Poststructuralism, qualitative methodology, and public health : research methods as a legitimization strategy for knowledge

The appearance of poststructuralism as a research methodology in public health literature raises questions about the history and purpose of this research. We examine (a) some aspects of the history of qualitative methods and their place within larger social and research domains, and (b) the purposes of a public health research that employs poststructuralist philosophy delineating the methodological issues that require consideration in positing a poststructural analysis. We argue against poststructuralism becoming a research methodology deployed to seize the pubic health debate, rather than being employed for its own particular critical strengths.

Constructing a research network : accounting knowledge in production

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the sociology-of-science type of accounting literature, addressing how accounting knowledge is established, advanced and extended. Design/methodology/approach – The research question is answered through the example of research into linkages between accounting and religion. Adopting an actor-network theory (ANT) approach, the paper follows the actors involved in the construction of accounting as an academic discipline through the controversies in which they engage to develop knowledge. Findings – The paper reveals that accounting knowledge is established, advanced and developed through the ongoing mobilisation of nonhumans (journals) who can enrol other humans and nonhumans. It shows that knowledge advancement, establishment and development is more contingent on network breadth than on research paradigms, which appear as side-effects of positioning vis-a-vis a community. Originality/value – The originality of this paper is twofold. First, ANT is applied to accounting knowledge, whereas the accounting literature applies it to the spread of management accounting ideas, methods and practices. Second, an original methodology for data collection is developed by inviting authors from the network to give a reflexive account of their writings at the time they joined the network. Well diffused in sociology and philosophy, such an approach is, albeit, original in accounting research.

Health informatics domain knowledge analysis : an information technology perspective

Health Informatics is an intersection of information technology, several disciplines of medicine and health care. It sits at the common frontiers of health care services including patient centric, processes driven and procedural centric care. From the information technology perspective it can be viewed as computer application in medical and/or health processes for delivering better health care solutions. In spite of the exaggerated hype, this field is having a major impact in health care solutions, in particular health care deliveries, decision making, medical devices and allied health care industries. It also affords enormous research opportunities for new methodological development. Despite the obvious connections between Medical Informatics, Nursing Informatics and Health Informatics, most of the methodologies and approaches used in Health Informatics have so far originated from health system management, care aspects and medical diagnostic. This paper explores reasoning for domain knowledge analysis that would establish Health Informatics as a domain and recognised as an intellectual discipline in its own right.

Proceedings of the Fourth Australasian Workshop on Health Informatics and Knowledge Management [Volume 120]

We are pleased to present the papers from the Australasian Health Informatics and Knowledge Management (HIKM) conference stream held on 20 January 2011 in Perth as a session of the Australasian Computer Science Week (ASCW) 2011. Formerly HIKM was named Health Data and Knowledge Management, however the inclusion of the health informatics term is timely given the current health reform. The submissions to HIKM 2011 demonstrated that Australasian researchers lead with many research and development innovations coming to fruition. Some of these innovations can be seen here, and we believe further recognition will accomplish by continuation to HIKM in the future. The HIKM conference is a review of health informatics related research, development and education opportunities. The conference papers were written to communicate with other researchers and share research findings, capturing each and every aspect of the health informatics field. They are namely: conceptual models and architectures, privacy and quality of health data, health workflow management patient journey analysis, health information retrieval, analysis and visualisation, data integration/linking, systems for integrated or coordinated care, electronic health records (EHRs) and personally controlled electronic health records (PCEHRs), health data ontologies, and standardisation in health data and clinical applications.

The rural school experiment : creating a Queensland yeoman

Using historical narrative and extensive archival research, this thesis portrays the story of the twentieth century Queensland Rural Schools. The initiative started at Nambour Primary School in 1917, and extended over the next four decades to encompass thirty primary schools that functioned as centralized institutions training children in agricultural science, domestic science, and manual trade training. The Rural Schools formed the foundation of a systemised approach to agricultural education intended to facilitate the State’s closer settlement ideology. The purpose of the Rural Schools was to mitigate urbanisation, circumvent foreign incursion and increase Queensland’s productivity by turning boys into farmers, or the tradesmen required to support them, and girls into the homemakers that these farmers needed as wives and mothers for the next generation. Effectively Queensland took rural boys and girls and created a new yeomanry to aid the State’s development.

Co-constructing decimal number knowledge

This mathematics education research provides significant insights for the teaching of decimals to children. It is well known that decimals is one of the most difficult topics to learn and teach. Annette’s research is unique in that it focuses not only on the cognitive, but also on the affective and conative aspects of learning and teaching of decimals. The study is innovative as it includes the students as co-constructors and co-researchers. The findings open new ways of thinking for educators about how students cognitively process decimal knowledge, as well as how students might develop a sense of self as a learner, teacher and researcher in mathematics.

