Diversity or perversity?: Award-winning children's literature and the Australian curriculum

Two of the three cross-curriculum priorities for the national Australian Curriculum prescribed by the Australian Curriculum Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA) are focussed on what might be called diversity education: “Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories and culture”, and "Asia and Australia's Engagement with Asia” (ACARA, “Cross”). One need not be versed in complex rhetorical theory to understand that, laudable and legitimate as such priorities are, their existence implies that mainstream education in Australia has been or is characterised by the marginalisation or erasure of Australia's history—the original Indigenous cultures are not only living and vibrant today, but also have tens of thousands of years’ “head start” on Australia’s settler cultures—and of its geography—Australia is, after all, located in some physical proximity to Asia. Some might even suggest that Australia is in Asia. These temporal and spatial “forgettings” constitute a kind of cultural perversity which the cross-curricular priorities both seek to address and serve to reinscribe. Even as ACARA requires Australian school students to engage with Aboriginal and Asian histories, cultures, societies, they imply that such histories, cultures, and societies are “diverse”, that they are not those of the students in Australian classrooms; producing them as objects of study rather than as lived experience. This should not necessarily be surprising. Michael W. Apple has provocatively argued that: “one of the perverse effects of a national curriculum actually will be to ‘legitimise inequality.’ It may in fact help create the illusion that whatever the massive differences in schools, they all have something in common” (18). In the Australian context, attempts to mitigate such perversity are articulated via the selection of literary texts. As educators move to resource ACARA’s cross-curricular priorities, ACARA notes that “Teachers and schools are best placed to make decisions about the selection of texts in their teaching and learning programs that address the content in the Australian Curriculum while also meeting the needs of the students in their classes” (ACARA, “Advice”). This assertion appears on a webpage called “Advice on selection of literary texts” which is notable first and foremost for its total lack of any literary texts being named, and its list of weblinks pointing to lists of texts compiled elsewhere, by other organisations, and in the main, compiled to serve agendas other than the Australian curriculum. One of the major resources referred to by ACARA for literary text selection is the Children’s Book Council of Australia (CBCA). Of course, the CBCA’s annual book awards do not share ACARA’s educational priorities, but do have a history of being drawn upon by schools as a curriculum resource. In this paper, I consider the literary texts which have been prized by the CBCA in recent years attending to their engagements with Aboriginal cultures.

Foreign direct investment and technology spillovers in sub-Saharan Africa

Foreign direct investment (FDI) is an effective conduit for technology transfer through technology spillovers to domestically owned firms in the host country. This study analyses the significance of productivity externalities of FDI to local firms, in terms of both intra-industry and inter-industry spillovers, using firm-level data from Kenya, Tanzania and Zimbabwe. The results show evidences in support of intra- and inter-industry productivity spillovers from FDI for Kenya and Zimbabwe. © 2010 Taylor & Francis.

Comparing the effectiveness of education and technology in reducing wood smoke pollution: A field experiment

This study describes a field experiment assessing the effectiveness of education and technological innovation in reducing air pollution generated by domestic wood heaters. Two-hundred and twenty four households from a small regional center in Australia were randomly assigned to one of four experimental conditions: (1) Education only – households received a wood smoke reduction education pack containing information about the negative health impacts of wood smoke pollution, and advice about wood heater operation and firewood management; (2) SmartBurn only – households received a SmartBurn canister designed to improve combustion and help wood fires burn more efficiently, (3) Education and SmartBurn, and (4) neither Education nor SmartBurn (control). Analysis of covariance, controlling for pre-intervention household wood smoke emissions, wood moisture content, and wood heater age, revealed that education and SmartBurn were both associated with significant reduction in wood smoke emissions during the post-intervention period. Follow-up mediation analyses indicated that education reduced emissions by improving wood heater operation practices, but not by increasing health risk perceptions. As predicted, SmartBurn exerted a direct effect on emission levels, unmediated by wood heater operation practices or health risk perceptions.

