Environmental management systems auditing:Auditors' experiences in Australia

The last decade of the 20th century witnessed rapid growth in the adoption of various environmental management systems (EMS) within organisations. Environmental consultants and auditors play an intricate role in the  interpretation, implementation and certification of an EMS. This paper presents the experiences of eight leading auditors with respect to the adoption of EMS/ISO 14001 by Australian organisations. The benefits and issues relating to the auditing process are discussed.

Separation of conjoined twins: experiences of perioperative nurses and their recommendations

Background: Within an 8-month period, an unprecedented and historical first in Queensland, Australia, the perioperative nurses were members of teams involved in the surgical separation of two sets of conjoined twins. Little is known about the (dis)stress that some of these perioperative nurses experienced nor how best to support them during such experiences.

Aim: The aim of this paper is to report on the qualitiative study that explored the experiences of those perioperative nurses involved in the surgical separation of cojoined twins and from their stories propose recommendations to support perioperative nurses who are confronted with such workplace experiences.

Methods: Using a narrative methodology, nine perioperative nurses shared their stories of being involved in the surgical separation of conjoined twins in Australia. Narrative and thematic analyses were conducted and recommendations to support perioperative nurses through workplace (dis)stress were identified. Participants validated the findings and recommendations.

Findings: The analyses revealed the themes of professionalism, teamwork, 'them vs. us' and emotional loads.

Discussion: The sensationalism around the rarity of conjoined twins brought an intensive intrusiveness from the world media. As a result, secrecy within the hospital about the conjoined twin cases created divisions between those perioperative nurses on the teams and those not. The processes and outcomes of the two surgical cases were in contrast to each other. For some perioperative nurses this caused distress. It is essential that professional support is offered in a way in which the perioperative nurse can take it up without fear of negative judgement.

Experiences of regional and rural people with cancer being treated with radiotherapy in a metropolitan centre

This paper explores the issues related to rural people with cancer whose choice of radiotherapy treatment necessitated travel and accommodation in a metropolitan centre. Semi-structured interviews with 46 participants, from the Toowoomba and Darling Downs region of Queensland, Australia, were conducted and the data thematically analysed. The specific themes identified were: being away from loved ones, maintaining responsibilities whilst undergoing treatment, emotional stress, burden on significant others, choice about radiotherapy as a treatment, travel and accommodation, and financial burden. This study supports the need for a radiotherapy centre in the location of Toowoomba as a way of providing some equity and access to such treatment for the rural people of Queensland.

Teaching HRD personnel : experiences of computer-mediated communication in differently structured environments

This paper will provide an overview of the CMC structure in two different units of study in the Masters of Professional Education and Training at Deakin University. Each of these structures makes a set of demands on participants, and provides differing collaborative learning opportunities. The paper examines the experiences we have had in each of these structures, focusing on student participation, style of contribution to CMC, and the relationship between socialisation processes and knowledge construction.

Where in the world is room N101? Engaging with first year education students' experiences of transition

National reports on students’ experiences in their first year of tertiary study suggest that many students, particularly those coming directly from  secondary schools, find the transition into university life particularly difficult. These reports suggest that while many students find the experience to be a challenging hurdle others feel disengaged and unconnected to academic life. Reports also note that many students enter university with the expectation that their university experience should 'fit into their lives' rather than vice-versa.

Additionally, research indicates that successful transitional experiences for undergraduate students are critical in promoting effective learning habits, positive attitudes and openness to new knowledge. Establishing positive practices in the early days of the undergraduate course can enable students to utilise these experiences and knowledge as a part of their life-long professional habits. However, in order for this to occur, connections must be made, and relationships built, between students and their new peer groups and with the wider academic community. Connections must also be made between students' prior experiences and their new knowledge.

In light of the findings of recent research and reports, Deakin University has instituted a First Year Initiative to assist students in their transitions. Alongside and complementary to this, the Faculty of Education has developed a new three year Education Studies Major program which began this year.

