Writing embodied practice from the inside : outside the exegesis

The textual turn is a good friend of expert spectating, where it assumes the role of writing-productive apparatus, but no friend at all of expert practices or practitioners (Melrose, 2003). Introduction The challenge of time-based embodied performance when the artefact is unstable As a former full-time professional practitioner with an embodied dance practice as performer, choreographer and artistic director for three decades, I somewhat unexpectedly entered the world of academia in 2000 after completing a practice-based PhD, which was described by its examiners as ‘pioneering’. Like many artists my intention was to deepen and extend my practice through formal research into my work and its context (which was intercultural) and to privilege the artist’s voice in a research world where it was too often silent. Practice as research, practice-based research, and practice-led research were not yet fully named. It was in its infancy and my biggest challenge was to find a serviceable methodology which did not betray my intentions to keep practice at the centre of the research. Over the last 15 years, practice led doctoral research, where examinable creative work is placed alongside an accompanying (exegetical) written component, has come a long way. It has been extensively debated with a range of theories and models proposed (Barrett & Bolt, 2007, Pakes, 2003 & 2004, Piccini, 2005, Philips, Stock & Vincs 2009, Stock, 2009 & 2010, Riley & Hunter 2009, Haseman, 2006, Hecq, 2012). Much of this writing is based around epistemological concerns where the research methodologies proposed normally incorporate a contextualisation of the creative work in its field of practice, and more importantly validation and interrogation of the processes of the practice as the central ‘data gathering’ method. It is now widely accepted, at least in the Australian creative arts context, that knowledge claims in creative practice research arise from the material activities of the practice itself (Carter, 2004). The creative work explicated as the tangible outcome of that practice is sometimes referred to as the ‘artefact’. Although the making of the artefact, according to Colbert (2009, p. 7) is influenced by “personal, experiential and iterative processes”, mapping them through a research pathway is “difficult to predict [for] “the adjustments made to the artefact in the light of emerging knowledge and insights cannot be foreshadowed”. Linking the process and the practice outcome most often occurs through the textual intervention of an exegesis which builds, and/or builds on, theoretical concerns arising in and from the work. This linking produces what Barrett (2007) refers to as “situated knowledge… that operates in relation to established knowledge” (p. 145). But what if those material forms or ‘artefacts’ are not objects or code or digitised forms, but live within the bodies of artist/researchers where the nature of the practice itself is live, ephemeral and constantly transforming, as in dance and physical performance? Even more unsettling is when the ‘artefact’ is literally embedded and embodied in the work and in the maker/researcher; when subject and object are merged. To complicate matters, the performing arts are necessarily collaborative, relying not only on technical mastery and creative/interpretive processes, but on social and artistic relationships which collectively make up the ‘artefact’. This chapter explores issues surrounding live dance and physical performance when placed in a research setting, specifically the complexities of being required to translate embodied dance findings into textual form. Exploring how embodied knowledge can be shared in a research context for those with no experiential knowledge of communicating through and in dance, I draw on theories of “dance enaction” (Warburton, 2011) together with notions of “affective intensities” and “performance mastery” (Melrose, 2003), “intentional activity” (Pakes, 2004) and the place of memory. In seeking ways to capture in another form the knowledge residing in live dance practice, thus making implicit knowledge explicit, I further propose there is a process of triple translation as the performance (the living ‘artefact’) is documented in multi-facetted ways to produce something durable which can be re-visited. This translation becomes more complex if the embodied knowledge resides in culturally specific practices, formed by world views and processes quite different from accepted norms and conventions (even radical ones) of international doctoral research inquiry. But whatever the combination of cultural, virtual and genre-related dance practices being researched, embodiment is central to the process, outcome and findings, and the question remains of how we will use text and what forms that text might take.

