Description:
This paper uses new data from research into informal learning through community-based 'men's sheds' organisations, that have proliferated rapidly and recently across much of southern Australia, to ask 'What is the potential for shed-based community learning in other countries?' It is based on a continuing suite of Australian research into informal learning occurring in community contexts for men, particularly research into men not in paid work.
Description:
This paper uses new data from research into informal learning through community-based 'men's sheds' organisations, that have proliferated rapidly and recently across much of southern Australia, to ask 'What is the potential for shed-based community learning in other countries?' It is based on a continuing suite of Australian research into informal learning occurring in community contexts for men, particularly research into men not in paid work.
Description:
The investigations surrounding the topic ‘The Landscape of My Life’ questions whether it is possible for a landscape to delineate the way in which we live our lives. For a period of thirty-two years my home has been a historic rural property comprising a dwelling and outbuildings on twenty acres of undulating countryside at Carngham. The work conveys the story of my life at this locale and pursues the motives behind the purchase of the country property, the experiences and remembrances that exist from this period of time and reflects upon the implications of a way of life over the last three decades. While considering the impact that a landscape can have on individual lives, it became important to consolidate the insights that surfaced for me with respect to my own life and works and compare it with that of other selected landscape artists. This comparison took into account personal and family backgrounds, artistic techniques, relationships with the land and the motivations that resulted in the depiction of particular landscapes. The result of these observations led to a consideration that not only can a landscape define the way in which we live our lives but, also identifies an affinity between human beings and the environment.
Description:
The investigations surrounding the topic ‘The Landscape of My Life’ questions whether it is possible for a landscape to delineate the way in which we live our lives. For a period of thirty-two years my home has been a historic rural property comprising a dwelling and outbuildings on twenty acres of undulating countryside at Carngham. The work conveys the story of my life at this locale and pursues the motives behind the purchase of the country property, the experiences and remembrances that exist from this period of time and reflects upon the implications of a way of life over the last three decades. While considering the impact that a landscape can have on individual lives, it became important to consolidate the insights that surfaced for me with respect to my own life and works and compare it with that of other selected landscape artists. This comparison took into account personal and family backgrounds, artistic techniques, relationships with the land and the motivations that resulted in the depiction of particular landscapes. The result of these observations led to a consideration that not only can a landscape define the way in which we live our lives but, also identifies an affinity between human beings and the environment.
Description:
Work/life balance researchers have documented the low take-up rates of corporate work/life balance policies at the same time as there are reports of persistent work/life pressures. This research aims to provide more comprehensive explanations of the phenomenon of low policy take-up than those currently available in the work/life balance literature which focus on organisational and individual factors. The research project is based on a critical review of the work/life balance literature which focuses on organisational solutions and starts from the assumption that the organisational approach to researching and addressing work/life conflicts is inherently limited, mainly because it does not theorise gender as a social structure and does not take into consideration the social and political context in which work/life arrangements are negotiated but focuses, instead, on individual employees and organisations. I integrated my critical review of the organisational work/life balance literature with concepts in the feminist literature, most importantly the gendered public/private divide, to create an explicit ‘gender lens’ which guides the interpretations of my findings. I applied this gender lens to Habermas’ model of societal evolution to operationalise it as an analytical tool for this research. From this theoretical basis, I designed a comparative research project, using Australia and Sweden as country case studies, which compares the approaches to work/life balance in the two countries. The focus of the analysis is on parental leave as one important example of work/life balance policies. The data for this research includes the parental leave legislation, public documents released by governments and associated bodies as well as national surveys on the take-up of parental leave provisions in both countries. This material is analysed in the light of the conceptual framework. [...]
Description:
Work/life balance researchers have documented the low take-up rates of corporate work/life balance policies at the same time as there are reports of persistent work/life pressures. This research aims to provide more comprehensive explanations of the phenomenon of low policy take-up than those currently available in the work/life balance literature which focus on organisational and individual factors. The research project is based on a critical review of the work/life balance literature which focuses on organisational solutions and starts from the assumption that the organisational approach to researching and addressing work/life conflicts is inherently limited, mainly because it does not theorise gender as a social structure and does not take into consideration the social and political context in which work/life arrangements are negotiated but focuses, instead, on individual employees and organisations. I integrated my critical review of the organisational work/life balance literature with concepts in the feminist literature, most importantly the gendered public/private divide, to create an explicit ‘gender lens’ which guides the interpretations of my findings. I applied this gender lens to Habermas’ model of societal evolution to operationalise it as an analytical tool for this research. From this theoretical basis, I designed a comparative research project, using Australia and Sweden as country case studies, which compares the approaches to work/life balance in the two countries. The focus of the analysis is on parental leave as one important example of work/life balance policies. The data for this research includes the parental leave legislation, public documents released by governments and associated bodies as well as national surveys on the take-up of parental leave provisions in both countries. This material is analysed in the light of the conceptual framework. [...]
