Identity orientation and stakeholder engagement—the corporatisation of elite schools

Identity orientation provides a means to understand the social motivations of organisational relationships and organisational policy and practices. This study uses identity orientation to understand the highly marketised context of independent ‘elite’ schools in Australia and how they relate to stakeholders to straddle their roles as social institutions that are increasingly required to operate in a corporate manner. Interviews with managers in quite new school roles such as marketing communication and business management were conducted in non-government schools to understand the schools' external orientations, coveted internal member traits, and frames of reference. The study shows that, in contrast to existing literature on the rhetoric of schools as focusing on ‘the child’, there was a strong emphasis on individualistic orientations in schools that saw stakeholders in instrumental terms of resources and connections, saw teachers as providing an innovative and leading edge, and used other prestigious schools as their frame of reference. To a lesser extent, schools would also be interested in the relationships with families, teachers, and the community for their own means. There were very few instances where the identity orientation was contributing to society, instead, focusing on university and network outcomes for pupils. Using identity orientation provides a theoretical lens to connect organisational governance to stakeholder engagement by providing insights into an organisation's identity including practices and behaviours, in relation to others.

Recurring themes in contemporary criminal justice developments and debates

Criminal Justice in New Zealand is the first comprehensive account of the New Zealand approach to criminal justice issues to be published in this country, and it discusses the complex range of interconnected procedures involved in the system. New Zealand readers will enjoy the access to analysis and insight into the justice outcomes, procedures and how the inter-weavings affect different constituents. Highlights include statistical analysis, youth justice, the dealings and impact of media on criminal justice. The book emphasises the lack of coherent philosophy connecting the many stakeholders and describes the operation of its founding theories and procedures, including the trial process, criminal procedure, policing, sentencing and provision for victims. Tolmie and Brookbanks have excelled in their editing of this wide-ranging content, and have created an excellent resource. This book will become required reading for law students, policy analysts, sociologists, Judges and police. The book provides an account of a complex range of interconnected constituencies and procedures that together constitute the New Zealand criminal justice system.

Amplified activism : transmedia storytelling and social change

The avenues through which communities and community organisations raise awareness about the issues they face and how they agitate for change have developed rapidly in the past ten years; and digital technology has provided community activists with the means to quickly create and widely disseminate stories. Perhaps the most influential and wide reaching of recent innovations in storytelling has been transmedia storytelling. This article explores a new breed of projects that utilise recognisable conventions of transmedia storytelling and borrow elements from other forms of storytelling that predate transmedia, such as digital storytelling and documentary film making. In addition to being hybrid in form these projects are independent and solely focused on raising awareness about particular social issues or telling the stories of marginalized groups, who otherwise do not have a voice in the public sphere.

Informing healthy building design with biophilic urbanism design principles : a review and synthesis of current knowledge and research

Links between human health and wellbeing, and contact with nature are well understood in the fields of health and psychology, and more recently are gaining attention in the built environment industry. In 1984, E.O. Wilson coined the term ‘biophilia’ to describe the tendency for humans to have an innately emotional response to other living organisms. A growing number of researchers around the world are now exploring the impact of nature in urban environments (i.e. biophilic urbanism) on the human condition, including many indicators of human physical and mental health, recovery and performance. There is also an emergence of research on the potential for biophilic urbanism to address other challenges related to climate change mitigation and adaptation. This paper presents key findings from a review of key literature to date, discussing opportunities for biophilic urbanism to both improve occupant experience and performance, as well as addressing other sustainability objectives including climate change mitigation and adaptation. The paper presents an emerging framework for considering biophilic design opportunities and highlights implications for the built environment industry. This research draws on an Australian project considering biophilic urbanism in the response to climate change, within the Sustainable Built Environment National Research Centre. This includes findings from a literature review, a survey pilot study and two workshops undertaken in Perth and Brisbane with a variety of industry and government stakeholders.

Getting a piece of the cloud

Introduction When it comes to sustainable economic development, it is hard to go past the thought of investment in information technology (IT). The foundation of sustainable economic development is sustainable infrastructure. This situation means that investment in IT is about developing sustainable IT infrastructure. An IT infrastructure is a set of IT tools on which organisations could develop applications to manage their varying business processes. At a national economic level, this is all about developing a national IT infrastructure to provide social and economic services to the various stakeholders. Current troubling economic times call for collaboration and centrality in IT infrastructure development. This notion has led to the idea of national broadband networks, sustainable telecommunication platforms, and national IT development plans and goals. However, these thoughts and actions do not directly impact the critical social and economic processes of organisations. That is, these thoughts set the tone and direction of actions

Evaluation and social impact measurement amongst small to medium social enterprises : process, purpose and value

In recent years, the imperative to communicate organisational impacts to a variety of stakeholders has gained increasing importance within all sectors. Despite growing external demands for evaluation and social impact measurement, there has been limited critically informed analysis about the presumed importance of these activities to organisational success and the practical challenges faced by organisations in undertaking such assessment. In this paper, we present the findings from an action research study of five Australian small to medium social enterprises’ practices and use of evaluation and social impact analysis. Our findings have implications for social enterprise operators, policy makers and social investors regarding when, why and at what level these activities contribute to organisational performance and the fulfilment of mission.

