Empowerment as a framework for Indigenous workforce development and organisational change

Relative powerlessness resulting from colonial dispossession and associated passive welfare policies has long been recognised as a critical factor influencing the health and wellbeing of Indigenous Australians, yet it is hard to find well-evaluated health and social interventions that take an explicit empowerment approach. This paper presents the findings of a Family Wellbeing Empowerment programme pilot delivered to Cairns Region Department of Families Indigenous youth workers and family and community workers in 2003/2004. The aim of the pilot was to build the capacity of these workers to address personal and professional issues as a basis for providing better support for their clients. The pilot demonstrated the effectiveness of the programme as a tool for worker empowerment and, to a lesser degree, organisational change.

The development of a new signal processing program at the Queensland University of Technology

The School of Electrical and Electronic Systems Engineering at Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia (QUT), offers three bachelor degree courses in electrical and computer engineering. In all its courses there is a strong emphasis on signal processing. A newly established Signal Processing Research Centre (SPRC) has played an important role in the development of the signal processing units in these courses. This paper describes the unique design of the undergraduate program in signal processing at QUT, the laboratories developed to support it, and the criteria that influenced the design.

The design and development of an undergraduate signal processing laboratory

The School of Electrical and Electronic Systems Engineering of Queensland University of Technology (like many other universities around the world) has recognised the importance of complementing the teaching of signal processing with computer based experiments. A laboratory has been developed to provide a "hands-on" approach to the teaching of signal processing techniques. The motivation for the development of this laboratory was the cliche "What I hear I remember but what I do I understand." The laboratory has been named as the "Signal Computing and Real-time DSP Laboratory" and provides practical training to approximately 150 final year undergraduate students each year. The paper describes the novel features of the laboratory, techniques used in the laboratory based teaching, interesting aspects of the experiments that have been developed and student evaluation of the teaching techniques

Teacher change and professional development in mathematics education

It is generally agreed that if authentic teacher change is to occur then the tacit knowledge about how and why they act in certain ways in the classroom be accessed and reflected upon. While critical reflection can and often is an individual experience there is evidence to suggest that teachers are more likely to engage in the process when it is approached in a collegial manner; that is, when other teachers are involved in and engaged with the same process. Teachers do not enact their profession in isolation but rather exist within a wider community of teachers. An outside facilitator can also play an active and important role in achieving lasting teacher change. According to Stein and Brown (1997) “an important ingredient in socially based learning is that graduations of expertise and experience exist when teachers collaborate with each other or outside experts” (p. 155). To assist in the effective professional development of teachers, outside facilitators, when used, need to provide “a dynamic energy producing interactive experience in which participants examine and explore the complex components of teaching” (Bolster, 1995, p. 193). They also need to establish rapport with the participating teachers that is built on trust and competence (Hyde, Ormiston, & Hyde, 1994). For this to occur, professional development involving teachers and outside facilitators or researchers should not be a one-off event but an ongoing process of engagement that enables both the energy and trust required to develop. Successful professional development activities are therefore collaborative, relevant and provide individual, specialised attention to the teachers concerned. The project reported here aimed to provide professional development to two Year 3 teachers to enhance their teaching of a new mathematics content area, mental computation. This was achieved through the teachers collaborating with a researcher to design an instructional program for mental computation that drew on theory and research in the field.

Elementary teacher’s conceptions of inquiry teaching : messages for teacher development

The advocacy for inquiry-based learning in contemporary curricula assumes the principle that students learn in their own way by drawing on direct experience fostered by the teacher. That students should be able to discover answers themselves through active engagement with new experiences was central to the thinking of eminent educators such as Pestalozzi, Dewey and Montessori. However, even after many years of research and practice, inquiry learning as a referent for teaching still struggles to find expression in the average teachers' pedagogy. This study drew on interview data from 20 elementary teachers. A phenomenographic analysis revealed three conceptions of teaching for inquiry learning in science in the elementary years of schooling: (a) The Experience- centred conception where teachers focused on providing interesting sensory experiences to students; (b) The Problem-centred conception where teachers focused on challenging students with engaging problems; and (c) The Question-centred conception where teachers focused on helping students to ask and answer their own questions. Understanding teachers' conceptions has implications for both the enactment of inquiry teaching in the classroom as well as the uptake of new teaching behaviours during professional development, with enhanced outcomes for engaging students in Science.

