Alcohol use and related harms in school students in the USA and Australia

Recognizing there have been few methodologically rigorous cross-national studies of youth alcohol and drug behaviour, state student samples were compared in Australia and the USA. Sampling methods were matched to recruit two independent, state-representative, cross-sectional samples of students in Grades 5, 7 and 9 in Washington State, USA, (n = 2866) and Victoria, Australia (n = 2864) in 2002. Of Washington students in Grade 5 (age 11), 10.3% (95% CI 7.2–14.7) of boys and 5.2% (95% CI 3.4–7.9) of girls reported alcohol use in the past year. Prevalence rates were markedly higher in Victoria (34.2%, 95% CI 28.8–40.1 boys; 21.0%, 95% CI 17.1–25.5 girls). Relative to Washington, the students in Victoria demonstrated a two to three times increased likelihood of reporting substance use (either alcohol, tobacco or illicit drug use), and by Grade 9, experiences of loss-of-control of alcohol use, binge drinking (frequent episodes of five or more alcoholic drinks), and injuries related to alcohol were two to four times higher. The high rates of early age alcohol use in Victoria were associated with frequent, heavy and harmful alcohol use and higher overall exposure to alcohol or other drug use. These findings reveal considerable variation in international rates of both adolescent alcohol misuse and co-occurring drug use and suggest the need for cross-national research to identify policies and practices that contribute to the lower rate of adolescent alcohol and drug use observed in the USA in this study.

Negotiating curriculum work in ESL

Conducting applied research in workplace settings on and/or with colleagues raises a host of ethical and procedural issues about research. Empiricist, interpretive, and critical approaches all have a place in understanding, describing and changing curriculum perceptions. As one moves from one paradigm to the other the voices of the agents in the curriculum process become increasingly prominent. With reference to some of my own workplace research under the three paradigms mentioned above, I describe ways in which educational research in workplace settings represents curriculum reality and can act as an engine of change.

Arts curriculum reform : social and cultural reproduction in Victorian schools

This thesis examines the implementation of the government educational policy document The Curriculum and Standards Framework. I examined the historical and political motivation behind the development of this document and how it introduced a pervasive new initiative of outcomes based education and accountability based on economic rationalism. In particular I examined the implications this new approach had for visual arts education and the subsequent changes to the arts curriculum. This has entailed the introduction of the aesthetic appreciation of the arts as an outcome of the CSF: The Arts. I applied Bourdieu's theory of cultural reproduction in education which draws predominantly on a Weberian view and a theory of practice. Bourdieu discusses differential educational achievement according to cultural capital stating education requires certain forms of cultural capital that are not equally distributed among the classes. This therefore impedes or enhances life chances according to social class i.e. educational qualifications become a commodity in the labour market and other social fields. I examined how aesthetic appreciation of the arts has evolved historically as a form of social distinction. This entails an abstract element of arts discourse, which demands a certain linguistic competence, and familiarisation, which Bourdieu claims, is developed in the family, as 'cultural capital' this is further perpetuated in schools. The likely outcome is that the introduction of aesthetic appreciation in arts education i.e the demand to 'write about' and 'talk about' art, will perpetuate class inequality due to social and cultural difference. The study has been to examine the practices of arts education in four schools and the extent to which aesthetic appreciation was implemented in the visual arts. Data was collected by case study methods of observation, questionnaire and interview and was interpretive in both quantitative and qualitative methods. I analysed the data based on class differentiation by socioeconomic divisions and examined the school ethos and attitude towards the Arts along with differentiation in cultural capital between student population. I also found teacher and student habitus played a vital role in the implementation of the CSF. This is because habitus can cause resistance to change due to the division between the formulation of the curriculum in the bureaucratic order and the practice of teachers in classrooms. My thesis interprets education as a form of social reproduction, perpetuating the existing social order. However, as Bourdieu asserts and I agree education is a form of symbolic power as it conceals its social function under the guise of neutrality and the technical functional premise. Therefore, this thesis aims to make transparent how the education system serves the interests of the dominant group through curriculum policy. Consequently, it becomes clear how education has far reaching social implications where the distinctions of class are perpetuated through cultural reproduction.

