Playing a critical role: experiential learning resources and analytical media studies in higher education

This article compares two Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) used in the Faculty of Arts, Deakin University Australia, and investigates the relationships between technology, pedagogy and key issues in the teaching and practice of public relations, in a media studies context. The online role-play ‘Save Wallaby Forest’ and the e-simulation ‘PRessure Point! Getting Framed (GF), in their different ways, afford learning  environments with capabilities that present public relations and media students with opportunities to discover a critical consciousness, break out of naturalised world-views, and explore alternative approaches to organisational communication. Furthermore, they present students with complex ethical issues to investigate based around the idea that media industries are powerful discursive producers and reproducers of social norms, values and beliefs which in turn shape notions of identity and influence the formation of public opinion in society (Fairclough 1999; Habermas 1995). This article explores the intersections and differences between these distinct ICTs in their relationships to a constructivist learning approach and ethical questions about how public relations both produces and reproduces world views through practice. This interacting nexus – between technology, pedagogy and theme – is significant because “what happens in the learning process” relates to the learning outcome and therefore has the potential to develop holistic reflexivity in studies of public relations (Laurillard 2003, p.42).

Changing places : testing the relevance of educational research and teacher education

Frequent reviews of teacher education in recent times seem to indicate that those charged with the responsibility for teacher education have little understanding of the contemporary needs of teachers. Just how does educational research inform teachers in their day-to-day practice and how is its relevance tested? As an educational researcher Professor Shirley Grundy challenges her own notions of 'relevance' by returning from academia to the school system in Western Australia. This experience expanded her understanding of how conceptual frameworks and the realities of schools complemented each other. She reflects on the agenda for change faced by education systems and the ensuing transformation of curriculum planning, pedagogy, assessment and reporting procedures in some schools while not in others.

Her reference to Habermas' work relating to 'system' and 'lifeworld' provided her with an explanation for the social conditions of schooling, while her exploration of discourse theory provides some understanding of the practices related to the exercise of power in school settings. Interchanges such as that experienced by Grundy are to the mutual benefit of both parties.

New activism and communication in Australian risk society : a case study of the Otway Ranges Environment Network

This paper overviews a case study of environmental grassroots activism in Victoria, Australia, between 1995 and 2003. The Otway Ranges Environment Network (OREN) is significant for its successful communication campaign to change forest practices and policy decision-making in the Otway Ranges, and for its intervention in a long-standing and exclusive relationship between government and the timber industry. This paper describes and analyses pivotal parts of the OREN campaign: firstly, the group's strategy to boycott paper and pulp manufacture Kimberly-Clark Australia; and secondly, its decision to participate in the West Victoria Regional Forest Agreement (RFA) process to negotiate the future of Otway forest. Informed by the empirical research and the works of social theorists Ulrich Beck and Jurgen Habermas, this paper outlines a strategic approach to communication that is effective, fair and sustainable, and that can be applied by other non-profits - especially those that operate in politically volatile environments with a grassroots agenda.

Secrecy and illusion : Second Life and the construction of unreality

This paper analyses the main Second Life Grid-an Internet-based business platform with dynamic social, techno-economic, sensual-aesthetic, and psychological complexities-as an example of public relations. It argues that Second Life is a more subversive, politically oriented, and powerful form of public relations, because it invisibly exploits and invades the process of the formation of public opinion. The paper argues that Australian organisations such as Telstra, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), and the Australian Film Television and Radio School (AFTRS), which lend Second Life credibility through their recruitment, need to ask critical questions about the ethical implications of promoting this market-driven cyber-illusion. The paper begins by defining public relations (Habermas, 1995, 1984, 1989; Gramsci in Storey, 2006) and investigating any links between public relations and Second Life. In particular, it investigates Second Life's defining claim that it is 'imagined, created and owned by its residents', and concludes with a series of questions that organisations seeking involvement in Second Life should consider as part of their decision-making.

Reinvigorating the public sphere : the role of voluntary associations

This thesis examines the key question: can voluntary associations enhance democracy? It tests critical claims made by Habermas and others that voluntary associations have the potential to reinvigorate a public sphere in a state of atrophy. The thesis outlines the major theoretical arguments pertaining to these areas and then presents the results of empirical work within voluntary organisations. Specifically the thesis: Critically examines the concept of the public sphere, being a sphere between the state and civil society and investigates why theorists have advocated voluntary associations, claimed to be the core institutions of civil society, as sites where democratic ideals can be secured; Goes on to examine the concept of civil society and reviews the recent literature that has attempted to define and analyse the role of voluntary associations in contemporary society; Tests empirically the normative ideals that have been advocated on behalf of voluntary associations through the presentation of data obtained using qualitative methodology. The analysis of the data collected during interviews with key employees and members of six voluntary associations in Melbourne, Australia allows for a more informed knowledge regarding the key concepts and themes of the thesis. The thesis ends by directly addressing the following points: whether or not the public sphere is in a state of atrophy; the particular nature of voluntary associations contemporary engagement in the public sphere; and whether voluntary associations can indeed, be sites where democracy can be enhanced and democratic ideals be secured. It is concluded that voluntary associations operate within Habermasian public spheres, counterspheres, and postmodern public spheres and that unitary notions of the public sphere, such as those Habermas proposes, do not adequately explain voluntary associations engagement in the public sphere. Accordingly, it is concluded that voluntary associations have the potential to invigorate public spheres, though not in ways that many theorists writing on the subject suggest.

