typically seen as involving cultural retentive activities which had their roots in expressions of migrant cultural traditions. The introduction of the policy heralded the beginning of an era in which culturally and linguistically diverse (CaLD) Australians were seen as integral to the fabric of the Australian arts sector. Evaluation of the policy in 2005 however, revealed that culturally and linguistically diverse Australians were under-represented in most artistic categories. Western Australia is the most culturally diverse state in Australia. It is therefore of great interest to the State Government to have a comprehensive picture of the situation in that state. Hence, the Office of Multicultural Interests (OMI) commissioned Deakin University to undertake an investigation into the participation rates of CaLD artists in the arts sector in Western Australia.

Scope: The project examined the participation in the arts of CaLD artists in Western Australia. The arts sector comprises many more individuals and organisations than artists. For example, there are arts agency administrators, venue operators, policy officers, curators, and countless others who work together to make up the arts sector. This project focused on the artists, the individuals such as those who make music, visual art, dance and theatre performances. In the past it has been shown that CaLD populations are not well represented in the broader arts sector. This research aimed to discover the current position for CaLD artists in terms of participation in the broader arts sector and what factors influence their situation.

Sporting clubs, alcohol and young people : enduring tensions and emerging possibilities

This paper examines data from a research project that investigated the cultural drivers of drinking in 14-24 year-old Australians, funded by Drinkwise Australia and the Department of Health and Ageing. At the same time that we were working on this project a moral panic about young people, risk and binge drinking had once more energised public debate. Prominent here was the highly politicised imputation of a strategic taxation levy on ready to drink products (alcopopos). This qualitative, interview-based project examined two separate but related aspects of young people's alcohol use: the roles played by sporting clubs, as community hubs, in shaping young people's use of alcohol: and young people's drinking biographies over different phases of their lives. This paper will focus on the sporting club study to discuss issues related to the positioning and serving of alcohol in the relation to young people. As part of the study, we conducted interviews with club administrators and young people in a range of sporting clubs. Insights from the study give rise to the potential for clubs to play an active and influential role in helping young people create positive/responsible approaches to alcohol consumption.

Dancing on a moving floor : lay women and the principalship in Catholic education

Female disadvantage has been the explanation given in previous studies to explain the under-representation of laywomen who achieve principalships in Catholic Education. Women, themselves, have overcome many of the barriers that disadvantage them. These include an apparent inability to cope with financial management and time constraints due to family commitments. The introduction of Equal Opportunity legislation and related programmes has assisted this process, but as my research shows the under-representation of women in principalship in proportion to the numbers of women teachers in Catholic Education still remains. This thesis examines the phenomenon in three dioceses in three Australian states. I have investigated this problem using a feminist research approach which is characterised by an emphasis on the significance of everyday life. Statistical material as to percentages of teachers in comparison with percentages of female principals was collected; dates of formulation and acceptance of relevant policies at diocesan levels were checked and questionnaires compiled. The questionnaires were distributed to appropriate stakeholders. Following the compilation of data from the questionnaires, themes emerged which provided the initial questions for focus groups made up of male and female principals and potential principals. These focus groups were then conducted in all three dioceses. Through all stages I carried out cross-referencing with my own journal sentries (Power, 1993—1999) . The qualitative and quantitative data generated from the focus groups was examined and analysed drawing on feminist concepts. I have found two major features emerging from the materials that I have generated. The first was the unpredictable, ambiguous and often contradictory relations that occur within Catholic Education, and how they were experienced by lay women. This aspect gave rise to the title of my thesis: 'Dancing on a Moving Floor' as many women felt the rules changed the closer they got to achieving principalship. Then both male and female participants highlighted 'male advantage' in terms that have been identified in other education systems, but this factor emerged as being further heightened in Catholic Education and occurring at systemic, organisational and individual levels. I have made a number of policy recommendations that could possibly change attitudes and practices for each of these levels. I conclude with some suggestions for further research.

