The three little pigs and the art of playfulness

A number of pictorial based texts for children use animals as models for displaying or approaching aspects of childhood. Although authors and illustrators utilise various tactics for including anthropomorphic animals in their books, those that are used as 'surrogate' children can be seen to focus in the main on issues of behaviour, socialisation and maturity - issues that reflect the everyday life of the growing child. This paper aims to explore three pictorial texts that specifically utilise the pig character as a child model, to facilitate for authors/illustrators the opportunity to deal with examples of childhood experience. The paper also tentatively examines how such roles might encourage a reassessment of other more stereotypical associations some audiences have historically/culturally formed about the pig.

Indigenous knowledge and effective parent / school partnerships : insights and issues from 4 school case studies

Towards the last decade of the last millennium, Indigenous knowledge has been central to scholarly debates relating to decolonising knowledge on a global level. Much of these debates were advanced by Indigenous scholars in colonised countries particularly Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the United States. Indigenous scholars argue for the location of Indigenous knowledge as the epistemological standpoint (Battiste, Bell and Findlay, 2002; Kai’a, 2005; Nakata 2002, 2007) for intellectual engagements and methodology for resisting colonial constructions of the colonised other (Rigney, 1997; Smith, 1999, 2005). However, the challenge to engage Indigenous knowledge to inform research and educational processes, in many respects, is still a contested debate in western-oriented universities and institutions of higher education. The place of Indigenous knowledge in Australian secondary and primary schools remains vague, while efforts to embed Indigenous perspectives in the curriculum continue to be made by both government and private educational providers. Educational funding for Indigenous education continues to operate from a ‘deficiency’ model, whereby educational outcomes are often measured against set criteria, reflecting a pass/fail structure, than a more comprehensive investigation of educational outcomes and quality of learning experiences. Teacher knowledge, effective parental and community engagement into students’ learning and students’ experiences of schooling continue to be secondary to students’ final results. This paper presents preliminary findings of Parent School Partnership Initiative (PSPI) project conducted by the Oodgeroo Unit at the Queensland University of Technology in partnerships with the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Education Focus Group for the Caboolture Shire, in South East Queensland. The state government sponsored initiative was to examine factors that promote and enhance parent/school engagement with their students’ schooling, and to contribute to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students’ learning and completion of secondary schooling within the participating schools in a more holistic way. We present four school case studies and discuss some of the early findings. We conclude by arguing the importance of the recognition of Indigenous knowledge and its place in enhancing parent – schools partnerships.

Discussions on conceptual knowledge and the use of blogs

In both Australia and Norway and through a number of Technology projects conducted since 2007, the authors – together and with other collaborators - have attempted to create positive learning environments supported by Web 2.0 communication tools. Through protected public sites and the oz-Teachernet [http://www.otn.edu.au], we have consistently chosen to use blogs to support the social construction of knowledge, that is, to allow students the opportunity to discuss, share and collaborate on their classroom activities and engagement with Technology artefacts and processes. Through comparisons with findings from a small-scale project in Norway and a large-scale project in Australia, this paper will argue for the potential of discussion through blogs but recommend that the purposeful use of scientific language in student communication will not occur without teacher intervention and scaffolding.

Researching employment relations : a self-reflexive analysis of a multi-method, school-based project

Drawing on primary data and adjunct material, this article adopts a critical self-reflexive approach to a three-year, Australian Research Council-funded projectthat explored themes around 'employment citizenship'for high school students in Queensland. The article addresses three overlapping areas that reflect some of the central dilemmas and challenges arising through the project- consent in the context of research ethics, questionnaire administration in schools, and focus group research practice. It contributes to the broader methodological literature addressing research with young people by canvassing pragmatic suggestions for future school-based research, and research addressing adolescent employment.

