Securing the oral tradition : reflective positioning and professional conversations in midwifery education

We postulate that positioning is a powerful tool in guiding and transforming student professional learning and practice development. In our experiences with students enrolled in he Graduate Diploma of Midwifery, we determined that positioning elaborates individual scholarship and identity formation of the learner midwife in practice settings. Positioning Theory, developed by Harré and other authorities, is a psycho-sociological 'ontology' or concept of how individuals metaphorically position or locate themselves, and others, within institutions and societies. Three key components of positioning theory include 'position', 'speech act' and 'storylines', developing from the everyday social interactions of professional conversations. Reflective positioning can be applied as an analytical tool for the moment-to- moment exchanges inherent in practice related conversations, occurring between midwives and midwifery students. These moment-to-moment interactions of professional conversations can be used by students to complete or fill their learning gaps. Positioning therefore, provides a novel, contemporary theoretical framework to 'unpack' or understand the complexity of midwifery practice and yet is complementary with reflective practice. Excerpts are used to demonstrate reflective positioning applications by students. Midwives are encouraged by health services and by the University to provide student support through a 'preceptorship' program to supervise, work with and assess students for competence in midwifery practices. We claim that reflective positioning by students within professional conversations with their preceptor/midwives, are the construction sites for learning and where identity formation of each student as a future midwife is both shaped and transformed. Both academics and managers of health services need to embrace the value of workplace conversations, the sites of rich oral traditions of nursing and midwifery. Thus, in seeking claim to our rich oral traditions, all students will benefit from engagement in reflective positioning to promote their professional learning and practice development.

Professional artists in Vietnam : intellectual property rights, economic and cultural sustainability

The article outlines the legal context for Vietnamese artists that is not discussed in other literature, including the scarcity of data on the art market, the reasons for failure to enforce intellectual property (IP) rights and legal contracts, and the rapid growth of private-sector art dealing that makes an examination of the legal context so essential. The author's field research in Vietnam since 2003 is linked to analyses of Vietnam's art market and to civil codes and other international agreements that determine professional artists’ IP rights. This illustrates the reasons why IP rights have not been enforced or arbitrated in Vietnam. The author includes a discussion of the importance of enforcing IP law for the maintenance of artists’ incomes and careers, the development of a national art market, and for innovation and cultural sustainability in Vietnam.

The emotional context of self-management in chronic illness: A qualitative study of the role of health professional support in the self-management of type 2 diabetes

Background: Support for patient self-management is an accepted role for health professionals. Little evidence exists on the appropriate basis for the role of health professionals in achieving optimum self-management outcomes. This study explores the perceptions of people with type 2 diabetes about their self-management strategies and how relationships with health professionals may support this.

Methods: Four focus groups were conducted with people with type 2 diabetes:  two with English speaking and one each with Turkish and Arabic-speaking. Transcripts from the groups were analysed drawing on grounded hermeneutics and interpretive description.

Results: We describe three conceptually linked categories of text from the focus groups based on emotional context of self management, dominant approaches to self management and support from health professionals for self management. All groups described important emotional contexts to living with and self-managing diabetes and these linked closely with how they approached their diabetes management and what they looked for from health professionals. Culture seemed an important influence in shaping these linkages.

Conclusion: Our findings suggest people construct their own individual self-management and self-care program, springing from an important emotional base. This is shaped in part by culture and in turn determines the aims each  person has in pursuing self-management strategies and the role they make available to health professionals to support them. While health professionals'  support for self-care strategies will be more congruent with patients' expectations if they explore each person's social, emotional and cultural circumstances, pursuit of improved health outcomes may involve a careful balance between supporting as well as helping shift the emotional constructs surrounding a patient life with diabetes.

South Africa's transtion from apartheid : the role of professional closure in the experiences of black chartered accountants

As apartheid gave way to political freedom in South Africa in the last quarter of the 20th century, chartered accounting firms began to hire black South African trainees for the first time. The study examines the oral histories of black chartered accountants within the context of social closure theory and South Africa’s changing political and ideological landscape. The evidence indicates that processes of professional closure and credentialing excluded the majority population from the ranks of the profession on basis of race and class throughout the period 1976–2000.

Adult learning experience : learning in mixed-mode forms of professional development in the Northern Territory of Australia

This qualitative research is an examination of the experience of learning within a mixed-mode teachers' professional development program. It examines how learning is affected by 'location' - geographic, institutional and personal, and how teaching may take location into account. Approaches to study, influences on learning and transformational learning are explored.

I haven't changed bigots but … : reflections on the impact of teacher professional learning in sexuality education

This paper reports on aspects of an Australian study into the factors and conditions that make it possible for secondary school health education teachers to include and affirm gender and sexual diversity in their teaching. The study examined the impact of a two-day intervention designed to prepare teachers to use a major new government-funded teaching and learning resource called Talking Sexual Health. The study found that whilst there was a range of personal and structural barriers inhibiting change, professional development and access to teaching and learning resources could indeed impact positively on teachers' willingness and ability to include and affirm diverse sexualities in their health education programs.

Professional identity in the global sports entertainment industry : regulating the body, mind and soul of Australian Football League footballers

In this article we discuss the ways in which the professional identity of Australian Football League (AFL) footballers — in a physical, high body contact sport — is shaped by concerns to develop different aspects of the body, mind and soul of the young men who want to become AFL footballers. Drawing on Michel Foucault’s later work on the care of the self we argue that narratives of identity necessarily involve a struggle for the body, mind and soul of these young men. Foucault’s work enables us to identify and analyse how relations of power, forms of regulation and arts of governing interact in ongoing attempts to develop the professional footballer. The article explores these issues via an analysis of the rationalities and techniques that inform talent identification and player management practices; and risk management in relation to these practices and processes in the AFL.

Professional experience in new times: issues and responses to a changing education landscape

This paper discusses policy and practice relevant to teacher education and professional experience programs in Australia, aiming to assist not only reading our past and present, but also offering strategic direction with respect to the challenges and opportunities that are emerging within the Australian context. A meta-analysis of current major trends in Australian educational reform and the implications of an 'education revolution' for professional experience are discussed. The paper maps and examines broadly key education agendas of 'productivity, participation and quality'. In relation to these agendas, significant policy trends are identified under the headings of partnerships, preparation and professional learning, and the implications of each for the field of teacher education and professional experience are explored. Some comparisons with similar reforms that have occurred in Scotland and England are offered to provide insights and alternative directions for those working in the field. Finally, a range of possibilities and suggestions, along with cautionary tales of locally based professional experience practices, are provided.