Children’s physical activity, health and physical education in isolated rural contexts : the views of parent educators in Queensland

This paper describes the views of parent educators of their children’s levels and types of physical activity. The study was conducted at two mini-schools in western Queensland. These are occasion where students who undertake formal education through various Schools Distance Education, come together for a week of educational activity. Parents (mostly mothers) were interviewed using a semi-structured approach. The interview data were then analysed for dominant themes using a constant comparison method. The emergent themes related to nutrition and physical activity. Within the physical activity theme, notions of the great outdoors, work and organised sport skill development also emerged.

Embedded creative workers and creative work in education

This article is concerned with the many connections between creative work and workers, and education work and industries. Employment in the education sector has long been recognised as a significant element in creative workers’portfolio careers. Much has been written, for exam- ple, about the positive contribution of ‘artists in schools’ initiatives. Australian census analyses reveal that education is the most common industry sector into which creative workers are ‘embedded’, outside of the core creative industries. However, beyond case studies and some survey research into arts instruction and instructors, we know remarkably little about in which education roles and sectors creative workers are embedded, and the types of value that they add in those roles and sectors. This article reviews the extant literature on creative work and workers in education, and presents the findings of a survey of 916 graduates from creative undergraduate degrees in Australia. The findings suggest that education work is very common among creative graduates indeed, while there are a range of motivating factors for education work among creative graduates, on average they are satisfied with their careers, and that creative graduates add significant creative-cultural and creative-generic value add through their work.

The geography of the UK’s creative and high–tech economies

This report is the first systematic analysis of employment in the UK’s creative and high-tech economies. It analyses their size, growth and distribution across the country. Key Findings • The UK’s creative economy had 2.6 million jobs in 2013, consisting of 1.7 million jobs in the creative industries (890,000 in creative occupations and 818,000 working in other roles) and 907,000 jobs in creative occupations outside of the creative industries. • The UK’s high–tech economy had 3.2 million jobs in 2013, 2.4 million of which were jobs in high–tech industries (825,000 in Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) occupations and 1.6 million in other roles) and 806,000 jobs in STEM occupations outside of the high–tech industries. • Employment in the creative economy grew on average over three times faster than the workforce as a whole (4.3 per cent per annum (p.a.) vs 1.2 per cent p.a.) between 2011 and 2013. • Employment in the high–tech economy also grew faster than the workforce over this period (2.1 per cent p.a. vs 1.2 per cent p.a.). • The creative economy is particularly concentrated in London and the South East which together account for 43 per cent of the UK’s creative economy workforce. By contrast, 31 per cent of high-tech economy employment and 28 per cent of the UK’s workforce is located in this area.

Practical linkages between cultural policy and education policy in promoting a creative workforce for youth in Tanzania

The broad aim of of this thesis is to contribute to understanding how the relationships between culture, employment and education can help Tanzania's young people secure jobs, and survive in the creative workforce so as to better their future. Based on a range of interviews and other data in Tanzania, the study considers how to integrate cultural expressions into arts education (education in art and education through art) as a tool for nurturing young people's creative talents for their future sustainable employment in Tanzania.

The Fleet Store : devising a public retail exhibition to promote creative, innovative and sustainable business models for emerging fashion designers

