Imagination for re-engagement from the margins of education

For marginalised secondary school students, mainstream education may no longer appear to be an inviting place. While proposed solutions to problems of disengagement and marginalisation appear to concentrate on finding ways to coerce students back to mainstream education through, for example, ‘learning or earning’ legislation, this article suggests that more effective solutions may be found by engaging with the students in the margins that they occupy. Following discussion of key influences on student disengagement and a theory of imaginations, a ‘students-as-researchers’ (SaR) model of working with young people is discussed to demonstrate that, through the scaffolded application of active imagination, it is possible for such students to identify and create their own connections to the mainstream. The SaR model is illustrated through reference to groups of disaffected high school students who participated in an action research project to investigate apparent low aspiration for tertiary education among their peers at schools serving low-income communities in Queensland, Australia.

From barrier elimination to barrier negotiation : a qualitative study of parents' attitudes about active travel for elementary school trips

This paper examines parents' responses to key factors associated with mode choices for school trips. The research was conducted with parents of elementary school students in Denver Colorado as part of a larger investigation of school travel. School-based active travel programs aim to encourage students to walk or bike to school more frequently. To that end, planning research has identified an array of factors associated with parents' decisions to drive children to school. Many findings are interpreted as ‘barriers’ to active travel, implying that parents have similar objectives with respect to travel mode choices and that parents respond similarly and consistently to external conditions. While the conclusions are appropriate in forecasting demand and mode share with large populations, they are generally too coarse for programs that aim to influence travel behavior with individuals and small groups. This research uses content analysis of interview transcripts to examine the contexts of factors associated with parents' mode choices for trips to and from elementary school. Short, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 65 parents from 12 Denver Public Elementary Schools that had been selected to receive 2007–08 Safe Routes to School non-infrastructure grants. Transcripts were analyzed using Nvivo 8.0 to find out how parents respond to selected factors that are often described in planning literature as ‘barriers’ to active travel. Two contrasting themes emerged from the analysis: barrier elimination and barrier negotiation. Regular active travel appears to diminish parents' perceptions of barriers so that negotiation becomes second nature. Findings from this study suggest that intervention should build capacity and inclination in order to increase rates of active travel.

Re-thinking physics teaching with web-based learning

There is extensive uptake of ICT in the teaching of science but more evidence is needed on how ICT impacts on the learning practice and the learning outcomes at the classroom level. In this study, a physics website (Getsmart) was developed using the cognitive apprenticeship framework for students at a high school in Australia. This website was designed to enhance students’ knowledge of concepts in physics. Reflexive pedagogies were used in the delivery learning materials in a blended learning environment. The students in the treatment group accessed the website over a 10 week period. Pre and post-test results of the treatment (N= 48) and comparison group (N=32) were compared. The MANCOVA analysis showed that the web-based learning experience benefited the students in the treatment group. It not only impacted on the learning outcomes, but qualitative data from the students suggested that it had a positive impact on their attitudes towards studying physics in a blended environment.

Cultural studies and the urgency of interdisciplinarity : sooner, not later, we're going to need a cultural science (Os Estudos Culturais e a urgência por interdisciplinaridade: cedo, e não tarde, vamos precisar de uma Ciência da Cultura)

Most of creativity in the digital world passes unnoticed by the industry practices and policies, and it isn't taken into account in the cultural and economic strategies of the creative industries. We should find ways to catalyze this creative production, showing how the user's contribution may contribute to social learning, cultural and economic advancement. To that effect, we must know what is an open creative system and how it works. Based on this diagnosis, the author that interdisciplinarity is urgent and there is also a need for a science of culture. What is at stake is a strategy of integrated development, as regards the upcoming innovation in its complex, productive and learning aspects.