Collaborative inquiries into literacy, place and identity in changing policy contexts : implications for teacher development

In this chapter we describe a history of collaboration between university-based literacy researchers and school-based teachers in teacher development programs and practitioner inquiries designed to improve literacy outcomes for students living in low-socioeconomic circumstances. We consider how an inquiry stance has informed teachers working for social justice through curriculum and pedagogy designed to connect children’s developing literacy repertoires with their changing material, social and linguistic contexts. We use examples from the practices of two of our long-term teacher-collaborators to show what has been possible to achieve, even in radically different policy contexts, because of teachers’ continued commitment to themes of place and belonging, and language and identity.

Evidence for three tumor suppressor loci on chromosome 9p involved in melanoma development

Cytogenetic and loss of heterozygosity (LOH) studies have long indicated the presence of a tumor suppressor gene (TSG) on 9p involved in the development of melanoma. Although LOH at 9p has been reported in approximately 60% of melanoma tumors, only 5-10% of these tumors have been shown to carry CDKN2A mutations, raising the possibility that another TSG involved in melanoma maps to chromosome 9p. To investigate this possibility, a panel of 37 melanomas derived from 35 individuals was analyzed for CDKN2A mutations by single-strand conformation polymorphism analysis and sequencing. The melanoma samples were then typed for 15 markers that map to 9p13-24 to investigate LOH trends in this region. In those tumors demonstrating retention of heterozygosity at markers flanking CDKN2A and LOH on one or both sides of the gene, multiplex microsatellite PCR was performed to rule out homozygous deletion of the region encompassing CDKN2A. CDKN2A mutations were found in tumors from 5 patients [5 (14%) of 35], 4 of which demonstrated LOH across the entire region examined. The remaining tumor with no observed LOH carried two point mutations, one on each allele. Although LOH was identified at one or more markers in 22 (59%) of 37 melanoma tumors corresponding to 20 (57%) of 35 individuals, only 11 tumors from 9 individuals [9 (26%) of 35] demonstrated LOH at D9S942 and D9S1748 the markers closest to CDKN2A. Of the remaining 11 tumors with LOH 9 demonstrated LOH at two or more contiguous markers either centromeric and/or telomeric to CDKN2A while retaining heterozygosity at several markers adjacent to CDKN2A. Multiplex PCR revealed one tumor carried a homozygous deletion extending from D9S1748 to the IFN-alpha locus. In the remaining eight tumors, multiplex PCR demonstrated that the observed heterozygosity was not attributable to homozygous deletion and stromal contamination at D9S1748, D9S942, or D9S974, as measured by comparative amplification strengths, which indicates that retention of heterozygosity with flanking LOH does not always indicate a homozygous deletion. This report supports the conclusions of previous studies that a least two TSGs involved in melanoma development in addition to CDKN2A may reside on chromosome 9p.

Moral and social development : teachers’ knowledge of learning and teaching strategies in the early years

The intention of the analysis in this paper was to determine, from interviews with eleven early years’ teachers, what knowledge guided their teaching of moral behaviour. Six of the teachers defined moral behaviour in terms of social conventions only. Children’s learning was attributed by five of the teachers to incidental/contextual issues. Nine of the teachers used discussion of issues, in various contexts, as a way of teaching about social and moral issues. The majority of the teachers (n=7) gave the source of their knowledge of pedagogy as practical as opposed to theoretically informed. There was no clear relationship between their definitions, understanding of children’s learning, pedagogy or source of knowledge. Most of the teachers were using discussion, negotiation and reflection to develop the children’s moral and social behaviour. This is probably effective; however, it suggests a strong need for teaching of moral development to be given more prominence and addressed directly in in-service courses so that teachers are clear about their intentions and the most effective ways of achieving them.

Individual agency as explanation of alliance development and change : a case study

