Gender and national identity : the people's theatre in the Philippines (1967-2000)

The Philippine Education Theater Association (PETA), the People’s Theatre in the Philippines was founded within the bounds of the nationalist leftist tradition. Its origin therefore determines to a great extent the contours of the discourse on the feminist movement in the Philippines, its participation within the cultural movement and the founding years of the pioneering People’s Theatre in the country. As a grass roots theatre from a Third World nation, the PETA theatre model responded to the needs in raising socio-political and economic consciousness and can therefore serve as an alternative tool to formal education for other Third World countries. This thesis argues, the People’s Theatre development is determined within the matrix of gender, class, politics and the nationalist movement to which it is intertwined or inextricably linked. The feminist, nationalist and radical movements have become superimposed upon the history of the People’s Theatre and have nurtured its development as a consciousness raising educational tool.

Molecular sex-typing in shorebirds: a review of an essential method for research in evolution, ecology and conservation

Knowing the correct sex of individuals is essential both for research in evolutionary ecology and for practical conservation. Recent molecular advances have produced cheap, quick and reliable methods for sexing birds including chicks, juveniles, immatures and adults. Shorebird researchers have not yet fully utilised these advances. Here we provide an overview of work in this area to date with two objectives: (i) to review the major applications of molecular sexing and findings of shorebird research so far, and (ii) to provide an essential guide on how to carry out molecular sexing using current methods whilst avoiding methodological pitfalls. We encourage shorebird researchers to make better use of molecular sex-typing techniques in studies of conservation, migration, foraging ecology and breeding behaviour.

North or south? Phylogenetic and biogeographic origins of a globally distributed avian clade

Establishing phylogenetic relationships within a clade can help to infer ancestral origins and indicate how widespread species reached their current biogeographic distributions. The small plovers, genus Charadrius, are cosmopolitan shorebirds, distributed across all continents except Antarctica. Here we present a global, species-level molecular phylogeny of this group based on four nuclear (. ADH5, FIB7, MYO2 and RAG1) and two mitochondrial (. COI and ND3) genes, and use the phylogeny to examine the biogeographic origin of the genus. A Bayesian multispecies coalescent approach identified two major clades (. CRD I and CRD II) within the genus. Clade CRD I contains three species (. Thinornis novaeseelandiae, Thinornis rubricollis and Eudromias morinellus), and CRD II one species (. Anarhynchus frontalis), that were previously placed outside the Charadrius genus. In contrast to earlier work, ancestral area analyses using parsimony and Bayesian methods supported an origin of the Charadrius plovers in the Northern hemisphere. We propose that major radiations in this group were associated with shifts in the range of these ancestral plover species, leading to colonisation of the Southern hemisphere.

Ontogenic differences in sexual size dimorphism across four plover populations

Sexual size dimorphism (SSD) among adults is commonly observed in animals and is considered to be adaptive. However, the ontogenic emergence of SSD, i.e. the timing of divergence in body size between males and females, has only recently received attention. It is widely acknowledged that the ontogeny of SSD may differ between species, but it remains unclear how variable the ontogeny of SSD is within species. Kentish Plovers Charadrius alexandrinus and Snowy Plovers C. nivosus are closely related wader species that exhibit similar, moderate (c. 4%), male-biased adult SSD. To assess when SSD emerges we recorded tarsus length variation among 759 offspring in four populations of these species. Tarsus length of chicks was measured on the day of hatching and up to three times on recapture before fledging. In one population (Mexico, Snowy Plovers), males and females differed in size from the day of hatching, whereas growth rates differed between the sexes in two populations (Turkey and United Arab Emirates, both Kentish Plovers). In contrast, a fourth population (Cape Verde, Kentish Plovers) showed no significant SSD in juveniles. Our results suggest that adult SSD can emerge at different stages of development (prenatal, postnatal and post-juvenile) in different populations of the same species. We discuss the proximate mechanisms that may underlie these developmental differences.

Identifying pedagogy and teaching strategies for achieving nationally prescribed learning outcomes

With the globalisation of university education, national frameworks are commonly used to prescribe standardised learning outcomes and achieve accountability. However, these frameworks are generally not accompanied by guiding pedagogy to support academics in adjusting their teaching practices to achieve the set outcomes. This paper reports the results of a scoping review of health science literature aimed at identifying pedagogy and teaching strategies relevant to achieve the learning outcomes specified by the Australian Qualifications Framework at a master's degree level. Eight practical teaching messages emerged from the review and three broad pedagogical trends were identified: the need to use authentic disciplinary-based learning activities; ensure that students are able to discover different perspectives about future practice and bring student reflection about their own knowledge into curricula. More critically, the review highlights that academics attempting to translate national learning outcome frameworks into their teaching practices face a complex and time-consuming task which may involve searching beyond their own disciplinary focus to identify practical teaching strategies to meet prescribed learning outcomes.