Transitions to school : reframing professional relationships

Systemic splits between pre-compulsory and compulsory early years education impact on transitions to school through discontinuities in children’s experience. This paper presents data from a critical participatory action research project about transitions between pre-compulsory and compulsory early education schooling in Australia. The project aim was to investigate how transitions to school might be enhanced by developing deeper professional relationships and shared understandings between teachers from both sectors. Within the communicative space afforded by a professional learning community the participants engaged in critical conversations about their understandings of transitions practices and conditions, including systemic differences. Data analysis provides a snapshot of changes in teachers’ thinking about professional relationships, continuity and factors influencing cross-sectorial professional relationships. Findings suggest that affording opportunities for teachers to re-frame cross sectorial professional relationships has led to transformative changes to transitions practices, understandings and conditions.

Enriching community engaged learning through interdisciplinary collaboration

Twenty first century society presents critical challenges for higher education (Brew 2013, 2). The challenges facing modern communities require graduates to have skills that respond to issues at the boundaries of, and intersections between, disciplines. Mounting evidence suggests that interdisciplinary curriculum and pedagogies help students to develop boundary-crossing skills and a deeper awareness of the student’s domain-specific knowledge (Spelt et al. 2009; Strober 2011). Spelt et al. (2009) describe boundary-crossing skills as the ability to engage with different discourses, take account of multiple perspectives, synthesise knowledge of different disciplines, and cope with complexity. In this chapter we investigate emerging conditions, practical processes, and pedagogical strategies that are enabling the Lab stakeholders, the community, the university, and students to participate in interdisciplinary community-engaged learning. Aspects of the Lab that are considered in this chapter include building trust, sharing values, establishing learning goals that are reflected in learning experiences and assessment, and employing strategies that define and attend to relationships and roles. The case study, “The Recognition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples in the Australian Constitution”, a QUT collaborative project with the Social Justice Research Unit Anglicare Southern Queensland, describes the collaborators, processes, outcomes, and the lessons learned through one Lab project over three semesters. The issues illustrated in the case study are then further explored in a critical discussion of the strategies supporting interdisciplinarity in community-engaged learning across university/community collaboration, within and across the university, and for student participants

Co-creating stories in social learning systems : The role of community media and cultural organisations in disseminating knowledge

This paper investigates how community based media organisations are co-creative storytelling institutions, and how they learn to disseminate knowledge in a social learning system. Organisations involved in story co-creation are learning to create in fluid environments.They are project based, with a constant turnover of volunteers or staff. These organisations have to meet the needs of their funding bodies and their communities to remain sustainable. Learning is seen as dialogical, and this is also reflected in the nature of storytelling itself. These organisations must learn to meet the needs of their communities, who in turn learn from the organisation’s expertise in a facilitated setting. This learning is participatory and collaborative, and is often a mix of virtual and offline interaction. Such community-based organisations sit in the realm of a hybrid-learning environment; they are neither a formal educational institution like a college, nor do their volunteers produce outcomes in a professional capacity. Yet, they must maintain a certain level of quality outcomes from their contributors to be of continued value in their communities. Drawing from a larger research study, one particular example is that of the CitizenJ project. CitizenJ is hosted by a state cultural centre, and partnered with publishing partners in the community broadcasting sector. This paper explores how this project is a Community of Practice, and how it promotes ethical and best practice, meets contributors’ needs, emphasises the importance of facilitation in achieving quality outcomes, and the creation of projects for wider community and public interest.

