Marginalisation of dental students in a shared medical and dental education programme

OBJECTIVES: Internationally, there are a number of universities at which medical and dental education programmes share common elements. There are no studies about the experiences of medical and dental students enrolled in different programmes who share significant amounts of learning and teaching. METHODS: Semi-structured interviews and focus groups were conducted with 36 students and staff in a learning programme shared between separate medical and dental faculties. They were transcribed and an iterative process of interpretation and analysis within the theoretical framework of the contact hypothesis and social identity theory was used to group data into themes and sub-themes. RESULTS: Dental students felt 'marginalised' and felt they were treated as 'second-class citizens' by medical students and medical staff in the shared aspects of their programmes. Contextual factors such as the geographical location of the two schools, a medical : dental student ratio of almost 3 : 1, along with organisational factors such as curriculum overload, propagated negative attitudes towards and professional stereotyping of the dental students. Lack of understanding by medical students and faculty of dental professional roles contributed further. CONCLUSIONS: Recommendations for reducing the marginalisation of dental students in this setting include improving communication between faculties and facilitating experiential contact. This might be achieved through initiating a common orientation session, stronger social networks and integrated learning activities, such as interprofessional problem-based learning and shared clinical experiences.

Mediatisation, marginalisation and disruption in Australian Indigenous affairs

This article considers how changing media practices of minority groups and political and media elites impact on demo-cratic participation in national debates. Taking as its case study the state-sponsored campaign to formally recognise In-digenous people in the Australian constitution, the article examines the interrelationships between political media and Indigenous participatory media—both of which we argue are undergoing seismic transformation. Discussion of constitutional reform has tended to focus on debates occurring in forums of influence such as party politics and news media that privilege the voices of only a few high-profile Indigenous media ‘stars’. Debate has progressed on the assumption that constitutional change needs to be settled by political elites and then explained and ‘sold’ to Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians. Our research on the mediatisation of policymaking has found that in an increasingly media-saturated environment, political leaders and their policy bureaucrats attend to a narrow range of highly publicised voices. But the rapidly changing media environment has disrupted the media-driven Recognise campaign. Vigorous pub-lic discussion is increasingly taking place outside the mainstream institutions of media and politics, while social media campaigns emerge in rapid response to government decisions. Drawing on a long tradition in citizens’ media scholar-ship we argue that the vibrant, diverse and growing Indigenous media sphere in Australia has increased the accessibility of Indigenous voices challenging the scope and substance of the recognition debate. The article concludes on a cau-tionary note by considering some tensions in the promise of the changing media for Indigenous participation in the national policy conversation.

Teachers talking difference: teacher education and the poetics of anti-racism

This paper reports on a case study which explores the experiences of two teachers of ethnic difference working in secondary schools in rural Australia. In seeking an alternative way of telling their stories, transcript poems have been constructed from data obtained through semi-structured interviews with the teachers. The poems highlight the teachers' experiences of marginalisation and racism and their responses to their positioning in mainly white Anglo-Australian school communities. The study raises particular concerns about the effects of professional and cultural isolation on young and inexperienced teachers of ethnic difference as well as the need to view teacher education as an important site for the development of greater cultural awareness in "mainstream" teacher education students.

Global now : searching for meaning

How do teacher educators prepare students to become teachers for a world which is global in its outlook and influences? There are now strong imperatives for teacher educators to develop pre- service students' understandings about a world which is 'global'. It is not only curriculum statements, textbooks, films, videos, that are the carriers and resources in global education but teachers themselves through their own stories
and narratives and the meanings attached to these. The role of teachers' lived experiences in teaching global education is often silenced in teacher education courses, policy documents and school classrooms.

In searching for meaning in global education, it is the capacity of the teacher to reflect not only on their own multiple identities but on the nexus between their local and global worlds and the struggle often evident here. A resource teachers have to teach global education is their own stories, lived experiences of being in a global world. This comes from giving meaning to travel, of living in a multi-cultural multi-faith world of viewing and noticing similarities and differences and giving meaning to these.

Despite increasing demands from education systems and governments for teachers to teach with a global focus, many teachers do not feel confident or prepared to do so. Importantly curriculum policy statements are carrying imperatives to teach to a global world that is rapidly changing. Curriculum statements in Society and Environment area in Australia include 'global' in their rationale. However this does not mean that global education is taught nor understood by teachers who translate these documents to practice. In curriculum documents such as those
produced by the state and territory governments there is some inclusion of global education. Singh (1998) argues that there is a marginalisation of global education in official curriculum policies in Australia. Integrating global education into different subjects is really up to the creativity, expertise and experience of teachers. If it is up to teachers to teach global education as stated by Singh then it will be the capacity of the teacher to draw on a range of resources, pedagogy and approaches to teach global education. One resource is teachers' stories and
narratives and students own lived experiences and stories.

