Social Responsibility Disclosure Practices : Evidence from Bangladesh

This report provides the results of a study of the social and environmental reporting practices of organisations operating in, or sourcing products from, a developing country; in this case, Bangladesh. The study comprised three distinct but related components: 1. an investigation of the social and environmental disclosure practices of the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) 2. an investigation of the social and environmental disclosure practices of two major multinational buying companies: Nike and H&M 3. an exploration of possible drivers for the media agenda in reporting the activities of multinationals and NGOs.

Waste and resource management practices, legislation and policy encouraging and influencing ‘regeneration reuse’ of property assets

Carbon taxation governance is becoming increasingly popular, further evolving the polluter pays concept already well established in the built environment as a mechanism to controlling and licensing waste generation. This paper presents an explanation of property asset ‘regeneration reuse’ principles following deconstruction, which reduce waste generation associated with the process of demolition, construction and operation. An analysis is made of strategies in Australia and the United Kingdom, comparing jurisdiction targets pertaining to construction and demolition waste that encourage ‘regeneration reuse’. From examination of applicable Australian and United Kingdom legislation, strategic, fiscal and policy that influence on the 'regeneration reuse' of property assets, an evaluation to the variety of issues relevant to waste and resource management practices is reached. The paper concludes that a systematic evaluation framework to selecting building components and structures suitable for reuse after deconstruction must be considered in legislation.

Epistemic beliefs and beliefs about teaching practices for moral learning in the early years of school : relationships and complexities

While investment in young children is recognised as important for the development of moral values for a cohesive society, little is known about early years teaching practices that promote learning of moral values. This paper reports on observations and interviews with 11 Australian teachers, focusing on their epistemic beliefs and beliefs about teaching practices for moral education with children aged 5 to 8 years. The analysis revealed three main patterns of thinking about moral education: following others, reflecting on points of view, and informing reflection for action. These patterns suggest a relationship between epistemic beliefs and beliefs about teaching practices for moral learning which have implications for teacher professional development concerning experiences in moral education.

Compendium of best practices on motorcycle and scooter safety

Throughout the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) and across the world, riders and passengers of motorcycles and scooters are among the most vulnerable road users. Such vulnerability is especially pertinent for nations that more often use motorcycles and scooters as a method of transportation. In developing effective countermeasures to reduce motorcycle and scooter death and injury across multiple regions, consideration is required of various situational and socio-cultural factors that vary across APEC economies. This compendium aims to facilitate implementation of best practice countermeasures to improve motorcycle safety in APEC member economies.

Website designers : how do they experience information literacy?

This paper presents the findings from the first phase of a larger study into the information literacy of website designers. Using a phenomenographic approach, it maps the variation in experiencing the phenomenon of information literacy from the viewpoint of website designers. The current result reveals important insights into the lived experience of this group of professionals. Analysis of data has identified five different ways in which website designers experience information literacy: problem-solving, using best practices, using a knowledge base, building a successful website, and being part of a learning community of practice. As there is presently relatively little research in the area of workplace information literacy, this study provides important additional insights into our understanding of information literacy in the workplace, especially in the specific context of website design. Such understandings are of value to library and information professionals working with web professionals either within or beyond libraries. These understandings may also enable information professionals to take a more proactive role in the industry of website design. Finally, the obtained knowledge will contribute to the education of both website-design science and library and information science (LIS) students.

An exploratory study of associations between Australian-Indian mothers’ use of controlling feeding practices, concerns and perceptions of children’s weight and children’s picky eating

Aim This cross-sectional study explores associations between migrant Indian mothers’ use of controlling feeding practices (pressure to eat, restriction and monitoring) and their concerns and perceptions regarding their children’s weight and picky eating behaviour. Methods Two hundred and thirty mothers with children aged 1-5 years, residing in Australia for 1-8 years, participated by completing a self-reported questionnaire. Results Perceptions and concerns regarding children’s weight were not associated with any of the controlling feeding practices. A positive association was noted between pressure feeding and perceptions of pickiness after adjusting for covariates: children’s age, gender and weight-for-age Z-score. Girls, older children, and children with higher weight-for-age z scores were pressure fed to a greater extent. Conclusions This study supports the generalisation of findings from Caucasian literature that pressure feeding and perceptions of pickiness are positively related.