In this paper, we discuss the ways in which the first two units of this new educational program aim to address some of the issues that students face when making the transition into university life. We see the implementation of the first two units as a 'pilot study' and while at this stage, evaluation of these units is only beginning, here we will consider some of the pedagogical strategies, resources, organisational structures and 'grounded' experiences that are being trialled as means to help students make the connections and take the first successful steps in their journey to becoming professional educators. Ways in which these new approaches aim to build important relationships between students, with staff and, as well, help them connect their prior experiences with new knowledge, will be considered in light of the literature on first year student transitions.

Operational experiences with rockbed storage systems

Many rockbed thermal storage systems were installed in solar homes and greenhouses in Australia during the 1970s and 1980s. However, this technology appears to have waned in popularity since that time, although other storage options such as phase change materials are still not established alternatives. This paper re-evaluates rockbed storage technology, in the light of the experiences of users over the last 20 years. Of the 31 systems investigated, only seven were determined to be still working. There are a number of reasons for this, depending on the type and use of the system, which are discussed.

Picturing Currere : envisioning-experiences within learning

Currere reconceptualises curriculum as understanding learning experiences. This paper outlines potentials for pictures in re-envisioning currere for a world growing in complexity.
Vision, as the privileged sense for acquiring knowledge, is often regarded deterministically - seeing is believing. But, as sophisticated technology becomes more significant in the control of knowledge systems - as 'reality' becomes more virtual - personal visual experiences are becoming harder to generate, interpret and authenticate. Knowledge technology is increasing exposure to 'mediated messages' and diminishing the ability to validate them. I see this as problematic for the authenticity of learning within a world that is intensifying in its complexity.
My work reaches beyond determinist/technological views of learning to explore envisioning-experiences within learning. I am particularly interested in ways that enacting with pictures embodies individuals, communities, and the world within understandings of complexity and authenticity. In practical terms, this involves interactively and reflexively 'doing pictures' as a personal process in learning for deeper understanding.
The paper explores three issues:
* Text and pictures: learning, thinking, and knowing, as textual dominions that marginalise pictures.
* Enactivism and learning: an approach to learning for complex communities that embodies mindful thinking within haptic experiences.
* Enactive picturing: laying a personal processual path with learning that complexifies understandings for authenticating experiences - doing-walking-talking - with pictures.

The effect of emotions in Australian expatriate experiences

With increased recognition of the existence of emotions in everyday interpersonal interactions, the need for emotions in cross-cultural interactions has become more obvious. Emotions play an important role in cross-cultural expatriate interactions as these experiences are essentially social encounters. Yet, little research addresses the emotions felt and the emotional demands involved in the cross-cultural interaction. Research on expatriate experiences centres solely on the cross cultural training, sensitivity, and adaptability of expatriates. What fails to be addressed, however, is the emotional aspect of this interaction. In this article, we examine the cross-cultural expatriate experience from the perspective of the Australian expatriate in Asia, integrating both the cultural and emotional aspects of the interaction. In doing so, we aim to advance understanding of the expatriate experience and the potential reasons underlying expatriate success and failure.

Real time, perceived time and time online : a review of student experiences of time over thirty years of distance and online education

This paper examines how students use and perceive time when studying in distance education modes and what affects this perception of time and the reality of time. We examine 30 years of student involvement on distance and online education, their comments on both their learning experiences, and the technology requirements of distance education/online learning. Our University has been involved in distance education since its formation in 1974. The online technologies offer increasingly sophisticated and immersive experiences for our students, both on campus and off campus, but many of our students continue to complain of time squeeze, and fail to predict the time it will take them to complete our subjects. We research how the technologies we use for online learning are contributing to this time squeeze perception and the student's "real" time to learn.
Research is drawn from both the Australian Bureau of Statistics and surveys of our students' experiences (we have 32,000 students online, with single online classes of over 1300 students), to examine student use and perceptions of their available time to study and how the technologies used in online learning affect this.

Exploring the career experiences of indigenous teachers : beyond policy and resource initiatives

In this paper we provide a contextualising account of a new four-year ARC study, Indigenous Teachers: Understanding their Professional Pathways and Career Experiences . The project has grown from our concerns about the low numbers of Indigenous teachers in schools and questions about why it is that of the few Indigenous teacher education students who graduate, many resign from teaching after short periods of time or never take up teaching positions at all.

