Science in school and society

This article describes the insights generated from a series of focus groups conducted around significant areas of science research and development, with practitioners of science and technology, and policy and education people from industry and government. The participants in these groups had a great deal to say about how important the understandings and attitudes of members of the community were to their field of activity, as well as the way science is practiced in contemporary settings. On the basis of the evidence we argue that school science should take as its focus the development of understandings of, and attitudes to, science for citizens generally. We suggest that this means, for both future citizens and scientists, that practice in school science needs to change to better represent contemporary science practice.

Language, culture and health

This chapter provides an overview of the impact language and culture background can have on individuals' experience of illness and conceptualization of health. it also discusses cultural competency for health care personnel in the onctext of increasing diverse communities with specific reference to Australia and New Zealand.

Accommodating culture and cultural diversity in online teaching

The term 'culture' has been in common use for a long time. However there is no universally accepted definition and hence it is important to define clearly what culture means in a particular research context. The research reported here is part of a project undertaken at a large Australian university in late 2005. The overall aim of the project was to identify the characteristics of culture and cultural diversity, and to consider how these manifested themselves when teaching and learning in an online environment. The article reports on particular outcomes from the second stage of the project. This involved conducting focus groups with experienced academics and educational developers of online units. The aim was to gain an understanding of culture and cultural difference in the online environment and to consider what strategies were effective in teaching a culturally diverse cohort of online students. The findings from the focus group sessions were benchmarked with other external faculty. The cultural factors of ethnicity and language, attitudes to educational learning, education and prior learning, learning styles and socio-economic background were well supported by the external faculty. However the factors of religion and gender were not supported. Practices for accommodating such cultural differences amongst students within the online class are presented.

Social work and spirituality in a secular society

• Summary: In an increasingly secular era which finds only a small minority of the population regularly participating in organized religion, there is emerging interest in how spirituality can be incorporated into social work practice. This article proposes one way in which this might occur in `deliberately secular' nations such as Australia.

• Findings: A framework in which spirituality is considered to be an aspect of lived experience is proposed. Dimensions of life which can be incorporated into such a framework include life rituals, creativity, social action, and sense of place.

• Applications : Conceptualizing spirituality in a way which does not use specifically religious language or concepts, may enable discussion of spiritual issues to be incorporated into social work practice when either practitioners or service users have or no religious background or affiliation or no shared religious background.

Pain, passion and faith : revisiting the place of Charles Wesley in early Methodism

Pain, Passion and Faith: Revisiting the Place of Charles Wesley in Early Methodism is a significant study of the 18th-century poet and preacher Charles Wesley. Wesley was an influential figure in 18th-century English culture and society; he was co-founder of the Methodist revival movement and one of the most prolific hymn-writers in the English language. His hymns depict the Christian life as characterized by a range of intense emotions, from ecstatic joy to profound suffering.

Recognition and respect : globalization culture and Malaysian education

Globalization and language reform is often presented as a set of practices and relationships to which educators must adapt in order to 'compete‘ or maintain 'relevance‘ in contemporary society. Presented in such a way neo-liberal versions of globalization and educational reform situate localized culture often as a kind of impediment, something we must overcome or ameliorate in order for progress to be sustained and maintained. In Malaysia, these kinds of discourses inform public policy debates. From debates over university competitiveness through to arguments over language and literacy in a global world, the pressures on Malaysian educators to change their practices and reform are often presented with an implicit assumption that local culture is somehow in deficit.

The argument of this paper challenges this framing and representation of globalization. I present an alternative theoretical framework through which educators can judge their practices within the discourse of globalization. I will demonstrate how respecting difference and culture is framing globalization as mutual respect and recognition rather than imposed change is critical to addressing the language and culture of globalization and education. In this sense, debates about language (understood here in the broadest sense as how we communicate and in what power discourse we communicate within) and culture are ultimately arguments about recognition and respect. Neo liberal politics as an expression of an increasingly authoritarian discourse of globalization needs to be challenged by a politics and practice of cultural recognition and respect.

Uni has a different language … to the real world: demystifying academic culture and discourse for students from low socioeconomic backgrounds

The Australian government has set ambitious targets for increased higher-education participation of people from low socioeconomic backgrounds. There is, thus, a pressing need to explore how best to empower these students with what they require to progress and succeed at university. The paper draws on a literature review and qualitative data from a national study in which 89 students from low socioeconomic backgrounds and 26 staff were interviewed. The paper argues that demystifying academic culture and discourses for these students is a key step institutions and staff can take in assisting students from low socioeconomic backgrounds to progress and succeed at university. A recurring theme to emerge from both the literature and interviews with students and staff was that teaching the discourse empowers and enables students to learn, has a positive impact on their sense of belonging and ultimately helps them succeed in higher education.

Writer-as-narrator: engaging the debate around the (un)reliable narrator in memoir and the personal essay

Subjective and personal forms of nonfiction writing are enjoying exponential popularity in English language publishing currently, as an interested public engages with ‘true’ stories of society and culture. Yet a paradox exists at the centre of this form of writing. As readers, we want to know who the writer is and what she has to tell us. Yet as writers we use a persona, a constructed character, a narrator who is only partially the writer, to deliver the narrative. How is a writer able to convey ‘true’ stories that are inherently reliant on memory, within a constructed narrative persona?We find a ‘gap’ between the writer and the narrator/protagonist on the page, an empowered creative space in which composition occurs, facilitating a balance between the facts and lived experiences from which ‘true’ stories are crafted, and the acknowledged fallibility of human memory. While the gap between writer and writer-as-narrator provides an enabling space for creative composition, it also creates space for the perception of unreliability. The width of this gap, we argue, is crucial. Only if the gap is small, if writer and writer-as-narrator share a set of passionately held values, can the writer-as-narrator become a believable entity, satisfying the reader with the ‘truth’ of their story.

Accommodating taboo language in English language teaching: issues of appropriacy and authenticity

Culturally specific language practices related to vernacular uses of taboo language such as swearing represent a socially communicative minefield for learners of English. The role of classroom learning experiences to prepare learners for negotiation of taboo language use in social interactions is correspondingly complicated and ignored in much of the language teaching research literature. English language teachers confront not only obstacles to effective development of sociolinguistic and cultural knowledge in classroom instruction, and failure of course-books to address taboo language, but also uncertainties they themselves have about addressing such obstacles and omissions. In this paper, we draw on interview data from three experienced teachers of English as an additional language, to explore their perceptions and classroom practices in relation to taboo language. In particular, we explore the situational appropriateness of mild taboo swearing using the lexical item, bloody, which has a strong positioning in Australian language culture. Dilemmas surrounding this potentially troublesome item of Australian English are foregrounded in relation to the extent to which often neglected, but widely used taboo language is actually ‘taboo’ in the classroom.