Interview with Syafiyah

Syafiyah is an Indonesian who studied at the University of Canberra in 1992-1993. She studied on an Australian Agency for International Development (AusAID) Scholarship and completed a Masters in TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages). The interview was conducted in English on 23 October 2014 by Dr. Ahmad Suaedy of the Abdurrahman Wahid Centre for Inter-faith Dialogue and Peace at Universitas Indonesia. This set comprises: an interview recording, and a transcript of the interview.

Negotiating and creating intercultural relations: Chinese immigrant children in New Zealand early childhood education centres

A multiple-case study investigation of the experiences of eight Chinese immigrant children in New Zealand early childhood centres suggested that the immigrant children’s learning experiences in their first centre can be understood as a process of negotiating and creating intercultural relations. The children’s use of family cultural tools, such as the Chinese language, was a distinctive feature of their learning experiences, simultaneously revealing and extending their exploration of the intercultural practices and their establishment of a sense of belonging. In the presence of Chinese-speaking peers who acted as ‘bridges’ and ‘boundary objects’, the Chinese language was actively used by the immigrant children in English-speaking early childhood centres and, as a result, they created intercultural relations which: (i) bridged the two cultures; (ii) brought the cultures into convergence; (iii) enabled the children to claim group identity; and (iv) battled intercultural constraints. The absence of Chinese speakers, on the other hand, constrained possibilities for intercultural relations. The focus on intercultural relations in this study is expected to lead to educational initiatives to support the incorporation of diverse cultures in early childhood services.

Nutrition competencies in health professionals' education and training: a new paradigm

Most health care professionals are not adequately trained to address diet and nutrition-related issues with their patients, thus missing important opportunities to ameliorate chronic diseases and improve outcomes in acute illness. In this symposium, the speakers reviewed the status of nutrition education for health care professionals in the United States, United Kingdom, and Australia. Nutrition education is not required for educating and training physicians in many countries. Nutrition education for the spectrum of health care professionals is uncoordinated, which runs contrary to the current theme of interprofessional education. The central role of competencies in guiding medical education was emphasized and the urgent need to establish competencies in nutrition-related patient care was presented. The importance of additional strategies to improve nutrition education of health care professionals was highlighted. Public health legislation such as the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act recognizes the role of nutrition, however, to capitalize on this increasing momentum, health care professionals must be trained to deliver needed services. Thus, there is a pressing need to garner support from stakeholders to achieve this goal. Promoting a research agenda that provides outcome-based evidence on individual and public health levels is needed to improve and sustain effective interprofessional nutrition education.

Alien aesthetics

Melbourne was visited by Bruce Sterling, one of the founders of the science fiction genre of cyberpunk, for the very first time. Bruce's work as a future thinker and visionary who has been shaping the forefront of design and technology can be followed at his Wired column, Beyond the Beyond. His public lecture at Deakin Edge on August 18th tackled the bleeding edge of contemporary culture: Alien Aesthetics. The idea of Alien Aesthetics is better known through the work of Ian Bogost. According to Bogost, Alien Aesthetics is not concerned with trying to "satisfy our human drive for art and design, but to fashion design fictions". These kinds of alien design fictions can be seen in the images produced by Google's Inceptionism, which capture the deep dreams of artificial neural networks. Alien Aesthetics is also present in pop culture, as in the work of artist Holly Herndon, whose new album Platform has been heralded as a fusion between critical thinking about technology and creative exploration of what she calls "alien sounds". This kind of cross-pollination between contemporary theory and creative practice also took place at a free parallel event at LOOP Bar on August 17th: Conversations about Alien Aesthetics. This event was organised by a partnership between the School of Communication and Creative Arts at Deakin University and The New Centre of Research & Practice, a global research platform dedicated to transdisciplinary exchanges between art and science, and featured local and virtual speakers from the United Kingdom, United States, Canada and Brazil.

Response to Islamophobia in the Arabic Islamic discourse: a critical discourse analysis

In the aftermath of September 11, Muslim scholars made numerous attempts to explain Islamophobia from the Islamic perspective; they presented arguments that are not addressed in the Western narrative. Two texts in Arabic by the prominent Muslim preacher, Mohammad Hassan and by the Muslim orator Fadhel Sliman are analysed from a Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) viewpoint. This analysis aims to demonstrate how language is inextricably linked with ideology. This paper demonstrates that textual strategies in the Arabic Islamic discourse and their ideological implications show distinct characteristics some of which add to the present literature on discourse. The aim of the chosen texts is to educate and create solidarity between the speakers and the audience in fighting Islamophobia. The reliance of the speakers on tactics such as quoting from the Holy Qur’ān and ḥadīth to defend Islam, and choice of words and sentence structures may instigate discussions about the persuasive power of the Arabic Islamic narrative.

Enhancing English language learners’ text understanding through metaphor awareness

 The study examined awareness of metaphor as a tool to enhance English language learners’ understanding of texts with embedded metaphors. Findings revealed that an enhanced awareness of metaphor, as indicated by greater use of the metalanguage of metaphor, longer turns conversation and reflective journals, helped them get deeper text meaning.