Description:
Our paper critically analyses and theorises the role of women as coordinators and participants in community-based organizations where men comprise the majority of participants. Literature, interview and survey data lead us to suggest that it is "how men are worked with" that determines the effectiveness of women's involvement (author abstract)
Description:
Our paper critically analyses and theorises the role of women as coordinators and participants in community-based organizations where men comprise the majority of participants. Literature, interview and survey data lead us to suggest that it is "how men are worked with" that determines the effectiveness of women's involvement (author abstract)
Description:
This paper discusses aspects of men's learning derived from our study of mostly older men who are coming together, talking, working and socialising in community sheds across Australia (Golding et al 2007). The paper looks at the social, informal and autonomous learning and considers the significance of the community "work-like" settings (author abstract)
Description:
This paper discusses aspects of men's learning derived from our study of mostly older men who are coming together, talking, working and socialising in community sheds across Australia (Golding et al 2007). The paper looks at the social, informal and autonomous learning and considers the significance of the community "work-like" settings (author abstract)
Description:
This paper is concerned to re-examine Aboriginal spatial organization in the far northwest region of Victoria from Mildura to the Victorian border with South Australia. RMW Dixon (Working Papers) has noted that there is a multiplicity of names of groups in this region, and their status must be resolved. It does this by examining the primary sources and nineteenth century reconstructions such as Thomas, Goodwin, Smyth, Mathews, and Howitt, and then through a more critical analysis of twentieth century reconstructions such as Tindale. It finds that south of the Murray River and west of Mildura there were two language groups: Keramin (which included Jarijari at Mildura) and Yuyu to their west. Keramin at Mildura claimed country on both sides of the Murray River, however the Yuyu were only on the southern side of the river. The northern side of the Murray River belonged to Marawara, the southernmost dialect of Pakantji. The presence of the Marawara south of the Murray River is considered a post-contact adaptation.
Description:
This study aims to discover what oral history narratives reveal about the post-migration renegotiation of identity for seven Persian Baha'i refugees and to assess the ensuing impact on their adaptation to Australia.
Description:
This study aims to discover what oral history narratives reveal about the post-migration renegotiation of identity for seven Persian Baha'i refugees and to assess the ensuing impact on their adaptation to Australia.
Description:
This paper looks at policy initiatives in the vocational education and training sector in Australia. The paper draws on exiting work on neoliberalism in education and its impact on VET in the Australian setting and adds some new insights into the working practices of coordinators in the Victorian setting (author abstract)
Description:
This paper looks at policy initiatives in the vocational education and training sector in Australia. The paper draws on exiting work on neoliberalism in education and its impact on VET in the Australian setting and adds some new insights into the working practices of coordinators in the Victorian setting (author abstract)
Description:
Australia has been one of the countries to most enthusiastically embrace the neo-liberal conditions conducive to the dismantling of equitably provided public schooling. The article argues that part of the explanation for the absence of any effective challenge to this trajectory lies in the contradictory nature of the Australian identity. The ensemble of policies that have been officially promoted to produce this situation, include: an official process of disparaging public education, while eulogising the alleged virtues of private education; promoting school choice as the mechanism for upholding standards and accountability; encouraging structures and school cultures that bolster marketised views; deliberately cultivating inequities in resources and funding that exacerbate exit of a fearful middle class; and generally producing a compliant view of educational leadership that is deferent to management views. The effect has been a major shift of social justice off the wider Australian educational and political agenda. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of Journal of Educational Administration & History is the property of Routledge and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)
Description:
This paper explores the recent phenomenon and benefits of community men's sheds in Australia, focusing on the important role sheds and workshop-based practice plays in creating informal learning and friendship networks for men. It is based on recent studies of organizations and contexts in Australia that informally and effectively engage men. Problems are identified with front-end models of vocational training that disregard or undervalue the lifetime of skills and experiences built up by men in previous paid work roles and in adult and community education sectors that tend not to cater for men or diverse masculinities. Insights are provided into ways in which men's skills and experiences can be shared, transferred, valued and celebrated in men's livelihoods beyond paid work, through regular, shared, hands on activity in gendered communities of practice. It particularly explores the untapped potential of open and flexible shed-based practice for men';s vocational retraining, lifelong learning and inter-generational skills transfer. The "open" and inclusive nature of the community shed and what occurs in it and its pedagogical familiarity with men are identified as its key strengths. The paper identifies what it is about the nature of community-based men's sheds that has proven to be increasingly popular, productive and therapeutic in Australia in the past decade. One of my purposes at presenting at this conference is to seek out, identify and learn about different and similar insights from conference participants from other countries that might contribute to an ongoing international study of men's informal learning beyond the workplace. My paper particularly seeks to identify shed and workshop-type settings and organizations in other national and cultural contexts that might play a similar role in the livelihoods of men, families and communities.
