On-track to what? Foucauldian analysis of Victorian post-compulsory education policy

Current ideas of adolescent development portray a slow steady movement toward adulthood. These notions developed hand in hand with social practices that evolved in the latter half of the 19th century and contemporaneously with modernisation. During this period conceptions of adolescence included longer stays in school, organised leisure activities, juvenile justice policies and the protection of youth from child labour. Lesko (2001) works from a position that the modern age is defined by time, an understanding that events and change are meaningful in their occurrence in and through time. She examines adolescence as partaking of panoptical time which is condensed and commodified; a time framework that compels us - scholars, educators, parents, and teenagers - to attend to progress, precocity, arrest, or decline" (2001 p.41). Panoptical time can be used to explore how ideas of what is 'normal' development can be used to privilege particular ways of being an adolescent, to monitor who is deemed to be 'at risk' of not conforming to that model and to govern their behaviour. A Foucauldian analysis suggests the formation of 'at risk' identities reflects historically specific discourses. An understanding of how these and other discursive constructions are formed opens the way for resistance. This presentation explores the recent implementation of On-Track and On-Track Connect within Victorian government policy and explores the experience of a Local Learning and Employment Network in implementing the policy.

Identifying the barriers to implementing the Victorian Department of Education and Training guidelines regarding the provisions of nutrient dense food options in school canteens

Aims & rationale/Objectives : To identify barriers to the full implementation of new guidelines regarding school canteen menus launched by The Victorian Education Department in May 2004.
Methods : A self-administered questionnaire was sent to principals, business mangers and canteen managers of 13 secondary schools in South West Victoria covered by The Greater Green Triangle area (response rate 59%). The questions explored the canteen's role, operation, staffing and profits; existence and content of canteen policy; enablers and barriers to the sale of healthier foods; introduction and promotion of healthier foods; and perceived implications of banning less healthy foods.
Principal findings : The study identified several barriers to implementing healthy menus in school canteens, these being largely consistent with those found in other studies. The majority of schools reported they were making attempts to follow the guidelines for school food services, but were experiencing difficulty in proceeding to full implementation. The barriers identified through the study were student preference for less healthy options, concerns about profitability, lack of policy or its active communication and promotion at the school level and competition from other food outlets.
Discussion : There was evidence that healthy foods had not been actively promoted, suggesting that identification of student preferences as a barrier was based on perception rather than observation. The Victorian guidelines are effectively voluntary, with no accountability measures in place.
Implications : Research needs to be conducted to provide reliable and tested information about factors which impact on student choice. Schools would benefit from specialised assistance to formulate business plans for contemporary canteens selling healthy food and a clarification of government policy.
Presentation type : Poster

Dry your eyes princess : an analysis of gender and 'other' based discources in police organisations

This paper examines the literature relevant to an analysis of gender and discourse in police organisations with a view to testing it through research. Much of the literature on policing can be divided into four key topic areas: the features and construction of police culture; women’s integration into policing; organisational structures and styles of police leadership; and debates about the nature of police work. An examination of the literature has revealed a deficiency of research in discourses within policing and in particular, the impact of discourses on gender and police training. Assumptions underpinning the research project and supported by literature include: formal and informal structures and practices within organisations produce and reproduce gender relations; power, gender relations and masculinity are characteristics of police culture; discourses are products and resources of interactions which establish particular truths; and police organisations have been slow to respond to anti-discrimination legislation and to integrate women into police services. Critical to any analysis of culture, power, gender, discourses, difference, and subjectification is the dynamic and complex nature of culture. Applying Shearing’s and Ericson’s definition of culture as ‘figurative logic’ has resonance in police organisations where symbols, rhetoric and metaphors function as vehicles for discourses.

Informing decision-making in libraries: informetric research as input to LIS education and practice.(Library and Information Science).

