Pathways to industry : work practices of undergraduate students in construction programs in Australia

This research reports the impact of work on undergraduate students enrolled in construction programs. Students responded to a questionnaire on the nature of their paid work while enrolled in full-time study in six universities across Australia. The results indicate that students are working on average 19 hours per week during semester time. The results indicate that students in the early years tend to undertake casual work that is not related to their degree. However, this pattern changes in the later years of the program, where students switch to roles in construction that does relate to their coursework. The students start working on average 16 hours in the first year of their degree, and the number rises to 24 hours in their final year. Past research suggests that students may be working to an extent beyond what is considered beneficial to their studies. Past research has shown that working long hours has a negative effect on the study patterns of undergraduate students. The implications of the amount of time working and the type of work are discussed. The paper concludes by suggesting that universities need a greater awareness of the impact of paid employment on student engagement.

Problematic placement : pathways pre-service teachers’ perspectives on their infant/toddler placement

The inclusion of an infant/toddler placement in a ‘pathways’ early childhood teaching degree, where students already have qualifications and experience in working with young children, can be problematic. This pilot study investigated student teachers’ views on their infant/toddler (birth-to-two-years) placement. Sixty-six students completing their early childhood education degree at an Australian university responded to a survey seeking their perspectives on the effectiveness of the placement in developing teacher confidence, knowledge and skills, and the quality of the supervision they received. The participants had entered their degree with a two-year Diploma of Children’s Services. Responses indicated significant dissatisfaction with the quality of supervision, the absence of teacher-mentors, and the lack of opportunities to practise new approaches. Participants commented that they ‘already knew’ how to work with this age group, and that they aspired to work with older children. The results align with other findings on factors associated with positive placements, and raise questions about the effectiveness of the infant/toddler placement in its current form.

Alternative pathways to traditional destinations : higher education for disadvantaged Australians

In 1985, the Higher Education Equity Program was introduced by the Australian Government to improve the participation of those persons from social groups traditionally under-represented within higher education. In 1990, the program was incorporated within A Fair Chance For All which provided more specific details of the government's desire for a system-wide approach to equity issues. One result has been the proliferation of access and equity programs conducted by universities around the country and aimed at redressing the disadvantage of potential students. The alleged success of these programs is based on greater participation in and graduation from Australian universities by individuals from targeted disadvantaged groups. The research reported here, however, would suggest that such programs are prone to co-opt the language of equity and social justice, dependent as they are on satisfying statistically-orientated program performance indicators in order to receive recurrent government funding. Further, the paper argues that success in achieving equity within Australian higher education will remain limited unless the structural arrangements that work to construct social inequalities in mainstream higher education are addressed.

Achieving diversity : pathways may be the solution!

This paper examines the role of pathways in increasing the diversity of higher education student cohorts. The Commonwealth Government has as its higher education reform agenda the increased participation of under-represented groups to a 20% diversity target for Australian universities. Yet for many universities, reaching this target will require significant changes to entry and access conditions. This paper examines two case studies of construction education pathways and evaluates their effectiveness in addressing diversity using the DEMO matrix developed by the National Centre for Student Equity in Higher Education (NCSEHE). The first case study was based on a VET in Schools model that articulates school students into construction courses in TAFE and higher education. The second case study targets mature aged people who do not have formal qualifications in construction, but wish to participate in higher education. The results indicate that pathways into construction degrees can improve student equity ratios, but element such as learner engagement, confidence, resources and collaboration are critical features of successful pathways. These results have important implications for future decision making regarding university articulation models in light of higher education diversity targets.

Pathways to formally assessed work placement : employers' perspectives on collaborative education in the Australian construction industry

The QS and construction industry is uniquely impacted by project-based work environments. This creates special challenges for collaborative, work-integrated education of pre-professional students. This research is based on investigating the attitudes of employer’s towards the use of formally assessed internships. The study comprised two stages- firstly a series of pilot interviews were undertaken with employers to test a number known issues and secondly, the results from the interviews were used to refine a set of questions that were put to a large focus group of employers who were invited from across the property and construction sector in Australia. The results showed that many employer organisations expressed considerable goodwill towards collaborative education with universities. However, the challenges caused by project-based work environments restrict employers' ability to provide comprehensive learning opportunities. This research discusses some of the distinctive issues associated with work-integrated learning in the construction industry and proposes some potential opportunities for overcoming these restrictions.