Narratives and landscapes : their capacity to serve indigenous knowledge interests

The thesis is a culmination of my research which drew on tyangi wedi tjan Rak Mak Mak Marranunggu and Marrithiel knowledge systems. These awa mirr spiritual knowledge systems have guided our Pilu for millennium and have powerful spiritual affiliation to the land and our continued presences. The understandings of the spiritual connectedness and our practices of relatedness have drawn on Pulitj, our deep awa mirr spiritual philosophy that nourishes us on our country. This philosophy gave us our voice and our presence to act in our own ways of knowing and being on the landscapes created by the Western bureaucratic systems of higher education in Australia to bring forth our Tyikim knowledge systems to serve our own educational interests. From this spiritual ‘Puliyana kunun’ philosophical position the thesis examines colonising constructions of Tyikim peoples, Tyikim knowledge systems in education, Tyikim research and access to higher education for Tyikim students. From the research, it is argued that the paradigm, within which the enclave-derived approach to Indigenous higher education is located, is compatible with the normalising imperialistic ideology of higher education. The analysis of the Mirrwana/Wurrkama participatory action research project, central to the research, supported an argument for the Mirrwana/Wurrkama model of Indigenous higher education. Further analysis identified five key pedagogical principles embedded within this new model as metaphorically equivalent to wilan~bu of the pelangu. The thesis identifies the elements of the spirituality of the narrative exposed in the research-in-action through the “Marri kubin mi thit wa!”. This is a new paradigm for Tyikim participation in higher education within which the Mirrwana/Wurrkama model is located. Finally, the thesis identifies the scope for Tyikim knowledge use in the construction of contemporary ‘bureaucratic and institutionalised’ higher education ngun nimbil thit thit teaching and learning experiences of Tyikim for the advancement of Tyikim interests. Here the tyangi yigin tjan spiritual concepts of narrative and landscape are drawn upon both awa mirr metaphorically and in marri kubin mi thit wa Tyikim pedagogical practice.

Telephone-mediated academic discourse

This study investigates the role of spoken language in tertiary teaching and learning as mediated by the telephone. There is recognition also of the mediating role of the tape-recorder and computer in this research. The discourse analysis has avoided the inherent difficulties of restructuring spoken language as written text as, by the use of CD-ROM, the spoken voice has been retained and it has been possible to connect the utterance and the reader. For a thesis that is concerned with the privileging of the written over the spoken in the academy, and the role of communication technologies, the use of CD-ROM is apposite and timely. The study has been conceptualised as the bringing together of three potentially discrete elements (audioteleconferencing, academic discourse and technological mediation) which are framed by distance education/open learning. Set within an interpretive (hermeneutic) paradigm, the research examines tape-recorded ‘teletutorial’ sessions to move towards an understanding of teacher-learner and learner-learner interaction, and to what extent the mediation of the communication technology has impacted on the pedagogy. It draws on data from two minor and two major case studies, using a range of methods. Conceptually, the discussion develops and elaborates the concept of ‘tele’ (as restricted to the telephone) as it engages with the notion of 'telepedagogy’. It articulates the areas of congruence and distinctiveness between teaching and learning by audioteleconference and teaching and learning by correspondence and face-to-face. It examines the relationship between language and technology, with specific reference to distance education/open learning. Empirically, the data support an in-depth discussion of selected excerpts to inform analysis of perceived advantages and restrictions of audioteleconferencing. The study reveals that there are demonstrable occasions when the perceptions of the participants are seen to be at variance from those of the researcher and from other data. This conclusion has relevance to theorists concerned with the validation of qualitative data and to researchers who accept student and tutor feedback as representing an accurate recollection of what eventuated.

Insider research, the process and practice : issues arising from professionals conducting research within their own working environments

This thesis explores the chaotic, dynamic, ambiguous, complex and confusing world of the insider researcher. The proliferating species of insider researcher is common in public sector organisations and is particularly prevalent among post-graduate students who have combined study with work. Insider researchers range from the in-house researcher employed to conduct research to those who are conducting research in addition to their normal duties. This thesis, through five illustrative case-studies, discusses, reflects upon, explains, and clarifies the possibilities, limitations and the issues arising from a consideration of the practice of professionals conducting research in the large government education system in Victoria. The central focus of this thesis, that of exploring issues arising from professionals conducting research in their own working environments, has an importance that hitherto has had little direct recognition in the qualitative education research literature. And yet the practice of insider research is common and has a potentially large impact on the nature of the decision making process in public sector organisations. This relative invisibility in the social research literature of a discussion of issues relating to insider research demands to be made more visible. It is both useful and necessary to explore the particular possibilities, conditions and challenges of insiders conducting research in public organisations as the practice of insider research contines to grow. This thesis adds to the literature by locating insider research in a discussion of the wider soial context of ideology, culture, relationships, politics, language and meaning, and the decision-making process.

