Passing the banner : the Australian media’s coverage of high profile court cases about women

An examination of the historical narrative patterns of gendered justice in Australian media representations of high profile court cases. Includes discussion of the Chamberlain Case, the Dianne Brimble cruise ship death case, and the Jill Meagher rape and murder

We are in danger

Genre films are constructed out of narrative patterns and plot points that involve or are predicted on crisis, on danger. This is the logic of much if not all mainstream genre cinema: drama has to take place for there to be a story to be told, and for pleasure and identification to be arrested and enthused. Forms of threatening disequilibrium can be personal, domestic, familial, local, external, supernatural and murderous; a way of life can be threatened as well as life itself. There are ideological dimensions at play; the crisis threatens to destabilize patriarchy, heterosexuality, social norms and expectations. Feelings and modes of affect are set in dangerous motion as the crisis unfolds. Trouble may emerge from a wayward or transgressive family member, or it may arrive in town on horses, stagecoaches, trains, cars, spaceships, and on the wind and in the water. The main (and minor) characters in the film are at the center of this storm, and that places viewers at the epicenter of the danger, also. The genre film places us all in danger. The genre film, then, has phenomenal, phenomenological and bio-political potential as a site of cognitive, ideological and carnal endangerment.

'Smart' technologies in early years literacy education: a meta-narrative of paradigmatic tensions in iPad use in an Australian preparatory classroom

With the revolution that has taken place in the functionality and uptake of portable networked ‘smart’ technologies, educators are looking to see what potential applications such technologies might have for school education. This article reports on a study into the use of portable personal computing devices in the early years of schooling. Specifically, it focuses on emerging patterns of use of Apple iPads in an Australian Preparatory (first year of compulsory schooling) classroom across the first year of implementation of these devices. We draw on student and teacher interviews and classroom observation data to provide a research meta-narrative of the intentions, practices and reflections of a ‘first year out’ teacher, and to discuss points of tension found in the contested space of early years literacy education, which are highlighted when potentially transformative technologies meet institutionalized literacy education practices. Our findings suggest that the broader policy and curriculum context of early years literacy education, and institutionalized practices found in this space, are potentially at odds with teacher-held intentions to transform learning through technology use, particularly with respect to tensions between print-based traditions and new digital literacies, and those between standards-based classroom curricular and more emancipatory agendas.

Indigenous knowledge and climate change : the Wathaurong and Gadubanud narrative for the Great Ocean Road region

For more than forty thousand years Aboriginal people of Australia have been confronted with major climate, ecological and geological changes as well as annual seasonal variations. Many of these changes have been captured in the cultural traditions of Maar (the people) of the south-west Victorian coast and the knowledge has been transferred from generation to generation through Dreaming stories. Many Dreaming stories recount the forming of the coastal landscape and Sea Country. Weather patterns and climate change were gauged by the occurrence of natural events such as the tidal changes, sea level rise, landscape changes, behaviour of animals, and the availability of food sources. Can this ancient knowledge provide answers for adaptation and resilience to a rapid changing climate? Drawing upon recent literature on coastal climate change in the Great Ocean Road Region (GORCC, 2012), literature review of indigenous environmental planning (Kooyang Sea Country Plan, 2004), and investigation of settlement patterns of the Wathaurong and Gadubanud people, this paper reviews the changes in the landscape due to climate change and explores traditional knowledge as input to a potential design based adaptation model for coastal settlements of the Great Ocean Road Region.

Understanding meal patterns: definitions, methodology and impact on nutrient intake and diet quality

Traditionally, nutrition research has focused on individual nutrients, and more recently dietary patterns. However, there has been relatively little focus on dietary intake at the level of a 'meal'. The purpose of the present paper was to review the literature on adults' meal patterns, including how meal patterns have previously been defined and their associations with nutrient intakes and diet quality. For this narrative literature review, a comprehensive search of electronic databases was undertaken to identify studies in adults aged ≥  19 years that have investigated meal patterns and their association with nutrient intakes and/or diet quality. To date, different approaches have been used to define meals with little investigation of how these definitions influence the characterisation of meal patterns. This review identified thirty-four and fourteen studies that have examined associations between adults' meals patterns, nutrient intakes and diet quality, respectively. Most studies defined meals using a participant-identified approach, but varied in the additional criteria used to determine individual meals, snacks and/or eating occasions. Studies also varied in the types of meal patterns, nutrients and diet quality indicators examined. The most consistent finding was an inverse association between skipping breakfast and diet quality. No consistent association was found for other meal patterns, and little research has examined how meal timing is associated with diet quality. In conclusion, an understanding of the influence of different meal definitions on the characterisation of meal patterns will facilitate the interpretation of the existing literature, and may provide guidance on the most appropriate definitions to use.