1.Description of the Work The Fleet Store was devised as a creative output to establish an exhibition linked to a fashion business model where emerging designers were encouraged to research new and innovative strategies for creating design-driven and commercial collections for a public consumer. This was a project that was devised to break down the perceptions of emerging fashion designers that designing commercial collections linked to a sustainable business model is a boring and unnecessary process. The focus was to demystify the business of fashion and to link its importance to a design-driven and public outcome that is more familiar to fashion designers. The criterion for participation was that all designers had to be registered as a business with the Australian Taxation Office. Designers were chosen from the Creative Enterprise Australia Fashion Business Incubator, the QUT fashion graduate alumni and current QUT fashion design and double degree (fashion and business) students with existing businesses. The project evolved from a series of collaborative workshops where designers were introduced to new and innovative creative industries’ business models and the processes, costings and timings involved to create a niche, sustainable business for a public exhibition of design-driven commercial collections. All designers initiated their own business infra-structure but were then introduced to the concept of collaboration for successful and profitable exhibition and business outcomes. Collaborative strategies such as crowd funding, crowd sourcing, peer to peer mentoring and manufacturing were all researched, and strategies for the establishment of the retail exhibition were all devised in a collaborative environment. All participants also took on roles outside their ‘designer’ background to create a retail exhibition that was creative but also had critical mass and aesthetic for the consumer. The Fleet Store ‘popped up’ for 2 weeks (10 days), in a heritage-listed building in an inner city location. Passers-by were important, but the main consumer was enlisted by the use of interest and investment from crowd sourcing, crowd funding, ethical marketing, corporate social responsibility projects and collaborative public relations and social media strategies. The research has furthered discussion on innovative strategies for emerging fashion designers to initiate and maintain sustainable businesses and suggests that collaboration combined with a design-driven and business focus can create a sustainable and economically viable retail exhibition. 2. Research Statement Research Background The research field involved developing a new ethical, design-driven, collaborative and sustainable model for fashion design practice and management. The research asked can a public, design-driven, collaborative retail exhibition create a platform for promoting creative, innovative and sustainable business models for emerging fashion designers. The methodology was primarily practice-led as all participants were designers in their own right and the project manager acted as a mentor and curator to guide the process and analyse the potential of the research question. The Fleet Store offers new knowledge in design practice and management; with the creation of a model where design outcomes and business models are inextricably linked to the success of the creative output. Key innovations include extending the commercialisation of emerging fashion businesses by creating a curated retail gallery for collaborative and sustainable strategies to support niche fashion designer labels. This has contributed to a broader conversation on how to nurture and sustain competitive Australian fashion designers/labels. Research Contribution and Significance The Fleet Store has contributed to a growing body of research into innovative and sustainable business models for niche fashion and creative industries’ practitioners. All participants have maintained their business infra-structure and many are currently growing their businesses, using the strategies tested for the Fleet Store. The exhibition space was visited by over 1,000 people and sales of $27,000 were made in 10 days of opening. (Follow up sales of $3,000 has also been reported.) Three of the designers were ‘discovered’ from the exhibition and have received substantial orders from high profile national buyers and retailers for next season delivery. Several participants have since collaborated to create other pop up retail environments and are now mentoring other emerging designers on the significance of a collaborative retail exhibition to consolidate niche business models for emerging fashion designers.

Education paths for documentary distribution: DAF, ATOM and the study guides that bind them

An expanding education market targeted through ‘bridging material’ enabling cineliteracies has the potential to offer Australian producers with increased distribution opportunities, educators with targeted teaching aids and students with enhanced learning outcomes. For Australian documentary producers, the key to unlocking the potential of the education sector is engaging with its curriculum-based requirements at the earliest stages of pre-production. Two key mechanisms can lead to effective educational engagement; the established area of study guides produced in association with the Australian Teachers of Media (ATOM) and the emerging area of philanthropic funding coordinated by the Documentary Australia Foundation (DAF). DAF has acted as a key financial and cultural philanthropic bridge between individuals, foundations, corporations and the Australian documentary sector for over 14 years. DAF does not make or commission films but through management and receipt of grants and donations provides ‘expertise, information, guidance and resources to help each sector work together to achieve their goals’. The DAF application process also requires film-makers to detail their ‘Education and Outreach Strategy’ for each film with 582 films registered and 39 completed as of June 2014. These education strategies that can range from detailed to cursory efforts offer valuable insights into the Australian documentary sector's historical and current expectations of education as a receptive and dynamic audience for quality factual content. A recurring film-maker education strategy found in the DAF data is an engagement with ATOM to create a study guide for their film. This study guide then acts as a ‘bridging material’ between content and education audience. The frequency of this effort suggests these study guides enable greater educator engagement with content and increased interest and distribution of the film to educators. The paper Education paths for documentary distribution: DAF, ATOM and the study guides that bind them will address issues arising out of the changing needs of the education sector and the impact targeting ‘cineliteracy’ outcomes may have for Australian documentary distribution.