Examining the effectiveness of Police-Citizens Youth Clubs on crime prevention and community safety

PCYCs, individually and as a whole, are highly valued in communities across Queensland. Participants in this evaluation identified numerous benefits of PCYCs, including: providing structured low-cost activities for young people and other community groups; developing positive relationships and trust between young people and police; developing young people into effective citizens; providing a safe place for young people and a hub for whole communities; addressing disadvantages faced by young people; and fostering social inclusion. Depending on the particular activities and programs delivered by a branch, PCYCs have the capacity to minimise risk factors and enhance protective factors relating to young people’s involvement in crime. For example, PCYCs can play an important role in strengthening young people’s engagement with education and family. However, the crime prevention and community safety aims of PCYCs, and measures that might work towards these aims are not widely- or well-understood, or appreciated, by those working in and with PCYCs. The key recommendation of this evaluation is therefore that the crime prevention and community safety aims of PCYCs in Queensland need to be better articulated, understood and reflected in the practice of those working in and with PCYCs. A related key finding is that many of the activities and programs currently provided by PCYCs could be better oriented towards the goals of crime prevention and community safety without major resource implications.

Enhanced student learning in accounting utilising web-based technology, peer-review feedback and reflective practices: A learning community approach to assessment

Higher education is becoming a major driver of economic competitiveness in an increasingly knowledge-driven global economy. Maintaining the competitive edge has seen an increase in public accountability of higher education institutions through the mechanism of ranking universities based on the quality of their teaching and learning outcomes. As a result, assessment processes are under scrutiny, creating tensions between standardisation and measurability and the development of creative and reflective learners. These tensions are further highlighted in the context of large undergraduate subjects, learner diversity and time-poor academics and students. Research suggests that high level and complex learning is best developed when assessment, combined with effective feedback practices, involves students as partners in these processes. This article reports on a four-phase, cross-institution and cross-discipline project designed to embed peer-review processes as part of the assessment in two large, undergraduate accounting classes. Using a social constructivist view of learning, which emphasises the role of both teacher and learner in the development of complex cognitive understandings, we undertook an iterative process of peer review. Successive phases built upon students’ feedback and achievements and input from language/learning and curriculum experts to improve the teaching and learning outcomes.

Sense of community, social identity and social support among players of massively multiplayer online games (MMOGs): A qualitative analysis

The majority of research examining massively multiplayer online game (MMOG)-based social relationships has used quantitative methodologies. The present study used qualitative semi-structured interviews with 22 Australian World of Warcraft (WoW) players to examine their experiences of MMOG-based social relationships. Interview transcripts underwent thematic analysis and revealed that participants reported experiencing an MMOG-based sense of community (a sense of belonging within the gaming or WoW community), discussed a number of different MMOG-based social identities (such as gamer, WoW player and guild or group member) and stated that they derived social support (a perception that one is cared for and may access resources from others within a group) from their relationships with other players. The findings of this study confirm that MMOG players can form gaming communities. Almost all participants accessed or provided in-game social support, and some gave or received broader emotional support. Players also identified as gamers and guild members. Fewer participants identified as WoW players. Findings indicated that changes to the game environment influence these relationships and further exploration of players' experiences could determine the optimal game features to enhance positive connections with fellow players.

Virtual community, purchasing behaviour, and emotional well-being

The benefits of virtual communities in increasing firms' profits, instilling knowledge in consumers, and enhancing consumers' social experience and enjoyment are widely recognised. However, relatively little is known about how the use of a virtual community could influence consumers' emotional well-being. This study examines the relationships among virtual community features (structural and experiential routes) as antecedents of virtual community engagement, including quality of use of virtual communities (time spent online and level of information exchange), electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) purchasing behaviour, and consumers' emotional experience. Furthermore, by extending the cultural perspective to virtual community engagement, this study examines the role of collectivistic values on the aforementioned relationships. The proposed hypotheses are tested on the basis of data collected from 286 members of different virtual communities in Taiwan. The results partially support the theory that features of virtual communities influenced the quality of use, which then has a subsequent effect on consumer eWOM purchasing and emotional well-being. The results of the empirical analysis add credence to the proposed relationships. The role of collectivistic values is also partially supported. A detailed discussion of the findings and limitations of this study is provided.