Clinical education for nephrology nurse practitioner candidates in Australia : a consensus statement

Objectives: To develop recommendations for the clinical education required to prepare Australian Nurse Practitioner candidates for advanced and extended practice in nephrology settings. Methods: Using the Delphi research technique a consensus statement was developed over a nine month period. All endorsed and candidate Nephrology Nurse Practitioners (NNP) were invited to participate as the expert panel. The Delphi research technique uses a systematic and iterative process. The expert panel were asked to generate a list of items which were then circulated to all NNPs. They were asked to determine their degree of agreement or disagreement with each statement using a 5-point Likert scale There was opportunity for free-text comments to be provided if desired. Results from each round were collated; the document was refined and circulated to the experts for a subsequent round. Consensus was demonstrated after three Delphi rounds. Results: The consensus statement comprises four components explaining the role and membership of the mentorship team, the setting and location of NNP clinical education, learning strategies to support the NNP, and outcomes of NNP clinical education. Demographic questions in the final survey revealed information about the qualifications, years of experience, and practice location of Australian NNPs. Conclusions: The consensus statement is not prescriptive but it will inform NNP candidates, university course providers and mentors about the expected extended nephrology specific clinical education that will enable the NNP to provide advanced nursing care for patients regardless of the stage of chronic kidney disease (CKD) and the practice setting.

Reduction rules for YAWL workflows with cancellation regions and OR-joins

As the need for concepts such as cancellation and OR-joins occurs naturally in business scenarios, comprehensive support in a workflow language is desirable. However, there is a clear trade-off between the expressive power of a language (i.e., introducing complex constructs such as cancellation and OR-joins) and ease of verification. When a workflow contains a large number of tasks and involves complex control flow dependencies, verification can take too much time or it may even be impossible. There are a number of different approaches to deal with this complexity. Reducing the size of the workflow, while preserving its essential properties with respect to a particular analysis problem, is one such approach. In this paper, we present a set of reduction rules for workflows with cancellation regions and OR-joins and demonstrate how they can be used to improve the efficiency of verification. Our results are presented in the context of the YAWL workflow language.

Building organizational capability through a quality assurance program within a business school and encouraging organizational culture change

This study explores organizational capability and culture change through a project developing an assurance of learning program in a business school. In order to compete internationally for high quality faculty, students, strategic partnerships and research collaborations it is essential for Universities to develop and maintain an international focus and a quality produce that predicts excellence in the student experience and graduate outcomes that meet industry needs. Developing, marketing and delivering that quality product requires an organizational strategy to which all members of the organization contribute and adhere. Now, the ability to acquire, share and utilize knowledge has become a critical organizational capability in academia as well as other industries. Traditionally the functional approach to business school structures and disparate nature of the social networks and work contact limit the sharing of knowledge between academics working in different disciplines. In this project a community of practice program was established to include academics in the development of an embedded assurance of learning program affecting more than 5000 undergraduate students and 250 academics from nine different disciplines across four schools. The primary outcome from the fully developed and implemented assurance of learning program was the five year accreditation of the business schools programs by two international accrediting bodies, EQUIS and AACSB. However this study explores a different outcome, namely the change in organizational culture and individual capabilities as academics worked together in teaching and learning teams. This study uses a survey and interviews with academics involved, through a retrospective panel design which contained an experimental group and a control group. Results offer insights into communities of practice as a means of addressing organizational capability and changes in organizational culture. Knowledge management and shared learning can achieve strategic and operational benefits equally within academia as within other industrial enterprises but it comes at a cost. Traditional structures, academics that act like individual contractors and deep divides across research, teaching and service interest served a different master and required fewer resources. Collaborative structures; fewer master categories of discrete knowledge areas; specific strategic goals; greater links between academics and industry; and the means to share learned insights will require a different approach to resourcing both the individual and the team.