Negotiating teacher identities : dialogic reflections on classroom interaction in a transnational context

This study investigates the development of teacher identity in a transnational context through an analysis of the voices of sixteen preservice teachers from Hong Kong who engage in interaction with primary students in an Australian classroom. The context for this research is the school-based experience undertaken by these preservice English as a second language teachers as part of their short language immersion (SLIM) program in Brisbane, Australia. Such SLIM programs are a genre of study abroad programs which have been gaining in popularity within teacher education in Australia, attended by preservice and inservice teachers from China, Hong Kong, Korea, and other Asian countries. This research is conducted at a time when the imperative to globalise higher education provision is a strategic factor in the educational policies of both Australia and Hong Kong. In Australia, international educational services now constitute the country’s third largest export with more than 400,000 students coming to Australia to study annually. In order to maintain Australia’s current global position as the third most popular Englishspeaking study destination, the government is now focusing on sustainability and the quality of the study experience being offered to international students (Bradley Review, 2008). In Hong Kong, the government sponsors both preservice and inservice English as a second language (ESL) teachers to undertake SLIM programs in Australia and other English-speaking countries, as part of their policy of promoting high levels of English proficiency in Hong Kong classrooms. Transnational teacher education is an important issue to which this study contributes insights into the affordances and constraints of a school-based experience in the transnational context. Second language teacher education has been defined as interventions designed to develop participants’ professional knowledge. In this study, it is argued that participation in a different community of practice helps to foreground tacit theories of second language pedagogy, making them visible and open to review. Questions of pedagogy are also seen as questions of teacher identity, constituting the way that one is in the classroom. I take up a sociocultural and poststructural framework, drawing on the work of James Gee and Mikhail Bakhtin, to theorise the construction of teacher identity as emerging through dialogic relations and socially situated discursive practices. From this perspective, this study investigates whether these teachers engage with different ways of representing themselves through appropriating, adapting or rejecting Discourses prevailing in the Australian classroom. Research suggests that reflecting on dilemmas encountered as lived experiences can extend professional understandings. In this study, the participants engage in a process of dialogic reflection on their intercultural classroom interactions, examining with their peers and their lecturer/researcher selected moments of dissonance that they have faced in the unfamiliar context of an Australian primary classroom. It is argued that the recursive and multivoiced nature of this process of reflection on practice allows participants opportunities to negotiate new understandings of second language teacher identity. Dialogic learning, based on the theories of Bakhtin and Vygotsky, provides the theoretic framing not only for the process of reflection instantiated in this study, but also features in the analysis of the participants’ second language classroom practices. The research design uses a combined discourse analytic and ethnographic approach as a logic-of-inquiry to explore the dialogic relationships which these second language teachers negotiate with their students and their peers in the transnational context. In this way, through discourse analysis of their classroom talk and reflective dialogues, assisted by the analytic tools of speech genres and discourse formats, I explore the participants’ ways of doing and being second language teachers. Thus, this analysis traces the process of ideological becoming of these beginner teachers as shifts in their understandings of teacher and student identities. This study also demonstrates the potential for a nontraditional stimulated recall interview to provide dialogic scaffolding for beginner teachers to reflect productively on their practice.

