Whose risk? 'Managing' risk in school leadership

This article discusses the rise in prominence of 'risk' in schools and the processes and procedures it has triggered in its wake. The discussion commences with formal definitions of 'risk' and how risk is mandated and 'managed' in schools. Alternative views are canvassed and hegemonic emphases in risk policy and practice are critiqued. Taking a socio-cultural approach, the article explores risk from the perspective of school leaders, raising topics elided in risk discourses. The article takes the view that current conceptions of 'risk' have created greater complexity and further risks for the school leaders who 'manage' it. The article investigates school leaders 'and risk' - how risks emerge in the course of everyday school leadership work; school leaders 'at risk' - interrogating the personal and professional risk borne by school leaders through risk policies; and leaders 'as risk' - broaching the rarely raised topic of 'bad' leadership in schools, with its deleterious effects on individuals and whole school communities. These aspects of risk are not found in current literature on risk in educational leadership. The article then goes further to raise the 'undiscussable' topic of risky central leadership practices which render school leaders at even more risk. The article concludes with discussion of risks that school leaders cannot afford not to take in dealing with risk, particularly with regard to collective action to address mandated policy procedures which are detrimental to the foundational issues of teaching, learning, professional agency and community perceptions.

Healthy nature healthy people: 'contact with nature' as an upstream health promotion intervention for populations

Whilst urban-dwelling individuals who seek out parks and gardens appear to intuitively understand the personal health and well-being benefits arising from `contact with nature', public health strategies are yet to maximize the untapped resource nature provides, including the benefits of nature contact as an upstream health promotion intervention for populations. This paper presents a summary of empirical, theoretical and anecdotal evidence drawn from a literature review of the human health benefits of contact with nature. Initial findings indicate that nature plays a vital role in human health and well-being, and that parks and nature reserves play a significant role by providing access to nature for individuals. Implications suggest contact with nature may provide an effective population-wide strategy in prevention of mental ill health, with potential application for sub-populations, communities and individuals at higher risk of ill health. Recommendations include further investigation of `contact with nature' in population health, and examination of the benefits of nature-based interventions. To maximize use of `contact with nature' in the health promotion of populations, collaborative strategies between researchers and primary health, social services, urban planning and environmental management sectors are required. This approach offers not only an augmentation of existing health promotion and prevention activities, but provides the basis for a socio-ecological approach to public health that incorporates environmental sustainability.

Assessment of online reflections : engaging English second language (ESL) students

Online discussion boards are being used increasingly by tertiary educators as a tool for encouraging greater student interaction and developing learning communities. In particular, educators who have adopted a learner centered, socio-constructivist approach to teaching have sought to facilitate collaborative learning in which students reflect upon and share their experiences and perspectives, and construct knowledge together through developing shared meanings. This paper presents the findings of an electronic survey of the perceptions of 70 distance education EFL and ESL students concerning a compulsory assessment item involving contribution to an online course discussion board. The study revealed that the majority of the students enjoyed the assessment item and agreed that posting to the online course discussion board had allowed them to achieve a range of cognitive and social learning outcomes, as well as to develop some important graduate skills. In particular, ESL students reported the benefits of posting to the discussion board in terms of sharing their experiences with others and reducing the feeling of isolation. Further, when considering social outcomes, ESL students perceive the discussion board provided them with an opportunity to meet and develop a closer relationship with other students in the course and encouraged them to keep up with their studies.

Local health policy development processes in the Netherlands: an expanded toolbox for health promotion

Although much research has been done on the existence and formation of risk and issue based health policies, there is only little insight in health policy development processes in a broader context. This hampers intervention in these policy processes to adequately develop integrated and effective health policies.

Legislation in the Netherlands requires municipalities to develop and implement local health policies. These policies are supposed to aim at the promotion of health across sectors and with a strong community involvement. Health policy development processes have been studied in four Dutch municipalities. For each case, we identified a range of stakeholders and monitored the change or stability of their characteristics over 3 years. In addition, for each case, three overlaying maps of networks were made addressing communication and collaboration actions within the defined set of stakeholders. We point out a number of barriers which impede integrated policy development at the local level: the importance given to local health policy, the medical approach to health development, the organizational self-interest rather than public health concern, the absence of policy entrepreneurial activity.

