Factors influencing mathematics and science teachers' self-assessment as teaching 'out-of-field' in rural and regional schools

Teaching 'out-of-field' occurs when teachers teach a subject for which they have no disciplinary or methods qualification. The incidence of out-of-field mathematics, science and technology teaching are particularly high in rural and regional areas. Given that mathematics and science are key areas of policy concern, there is an urgent need to understand teachers‟ position in this increasingly common practice in order to provide appropriate system responses. This paper asks the question, how are mathematics and science teachers‟ professional identities influenced by having to teach out-of-field? Twenty teachers who had taught science or mathematics at some time in their career, two school leaders, and two support staff, took part in semi-structured interviews, which I then transcribed. This paper reports on a thematic analysis of a subset of the data that isolated factors influencing teachers‟ self-assessment of themselves as out-of-field or in-field. Excerpts from the interviews are used to introduce and contextualise these factors within rural and regional settings. These factors are used to generate a theoretical model, the Boundary Between Fields (BBF) Model, that enables analysis of the impact of these factors on identity construction during a boundary crossing event. The Model highlights the influence of support mechanisms, contextual factors and personal resources on the nature of teachers‟ negotiation of subject boundaries and its impact on professional identity. This innovative model provides a platform for re-conceptualising these experiences as opportunities for professional learning occurring within schools as communities of practice, where teachers are supported and enabled to expand their professional identity. These findings provide insight for policy-makers, school leaders and teacher educators, into the complexity of the issue for teachers, as well as the conditions required for such teaching to be considered learning opportunities.

Out of the shadows: a discussion on law reform for the prevention of financial abuse of older people

Financial abuse of older people too often lives ‘in the shadows, hidden by fear and shame’. This and the protective love between family members can screen changes that are critical to an older person’s financial and living arrangements. Rather than a single event, it is usually a series of well-intentioned but ill-considered financial acts, which at some point tips over into abuse interwoven with an intricate web of family relationships. Was a transfer of title or a loan to an adult child really misappropriation? Has thoughtlessness become undue influence or even theft? 

Addressing risk factors of overweight and obesity among adolescents in out-of-home care : the Healthy Eating and Active Living (HEAL) study

Rates of overweight and obesity increase significantly whilst children and young people are in out-of-home care. This paper provides the protocol for a study, funded by the Australian Research Council (2012–2014), being conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of a Healthy Eating and Active Living intervention programme for adolescents who live in out-of-home residential care. This randomised trial will be conducted with 118 adolescents aged 13–17 years of age in out-of-home residential care and the residential staff who look after them. Adolescents' eating habits, physical activity levels, psychological well-being, body dissatisfaction and weight status will be assessed at baseline, immediately post the programme (which runs for 6 months), and again 12 months post baseline. Similar measures will be obtained from residential carers (across the same time points). If effective, this programme could be implemented as usual care to modify levels of obesity amongst these vulnerable young people.

Out of the frying pan, into the fire : Cantrills Filmnotes as Prestige Machine

This examination of the gaps and ambiguities linked to Cantrills Filmnotes (CF), an Australian publication on experimental film, offers a case study on the production and ownership of Pierre Bourdieu’s 'cultural capital' in film art at the margins, witnessed first-hand. CF emerged at the intersection between the street and the academy, spanning that period from the 70s till its abandonment in 2000 during which, it is argued here, it migrated from the former to the latter. This examination surveils, in retrospect, for whose benefit was the magazine's accumulation of power, status and prestige exercised, in whose service was it exacted? CF’s manifesto-like editorial rhetoric was often directed at perceived shortcomings of those institutions servicing film art in Australia. What is revealed when such a critical eye focuses on the production of Cantrills Filmnotes (CF) itself? CF's cultural production has a further dimension of both taking on and taking place inside a colonial mind-set, a cultural cringe often the subject of editorial commentary, elucidating a practice residing at the geographic margins of a marginal arts practice. The founders and editors of CF, the married couple Corinne and Arthur Cantrill both suffered and benefited from CF’s impact on this international field of art production.

Taking the sting out of darting : Risks, restraint drugs and procedures for the chemical restraint of Southern Hemisphere otariids

The need to manage otariid populations has necessitated the development of a wide range of capture methods. Chemical restraint by remote drug delivery (i.e., darting) is a highly selective method that can be used to facilitate otariid capture in a range of scenarios, when other methods may be impracticable. However, the risks associated with darting otariids are not widely known and guidelines necessary to promote and refine best practice do not exist. We review the risks associated with darting and in light of our findings, develop darting guidelines to help practitioners assess and minimize risks during capture, anesthesia and recovery. Published studies reveal that mortalities associated with darting predominantly result from complications during anesthetic maintenance (e.g., prolonged respiratory depression, apnea, or hyperthermia), rather than from complications during capture or recovery. In addition to monitoring vital signs and proper intervention, the risk of irreversible complications during anesthesia can be reduced by administering drug doses that are sufficient to enable the capture and masking of animals, after which anesthetic depth can be regulated using gas anesthesia.

Stepping out of our comfort zones: pre-service teachers' responses to a critical analysis of gender/power relations in sexuality education

This paper discusses pre-service teachers' responses to a critical analysis of gender/power relations using examples from a final assessment for an intensive elective unit called Teaching Sexuality in the Middle Years. This unit critically examines gender/ power relations, the production of difference, heteronormativity and pleasure and desire, employing a feminist post-structural framework. Despite the focus on critical thinking, reflection and interrogating structural inequalities in this unit some students were resistant or unable to engage with this approach in their assessments, although appearing to do so in workshops. We consider the broad range of sexuality education discourses mobilised by this unit to try to make sense of what looks like resistance but may be something more complex and difficult to negotiate. The paper ends with a consideration of some of the implications of this approach for practice.