Developing intercultural competence in pre-service teachers from Australia and Malaysia : insights from the “Patches” programme

Developing intercultural competence in pre-service teachers from Australia and Malaysia: Insights from a Patches program. Innovative pedagogies can offer pre-service teachers the opportunity to develop their intercultural competence and take up more globalised viewpoints. One such innovation is the Patches program which brought together Malaysian and Australian pre-service teachers who were studying at the same university in Brisbane, Australia, to actively explore issues of cultural and linguistic difference. The participants were 14 Australian fourth-year pre-service teachers who were enrolled in a program on inclusive education, and 58 Malaysian pre-service teachers who had recently arrived at the university in Brisbane to commence their second year of an international education program. In peer groupings, these domestic and international pre-service teachers engaged in a series of interactive tasks and reflective writing workshops exploring intercultural experiences, over a period of ten weeks. Each element or ‘patch’ in the program was designed to build up into a mosaic of intercultural learning. The flexible structuring of the Patches Program provided a supportive framework for participant interaction whilst allowing the groups to decide for themselves the nature and extent of their involvement in a series of community-related tasks. The process of negotiating and implementing these activities formed the basis for establishing meaningful relationships between the participants. The development of the participants’ intercultural competence is traced through their reflective narratives and focus group discussions, drawing on Byram’s concept of the five savoirs. Explaining aspects of Australian culture to their newly arrived Malaysian peers, allowed the Australian pre-service teachers to take a perspective of outsideness towards their own familiar social practices. In addition, being unusually positioned as the linguistic other amongst a group of Bahasa Melayu speakers, highlighted for the Australian pre-service teachers the importance of being inclusive. For the Malaysian pre-service teachers, participation in the Patches program helped to extend intercultural understandings, establish social networks with local students, and build a sense of community in their new learning environment. Both groups of pre-service teachers noted the power of “learning directly by interacting rather than through books”. In addition to interacting interculturally, the process of reflecting on these intercultural experiences is seen as integral to the development of intercultural competence.

Yutori Kyoiku and the uncertainty of recent neo-liberal reforms in Japanese higher education

This paper draws upon the current situation within Japanese Higher Education. In particular the paper focuses on educational reforms and how they relate to the notions of Yutori Kyoiku which constituted a major attempt by Japanese education to develop individual student capacity. A clear subtext of the recent neo-liberal reform agenda is a desire to incorporated free-market ideals into the Japanese educational system. This paper raises several important problems connected to the reforms such as the decrease in classroom hours, changes to the contents of textbooks and a growing discrepancy in academic skills between students in different localities. These education reforms have impacted on notions of Yutori Kyoiku through the continuation of nationally standardized testing and changes directed at controlling the practices of classroom teachers. While acknowledging the current Japanese cabinet’s (DP) education policy has been inherited from an earlier LDP government, the paper points to similarities between the current reforms and the iconic Meiji era reforms of the late 1800s.

Review article : paramedic education opportunities and challenges in Australia

Paramedic education has been undergoing major development in Australia in the past 20 years, with many different educational programmes being developed across all Australian jurisdictions. This paper aims to review the current paramedic education programmes in Australia to identify the similarities and differences between the programmes, and the strengths and challenges in these programmes. A literature search was performed using six scientific databases to identify any systematic reviews, literature reviews or relevant articles on the topic. Additional searches included journal articles and text references from 1995 to 2011. The search was conducted during December 2010 and November 2011. Included in this review are a total of 28 articles, which are focused around five major issues in paramedic education: (i) principle on paramedic programmes and the involvement of industry partners; (ii) clinical placements; (iii) contemporary methods of education; (iv) needs for specific programmes within paramedic education; and (v) articles related to the accreditation process for paramedic programmes. Paramedic programmes across Australian universities vary with many different practices, especially relating to clinical placements in the field. The further advances of the paramedic education programmes should aim to respond to population change and industry development, which would enhance the paramedic profession across Australia.