We believe that one of the reasons for the under representation of Indigenous teachers is due to what we are calling the ‘impenetrability’ of the dominant white culture of schooling, a racial imaginary that portrays the ‘naturalness’ of whiteness. Such an imaginary informs the everyday practices and relations of social power of Australian schooling from curriculum policy to the organisation of the school sports. Our research project is concerned, in part with making visible the discourses of whiteness that shape the experiences and career pathways of Indigenous teachers. In this paper we draw on excerpts of data from interviews with Indigenous teachers in order to begin to understand how discourses of whiteness have shaped their teaching and professional experiences.

Solving problems collaboratively online : experiences of Australian and Chinese heritage university students

The research reported in this paper is part of a larger project designed to compare the online collaborative learning behaviours of Chinese Heritage Culture (CHC) university students, for whom a Chinese dialect is a first language, with Australian university students of European descent, and for whom English is a first language. The collaborative learning discussion focussed on in the research involved fellow students, rather than tutorial staff, facilitating those discussions.

The first component of the research was quantitative, comprising a questionnaire on readiness for online learning, and a quantitative analysis of student postings to a student-led collaborative problem solving task conducted online. The first component of the research (reported in Smith et at, 2005) showed no differences between the two groups in their willingness to self-manage their own learning, but did show that the CHC students were significantly less comfortable than the Australian students with online learning. Student postings to the online discussions were classified into organisational postings, social postings, and intellectual. There were substantial differences between the two groups in their patterns of online postings among those classifications, as well as differences in the length of postings made.

This paper will explore these findings in more detail through qualitative data generated through interviews with a subset of students from each group. Interview data provided further insight into the lesser comfort with e-learning among CHC students. Students from both groups felt there were inefficiencies in the online discussion, but CHC students also felt rather marginalised by the process. Australian students were more likely to evaluate the experience in terms of its capacity to achieve required learning outcomes in a time efficient way, while CHC students expressed more concern about how the process had impacted upon them personally. The interview data also indicated that a tutor sensitive to cultural difference is important for comfort among the CHC students in particular, since there is need for encouragement to those students to make reflective inputs to the discussion.

E-entrepreneurship and open source software

As the first stage of a larger project, this paper presents experiences of two e-Entrepreneurs in the light of Open Source Software (OSS) being accepted globally. Unlike proprietary software (such as Windows), OSS comes with its internal details visible to its users. The significant implications of this unique style of software distribution for e-Entrepreneurs are examined. Recommendations arising from the interviews include the need to be technically competent; understanding the reasons behind adopting this strategy; and identifying and addressing customers' requirements. Authors also found similarities between traits (such as being visionary; being responsive to market changes) which make an entrepreneur and e-Entrepreneurs successful.

Stories seldom told: paediatric nurses` experiences of caring for hospitalized children with special needs and their families.

Stories seldom told: paediatric nurses' experiences of caring for hospitalized children with special needs and their families

Aims of the study. This study explored paediatric nurses' experiences of caring for children with special needs and their families in an acute care setting. The aim of the study was to increase understanding of nurses' experiences of caring for these children and their families. The study was designed to reveal the caring practices embedded within these relationships through exploring nurses' stories.

Study design/methods. Gadamerian hermeneutic phenomenology and feminist research principles were the approaches used to guide the study. Interviews were held with experienced paediatric nurses and interpretation of interview transcripts using a Gadamerian hermeneutic phenomenological approach resulted in the identification of four themes.

Findings. The four themes revealed were: Special Relationships; Multiple Dimensions of Who is Expert; Development of Trust Between Nurses and Families; and Feelings of Frustration and Guilt.

Conclusions. The study emphasized the context-specific nature of relationships between nurses and children and their families. The nurses spoke about the difficulties they encountered in their practice and some of the ways that they dealt with these problems. They discussed the things that they valued and those that made them feel guilty and frustrated. In doing so, they revealed their warmth, strength, humanity and caring.