Reconnecting the interrupted landscape : a cultural landscape approach to Australian open-cut coal mining landscapes

In the late 20th century, a value-shift began to influence political thinking, recognising the need for environmentally, socially and culturally sustainable resource development. This shift entailed moves away from thinking of nature and culture as separate entities - The former existing merely to serve the latter. Cultural landscape theory recognises 'nature' as at once both 'natural', and as a 'cultural' construct. As such it may offer a framework through which to progress in the quest for 'sustainable development'. This 2005 Masters thesis makes a contribution to that quest by asking whether contemporary developments in cultural landscape theory can contribute to rehabilitation strategies for Australian open-cut coal mining landscapes, an examplar resource development landscape. A thematic historial overview of landscape values and resource development in Australis post-1788, and a review of cultural landscape theory literature contribute to the formation of the theoretical framework: "reconnecting the interrupted landscape". The author then explores a possible application of this framework within the Australian open-cut coal mining landscape.

Shifting the technology context : career-change entrants’ transition into teaching

Becoming a teacher in technology-rich classrooms is a complex and challenging transition for career-change entrants. Those with generic or specialist Information and Communication Technology (ICT) expertise bring a mindset about purposeful uses of ICT that enrich student learning and school communities. The transition process from a non-education environment is both enhanced and constrained by shifting the technology context of generic or specialist ICT expertise, developed through a former career as well as general life experience. In developing an understanding of the complexity of classrooms and creating a learner centred way of working, perceptions about learners and learning evolve and shift. Shifts in thinking about how ICT expertise supports learners and enhances learning preceded shifts in perceptions about being a teacher, working with colleagues, and functioning in schools that have varying degrees of intensity and impact on evolving professional identities. Current teacher education and school induction programs are seen to be falling short of meeting the needs of career-change entrants and, as a flow on, the students they nurture. Research (see, for example, Tigchelaar, Brouwer, & Korthagen, 2008; Williams & Forgasz, 2009) highlights the value of generic and specialist expertise career-change teachers bring to the profession and draws attention to the challenges such expertise begets (Anthony & Ord, 2008; Priyadharshini & Robinson-Pant, 2003). As such, the study described in this thesis investigated perceptions of career-change entrants, who have generic (Mishra & Koehler, 2006) or specialist expertise, that is, ICT qualifications and work experience in the use of ICT. The career-change entrants‘ perceptions were sought as they shifted the technology context and transitioned into teaching in technology-rich classrooms. The research involved an interpretive analysis of qualitative data and quantitative data. The study used the explanatory case study (Yin, 1994) methodology enriched through grounded theory processes (Strauss & Corbin, 1998), to develop a theory about professional identity transition from the perceptions of the participants in the study. The study provided insights into the expertise and experiences of career change entrants, particularly in relation to how professional identities that include generic and specialist ICT knowledge and expertise were reconfigured while transitioning into the teaching profession. This thesis presents the Professional Identity Transition Theory that encapsulates perceptions about teaching in technology-rich classrooms amongst a selection of the increasing number of career-change entrants. The theory, grounded in the data, (Strauss & Corbin, 1998) proposes that career-change entrants experience transition phases of varying intensity that impact on professional identity, retention and development as a teacher. These phases are linked to a shift in perceptions rather than time as a teacher. Generic and specialist expertise in the use of ICT is a weight of the past and an asset that makes the transition process more challenging for career-change entrants. The study showed that career-change entrants used their experiences and perceptions to develop a way of working in a school community. Their way of working initially had an adaptive orientation focussed on immediate needs as their teaching practice developed. Following a shift of thinking, more generative ways of working focussed on the future emerged to enable continual enhancement and development of practice. Sustaining such learning is a personal, school and systemic challenge for the teaching profession.

A qualitative investigation of socio-cultural factors influencing binge-drinking : a multi-country study

Despite substantial investment by governments in social marketing campaigns and the introduction of various legislative and supply controls on alcohol, the binge drinking phenomenon amongst young people continues unabated in many countries and appears to be spreading to others. This paper examines drinking behaviour amongst university students from 50 countries across Europe, North America and the Asia Pacific region and argues that more needs to be done in understanding socio-cultural factors. To date, little is known of the specific socio-cultural factors that are common in countries that have high drinking behaviour compared to countries that have moderate bingedrinking behaviour. Using a marketing systems approach, this exploratory study identifies two key themes that distinguish these countries, namely family influences and peer influences.