Findings from informetric research represent an important background resource to add to the mix of information useful for resolving difficult and ongoing problems in specific library environments or information service settings. This paper provides examples of informetric research that can be useful input to decision-making in the field of library management and information service provision. This overview takes four of the challenges that Michael Buckland outlined for library research as a way of guiding the discussion of ways that informetric work can be used to inform library decision-making. (1) References are made to relevant informetric work undertaken or conducted in Australia, by Australian researchers, or with Australian data.

Informetrics includes both quantitative and qualitative methods, which when used in combination can provide a rounded set of findings that has great validity for management, policy and service applications. Quantitative methodologies are generally based on bibliometric techniques, such as mining and analysis of data from various bibliographic and textual databases. Qualitative methods include survey, case study and historical approaches. Used in combination, each set of findings adds richness and other perspectives to an analysis.

Role play in blended learning : a case study exploring the impact of story and other elements

Role play is an increasingly popular technique in tertiary education, being student centred, constructivist and suitable for a range of subject areas. The choice of formats is wide open, with options ranging from the traditional face to face performance through to multi-user online computer games. Some teachers prefer to take advantage of features of both online and face to face formats and offer a blended form. This case study describes an innovative blended role play in which the online component plays a small but important part. The findings show that decisions on not only how to make the best use of technology but also how to design and facilitate a role play can have a profound effect on the creation of an engaging first-person story from which powerful learning can be drawn—in this case, learning outcomes including deep insights into strengths and weaknesses of participants' personal change management styles.

Teacher perceptions of the role and value of excursions in years 7-10 geography education in Victoria, Australia

Excursions are extremely important to the education of students in the geography curriculum. However, personal observations demonstrated a lack of readiness to conduct excursions in secondary schools. This apprehension of the teachers in this school to implement excursions in geography education was the basis for this study. The study addresses the importance of excursions in education and the roles and values that teachers place on excursions in years 7-10 geography curriculum. Quantitative research was conducted in the form of a questionnaire on a wide range of Study of Society and Environment (SOSE) teachers in secondary schools. The research population consisted of 60 teachers from both rural and urban schools across Victoria. The findings of this study showed that teachers conduct on average one to two excursions per class per year, teachers understand the importance of excursions in geography education and they find planning difficult, but work collaboratively with other teachers to overcome these issues. Other barriers include transportation, student behaviour and cost. With a firm grounding in the conceptual theories and state-level policies of geography education, the conduct of excursions was found to be both difficult and rewarding by teachers in Victoria.

Placing teachers? Sustaining rural schooling through place-consciousness in teacher education

This paper explores two seemingly disparate areas of social inquiry: teacher education and the sustainability of rural communities in Australia. It suggests that these may be usefully understood in close connection with each other, and that healthy rural communities may be supported via reform of the ways in which teacher education prepares graduates for teaching in rural schools. In making this argument we claim that consideration and consciousness of place are important for all teacher education curricula, not merely that on offer in rural and regional centers. We call for metropolitan-based teacher education institutions to consider curriculum practices that take a more active role in fostering healthy and productive rural communities through place-conscious approaches to pedagogy (Gruenewald, 2003). At the center of this call is a concern to ensure the provision of high-quality education for children in rural families and the need for well-trained teachers who are personally and professionally equipped to address the educational needs of their communities.

Effects of tv time and other sedentary pursuits

Television (TV) viewing is the dominant recreational pastime at all ages, especially for children and adolescents. Many studies have shown that higher TV viewing hours are associated with higher body mass index (BMI), lower levels of fitness and higher blood cholesterol levels. Although the effect size estimated from observational studies is small (with TV viewing explaining very little of the variance in BMI), the results of intervention studies show large effect sizes. The potential mediators of the effect of higher TV viewing on higher BMI include less time for physical activity, reduced resting metabolic rate (for which there is little supporting evidence) and increased energy intake (from more eating while watching TV and a greater exposure to marketing of energy dense foods). Electronic games may have an effect on unhealthy weight gain, but are less related to increased energy intake and their usage is relatively new, making effect size difficult to determine. Thus, TV viewing does not explain much of the differences in body size between individuals or the rise in obesity over time, perhaps because of the uniformly high, but relatively stable, TV viewing hours. Reducing TV viewing hours is a difficult prospect because potential actions, such as social marketing and education, are likely to be relatively weak interventions, although the evidence would suggest that, if viewing could be reduced, it could have a significant impact on reducing obesity prevalence. Regulations to reduce the heavy marketing of energy dense foods and beverages on TV may be the most effective public health measure available to minimize the impact of TV viewing on unhealthy weight gain.

