The impact of managers' characteristics on the use of public relations strategy : an exploratory study in Queensland schools

While previous positive and normative studies have focused on the role public relations should play in organisations and the need for management in all organisations to attend to public relations (Cutlip et al., 2006), there has been little discussion in the public relations literature on why or how managers choose to enact public relations strategies for their organisations. If the discipline of public relations is to cement itself as a management function, then researchers must gain a better understanding of managers themselves given that they are the ones who decide if and how public relations strategies should be employed in the organisation. This study has sought to explore evidence of a relationship between management characteristics and their impact on decisions managers make when choosing which public relations strategies to adopt in response to changes in the organisation’s operating environment. This exploratory research study has been conducted within a specific context of schools in Queensland, Australia. Queensland schools have been facing a number of changes within their operating environment due to changes in Federal funding models in Australia’s education system. This study used an exploratory, qualitative approach to understand the management characteristics demonstrated by managers in schools and how these have impacted on the selection of public relations strategies for responding to their changing and increasingly competitive environment. The unit of analysis for this research study was principals in State (government) schools and in non-government schools. Ten principals were interviewed from four different types of schools in Queensland – the more traditional, elite, private schools (GPS Schools); other Independent Schools; Catholic Schools; and State (or public) schools. These interviews were analysed for quantitative comparisons of the managers’ characteristics across the different schools (in terms of the number of principals in each age bracket, those holding postgraduate qualifications, years of experience etc.); and for qualitative data to provide a greater sense of their understanding of public relations. The 10 schools were selected within a geographic area from Brisbane’s inner city to its outer western suburbs to include an element of competition amongst those managers being interviewed. A detailed review of government, school and other public documents was also conducted to gain an insight into the environment in which principals made decisions about public relations strategy to respond to increasing competition. This study found support for the literature on the relationship between management characteristics and strategy. However, there was also variation in findings warranting further investigation of the literature on the relationship between management characteristics and strategy in a school setting. Key relationships found in this study were between: management characteristics themselves; age and the use of public relations strategies; and gender and the use of public relations strategies. There was also evidence of support for the literature linking the impact that the combination of managers’ age, education and experience had on the use of public relations strategies. While this study was exploratory in nature, it did reveal a number of areas that require further investigation to gain a deeper understanding of how and why managers choose public relations strategies as a response to changes in their operating environment. It also provided a different framework to gain a better understanding of managers’ understanding and support of public relations in schools, which, in conjunction with an analysis of their management characteristics, will hopefully allow public relations scholars and practitioners alike gain an understanding of how and why managers use public relations strategies.

Leading with moral purpose : insights from community leaders

Leadership has been described as having a moral purpose. This paper argues that theoretical insights from ethical leadership theory and empowerment theory are useful for understanding the work of community leaders. Community leaders tend to be people who are known mainly to their immediate community, work in a voluntary capacity and are committed to a particular goal or cause. The paper begins by referring to Starratt’s (1996) framework that comprises three inter-related ethics: an ethic of care, critique and justice, each of which is said to constitute ethical leadership. It then explores insights from empowerment theory since it is argued that it has some strong connections to ethical leadership. Central to both perspectives is the notion of relationships and ‘power to’ where power is shared and where people work together for change. Based on interviews with nine grassroots voluntary community leaders, this paper contributes to the limited research in the community leadership field by understanding more fully their values, beliefs and leadership practices. It is argued that the insights of ethical leadership and empowerment theory are highly relevant to explain their work and practice. The paper concludes by discussing some implications for leaders in educational settings.

High-stakes national testing: it's global, it's here to stay, and graduating teachers need to know about it

My oldest daughter recently secured a position as a Science/Geography teacher in a P-12 Catholic College in regional Queensland. This paper looks at the teaching world into which she has graduated. Specifically, the paper will outline and discuss findings from a survey of graduating early childhood student teachers in relation to their knowledge and skills of the current regime of high-stakes testing in Australia. The paper argues that understanding accountability and possessing skills to scrutinise test data are essential for the new teacher as s/he enters a profession in which governments world-wide are demanding a return for their investment in education. The paper will examine literature on accountability and surveillance in the form of high-stakes testing from global, school and classroom perspectives. It makes the claim that it is imperative for beginning teachers to be able to interpret high-stakes test data and considers the skills required to do this. The paper also draws on local research to comment on the readiness of graduates to meet this comparatively new professional demand.