Definition and quantification of assets

The word ‘asset’ was originally taken into the English language, from the Latin ‘ad satis’ and French ‘asez’, as a term used at law meaning sufficient estate or effects to discharge debts. It later came to be used in the sense of property available for the payment of debts. Assets were understood to be property (objects owned and rights of ownership) that could be exchanged for cash. The importance of factual knowledge of the money equivalents of property and debts, in managing mercantile affairs, was emphasised in accounting manuals during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The rights of investors and creditors to factual up-to-date information about the financial state of affairs of companies, given the advent of limited liability, underscored the early company legislation that required the preparation and auditing of statements of property and debts. During the latter part of the nineteenth century the emphasis in accounting moved away from assets as exchangeable property to assets as deferred costs. Expectations took the place of observables. The abstract (expectational) notion of assets as ‘future economic benefits’ was embraced by accountants in the absence of rigorous definitions of the elements and functions of dated statements of financial position and performance. Assets are quantified financially by a heterogeneous mass of potentially inconsistent rules that, by and large, have no regard for the empirical nature of measurement. Consequently, accountants have failed to provide the community with up-to-date factual information about the financial state of affairs and performance of business entities - and, hence, with an informative basis for financial action.

Staff perceptions of the implementation of enterprise resource planning systems in three Australian universities

This chapter reports a study that examined the staff perceptions of the implementation of an Enterprise Resource Planning system (ERPs) in three Australian universities. The literature on issues impacting on effective Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) implementations identified a number of issues that translate from the corporate sector to the higher education sector and included a number that require particular focus in this sector. Case study methodology is used to examine the staff perceptions of the management of ERP implementations in three Australian universities in the process of implementing ERP systems. The study was conducted in two phases. The first phase of the study obtained data through a series of focus groups at one university and, combined with an analysis of the relevant literature served as a framework for the development of the research process in the second phase of the study. This phase involved in depth interviews with staff that enabled the researcher to undertake a more detailed exploration of the staff perceptions of influences affecting ERP system implementations at three Australian universities. This chapter reports that staff perceptions of the process of ERP implementations are central to their efficacious implementations in Australian universities. Staff perceptions demonstrate that particular consideration of organisational influences related to their context and the perceptions of the users of the systems must be factored into the planning for ERP implementations in Universities.

Optimal redistribution when educational background matters

Higher education plays an important role in determining individuals lifetime
earnings. In turn, the decision to become educated depends to a large extent on innate ability and on family characteristics, including both family
wealth and educational background. In this paper, we abstract from family
income differences to concentrate on the effects of fiscal policies on the
decision to undertake higher education when the educational background
matters. In a dynamic framework, where successive generations are linked by educational background, we consider a government that uses both linear income taxation and a lump-sum subsidy to education. Conditions for
optimality of each policy are derived. The factors that determine the sign
and magnitude of the tax rate and the subsidy are identified and include
concerns for redistribution, efficiency and the educational externality on
future generations

Culture clash : artistic production and the school environment

Artists-in-schools programs involving contemporary art practices can be transformational for the participants when environmental considerations are integral to the planning and structure of the project and both the form and content of the program are reflected upon critically.

Study mode and student university choice : an empirical investigation

The thesis investigated the importance of study mode in university choice relative to other considerations. Study mode was found to be more important than either university or tuition fees. However, differences existed across segments. Also identified were segments based on students' preferences for combinations of face-to-face and distance study modes.

Blackburn

This paper considers the hope and recommendations of Jean Blackburn, and what is actually happening in schools as a consequence of her vision.The actuality as a secondary school (Warrigul High School) prepares for the introduction of the VCE.