Description:
Land has been central to debates about the relationship between Indigenous (First Nations) and non-Indigenous Australian identities since colonial violence founded the nation. How do white Australians understand Indigenous land rights? This paper draws on an empirical ethnographic study with rural people who self-identify as ‘white Australian’ to analyze the key discourses of land, identity and nation and the complexities of how whiteness and race is socially produced and lived in rural Australia. The study found that white Australian discourses of nation and identity limit most of the respondents' ability to construct their identity in relation to Indigenous sovereignty.
Description:
In the context of a growing population of people experiencing mental illness worldwide, mental health nurses are a crucial workforce. Their recruitment and retention, however, is in decline. Drawing on qualitative data obtained from interviews with mental health nurses () in ictoria, Australia, the paper employs a range of concepts from role theory to explore professional identity within mental health nursing. The data highlight three key issues in relation to the future recruitment and retention of : (i) the ambiguity of the role; (ii) the weak definition and lack of understanding of the scope of the role by nursing students; and (iii) a lack of communication about as a profession to a wider audience. These findings indicate three avenues through which recruitment and retention in mental health nursing could be improved: (i) public communication; (ii) training and educating of the next generation of ; and (iii) more accurately defining the role of the MHN.
Description:
Corio Bay Innovators, trading as dal Gourmet Cafe and Catering, is an innovative supported training and employment service that operates a gounnet catering service and two retail cafes in Geelong. Currently, dal has around forty staff who receive federal or state disability funding, and about half as many support staff. Rather than being seen as an agency providing supported employment, dal is regarded as a successful and competitive business that is very popular locally, and is in demand in the hospitality sector. Yet dals primary purpose is not the friendly service, great atmosphere, and delicious food, but the creation of a range of innovative employment opportunities in a caring work environment for adults who have been labeled as having disabilities. Most significant, however, is the extremely strong emphasis on inclusion in the local community, in combination with an actively supportive and empowering workplace. Staff at dal have voted that they do not want to be labelled as having disabilities but to have it noted that they have special needs. While the choice of such termninology may not necessarily be in line with current "politically correct" discourse, it is a choice that is respected at dal. It is a description worn with pride in difference and collective identification adopted by Other oppressed communities and acknowledged by Meekosha (2000) and Barton (2003). While exploring dal as a model of best practice in training young people for the hospitality industry, this paper will explore the conflicts raised by contrasts between the voices ofthe staffat dal and the discourses of educators and trainers, in an attempt to develop a sustainable model for the future.
Description:
Corio Bay Innovators, trading as dal Gourmet Cafe and Catering, is an innovative supported training and employment service that operates a gounnet catering service and two retail cafes in Geelong. Currently, dal has around forty staff who receive federal or state disability funding, and about half as many support staff. Rather than being seen as an agency providing supported employment, dal is regarded as a successful and competitive business that is very popular locally, and is in demand in the hospitality sector. Yet dals primary purpose is not the friendly service, great atmosphere, and delicious food, but the creation of a range of innovative employment opportunities in a caring work environment for adults who have been labeled as having disabilities. Most significant, however, is the extremely strong emphasis on inclusion in the local community, in combination with an actively supportive and empowering workplace. Staff at dal have voted that they do not want to be labelled as having disabilities but to have it noted that they have special needs. While the choice of such termninology may not necessarily be in line with current "politically correct" discourse, it is a choice that is respected at dal. It is a description worn with pride in difference and collective identification adopted by Other oppressed communities and acknowledged by Meekosha (2000) and Barton (2003). While exploring dal as a model of best practice in training young people for the hospitality industry, this paper will explore the conflicts raised by contrasts between the voices ofthe staffat dal and the discourses of educators and trainers, in an attempt to develop a sustainable model for the future.
Description:
Identity formation and negotiation is a key contributor to the health and wellbeing of men and much is still to be learnt about how identity processes operate in everyday life. This study used an ethno-discursive methodology informed by critical discursive psychology to investigate adult male identity in an everyday gym setting in inner city Melbourne. Analysis of interview data showed that men identified with shared hegemonic definitions of masculinity, such as autonomy, independence, and potent heterosexuality. Our ethnographic analysis also showed that the men used reflective processes to negotiate, subvert, and exaggerate these discourses. The findings further demonstrate the utility of safe male environments such as gymnasiums and men's sheds where men can share friendships, common activities, and negotiate masculine pressures.
Description:
This article draws on the Students Completing Schooling Project, conducted in Australia, which has developed an account of early school leaving though listening to how 209 young people made sense of their experiences of leaving school. In this study, we were keen to understand the way young people deliberate upon how schooling fits into their plans for living a life: for 'becoming somebody'. We propose understanding early school leaving as a tactical manoeuvre and part of the complex process of identity formation. Our interview material indicates that a powerful 'interactive trouble' contributes to the non-completion of school and involves underestimating the demands of private life, especially for those living in poverty.