Community participation in post-disaster reconstruction

When a community already torn by a prolonged war is subsequently subjected to being hit by a natural disaster, the combined impact of such disasters can be extremely devastating. Affected communities often face enormous challenges during the long-term reconstruction, mainly due to the lack of a viable community involvement process. In post-war settings, affected communities are often conceived as being disabled and are hardly ever consulted when reconstruction projects are instigated. This lack of community involvement often leads to poor project planning, decreased community support and an unsustainable completed project. The impact of war, coupled with the tensions created by the poor housing provisions, often hinder the affected residents from integrating permanently into their home communities. This paper identifies a number of fundamental factors that act as barriers to community participation in reconstruction projects. The paper is based on a statistical analysis of a questionnaire survey administered in 2012 in Afghanistan.

A holistic, institution-wide approach to building sessional staff capacity

Sessional Academics enhance students’ learning experience by bringing a diverse range of perspectives and expertise into the classroom. As industry specialists, research students, and recent graduates who have excelled in their courses, they complement the discipline expertise of career academics. With increasing casualization of the academic workforce, Sessional Academics now deliver the majority of face-to-face undergraduate teaching in Australian Universities. To enable them to realize their full potential as effective contributors to student learning and course quality, universities need to offer effective training and access to advice and support and facilitate engagement in university life. However, in the face of complex and diverse contexts, overwhelming numbers, and the transitory nature of sessional cohorts, few universities have developed a comprehensive, systematic approach. During the past three years at QUT, we have set out to develop a multifaceted approach to Sessional Academic support and development. In this paper I will explain why and how we have done so, and describe the range of strategies and programs we have developed. They include a central academic development program, which is structured and scaffolded with learning objectives and outcomes, and aligned with a graduate certificate in Academic Practice; a Sessional Academic Success program, which deploys experienced, school-based sessional academic success advisors to provide local support, build a sense of community, and offer discipline focused academic development; an online, dialogic communication strategy; and opportunities to present and be acknowledged for good learning and teaching practices. Together, these strategies have impacted on sessional academics’ confidence, learning and teaching capacity, reflection and engagement.

Species-area and species-individual relationships for tropical trees: A comparison of three 50-ha plots

1 Species-accumulation curves for woody plants were calculated in three tropical forests, based on fully mapped 50-ha plots in wet, old-growth forest in Peninsular Malaysia, in moist, old-growth forest in central Panama, and in dry, previously logged forest in southern India. A total of 610 000 stems were identified to species and mapped to < Im accuracy. Mean species number and stem number were calculated in quadrats as small as 5 m x 5 m to as large as 1000 m x 500 m, for a variety of stem sizes above 10 mm in diameter. Species-area curves were generated by plotting species number as a function of quadrat size; species-individual curves were generated from the same data, but using stem number as the independent variable rather than area. 2 Species-area curves had different forms for stems of different diameters, but species-individual curves were nearly independent of diameter class. With < 10(4) stems, species-individual curves were concave downward on log-log plots, with curves from different forests diverging, but beyond about 104 stems, the log-log curves became nearly linear, with all three sites having a similar slope. This indicates an asymptotic difference in richness between forests: the Malaysian site had 2.7 times as many species as Panama, which in turn was 3.3 times as rich as India. 3 Other details of the species-accumulation relationship were remarkably similar between the three sites. Rectangular quadrats had 5-27% more species than square quadrats of the same area, with longer and narrower quadrats increasingly diverse. Random samples of stems drawn from the entire 50 ha had 10-30% more species than square quadrats with the same number of stems. At both Pasoh and BCI, but not Mudumalai. species richness was slightly higher among intermediate-sized stems (50-100mm in diameter) than in either smaller or larger sizes, These patterns reflect aggregated distributions of individual species, plus weak density-dependent forces that tend to smooth the species abundance distribution and 'loosen' aggregations as stems grow. 4 The results provide support for the view that within each tree community, many species have their abundance and distribution guided more by random drift than deterministic interactions. The drift model predicts that the species-accumulation curve will have a declining slope on a log-log plot, reaching a slope of O.1 in about 50 ha. No other model of community structure can make such a precise prediction. 5 The results demonstrate that diversity studies based on different stem diameters can be compared by sampling identical numbers of stems. Moreover, they indicate that stem counts < 1000 in tropical forests will underestimate the percentage difference in species richness between two diverse sites. Fortunately, standard diversity indices (Fisher's sc, Shannon-Wiener) captured diversity differences in small stem samples more effectively than raw species richness, but both were sample size dependent. Two nonparametric richness estimators (Chao. jackknife) performed poorly, greatly underestimating true species richness.