The lost boys : creating appealing and engaging fiction for adolescent male reluctant readers & Duende a young adult novella

Reading plays an important role in establishing lifelong learning and providing the reader with an avenue to new experiences and a language with which to express their ideas and feelings (Owen 2003; Hamston & Love 2005). In particular adolescents need a language that allows them to 'play with their identities in a safe and controlled manner to explore who they want to be in this ever changing world' (Koss & Teale 2009, 569). Block (1995) advances that there is a distinct correlation between what we read and how we live in the world, and argues 'if what we read influences our identity in the world, the ways we are able to imagine and live in the world, then there is some responsibility to address these various texts, their readers and possible reading experiences' (Koss & Teale 2009, 569). Within my research I attempt to take on this responsibility by establishing a connection between reluctant adolescent male readers, and their reading experiences and by using their opinions to create a novella that seeks to more fully engage them. Centred within the larger debate about boys and books are two central discussions: why don't boys read and what should boys read? While a number of reasons why adolescent boys don't read are mentioned in this paper and it might not be possible to fully account for why many are reluctant readers, it is possible to argue that specific forms of literature addressing certain themes and topics relevant to the age group might appeal to reluctant readers. The conceptual framework for this research was structured using a mixed-method approach consisting of four phases. In positioning my research for determining literature that reluctant readers may want to read I draw on a variety of material which tends to support the longevity of S.E Hinton's (1967) argument that 'teenagers today, want to read about teenagers today' (cited in Smith & Wilhelm 2002, 6). My practice-based research was conducted within a high school in Brisbane, Australia. Six participants were selected and required to read three recently published Australian Young Adult novels, and opinion was collected via semi-structured interviews on these case studies. Grounded Theory (Charmaz 2003; Charmaz 2006; Glaser & Strauss 2011) informed the design of the questions, and the process of concurrent interviews and analysis of opinion. This analysis led to construction of my theory: adolescent male reluctant readers want to read about female relationships and family conflict within a story that consists of an adventure that, although unlikely to happen, could happen. From this study there are two main contributions, which have theoretical and practical implications for stakeholders with a vested interest in the discussion regarding boys and books. First, this study, through the research methodology, presents key findings that indicate that reluctant readers are interested in realistic texts addressing themes that will help with the construction of, and understanding of, their own lives. Secondly, the grounded theory derived from these findings is applied to my own praxis and my creative artefact (Duende) is included with this exegesis as a text intended to create a connection between engaging texts and adolescent male reluctant readers.

Sustainable knowledge community precincts : lessons from global best practices

In the era of global knowledge economy, urban regions—seeking to increase their competitive edge, become destinations for talent and investment, and provide prosperity and quality of life to their inhabitants—have little chance achieving their development goals without forming effective knowledge-based urban development (KBUD) strategies. KBUD paradigm suggests that the economic future of cities increasingly depends on the capacity to attract, generate, retain and foster creativity, knowledge and innovation—and make space and place for knowledge generation and knowledge communities. Thus, the paper aims to shed light on the planning and development processes of the KBUD phenomenon with respect to the construction of sustainable knowledge community precincts (KCPs) aimed at making space for knowledge generation and place for knowledge communities—and provide useful lessons for the developing country cities seeking such sustainable and KBUD.

Building contemporary urban spaces of knowledge and innovation : Lessons from Australian practice

In the era of global knowledge economy, urban regions that are seeking to increase their competitive edge, become destinations for talent and investment, and provide prosperity and quality of life to their inhabitants have little chance achieving their development goals without forming effective knowledge-based urban development strategies. This paper aims to shed light on the planning and development of the knowledge-based urban development phenomenon with respect to the construction of knowledge community precincts aimed at building contemporary urban spaces of knowledge and innovation. Following to a thorough review of the literature on knowledge-based urban development, the paper undertakes policy and best practice analyses to learn from the internationally renowned Australian knowledge community precincts, from Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane, to better understand the dynamics of knowledge community precinct development practices. The paper provides a discussion on the study findings and recommendations for successfully establishing contemporary urban spaces of knowledge and innovation.

