VELS versus CSF : replacement, conflict or harmony?

Sometimes VELS (Victorian Essential Learning Standards) is confusing. Part of the problem is that it is available only on-line as a web-browse-able collection of internet web pages. It is broadly true that the mathematics curriculum described by the Mathematics VELS is equivalent to curriculum described by the Mathematics CSF (Curriculum and Standards Framework).

Harmony in and between aesthetic experience and moral experience

The thesis finds that the notion of harmony has been integral to the concepts of beauty and goodness from the earliest times, in Eastern and Western philosophy. It also argues that the experience of beauty and the experience of goodness are related through the human propensity to avoid disorder.

Kevin Rudd and harmony

At a major speech at the Brookings Institution in Washington DC on March 31, 2008, Rudd indicated a new direction in Australian foreign policy concerning China. He focused on the concept of 'harmony', recognizing the key importance of China's role in a 'harmonious World 'as a' responsible stakeholder. '
Rudd declared that he looked to China's taking a vital role in the World 'in strengthening the global and regional rule-based order'. He has also highlighted the importance of treating China as a friend with much common ground but with whom honest, straight talk was a vital factor in the relationship.
I want to explore and explain the development and significance of Rudd's new approach to the concept of harmony and rule based order. I want to suggest that Rudd has pioneered a new direction in Australia's policies toward China. Rudd focuses on the ancient and developing concept of harmony into a rule-based order that is necessary to building a harmonious world.

Intercultural harmony and understanding in the city of Whittlesea

The City of Whittlesea is one of the most ethnically diverse urban areas in Melbourne that attracts settlers, often humanitarian migrants from countries in the Horn of Africa and the Middle East. With settlers arriving from a broader range of countries than ever before, increasing ethnic as well as ethno-religious diversity presents opportunities for local government to address intercultural harmony and understanding but also significant challenges. This paper reports the findings of fieldwork conducted in 2009 among residents focusing on attitudes towards ethnic diversity and evaluations of the capacity of local government to promote intercultural harmony and understanding. The results suggest that if local government is to be inclusive and gain the confidence and trust of residents necessary to foster empowering partnerships, political spaces that facilitate interactions between long-term residents, new residents, elected leaders and council officers must be facilitated. Such initiatives will contribute to strengthening programs and policies being developed by local government that aim to address discrimination experienced by ethnic minorities and encourage greater acceptance of cultural diversity among the broader community in ways that move beyond measurable outcomes.

The consequences of intergroup ideologies and prejudice control for discrimination and harmony

In the present study, we investigated two literature bases by way of a community survey across Australia. We investigated four acculturation orientations (assimilation, multiculturalism, color-blind, and polyculturalism ideologies) and the motivations to respond without prejudice. We examined what predicted support for Harmony Day as well as explicit discrimination. Multiculturalism, polyculturalism, and internal motivation to respond without prejudice correlated with positive attitudes in both scenarios. External motivation to respond without prejudice was positively correlated with discrimination. Conversely, color-blind ideology had no effect, and assimilation ideology related positively to explicit discrimination and negatively with Harmony Day. Using a multiple regression analysis, there was a difference in emphasis in different contexts. Our findings provide antiprejudice practitioners with material for discussions which can promote positive intergroup relations.

The organisational benefits of teams

This study presents an analysis of the benefits of two team structures - quality circles and self-managing work groups - for Australian work organizations utilizing the Australian Workplace Industrial Relations Survey for 1995. The analysis indicates that firms with team structures have higher labor productivity, a flatter management structure and reduced employee turnover. The presence of team structures in Australian firms indicates a decrease in industrial harmony. The findings were inconclusive regarding absenteeism and profitability.

Bringing shared values out of the shadows

As part of its wider promotion of a world that is peaceful and tolerant, the United Nations declared 2005 the International Year of Sport and Physical Education. At the fore of the UN's proclamation was recognition of the important role sport and PE play in nurturing the health and harmony of society. Sport and PE, the UN declared, provide important nodes for social connection around which shared values and understandings can be formed. In the wake of the UN's endorsement of the role that sport and PE can play in fostering social and emotional development, it is more important that ever that we reflect on and refine our practices towards this end. This paper draws on two research narratives to illustrate how easily this potential can be undermined. Indeed, behind some of the wonderful opportunities for connection that exist through a participation in PE and sport exists a dark shadow of alienation and oppression. The challenge raised through this paper centres on the need for PE teachers and coaches to work deliberately and strategically towards the cultivation of inclusive, tolerant and responsible forms of participation, and not leave their development to chance.

A Bishop's wife in Torres Strait: Joan Davies 1930-49

Joan Davies’s relationship with her husband challenges the view that women performed in the merely private and subservient realm. Joan and her husband did not for long remain embedded in a domestic relationship of dominance and subordination. This Australian clergy marriage of the 1930s shows the development of a smooth harmony of interests, with the wife gaining from an experienced husband a new role and becoming his counsellor and organiser.

Lay people's views of school food policy options: associations with confidence, personal values and demographics

A random population survey administered by mail to examine lay people's views of children's food policies and their associations with demographics, personal values and confidence in authorities was conducted among adults in Victoria, Australia. Three hundred and seventy-seven people responded (response rate 57.6%). The questionnaire contained 35 items about children's healthy eating policy options plus details like personal values, confidence and demographic items. There was widespread support for healthy school food policies. The strongest support was for life skills education and school-based nutrition and physical education programmes. Many age-related associations indicated that people >48 years were more in favour of healthy eating policies than younger people. There were fewer statistically significant associations with parent status and sex. In contrast, many associations showed that respondents with strong equity–harmony values and those with least confidence in the authorities were most in favour of healthy eating policies for schoolchildren. It is concluded that there is widespread support for school-based health and nutrition education and for active school food policies. However, differences between demographic and values groups suggest the need for caution in the promotion of public health nutrition initiatives among schoolchildren.

Tonic sol-fa in South Africa : a case study of endogenous musical practice

Tonic Sol-fa was introduced to South Africa during the mid nineteenth century initially by Christian missionaries and later by professional educators to schools, teacher training institutions and local communities. Despite Tonic Sol-fa being the principal means of formal pedagogy and the most commonly-accepted notational medium through which South African communities have developed and sustained what is unquestionably a vibrant choral music tradition, there has been some fairly forthright condemnation of the overall effects of European music - particularly tonal-functional harmony - on indigenous culture. Agawu (2003) and Nzewi (1999), for example, have identified what they describe as the adverse effects of European music on African culture.

This paper counters these criticisms in one respect. It argues that, as one of the most prominent manifestations of European musical culture in sub-Saharan Africa, Tonic Sol-fa represents what Ntuli (2001) identifies as endogenous knowledge - knowledge acquired from non-indigenous sources that has been assimilated and integrated with indigenous knowledge to become the collective heritage of a people. This contention is supported by four short case studies of indigenous South African composers - two past and two contemporary musicians - who have utilised Tonic Sol-fa in their choral music writing and teaching, albeit in differing ways. The paper aims to counter the general criticism that European music has been injurious to indigenous African culture; rather it argues that in reality this manifestation of European music represents an exemplar of endogenous knowledge.