Ritual and nursing

The literature reveals that much of nursing comprises ritualized activity and behaviour and that these rituals have a significant impact on nursing practice. This study uses an ethnographic approach to uncover the meaning of ritual and its impact on nursing practice by examining the rituals embedded in Intravenous therapy management of four registered nurses working in two surgical wards in South Australia.

Descartes on the human soul : philosophy and the demands of Christian doctrine

By the 17th century Catholic orthodoxy had defined a range of propositions concerning the human soul as revealed by God and verifiable by natural reason. The writings of Rene Descartes display a consistent adherence to these orthodox propositions. The conclusion presents him as ultimately unsuccesful in convincing his contemporaries that his philosophy provided the rational demonstration of the key soul doctrines and that he was worthy of the title "Christian philosopher"

Not waving but drowning : case studies in work identity of new university academics

Eight case studies of academics at a new multi-campus, multi-state Catholic university form the basis of the research. A particular focus is examining how the academics struggle to construct their work identity against the global higher education background of changing government policies, reduced funding and major shifts in thinking about the functions of universities; and also the background of within-university changes: its new research-orientation, its particular form of corporate managerialist administration.

Woman principal : what's being feminist got to do with it?

This investigation of the experience and standpoint of women principals of Catholic schools revealed that dominant masculinist views of educational administration are neither popular, nor go unchallenged. It revealed that the unique achievements of women educators are largely ignored in a culture that still dismisses women's values and commitments.

Cultural connections across time and place : Wardell's late 19th century Genazzano FCJ College Kew

The Catholic Church was profoundly affected by the 1872 Victorian Education Act, which made education secular, compulsory and free, and led to the withdrawal of state aid to religious schools. In order for the Church to run its own schools, it had to look overseas for help and invited religious teaching orders, such as the Faithful Companions of Jesus (FCJs) to set up schools in Victoria, Australia. In many instances purpose built buildings were designed by architects. William Wardell was well established in private practice in Sydney when he designed the new Convent and School, Kew, Victoria, for the FCJ Sisters, in the late 1880s. Building commenced just before the crash of Marvellous Melbourne. Less than half of the total concept of Wardell’s original plan was built. It opened for business in April 1891. Today this building forms the heart of the contemporary Genazzano FCJ College Kew. Many histories intersect in this commission. The vision for Catholic education in Victoria in the late 19th century is critical. The FCJs charism and their experience of teaching in Europe, in France, England, Ireland, Italy and Switzerland, provides a model for their work in Australia. At this time the importance of architecture to society is made manifest in education and its demands on building: if learning is valued then buildings should reflect this, for public buildings can shape morality. Wardell was trained as a Gothic Revival architect and his building participates in a broader medieval and Gothic tradition. Wardell’s original plan for this late Victorian Gothic style asymmetrical three-storeyed building, was designed to integrate a convent, school, chapel, and dormitories. This paper considers architectural history from diverse perspectives, educational, social, religious, economic and political, recognising the complexity of this project and the people who played a part in its conception and realisation.

A societal knowledge management system : harnessing indigenous wisdom to build sustainable predictors for adaptation to climate change

As the climate changes globally time-honoured climate in a region may change and shift to another region. Consequently, local predictors of climate may no longer apply to the area where they were born, but may be invaluable in new regions where previously reliable predictors have become outmoded This paper is set on the proposition thaI traditional (indigenous) know/edge can be a strategic source in adapting to climate change, in these changing times. The research reported in this paper takes the Societal Knowledge Management approach where knowledge that rests within local communities, is harnessed to inform local communities and scientists regarding climate change impacts, so as to adapt to them accurately. A phased study was conducted that aimed at acquiring, synthesising and disseminating traditional knowledge regarding change in monsoon patterns in India. Traditional wisdom prevalent among fhe myriad communities of India, was collected, collated and classified into knowledge spheres such as Bio-Indicators, Wind Movement, Atmospheric Pal/ems, Astrological Methods, Festivals and Rituals, Direction, Characteristics of the Rain, Characteristics of Celestial Bodies etc and incorporaled into a knowledge portal, which is the basis for building the Societal Knowledge Management System (SKM). Subsequently, the SKM is to be harmonised with scientific predictors on seasonal weather patterns will allow researchers to identify if the existing indicators and monsoon pattems are subject to change, and if so how. Research in progress is aimed at integrating the knowledge with modern science and disseminating this knowledge through local knowledge centres, at village levels. Furthermore, this study is to be replicated in Australia, by harnessing indigenous knowledge, to build the SKM for Australia that could assist in building a better understanding of the factors that impact the environment, methods of building sustainable predictors for climate and approaches for adapting the climate changes. The research reported is expected to inform policy makers, scientists, governance institutions as well as researchers regarding the applicability of indigenous knowledge in building sustainable predictors for adaptation to climate change in the two countries cited and can be extended into other countries.