Staged crime scenes : literature and types

Many things can hamper an investigation. For example, the crime may be a truly random occurrence without links between the victim and the offender, evidence may not be acknowledged or properly collected, and the crime type itself may influence solvability. In other cases still, offenders actively seek to hamper the police investigation in an effort to avoid being caught and going to prison. In fact, the literature on homicide notes that it is not uncommon in many cases of this type for the offender to engage in precautionary acts (Turvey, 2007)...

Securing Australia's future: The role of science, research and technology in lifting Australian productivity

A three-year research program funded by the Australian Research Council and conducted by the four Learned Academies through the Australian Council of Learned Academies for PMSEIC, through the Office of the Chief Scientist. Securing Australia’s Future delivers research-based evidence and findings to support policy development in areas of importance to Australia’s future.

Using collaboration and technology to enhance Vietnamese students' English language writing skills

This action research study investigated face-to-face and wiki technology collaboration to enhance students' English writing skills in a second language (L2) class in Vietnam. The thesis is underpinned by socio-cultural theory and argues that collaborative learning using wikis led to an enhancement in L2 writing skills. The findings show that collaborating via wikis challenged traditional L2 writing pedagogy in the following ways: increased student autonomy; understanding formative feedback; and awareness of process writing, genre and audiences. This study contributes practical knowledge about affordances and constraints of collaborative writing using wikis in Vietnam and other countries where traditional pedagogies are prevalent.

Reading the Texture of Reality : Chaos Theory, Literature and the Humanist Perspective

Tutkimuksessa analysoidaan kaaosteorian vaikutusta kaunokirjallisuudessa ja kirjallisuudentutkimuksessa ja esitetään, että kaaosteorian roolia kirjallisuuden kentällä voidaan parhaiten ymmärtää sen avaamien käsitteiden kautta. Suoran soveltamisen sijaan kaaosteorian avulla on käyty uudenlaisia keskusteluja vanhoista aiheista ja luonnontieteestä ammennetut käsitteet ovat johtaneet aiemmin tukkeutuneiden argumenttien avaamiseen uudesta näkökulmasta käsin. Väitöskirjassa keskitytään kolmeen osa-alueeseen: kaunokirjallisen teoksen rakenteen teoretisointiin, ihmisen (erityisesti tekijän) identiteetin hahmottamiseen ja kuvailemiseen sekä fiktion ja todellisuuden suhteen pohdintaan. Tutkimuksen tarkoituksena on osoittaa, kuinka kaaosteorian kautta näitä aiheita on lähestytty niin kirjallisuustieteessä kuin kaunokirjallisissa teoksissakin. Väitöskirjan keskiössä ovat romaanikirjailija John Barthin, dramatisti Tom Stoppardin ja runoilija Jorie Grahamin teosten analyysit. Nämä kirjailijat ammentavat kaaosteoriasta keinoja käsitteellistää rakenteita, jotka ovat yhtä aikaa dynaamisia prosesseja ja hahmotettavia muotoja. Kaunokirjallisina teemoina nousevat esiin myös ihmisen paradoksaalisesti tunnistettava ja aina muuttuva identiteetti sekä lopullista haltuunottoa pakeneva, mutta silti kiehtova ja tavoiteltava todellisuus. Näiden kirjailijoiden teosten analyysin sekä teoreettisen keskustelun kautta väitöskirjassa tuodaan esiin aiemmassa tutkimuksessa varjoon jäänyt, koherenssia, ymmärrettävyyttä ja realismia painottava humanistinen näkökulma kaaosteorian merkityksestä kirjallisuudessa.

Delivering information and technology to the mango industry - Stage 2

Access to relevant and timely information and training resources has emerged as a significant issue from the Delivering Mango Technology (DMT) project. This project will facilitate providing managing information and technology tools for growers. Using a range of methods, including workshops, events, and web based technology facilitated through the Australian Mango Industry Association’s (AMIA) website, DMT stage 2 will develop a high profile delivery vehicle to building industry knowledge and resources .

Entanglements – activism and technology: Editors' introduction

Past issues of Fibreculture have examined activist philosophies from angles such as social justice and networked organisational forms, communication rights and net neutrality debates, and the push back against precarious new media labour. Our issue extends this work by capturing the complexities associated with the use of technology in activist contexts, and offering insights into how practitioners, scholars, and the makers of digital and networked technologies do and might need to work more collaboratively and pragmatically to address social justice issues.