Description:
This paper explores the recent phenomenon and benefits of community men's sheds in Australia, focusing on the important role sheds and workshop-based practice plays in creating informal learning and friendship networks for men. It is based on recent studies of organizations and contexts in Australia that informally and effectively engage men. Problems are identified with front-end models of vocational training that disregard or undervalue the lifetime of skills and experiences built up by men in previous paid work roles and in adult and community education sectors that tend not to cater for men or diverse masculinities. Insights are provided into ways in which men's skills and experiences can be shared, transferred, valued and celebrated in men's livelihoods beyond paid work, through regular, shared, hands on activity in gendered communities of practice. It particularly explores the untapped potential of open and flexible shed-based practice for men';s vocational retraining, lifelong learning and inter-generational skills transfer. The "open" and inclusive nature of the community shed and what occurs in it and its pedagogical familiarity with men are identified as its key strengths. The paper identifies what it is about the nature of community-based men's sheds that has proven to be increasingly popular, productive and therapeutic in Australia in the past decade. One of my purposes at presenting at this conference is to seek out, identify and learn about different and similar insights from conference participants from other countries that might contribute to an ongoing international study of men's informal learning beyond the workplace. My paper particularly seeks to identify shed and workshop-type settings and organizations in other national and cultural contexts that might play a similar role in the livelihoods of men, families and communities.
Description:
This thesis began with a research project on suicide that was abandoned after many hurdles were encountered in terms of reaching participants and after various applications to ethics committees. The ultimate research question was then recast as ‘Do Human Research Ethics Committees influence the conduct of suicide research in Australia?’ The conceptual framework for setting up the research was derived from literature on Critical Theory, Feminism and Weberian concepts of power and rationality. Subsidiary questions were then derived from this literature and the starting exemplar case of my own research attempts. These considered whether suicide research was problematic for ethics committees, the nature of the experiences of ethics committee members in making decisions regarding suicide research and whether the influences of disciplinary background, patriarchal medical dominance and pro-positivism were evident. In addition, questions were raised about whether and how other researchers who sought approval to conduct research into suicide-related issues were appraised. [...]
Description:
This thesis began with a research project on suicide that was abandoned after many hurdles were encountered in terms of reaching participants and after various applications to ethics committees. The ultimate research question was then recast as ‘Do Human Research Ethics Committees influence the conduct of suicide research in Australia?’ The conceptual framework for setting up the research was derived from literature on Critical Theory, Feminism and Weberian concepts of power and rationality. Subsidiary questions were then derived from this literature and the starting exemplar case of my own research attempts. These considered whether suicide research was problematic for ethics committees, the nature of the experiences of ethics committee members in making decisions regarding suicide research and whether the influences of disciplinary background, patriarchal medical dominance and pro-positivism were evident. In addition, questions were raised about whether and how other researchers who sought approval to conduct research into suicide-related issues were appraised. [...]
Description:
This book - the finale in a trilogy by the authors - traces the way in which a number of disadvantaged schools and communities were able to move beyond deficit, victim-blaming and pathologizing approaches and access resources of trust, relationships, connectedness and hope. It describes how these Australian schools and communities were able to benefit from working with 'street-level' bureaucrats who had reinvented themselves around notions of socially just forms of capacity-building. The book provides a set of insights into what is possible from a critical engagement for school and community renewal perspective, by working with the resources that exist within disadvantaged contexts, even in damaging neoliberal policy times.
Description:
The purpose of this research is to contribute a non indigenous perspective to current discourse on sense of place in contemporary Australia. The research employs a number of strategies to investigate current responses to our geographic and historical time position. Within the exegesis there is a vers libre poem, written from the imagined viewpoint of members of the Burke and Wills’ expedition. The poem is supported by a superimposition of the Don Quixote story over that of the ill-fated inland Australian explorers. [...]
