Education and the colonial construction of whiteness

European imperialism spawned settlements of invasive white communities throughout Asia and Africa. Stoler and Cooper (1997: 27) argue these evolving colonial societies became subject to what amounts to an extended bourgeois project such that "we can not understand the construction of whiteness without exploring its class dimensions". If in terms of that project, nineteenth-century metropolitan society was deemed vulnerable to the ravages of a brutish and unruly working class, these white colonial outposts, whether constituted as settler colonies or colonies of exploitation, were even more vulnerable to the more insidious danger of miscegenation. Racial intermingling became simultaneously an issue of class and race. Imperialism therefore added a further dimension to the on-going detinition of "bourgeois-ness": the discourse of whiteness transforming a national discourse into a discourse on civilisation.

In focusing on education as the colonial authorities' response to what they perceived of as the danger of mixed parentage, this article develops a comparative framework that links coloniai settlements in Asia and Australia. It examines the discourse surrounding miscegenation, education and the "rising generation" in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries in the Dutch East Indies British India, French Indo China and (British) Australia. In so doing, I demonstrate the universality of a linked discourse of whiteness and class across Imperial Asia.

Sociodemographic correlates of the increasing trend in prevalence of gestational diabetes mellitus in a large population of women between 1995 and 2005

OBJECTIVE—Gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) is an increasingly prevalent risk factor for the development of type 2 diabetes in the mother and is  responsible for morbidity in the child. To better identify women at risk of developing GDM we examined sociodemographic correlates and changes in the prevalence of GDM among all births between 1995 and 2005 in Australia's largest state.
RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS—A computerized database of all births (n = 956,738) between 1995 and 2005 in New South Wales, Australia, was used in a multivariate logistic regression that examined the association between sociodemographic characteristics and the occurrence of GDM.
RESULTS—Between 1995 and 2005, the prevalence of GDM increased by 45%, from 3.0 to 4.4%. Women born in South Asia had the highest adjusted odds ratio (OR) of any region (4.33 [95% CI 4.12–4.55]) relative to women born in Australia. Women living in the three lowest socioeconomic quartiles had higher adjusted ORs for GDM relative to women in the highest quartile (1.54 [1.50–1.59], 1.74 [1.69–1.8], and 1.65 [1.60–1.70] for decreasing socioeconomic status quartiles). Increasing age was strongly associated with GDM, with women aged >40 years having an adjusted OR of 6.13 (95% CI 5.79–6.49) relative to women in their early 20s. Parity was associated with a small reduced risk. There was no association between smoking and GDM.
CONCLUSIONS—Maternal age, socioeconomic position, and ethnicity are important correlates of GDM. Future culturally specific interventions should target prevention of GDM in these high-risk groups.

Bauman, strangerhood and attitudes towards immigrants among the Australian population

Through an investigation of the idea of the stranger, this article seeks to blend theory with empirical research. It does this in three ways. First, it engages with a social theory of the stranger articulated in the work of Zygmunt Bauman. Second, it examines data from the Australian Election Study surveys between 1996 and 2007 in order to explore attitudinal changes towards groups of immigrants. The findings from this survey suggests that attitudes towards immigrants in general have fluctuated in Australia, despite the negative effects of economic globalization, the growth in neoliberal economic reforms and terrorist attacks in the West. Third, drawing on Bauman's theory of the stranger we provide an interpretation of these fluctuating attitudes through the idea of the hybrid stranger. Finally, we argue that a more nuanced understanding of these attitudes towards immigrants in Australia is possible when a theory of the stranger is informed by a discussion on the constitution of host self, the influence of the media, the role of government policy, and the impact of class and geography.

Homophobic bullying and human rights : non-deficit approaches in queer youth wellbeing policy and practice

This chapter is concerned with ways for improving the capacity of school communities to provide queer young people with stimulating educational experiences that productively engage with the realities of their lives and which promote and enhance their wellbeing. By "queer" or "LBGTI" I mean to refer to all of those young people who do not conform to prevailing expectations regarding gender and sexual identity and behaviours, those young people who may be lesbian,gay, bisexual, transgender or intersexual (lGBTI), as well as all of those young people who have an association with gender and sexual diversity (for example, the straight fey boy who gets called a poofta; the teenage girl with lesbian parents, etc.). Methodologically, this chapter draws on a tradition of Foucauldian cultural analysis which acknowledges that gender and sexual identities are not stable or fixed, but that they are generated by influential discourses (e.g. my identity as a "man" in Melbourne today is mediated by contemporary discourses of masculinity, of Australianness, of class and so on) (for example, see Foucault 1984, 1990, 1992 and 1998).