Alliances, with other inter-organisational forms, have become a strategy of choice and necessity for both the private and public sectors. From initial formation, alliances develop and change in different ways, with research suggesting that many alliances will be terminated without their potential value being realised. Alliance process theorists address this phenomenon, seeking explanations as to why alliances unfold the way they do. However, these explanations have generally focussed on economic and structural determinants: empirically, little is known about how and why the agency of alliance actors shapes the alliance path. Theorists have suggested that current alliance process theory has provided valuable, but partial accounts of alliance development, which could be usefully extended by considering social and individual factors. The purpose of this research therefore was to extend alliance process theory by exploring individual agency as an explanation of alliance events and in doing so, reveal the potential of a multi-frame approach for understanding alliance process. Through an historical study of a single, rich case of alliance process, this thesis provided three explanations for the sequence of alliance events, each informed by a different theoretical perspective. The explanatory contribution of the Individual Agency (IA) perspective was distilled through juxtaposition with the perspectives of Environmental Determinism (ED) and Indeterminacy/Chance (I/C). The research produced a number of findings. First, it provided empirical support for the tentative proposition that the choices and practices of alliance actors are partially explanatory of alliance change and that these practices are particular to the alliance context. Secondly, the study found that examining the case through three theoretical frames provided a more complete explanation. Two propositions were put forward as to how individual agency can be theorised within this three-perspective framework. Finally, the case explained which alliance actors were required to shape alliance decision making in this case and why.

Preliminary development of a sewerage infrastructure buffer assessment tool for engineering risk and strategic land use planning

Urban expansion continues to encroach on once isolated sewerage infrastructure. In this context,legislation and guidelines provide limited direction to the amenity allocation of appropriate buffer distances for land use planners and infrastructure providers. Topography, wind speed and direction,temperature, humidity, existing land uses and vegetation profiles are some of the factors that require investigation in analytically determining a basis for buffer separations. This paper discusses the compilation and analysis of six years of Logan sewerage odour complaint data. Graphically,relationships between the complaints, topographical features and meteorological data are presented. Application of a buffer sizing process could assist planners and infrastructure designers alike, whilst automatically providing extra green spaces. Establishing a justifiable criterion for buffer zone allocations can only assist in promoting manageable growth for healthier and more sustainable communities.

Development of a high-level gene expression system for the production of bioplastics in sugarcane