Improving quality management system implementation in Indonesian construction companies

As the Indonesian construction industry is now promising to become the engine of national economic development, achieving quality and higher performance, not only domestically but also in the international market, are becoming crucial issues. Implementing quality management systems (QMSs) based on ISO 9001 are important in helping Indonesian construction companies become more competitive, for it is acknowledged that quality in construction is a major concern in the global construction industry. However, the possession of ISO 9001 certification does not reflect the presence of a well-operated QMS, which is capable of giving customer and project end-users satisfaction. The review of literature found that there is a significant correlation between a company.s organisational culture and the quality performance of contractors. While research into this area has involved many researchers, there is no critical mass of information specifically related to the Indonesian situation. Studies based on contemporary perspectives of the characteristics of the Indonesian construction organisational culture using Cameron and Quinn.s Organizational Culture Assessment Instrument (OCAI) and its relationship with the contractor.s ISO 9001 practices, have not been previously undertaken. This thesis research, therefore, investigated the culture profiles in Indonesian construction organisations, together with the current implementation of ISO 9001 and their performance during implementing QMSs, as information in these areas has a bearing on the poor performance and low levels of competitiveness of Indonesian construction companies. Questionnaire surveys were distributed to selected representative grade 7 civil engineering contractors located in the two provincial capitals of Makassar and Manado, and the national capital, Jakarta, in order to collect responses designed to examine the effectiveness of their QMSs implementation. The survey also aimed to identify current problems within the systems, and examine the performance of companies while implementing their QMSs. The questionnaire contained questions to assess the organisational culture profiles of Indonesian construction companies, adopting the OCAI. The survey results were then used to analyse the influence of different organisational culture profiles on QMSs implementation among respondent companies. The results from the questionnaire survey supported the development of a Culture-based Quality Management System Improvement Implementation Framework, designed to help Indonesian construction companies identify some typical barriers associated with impacting on effective QMSs implementation; to assist them to develop cultural values that can drive effective QMSs implementation; to undertake effective QMSs practices; and to recognise the potential results and longer-term benefits obtainable from implementing effective QMSs. A Focus Group Discussion was conducted with the assistance of a panel of professional construction practitioners, policy makers and academic experts, which further considered and validated the usefulness and applicability of the framework. Based on the outcome from this discussion and on the results of the earlier data analysis, a final version of the framework was developed to assist Indonesian construction companies in improving their capability of construction project delivery, and thereby contribute to providing or improving the competitive advantage of Indonesian construction companies in the local, national and global construction market.

Towards the development of a best practice index for the disclosure of organisations' climate change-related corporate governance practices

The aim of this study is to develop a disclosure guide for climate-change-related corporate governance (CCCG) practices. Drawing from existing climate change policy guidelines together with content analysis of leading Australian companies’ disclosure practices, we develop a best practice index for the disclosure of CCCG practises. The best practice index is further informed, validated and refined by the contribution of experts from a range of stakeholder groups. Our index represents the most comprehensive list generated to date, utilising experts’ opinions, in relation to CCCG disclosure practices. This CCCG disclosure index would be useful for companies seeking to provide information in relation their CCCG practices

Sociocultural animation

The emergence of global computer networks and the ubiquitous availability of advanced information and communication technology (ICT) since the mid Nineties has given rise to the hope that the traditional disadvantages faced by regional economies and regional communities could be elevated easily and swiftly. Yet, the experience of both community informatics and community development researchers and practitioners tells a different tale. Although the potential of ICT is in fact realised in some situations and locations and does provide means to ensure sustainability in some regional communities, elsewhere it has not been taken up or has not been able to elicit change for the promised better. Too many communities are still faced by a centralised structure in the context of commerce, service provision or governance and by various degrees of digital divides between connected and disconnected, between media literate and illiterate, between young and old, and between urban and rural. Many attempts to close or bridge the digital divide have been reported with various degrees of success (cf. Menou, 2001; Servon, 2002). Most of these accounts echo a common voice in that they report similar principles of action, and they reflect – in most cases unconsciously – practices of sociocultural animation. This article seeks to shed light onto the concept of sociocultural animation which is already commonplace in various forms in the arts, in education and professional development, youth work, sports, town planning, careers services, entrepreneurship and tourism. It starts by exploring the origins of sociocultural animation and draws parallels to the current state of research and practice. It unpacks the foundation of sociocultural animation and briefly describes underlying principles and how they can be applied in the context of community informatics and developing regional communities with ICT. Finally, further areas of investigation are being proposed.