Barriers to continuing medical education in Australian prevocational doctors

To determine perceived barriers to continuing education for Australian hospital-based prevocational doctors, a cross sectional cohort survey was distributed to medical administrators for secondary redistribution to 2607 prevocational doctors from August 2003 to October 2004. Four hundred and seventy valid questionnaires (18.1%) were returned. Only seven per cent (33/470) did not identify any barriers to continuing education. Barriers identified the most were lack of time (85% [371/437]), clinical commitment (65% [284/437]), resistance from registrars (13% [57/437]) and resistance from consultant staff (10% [44/437]). Other barriers included workload issues (27% [27/98]), teaching program inadequacies (26% [25/98]), lack of protected time for education (17% [17/98]), motivational issues (11% [10/98]) and geographic remoteness (10% [10/98]). Australian graduates (87%) identified lack of time more frequently than international medical graduates (77%) (P=0.036). Perceived barriers did not differ significantly between doctors of differing postgraduate years.

Securing the oral tradition : reflective positioning and professional conversations in midwifery education

We postulate that positioning is a powerful tool in guiding and transforming student professional learning and practice development. In our experiences with students enrolled in he Graduate Diploma of Midwifery, we determined that positioning elaborates individual scholarship and identity formation of the learner midwife in practice settings. Positioning Theory, developed by Harré and other authorities, is a psycho-sociological 'ontology' or concept of how individuals metaphorically position or locate themselves, and others, within institutions and societies. Three key components of positioning theory include 'position', 'speech act' and 'storylines', developing from the everyday social interactions of professional conversations. Reflective positioning can be applied as an analytical tool for the moment-to- moment exchanges inherent in practice related conversations, occurring between midwives and midwifery students. These moment-to-moment interactions of professional conversations can be used by students to complete or fill their learning gaps. Positioning therefore, provides a novel, contemporary theoretical framework to 'unpack' or understand the complexity of midwifery practice and yet is complementary with reflective practice. Excerpts are used to demonstrate reflective positioning applications by students. Midwives are encouraged by health services and by the University to provide student support through a 'preceptorship' program to supervise, work with and assess students for competence in midwifery practices. We claim that reflective positioning by students within professional conversations with their preceptor/midwives, are the construction sites for learning and where identity formation of each student as a future midwife is both shaped and transformed. Both academics and managers of health services need to embrace the value of workplace conversations, the sites of rich oral traditions of nursing and midwifery. Thus, in seeking claim to our rich oral traditions, all students will benefit from engagement in reflective positioning to promote their professional learning and practice development.

Reflective practice in postgraduate midwifery education

The literature is abundant with the benefits of reflective practice in midwifery education and other disciplines. At Deakin University, Victoria, Australia,  students enrolled in the Graduate Diploma of Midwifery have embraced reflective practices by means of computer mediated learning applications. Students enrolled in this course reside in metropolitan, regional and rural areas of Victoria and had previously experienced issues of ‘distance’ and ‘isolation’ from peers  and academics. Since 2007 two computer modalities, Elluminate Live and  Deakin Studies Online have been incorporated into the lecture timetables for the  Graduate Diploma of Midwifery to allow students to participate in online  discourse and maintain an online reflective journal space. This innovation for the  promotion of reflective practices supports and upholds the oral tradition midwives are renowned for by increasing cohesion of each student course cohort,  collaboration between peers and access to midwifery academics.