Exploring university-community partnerships in arts-based service learning with Australian First Peoples and Arts Organizations

In this chapter we focus on the importance of partnerships in arts-based service learning with Australian First Peoples and community arts organizations. Drawing on six years of our own partnership and a wide body of literature, this chapter aims to act as a trigger for further reflection on ways to engage in meaningful partnerships with First Peoples and arts organizations. In particular, the continuum between transactional and transformational types of relationships provides a useful means for understanding our work and for positioning the various benefits and challenges associated with university-community partnerships more broadly.

#auspol: The hashtag as community, event, and material object for engaging with Australian politics

Critical, loud, highly discursive and polarised; the #auspol hashtag represents a space, an event and a network for politically involved individuals to engage in and with Australian politics and speak to, at and about a variety of involved stakeholders. Contributors declare, debate and often berate each other’s opinions about current Australian politics. The hashtag itself is an important material object and engagement event involved within this performance of political participation. As a long-standing institution in the Twittersphere, and one studied by the authors and their colleagues since its early beginnings (Bruns and Burgess, 2011; Bruns and Stieglitz, 2012; 2013), the #auspol hashtag provides a potent case study through which to explore the discursive and affective dimensions of a hashtag public. This chapter that engages both empirically and theoretically with the use of this particular hashtag on Twitter to provide a qualitatively illustrated case in point for thinking about the long-term use of political hashtags as engagement events.

The social tasks of learning to become a physical education teacher: Considering the HPE subject department as a community of practice

Initial teacher education (ITE) students participate in various workplaces within schools and in doing so, form understandings about the numerous, and at times competing, expectations of teachers’ work. Through these experiences they form understandings about themselves as health and physical education (HPE) teachers. This paper examines the ways communities of practice within HPE subject department offices function as sites of workplace learning for student teachers. In particular this research focused on how ITE students negotiate tacit and contradictory expectations as well as social tasks during the practicum and the ways in which their understandings are mediated through participation in the workspace. Qualitative methods of survey and semi-structured interview were used to collect data on a cohort of student teachers during and following their major (10 week) practicum experience. Analysis was informed by theories of communities of practice (Wenger, 1998), workplace learning (Billett, 2001), and social task systems (Doyle, 1977). It was evident that considerable effort, attention, and energy was expended on various interrelated social tasks aimed at building positive relationships with their supervisor and other HPE teachers at the school. The social dynamics were highly nuanced and required a game-like approach. In our view the complexity that student teachers must negotiate in striving for an excellent evaluation warrants specific attention in physical education teacher education (PETE) programs. This study raises questions regarding our responsibilities in sending student teachers into contexts that might even be described as toxic. We offer some suggestions for how PETE might better support students going into practicum contexts that might be regarded as problematic workplaces.

Re-imagining public journalism for community radio news-gathering

This paper explores the use of public journalism within a community radio news context. It argues that, the central tenets of the public journalism movement can help to frame, more adequately, a news gathering and production approach Tailored to the needs of community media. . Community radio stations generally enjoy strong relationships with their listeners and play an important role in the formation of the community itself (Lowrey et al., 2008). This paper argues that such strong community ties, in conjunction with public journalism news gathering approaches give community radio stations a strong opportunity to produce relevant, local news sourced driven by their listeners. In this regard ,this paper examines a particular case of public journalism used within the The Wire, a national, daily current affairs program broadcast on community radio. In the case study examined here ,public journalism informed story production that were designed to better meet the needs of community radio stations and their audiences.