The use of creative activities in dementia in residential aged care facilities in Australia : a cross-sectional study

This thesis provides the first inquiry into the use of creative activities in dementia care in residential aged care facilities in Australia. The study used descriptive method design, incorporating a mix of quantitative and qualitative approaches to explore the incidence and the characteristics of these activities from the carers' perspective. Information about the use of creative activities and the appreciation of these activities by residents and carers is essential to the provision of dementia care and treatment to improve the quality of life of people with dementia.

A framework for analysing creative activity within puzzle-game play experiences

This thesis is an analyzing creative processes that can be fostered through computer gaming. Outcomes from the research build on our knowledge of how computer games foster creative thinking. The research proposes guidelines that build upon our understanding of the relationship between the creative processes that players undertake during a game and the components of the game that allow these processes to occur. These guidelines may be used in the game design process to better facilitate creative gameplay activity. A significant research contribution is the ability to create games that facilitate creative thinking through engaging interactions with technology.

Interrogating Creative Theory and Creative Work: Inside the Games Studio

The expansion of creative and cultural industries has provided a rich source for theoretical claims and commentary. Much of this reproduces and extends the idea that autonomy is the defining feature of both enterprises and workers. Drawing on evidence from research into Australian development studios in the global digital games industry, the article interrogates claims concerning autonomy and related issues of insecurity and intensity, skill and specialisation, work–play boundaries, identity and attachments. In seeking to reconnect changes in creative labour to the wider production environment and political economy, an argument is advanced that autonomy is deeply contextual and contested as a dimension of the processes of capturing value for firms and workers.

The ‘state of play’ in Australia: Early childhood educators and play-based learning

This article provides an overview of the Education Meets Play study that will investigate early childhood educators’ use of play-based learning, now mandatory under the National Quality Standard. By building on what can be gleaned about educators’ approaches to play-based learning prior to the implementation of the Early Years Learning Framework, the study will contribute to the evidence base concerning the implementation and effects of Australia’s early childhood education and care policy reform initiatives.

Working on the edge : Exploring the creative tensions experienced by practitioners facilitating participatory media projects with refugees and asylum seekers in Australia

This paper aims to provide a contextualised and embedded exploration of how the notions of "practice" and "participation", key concepts in the study of culture and media, are manifest in an example of a complex creative project. This project aimed to engage with refugees and asylum seekers through the co-creation of cultural material and is an outcome of an? ethnographic action research (Tacchi et al. 2003) partnership involving a community development worker in a settlement support agency and a storytelling/community media researcher (the author), along with other project collaborators. The discussion of this project focuses on the role of the facilitator and illustrates the processes of orchestrating a complex project involving a series of linked stages with cumulative effect. As practitioners at this site we are working in the space where personal narratives, participatory arts and media, and the staging of intercultural, civic dialogue events, intersect. Co-creative media facilitation in these contexts involves both managing hybrid communicative spaces and (re)combining the "integrative practices" (Schatzki 1996) of a range of professional approaches and creative roles. This is liminal work, located on the boundaries of several disciplines and practices. Drawing on reflections gathered from collaborative ethnographic descriptions (Bhattacharya 2008), this paper traces moments of practitioner uncertainty that can be linked to the way "practice" and “participation” is problematised within the community cultural development field in a way that is at times an uneasy fit with conventional ways of operating in social service roles. These moments of tension also indicate where this project pushed practitioners into spaces of improvisation and new learning. Keywords: Youth, refugees, community cultural development, co-creative media facilitation, ethnographic action research, intercultural dialogue.