Whole life cycle costing for Malaysia residential property development : the cultural environment

As knowledge of the residential development costing impact on resource and budgeting use increase, developers are moving towards more sustainable solution by implementing whole life cycle costing. Property management requires an understanding of infrastructure management, service life planning and quality management. Today, people are beginning to realize that effective property management in high-rise residential property can sustain the property value and maintain high returns on their investment. The continuous growth of high-rise residential properties indicates that there is a need for an effective property management system to provide a sustainable high-rise residential property development. For such reasons, this paper attempts to study the culture that have been applied due the residential property development in Malaysia as to improve to the best and sustainable practice in providing the best cost effectiveness management system in residential property development.

Integrating qualitative and quantitative approaches in cross-cultural research

The affects associated with culture, the values inherent in cultures and the identification of cultural assumptions are popular topics in recent management and Information Systems (IS) research. The main focus in relevant IS research over the years, has been on the comparison of cultural artifacts in different cultural settings. Despite these studies we need to ask whether there is a general approach to how culture can be researched in a rigorous manner? What are the issues that arise in cross- cultural research that have a bearing on decisions about a suitable research approach? What are the most appropriate methodologies to be used in cross-cultural research? Which is more appropriate, a qualitative, a quantitative or a mixed- method research approach? This paper will discuss important considerations in the process of deciding on the best research approach for cross-cultural projects. A case study will be then be reported as an example revealing the merits of integrating qualitative and quantitative approaches followed by a thorough discussion on the issues which may arise during this process.

Project managers and technical change : curriculum development in strategic technology management

Traditional business approaches do not take account of the rapid technological developments underpinning today's world. Further understanding the role of technology and its efficient management to build and maintain a competitive edge in business can allow project managers to more successfully manage organisations, and to adapt to and capitalise on, today’s rapidly changing environment. Strategic Technology Management links engineering, science and management principles to identify, choose, and implement the most effective means of attaining compatibility between internal skills and resources of an organisation and its competitive, economic and social environment. This paper reviews the rationale and the development of a new Strategic Technology Management subject in QUT’s Master of Project Management program. It discusses recent developments in the area of technology management from an international perspective, provides details of the curriculum developed and discusses the experience of completing two years of teaching the new program.

Designing cultural probes for children

This paper reports on the challenges faced during the design and deployment of educationally-focused cultural probes with children. The aim of the project was to use cultural probes to discover insights into children's interests and ideas within an educational context. The deployment of a cultural probe pack with children aged between 11 and 13 has demonstrated the method's effectiveness as a tool for design inspiration. Children's responses to the cultural probe have provided a valuable insight into the attributes of successful probe activities, the nature of contextual information which may be gathered and the limitations of the method.

Double standards in cultural judgements

The author, a teacher of television and film from a cultural studies perspective, endeavours to persuade his students to give up snobbery when they judge culture. The author has found that most students enter university with a series of middle class value judgements very strongly in place. Essentially, the judgements are that commercial culture is 'bad' and non-commercial culture is 'good'.

Teachers' work and pedagogy in an era of accountability

A great deal of educational policy proceeds as though teachers are malleable and ever-responsive to change. Some argue they are positioned as technicians who simply implement policy. However, how teachers go about their work and respond to reform agendas may be contingent upon many factors that are both biographical in nature and workplace related. In this paper we discuss the work of middle school teachers in low-socioeconomic communities from their perspectives. Referring to reflective interviews, meeting transcripts and an electronic reporting template, we examine how teacher participants in a school reform project describe their work - what they emphasise and what they down-play or omit. Using Foucaultian approaches to critical discourse analysis and insights from Dorothy Smith's (2005) Institutional Ethnography, we consider the 'discursive economy' (Carlson, 2005) in teachers' reported experiences of their everyday practices in northern suburbs schools in South Australia in which a democratic progressive discourse exists alongside corporate and disciplinary discourses.

Unpacking Japan's 21st century "National Conversation" : images of the future beyond the iron cage of the "Catch Up" model