Despite various approaches, the production of biodegradable plastics such as polyhydroxybutyrate (PHB) in transgenic plants has met with limited success due largely to low expression levels. Even in the few instances where high levels of protein expression have been reported, the transgenic plants have been stunted indicating PHB is phytotoxic (Poirier 2002). This PhD describes the application of a novel virus-based gene expression technology, termed InPAct („In Plant Activation.), for the production of PHB in tobacco and sugarcane. InPAct is based on the rolling circle replication mechanism by which circular ssDNA viruses replicate and provides a system for controlled, high-level gene expression. Based on these features, InPAct was thought to represent an ideal system to enable the controlled, high-level expression of the three phb genes (phbA, phbB and phbC) required for PHB production in sugarcane at a preferred stage of plant growth. A Tobacco yellow dwarf virus (TbYDV)-based InPAct-phbA vector, as well as linear vectors constitutively expressing phbB and phbC were constructed and different combinations were used to transform tobacco leaf discs. A total of four, eight, three and three phenotypically normal tobacco lines were generated from discs transformed with InPAct-phbA, InPAct-phbA + p1300-TaBV P-phbB/phbC- 35S T, p1300-35S P-phbA-NOS T + p1300-TaBV P-phbB/phbC-35S T and InPAct-GUS, respectively. To determine whether the InPAct cassette could be activated in the presence of the TbYDV Rep, leaf samples from the eight InPActphbA + p1300-TaBV P-phbB/phbC-35S T plants were agroinfiltrated with p1300- TbYDV-Rep/RepA. Three days later, successful activation was indicated by the detection of episomes using both PCR and Southern analysis. Leaf discs from the eight InPAct-phbA + p1300-TaBV P-phbB/phbC-35S T transgenic plant lines were agroinfiltrated with p1300-TbYDV-Rep/RepA and leaf tissue was collected ten days post-infiltration and examined for the presence of PHB granules. Confocal microscopy and TEM revealed the presence of typical PHB granules in five of the eight lines, thus demonstrating the functionality of InPActbased PHB production in tobacco. However, analysis of leaf extracts by HPLC failed to detect the presence of PHB suggesting only very low level expression levels. Subsequent molecular analysis of three lines revealed low levels of correctly processed mRNA from the catalase intron contained within the InPAct cassette and also the presence of cryptic splice sites within the intron. In an attempt to increase expression levels, new InPAct-phb cassettes were generated in which the castorbean catalase intron was replaced with a synthetic intron (syntron). Further, in an attempt to both increase and better control Rep/RepA-mediated activation of InPAct cassettes, Rep/RepA expression was placed under the control of a stably integrated alc switch. Leaf discs from a transgenic tobacco line (Alc ML) containing 35S P-AlcR-AlcA P-Rep/RepA were supertransformed with InPAct-phbAsyn or InPAct-GUSsyn using Agrobacterium and three plants (lines) were regenerated for each construct. Analysis of the RNA processing of the InPAct-phbAsyn cassette revealed highly efficient and correct splicing of the syntron, thus supporting its inclusion within the InPAct system. To determine the efficiency of the alc switch to activate InPAct, leaf material from the three Alc ML + InPAct-phbAsyn lines was either agroinfiltrated with 35S P-Rep/RepA or treated with ethanol. Unexpectedly, episomes were detected not only in the infiltrated and ethanol treated samples, but also in non-treated samples. Subsequent analysis of transgenic Alc ML + InPAct-GUS lines, confirmed that the alc switch was leaky in tissue culture. Although this was shown to be reversible once plants were removed from the tissue culture environment, it made the regeneration of Alc ML + InPAct-phbsyn plant lines extremely difficult, due to unintentional Rep expression and therefore high levels of phb expression and phytotoxic PHB production. Two Alc ML + InPAct-phbAsyn + p1300-TaBV P-phbB/phbC-35S T transgenic lines were able to be regenerated, and these were acclimatised, alcohol-treated and analysed. Although episome formation was detected as late as 21 days post activation, no PHB was detected in the leaves of any plants using either microscopy or HPLC, suggesting the presence of a corrupt InPAct-phbA cassette in both lines. The final component of this thesis involved the application of both the alc switch and the InPAct systems to sugarcane in an attempt to produce PHB. Initial experiments using transgenic Alc ML + InPAct-GUS lines indicated that the alc system was not functional in sugarcane under the conditions tested. The functionality of the InPAct system, independent of the alc gene switch, was subsequently examined by bombarding the 35S Rep/RepA cassette into leaf and immature leaf whorl cells derived from InPAct-GUS transgenic sugarcane plants. No GUS expression was observed in leaf tissue, whereas weak and irregular GUS expression was observed in immature leaf whorl tissue derived from two InPAct- GUS lines and two InPAct-GUS + 35S P-AlcR-AlcA P-GUS lines. The most plausible reason to explain the inconsistent and low levels of GUS expression in leaf whorls is a combination of low numbers of sugarcane cells in the DNA replication-conducive S-phase and the irregular and random nature of sugarcane cells bombarded with Rep/RepA. This study details the first report to develop a TbYDV-based InPAct system under control of the alc switch to produce PHB in tobacco and sugarcane. Despite the inability to detect quantifiable levels of PHB levels in either tobacco or sugarcane, the findings of this study should nevertheless assist in the further development of both the InPAct system and the alc system, particularly for sugarcane and ultimately lead to an ethanol-inducible InPAct gene expression system for the production of bioplastics and other proteins of commercial value in plants.

Development of the sustainable building and construction products industry in Australia

This paper draws on a major study the authors conducted for the Australian Government in 2009. It focuses on the diffusion issues surrounding the uptake of sustainable building and construction products in Australia. Innovative sustainable products can minimise the environmental impact during construction, while maximising asset performance, durability and re-use. However, there are significant challenges faced by designers and clients in the selection of appropriate sustainable products in consideration of the integrated design solution, including overall energy efficiency, water conservation, maintenance and durability, low-impact use and consumption. The paper is a review of the current state of sustainable energy and material product innovations in Australia. It examines the system dynamics surrounding these innovations as well as the drivers and obstacles to their diffusion throughout the Australian construction industry. The case product types reviewed comprise: solar energy technology, small wind turbines, advanced concrete technology, and warm-mixed asphalt. The conclusions highlight the important role played by Australian governments in facilitating improved adoption rates. This applies to governments in their various roles, but particularly as clients/owners, regulators, and investors in education, training, research and development. In their role as clients/owners, the paper suggests that government can better facilitate innovation within the construction industry by adjusting specification policies to encourage the uptake of sustainable products. In the role as regulators, findings suggest governments should be encouraging the application of innovative finance options and positive end-user incentives to promote sustainable product uptake. Also, further education for project-based firms and the client/end users about the long-term financial and environmental benefits of innovative sustainable products is required. As more of the economy’s resources are diverted away from business-as-usual and into the use of sustainable products, some project-based firms may face short-term financial pain in re-shaping their businesses. Government policy initiatives can encourage firms make the necessary adjustments to improve innovative sustainable product diffusion throughout the industry.