This chapter argues that conventional approaches to school improvement for queer students normally focus on strategies for reducing the victimisation of teenage homosexuals, and that such strategies rely on dominant discourses of safety and bullying. I examine a recent example of this policy approach and use it as a starting point for considering the benefits and the constraints of a victim-based approach to queer youth wellbeing policy. The chapter then moves into a discussion about the recent introduction of human rights legislation in Victoria and how this can assist a move in policy and practice towards a more positive and diffuse engagement with gender and sexual diversity.

Computers for secondary mathematics: who uses them and how?

In the first stage of a three year ARC-funded study in which the effects of using computers for the teaching and learning of mathematics are being explored, a questionnaire has been developed and is being administered to a large number of students in grades 7-10 in a representative sample of co-educational post-primary schools in Victoria. Using open and closed response formats, the information sought includes: background and biographical details; data on computer ownership and use =96 frequency and mode/s =96 for mathematics learning at home and in mathematics classes; and beliefs about mathematics and the use of computers for learning mathematics. In this paper, the focus will be on some of the preliminary findings related to ownership and use of computers for learning mathematics at home and at school. In previous research, factors such as gender, socio-economic background, and ethnicity have been identified as contributors to inequitable mathematics learning outcomes. The questionnaire data will be analysed to examine if these and other factors are related to any inequities identified in student's access to computers and in how they use computers in their learning of mathematics. The results will be presented and pertinent implications discussed.

Creative pedagogies : "art-full" reading and writing

This paper reports on a small-scale research inquiry, designed to support teachers in a Melbourne primary school to bring together the arts, reading and writing in their classrooms in ways that create possibilities for "art-full" teaching and learning. The principal, concerned by underperformance on State literacy tests of the school’s largely working-class and NESB population, requested David Hornsby and other members of the project team from the Education Faculty at La Trobe University to offer whole-school professional development. The focus was on developing oral language as a foundation for literacy learning, enacting Britton’s claim that “reading and writing float on a sea of talk”. The project team introduced the teachers to a range of innovative classroom practices for using visual and performance arts, literature, music and crafts. Drawing on video, interviews and writing samples, a number of teachers worked collaboratively with the research team to develop case studies of individual students with a range of literacy aptitudes and social skills. A key research question was: "What do children take from their engagement in arts-based activities into reading of literary texts, and potentially into writing from the perspective of another character?" In this paper we ponder this from three vantage points: by outlining the informing principles in our research project; confirming insights from current interdisciplinary work about children learning to see, do, act and say in play; and analysing the research data from the initial phase.

Low and high birth weight as risk factors for obesity among 4 to 5 year old Australian children : does gender matter?

Studies testing whether birth weight and childhood obesity differ by gender are lacking. We aimed to describe the relationship between birth weight and childhood overweight/obesity and investigate the influence that gender has on this relationship among 4 to 5-year-old children. We performed a secondary analysis of an Australian nationally representative cross-sectional study in 4 to 5-year-old children. The main outcome measure was child overweight and obesity. We found that low birth weight (LBW) was associated with lower risk of overweight/obesity among girls at 4–5 years before (OR 0.50, 95%CI 0.32, 0.77) and after adjusting for socio-demographic factors (OR 0.51 95%CI 0.33, 0.80) and ethnicity (OR 0.52, 95%CI 0.33, 0.81) but was not associated with child overweight/obesity among boys before or after adjustment. High birth weight (HBW) was associated with a higher risk of overweight/obesity among both girls (adjusted OR: 1.76, 95%CI 1.12, 2.78) and boys (adjusted OR: 2.42 95% CI 2.06, 2.86). Conclusion: There are gender differences in the association of birth weight with child overweight/obesity. HBW was associated with a higher risk of child overweight/obesity in boys and girls before and after adjustment for socio-demographic factors. However, LBW was associated with a lower risk of child overweight/obesity in girls but not in boys. These gender differences need to be considered when planning interventions to reduce child overweight/obesity.

