Perspectives of a nurse, a social-worker and a psychiatrist, regarding patient assessment in acute inpatient psychiatry settings : a case study approach

This case study explores what informs and organizes the assessment of patients, as undertaken by a nurse, a social worker and a psychiatrist in public, metropolitan, acute mental health service settings. The research data are the transcripts of in-depth interviews with three experienced practitioners, one from each of the three disciplines. The analysis draws on Foucauldian concepts: discourse as constructed through practices of discipline and the gaze. We explored examples of taken-for-granted assessment practices and their interplay with discourse. The findings suggest that participating practitioners use language in assessment in ways that support the powerful discourses of the professional disciplines. The competing discourse of management, associated with industry and economics, is evident in hospital admission processes, dictating the times and places of assessment. Professional and management discourses both effectively marginalize the perspective of another player in assessment, the patient.

How Differences of Opinion Influence Students’ Capacity to Think Geographically

Currently, the Australian Government is working towards the development and implementation of a national geography curriculum for Australian Schools. A common response to the question of what geography education is based upon is ‘maps’ (Sorenson, 2009). Geography teachers, curriculum designers and educational researchers alike face the battle of broadening the perception of geography education beyond this view (Sorenson, 2009; Maude, 2009; McInerney, Berg, Hutchinson, Maude & Sorenson, 2009). The Shape of the National Curriculum for Geography (Australian Curriculum and Reporting Authority 2011, p8) states that the new curriculum will “develop students’ broader ability to think critically about contemporary events”. This new direction demonstrates a focus in on students’ capacity to ‘think geographically’ (Jackson 2006). This study engages with this new curriculum direction and explores the influence of an approach to group learning pedagogy based around students’ differences of opinion on students’ capacity to think geographically. A sample of 43 Year 9 Geography students participated in a two week learning sequence investigating the impacts of large scale earthquakes.
This paper communicates the findings from a comparative case study analysis of two student group conversations of different group types. According to the results of this study, organising students into groups around their differences of opinion encourages students to engage in and sustain higher levels of geographical thinking.

Elizabeth Taylor Sometimes (Remix)

In this project the filmmaker revisits her 1998 short film 'Elizabeth Taylor Sometimes' that projects us into the post-human world in which the body is outmoded. The meat is despised and celebrity is a garment we buy at Target - cheap, accessible and banal. Remixed to reflect the impact of social media on the representation and presentation of celebrity