Furthermore, this article advocates the use of complementary theoretical frameworks and the expansion of the methodological toolbox for health promotion. The value of stakeholder and network analysis in the health promotion domain, at this stage, is two-fold. First, mapping relevant actors, their positions and connections in networks provides us with insight into their capacity to participate and contribute to health policy development. Second, these new tools contribute to a further understanding of policy entrepreneurial roles to be taken up by health promotion professionals and health authorities in favour of the socio-environmental approach to health.

Notwithstanding the value of this first step, more research is required into both the practical application as well as in the theoretical connections with, for example, Multiple Streams theory.

A proposed smart-card solution for Australian health services : the problems encountered

This case study describes the experience of a state government health department in evaluating the use of smart card technology to redesign health benefits programs for the disabled in Australia. The social and political context of the system is explained in detail, and the potential benefits and risks accruing to the government, health care intermediaries and the community are examined.

Student's perceptions of compulsory asynchronous online discussion

Online discussion boards are increasingly being used by tertiary educators as tools for encouraging student interaction and for developing learning networks. In particular, educators who have adopted a socio-constructivist approach to teaching are keen to facilitate collaborative learning in which students share their experiences and perspectives, and construct knowledge together through shared meanings. In this paper, the findings from an electronic survey of 72 distance education students’ perceptions of an online discussion assessment item (ODAI) are presented. The study revealed that the majority of the respondents enjoyed the ODAI, and agreed that the online discussions had allowed them to achieve a range of cognitive and social learning outcomes, and to develop some important graduate skills.

E-Simulations for educating the professions in blended learning environments

This chapter introduces digital, role-based simulations as an emerging and powerful educational approach for the professions and for broader workforce development purposes. It is acknowledged that simulations used for education, professional development, and training, have a long history of development and use. The focus is on digital simulations (e-simulations) situated in blended learning environments and the improved affordances of the newer digital media used via the web to enhance the value of their contribution to learning and teaching in professional and vocationally-oriented fields. This is an area which has received less attention in the whole “e-learning” literature compared with the voluminous body of knowledge and practice on computer-mediated communication, online community building, social networking, and various forms of online (usually automated) assessment. A framework of blended e-simulation design is outlined. The chapter concludes by examining what the future might hold for simulations in further and higher education, and ongoing work-based learning.

Classroom teacher effectiveness research and inquiry, and its relevance to the development of public education policy: an Australian context

This paper has as its focus an analysis of the question and problem of classroom teacher effectiveness research and inquiry. It presents an examination of what counts as valid and worthwhile research in classroom teacher effectiveness studies for the development of education policy within an Australian context, the State of Victoria. The Government’s Blueprint, the major education policy document of the Victorian State Labour Government, outlines its educational approach. Important and core features of government direction for education policy include a focus on social and economic disadvantage. A priority for the Victorian State Labour Government is tangible and measurable improvement in the performance of the public education system. A particular concern is the problem of academic underperformance within public schools, particularly those designated as low-performing and situated in socially and economically disadvantaged communities. Building the capacity of the State’s teacher workforce forms a key component of the Blueprint, and State Government direction in public education. The paper utilises a qualitative theoretical framework. Eight education policy actor/participants were interviewed and their responses analysed using a critical discourse approach. The main findings indicate that education policy actors advocate a strong belief in particular forms of evidence-based research for the development of education policy in the area of classroom teacher effectiveness.

As if the future matters : teaching design for sustainable communities

Between 2007 and 2010 a series of intensive annual field trips took around 100 predominantly city-based Australian and international students from The University of Adelaide into rural communities (numbers ranged from 82 in 2007 to 105 in 2009). Country areas/towns (rather than the city) were chosen because in them issues of sustainability are ‘in your face’ and much clearer for students to comprehend than in the city. The trips required co-operation between the respective communities, the School and the students. The organization required for this number of students was time-consuming and prone to disruption, and the series ended when the principal organisers moved on to new positions and the School reverted to less time-costly modes of teaching. This paper provides a retrospective insight into the series of field trips and examines their educational and professional value for the participants – students, staff and communities. We begin by describing the aims of the course and argument for an immersive educational approach, then present the logistics and process for the field trips, discuss the outcomes for the stakeholders, and finally present some conclusions.