Prevalence of malnutrition risk and its relationship with risk factors of hospital re-admission in older adults

Background: Risk of malnutrition in older people continues to be a global problem. Malnutrition is often unrecognized and under-treated across health care settings and may result in undesirable health consequences, impaired recovery from illness and a poorer quality of life. Aim: This study aimed to determine the prevalence of malnutrition risk in a sample of older people at high risk of hospital re-admission. The association between risk factors of hospital re-admission and risk of malnutrition were also explored. Methods: One hundred and twenty five hospitalised patients aged 65 years and older at risk of hospital readmission (24% male, 76% female, mean age 77 ± 6 years) were recruited from a tertiary metropolitan hospital in Australia. The valid and reliable Malnutrition Screen Tool (MST) was employed to screen for malnutrition risk. It consists of two questions related to recent weight loss and appetite. Results: Prevalence of older adults at risk of malnutrition was 27.4%. Risk of malnutrition was not associated with age, gender and living arrangement. However, among risk factors of hospital readmission, lack of social support (χ2 = 4.18, N = 125, p = 0.028), and fair –poor self-rating of health (χ2 = 4.13, N = 125, p = 0.042) were statistically significant associated with risk of malnutrition. Conclusion: Risk of malnutrition in older people continues to be a concern in health care, and increasing psycho social support may help shed light on reducing risk of malnutrition.

Re-engaging marginalized youth through digital music production: performance, audience and evaluation

This paper presents two case studies of marginalised youth experimenting with digital music production in flexible education settings. The cases were drawn from a three-year study of alternative assessment in flexible learning centres that enrol 650+ students who have left formal schooling in Queensland, Australia. The cases are framed in reference to the literature on cultural studies approaches to education and the digital arts. Each case describes the student’s histories, cultural background and experiences, music productions, evidence of learning and re-engagement with education. Findings document how digital music production can re-engage and extend participation among students who have left formal education. They do so by theorising the online judgements and blog comments about the digital music production as a social field of exchange. It also raises critical questions about the adequacy of current approaches to evaluating and accounting for the learning and development of such youth, especially where this has occurred through creative arts and digital production.

Identifying effective re-engagement practice : Brisbane North and West Youth Connections Consortium Action Research Project

This report summarises the participatory action research (PAR) undertaken by the Brisbane North and West (BNW) Youth Connections Consortium service during 2010 and 2011. The objective of the service, which is funded by the Australian Government Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations (DEEWR), is to re-engage young people who have disengaged from education and are at risk of not achieving Year 12 attainment.The PAR element is facilitated by Queensland University of Technology, School of Public Health and Social Work (QUT). The PAR identifies key elements of the model of service as well as provides summary narratives of the PAR inquiries undertaken by Youth Connections staff and their co-participants during this period.

Re-constructing Asianness in Australia : Yumi Umiumare, Owen Leong, and the remobilisation of monstrosity

In the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, Australia’s relationship with its Asian neighbours has been the subject of ongoing aesthetic, cultural and political contestations. As Alison Richards has noted, Australia’s colonial legacy, its Asia-Pacific location, and its ‘white’ self-perception have always made Australia’s relations with Asia fraught. In the latter part of the twentieth century, the paradoxes inherent in Australia’s relationships with and within the Asian region became a dominant theme in debates about nation, nationhood and identity, and prompted a shift in the construction of ‘Asianness’ on Australian stages. On the one hand, anxiety about the multicultural policy of the 1970s and 1980s, and then Prime Minister Paul Keating’s push for greater economic, cultural and artistic exchange with Asia via policies such as the Creative Nation Cultural Policy (1994), saw large numbers of Australians latch on to the reactionary, racist politics of Pauline Hanson’s One Nation Party. As Jacqueline Lo has argued, in this period Asian-Australians were frequently represented as an unassimilable Other, a threat to Australia’s ‘white’ identity, and to individual Australians’ jobs and opportunities. On the other hand, during the same period, a desire to counter the racism in Australian culture, and develop a ‘voice’ that would distinguish Australian cultural products from European theatrical traditions, combined with the new opportunities for cross-cultural exchange that came with the Creative Nation Cultural Policy to produce what Helen Gilbert and Jacqueline Lo have characterised as an Asian turn in Australian theatre...