How does the image of the future operate upon history, and upon national and individual identities? To what extent are possible futures colonized by the image? What are the un-said futurecratic discourses that underlie the image of the future? Such questions inspired the examination of Japan’s futures images in this thesis. The theoretical point of departure for this examination is Polak’s (1973) seminal research into the theory of the ‘image of the future’ and seven contemporary Japanese texts which offer various alternative images for Japan’s futures, selected as representative of a ‘national conversation’ about the futures of that nation. These seven images of the future are: 1. Report of the Prime Minister’s Commission on Japan’s Goals in the 21st Century—The Frontier Within: Individual Empowerment and Better Governance in the New Millennium, compiled by a committee headed by Japan’s preeminent Jungian psychologist Kawai Hayao (1928-2007); 2. Slow Is Beautiful—a publication by Tsuji Shinichi, in which he re-images Japan as a culture represented by the metaphor of the sloth, concerned with slow and quality-oriented livingry as a preferred image of the future to Japan’s current post-bubble cult of speed and economic efficiency; 3. MuRatopia is an image of the future in the form of a microcosmic prototype community and on-going project based on the historically significant island of Awaji, and established by Japanese economist and futures thinker Yamaguchi Kaoru; 4. F.U.C.K, I Love Japan, by author Tanja Yujiro provides this seven text image of the future line-up with a youth oriented sub-culture perspective on that nation’s futures; 5. IMAGINATION / CREATION—a compilation of round table discussions about Japan’s futures seen from the point of view of Japan’s creative vanguard; 6. Visionary People in a Visionless Country: 21 Earth Connecting Human Stories is a collection of twenty one essays compiled by Denmark born Tokyo resident Peter David Pedersen; and, 7. EXODUS to the Land of Hope, authored by Murakami Ryu, one of Japan’s most prolific and influential writers, this novel suggests a future scenario portraying a massive exodus of Japan’s youth, who, literate with state-of-the-art information and communication technologies (ICTs) move en masse to Japan’s northern island of Hokkaido to launch a cyber-revolution from the peripheries. The thesis employs a Futures Triangle Analysis (FTA) as the macro organizing framework and as such examines both pushes of the present and weights from the past before moving to focus on the pulls to the future represented by the seven texts mentioned above. Inayatullah’s (1999) Causal Layered Analysis (CLA) is the analytical framework used in examining the texts. Poststructuralist concepts derived primarily from the work of Michel Foucault are a particular (but not exclusive) reference point for the analytical approach it encompasses. The research questions which reflect the triangulated analytic matrix are: 1. What are the pushes—in terms of current trends—that are affecting Japan’s futures? 2. What are the historical and cultural weights that influence Japan’s futures? 3. What are the emerging transformative Japanese images of the future discourses, as embodied in actual texts, and what potential do they offer for transformative change in Japan? Research questions one and two are discussed in Chapter five and research question three is discussed in Chapter six. The first two research questions should be considered preliminary. The weights outlined in Chapter five indicate that the forces working against change in Japan are formidable, structurally deep-rooted, wide-spread, and under-recognized as change-adverse. Findings and analyses of the push dimension reveal strong forces towards a potentially very different type of Japan. However it is the seven contemporary Japanese images of the future, from which there is hope for transformative potential, which form the analytical heart of the thesis. In analyzing these texts the thesis establishes the richness of Japan’s images of the future and, as such, demonstrates the robustness of Japan’s stance vis-à-vis the problem of a perceived map-less and model-less future for Japan. Frontier is a useful image of the future, whose hybrid textuality, consisting of government, business, academia, and creative minority perspectives, demonstrates the earnestness of Japan’s leaders in favour of the creation of innovative futures for that nation. Slow is powerful in its aim to reconceptualize Japan’s philosophies of temporality, and build a new kind of nation founded on the principles of a human-oriented and expanded vision of economy based around the core metaphor of slowness culture. However its viability in Japan, with its post-Meiji historical pushes to an increasingly speed-obsessed social construction of reality, could render it impotent. MuRatopia is compelling in its creative hybridity indicative of an advanced IT society, set in a modern day utopian space based upon principles of a high communicative social paradigm, and sustainability. IMAGINATION / CREATION is less the plan than the platform for a new discussion on Japan’s transformation from an econo-centric social framework to a new Creative Age. It accords with emerging discourses from the Creative Industries, which would re-conceive of Japan as a leading maker of meaning, rather than as the so-called guzu, a term referred to in the book meaning ‘laggard’. In total, Love Japan is still the most idiosyncratic of all the images of the future discussed. Its communication style, which appeals to Japan’s youth cohort, establishes it as a potentially formidable change agent in a competitive market of futures images. Visionary People is a compelling image for its revolutionary and subversive stance against Japan’s vision-less political leadership, showing that it is the people, not the futures-making elite or aristocracy who must take the lead and create a new vanguard for the nation. Finally, Murakami’s Exodus cannot be ruled out as a compelling image of the future. Sharing the appeal of Tanja’s Love Japan to an increasingly disenfranchised youth, Exodus portrays a near-term future that is achievable in the here and now, by Japan’s teenagers, using information and communications technologies (ICTs) to subvert leadership, and create utopianist communities based on alternative social principles. The principal contribution from this investigation in terms of theory belongs to that of developing the Japanese image of the future. In this respect, the literature reviews represent a significant compilation, specifically about Japanese futures thinking, the Japanese image of the future, and the Japanese utopia. Though not exhaustive, this compilation will hopefully serve as a useful starting point for future research, not only for the Japanese image of the future, but also for all image of the future research. Many of the sources are in Japanese and their English summations are an added reason to respect this achievement. Secondly, the seven images of the future analysed in Chapter six represent the first time that Japanese image of the future texts have been systematically organized and analysed. Their translation from Japanese to English can be claimed as a significant secondary contribution. What is more, they have been analysed according to current futures methodologies that reveal a layeredness, depth, and overall richness existing in Japanese futures images. Revealing this image-richness has been one of the most significant findings of this investigation, suggesting that there is fertile research to be found from this still under-explored field, whose implications go beyond domestic Japanese concerns, and may offer fertile material for futures thinkers and researchers, Japanologists, social planners, and policy makers.