Banks (2001, p. 5) states that "teachers must develop reflective cultural national and global identifications themselves if they are to help students become thoughtful caring and reflective citizens in a multicultural world society." Teacher educators who wish to embed global perspectives in their teaching require reflective practices on their own identities, prejudices, choice of curriculum content and pedagogy.

Teaching global education requires a conscious understanding and reflection to begin the journey of self as located in the classroom. The central issue of this paper is to bring forth emphasis on the lived experiences of teachers and teachers educators in order to develop deeper global understandings in students.

Learning from the margins : young women, social exclusion and education

This collection of ground-breaking international essays address the educational, social, work and biographical experiences of young women who are routinely constructed as ‘at risk’ and on the margins. Drawing on research from an international range of scholars, this book brings together important new perspectives on the gendered dimensions of social exclusion and educational marginalisation.

On the margins : a study of the representation of the arts in the news pages of the newspaper

The principal objective of this paper is to investigate how the arts are represented in the Australian print media. The research is conducted by means of textual analysis focusing on a number of case studies where arts stories appeared in the news pages of an Australian daily broadsheet newspaper. This paper argues that in these case studies the arts are represented in terms of a limited range of rhetorical frameworks. These frameworks help constitute public knowledge about the arts and their marginalised status in Australia. This paper offers a critique of current arts policy which fails to recognise the role of the media in reinforcing the marginalisation of the arts.

A virtual environment for cultural and linguistic inclusivity teaching in a global environment

The Deakin University (Melbourne, Australia) operational policy on 'International and Culturally Inclusive Curricula' states that Deakin will incorporate international/intercultural perspectives and inclusive pedagogies into its courses in order to prepare all students to perform capably, ethically and sensitively in international, multicultural, professional and social contexts.

This paper is about a specific project to internationalise the teacher education curriculum through the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT). This project is scoped in the context of the UNESCO thrust of 'Education for All' in agreeing that inclusive societies begin with inclusive education practices. In our view current strategies have been insufficient to ensure that marginalized and excluded children receive access to their right to education.

The project aims to operationalise part of the UNESCO Dakar Framework for high quality learning environments by responding to ‘…the diverse needs and circumstances of learners and giving appropriate weight to the abilities, skills and knowledge they bring to the teaching and learning process’ by minimising language acquisition barriers that can otherwise impede effective communication and learning.

In addition, we need to be mindful of the marginalisation of people from non-English speaking backgrounds and therefore, in this initiative we use ICT to bridge the 'tyranny of distance' and offer a curriculum that values cultural and linguistic diversity.

In this paper we will discuss how we intend to develop these project principles. In particular we will indicate our plans to use relatively low cost, accessible software to develop a virtual environment where students can enter text in their native language, view foreign language text in their native language, hear text in their own language and automatically encode text into MP3 files and attach the files to messages.

Commercial sex work, survival sex, sexual violence and HIV/AIDS prevention in Arumeru District, Arusha region Of Tanzania

Objective: To examine the knowledge and practices about HIV/AIDS among female Tanzanian commercial sex workers (CSWs) and assess the contextual dynamics that prevent safer sexual behaviours.

Method: The study used mixed methods and was implemented in two phases. Phase one assessed the knowledge and practices about HIV/AIDS among CSWs. Data were obtained with 54 CSWs, who were selected by using a snowball sampling approach. Semi-structured, face-to-face interviews with the CSWs were undertaken to allow the research participants to describe and discuss their lived realities as they perceive and experience them. In phase two, three discrete focus group discussions, each comprising 6-10 women, were carried out with 26 of the 54 CSWs who were interviewed in phase one.

Results: There was exploitation and inequity in the women's lives due to the multiple and overlapping oppressions of poverty and patriarchy. Sexual violence was framed, legitimised and reinforced by structural and cultural inequities. Such exploitation impacted not only on CSWs' lives as sex workers, but on their previous and/or simultaneous lives as mothers, wives, girlfriends and daughters. The women practised ‘survival sex’ as CSWs and/or sexual partners of men, and experienced sexual violence from their clients/partners. This violence was either culturally legitimised within a patriarchal framework or manifested itself as ‘displaced aggressive sex’ by men experiencing marginalisation in socio-economic spheres.

Not measuring up : low-income women on welfare

The central notion of this chapter is that every person has the right to an elemental standard of social life, as a citizenship entitlement. However, segments of our society, such as women who rely on government payments as their primary source of income, do not enjoy full social citizenship entitlements and are instead socially excluded. Using data from in-depth qualitative interviews, I outline participants’ experiences of stigma, marginalisation and exclusion. I posit that these experiences are the result of policy failure as financial assistance policies fail to fully provide these women with their social citizenship entitlements.