Culture-fair assessment : challenging Indigenous students through effortful mathematics teaching

This paper reports on a mathematics education research project centred on teachers’ pedagogical practices and capacity to assess Indigenous Australian students in a culture-fair manner. The project has been funded by the Australian Research Council Linkage program and is being conducted in seven Catholic and Independent primary schools in north Queensland. Our Industry Partners are Catholic Education and the Association of Independent Schools, Queensland. The study aims to provide greater understanding about how to build more equitable assessment practices to address the issue of underperforming Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander (ATSI) students in regional and remote Australia. The goal is to identify ways forward by attending to culture-fair assessment practice. The research is exploring the attitudes, beliefs and responses of Indigenous students to assessment in the context of mathematics learning with particular focus on teacher knowledge in these educational settings in relation to the design of assessment tasks that are authentic and engaging for these students in an accountability context. This approach highlights how teachers need to distinguish the ‘funds of knowledge’ (González, Moll, Floyd Tenery, Rivera, Rendón, Gonzales & Amanti, 2008) that Indigenous students draw on and how teachers need to be culturally responsive in their pedagogy to open up curriculum and assessment practice to allow for different ways of knowing and being

Creative industry and world city construction : Beijing as a creative world city

The study of the creative industries is not much more than a decade old. What makes it fascinating is that it is dealing with a rapidly evolving process, where a good deal of Schumpeterian ‘creative destruction’ – of old industries, business models, and some familiar cultural and creative pursuits – can already be observed. What happens next – and who will be the winner – is hard to predict. Furthermore, the creative industries encompass both large-scale ‘industry’ (media, publishing, digital applications) and individual creative talent; both economic and cultural values, and both global reach and local context. Thus, the challenge is to integrate ‘top-down’ policy and planning with ‘bottom-up’ experimentation and innovation. There is always the promise that this new creative ecology will provide some novel answers to problems of wealth-creation for emergent economies, new solutions to problems of intellectual emancipation for individuals, and sustainable development for that most intense incubator of creative ideas, the city.

Reflections from Senior Women Academics

The Tiddas Showin’ Up, Talkin’ Up and Puttin’ Up: Indigenous Women and Educational Leadership project was led by Flinders University in partnership with the Australian Catholic University through the Indigenous Higher Education Centres located in Adelaide (Yunggorendi First Nations Centre) and Brisbane (Weemala Indigenous Unit) (Bunda and White 2009). At the beginning of the project, two levels of governance were established: a Circle of Senior Indigenous Women from the higher education sector, and a Steering Committee of Senior Executive Women from partner universities. The Circle of Senior Indigenous Women included experts in the fields of learning and teaching, scholarship, administration and management, and community engagement. The Circle’s members were: • Professor Wendy Brady, Charles Darwin University • Dr Jackie Huggins, University of Queensland • Ms Angela Leitch, Education Queensland • Professor Aileen Moreton-Robinson, Queensland University of Technology • Dr Bronwyn Fredericks, Queensland University of Technology and Monash University The Steering Committee members were: • Professor Gabrielle McMullen, Australian Catholic University • Professor Marie Emmit, Australian Catholic University • Professor Faith Trent, Flinders University • Dr Jane Robbins, Flinders University The two levels of governance provided advice to the project leaders throughout the project. Three of these women share their reflections in this paper.

That Blackfella Bloodsucka Dance!