I'm the slice of pie that's ostracised.... : Foucault's technologies, and personal agency, in the voice of women who are homeless, Adelaide, South Australia

In contrast to the international research (particularly in the United Kingdom and North America), much of the Australian literature regarding homelessness to date omits the perspective of people who are homeless. In contributing to the fledgling Australian literature in the field, the following article adopts a secondary approach to the data analysis of original research. When analysed, the voices of homeless women from an agency in Adelaide, South Australia exhibit elements of both Foucault’s technologies of domination and the self. While the results show that the women do have a powerful sense of the broader external issues exerted on them (reflecting both technologies of domination and the self), the analysis also reveals ambiguities in their responses. Apparent in the voice of homeless women is a sense of personal agency which appears to be absent in Foucault’s technologies. By considering the viewpoints of homeless women, various policy implications can also be drawn. Indeed, this is one of the motivations of the article, namely to inject into policy debate and development the voices of the people most adversely affected by it. The policy implications of the women’s voices centre around the desire to be included rather than remain on the margins, the need for supportive relationships, the necessity to take small steps to independent living, and the need for more affordable, independent housing.

Attempting to hear the excluded : the voice of homeless people and policy implications

Until recently, there have been very few systematic attempts to hear what people who are homeless say about their lives and situations. Yet there are a few exceptions particularly in the United States and the United Kingdom (for example, Snow & Anderson 1993; Hutson & Liddard 1994). The Inquiry which resulted in the Burdekin Report in Australia also held consultations in which people who were homeless submitted evidence (Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission 1989). Other Inquiries have done likewise and some reports have used the accounts of people who are homeless (for example Bartholomew 1999; Fopp 1989; MacKenzie & Chamberlain 2003).

Descending pathways from the paraventricular nucleus contribute to the recruitment of brainstem nuclei following a systemic immune challenge

Hypothalamic nuclei, particularly the paraventricular nuclei (PVN), are important brain sites responsible for central nervous system responses during an immune challenge. The brainstem catecholamine cells of the nucleus tractus solitarius (NTS) and ventrolateral medulla (VLM) have been shown to play critical roles in relaying systemic immune signals to the PVN. However, whilst it is well recognised that PVN divisions also innervate the NTS and VLM, it is not known whether descending PVN pathways can modulate the recruitment of brainstem cells during an immune challenge. Using systemic administration of the proinflammatory cytokine interleukin-1β, in combination with Fos immunolabelling, we firstly investigated the effect of PVN lesions on NTS and VLM catecholamine and non-catecholamine cell responses. We found that ibotenic acid lesions of the PVN significantly reduced numbers of Fos-positive non-catecholamine, noradrenergic and adrenergic cells observable in the VLM and NTS after interleukin-1β administration. We then investigated the origins of descending inputs to the VLM and NTS, activated by systemic interleukin-1β, by mapping the distribution of Fos-positive retrogradely-labelled cells in divisions of the PVN after iontophoretically depositing choleratoxin-b subunit into the NTS or VLM one week prior to interleukin-1β administration. We found that, after either NTS or VLM deposits, the majority of retrogradely-labelled Fos-positive cells activated by interleukin-1β were localised in the medial and lateral parvocellular PVN divisions. Retrogradely-labelled Fos-positive cells were also observed in the NTS after VLM deposits, and in the VLM after NTS tracer deposits, suggesting reciprocal communication between these two nuclei after systemic interleukin-1β. Thus the present study shows that the PVN has the capacity to modulate NTS and VLM responses after an immune challenge and that these may result from descending projections arising in the medial and lateral PVN divisions. These findings suggest that central nervous system responses to an immune challenge are likely to involve complex reciprocal connections between the PVN and the brainstem as well as between brainstem nuclei themselves.