Description:
Sport and recreation organisations are increasingly recognised by the health sector as key players for promoting health, particularly in terms of increasing population-wide physical activity levels. Developing the capacity of these organisations to influence health, however, is not understood. This research examined the efficacy of a system-wide, capacity-building strategy implemented to enable sporting organisations to change from a narrow focus on sport to one encompassing health promotion. This involved evaluating a state-wide health promotion programme funded by the Victorian Health Promotion Foundation (VicHealth) and implemented within nine Regional Sports Assemblies (RSAs). The research method involved a web-based survey with all RSAs and in-depth interviews with four selected RSA Executive Officers. The results demonstrate that health promotion was successfully adopted within sport and recreation environments; however, they also highlight the need to understand the nature of existing organisational resource dependencies and interdependencies. The article discusses the design of organisational change interventions to support practitioners and policy-makers in health and sport management.
Description:
Despite the widely articulated health implications of physical inactivity, declines in youth participation levels, particularly for adolescent girls, have fuelled social and moral panics about the importance of regular physical activity. Recent attempts to explain these participation trends have focused on the institutional and cultural discourses that are drawn on to construct particular identities and social practices connected with sport, physical education and leisure interests. In this paper we report on the findings of data collected through interview and focus group sessions with 138 females ranging from 14 to 16 years of age across six rural and regional communities in the state of Victoria, Australia. Adopting a feminist poststructuralist methodology and drawing on the work of Foucault, we explore the impact that dominant discourse-power relations operating in the context of rural and regional sport and physical education can have in the negotiation of physically active identities for adolescent girls.
Description:
The persistent failure of contemporary policies to improve school retention rates and close the achievement gap between students from low and high socio-economic (SES) backgrounds should be a matter of grave concern. In this article, we set out to show what it means to be educated in a context of disadvantage from the perspectives of young people attending a senior secondary public school in regional Australia. Acknowledging that youth are experts in their own lives, we draw extensively on student narratives of the funds of knowledge and opportunity structures that support and/or constrain education and employment opportunities in low-income neighbourhoods. Although young peoples' stories of hope and agency go some way to undermining the deficit thinking about these students and their families, we argue that the realisation of their aspirations requires institutional support and policies that address the systemic causes of educational disadvantage.
Description:
Supporting pre-service teachers as they develop their understandings of teaching, learning and their identities as teachers is complex and multi-faceted work. I draw on self-study to explore my work in a new partnership model between a school in Victoria, Australia and a regional university. During 2013, I worked in both contexts and carried out the dual roles of teacher educator and secondary teacher. In this partnership, I set out to create a third space for mentoring and supporting pre-service teachers, making connections between their on-campus work and their developing practice in schools. Throughout the self-study, I kept field notes and a reflective journal. In analysing these, I identified the tensions and challenges of working in this space and in articulating my pedagogy as a university mentor. I experienced uncomfortable moments of learning, where I faced tensions related to issues of obligation, loyalty and advocacy. I argue that engaging in processes of translation and mediation enables university mentors to articulate a pedagogy of mentoring and, in so doing, to rewrite the script of mentoring for pre-service and supervising teachers.
Description:
Many former mining areas have now lost their industrial function and are now turning to tourism for regional revitalization and community economic development. The transformation process of these industrial, and in some cases derelict, mining sites and landscapes into an area of interest for tourists is a major challenge both for planners and for tourism managers. It involves complex consideration to both the preservation of the physical site and community mining heritages as well as the health, safety and environmental factors inherent in opening these vast sites to the public.
Description:
Underpinning much of the literature surrounding lifestyle migration, counter-urbanisation and second-home use is the question of motivations and future intentions. In this paper, we explore the characteristics and orientations for future use of land by second-home owners in two locales in Victoria Australia, Phillip Island and Inverloch. Using both qualitative and quantitative survey data we find that there are three areas of second-home governance which ought to be considered strongly for future planning in these areas, health, roads and infrastructure and climate change or sustainability. Using data from permanent residents and second-home owners from these areas in collaboration with demographic data, we argue that underlining these areas is a primary concern, that of ageing. However, while these issues burn brightly for both users of property in these places, the ability for the local government authorities to deal with them is limited because of a lack of resources.
Description:
This paper addresses the vexed educational policy aspects of area-based interventions (ABIs) in neighbourhoods designated as 'disadvantaged' in an Australian context. We find that the way in which the policy of ABIs is supposed to operate and impact education is highly problematic. What we present instead in this paper is a much more complex process by which aspirations are formed, sustained, contested and maintained by young people who regard themselves as 'ordinary' and as being engaged instead in a process of navigating educational opportunities on the basis of resources available to them.
Description:
This paper addresses the vexed educational policy aspects of area-based interventions (ABIs) in neighbourhoods designated as 'disadvantaged' in an Australian context. We find that the way in which the policy of ABIs is supposed to operate and impact education is highly problematic. What we present instead in this paper is a much more complex process by which aspirations are formed, sustained, contested and maintained by young people who regard themselves as 'ordinary' and as being engaged instead in a process of navigating educational opportunities on the basis of resources available to them.