Studying industrial design : Exploring the experience of female students

Despite a significant increase in the number of women enrolling and graduating from design courses, the reality is that women remain ‘invisible’ in the design profession (Bruce, 1985). Over two decades ago, Bruce and Lewis (1990) argued that women were less likely than men to be designers due to three key gendered hurdles: the completion of a design degree, getting a design job and obtaining success in a design job. This paper focuses specifically on Australian women’s experience of hurdle one: the completion of a design degree, utilising industrial design as a case study. Semi-structured interview questions (exploring issues such as experience in class and the workshop, accessibility of the course and content, types of projects etc) were recorded and transcribed verbatim, with a thematic analysis conducted to better understand women’s experiences in completing their industrial design degree. This paper focuses on one key theme “navigating the design studio”, which comprises of three sub-themes: design skill development, the workshop experience and course evaluation. These findings highlight the need to understand the educational experience to ensure female designers remain motivated and eventually employable.

Injecting Creative Commons Licensing into university policy and publishing

Australian universities are publishing previously unpublished works such as theses in institutional repositories or by publishing scholarly journals on their own presses. This re-invented role of publisher is due in part, to the availability of digital age technologies which scaffold the publishing process and facilitate inexpensive production of digital-only journals. The global push for Open Access to the outputs of publicly-funded research has also been a major driver. Research funder mandates and institutional Open Access policies apply only to publications for which the authors have no expectation of commercial gain. In all cases the primary motivation is to disseminate widely for maximum uptake with attribution to the author thereby increasing impact. This makes works published in institutional repositories and on university presses ideal candidates for Creative Commons licences.

But how do we know they watched it? Adapting to the flipped classroom conundrum

Those who teach film and media need to use screen content to illustrate their subjects. For example, students want illustrations to accompany lectures on film or television genres. Our experience has been that student access to the film and television screen content underpinning a study of genres is not only desirable but is, in fact, crucial for effective teaching and learning outcomes. Not so long ago, a screening during or at the completion of a lecture was the expected method by which educators delivered screen content to illustrate their teaching. Even if student attendance fluctuated from week to week a quick head count confirmed that a certain number of students were physically present. It was assumed that this physical attendance encouraged students to reflect upon and contextualize the material post lecture. While simply attending a lecture will not translate into actual student learning, it does demonstrate a willingness by students to engage with the course content by making a commitment to attend a scheduled and recurring lecture and screening program. However, as flipped classroom models gain acceptance in educational institutions, this traditional lecture-screening model is giving way to online, off-site, and student-controlled mechanisms for screen content delivery and viewing. Nevertheless, care should be taken when assessing how online delivery translates into student engagement and learning. As Junco (2012) points out, “it’s not the technology that generates learning, but the ways in which the technology are used.” Discussed, debated, and embraced to varying degrees by educators, there remains no definitive model for the flipped classroom – although many models involve ‘flipping’ content and knowledge acquisition (including viewing films and television shows) from scheduled on-campus classes to online material viewed by students in advance of an on-campus lecture or class. The classroom or tutorial room then becomes a space to problem-solve, engage in collaborate learning, and advance and explain concepts. From an institutional perspective, the flipped classroom model could deliver an additional benefit beyond immediate pedagogical concerns. Tucker (2012) suggests through the flipped classroom model “all aspects of instruction can be rethought to best maximize the scarcest learning resource — time.” The narrative most often associated with this shift is that the move to online content delivery of lecture and cinematic / televisual material may also provide educators with more time to do other work such as engage in research, plan strategies to empower students. Experimentation with the flipped classroom model is playing out in various educational institutions. Yet several core concerns remain — one of these concerns is the crucial question of whether an online/digital flipped approach is more effective for student engagement and learning than the traditional lecture-screening mode for screen content delivery. Some urge caution in this regard, arguing that “new technology isn’t always supported by change management and professional development to ensure that digital isn’t just a goal within itself, but actually helps to transform education” (Fleming cited in Blain 2014). The most fundamental concern remains how do lecturers, instructors, and tutors know students have watched the films and television shows associated with a subject? The remainder of this discussion deals with these concerns, and possible solutions offered, through an analysis of the Film, Television and Screen Genres subject at the Queensland University of Technology (QUT) in Brisbane, Queensland.