Description:
The purpose of this research is to contribute a non indigenous perspective to current discourse on sense of place in contemporary Australia. The research employs a number of strategies to investigate current responses to our geographic and historical time position. Within the exegesis there is a vers libre poem, written from the imagined viewpoint of members of the Burke and Wills’ expedition. The poem is supported by a superimposition of the Don Quixote story over that of the ill-fated inland Australian explorers. [...]
Description:
The paper develops a broad macroeconomic innovation policy framework for ecologically sustainable economic development that can be applied to regional economies, from the perspective of Australia. Australia is one of the three huge per capita greenhouse emitting nations in the world. The increased frequency of drought and dramatic storms, together with mounting international scientific evidence, has raised the spectre of greenhouse gas emissions significantly deteriorating the economic viability of regional communities. Up until now from a regional perspective, ecological concerns of pollution and resource depletion have generally been part of the overall management approach to agriculture and regional economic development – more successful in some places and some time periods than others, but still part of the existing economic paradigm. Greenhouse is “the inconvenient truth” that now faces all regional communities, but its existing economic paradigm is clearly inappropriate for responding effectively and timely to this ecological concern. A completely different economic framework, based on economic activity that is satisficing (under conditions of ecological uncertainty) rather than optimising (under conditions of calculable risk) is required to address the ecological concerns of the future. An “eco-sustainable framework” is developed in this paper which sets out an innovation policy aimed at satisficing towards sustainable regional development from an Australian high-emission economy perspective. The framework is based on the work of two economists, Micha
Description:
The paper develops a broad macroeconomic innovation policy framework for ecologically sustainable economic development that can be applied to regional economies, from the perspective of Australia. Australia is one of the three huge per capita greenhouse emitting nations in the world. The increased frequency of drought and dramatic storms, together with mounting international scientific evidence, has raised the spectre of greenhouse gas emissions significantly deteriorating the economic viability of regional communities. Up until now from a regional perspective, ecological concerns of pollution and resource depletion have generally been part of the overall management approach to agriculture and regional economic development – more successful in some places and some time periods than others, but still part of the existing economic paradigm. Greenhouse is “the inconvenient truth” that now faces all regional communities, but its existing economic paradigm is clearly inappropriate for responding effectively and timely to this ecological concern. A completely different economic framework, based on economic activity that is satisficing (under conditions of ecological uncertainty) rather than optimising (under conditions of calculable risk) is required to address the ecological concerns of the future. An “eco-sustainable framework” is developed in this paper which sets out an innovation policy aimed at satisficing towards sustainable regional development from an Australian high-emission economy perspective. The framework is based on the work of two economists, Micha
Description:
This paper explores the pedagogical and social potential of emerging technologies, in particular the iPod, in facilitating the learning of young Australians with severe intellectual and social disabilities. The study, which was carried out in a segregated educational setting in Victoria, Australia, sought to establish whether the intrinsic portable, multi-media capabilities of the iPod particularly lent themselves to a practical application for students with severe disabilities. It was concluded that such new technology has considerable power and potential as an emerging pedagogy with students with severe intellectual and physical disabilities.
Description:
This paper explores the pedagogical and social potential of emerging technologies, in particular the iPod, in facilitating the learning of young Australians with severe intellectual and social disabilities. The study, which was carried out in a segregated educational setting in Victoria, Australia, sought to establish whether the intrinsic portable, multi-media capabilities of the iPod particularly lent themselves to a practical application for students with severe disabilities. It was concluded that such new technology has considerable power and potential as an emerging pedagogy with students with severe intellectual and physical disabilities.
Description:
Iron-sulfide minerals in benthic sediments may sequester potentially toxic trace elements that are introduced to estuaries from natural and anthropogenic sources (Chapman et al., 1998, Morse and Luther, 1999, Simpson et al., 2002 and Teasdale et al., 2003). Understanding iron-sulfide formation in benthic sediments is therefore central to assessing the risk posed by sedimentary trace elements (Machado et al., 2004, Burton et al., 2005a and Burton et al., 2006a). This report provides a baseline description of sedimentary iron-sulfide and trace element behaviour in Coombabah Lake – a sub-tropical estuarine lake in southern Moreton Bay, Australia (Fig. 1).
Description:
This brief review of learning by men not in work in Australia and the UK is undertaken in the context of recent increases in the population share of such men. It explores difficulties they experience equitably accessing lifelong learning as well as the wellbeing benefits accrued from learning informally.
Description:
This brief review of learning by men not in work in Australia and the UK is undertaken in the context of recent increases in the population share of such men. It explores difficulties they experience equitably accessing lifelong learning as well as the wellbeing benefits accrued from learning informally.