Resting pastures to improve land condition in northern Australia: guidelines based on the literature and simulation modelling

Pasture rest is a possible strategy for improving land condition in the extensive grazing lands of northern Australia. If pastures currently in poor condition could be improved, then overall animal productivity and the sustainability of grazing could be increased. The scientific literature is examined to assess the strength of the experimental information to support and guide the use of pasture rest, and simulation modelling is undertaken to extend this information to a broader range of resting practices, growing conditions and initial pasture condition. From this, guidelines are developed that can be applied in the management of northern Australia’s grazing lands and also serve as hypotheses for further field experiments. The literature on pasture rest is diverse but there is a paucity of data from much of northern Australia as most experiments have been conducted in southern and central parts of Queensland. Despite this, the limited experimental information and the results from modelling were used to formulate the following guidelines. Rest during the growing season gives the most rapid improvement in the proportion of perennial grasses in pastures; rest during the dormant winter period is ineffective in increasing perennial grasses in a pasture but may have other benefits. Appropriate stocking rates are essential to gain the greatest benefit from rest: if stocking rates are too high, then pasture rest will not lead to improvement; if stocking rates are low, pastures will tend to improve without rest. The lower the initial percentage of perennial grasses, the more frequent the rests should be to give a major improvement within a reasonable management timeframe. Conditions during the growing season also have an impact on responses with the greatest improvement likely to be in years of good growing conditions. The duration and frequency of rest periods can be combined into a single value expressed as the proportion of time during which resting occurs; when this is done the modelling suggests the greater the proportion of time that a pasture is rested, the greater is the improvement but this needs to be tested experimentally. These guidelines should assist land managers to use pasture resting but the challenge remains to integrate pasture rest with other pasture and animal management practices at the whole-property scale.

Enterprise technology governance: New information and technology core competencies for boards of directors

Boards of directors have legal and ethical responsibilities to be competent. Yet, in a world where business models and whole sectors are being disrupted by rapid information and technology change, a majority of directors lack IT governance knowledge and skills. Individual IT competency and collective board Enterprise Technology Governance capability is a global problem. Without capability, boards are potentially flying blind, and risk is increased and opportunities to lead and govern digital transformation lost. To address this capability gap, this research provides the first multi-industry validated Enterprise Technology Governance competency set for use in board evaluation, recruitment and professional development.

Governance of enterprise Information and Technology: A new core competency for boards of directors

With the level of digital disruption that is affecting businesses around the globe, you might expect high levels of Governance of Enterprise Information and Technology (GEIT) capability within boards. Boards and their senior executives know technology is important. More than 90% of boards and senior executives currently identify technology as essential to their current businesses, and to their organization’s future. But as few as 16% have sufficient GEIT capability. Global Centre for Digital Business Transformation’s recent research contains strong indicators of the need for change. Despite board awareness of both the likelihood and impact of digital disruption, things digital are still not viewed as a board-level matter in 45% of companies. And, it’s not just the board. The lack of board attention to technology can be mirrored at senior executive level as well. When asked about their organization’s attitude towards digital disruption, 43% of executives said their business either did not recognise it as a priority or was not responding appropriately. A further 32% were taking a “follower” approach, a potentially risky move as we will explain. Given all the evidence that boards know information and technology (I&T***) is vital, that they understand the inevitably, impact and speed of digital change and disruption, why are so many boards dragging their heels? Ignoring I&T disruption and refusing to build capability at board level is nothing short of negligence. Too many boards risk flying blind without GEIT capability [2]. To help build decision quality and I&T governance capability, this research: • Confirms a pressing need to build individual competency and cumulative, across-board capability in governing I&T • Identifies six factors that have rapidly increased the need, risk and urgency • Finds that boards may risk not meeting their duty of care responsibilities when it comes to I&T oversight • Highlights barriers to building capability details three GEIT competencies that boards and executives can use for evaluation, selection, recruitment and professional development.