Socially inclusive learning in a community setting

People with mental health problems, learning difficulties and poor literacy and numeracy are at risk of social exclusion including homelessness. They are often disconnected from the Vocational Education and Training (VET) system, with few opportunities for education and employment. Academic research has demonstrated a link between literacy and numeracy and social inclusion, however, the pathways to enact this are not well understood. This report presents insights into how a community based adult literacy program in West End, Brisbane, was first established and has since evolved into a successful model of what we are calling ‘socially inclusive learning’. The research informing the report was conducted as a twelve-month study from April 2013 to April 2014 funded through a partnership involving Anglicare Southern Queensland, A Place to Belong and the School of Public Health and Social Work, Queensland University of Technology. The research was conducted by Greg Marston and Jeffrey Johnson- Abdelmalik. The aim of the study was to clarify the principles, practice and methodology of the Reading and Writing group (hereafter RAW) and identify the characteristics of RAW that support the social inclusion of the individual being provided literacy learning. The questions guiding the research included: • What are the key principles and practices of the RAW model? • How does the acquisition of literacy and numeracy skills contribute to the recovery of people with mental health and other issues? • How can the acquisition of literacy and numeracy skills support people’s social inclusion, including achieving employment and further education outcomes? A related aim of the project was to document how this community based literacy and numeracy program operates so that other organisations with an interest in addressing similar needs can learn from the model, particularly organisations that co-locate support and education and organisations that adopt a recovery approach when working with people with mental health challenges and intellectual and psychiatric disabilities. The report highlights the background to RAW, the learning philosophy of RAW, the profile of the participants in the program and the various roles and responsibilities and structure that supports the work of RAW. The report presents perspectives from the teachers, student participants and tutors on how the group is designed and the principles implemented.

The use of multimodal technologies to enhance reflective writing in teacher education

For preservice teachers new to the teaching profession, reflective practice can be a difficult process. Yet reflective writing, once mastered, has the capacity to support preservice teachers to make connections between teaching theory and professional practice, and to start to take control of their own professional learning journey. The reflective practice described in this chapter was scaffolded through a framework for writing, the use of annotated work samples and explicit teaching. This approach was enhanced through multimodal resources including written peer assessment, audio teacher feedback and a video recording of the class presentation. The video footage assisted the preservice teachers to reconcile the feedback that they received from multiple sources. This chapter describes and analyses the implementation of the PRT Pattern (Prompting Reflection using Technology). Results of this practice revealed that the multiple forms of feedback assisted the preservice teachers to analyse their performance in terms of their developing professional identity and practice.

Writers as performers : developing reflexive and creative writing identities

Writing is a complex and learned activity in that it requires us to shape our thoughts into words and texts that are appropriate for the purpose, audience and medium of a variety of communicative forms. Writers must constantly make decisions about how to represent their subject matter and themselves through language. In this way, writing can be conceptualised as a performance whereby writers shape and represent their identities as they mediate social structures and personal considerations. In this paper I use theories of reflexivity and discourse to analyse interviews and writing samples of culturally and linguistically diverse Australian primary students for evidence of particular kinds of writing identities. Findings indicate a clear influence of particular teaching strategies and contexts on the writing identities of students. I argue that making students aware of their writing choices, the influences on, and the potential impact of those choices on themselves, their text and their audience, is a new imperative in the teaching of writing.

Teaching and Assessing Reflective Writing in a Large Undergraduate Core Substantive Law Unit

The focus of higher education has shifted towards building students’ skills and self-awareness for future employment, in addition to developing substantive discipline knowledge. This means that there is an increasing need for embedding approaches to teaching and learning which provide a context for skills development and opportunities for students to prepare for the transition from legal education to professional practice. This chapter reports on a large (500-600 students) core undergraduate Equity law unit in an Australian University. ePortfolio has been embedded in Equity as a means of enabling students to document their reflections on their skill development in that unit. Students are taught, practice and are assessed on their teamwork and letter writing skills in the context of writing a letter of advice to a fictional client in response to a real world problem. Following submission of the team letter, students are asked to reflect on their skill development and document their reflections in ePortfolio. A scaffolded approach to teaching reflective writing is adopted using a blended model of delivery which combines face to face lectures and online resources, including an online module, facts sheets designed to guide students through the process of reflection by following the TARL model of reflection, and exemplars of reflective writing. Although students have engaged in the process of reflective writing in Equity for some years, in semester one 2011 assessment criteria were developed and the ePortfolio reflections were summatively assessed for the first time. The model of teaching and assessing reflective practice was evaluated in a range of ways by seeking feedback from students and academic staff responsible for implementing the model and asking them to reflect on their experiences. This chapter describes why skill development and reflective writing were embedded in the undergraduate law unit Equity; identify the teaching and learning approaches which were implemented to teach reflective writing to online and internal Equity students; explain the assessment processes; analyse the empirical evidence from evaluations; document the lessons learnt and discuss planned future improvements to the teaching and assessment strategies.