Introducing action research as a vehicle to bring about change to a psychiatric nursing curriculum in Taiwan

The focus of this study is on curriculum change within a School of Nursing in Taiwan where there is a growing demand for educational reform in order to meet the new accreditation standards and demands of the Taiwan Nursing Accreditation Council (TNAC). The aim of this study was to transform the Psychiatric Nursing curriculum in ways that are empowering, generative and sustainable. This study introduced Action Research as a vehicle to bring about curriculum transformation. I conceptualised a framework to guide the transformation process based on the notions of learner-centredness, conceptual change, pedagogical knowledge, reflection, collaboration, reculturing and empowerment. The Action Plan was developed in accordance with the conceptual framework, and was developed in five steps through which team members explored and became aware of our conceptions of teaching and learning, and then planned and implemented actions to change our curriculum, and examined and reflected on the curriculum transformation. The study demonstrated the value of working collaboratively to solve educational problems. This study also suggested that experiential knowledge, when shared and integrated with theoretical knowledge, can constructively contribute to all aspects of curriculum transformation. This study further supported the value of including clinical facilitators in the development and transformation of curricula. It confirmed that academics and clinical facilitators can work together to create new learning for students. This study is significant for both practical and political reasons. Its practical significance lies in its direct utility to the learners and teachers who were involved in the study. The political significance lies in the potential of the study to lead to further changes or improvements in other, similar contexts. The study is limited in that any interpretations cannot be generalised to other contexts. However, what emerged adds to the body of knowledge in such a way that it would constitute the basis for better informed educational practice.

Diversity in action : minority group media and social change

This audio magazine, written by Melissa Giles, features three Brisbane-based media organisations: Radio 4RPH, Queensland Pride and 98.9FM. [#1 - INTRODUCTION - read by Sara Cowling]----- [#2 - RADIO 4RPH: SHARING THE WORD - read by Ellen-Maree Elliot (and Sara Cowling)]----- [#3 - QUEENSLAND PRIDE: OUT IN THE STREET - read by Dominique Wiehahn (and Sara Cowling)]----- [#4 - 98.9FM: BREAKING THE MOULD - read by Paige Ross (and Sara Cowling)]----- [#5 - CONCLUSION - read by Sara Cowling]

Enhancing professional ethics : service-learning in teacher education

The ethical conduct of professionals has been the focus of increasing scrutiny over the past several decades as members of the public, the media, professional bodies, and legislative authorities have struggled to define ethical behaviour in times of governmental change, increasing internationalisation, globalised communications, threats of terrorism, and the challenges of developments in science and medicine (e.g., Demmke & Bossaert, 2004). National governments and transnational bodies have responded to these concerns about ethics and corruption through measures such as the United Nations Convention Against Corruption (United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, 2004), Transparency International’s annual corruption index (2010) and Queensland’s Public Sector Ethics Act 1994 (Queensland Parliament 1994). Similarly, academic interest in ethics and its application across a range of domains(e.g., business, health care, social welfare, criminal justice, law, journalism, defence, environment, and media) has also increased. To illustrate, in 1993, a non-partisan, non-profit national umbrella organisation, the Australian Association for Professional and Applied Ethics, was formed following a conference concerned with the teaching of ethics (http://www.arts.unsw.edu.au./aapae/about_aapae/about_aapae.htm), while a recent review of the Excellence in Research for Australian rankings of national and international academic journals revealed that 16 journals related to ethics had received the top ratings of A* or A (Australian Research Council, 2009). In this chapter we examine professional ethics and argue, with specific reference to the context of pre-service teacher education, that Service-learning is one way of enhancing emerging professionals’ understanding of ethics.