Benefits and disadvantages of sharing the principalship

Trials are occurring around Australia and across education systems to test the veracity and feasibility of various models of job sharing in the Principalship. Currently it appears that Catholic schools are more likely to entertain such arrangements than other schooling sectors (Di Stephano, 2002), however, trials are currently underway in government schools in several Australian states (Department of Education and Children's Services, 2009). These trials arise from the need to encourage more people into the Principalship and to retain experienced Principals. There is scarce research in this area in Australia, but job sharing is an emerging trend in the Principalship that could grow in popularity. There are many reasons given for job-sharing in the Principalship. First is the incumbent's desire to acquire 'worldlife balance'. With an average working week of sixty hours or more (DEl 2004), sharing the leadership load is attractive. Principals currently trialling a shared arrangement cite the desire for more personal time, age and stage issues such as the need to care for ageing parents, and the hope for a transition period to retirement. Education departments see the part-time/shared option as being attractive to leadership aspirants at a time when there's a shortage of Principals and the increasing 'baby-boomer retirement problem to address. Another reason is an emerging interest in re-designing the Principalship, with various constructions being explored (Lacey, 2006). This article considers these new configurations of the Principalship.

Wry-necked memory : the matter of Ireland in cutting green hay and memory Ireland, and the poems of the pattern.

This paper examines the matter of Ireland in Buckley’s two memoirs, Cutting Green Hay (1983) and Memory Ireland (1985), and the poems of The Pattern (1979), in order to revisit critically the ways in which he constructs himself as a diasporic Irish-Australian, a participant in the most remote Gaeltacht. It raises questions of victimhood, of similar and different experience of being at the mercy of the land, and of his re-engineering of the place of the political in poetry. It argues that Buckley’s agonized positioning as Ireland’s ‘guest/foreigner/son’ was a project that was doomed by its utopianism, and that, obsessed as he became with Ireland, the angst within had little to do with ‘the Ireland within’ or without. The paper suggests that the poet’s slow and unacknowledged abandonment in his Irish period of a key tenet of modernism, its distrust of propaganda and the political, is in itself a new formation which had some continuity with the radicalism of his thinking during the formative years of the revolutionary catholic apostolate he led both at the University of Melbourne and nationally. It also points to the deployment of an ancient medieval Irish trope, that of the ocean (rather than a landmass) linking a dispersed community, as one of the ways the poetry effects a resolution of the issues of being ‘Irish’ in a remote country.

The role of religiosity as a coping resource for relatives of critically ill patients in Greece

Critical care hospitalisation is emotionally overwhelming for the relatives of patients. Research has shown that religiosity is an effective coping resource for people with health related problems and has been correlated with better health outcomes. However the processes by which religiosity is utilized and its ejfocts on relatives of critically ill patients have not been adequately explored. This article presents relatives' experiences and processes of religiosity; it is part of a wider grounded theory study on the experiences of critically ill patients'relatives in Greece. T wenty-jive relatives of patients in the intensive care units of three public general district hospitals in Athens, Greece, participated in 19 interviews. Religiosity was found tv be the main source of hope, strength and courage for relatives and was expressed with church/monastery attendance, belief in God, praying. and performing religious rituals. Health care professionals should pay attention and understand these aspects of coping.

Radio interview

Host says Catholic Brothers College in St Kilda lifted a classroom mobile phone ban which is an indication of technology being embraced in the classroom.Host also mentions iPads are being used in classrooms as well.. Dr Debra Bateman, Deakin University, says iPhones, Flip Cams, Zip Recorders and Web 2 [sic] technology are increasingly being used in schools. Bateman says the technologies give students more ways to display their knowledge, and find the knowledge they need. Bateman also mentions is involved in a project ot look at preparing teachers to go into schools with adequate knowledge of technologies. Bateman says smartphones give the opportunity to do creative work in the classrooms. Interviewees: Dr Debra Bateman, Deakin University

Resisting immigrant myths : everyday consumer practices of Asian immigrants in America

Projective, depth interviews with U.S. Asian immigrants revealed their ambivalence toward the U.S. commercial sector’s colonial-era representations of Asian people. These commercial representations provide polarized depictions of Asian immigrants as either threatening aliens or as model citizens. These portrayals reflect “racialized otherness,” or racial stereotyping that represent Asian immigrants as inferior. Our findings indicate that Chinese immigrants strategically use everyday consumption related to foodways to resist the reverberation of American immigrant myths. In some instances, immigrants’ consumption practices instantiate a regional Asian identity. In other instances, however, immigrants’ consumption practices reflect a separation from the past and an acceptance of a new although not exclusively American way of life. Notwithstanding immigrant consumers’ resistance practices, the findings call for future research into immigrant consumers’ reactions to visual representations of race, ethnicity, and gender.

Festivals as a tool to integrate cultural identities in the city of Belfast

During the past few decades Belfast has witnessed a growing interest in festivals celebrating local cultural and historical traditions. In order to understand the context of festival development in Belfast an understanding of the city's history is essential. Belfast has around half a million inhabitants of two ethnic backgrounds, Irish nationalist (predominately Catholic) and British Unionist (predominately Protestant) (Russell 2005). Ethnicity in Northern Ireland mainly refers to the Catholic and Protestant populations. The people of Northern Ireland are predominantly white, with only o.8s per cent of them having non-Irish backgrounds. This percentage increases slightly to 1.3 per cent in Belfast, with 29 per cent of these being of Chinese origins.