Re/presenting readings of the indigenous literary terrain

In this study I investigate the spectrum of authoring, publishing and everyday reading of three texts - My Place (Morgan 1987), Jandamarra and the Bunuba Resistance (Pedersen and Woorunmurra 1995) and Carpentaria (Wright 2006). I have addressed this study within the field of production and consumption, utilising amongst others the work of Edward Said (1978, 1983) and Stanley Fish (1980). I locate this work within the holism of Kombu-merri philosopher, Mary Graham's 'Aboriginal Inquiry' (2008), which promotes self-reflexivity and a concern for others as central tenets of such inquiry. I also locate this work within a postcolonial framework and in recognition of the dynamic nature of that phenomenon I use Aileen MoretonRobinson's (2003) adoption of the active verb, "postcolonising"(38). In apprehending selected texts through the people who make them and who make meaning from them - authors, publishers and everyday readers, I interviewed members of each cohort within a framework that recognises the exercise of agency in their respective practices as well as the socio-historical contexts to such textual practices. Although my research design can be applied to other critical arrangements of texts, my interest here lies principally in texts that incorporate the subjects of Indigenous worldview and Indigenous experience; and in texts that are Indigenous authored or Indigenous co-authored.

Image-based visual servoing for the super-orbital re-entry of Hayabusa spacecraft

This paper presents an image-based visual servoing system that was used to track the atmospheric Earth re-entry of Hayabusa. The primary aim of this ground based tracking platform was to record the emission spectrum radiating from the superheated gas of the shock layer and the surface of the heat shield during re-entry. To the author's knowledge, this is the first time that a visual servoing system has successfully tracked a super-orbital re-entry of a spacecraft and recorded its pectral signature. Furthermore, we improved the system by including a simplified dynamic model for feed-forward control and demonstrate improved tracking performance on the International Space Station (ISS). We present comparisons between simulation and experimental results on different target trajectories including tracking results from Hayabusa and ISS. The required performance for tracking both spacecraft is demanding when combined with a narrow field of view (FOV). We also briefly discuss the preliminary results obtained from the spectroscopy of the Hayabusa's heat shield during re-entry.

Visible and near infrared spectroscopy of Hayabusa re-entry using semi-autonomous tracking

A ground-based tracking camera and co-aligned slit-less spectrograph were used to measure the spectral signature of visible radiation emitted from the Hayabusa capsule as it entered into the Earth's atmosphere in June 2010. Good quality spectra were obtained that showed the presence of radiation from the heat shield of the vehicle and the shock-heated air in front of the vehicle. An analysis of the black body nature of the radiation concluded that the peak average temperature of the surface was about (3100±100) K.

Re-examining the evidence in radiation dermatitis management literature : an overview and a critical appraisal of systematic reviews

Purpose: To provide an overview and a critical appraisal of systematic reviews (SRs) of published interventions for the prevention/management of radiation dermatitis. Methods and Materials: We searched Medline, CINAHL, Embase, and the Cochrane Library. We also manually searched through individual reference lists of potentially eligible articles and a number of key journals in the topic area. Two authors screened all potential articles and included eligible SRs. Two authors critically appraised and extracted key findings from the included reviews using AMSTAR (the measurement tool for “assessment of multiple systematic reviews”). Results: Of 1837 potential titles, 6 SRs were included. A number of interventions have been reported to be potentially beneficial for managing radiation dermatitis. Interventions evaluated in these reviews included skin care advice, steroidal/nonsteroidal topical agents, systemic therapies, modes of radiation delivery, and dressings. However, all the included SRs reported that there is insufficient evidence supporting any single effective intervention. The methodological quality of the included studies varied, and methodological shortfalls in these reviews might create biases to the overall results or recommendations for clinical practice. Conclusions: An up-to-date high-quality SR in the prevention/management of radiation dermatitis is needed to guide practice and direction for future research. We recommend that clinicians or guideline developers critically evaluate the information of SRs in their decision making.