The body in grief : death investigations, objections to autopsy, and the religious and cultural 'other'

Sudden, violent and otherwise unexplained deaths are investigated in most western jurisdictions through a Coronial or medico-legal process. A crucial element of such an investigation is the legislative requirement to remove the body for autopsy and other medical interventions, processes which can disrupt traditional religious and cultural grieving practices. While recent legislative changes in an increasing number of jurisdictions allow families to raise objections based on religious and cultural grounds, such concerns can be over-ruled, often exacerbating the trauma and grief of families. Based on funded research which interviews a range of Coronial staff in one Australian jurisdiction, this paper explores the disjuncture between medico-legal discourses, which position the body as corpse, and the rise of more ‘therapeutic’ discourses which recognise the family’s wishes to reposition the body as beloved and lamented.

Lessons from a face-to-face meeting on embedding Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander perspectives : ‘A contract of intimacy’

This paper presents the findings from a conversation between an Aboriginal educator and a non-Indigenous pre-service educator about the importance and complexities of building productive partnerships. Although the participants focused on the challenges and benefits of building relationships between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander educators and non-Indigenous educators in Australian early years settings, the more significant outcome of the meeting was the personal connection two young women were able to make when a friendship began to develop. The project was intended to enable an opportunity for the participants ‘to engage in reflexivity on their pedagogic work’, something Mills (2012) understands as crucial to the support of social justice and transformation in the classroom.

Working with Behavioural and Emotional Problems in Young People

This chapter outlines specific issues relating to behavioural and emotional problems in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander young people. It describes the most common disorders and their consequences, and how young Aboriginal people are at higher risk for developing such problems than other young Australians. The chapter also discusses the importance of psychosocial, cultural and environmental issues that need to be recognised in assessing and treating Aboriginal young people with behavioural and emotional problems. Issues concerning the delivery of both universal and culturally responsive prevention and intervention programs to address social and emotional wellbeing and mental health are discussed and possible interventions to enhance student engagement at school are provided. Finally, a range of mental health services for Aboriginal families which offer a culturally responsive approach to mental health treatment are listed.

The importance of social support for students with intellectual disability : an intervention to promote mental health and well-being

Children and adolescents with intellectual disability have higher rates of mental health problems compared with there typically developing peers. Social support has been identified as an important protective factor for psychological well - being. In this paper we discuss the benefits of social support networks, and consider approaches for promoting children’s perceptions of the availability of social support. We describe an evidence-based intervention that has been specially adapted and implemented for students with intellectual disability in school settings. In a randomised controlled trial, the Aussie Optimism Resilience Skills Program was associated with improved perceptions of social support following a 10-week intervention. Educators need to be aware of the increased vulnerability of students with intellectual disability to the development mental health problems and the proactive ways in which they can promote psychological well - being within their classrooms.

Understanding chromosome disorders and their implications for special educators

More children are now being diagnosed with chromosome abnormalities. Some chromosome disorder syndromes are relatively well known; while others are so rare that there is only limited evidence about their likely impact on learning and development. For educators, a basic level of knowledge about chromosome abnormalities is important for understanding the literature and communicating with families and professionals. This paper describes chromosomes, and the numerical and structural anomalies that can occur, usually spontaneously during early cell division. Distinctive features of various chromosome syndromes are summarised before a discussion of the rare chromosome disorders that are labelled, not with a syndrome name, but simply by a description of the chromosome number, size and shape. Because of the potential within-group variability that characterises syndromes, and the scarcity of literature about the rare chromosome disorders, expectations for learning and development of individual students need to be based on the range of possible outcomes that may be achievable.

Turning points in narratives of research design : research innovation stimulating unique responses to existing challenges for beginning rural teachers

This paper explores methodological turning points in researching narratives of early career resilience mediated by the complexities of remote teaching. Innovative, flexible and discursive research design facilitated exploration of emerging narratives using digital technologies. Data were regularly interrogated with participant-researchers to reveal the undercurrents of imbued meaning. Dialogue with participant-researchers enhanced interpretations of data plots and text-based explanations of narrative turning points, providing valuable insights throughout analysis. Reflections on the affordances and tensions in this process illustrate the significance of innovation but also the complexities associated with online collaboration. Consequently, empowering the participant-researchers throughout the life of the research was critical in understanding their narratives of teaching.

Online teacher education : lessons from the cyber-trenches

This paper provides an overview of ‘lessons learned’ from the author’s decade long involvement in online teaching and learning, including eight years in the development, implementation, teaching and administration of a wholly online Master of Arts in Applied Linguistics coursework degree program, which attracted several hundred students annually from around the world, and has won awards for innovation, including being identified as a ‘flagship’ program during an external review of the university.

Irregular readers : Arthur Conan Doyle’s “six dirty scoundrels”, boyhood and literacy in contemporary Sherlockian children’s literature

Young adult (YA) literature is a socialising genre that encourages young readers to take up particular ways of relating to historical or cultural materials. The first decade of the twenty-first century witnessed a boom in Sherlockian YA fiction using the Conan Doyle canon as a context and vocabulary for stories focused on the Baker Street Irregulars as figures of identification. This paper reads YA fiction’s deployment of Conan Doyle’s fictional universe as a strategy for negotiating anxieties of adolescent masculinity, particularly in relation to literacy and social agency.

