Learning for/at work : Somali women "doing it for themselves"

This article draws on the understanding of the lives and experiences of two Somali women, as case studies, to examine the relationship between identity, work and language learning. It begins with a brief discussion of embodied knowledge, with a view to exploring how “know how” intersects with literacy and identity. The article then moves to the two case studies to illustrate how certain experiences of work, and of seeking work, embody vital knowledge. The article concludes by considering how this practical embodied knowledge can be confirmed and harnessed to enrich adults’ learning for the workplace.

Culture and leadership in educational administration: a historical study of what was and what might have been

This paper examines the consequences for school leadership of the abandonment of Waller's insights into the school as a social organism and the embracing of the cult of efficiency as the foundation for the analysis of school culture. Tracing the separation of conception from execution, leadership from teaching, administration from education through the cult of professionalism and functionalist sociology, the paper argues that a more appropriate basis for understanding both leadership and the culture of the school can be derived from ethnographies of schooling which show the complex interactions of internal and external cultures in the construction of leadership and the culture of the school.

Football's culture of intoxication : implications for health promotion

Objectives: The objective of this is article is to examine some of the strategies and interventions designed to encourage responsible alcohol consumption within Australian Rules football clubs.
Design: Qualitative research was undertaken with fans of four fans of football teams who compete in the South Australian National Football League (SANFL). In total, 93 interviews were conducted with male (80) and female (13) fans across these clubs. Interview data were thematically analysed with the assistance of the NVIVO software package. To elicit additional insight about the social meanings of drinking, researchers visited football games and a range of social functions.
Results: Analysis of the qualitative data suggests that formal interventions implemented by football clubs often prove ineffectual in encouraging responsible alcohol consumption, with more effective strategies aimed at dissuading heavy drinking being operationalized at an informal level by drinkers themselves through a number of ‘everyday’ or ‘lay’ strategies. Such strategies correspond to the broad analytical categories of ‘keeping safe’, ‘minimising damage’ and ‘taking charge’.
Conclusion: This focus on the role of lay strategies in informing health behaviours makes an important contribution to how we understand health promotion initiatives in relation to harmful drinking in sport and other contexts.

Elite girls' schooling, social class and sexualised popular culture

Young women’s identities are an issue of public and academic interest across a number of western nations at the present time. This book explores how young women attending an elite school for girls understand and construct ‘empowerment’. It investigates the extent to which, and the ways in which, their constructions of empowerment and identity work to overturn, or resist, key regulations and normative expectations for girls in post-feminist, hyper-sexualised cultural contexts. The book provides a succinct overview of feminist theorisations of normative femininities in young women’s lives in western cultural contexts. It includes familiar sexist discourses such as sexual double standards, as well as more recent commentary about the regulation of young women’s subjectivities in neoliberal, post-feminist, hyper-sexualised cultures. Drawing on ethnographic research in the context of an elite girls’ secondary school, the author explores how empowerment for young women is constructed and understood across a range of textual practices. From visual representations of young women in school promotional material, to students’ constructions of popular celebrities, the question of how girls’ resistance to normative femininities begins to develop is examined. This rich empirical work makes a unique contribution to the study of elite schooling within the sociology of education, drawing on important insights from the field of critical girlhood studies, and posing a challenge to popular feminist notions about media literacy, young women and empowerment. It will be of interest to scholars and postgraduates in the areas of gender studies, sociology, education, youth studies and cultural studies.

The lived experiences of third culture kids transitioning into university life in Australia

This study presents a new orienting framework to aid in the understanding of how Third Culture Kids' (TCKs) transition into university life in Australia. The framework was developed after analysis of data from a qualitative phenomenological research project using data from 12 in-depth interviews with Australian TCKs aged 18-27 years who, had spent 3-18 years living in Africa, Europe and Asia and had been in Australia for seven months to nine years. After thematic data analysis was conducted four themes emerged from the data which resulted in the development of a TCK Transition into University Model. This model includes four stages; (a) preparedness prior to transition, (b) initial experience during transition, (c) adjustment during transition and (d) stabilisation. Each of the four stages provides information about participants' practical, social and emotional experience of the transition to university life in Australia. The key findings included participants who received preparation from their school and family prior to moving, had practical support in Australia and engaged in Australian social networks and university life experienced improved emotional health and made way for a positive transition. Participants who were socially isolated and had limited practical support experienced relatively poor emotional health and transitional hardships. The findings from this research suggest that a TCKs' emotional and mental health during transition is either negatively or positively affected by the preparation they received prior to moving, the practical stressors they encountered upon arrival and the social integration into Australian social networks and universities. Further qualitative research in the area of TCK transition experiences should consider including the narratives of TCKs from various geographic backgrounds, sexualities, abilities and ethnicities to diversify and build on the evidence base around the TCK phenomenon. © 2014 Elsevier Ltd.

Culture shock and reverse culture shock: the moderating role of cultural intelligence in international students' adaptation

This study extends previous research by examining the role of cultural intelligence (CQ) in both culture shock and reverse culture shock. Specifically, this study asserts that CQ acts as a moderating mechanism that lessens the negative effects of both culture shock and reverse culture shock on psychological and sociocultural adaptation among international students. Two studies were conducted in Australia to test these assertions. Study 1 (n = 189) was participated in by new international students. An online survey was set up and disseminated. Results indicated that culture shock is significantly but negatively related to both psychological and sociocultural adaptation. In addition, results demonstrated that CQ moderates the relationship by lessening the impact of culture shock on students’ psychological and sociocultural adaptation. Study 2 (n = 123) was participated in by international students who had recently graduated and returned to their home countries. An online survey was also set up and disseminated. Results indicated that reverse culture shock is significantly but negatively related to both psychological and sociocultural adaptation. CQ also served as a moderator in lessening the impact of reverse culture shock on both forms of adaptation.