Recruitment and selection of Vice-Chancellors for Australian universities

This study addresses the gap in our understanding of the processes used to recruit and select Vice-Chancellors for Australian Universities. There are presently 39 recognised Universities in Australia and between them they provide the nation with the academically qualified leaders of the future. As such one would expect that not only would they be the vessels of our knowledge, but also that they would be managed and led in ways that were similar to those in use in the private sector. The changes that have taken place in the higher education system have meant that additional pressures have been placed upon the senior executive of each University. The transition from a binary system to the current unified system, the advent of the global community, increased technology and new management practices have created the need for University management to adopt recognised management and leadership practices. The Federal government has moved to reduce the dependence of the system upon recurrent funding and there has been an increase in managerialism within Universities. One outcome has been the need for the Chief Executive Officer (Vice-Chancellor) to develop additional management and leadership skills in order to cope with the changes occurring and the rate of change. In the United States, the selection criteria used to recruit Vice-Chancellors (or University Presidents) have changed to reflect the desire for candidates to have backgrounds in management and leadership. The role of the Vice-Chancellor is critical to the success of educational institutions that are now being managed as autonomous business units responsible for budget, growth, mergers as well as maintaining academic credibility. A literature review revealed that the work undertaken by David Sloper formed virtually our entire knowledge base of Vice-Chancellors in Australia. Sloper identified democratic and incumbency patterns, social characteristics, the legal basis for the role and what incumbents actually do. Thus we know quite a deal about the role and incumbents. However the same literature review showed that while this data existed, it did not extend to the processes that were used within the Higher Education system, to target, identify and select suitable candidates. Clearly there was also no examination as to the effectiveness of such processes or how they could be improved if necessary. Given the importance of Universities in Australia and their role in Higher Education, this lack of knowledge provided the basis for this study and the systematic review of all available data. The study also identified a paradox in addition to the lack of research on recruitment and selection practices in this unique microcosm. The paradox concerns the fact that many of the successful candidates do not come from a ‘business’ discipline as may be expected for a role considered to be the Chief Executive Officer of the institution. Yet in Australia, previous research indicated that the ‘rules’ for recruiting Vice-Chancellors have changed little and that traditionally candidates have come from the science disciplines (Sloper, 1994). While this in itself does not indicate that incumbents are lacking in fundamental management and leadership knowledge and expertise, an obvious question arises. Why are Australian Vice-Chancellors not drawn from faculties where this expertise resides or why are they not drawn from the business community? In order to further examine the processes in place and to a lesser extent the paradox, all available data was collected regarding the roles of Vice-Chancellors, the paths they have taken to the position as well as selection criteria, position outlines, job adverts and related material. This was thoroughly examined and then a brief questionnaire was forwarded to current incumbents and other involved stakeholders. Interviews were conducted to clarify specific issues and case studies prepared accordingly. Thus this qualitative study thoroughly researches the recruitment and selection practices in use, attempts to determine their effectiveness and addresses the paradox in order to provide a detailed framework that allows these elements to be explained.

Student support : bridging the gap between students and the university

Bangladesh introduced open and distance learning as a means of providing education for people in isolated and remote locations through the establishment of the Bangladesh Open University (BOU). The broad aim of the BOU is to provide flexible and needs-based education to those unable or not wishing to enter conventional educational institutions. The BOU is presently the only university in Bangladesh to provide mass education and also to provide continuing education and professional and technical education to support the existing educational system. The BOU has a mission that encompasses secondary and higher levels of education. BOU operates its programs through a centralised academic and administrative staff, and regional and local offices throughout Bangladesh that organise local tutorials and distribute information and materials. BOU has adult students in all parts of the country, and most of the students live in rural areas. They need support that is appropriate to their local circumstances. Using an interpretive approach, this research examines the support needs of students studying for the Secondary School Certificate and the Bachelor of Education, assesses the effectiveness of current support services and explores alternatives to the current system. The underlying assumption is that support needs to be appropriate to the country’s culture and circumstances, and useful and feasible from the perspectives of students, staff, administrators and senior university officials. To investigate the appropriate support for distance education students, this research was conducted in four sample regions. Two were selected from areas of sparse population where the terrain makes transport difficult and two from areas that are more densely populated and where transport is easier. A questionnaire survey and focus groups were conducted with students, focus groups with local staff and interviews with Regional Directors within the four sample regions. Interviews were also undertaken with central University senior staff to get their perspectives on current and future policies for student support.