Women, words, and work : a study of change and reconstruction in adult TESOL

My dissertation asserts that the discourses which at the present time construct the world of work for teachers in adult TESOL, are no longer adequate to represent the field in these new and rapidly changing times. For the last forty years the discourses that have constructed the field present a totalising, gender free, liberal humanist view of TESOL, rendering women's experience invisible, no longer speaking to or for women teachers who make up more than ninety percent of the teachers in Victorian adult TESOL programs (Cope & Kalantzis 1993, Brodkey 1991, Fine 1992, Peirce 1995). I begin by exploring the work of women teachers in adult TESOL, focusing on women teaching in the fast growing de-institutionalised settings of adult TESOL programs, which remain marginalised from the central programs in terms of administrative policy and practice. I report the findings of a series of projects undertaken by the teachers and the researcher by which new insights and understandings of teachers beliefs about their work and the changes which are currently reconstructing the field of adult language and literacy education in Australia, have been gained. I questions the discourses of applied linguistics which have for the past forty years constructed the field of adult TESOL in Australia and suggests that these lack a social theory (Candlin 1989). From the research findings I questions the possibility of continuing to work in the ways of the past, in the current climate of reconstruction of the field, rapid policy change and continued erosion of resources. I suggest that the previously loose system which held this field of work together, the ways of working, the understandings of practice, have in the light of these new times, been stretched to the limit and are in real danger of collapse. For the women working in TESOL this continued incursion of the systems into their work and the changes that have taken place, the denial of their ways of working, their local knowledge and gendered experiences, can be read against Habermas' concept of the colonisation of the lifeworld of language teaching (Habermas 1987).

Vegetarianism in Seventh-day Adventist home economics classes : an exploration of the issue

The practice of excluding meat from Adventist schools is at odds with the practice of many Adventists, and the Church which, while recommending vegetarianism, does not require it. The study investigates vegetarianism and explores the origin and aims of home economics, education and Seventh-day Adventism. These components were considered according to the three cognitive interests of the philosopher Jurgen Habermas.

Corporate intranet implementation : managing emergent technologies and organizational practices

This paper examines the adoption and development of intranets in large business organizations. The authors demonstrate that intranet technology introduces a host of new managerial and technical challenges and requires new approaches to IS development. Evidence from two European corporations indicates that the traditional division of labor and definition of work roles in IS development breaks down. The distinction between developers and users becomes increasingly blurred and new organizational roles and structures associated with intranets are emerging. However, ready-made organizational models for implementing and managing intranets do not exist and the two organizations in this study have followed two different approaches. One organization favors a “planned change” approach, emphasizing management control and careful planning. The other organization prefers an “improvisational” approach, emphasizing experimentation, innovation and local initiative.

Substrate-induced coagulation (SIC) of nano-disperse carbon black in non-aqueous media : a method of manufacturing highly conductive cathode materials for Li-ion batteries by self-assembly

Substrate-induced coagulation (SIC) is a coating process based on self-assembly for coating different surfaces with fine particulate materials. The particles are dispersed in a suitable solvent and the stability of the dispersion is adjusted by additives. When a surface, pre-treated with a flocculant e.g. a polyelectrolyte, is dipped into the dispersion, it induces coagulation resulting in the deposition of the particles on the surface. A non-aqueous SIC process for carbon coating is presented, which can be performed in polar, aprotic solvents such as N-Methyl-2- pyrrolidinone (NMP). Polyvinylalcohol (PVA) is used to condition the surface of substrates such as mica, copperfoil, silicon-wafers and lithiumcobalt oxide powder, a cathode material used for Li-ion batteries. The subsequent SIC carbon coating produces uniform layers on the substrates and causes the conductivity of lithiumcobalt oxide to increase drastically, while retaining a high percentage of active battery material.

Deliberative educational planning : including educators’ deliberations in educational policy making.

The objective of this chapter is to argue a case for the need to include teachers and professional educators in the policy making and implementation processes of the World Bank's Education Sector Strategy 2020. By drawing on evidence from the Consultation Plan, the chapter investigates how communicative practices about teachers are embedded in the discourse of the plan and how these influence the rationalisation of the policy. In doing so, the chapter will examine the relationships between social actions, systems rationalisation and life world rationalisation. Much like commercial and entrepreneurial organisations focus on the voice of the customer (VOC), that is on satisfying the stakeholders and end users in their processes, in this chapter, the voice of the teacher (VOT) is highlighted. The skills and knowledge of key stakeholders need to be leveraged and engaged in order to ensure that the policy achieves its desired aims. In order to frame this argument, notions of Habermas’ communicative action theory is used to show how policy engages in systems steering. Rather than understanding education strategy and reform as a process of engaging only government and policy makers, this chapter suggests that by engaging the practitioners and listening to the practical discourse around reform, teachers can be leaders of reforms rather than obfuscated agents.