"That Blackfella Bloodsucka Dance!" A novel in which a part-blood Aboriginal Australian becomes a full-blood vampire (see the above pdf for the first 50 pages FREE!). Synopsis. In this bold and cheeky meditation on religion, middle-aged muscleman, uncertain Catholic and wanna-be academic Sterling de Bortoli is a self-described Octaroon: a one eighth Aboriginal Australian. Neither black nor white this part-blood Blackfella struggles with concepts of identity, moving between the two worlds but not really belonging to either. Thus he pursues a frustrated, anarchic, homeless existence in Canberra and Melbourne, until, through the influence of the Anti-Christ, his Dark Lord Maria, he travels to Islamic Morocco. It's a land completely foreign to his Dreamtime totem, and it's where de Bortoli learns to be a full-blood vampire ... a monster who never says sorry. ISBN: 978-3-8454-4518-2 Available in hard copy and E-book.

Complex modelling in the primary/middle school years

The world’s increasing complexity, competitiveness, interconnectivity, and dependence on technology generate new challenges for nations and individuals that cannot be met by continuing education as usual (Katehi, Pearson, & Feder, 2009). With the proliferation of complex systems have come new technologies for communication, collaboration, and conceptualisation. These technologies have led to significant changes in the forms of mathematical and scientific thinking that are required beyond the classroom. Modelling, in its various forms, can develop and broaden children’s mathematical and scientific thinking beyond the standard curriculum. This paper first considers future competencies in the mathematical sciences within an increasingly complex world. Next, consideration is given to interdisciplinary problem solving and models and modelling. Examples of complex, interdisciplinary modelling activities across grades are presented, with data modelling in 1st grade, model-eliciting in 4th grade, and engineering-based modelling in 7th-9th grades.

Alternatives to the behavioural technicist approaches to study skills

The content and approach of study skills courses are critiqued and alternatives are suggested. It is proposed that an approach providing students with knowledge about the cognitive processes involved in mastering complex material would make the study skills teacher an agent of social change aiming for the enlightenment and emancipation of students and lecturers.

Sherlockian adolescence for the twenty-first century : Conan Doyle’s ‘six dirty little scoundrels’ and contemporary children’s literature

Young adult literature is a socialising genre that encourages young readers to take up very particular ways of relating to historical or cultural materials. Recent years have seen a boom in Sherlockian YA fiction inviting reader identification either with the Baker Street Irregulars or an adolescent Holmes. In works by Anthony Read, Andrew Lane, Tracy Mack & Michael Citrin, and Tony Lee, the Sherlock canon provides a vocabulary for neo-Victorian young adult fiction to simultaneously invoke and defer a range of competing visions of working childhood as both at-risk and autonomous; of education as both oppression and emancipation; and of literary-cultural history as both populist and elitist. Such tensions can be traced in Conan Doyle’s own constructions of working children, and in the circulation of the Sherlock stories as popular or literary fictions. Drawing both on the Sherlock canon and its revisions, this paper reads current YA fiction’s deployment of Conan Doyle’s fictional universe as a tool for negotiating contemporary anxieties of adolescence.

Unsung heroes : African Americans and entrepreneurship

Prior to Emancipation, slave and free African Americans (A As) started and ran successful businesses. Events of the last century, such as the Great Migration north and the modernization of the American industry, created traditionally lower AA participation in entrepreneurship, and much of the history of successful AA entrepreneurs has been lost. Only now is AA participation in entrepreneurship returning to previously high levels. In this entry we review current literature on AA entrepreneurship and attempt to answer questions like "What is the history of AA entrepreneurship?" "What are the barriers?" "What interventions were attempted?" "What are the individual and collective AA success stories?" and “What is the future of AA entrepreneurship?"

Critical theory and literacy

This handbook chapter explores the relationship between critical theory and seminal studies of literacy which investigate inequities in education. It identifies new research questions to explore the connections between literacy and power, but go beyond promises of emancipation.