Retooling Chinese primary school teachers to use technology creatively to promote innovation and problem solving skills in science classrooms

This paper reports on the initial phase of a Professional Learning Program (PLP) undertaken by 100 primary school teachers in China that aimed to facilitate the development of adaptive expertise in using technology to facilitate innovative science teaching and learning such as that envisaged by the Chinese Ministry of Education’s (2010-2020) education reforms. Key principles derived from literature about professional learning and scaffolding of learning informed the design of the PLP. The analysis of data revealed that the participants had made substantial progress towards the development of adaptive expertise. This was manifested not only by advances in the participants’ repertoires of Subject Matter Knowledge and Pedagogical Content Knowledge but also in changes to their levels of confidence and identities as teachers. By the end of the initial phase of the PLP, the participants had coalesced into a professional learning community that readily engaged in the sharing, peer review, reuse and adaption, and collaborative design of innovative science learning and assessment activities. The findings from the study indicate that those engaged in the development of PLPs for teachers in China need to take cognizance of certain cultural factors and traditions idiosyncratic to the Chinese educational system. A set of revised principles is then presented to inform the future design and implementation of PLPs for teachers in China.

A controlled, rapid approach to curriculum change

Teachers are continually bombarded with change programs for improvements in areas such as literacy and numeracy, however; the focus is often on the program and not on results (Pertuzé, Calder, Greitzer & Lucas, 2010). When the inevitable failure follows (Fullan, 2005; Gross, Giacquinta & Bernstein, 1971)the school moves on to a new activities-based model.

Negative-ion photoelectron spectroscopy, gas-phase acidity, and thermochemistry of the peroxyl radicals CH3OO and CH3CH2OO

Methyl, methyl-d(3), and ethyl hydroperoxide anions (CH3OO-, CD3OO-, and CH3CH2OO-) have been prepared by deprotonation of their respective hydroperoxides in a stream of helium buffer, gas. Photodetachment with 364 nm (3.408 eV) radiation was used to measure the adiabatic electron affinities: EA[CH3OO, (X) over tilde (2)A"] = 1.161 +/- 0.005 eV, EA[CD3OO, (X) over tilde (2)A"] = 1.154 +/- 0.004 eV, and EA[CH3CH2OO, (X) over tilde (2)A"] = 1.186 +/- 0.004 eV. The photoelectron spectra yield values for the term energies: DeltaE((X) over tilde 2A"-(A) over tilde 2A')[CH3OO] = 0.914 +/- 0.005 eV, DeltaE((X) over tilde (2)A"-(A) over tilde 2A') [CD3OO] = 0.913 +/- 0.004 eV, and DeltaE((X) over tilde (2)A"-(A) over tilde (2)A')[CH3CH2OO] = 0.938 +/- 0.004 eV. A localized RO-O stretching mode was observed near 1100 cm(-1) for the ground state of all three radicals, and low-frequency R-O-O bending modes are also reported. Proton-transfer kinetics of the hydroperoxides have been measured in a tandem flowing afterglow-selected ion flow tube k(FA-SIFT) to determine the gas-phase acidity of the parent hydroperoxides: Delta (acid)G(298)(CH3OOH) = 367.6 +/- 0.7 kcal mol(-1), Delta (acid)G(298)(CD3OOH) = 367.9 +/- 0.9 kcal mol(-1), and Delta (acid)G(298)(CH3CH2OOH) = 363.9 +/- 2.0 kcal mol(-1). From these acidities we have derived the enthalpies of deprotonation: Delta H-acid(298)(CH3OOH) = 374.6 +/- 1.0 kcal mol(-1), Delta H-acid(298)(CD3OOH) = 374.9 +/- 1.1 kcal mol(-1), and Delta H-acid(298)(CH2CH3OOH) = 371.0 +/- 2.2 kcal mol(-1). Use of the negative-ion acidity/EA cycle provides the ROO-H bond enthalpies: DH298(CH3OO-H) 87.8 +/- 1.0 kcal mol(-1), DH298(CD3OO-H) = 87.9 +/- 1.1 kcal mol(-1), and DH298(CH3CH2OO-H) = 84.8 +/- 2.2 kcal mol(-1). We review the thermochemistry of the peroxyl radicals, CH3OO and CH3CH2OO. Using experimental bond enthalpies, DH298(ROO-H), and CBS/APNO ab initio electronic structure calculations for the energies of the corresponding hydroperoxides, we derive the heats of formation of the peroxyl radicals. The "electron affinity/acidity/CBS" cycle yields Delta H-f(298)[CH3OO] = 4.8 +/- 1.2 kcal mol(-1) and Delta H-f(298)[CH3CH2OO] = -6.8 +/- 2.3 kcal mol(-1).

Educational paradox : the hidden obstacles to the integration of mobile phones in the language classroom

This paper reports on the findings of an international telecollaboration study using Facebook, in which teachers studying in M. Ed programs in Australia and Greece, discussed the use of mobile phones in language classrooms. Results suggest that invisible barriers exist in the use of mobile phones in the classroom, including bans on use in schools, lack of familiarity with educational uses for mobile phones, and negative perceptions about mobile phones specifically in terms of classroom management.

India's vocational education capacity to support the anticipated economic growth

The buoyancy that the Indian economy experienced between 2000 and 2010, in spite of the global downturn of 2008, is no longer a reality. Growth projections for 2012-13 have been reassessed to 6.5 per cent. This is still higher than most other developed economies of the world (see Figure 1.1), however the growth rate is slowing. The World Bank in its recent forecasts1 expects India’s growth rates not to extend beyond 7.2 % and 7.4 % in the years 2013-14 and 2014-15, respectively. Similarly, the Planning Commission has scaled down the growth target for the 12th Five Year Plan (2012-17) from 9% to 8%. Different reports note different rates, but the consistent message is that the projection of India’s economy is on a downward trend...