A multi-filter enhanced genetic ensemble system for gene selection and sample classification of microarray data

Background: Feature selection techniques are critical to the analysis of high dimensional datasets. This is especially true in gene selection from microarray data which are commonly with extremely high feature-to-sample ratio. In addition to the essential objectives such as to reduce data noise, to reduce data redundancy, to improve sample classification accuracy, and to improve model generalization property, feature selection also helps biologists to focus on the selected genes to further validate their biological hypotheses.
Results: In this paper we describe an improved hybrid system for gene selection. It is based on a recently proposed genetic ensemble (GE) system. To enhance the generalization property of the selected genes or gene subsets and to overcome the overfitting problem of the GE system, we devised a mapping strategy to fuse the goodness information of each gene provided by multiple filtering algorithms. This information is then used for initialization and mutation operation of the genetic ensemble system.
Conclusion: We used four benchmark microarray datasets (including both binary-class and multi-class classification problems) for concept proving and model evaluation. The experimental results indicate that the proposed multi-filter enhanced genetic ensemble (MF-GE) system is able to improve sample classification accuracy, generate more compact gene subset, and converge to the selection results more quickly. The MF-GE system is very flexible as various combinations of multiple filters and classifiers can be incorporated based on the data characteristics and the user preferences.

Vitamin D, obesity, and obesity-related chronic disease among ethnic minorities : a systematic review

Objective : To assess the association between 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25[OH]D) status and obesity, cardiovascular diseases (CVDs), the metabolic syndrome, and type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) in ethnic minorities.

Methods : Databases searched were CINHAL with full text, Global Health, MEDLINE with full text, and PsycINFO from 1980 through 2010 (February). Studies were included if they 1) targeted immigrants from low- to high-income countries or ethnic minorities, 2) focused primarily on 25(OH)D and its relation to obesity, T2DM, and/or CVDs, and 3) were published in peer-reviewed journals. The influences of key confounders such as age, gender, and ethnicity on any observed relations were also assessed. Due to the heterogeneity of study characteristics, only a narrative synthesis was undertaken.

Results : Ethnic minorities had significantly higher rates of vitamin D insufficiency (25[OH]D <50 nmol/L; children 43.6–48.7% versus 10%; adults 30.3–53% versus 13.7–26%) than their white counterparts. None of the studies reported a prevalence of obesity stratified by ethnicity. There was evidence supporting links between vitamin D deficiency and obesity-related chronic diseases, with 14 of 14 studies reporting a statistically significant result with a measurement of obesity, four of five for T2DM, four of five for CVDs, and one of one for the metabolic syndrome. However, the strength of the association varied across ethnic groups depending on the index used to measure adiposity, T2DM, and CVDs. Because most of the included studies were cross-sectional and there were variations in outcome measurements, it was not possible to determine the relative contributions of obesity or vitamin D insufficiency to CVD risk and risk of T2DM or which is the initial driver It is possible both have a role to play.

Conclusion : Further research specific to migrant populations using randomized controlled trials are required to establish whether causal links between 25(OH)D and obesity-related chronic disease exist, and whether vitamin D supplementation could be valuable in the prevention or treatment of obesity-related diseases.

Integrating time-series hydroacoustics and video observations for detecting changes in benthic habitats

The ability to quantify change in marine benthic habitats must be considered a key goal of marine habitat mapping activities. Changes in distribution of distinct suites of benthic biological species may occur as a result of natural or human induced processes and these processes may operate at a range of temporal and spatial scales. It is important to understand natural small scale inter-annual patterns of change in order to separate these signals from potential patterns of longer term change. Work to describe these processes of change from an acoustic remote sensing stand point has thus far been limited due to the relatively recent availability of full coverage swath acoustic datasets and cost pressures associated with multiple surveys of the same area. This paper describes the use of landscape transition analysis as a means to differentiate seemingly random patterns of habitat change from systematic signals of habitat transition at a shallow (10–50 m depth) 18 km2 study area on the temperate Australian continental shelf between the years 2006 and 2007. Supervised classifications for each year were accomplished using independently collected high resolution (3 m cell-size) multibeam echosounder (MBES) and video-derived reference data. Of the 4 representative biotic classes considered, signals of directional systematic changes were observed to occur between a shallow kelp dominated class, a deep sessile invertebrate dominated class and a mixed class of kelp and sessile invertebrates. These signals of change are interpreted as inter-annual variation in the density and depth related extent of canopy forming kelp species at the site, a phenomenon reported in smaller scale temporal studies of the same species. The methods applied in this study provide a detailed analysis of the various components of the traditional change detection cross tabulation matrix allowing identification of the strongest signals of systematic habitat transitions across broad geographical regions. Identifying clear patterns of habitat change is an important first step in linking these patterns to the processes that drive them.