Knowledge that matters : identifying regional knowledge assets of tampere region

The extant literature considers knowledge as one of the key drivers of regional development. The idiosyncratic nature of regional knowledge is also acknowledged: each region possesses its unique knowledge assets which act as the basis of value creation. However, what is currently not well-known is how the region-specific knowledge assets can be identified, for example, for the purposes of managing and developing them. Thus, this paper aims, first, to explore how the relevant knowledge assets can be identified for a given region and, second, to describe what the context-specific knowledge assets are. These objectives are pursued using a qualitative case approach. As a case region, this study focuses on Tampere Region in Finland. This study makes a contribution by providing new insight regarding the contextual identification of regional knowledge assets and by illustrating the key knowledge assets of the case region. These insights are considered valuable for regional actors who are responsible for carrying out similar initiatives in their regions.

Knowledge is not power, but it’s a start : what young people know about their rights and obligations in employment

Scholarship addressing the employment concerns of school age workers has identified a number of areas of vulnerability. Prominent among these is that young workers have insufficient knowledge of their rights in employment, yet the extent of this knowledge has not previously been quantified. This study explores areas of strength and deficit in awareness of employment rights and obligations in a sample of 892 young people in Australian high schools. The findings demonstrate that, despite part-time work being a majority experience for school students, young Australians know relatively little of their employment rights. The conclusions underscore the need for education strategies that inform young people prior to and in the very early stages of their working lives.

The Tashi project 2004-2010 : developing methods for creating theatre works that fully engage children aged between 3 and 10

Over a seven-year period, Mark Radvan directed a suite of children’s theatre productions adapted from the original Tashi stories by Australian writers Anna and Barbara Fienberg. The Tashi Project’s repertoire of plays performed to over 40,000 children aged between 3 and 10 years old, and their carers, in seasons at the Out of the Box Festival, at Brisbane Powerhouse and in venues across Australia in two interstate tours in 2009 and 2010. The project investigated how best to combine an exploration of theatrical forms and conventions, with a performance style evolved in a specially developed training program and a deliberate positioning of young children as audiences capable of sophisticated readings of action, symbol, theme and character. The results of this project show that when brought into appropriate relationship with the theatre artists, young children aged 3-5 can engage with sophisticated narrative forms, and with the right contextual framing they enjoy heightened dramatic and emotional tension, bringing to the event sustained and highly engaged concentration. Older children aged 6-10 also bring sustained and heightened engagement to the same stories, providing that other more sophisticated dramatic elements are woven into the construction of the performances, such as character, theme and style.

Children as change agents for sustainability : an action research case study in a kindergarten

At a time when global consumption and production levels are 25 percent higher than the Earth’s sustainable carrying capacity, there are worldwide calls to find ways to sustain the Earth for this and future generations. A central premise of this study is that education systems have an obligation to participate in this move towards sustainability and can respond by embedding education for sustainability into curricula. This study took early childhood education as its focus due to the teacherresearcher’s own concerns about the state of the planet, coupled with early childhood education’s established traditions of nature-based and child-centred pedagogy. The study explored the experiences of a class of kindergarten children as they undertook a Project Approach to learning about environmental sustainability. The Project Approach is an adaptation of Chard’s work which is situated within a constructivist theoretical framework (Chard, 2011). The Project Approach involves in-depth investigations around an identified topic of interest. It has three phases: introductory, synthesising and culminating phase. The study also investigated the learning journey of the classroom teacher/researcher who broadened her long-held co-constructivist teaching approaches to include transformative practices in order to facilitate curriculum which embedded education for sustainability. While coconstructivist approaches focus on the co-construction of knowledge, transformative practices are concerned with creating change. An action research case study was conducted. This involved twenty-two children who attended an Australian kindergarten. Data were collected and analysed over a seven week period. The study found that young children can be change agents for sustainability when a Project Approach is broadened to include transformative practices. The study also found that the child participants were able to think critically about environmental and sustainability issues, were able to create change in their local contexts, and took on the role of educators to influence others’ environmental behaviours. Another finding was that the teacher-researcher’s participation in the study caused a transformation of both her teaching philosophy and the culture at the kindergarten. An important outcome of the study was the development of a new curriculum model that integrates and has applicability for curriculum development and teacher practice.

Integrating specialised knowledge for innovation in small technology firms

Knowledge Integration (KI) is one of the major aspects driving innovation within an organisation. In this paper, we attempt to develop a better understanding of the challenges of knowledge integration within the innovation process in technology-based firms. Using four technology-based Australian firms, we investigated how knowledge integration may be managed within the context of innovation in technology firms. The literature highlights the role of four KI tasks that affect the innovation capability within technology-oriented firms, namely team building capability, capturing tacit knowledge, role of KM systems and technological systemic integration. Our findings indicate that in addition to the four tasks, a strategic approach to integrating knowledge for innovation as well as leadership and management are essential to achieving effective KI across multiple levels of engagement. Our findings also offer practical insights of how knowledge can be integrated within innovation process.