Description:
The aim of this study is to investigate the effects of in-game physical exertion on decision-making performance of Australian football umpires. Fifteen Australian football umpires (Mage = 36, s = 13.5 years; Mgames umpired = 235.2, s = 151.3) volunteered to participate in the study. During five competitive Australian football pre-season games, measures of in-game physical exertion (blood lactate levels, global positioning system [GPS]) and decision-making performance (video-based test) were obtained. There were no significant correlations between physical exertion in a particular quarter and decision-making performance in either the same quarter or any other quarter. Video-based decision-making performance was effected by time in game χ2(3) = 24.24, P = 0.001, with Quarter 4 performance significantly better than both Quarter 2 and Quarter 3. In-game physical exertion (blood lactate) significantly decreased over the course of the game χ2(3) = 11.58, P = 0.009. Results indicate no definable link between in-game physical exertion and decision-making performance. It is, however, presumed that decision-making performance may be affected by the time or context of the game. Future research is warranted to explore the relationship between physical exertion and decision-making performance to potentially inform Australian football umpire training programmes that replicate in-game physical and decision-making demands.
Description:
This book opens up ways to engage critically with what counts as innovatory practice in lifelong learning today, locating its discussion of innovations in lifelong learning within an international and comparative framework. Innovations in Lifelong Learningengages first hand with issues and concerns from around the globe, offering an international perspective on current trends through its range of contributions from across the UK, Australia, New Zealand and the US. The broad focus allows for diverse information on the nature of these changes to come together under an assortment of empirical, theoretical and methodological approaches. The book takes three key elements of lifelong learning: learning communities participation and non-participation work-based learning and learning through work. It links these with themes on diversity, social justice and economic and global development so as to negotiate and re-negotiate the constant importance of innovation with employers, learners and educational institutions. All those working in the broad arena of lifelong learning will benefit from this comprehensive examination of current debates in the field, including policy-makers, researchers, teachers, lecturers, educational managers and employers engaged with work-based learning.
Description:
Partnerships between the health sector and various organizations in the community have been encouraged as a new strategy to develop sports and recreation programs, and achieve public health objectives related to obesity prevention. The purpose of this study was to investigate the partnership-related processes and capacity-building strategies associated with the successful implementation of sports and recreation programs. The research design was a multiple-case study with cross-case comparisons. Eight sports and recreation programs funded by the Victorian Health Promotion Foundation were investigated. Data collection included: semi-structured interviews with grant recipients and key partnership members (n=22); and document analysis. A capacity-building framework was used to guide data analysis. The findings showed that partnerships without the engagement of key stakeholders and a diversity of skills, resources, and approaches were limited to 'come and try' events rather than structured sports and recreation programs in the short term. Addressing the development of partnerships, by implementing a phased approach to program development and implementation may assist the sports and recreation sector build capacity to participate in partnership approaches to health promotion.
Description:
Within the context of the war on poverty and an acknowledgement of the wider global phenomenon of a ‘post-industrial society’, the Australian Labor Party under Gough Whitlam sought out a range of reforming and innovative social policy programs. This article explores the origins of one such program, the Australian Assistance Plan (AAP), and its connections, similarities and differences to the Canada Assistance Plan. Drawing on extensive archival and oral history sources, it offers a comparative analysis of both national programs, then outlines how international social planning and community development ideas, especially from Canada, infused the AAP and its predecessor, the Geelong Experiment.
Description:
This study explores the theoretical and empirical connections between spiritual well-being and psychological type by drawing on Fisher's model of spiritual well-being as assessed by the Spiritual Health And Life-Orientation Measure and Francis' classification of psychological type as generated by the Francis Psychological Type Scales. Data provided by 2339 visitors to St David's Cathedral in rural west Wales demonstrated that, when the four components of psychological type were considered independently, higher levels of spiritual well-being were associated with extraversion rather than introversion, with intuition rather than sensing, with feeling rather than thinking and with perceiving rather than judging. Further examination of these data suggested that the judging process (distinguishing between the feeling function and the thinking function) was of greatest importance in shaping individual differences in spiritual health.
Description:
The issue of racism in the Australian Football League (AFL) is one that has been officially recognized since 1995. Since then, the AFL, the AFL Players Association (AFLPA) and the AFL clubs have been bound by the rules of the code, specifically Rule 35, to deal with racism, racial and religious intolerance and racist abuse, as well as other forms of vilification, when it has arisen. The most recent player-to-player vilification incident occurred in 2011 and involved Western Bulldogs forward Justin Sherman and Gold Coast Sun defender Joel Wilkinson. Despite the problems that many had with Sherman’s suspension, which still allowed him to play with the Western Bulldogs reserves side, what was very marked was the speed of the process from the lodgement of complaint to the suspension. This would seem to indicate that when it comes to such matters, the AFL is serious about dealing with racial vilification and it wanted to send a message to all the clubs and players. In the weeks and months after the incident, what became quite evident was the damage Sherman had sustained to his reputation as a professional athlete: his ‘brand’ is tarnished from here on. Furthermore, the overarching message from this incident as it related to the AFL was that racism in any form is wrong and it will not be tolerated.