Writing public space : design, philosophy, art

Among the factors explaining the emotional poverty of contemporary urban spaces is the dissociation of those who think, design and adorn them. Using his experience in designing high profile public artworks in Australia, notably Relay (Homebush Bay, Sydney, 2000 Olympics), Nearamnew (Federation Square, Melbourne) and Solution (Docklands, Melbourne), Paul Carter argues that a new dialogue between designers, philosophers and artists is urgently needed. The basis of this dialogue will be an expanded notion of graphicality, a new engagement with the discursive character of public space, and the evolution of postrepresentationalist art practices that make surface the psychic violence and cultural waste involved in the provision of new functionallydefined “places”. This paper traverses a number of projects: Relay (1998‑2000), Nearamnew (1998‑2003), Solution (2002), Save the Wall (2004‑) Golden Grove (2004‑).

Water's edge : And the water's edge writing

Water's Edge, and The Water's Edge Writing, is a work of practice-led research in the field of creative writing. Practice-led research, which refers to research undertaken in the process of making a creative artwork, has become a significant and innovative type of research particularly in the disciplines of the creative arts. This book consists of two parts in dialogue with one another. These include Water's Edge, a novel, and The Water's Edge Writing, an exegetical component. Water's Edge is the story of Serena, a midnight-to-dawn radio announcer, who discovers information about her family's past and future via the act of creative writing. The Water's Edge Writing addresses issues of practice-led research, including a teasing out of the nexus between creative arts practice and higher research in universities. This book represents an important example of how creative arts practice can constitute the discovery of new knowledge, in the form of practice-led research.

Performing Pedagogy and the re(construction) of global/local selves

The eighth chapter, written by Gayle Morris, is entitled “Performing pedagogy and the re (construction) of global/local selves.” Morris tackles a unique perspective with regard to globalization and education. A major characteristic of today’s globalized world is the diversity of people living within societies and communities. Classrooms in public schools and universities in the United States, Canada, Australia, and Britain are comprised of students from all parts of the world, a reality which is increasing the challenges faced by teachers and policy makers. Morris particularly discusses second language teaching and learning and the inadequacy of second language educators who are mostly approaching from “White/mainstream” positivist models and approaches to language teaching (p. 137). Morris highlights the “fixing” of immigrants and ethnic minority identity, and how the inefficient training of ESL teachers is affecting the global/ local selves of students. This chapter is invaluable contribution in this volume given the number of immigrants to western countries is on the rise.

Towards a cyberspatial pedagogy : exploring synchronous online learning potentials

It has been a quarter of a century since William Gibson (1984) coined the term cyberspace in his seminal science fiction novel Neuromancer. Subsequently, a proliferation of online teaching technologies have emerged supporting Virilio’s (1991) contention that, “time and space have ceased to function as meaningful dimensions to human thought and action.” The aim of this presentation is to discuss and demonstrate the innovative modification of an online, synchronous learning environment, Elluminate Live! (eLive), which allows participants to transcend the spatial dimension. Specifically, we present an example of good practice which aimed to enhance student engagement by implementing a structured online tutorial series which replicated the entire first year psychology on-campus tutorial series in the eLive environment. We discuss Student Evaluation of Teaching and Units (SETU) results which support the utility of this pedagogic strategy. Finally, we outline various challenges for the virtual teacher who wishes to implement a structured learning program in the eLive environment.
Gibson, W 1984, Neuromancer, Ace Books, New York, USA.
Virilio, P 1991, The aesthetics of disappearance, Semiotext(e), New York, USA.

Social identities and law students' writing

This paper argues that social identities, discursively speaking, consist of ‘positions’ that are individuated by distinctive linguistic features. These include distinctive patterns of representation indicated by clause structure and type, a set of priorities for attending to what is important indicated by thematic structure, and an orientation to the represented world and to self as indicated by modality, propositional attitudes and tense. A social identity comprises an array of these often contradictory ‘positions’ associated with a social or professional role. A person’s identity is constituted dynamically by the way they ‘reconcile’ the various positions that make up the social identity, and also, as Archer and Ivanic argue, by the way they reconcile a social with a personal or autobiographical identity. It is argued that this process of reconciliation gives clues about identity formation in the traces it leaves in grammatical texture.

This paper uses a simulated letter of advice to a client written by a group of first year law students to explore the discursive construction of social or professional identity. This letter is poorly written and full of grammatical mistakes and infelicities. It is argued that the mistakes provide a linguistic trace of the students’ struggle to reconcile the conflicting roles and positions they occupy as authors of the letter. In particular the students’ problems result from a struggle to reconcile their multiple positions as: students writing for assessment by a tutor about a legal problem, as a simulated firm of solicitors advising to a client, and as potential litigators anticipating the future course of events in their simulated moot court appearance.

Laptop computers as a mediating tool between teacher beliefs and pedagogy

This study focused on teachers of senior secondary classes and the impact on pedagogy of the use of laptop computers. It was found that in schools operating a mature laptop program, pedagogy was influenced by teacher beliefs, prevailing school culture, and the assessment requirements of students in their final year.

Beyond the road : Beat writing and its socio-cultural contexts

This study looks at the contribution of Beat Generation writers to the post-World-War II reinvigoration of the American literary tradition. It challenges the reductive judgements of many critics and demonstrates that the Beat phenomenon was as much an expression of its historical moment as a rebellion against it.

Cross talk : collaborative indigenous life writing in Australia and Canada

This thesis argues that the critical reading of Indigenous life writing needs to move beyond its concern for power relations operating between the narrators and editors of collaboratively produced texts. It discusses the role of Indigenous families and communities in both the production and the reading of Indigenous texts.

Writing across boundaries

This thesis examines a range of recent Australian fiction written in a magical realist mode. It uses the work of Russian literary theorist Mikhail Bakhtin to foreground the cross-cultural dialogues represented in these narratives, and it reads these dialogues in the context of contemporary negotiations of cultural difference in Australia.