Vision and rationalisation : a study of the school psychology profession within the Victorian Government school system

Since its origins in the 19th century, modern schooling has been a continuously contested domain within nation states. Underlying this contestation dynamic lie competing value systems about the social purpose of education; competing values around which are generated different discourses, and which in turn generate inherently contradictory social and organisational structures. As reflected in other areas of society, the 20th century expansion of state-provided schooling has essentially developed around variations of a bureaucratic model Thus, organisational cultures based around bureaucratic values have come to permeate the enterprise of schooling on a world wide scale. Concomitantly, the value for education to be fundamentally associated with human emancipation from psychological, social, political, or economic states of being, persists as a recurring theme in modern schooling. Premised on these understandings, the thesis argues that the development of the practices of school psychology as a profession, like education in general, and special education in particular, has similarly been influenced by tensions between different and competing constellations of values. It is argued that throughout the 20th century, the pervasiveness of formal schooling systems suggest that schooling may be understood as a modernist cultural archetype. As a socially constructed reality, the phenomenon of schooling has become unproblematic the apparent cultural inevitability of formal schooling in the modern era can also be understood as a premise of a systemised way of looking at the world; that of bureaucratic consciousness. Dialectically, bureaucratic consciousness persists in influencing every manifestation of schooling; structurally through its organisational forms, and epistemologically through the institutionalization of teaching and learning. A particular illustration of the dialectical relationship between bureaucratic consciousness and the social forms and social practices of schooling is the school psychology profession which has developed as a part of school systems. The thesis argues that the epistemic archeology of psychology as a knowledge discipline can be traced through an earlier European intellectual and cultural tradition, but in the 20th century, has come to develop a symbiotic yet contradictory relationship with compulsory schooling in the modern nation state. The research study employs historical and fieldwork methods in a study of the development of the school psychology services within the Victorian Education Department, particularly between 1947 and 1987. The thesis also draws upon several usually distinct literatures; the philosophical and theoretical discourse of modernity and post modernity, the history and development of modern schooling, the ethnography of schooling, the international comparative literature on the school psychology profession, and the literature on action research in education practice and curriculum development, As a case study of Victorian school psychology, the research eschews a quantitative statistical approach in favour of qualitative investigatory genres, which have in turn been guided by the values of action research in education, as well as those of critical theory. The important focus of the thesis is its investigation of some aspects of the development and transformations within the Victorian state education bureaucracy, and the dialectical relationship that has persisted between the evolution of change processes and the shifting conceptions of school psychology practices in the 20th century. A history of the organisational development of school psychology services in Victoria constitutes an important part of the thesis. This is complemented by specific illustrations of how some school psychologists have been influenced by and have contributed towards paradigm shifts within the profession, shifts relating to how the changing nature of their work practices have come to be understood and valued by teachers and by school administrators. The work of J. R. MacLeod from the 1950s is noted in this regard. Particular attention is also drawn to the dialectical relationship between bureaucratic consciousness and school psychology's professional orientation in the 1980s. As a means of providing field data to explore this relationship, ethnographic case studies with two school communities are included as part of the fieldwork of the thesis, and are based upon the author's own work in the mid 1980s. These case studies provide a basis for conceptually refraining the school psychologist's professional experience within schooling systems, and an opportunity to examine how competing value systems impact upon the work of the school psychologist. The thesis concludes with some observations about bureaucratic transformations within educational organisations, and about the future relationship of the school psychology profession with schooling systems, as framed by the theoretical parameters of the modernist /post modernist debate. The issue of competing value systems within the administration of public education is re-examined as is the value of promoting human empowerment in the ongoing work of the school psychologist. Finally, some scenario building with reference to the future of school psychology in Victoria in is undertaken.

Teachers' stories of change : an interpretive study of behavioural studies teachers' experiences of change in Tasmanian schools and colleges 1984-1994

Major changes in teachers’ work in Tasmania occurred in the decade 1984-1994. Understanding of those changes has, to date, primarily come from the perspective of educational administrators. A different perspective on the changes comes from the stories told by teachers of Behavioural Studies, teaching grades 11 and 12 in government and non-government schools. Twenty teachers participated in taped interviews or videorecorded focus groups. Their stories were transcribed and analysed using an adapted form of grounded theory to explicate the meaning(s) of the changes for these teachers. Interpretation of the teachers' stories has also been framed by understandings drawn from narrative studies of teachers and their work. The core analytic category of the teachers’ stories of educational change is the conflict between the ideologies of teacher professionalism and economic rationalism. The major themes of the teachers’ stories are systemic and administrative change, control, histories of the Behavioural Studies subject, workload, students and stress.