Equity in the twenty-first century

Issues of equity and inequity have always been part of employment relations and are a fundamental part of the industrial landscape. For example, in most countries in the nineteenth century and a large part of the twentieth century women and members of ethnic groups (often a minority in the workforce) were barred from certain occupations, industries or work locations, and received less pay than the dominant male ethnic group for the same work. In recent decades attention has been focused on issues of equity between groups, predominantly women and different ethnic groups in the workforce. This has been embodied in industrial legislation, for example in equal pay for women and men, and frequently in specific equity legislation. In this way a whole new area of law and associated workplace practice has developed in many countries. Historically, employment relations and industrial relations research has not examined employment issues disaggregated by gender or ethnic group. Born out of concern with conflict and regulation at the workplace, studies tended to concentrate on white, male, unionized workers in manufacturing and heavy industry (Ackers, 2002, p. 4). The influential systems model crafted by Dunlop (1958) gave rise to The discipline’s preoccupation with the ‘problem of order’ [which] ensures the invisibility of women, not only because women have generally been less successful in mobilizing around their own needs and discontents, but more profoundly because this approach identifies the employment relationship as the ultimate source of power and conflict at work (Forrest, 1993, p. 410). While ‘the system approach does not deliberately exclude gender . . . by reproducing a very narrow research approach and understanding of issues of relevance for the research, gender is in general excluded or looked on as something of peripheral interest’ (Hansen, 2002, p. 198). However, long-lived patterns of gender segregation in occupations and industries, together with discriminatory access to work and social views about women and ethnic groups in the paid workforce, mean that the employment experience of women and ethnic groups is frequently quite different to that of men in the dominant ethnic group. Since the 1980s, research into women and employment has figured in the employment relations literature, but it is often relegated to a separate category in specific articles or book chapters, with women implicitly or explicitly seen as the atypical or exceptional worker (Hansen, 2002; Wajcman, 2000). The same conclusion can be reached for other groups with different labour force patterns and employment outcomes. This chapter proposes that awareness of equity issues is central to employment relations. Like industrial relations legislation and approaches, each country will have a unique set of equity policies and legislation, reflecting their history and culture. Yet while most books on employment and industrial relations deal with issues of equity in a separate chapter (most commonly on equity for women or more recently on ‘diversity’), the reality in the workplace is that all types of legislation and policies which impact on the wages and working conditions interact, and their impact cannot be disentangled one from another. When discussing equity in workplaces in the twenty-first century we are now faced with a plethora of different terms in English. Terms used include discrimination, equity, equal opportunity, affirmative action and diversity with all its variants (workplace diversity, managing diversity, and so on). There is a lack of agreed definitions, particularly when the terms are used outside of a legislative context. This ‘shifting linguistic terrain’ (Kennedy-Dubourdieu, 2006b, p. 3) varies from country to country and changes over time even within the one country. There is frequently a division made between equity and its related concepts and the range of expressions using the term ‘diversity’ (Wilson and Iles, 1999; Thomas and Ely, 1996). These present dilemmas for practitioners and researchers due to the amount and range of ideas prevalent – and the breadth of issues that are covered when we say ‘equity and diversity in employment’. To add to these dilemmas, the literature on equity and diversity has become bifurcated: the literature on workplace diversity/management diversity appears largely in the business literature while that on equity in employment appears frequently in legal and industrial relations journals. Workplaces of the twenty-first century differ from those of the nineteenth and twentieth century not only in the way they deal with individual and group differences but also in the way they interpret what are fair and equitable outcomes for different individuals and groups. These variations are the result of a range of social conditions, legislation and workplace constraints that have influenced the development of employment equity and the management of diversity. Attempts to achieve employment equity have primarily been dealt with through legislative means, and in the last fifty years this legislation has included elements of anti-discrimination, affirmative action, and equal employment opportunity in virtually all OECD countries (Mor Barak, 2005, pp. 17–52). Established on human rights and social justice principles, this legislation is based on the premise that systemic discrimination has and/or continues to exist in the labour force and particular groups of citizens have less advantageous employment outcomes. It is based on group identity, and employment equity programmes in general apply across all workplaces and are mandatory. The more recent notions of diversity in the workplace are based on ideas coming principally from the USA in the 1980s which have spread widely in the Western world since the 1990s. Broadly speaking, diversity ideas focus on individual differences either on their own or in concert with the idea of group differences. The diversity literature is based on a business case: that is diversity is profitable in a variety of ways for business, and generally lacks a social justice or human rights justification (Burgess et al., 2009, pp. 81–2). Managing diversity is represented at the organizational level as a voluntary and local programme. This chapter discusses some major models and theories for equity and diversity. It begins by charting the history of ideas about equity in employment and then briefly discusses what is meant by equality and equity. The chapter then analyses the major debates about the ways in which equity can be achieved. The more recent ideas about diversity are then discussed, including the history of these ideas and the principles which guide this concept. The following section discusses both major frameworks of equity and diversity. The chapter then raises some ways in which insights from the equity and diversity literature can inform employment relations. Finally, the future of equity and diversity ideas is discussed.

Inciting the social imagination to realising the dream : An unfolding story of reform in a low-socioeconomic school

This paper presentation addresses design-based research that became a catalyst for social change among a disadvantaged school community. The aim of the longitudinal research was to protoype an evidence-based model for whole school digital and print literacy pedagogy renewal among students from low socioeconomic, Indigenous, and migrant backgrounds. Applying Anthony Gidden’s principle of the “duality of structure”, the paper presentation interprets how the collective agency of researchers and the school community began to transform the structural properties of the institution in a two-way dynamism, so that the structural properties of the school were not outside of individual action, but were implicated in its reproduction and transformation.