Hard Custom, Hard Dance : Social Organisation, (Un)Differentiation and Notions of Power in a Tabiteuean Community, Southern Kiribati

Hard Custom, Hard Dance: Social Organisation, (Un)Differentiation and Notions of Power in a Tabiteuean Community, Southern Kiribati is an ethnographic study of a village community. This work analyses social organisation on the island of Tabiteuea in the Micronesian state of Kiribati, examining the intertwining of hierarchical and egalitarian traits, meanwhile bringing a new perspective to scholarly discussions of social differentiation by introducing the concept of undifferentiation to describe non-hierarchical social forms and practices. Particular attention is paid to local ideas concerning symbolic power, abstractly understood as the potency for social reproduction, but also examined in one of its forms; authority understood as the right to speak. The workings of social differentiation and undifferentiation in the village are specifically studied in two contexts connected by local notions of power: the meetinghouse institution (te maneaba) and traditional dancing (te mwaie). This dissertation is based on 11 months of anthropological fieldwork in 1999‒2000 in Kiribati and Fiji, with an emphasis on participant observation and the collection of oral tradition (narratives and songs). The questions are approached through three distinct but interrelated topics: (i) A key narrative of the community ‒ the story of an ancestor without descendants ‒ is presented and discussed, along with other narratives. (ii) The Kiribati meetinghouse institution, te maneaba, is considered in terms of oral tradition as well as present-day practices and customs. (iii) Kiribati dancing (te mwaie) is examined through a discussion of competing dance groups, followed by an extended case study of four dance events. In the course of this work the community of close to four hundred inhabitants is depicted as constructed primarily of clans and households, but also of churches, work co-operatives and dance groups, but also as a significant and valued social unit in itself, and a part of the wider island district. In these partly cross-cutting and overlapping social matrices, people are alternatingly organised by the distinct values and logic of differentiation and undifferentiation. At different levels of social integration and in different modes of social and discursive practice, there are heightened moments of differentiation, followed by active undifferentiation. The central notions concerning power and authority to emerge are, firstly, that in order to be valued and utilised, power needs to be controlled. Secondly, power is not allowed to centralize in the hands of one person or group for any long period of time. Thirdly, out of the permanent reach of people, power/authority is always, on the one hand, left outside the factual community and, on the other, vested in community, the social whole. Several forms of differentiation and undifferentiation emerge, but these appear to be systematically related. Social differentiation building on typically Austronesian complementary differences (such as male:female, elder:younger, autochtonous:allotochtonous) is valued, even if eventually restricted, whereas differentiation based on non-complementary differences (such as monetary wealth or level of education) is generally resisted, and/or is subsumed by the complementary distinctions. The concomitant forms of undifferentiation are likewise hierarchically organised. On the level of the society as a whole, undifferentiation means circumscribing and ultimately withholding social hierarchy. Potential hierarchy is both based on a combination of valued complementary differences between social groups and individuals, but also limited by virtue of the undoing of these differences; for example, in the dissolution of seniority (elder-younger) and gender (male-female) into sameness. Like the suspension of hierarchy, undifferentiation as transformation requires the recognition of pre-existing difference and does not mean devaluing the difference. This form of undifferentiation is ultimately encompassed by the first one, as the processes of the differentiation, whether transformed or not, are always halted. Finally, undifferentiation can mean the prevention of non-complementary differences between social groups or individuals. This form of undifferentiation, like the differentiation it works on, takes place on a lower level of societal ideology, as both the differences and their prevention are always encompassed by the complementary differences and their undoing. It is concluded that Southern Kiribati society be seen as a combination of a severely limited and decentralised hierarchy (differentiation) and of a tightly conditional and contextual (intra-category) equality (undifferentiation), and that it is distinctly characterised by an enduring tension between these contradicting social forms and cultural notions. With reference to the local notion of hardness used to characterise custom on this particular island as well as dance in general, it is argued in this work that in this Tabiteuean community some forms of differentiation are valued though strictly delimited or even undone, whereas other forms of differentiation are a perceived as a threat to community, necessitating pre-emptive imposition of undifferentiation. Power, though sought after and displayed - particularly in dancing - must always remain controlled.