Geelong community's priorities and expectations of public health care

Abstract This thesis set out to achieve the following objectives: (1) To identify the priorities and expectations that the Geelong community has of its public health care system. (2) To determine if there is a common view on the attributes of a just health system. (3) To consider a method of utilising the data in the determination of health care priority setting in Barwon Health. (4) To determine a model of community participation which enables ongoing input into the decision making processes of Barwon Health. The methodology involved a combination of qualitative and quantitative research. The qualitative work involved the use of focus groups that were conducted with 64 members of the Geelong community. The issues raised informed the development of the interview schedule that was the basis of the quantitative study, which surveyed a representative sample of 400 members of the Geelong community. Prior to reporting on this work, the areas of distributive justice, scarcity and community participation in health care were considered. The research found that timely access to public hospitals, emergency care and aged care services were the major priorities; for many people, the cost was less relevant than a quality service. Shorter waiting times and increased staffing levels were strongly supported. Increased taxes were nominated as the best means of financing the health system they sought. Community based services were less relevant than hospital services but health education was supported. An egalitarian approach to resource distribution was favoured although the community was prepared to discriminate in favour of younger people and against older people. There was strong support for the community to be involved in decision making in the public health care system through surveys or focus groups but very little support was given to priorities being determined by politicians, administrators and to a lesser extent, medical professionals.

Inclusive policy action : exploring the realities and knowledge of teachers implementing inclusive education

Inclusive Policy Action recognizes the complexity of inclusive policy for teachers. However, the author presents a strong view that a constructive approach for future action can be accomplished by drawing on teachers' own accounts of the significant characteristics contributing to effective inclusion. Accordingly, teachers' work is recognized as a vital contributing factor to successful inclusion, despite the often over-powering emphasis on additional funding. For this reason the finer structures of changed pedagogy, the development of teacher knowledge and the vision of quality education for all students are explored using teachers' own voice to theorize and analyze the actuality of successful inclusive practice. The emergent characteristics relate to the importance of communicative infrastructures promoting knowledge within learning communities rather than political directives associated with inclusive education policy. These characteristics draw attention to the need to reconsider and revalue the knowledge and expertise generated by education policy actors, namely the teachers and school administrators involved in institutional planning and practice.

Examining representations of women's leadership in the media and Australian universities

Examines how diverse academic women educational leaders experienced and negotiated media representations of leadership in their work. The thesis argues that feminist leadership analyses assume a commonality of women's interests, ignoring the diversity, which exists between different groups of women and the material impact of diversity upon female leaders' work.

Professional development for school administrators : computer applications in data communication

This action research project set out to develop the competence of senior personnal from a private vocational college in Thailand in the use of administrative computer systems. The findings demonstrate the critical significance of progressive incremental learning that is tailored to the professional personal needs of learners. Learner competence was found to be dependent upon the creation of an environment promoting learner confidence.

Perceptions of representatives of public, private, and community sector institutions of the barriers and enablers for physically active transport

Active transport bridges many shared concerns in the public health and transport sectors. To positively affect opportunities for active transport, public health and transport professionals are engaging with other sectors, including urban planning, housing, recreation, retail, education, and employer groups. A first step in such inter-sectoral collaboration is to understand the perceptions of key players in all of these sectors. This paper describes the results of structured interviews with senior and middle-level administrators from public, private, and community groups in a rapidly developing region in Queensland, Australia, to assess the perceived barriers and enablers to active transport. Key themes emerged relating to infrastructure delivery, public transport services, walk- and cycle-friendly community attributes, political leadership and government coordination, and societal travel norms and culture. There were also themes relating to limits due to resources and limited relevant technical expertise, institutional and practitioner cultures, and agencies not identifying with their roles in active transport. Policies and cross-government initiatives were seen to hold promise, including economic incentives and built environment guidelines, campaigns targeting public attitudes and opinions, and community participation in policy-making. These elements are potential keys to positively promoting comprehensive active transport initiatives among gatekeepers and leaders across different sectors.