Migration exhibitions and the question of identity: reflections on the history of the representation of migration in Australian museums, 1986-2011

Museums and Migration explores the ways in which museum spaces - local, regional, national - have engaged with the history of migration, including internal migration, emigration and immigration.

A pictorial representation of peristomal architecture

The terminology associated with the use of peristomes in the identification and classification of mosses is cumbersome and difficult to understand. This paper provides a pictorial explanation of peristomal architecture with its associated terminology, such as nematodontous and arthrodontous peristomes, and the division of the latter into diplolepideous and haplolepideous peristomes.

Trauma and holocaust video testimony : the intersection of history, memory, and judgment in the interview process

This article analyzes video testimonies recorded at the Jewish Holocaust Museum and Research Centre in Melbourne,Australia, which address the highly complex and sensitive issue of “privileged” Jews. The so-called privileged Jews include prisoners in the Nazi-operated camps and ghettos who held positions that gave them access to material and other benefits, while compelling them to act in ways that have been judged detrimental to fellow inmates. Although the issue of “privileged” Jews has been largely neglected, it relates to a crucial facet of the Holocaust and has vast implications for its aftermath. The ethical dilemmas facing these victims may be closely linked to what Lawrence Langer has termed choiceless choices, which challenge conventional notions of “judgment” and “responsibility.” This problem is also the primary subject of Auschwitz survivor Primo Levi’s essay titled “The Grey Zone,” which is arguably the most influential essay ever written on the Holocaust. Levi argues that one should abstain from judging individuals who confronted such extreme circumstances, positioning prisoners with “privileged” positions at the threshold of representation and understanding. However, moral evaluations of “privileged” Jews have a strong impact on Holocaust testimonies, whether these were constructed during the war or recorded long after the survivors’ experiences. The examples of video testimonies explored in this article reveal that this is particularly the case when interviewees are former “privileged” Jews and interviewers are themselves Holocaust survivors. The article argues that when confronted with such an emotionally and morally fraught issue, judgment may itself be seen as a “limit of representation.”

A method for the visual representation of historic multivariate point data

The visual representation of multivariate spatial and temporal data is important for interpreting and analyzing historical geographic patterns that change over time. The introduction of geospatial technologies in historical scholarship has challenged the suitability of current visual representations due to the need for greater temporal emphasis and the tracking of historical events over time. This research presents a holistic multivariate approach to historical visual representation for point based historical data. The method has been developed through extending the spatial presence in information graphics and through meaningful spatial classification. This paper demonstrates the benefits gained from integrating historical, geographic, temporal, and attribute data through the development of a case study on the history of Melbourne’s cinema venues between 1946 and 1986.

Representation of multiculturalism in urban green spaces : a review of immigrants' experiences in Australia

Rapid population influx due to migration in Australia has produced diverse cultural landscapes, which become visible in cities as physical forms, settings and symbols produced by different ethnic communities. Scholars have argued that people moving away from the country of their birth, whether this be a necessary migration, labour mobility or voluntary migration, results in a difficult process of resettlement for families and individuals. To provide a cohesive multicultural society for all citizens, it is essential to understand how immigrants perceive their new environments and how they make connections in a new land in the process of cultural renewal. While the policy of ‘multiculturalism’ has had a rocky road since the optimistic 1970s, a drive through many suburbs in Australian cities shows buildings, festivals and communal gatherings of people that express and refer to diverse cultural backgrounds. Urban green spaces, ranging from private home gardens to public parks and botanical gardens, play an important role in the life of immigrants. Besides psychological and the restorative effects of urban green spaces, these spaces are public places that provide opportunities for recreation, social gatherings, and the celebration of collective cultural values and events such as festivals for many communities. This study aims to raise awareness of ethnicity as an important issue in park settings and spaces. It investigates the interrelationship between these cultural practices in the urban park environment, in relation to ethnic and cultural identity and physical settings. The concept of transculturalism – reinventing a new common culture as a result of migration to a new place – can help the analysis of the affects and the perception of urban green spaces. The paper will review different experiences of immigrants in relation to the use and perception of urban green spaces, developing alternative perspectives about the Australian landscapes.

English teaching and the uses of history

A brief narrative description of the journal article, document, or resource. Discusses history as a way of rereading English in an attempt to reach a more complex understanding of what literacy and English teaching are. Explores the ways in which English teachers' background shaped not just their views on the subject but also their classroom practice, their stance toward new subjects, and their subjectivity as teachers immersed in and produced by particular configurations of what literature should be. (PM)

The architectural edifice and the phantoms of history

Starting with the literal and physical role of the "ground," this article attempts to bring this "ground" into a discursive arena. In particular, the author is thinking about the period at the end of a war, the period in between destruction and reconstruction, exemplified in some classic postwar films in which the architecture of the city is in a state of ruin—deformed, eroded, and dark—but there is no further destruction. The article calls this period "a gap of history" and its investigation is set against a claim that architecture is a reconstructive practice, that it is enlightening and aspiring. History, on the other hand, is captured by scenes of the battlefield and dominated by a narrative of war and destruction. The article makes reference to the real and fantasy desire for destruction (war and history) and reconstruction (architecture), and how through the connecting plane of the ground architecture is entangled in war and history of destruction as it figures in reconstruction. Architecture is contingent on history as discursive—history that is not unified, fixed, or evolutionary but rather contested and rewritten within a conflictual battlefield.