Clergy Sexual Abuse Litigation: Survivors Seeking Justice By Jennifer M. Balboni (Boulder: First Forum Press, 2011, 180pp. £43.77)

Balboni identifies her interest as being the processes of official disclosure and the path taken to civil litigation by survivors of child sexual abuse by Roman Catholic Clergy. The empirical data, on which this work is based, come in the form of in-depth face-to-face interviews with 22 survivors of clergy sexual abuse who have pursued litigation and 13 of their advocates. Balboni provides a space for survivors’ accounts of the ‘why’ behind their decision making and the impact of civil litigation on their lives to be heard, discussed and contextualized with both clarity and sensitivity. She acknowledges the breadth and depth of survivor responses, and the perspectives of their legal advocates, employing defiance theory, symbolic interaction and other points of analysis, to capture the journey of survivors towards litigation and beyond. Balboni’s work is deeply poignant in its recognition of survivors’ voices, the complex transformative capacity of litigation, the effects of community forming amongst survivors and the complex nature of ‘empowerment’ obtained by survivors through civil litigation. Acknowledging that, for many survivors, litigation becomes a means of identity change and truth telling, Balboni admits that ‘these survivors helped me understand that litigation is more about voice than monetary settlement’ (p. 149). This work is not deeply analytical or theoretically rich but privileges the voices of survivors and their advocates with sufficient frameworks to contextualize and explain participants’ perspectives and experiences.

Examining the Assessment Opportunities for Cultural Connectedness for Student Learning : A Sociocultural Analysis

The disparity that exists between the highest and lowest achievers together with deficit approaches to teaching, learning and assessment raise serious equity issues related to fairness, validity, culture and access, which were analysed in a recent Australian Research Council funded project. This chapter explores the potential that exists for teachers to work with Indigenous Teacher Assistants (ITAs) to secure cultural connectedness in teaching, learning and assessment of Indigenous students. The study was a design experiment, which was conducted in seven Catholic and Independent primary schools in northern Queensland and involved semi-structured focus group interviews with Year 4 and 6 Indigenous students, principals, teachers and Indigenous Teacher Assistants. Classroom observations and document analyses were also conducted. This corpus of data was analysed using a sociocultural theoretical lens. The use of a sociocultural analysis helped to identify cultural influences, Indigenous students’ funds of knowledge and values. The information from this analysis was made explicit to teachers to demonstrate how they could enhance their pedagogic and assessment practices by embracing and extending the cultural spaces for learning and teaching of Indigenous students. The way in which teachers construct their interactions for greater cultural connectedness and enhanced learning would appear to rely on relationship building with Indigenous staff, Indigenous students’ cultural knowledge, and improved understanding of assessment and related equity issues.

Young women's drinking experiences in public drinking venues

Alcohol-related mortality and morbidity represents a substantial financial burden to communities across the world. In Australia, conservative estimates place the societal cost (2004-2005) for alcohol abuse at approximately 15.3 billion dollar annually (Collins & Lapsley, 2008). Research has found that adolescence and young adulthood is a peak period for heavy episodic alcohol consumption, with over a third of all people aged 14-19 years having been at risk for acute alcohol-related harm at least once in the prior 12 months (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare [AIHW], (2008). While excessive alcohol consumption has, for a long time, been seen as a male problem; there has been a gradual shift towards a social acceptance of female drinking which has resulted in a diminishing gap in drinking quantity and style between men and women (Roche & Deehan, 2002). There is substantial evidence that women are at higher risk than men for detrimental physical, medical, social and psychological effects of at-risk alcohol consumption (Epstein, et al., 2007). Research outlining the epidemiology of women’s substance use emphasises the need for further examination into influences that may be gender specific and culturally defined (Matheson, 2008; Measham & Ostergaard, 2009). As such, there is a need to utilise female perspectives in examining alcohol consumption and alcohol related problems in order to reflect a more balanced and competent version of drinking in today’s culture (Allamani, 2008). Currently a number of reasons are offered to explain the observed trends including reduction in traditional sanctions and social norms against women drinking, financial emancipation, cultural shift and targeted advertising to name a few. However, there is yet comparatively little research examining drinking by young women in order to understand this ‘new’ drinking pattern. Most research into alcohol use and subsequent intervention and prevention campaigns have been based on male perceptions and constructs of drinking. While such approaches have provided important information regarding the quantity and frequency of alcohol consumption by women, they do not address the important question of why. To understand the why, research needs to explore the difference between males and females in the meaning of the behaviour and the place that drinking holds to them.