Gifted young adolescents : voices of self

Despite the challenges that giftedness can add to self-formation during early adolescence, gifted young adolescents seldom are asked about their lives outside of counselling and educational contexts. The study considers the complexities that face gifted young adolescents in the process of self-discovery and self-representation, thereby building a case for seeking their own viewpoints. A guiding assumption for the study was that gifted young adolescents may respond positively to the opportunity to share their own perspectives and their own versions of “who they are”. The theoretical underpinnings for this study drew from Dialogical Self Theory. The study resides within an interactive view of self as a dynamic construction rather than a static state, where “who we are” is formed in everyday exchanges with self and others. Self-making as a process among gifted young adolescents is presented as an interactive network of “I” voices interpreted to reflect internal and external dialogue. In this way, self is understood within dialogical concepts of voices as multiple expressions. The study invited twelve gifted young adolescents to write freely about themselves over a six month period in an email journal project. Participants were recruited online and by word-of-mouth and they were able to negotiate their own levels of involvement. Access to the lives of individual young adolescents was sought in an out-of-school setting using narrative methods of personal writing in the form of journals sent as emails to the researcher. The role of the researcher was to act as a supportive listener who responded to participant-led emails and thereby facilitated the process of authoring that occurred across the data-gathering phase. The listening process involved responses that were affirming and designed to build trust. Data in the form of email texts were analysed using a close listening method that uncovered patterns of voices that were explicitly or subtly expressed by participants. The interpretation of voices highlighted the tensions and contradictions involved in the process of participants forming a “self” that emerged as multiple “I” voices. There were three key findings of the study. First, the gifted young adolescent participants each constructed a self around four key voices of Author, Achiever, Resistor/Co-operator and Self-Innovator. These voices were dialogical selfconstructions that showed multiplicity as a normal way of being. Second, the selfmaking processes of the gifted young adolescent participants were guided by a hierarchy of voices that were directed through self-awareness. Third, authoring in association with a responsive adult listener emerged as a dialogic space for promoting self-awareness and a language of self-expression among gifted young adolescents. The findings of the study contribute to knowledge about gifted young adolescents by presenting their own versions of “who” they are, perspectives that might differ from mainstream perceptions. Participants were shown to have highly diverse, complex and individual expressions that have implications for how well they are understood and supported by others. The use of email journals helped to create a synergy for self-disclosure and a safe space for self-expression where participants’ abilities to be themselves were encouraged. Increased self-awareness and selfknowledge among gifted young adolescents is vital to their self-formation and their management of self and others’ expectations. This study makes an original contribution to the field of self-study by highlighting the processes and complexities of young adolescents’ self-constructions. Through the innovative use of narrative methods and an inter-disciplinary approach, the voices of gifted young adolescents were privileged. At a practical level, the study can inform educators, policy-makers, parents and all those who seek to contribute to the well-being of gifted young adolescents.

Response : letter to the editor by Al-Azri and Al-Maniri

Firstly, the authors would like to thank the editor for the opportunity to respond to Dr Al-Azri’s and Dr Al-Maniri’s letter. Secondly, while the current authors also accept that deterrence-based approaches should act as only one corner-stone of a suite of interventions and public policy initiatives designed to improve road safety, deterrence-based approaches have nonetheless consistently proven to be a valuable resource to improve road safety. Dr Al-Azri and Dr Al-Maniri reinforce their assertion about the limited utility of deterrence by citing drink driving research, and the issue of drink driving is particularly relevant within the current context given that the problem of driving after drinking has historically been addressed through deterrence-based approaches. While the effectiveness of deterrence-based approaches to reduce drink driving will always be dependent upon a range of situational and contextual factors (including police enforcement practices, cultural norms, etc), the utilisation of this approach has proven particularly effective within Queensland, Australia. For example, a relatively recent comprehensive review of Random Breath Testing in Queensland demonstrated that this initiative not only had a deterrent impact upon self-reported intentions to drink and drive, but was also found to have significantly reduced alcohol-related fatalities in the state. However, the authors agree that deterrence-based approaches can be particularly transient and thus require constant “topping up” not least through sustained public reinforcement, which was clearly articulated in the seminal work by Homel.