Taking stock of school music education in Victoria: the lessons of history in the present context of the national review

The National Review of School Music Education represents a unique opportunity to identify and find solutions to some of the very long-standing problems in Australian school music education, particularly in the government school sector. This paper is based on the premise that there are lessons to be learned from the over 150 years of music education in Victorian government schools and that it is only by considering the current status, provision and quality of school music from an historical perspective and resolving emergent issues that effective and worthwhile music education can be provided for future generations of Australian students. Developments in school music education since the 1850s are discussed and analysed in terms of the present-day issues to be addressed by National Review and a number of mutually-dependent factors are identified as combining to produce almost cyclic patterns of ebb and flow in the status, provision and quality of music education in Victoria. The paper identifies several such factors requiring immediate attention including the inadequacy of generalist primary teacher education in music, what has effectively become the extra-curricular status of music in many government schools, and the more recent problems associated with 'the over-crowded curriculum' and the emergence of The Arts as the generic Key Learning Area in which Music now finds itself as just one of many arts disciplines. The paper concludes by making three key recommendations for consideration in the context of the current National Review of School Music Education.

Internal representation of movement in children with developmental coordination disorder : a mental rotation task

Recent studies show that children with developmental coordination disorder (DCD) have difficulties in generating an accurate visuospatial representation of an intended action, which are shown by deficits in motor imagery. This study sought to test this hypothesis further using a mental rotation paradigm. It was predicted that children with DCD would not conform to the typical pattern of responding when required to imagine movement of their limbs. Participants included 16 children with DCD and 18 control children; mean age for the DCD group was 10 years 4 months, and for controls 10 years. The task required children to judge the handedness of single-hand images that were presented at angles between 0° and 180° at 45° intervals in either direction. Results were broadly consistent with the hypothesis above. Responses of the control children conformed to the typical pattern of mental rotation: a moderate trade-off between response time and angle of rotation. The response pattern for the DCD group was less typical, with a small trade-off function. Response accuracy did not differ between groups. It was suggested that children with DCD, unlike controls, do not automatically enlist motor imagery when performing mental rotation, but rely on an alternative object-based strategy that preserves speed and accuracy. This occurs because these children manifest a reduced ability to make imagined transformations from an egocentric or first-person perspective.

Towards a digital representation of physical phenomena to assess comfort in future environments

This paper presents the concept and a test implementation of a digital representation of the physical world designed to assess comfort quality in
future environments. An integrated set of physical phenomena is modeled three-dimensionally to investigate the dynamic behavior of design objects
holistically.

The formulation supports the integration of computational simulation in the performance-based design process. It employs the principles of
geometrical and physical selfcontainedness to avoid that complex geometrical and physical circumstances have to be specified at design time. The concepts of congeneric cells and congeneric conjunctions are
introduced to simulate various physical phenomena simultaneously with a uniformly structured set of equations.

The concept, the prototype implementation and selected test cases are presented. Although it was not possible to implement all features and model parts completely, the research and the discussion of its achievements make valuable contributions towards more effective integration of computational simulation in the performance-based design process.

I don't need IT because I'm going to be a teacher, and other popular beliefs: High school students' explanations for the under representation of girls in information technology subjects

This paper examines the implications for teacher educators of the dominant beliefs currently circulating within diverse Australian high schools about the (lack of) relationship between girls’ interests, girls’ careers, girls’ futures and the broad field of information technology. It identifies students' attitudes towards the content, relevance and general appeal of IT subjects to highlight the challenges for both teachers and teacher educators who may be seeking to address the issues associated with girls’ under representation in IT courses and also contribute to an ongoing project of gender based educational reform. Emphasis throughout the paper is on the persistence of discourses that continue to position girls and IT in opposition to each other and on the challenges of subverting these discourses through the introduction of new figurations (cf Rosi Braidotti, 1994) or transformative understandings of what it now means to be a female student, a female teacher, or a female IT user. The paper concludes by reflecting on the implications of these themes for teachers and teacher educators: particularly those with an on-going commitment to the broad field of educational justice.

Exploring our nation's capital: exploring the role of cultural institutions in the teaching of history and social education in the primary classroom

Explores the role of cultural institutions in the teaching of history and social education in the primary classroom in Australia. Keys to effective teaching and learning of history; Potential of cultural institutions to foster historical interest, relevance, importance and significance; Practicalities of accessing cultural institutions.