Productive and inclusive? How documentation concealed racialising practices in a diversity project

This article examines how documentation concealed racialising practices in a diversity project that was seen to be productive and inclusive. Documentation examples are taken from a doctoral study about embedding Indigenous perspectives in early childhood education curricula in two Australian urban childcare centres. In place of reporting examples of ‘good’ early childhood education practice, the study labelled racialising practices in educators’ work. The primary aim was to understand how racialising practices are mobilised in professional practices, including documentation, even when educators’ work is seen to be high quality. Extracts from two communal journals that captured an action research process around embedding practices are examined to show how racism and whiteness were concealed within the documentation. This enables understanding about how documentation can provide evidence to stakeholders that diversity work in mainstream childcare centres is productive and inclusive, despite disparity between what is recorded and what occurs in practice.

An overview of Australian intrans*igence : a systemic Pandora’s Box

Despite the fact that Australia is a socially progressive country and boasts one of the largest Gender Dysphoria Clinics in the Southern Hemisphere, delivering services for almost four decades, Australian Governments fail to arrive at any consensus on the legal and human rights approaches to Trans*people. The subsequent lack of recognition does little more than increase the levels of frustration of and the continued discrimination to Trans*people, including adverse mental health problems, in this country. The purpose of this presentation is to provide an overview of the Australian systems that govern Trans*people and to identify how Trans*identities are manipulated in our Federal system of government; a system which offers little to protect the human rights of Trans*people. In order to contextualise the Australian situation, I commence with a brief description on the layers of government which will include how Australian Trans*people are currently protected under the law in those jurisdictions. I then present some of the impracticalities endured by the transitioning individual (single or married) including change of documentation and legal gender status before, during and after surgical transition for both those born on and off shore. This presentation will also include discussion of legislation that has been described by Trans*advocates as “Gesture”, “Cart before the Horse” and “Harmful”. I will conclude with a way forward by suggesting the development of a coordinated all of government approach in consultation with key stakeholders for “Trans* Friendly Legislation” to improve the human and legal rights, and ultimately the health and wellbeing of Australian Trans*identities.

Curriculum to the classroom : investigating the spatial practices of curriculum implementation in Queensland schools and its implications for teacher education

Change is something that both pre-service and practising teachers face regularly throughout their professional lives. Curriculum change and consequential implementation is a case in point. This paper investigates the perspectives of a number of school-based stakeholders in regard to the implementation of the C2C materials in Queensland schools and how this has potential consequences for teacher education programs. It shows that often contradictory spaces emerge in regard to curriculum enactment and argues that a ‘one size fits all’ approach is not the most effective way to implement new curriculum. A transformative third space is offered whereby teachers are accorded with a voice in the way in which implementation occurs; ultimately allowing pre-service teachers to learn important skills required to be effective teachers.

Urban traffic state estimation: Fusing point and zone based data

Loop detectors are the oldest and widely used traffic data source. On urban arterials, they are mainly installed for signal control. Recently state of the art Bluetooth MAC Scanners (BMS) has significantly captured the interest of stakeholders for exploiting it for area wide traffic monitoring. Loop detectors provide flow- a fundamental traffic parameter; whereas BMS provides individual vehicle travel time between BMS stations. Hence, these two data sources complement each other, and if integrated should increase the accuracy and reliability of the traffic state estimation. This paper proposed a model that integrates loops and BMS data for seamless travel time and density estimation for urban signalised network. The proposed model is validated using both real and simulated data and the results indicate that the accuracy of the proposed model is over 90%.

Extension of constructability to include operation and maintenance for infrastructure projects

This project was a step forward in developing an extension of the concept of constructability to include the post-occupancy stages of operation and maintenance. This was through an in-depth study of Australian health projects and interviews with professionals in the field. The thesis investigated how the operation and maintenance stakeholders can enter the initial planning, design and construction phases resulting in more efficient and effective delivery of infrastructure projects.