Targeted clinical education for staff attitudes towards deliberate self-harm in borderline personality disorder : randomized controlled trial

Objective: The aim of the present study was to assess the impact of attending targeted clinical education on borderline personality disorder on the attitudes of health clinicians towards working with deliberate self-harm behaviours commonly exhibited by patients diagnosed with this complex disorder. Comparisons of clinicians across service settings, occupational fields, and other demographic areas were also made.

Method: A purpose-designed demographic questionnaire and the Attitudes Towards Deliberate Self-Harm Questionnaire were used to collect the demographic information and assess the attitudes of 99 mental health and emergency medicine practitioners across two Australian health services and a New Zealand health service, both before and after education attendance.

Results: Statistically significant improvements in attitude ratings were found for both emergency medicine clinicians and mental health clinicians in working with deliberate self-harm behaviours in borderline personality disorder, following attendance at the education program with a medium affect size (t(32)=−3.45, p=0.002, d=0.43 and t(65)=−5.12, p=0.000, d=0.42, respectively). Clinicians across occupational areas of nursing, allied health, and medical fields demonstrated equivocal levels of improvement in their attitude ratings.

Conclusions: Results are discussed in terms of the necessity of providing regular access to targeted clinical education for health professionals working with patients diagnosed with borderline personality disorder.

Preparing to not to be a footballer : higher education and professional sport

In the commercialised and professionalised world of elite sport, issues associated with career pathways and post sporting career options have a particular resonance. In various football codes, an unexpected knock, twist, bend or break can profoundly impact a player's career. In this high risk and high consequence environment, a number of sports entertainment industries have instituted player development and education programmes to educate and prepare elite level performers for life after football. Drawing on Foucault's later work on governmentality and the care of the self, this paper will discuss findings from a research project funded by the Australian Football League (AFL). The paper presents data that suggests that, elite performers are so focused on establishing and prolonging a career as an elite performer, that other aspects of identity are seen as something to be complied with as a consequence of industry expectations. An industry emphasis on higher education raises issues for the sports industries that promote player enrolment in higher education and for the higher education institutions that must manage this lack of engagement.

Teacher education for rural communities : a focus on 'incentives'

In Australia we face a national crisis in attracting and retaining teachers and other professionals with regard to rural areas. In response to this difficulty in ‘staffing the empty schoolhouse’ (Roberts 2004), the majority of state  education departments have initiated some form of rural incentive scheme designed to attract teachers to rural schools. This paper argues that such  schemes have little chance of success unless teachers taking up such  incentives have actually been prepared for teaching in nonmetropolitan   schools. Although many universities claim to prioritise rural and regional  education and community development as part of their vision statements, in reality relatively few education providers reflect this rhetoric in their practice  and only a handful have made direct links to such state-based schemes in  pre-service teacher education, or initiated their own rural incentives. A  preliminary study into pre-service preparation and rural incentive schemes, as part of a three-year ARC Discovery Grant, indicates that, nationally, the  majority of Faculties and Schools of Education have no easily accessible or  advertised incentive programs to encourage students to undertake a rural  practicum. Nor do many reflect rural education in their course-work.

This paper will introduce the ‘TERRAnova’ project, and then discuss findings of the preliminary work to date that has focussed on identifying incentives and their significance. Drawing on evidence collected from websites from   Australian Universities representing all pre-service teacher education programs in the nation, we argue that few Faculties and Schools appear to  see it necessary or desirable to provide students with links to information  about particular state-based rural funding opportunities. We show how some, either directly or indirectly, imply the importance of a rural practicum, and that  a few teacher education programs provide written advice to students who  are considering taking up a rural practicum. It is unclear, however, whether  follow-up advice is provided, so that the impact and effectiveness of such advice on students’ experiences and willingness to take rural education   seriously can be questioned. Our analysis so far indicates that it is the regional universities which are more likely to address rural education needs, and on this basis we question the metro-centricity of teacher education practice more broadly and suggest ways of expanding the options of teachers in their initial teaching appointments.