Improved fabrication of melt electrospun tissue engineering scaffolds using direct writing and advanced electric field control

Direct writing melt electrospinning is an additive manufacturing technique capable of the layer-by-layer fabrication of highly ordered 3d tissue engineering scaffolds from micron-diameter fibres. The utility of these scaffolds, however, is limited by the maximum achievable height of controlled fibre deposition, beyond which the structure becomes increasingly disordered. A source of this disorder is charge build-up on the deposited polymer producing unwanted coulombic forces. In this study we introduce a novel melt electrospinning platform with dual voltage power supplies to reduce undesirable charge effects and improve fibre deposition control. We produced and characterised several 90° cross-hatched fibre scaffolds using a range of needle/collector plate voltages. Fibre thickness was found to be sensitive only to overall potential and invariant to specific tip/collector voltage. We also produced ordered scaffolds up to 200 layers thick (fibre spacing 1 mm, diameter 40 μm) and characterised structure in terms of three distinct zones; ordered, semi-ordered and disordered. Our in vitro analysis indicates successful cell attachment and distribution throughout the scaffolds, with little evidence of cell death after seven days. This study demonstrates the importance of electrostatic control for reducing destabilising polymer charge effects and enabling the fabrication of morphologically suitable scaffolds for tissue engineering.

Writing Ourselves : pastpresentfuture

If resilience is a hallmark of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people’s survival beyond centuries of colonisation and oppression, brandishing the pen – or any its modern equivalents– can be understood as key resilience and survival strategy. Writing ourselves into contemporary and future existence is a complex act of cultural translation; it involves a speaking to others through a technology from a foreign culture. Subsequently, Indigenous writing is born into complexity.

Melt electrospinning writing

This thesis has developed an innovative additive manufacturing technology platform, which combines melt electrospinning with direct writing, allowing the fabrication of a new class of highly-ordered ultrafine fibrous materials. Bioresorbable polymer fibres were printed using a variety of designs, with filament resolutions not demonstrated by established melt-extrusion based direct writing processes, to form novel medical devices. This platform was applied to tissue engineering scaffold design, where structures were prepared in a variety of shapes and forms, characterised and then seeded with cells to investigate their biocompatibility, cell-seeding and proliferation behaviour as well as the ability to guide cell growth and differentiation.

Critical literacy finds a 'place': Writing and social action in a low-income Australian grad 2/3 classroom

In a study of socioeconomically disadvantaged children's acquisition of school literacies, a university research team investigated how a group of teachers negotiated critical literacies and explored notions of social power with elementary children in a suburban school located in an area of high poverty. Here we focus on a grade 2/3 classroom where the teacher and children became involved in a local urban renewal project and on how in the process the children wrote about place and power. Using the students' concerns about their neighborhood, the teacher engaged her class in a critical literacy project that not only involved a complex set of literate practices but also taught the children about power and the possibilities for local civic action. In particular, we discuss examples of children's drawing and writing about their neighborhoods and their lives. We explore how children's writing and drawing might be key elements in developing "critical literacies" in elementary school settings. We consider how such classroom writing can be a mediator of emotions, intellectual and academic learning, social practice, and political activism.

An experiment in collaborative writing

We’re starting 2015 with an experiment in collaborative creative writing. What happens when you ask ten academics to write a story together? Taking our cue from the Exquisite Cadaver game played by Surrealist artists and poets in the 1930s, we’ve asked our authors to contribute to a story in progress. We gave them free rein: no restrictions on style or genre.

Fresh Cuttings: A Celebration of Fiction and Poetry from UQP's Black Writing Series

As the first anthology of UQP's indigenous-authored books, Fresh Cuttings represents the very best of fiction and poetry publishing from UQP's Black Australian Writing series. An introduction by the editors and a biography of each author is included.

Prevalence of swallowing difficulties and medication modification in customers of community pharmacists

Background People may alter their solid oral medication dosage forms to make it easier to swallow. However, modification of solid medication dosage forms can lead to adverse effects, and people may alter the dosage forms without informing the health professionals involved in their care. Aim To estimate the prevalence of swallowing difficulties and medication dosage form modification among community pharmacy consumers, and to investigate consumer views, attitudes and interactions with health professionals regarding such issues. Method Consumers were recruited from five community pharmacies in Brisbane, Australia and invited to participate in a structured interview. Results A total of 369 consumers participated in the study. Overall, 16.5% of people reported experiencing swallowing difficulties, and 10.6% of all respondents reported modifying medication dosage forms. Almost half (44.2%) of those surveyed did not think there would be issues with modifying medication dosage forms. Some consumers would not seek advice from health professionals if they experienced swallowing problems and/or would not seek advice from health professionals before modifying their medication dosage forms, regardless of their thoughts about any problems associated with this practice. Conclusion Some consumers appeared to be accustomed to modifying medication dosage forms, even when there was no apparent or obvious need. People were also reluctant to seek advice from health professionals regarding swallowing difficulties, or modifying medication dosage forms. Health professionals must be assertive in educating consumers about swallowing problems, and medication dosage form modification.