Living City 2013 Workshop

Living City 2013 Workshop, as part of a school term’s design-based curriculum connected to the KGSC/QUT Design Excellence Program and run from 11 February – 1 May, 2013, was essentially a three-day place-based urban design immersion workshop program for 25 Year 11 Visual Art and Design Students and 2 Teachers from Kelvin Grove State College (KGSC) held at both Queensland University of Technology (QUT) Gardens Point Campus and The Edge, State Library of Queensland. Mentored by 4 design professionals, 2 tertiary design academics, 2 public artists, and 12 QUT tertiary design students, the workshop explored youth-inspired public space design solutions for the active Brisbane City Council redevelopment site of Queens Wharf Road precinct. As well as the face-to-face workshops, for Living City 2013, an interactive web environment was introduced to enable students to connect with each other and program mentors throughout the course of the program. The workshop, framed within notions of ecological, economic, social and cultural sustainability, aimed to raise awareness of the layered complexity and perspectives involved in the design of shared city spaces and to encourage young people to voice their own concerns as future citizens about the shape and direction of their city. The program commenced with an introductory student briefing by stakeholders and mentors at KGSC on 11 February, an introduction to site appraisal and site visit held at QUT and Queens Wharf Road on 20 February, and a follow up site analysis session on 6 March. Day 1 Workshop on April 17 at the Edge, State Library of Queensland, as part of the Design Minds partnership (http://designminds.org.au/kelvin-grove-state-college-excellence-in-art-design/), focused on mentoring team development of a concept design for a range of selected sites. Two workshops on April 22 and 23 at QUT, to develop these designs and presentation schemes, followed this. The workshop program culminated in a visual presentation of concept design ideas and discussion with a public audience in the Ideas Gallery on The Deck, King George Square during the Brisbane City Council City Centre Master Plan Ideas Fiesta on 1 May, 2013, as referenced in the Ideas Fiesta Wrap-up Report (http://www.brisbane.qld.gov.au/planning-building/planning-guidelines-tools/city-centre-master-plan/city-centre-master-plan-ideas-fiesta). Students were introduced to design methodology, team thinking strategies, the scope of design practices and professions, presentation skills and post-secondary pathways, while participating teachers acquired content and design learning strategies transferable in many other contexts. The program was fully documented on the Living City website (http://www.livingcity.net.au/LC2013x/index.html) and has been recognised by the Brisbane City Council Youth Strategy 2014-2019 as a best practice model for making Brisbane a well-designed, subtropical city.

The development of a simple multi-nodal tool to identify performance issues in existing commercial buildings

Australia’s building stock includes many older commercial buildings with numerous factors that impact energy performance and indoor environment quality. The built environment industry has generally focused heavily on improving physical building design elements for greater energy efficiency (such as retrofits and environmental upgrades), however there are noticeable ‘upper limits’ to performance improvements in these areas. To achieve a stepchange improvement in building performance, the authors propose that additional components need to be addressed in a whole of building approach, including the way building design elements are managed and the level of stakeholder engagement between owners, tenants and building managers. This paper focuses on the opportunities provided by this whole-of-building approach, presenting the findings of a research project undertaken through the Sustainable Built Environment National Research Centre (SBEnrc) in Australia. Researchers worked with a number of industry partners over two years to investigate issues facing stakeholders at base building and tenancy levels, and the barriers to improving building performance. Through a mixed-method, industry-led research approach, five ‘nodes’ were identified in whole-of-building performance evaluation, each with interlinking and overlapping complexities that can influence performance. The nodes cover building management, occupant experience, indoor environment quality, agreements and culture, and design elements. This paper outlines the development and testing of these nodes and their interactions, and the resultant multi-nodal tool, called the ‘Performance Nexus’ tool. The tool is intended to be of most benefit in evaluating opportunities for performance improvement in the vast number of existing low-performing building stock.

An ICT Implementation Strategy for Primary Schools in Fiji

Information and Communication Technology (ICT) has been embraced with hope and optimism in both developing and developed countries. While in the developed countries most citizens have access to one or many of the devices which utilize this technology (e.g. desktop, laptop, tablet, mobile phone), in developing countries this “luxury” can only be afforded by a privileged few. The use of these technologies in primary schools in developing countries is low. This is due to the fact that there are other bigger issues that some of these countries have to grapple with such as meeting the basic health and education needs of its citizens. Quality primary education and global development partnerships are two of the eight Millennium Development Goals of the United Nations (UNDP, 2012). Many Governments, NGO’s, service organizations, and individuals in developing countries are always looking at ways in which the disparity (not just in terms of ICT) can be narrowed. There has to be a greater collaboration between stakeholders in developing and developed countries (Mutonyi & Norton, 2007). How do stakeholders from developed countries engage with partners in developing countries to deliver meaningful and relevant outcomes for primary school students using ICT? As a first step getting the key stakeholders on side is critical. In the Fijian context, schools are managed and run by committees who are members of the community. Therefore, getting the committee on side together with the head-teachers and teachers is critical. Conversations about teaching and learning with technology can then follow with greater ease. The sustainability of any innovative approaches is also an essential element of this equation. Through this lens, this chapter investigates how ICT can be implemented in primary schools in Fiji. It proposes a three-layered approach which focuses on: (1) the community, school leadership, and teachers; (2) content, pedagogy, and technology, and (3) sustainability.

Managing cost implications for highway infrastructure sustainability

Highway construction works have significant bearings on all aspects of sustainability. With the increasing level of public awareness and government regulatory measures, the construction industry is experiencing a cultural shift to recognise, embrace and pursue sustainability. Stakeholders are now keen to identify sustainable alternatives and the financial implications of including them on a lifecycle basis. They need tools that can aid the evaluation of investment options. To date, however, there have not been many financial assessments on the sustainability aspects of highway projects. This is because the existing life-cycle costing analysis (LCCA) models tend to focus on economic issues alone and are not able to deal with sustainability factors. This paper provides insights into the current practice of life-cycle cost analysis, and the identification and quantification of sustainability-related cost components in highway projects through literature review, questionnaire surveys and semi-structured interviews. The results can serve as a platform for highway project stakeholders to develop practical tools to evaluate highway investment decisions and reach an optimum balance between financial viability and sustainability deliverables.