Opening the doors to multiculturalism : Australian pre-service music teacher education students' understandings of cultural diversity

Educational reform in Australia has urged teachers and tertiary institutions to prepare students for multicultural classrooms. Engagement with multicultural music by teachers and students promotes understanding of difference and diversity as music has both global and cross-cultural manifestations. This article reports on a research project undertaken at both Deakin University and Monash University (Melbourne, Victoria, Australia) with final year music specialist students (2005-2007). Students participated in an online, anonymous survey (2005) regarding their understandings of multiculturalism. By in-depth analysis of four semi-structured interviews undertaken with volunteers from the 2006 to 2007 cohort, using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis, emergent themes and construct understandings of participant experiences were identified. Two significant themes are discussed: representations of multicultural music in Victorian schools and cultural context. Music education can be an effective platform to 'opening the doors to multiculturalism and cultural understanding'. Pre-service teacher education courses should reflect the changing societies in which they are situated.

Broadening conceptions of curriculum for young people : reports from three student - teachers on exchange

Research reports prepared by three Australian preservice teachers Paula Shaw, Chris Sharp and Scott McDonald undertaking their teacher education practicum in Canada, form the basis of this paper. The reports provide critical insights into three aspects of education for young people in both Canada and Australia. They also provide critical insight into the ways in which a practicum research project, along with the opportunities afforded through an international experience, enabled the preservice teachers to broaden their understanding of the curriculum for young people, of issues relevant to the diverse needs of young people, and of themselves and their priorities as teachers. The preservice teachers investigated three topics: attempts to reduce homophobia in schools; the presence or absence of Aboriginal content in the school curricula in British Columbia and Queensland; and “schools-within-schools” as a means to meet the needs of diverse student populations. Linda Farr Darling from the University of British Columbia provides a response to the three reports.

Teacher education and critical inquiry : the use of activity theory in exploring alternative understandings of language and literacy

This paper explores the challenges of espousing a critical pedagogy within the managerial climate that presently shapes teacher education. It argues that current discourses of professionalism are incommensurate with a view of literacy as social practice and that they disregard complex semiotic ecologies in which both school and university students operate. Graduate teachers are constructed as the ‘providers’ of decontextualised literacy skills to school students whose existing communication networks are ignored. Rejecting this narrow view of professional practice, we draw on activity theory to analyse the social configuration of tertiary students’ identities and the textual resources that mediate their professional learning. This kind of research is needed to reveal the contradictions within and between activity systems in which tertiary students participate as well as to construct possible solutions to the contradictions identified.

Teacher education and critical inquiry : the use of activity theory in exploring alternative understandings of language and literacy

This article explores the challenges of espousing a critical pedagogy within the managerial climate that presently shapes teacher education. Current discourses of professionalism are incommensurate with an understanding of the way that literacy practices are grounded in the social worlds in which both school and university students operate. Such discourses construct graduate teachers as the providers of decontextualised literacy skills to school students whose existing communication networks are ignored. We argue that an alternative understanding of professional practice can be developed by focusing on the textual resources university students use to mediate their learning, and by locating their emerging professional identities within the activity systems and meaning-making practices in which they participate.

Exploration of nurses' lived-experiences and understandings of the concept of healing

Explores nurses' understandings of the concept of healing, within the context of a nurse/patient relationship. Hermeneutic phenomenology is the research methodology and story-telling the means of data collection. From these descriptions, new understandings have been sought and therapeutic possibilities actively explored.

Measuring children’s involvement as an indicator of curriculum effectiveness : a curriculum evaluation of a selected child study centre in Singapore

This paper presents one aspect of a research project evaluating a curriculum model of a selected child study centre in Singapore. An issue of worldwide interest and concern is the ‘quality of learning’ debate as it relates to early childhood centres. In Singapore, the government is focusing on expansion in child care settings and increases in the amount of funded training. One of the issues surrounding prior-to-school education raises the question of how one measures the quality of teaching and learning, to describe the value of using, funding and promoting early education. The research reported in this study used a quasi experimental research paradigm to assess one aspect of the quality of a curriculum programme in a child study centre in Singapore. Children aged between 18 months and 6 years (N = 81) participated in the research. Using the observation scale of Laevers’ Child Involvement Scale, the active involvement of children in learning experiences was measured. The findings are presented and discussed.

The country’s not what it used to be : research participants’ understandings of space, place and identity in rural Victoria

This chapter explores the various ways in which research participants from rural areas located in country Victoria, Australia, construct and reconstruct their understandings of themselves and their rural spaces in terms of place and identity. This chapter draws upon the data of two separate research projects that bought together a variety of researchers and research participants either growing up in, working in, or studying in rural areas.

The integration of curriculum and assessment in interpreter education

In dieser interdisziplinären, translationswissenschaftlichen Studie wird die Integration von Curriculum und Evaluierung in der Dolmetscherausbildung theoretisch fundiert und im Rahmen einer Fallstudie empirisch untersucht. Dolmetschkompetenz wird als ein durch zweckgerechte und messgenaue (valid and reliable) Bewertungsmethoden dokumentiertes Ergebnis der Curriculumanwendung betrachtet. Definitionen, Grundlagen, Ansätze, Ausbildungs- und Lernziele werden anhand der Curriculumtheorie und Dolmetschwissenschaft beschrieben. Traditionelle und alternative Evaluierungsmethoden werden hinsichtlich ihrer Anwendbarkeit in der Dolmetscherausbildung erprobt. In der Fallstudie werden die Prüfungsergebnisse zweier Master-Studiengänge-MA Konferenzdolmetschen und MA Dolmetschen und Übersetzen-quantitativ analysiert. Die zur Dokumentation der Prüfungsergebnisse eingesetzte Bewertungsmethodik wird qualitativ untersucht und zur quantitativen Analyse in Bezug gesetzt. Die Fallstudie besteht aus 1) einer chi-square-Analyse der Abschlussprüfungsnoten getrennt nach Sprachkombination und Prüfungskategorie (n=260), 2) einer Umfrage unter den Jurymitgliedern hinsichtlich der Evaluierungsansätze, -verfahren, und -kriterien (n = 45; 62.22% Rücklaufrate); und 3) einer Analyse des ausgangssprachlichen Prüfungsmaterials ebenfalls nach Sprachkombination und Prüfungskategorie. Es wird nachgewiesen, dass Studierende im MA Dolmetschen und Übersetzen tendenziell schlechtere Prüfungsleistungen erbringen als Studierende im MA Konferenzdolmetschen. Die Analyseergebnisse werden jedoch als aussageschwach betrachtet aufgrund mangelnder Evaluierungsvalidität. Schritte zur Curriculum- und Evaluierungsoptimierung sowie ein effizienteres Curriculummodell werden aus den theoretischen Ansätzen abgeleitet. Auf die Rolle der Ethik in der Evaluierungsmethodik wird hingewiesen.