Family functioning, parental psychological distress and child behaviours : evidence from the Victorian child health and wellbeing study

We examined, using data from the 2006 Victorian Child Health and Wellbeing Study (VCHWS), whether family functioning is associated with parental psychological distress and children’s behavioural difficulties. The VCHWS was a statewide cross-sectional telephone survey to 5,000 randomly selected primary caregivers of 0- to 12-year-old children between October 2005 and March 2006. Only parents or guardians of children aged 4–12 years (n = 3,370) were included in this study. After adjusting for sociodemographic variables and ethnicity, parents or guardians scoring higher on the family functioning scale (i.e., from poorly functioning households) were at greater risk of psychological distress and had children with lower levels of prosocial behaviour and higher levels of behavioural difficulties relative to those from healthily functioning households. Mental health prevention programmes addressing child mental and conduct problems should consider the family environment and target those families functioning poorly.

A labour of love: mothers, emotional capital and homework

This paper develops a new analysis of homework by building on feminist scholarship which documents the invisible labour done by women in support of their children's education. While numerous studies have examined the relationship between homework and achievement, little attention has been paid to the largely gendered and potentially stressful nature of ‘parental involvement’. The analytic focus in this paper is on the complex emotional and pedagogical dimensions of homework and the ways it is shaped by socio-cultural contexts. Videotaped homework interactions between one working-class and two middle-class mothers and their children are examined using Bourdieu's concepts of habitus and capital. The analysis distinguishes between productive pedagogical relationships and those that promote extensive anxiety and are counterproductive to learning. The paper argues that the reserves of cultural and emotional capital required for homework completion are significant and that class position does not necessarily guarantee the ways in which these capitals are mobilised.

Production, properties and processing of American bison (Bison bison) wool grown in southern Australia

American bison grow a thick coat of fibres which assists them to withstand severe climatic conditions. Bison fibre was traditionally used in textiles by native North Americans. This study aimed to quantify the production, fibre attributes and dehairing processing of bison fibre produced from bison grazed in north-eastern Victoria. Three age/sex classes were sampled (n = 16) at seven body positions in spring. The fibre growing area was measured. Fibre was tested for diameter distribution, clean washing yield, proportion of fine fibres <36µm and fine fibre length, and processed by cashmere dehairing. Bison were 12 years of age, liveweights 160450 kg and had mean fibre growing area of 1.4 m². They produced an average 1184 g (range 5301640 g) of fine fibre with mean fibre diameter 18.5µm, clean washing yield 76.5%, wax content 9.8%, suint content 14.5%, clean fine fibre yield 56.4%, fine fibre length 37 mm and fibre curvature was 93/mm. Mid-side fibre had a crimp frequency of 6.5/cm and mean resistance to compression of 6.6 kPa. Fibre had a tenacity of 8.7 cN/tex and an extension of 39.3%. Restricted maximum likelihood mixed model analysis showed age/sex class and sampling site significantly affected all fibre attributes. Finer and longer fibre was produced in anterior sites and in younger bison. Fibre curvature declined 5.3°/mm for each 1-µm increase in mean fibre diameter. Dehaired fibre had a mean fibre diameter of 17.8 µm and mid-length of 28 mm, suitable for woollen spinning. The production by bison of coats containing significant amounts of fibre indicates that careful harvesting of fibre could form an important source of income in bison enterprises.

Synthesis and structure of an intramolecularly coordinated diaryltelluronic acid and its dimethyl ester

The oxidation of the telluroxane cluster (8Me₂NC₁₀H₆Te)₆O₈(OH)₂ (4) or the diaryl ditelluride (8-Me₂NC₁₀H₆Te)(₂) (7) using H₂O₂ provided the diarylditelluronic acid [8-Me₂NC₁₀H₆Te(O)(OH)₂]₂(O) (6), which is the second member of this compound class and the first one to contain an intramolecularly coordinated substituent. Attempts at recrystallizing 6 from Methanol provided the partial ester [8-Me₂NC₁₀H₆Te(O)(OH)(OMe)]₂(O) (8). In addition structural motifs of known diaryltelluronic acids were compared using DFT calculations.

Where has class gone? The pervasiveness of class in girls' physical activity in a rural town

This paper seeks to animate discussion around how social class operates with adolescent girls from low socio-economic status backgrounds to shape and inform their decisions about participation in physical activity (PA) inside and outside of school. Examining the instance of girls in a single secondary school in an Australian regional town, the paper questions the impact of class and how the girls experience the obstacles, impediments and interferences to participation in PA. These girls are portrayed as living multiple, complex and embodied subjectivities that shape and are informed by the relational geographies in which they are located, as they interact ‘with’, ‘to’ and ‘between’ the social, emotional and classed hierarchies that require them to access familial and other resources in making decisions about participation in PA.