Urbanisation, climate change and health equity: how can health promotion contribute?

We live in a world that is constantly changing and is challenging established approaches to managing human and ecological health. Two key drivers of change are urbanisation and global climate change. This commentary is concerned with the interrelationship of these drivers with human and ecological health, proposing that health promotion practitioners need to actively seek a new role in the process of creating urban environments that support social and ecological well-being. It provides practitioners with an up-to-date synthesis of climate change science and future projections, the literature around the health impacts of climate change and potential health challenges to urban communities. We argue that health promotion cannot respond to the challenges created by climate change and urbanisation, nor can it meet its own mandate without shifting from an anthropogenic-focussed approach toward embracing a multi-scale, collaborative approach outside the health sector. We suggest that the underlying principles of health promotion, which include equity and community engagement at all scales, are critical to the evolution of thriving urban environments. Food security is given as an example to demonstrate the proposed shift away from an anthropogenic and urban focus toward a socio-ecological approach (i.e. resilience thinking) that provides a framework for collaboration between sectors working with unpredictable global systems. In so doing, the commentary provides practitioners with guidance on the complex science of climate change and its impact on health in urban settings, as well as highlighting the skills that they can bring to creating resilient urban settlements in these times of change.

Down the methodological rabbit hole: thinking diffractively with resistant data

This article, part of a larger study, began with an inquiry into the ways a small group of preteen boys and girls with diagnosed eating disorders discussed their ideas and attitudes about healthy bodies in individual interviews. Despite applying some of the usual analytic procedures, the data yielded little of significance in relation to body and health discourses, or to gender differences. We therefore wondered whether our underlying epistemological lenses and methodological toolkit had prevented us from seeing and hearing what was happening with this particular cohort. By shifting from a predominantly feminist post-structuralist, socio-cultural approach to one more inflected with varieties of feminist post-humanism and post-qualitative thinking, the data came differently into focus, and invited closer consideration. Employing a diffractive analysis then allowed some fresh, unexpected salience in the data to become more apparent.

Student empathy levels across 12 medical and health professions: an interventional study

Background
Empathy is a difficult characteristic to define, teach and assess; the ‘nebulous’ properties of empathic behaviour often means that educators fail to incorporate the explicit teaching and assessment of empathy within the curriculum. One solution suggested is that teaching empathy in an interprofessional education setting is an effective educational approach in developing empathic behaviours.

Method
Student participants from Monash University, Deakin University, University of South Australia, and Edith Cowan University completed a self-reporting survey package pre and post two-hour empathy workshop consisting of the Jefferson Scale of Empathy – Health Profession – Student version (JSE-HP-S).

Results
A total of 293 students from 12 different medical and health care professions participated in the empathy workshops. The majority of participants were from Monash University n = 230 (78 %), the nursing profession n = 59 (20 %), < 26 years of age n = 215 (73 %) and enrolled in first year studies n = 123 (42 %). Using a paired t-test repeated measure self-reported empathy levels improved at p < 0.0001, mean 114.34 vs. 120.32 (d = 0.22).

Conclusion
This project has shown that self-reported empathy levels have been shown to statistically improve following DVD simulation-based workshops.

Outdoor education and bush adventure therapy: A social-ecological approach to health and wellbeing.

Together, outdoor education and bush adventure therapy can be seen to constitute a population-wide health intervention strategy. Whether in educational or therapeutic settings, the intentional use of contact with nature, small groups, and adventure provides a unique approach in the promotion of health and wellbeing for the general population, and for individuals with identified health vulnerabilities. This paper explicitly emphasises human and social health, however, an integral assumption is that a healthy and sustainable environment is dependent on healthy human relationships with nature. We invite outdoor educators and bush adventure therapy practitioners to examine the proposition that healthy interactions with nature can create a unique stream of socio-ecological interventions. A spectrum of outdoor adventure programs is provided, allowing outdoor educators and bush adventure therapy practitioners to locate their work according to program context and aims, and participant aims and needs.

Teaching educational administration in Thailand : a participatory approach

A participatory approach was used to teach educational administration topics relevant to the Thai reform agenda. Students were also required to carry out a workplace project based on their studies. Data indicated that the content and pedagogy of the university course were an effective form of professional development for school administrators.