Description:
Biological and hormonal theories of same-sex sexuality are usually based upon an assumption of congenital gender inversion, that is, that a lesbian is in some way masculinised and a gay man in some way feminised. Commonly, and also because of the assumption of biology, such evidence of gender inversion is sought in childhood. In this paper I present a challenge to the theory that childhood gender non-conformity is associated with homosexuality, noting in particular that discussions of gender non-conformity and 'homosexuality' do not attempt to explain the experiences of heterosexual women. By demonstrating that childhood gender non-conformity has been wrongly associated with same-sex sexuality and posing an alternative explanation for childhood gender non-conformity, it is my intention to present a challenge to the theory that same-sex sexuality is related to congenital gender inversion.
Description:
Biological and hormonal theories of same-sex sexuality are usually based upon an assumption of congenital gender inversion, that is, that a lesbian is in some way masculinised and a gay man in some way feminised. Commonly, and also because of the assumption of biology, such evidence of gender inversion is sought in childhood. In this paper I present a challenge to the theory that childhood gender non-conformity is associated with homosexuality, noting in particular that discussions of gender non-conformity and 'homosexuality' do not attempt to explain the experiences of heterosexual women. By demonstrating that childhood gender non-conformity has been wrongly associated with same-sex sexuality and posing an alternative explanation for childhood gender non-conformity, it is my intention to present a challenge to the theory that same-sex sexuality is related to congenital gender inversion.
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:
This paper provides teachers with an opportunity for thinking about the kinds of 'people' constructed in their classes, the kinds of 'dances' choreographed and the ways space is organised for learning. We argue that this is essential for teachers to think about if they are to enact socially just professional practices. In this study, we explore the ways in which students learn to be particular kinds of people. We understand this as happening through their participation in communities of practice. Becoming a member of a community of practice, of a classroom and of a school is a process of developing a particular identity, modes of behaviour and ways of knowing. It is through these 'normalising' practices that power is constituted, boundaries constructed and certain 'kinds of people' are recognised, represented and constituted, whilst others are not. All individuals are implicated in these processes and active in the construction of their own as well as others' identities. This paper locates this discussion using social relations of gender and ethnicity, and considers how diversity and difference are actively constituted and play out in one primary school classroom. How students participate in the spatial practices and the construction of pedagogical spaces, what identities are available to them in these spaces and which they take up, is explored. The metaphor of dance is used to analyse these spaces, a metaphor which helps us to understand the complexity of classroom relationships and the way macro-social practices are both reflected and reconstituted in classroom practices. We argue that the ways teachers think about how they place students, space students and construct students are crucial for student and teacher learning.
Description:
Previous social research focused on people who stutter has problematised and largely ignored the experiences of university students who stutter, relying heavily upon surveys of teachers and peers while almost ignoring the authentic voices of students who stutter. Using a novel bricolage approach incorporating autoethnography, this project posed the question: “How do students who stutter negotiate their university experiences in Australia?” In 2008, a unique, web-based audit of 39 Australian public universities concluded that little publicly accessible information about stuttering support services was available for prospective university students. In many ways, stuttering is absent from disability classifications and service systems in higher education. An online survey of 102 Australian university students who stutter, and follow-up individual interviews with 15 students, revealed how these students manage their social identities from enrolment through to graduation. Only a minority of students reported ever formally disclosing their functional impairment to university support services or academic staff. This meant they rejected and/or avoided the disability label and associated stigma. The students were found to exercise a high degree of individual agency and creativity throughout their university journey. Many employed ‘concessional bargaining’ techniques to effectively navigate the oral assessment requirements during their degrees. Analysis of the interview and survey data is interspersed with critical self-reflection by the author – as a university lecturer who himself stutters. This thesis makes a significant contribution to shaping our understanding of the social identities and trajectories of university students who stutter. These students have been recast as positive, purposeful, resourceful and creative agents whose actions can be largely understood from a social model of disability. A series of recommendations for supporting and teaching these students are made to key stakeholders in higher education.
Description:
Previous social research focused on people who stutter has problematised and largely ignored the experiences of university students who stutter, relying heavily upon surveys of teachers and peers while almost ignoring the authentic voices of students who stutter. Using a novel bricolage approach incorporating autoethnography, this project posed the question: “How do students who stutter negotiate their university experiences in Australia?” In 2008, a unique, web-based audit of 39 Australian public universities concluded that little publicly accessible information about stuttering support services was available for prospective university students. In many ways, stuttering is absent from disability classifications and service systems in higher education. An online survey of 102 Australian university students who stutter, and follow-up individual interviews with 15 students, revealed how these students manage their social identities from enrolment through to graduation. Only a minority of students reported ever formally disclosing their functional impairment to university support services or academic staff. This meant they rejected and/or avoided the disability label and associated stigma. The students were found to exercise a high degree of individual agency and creativity throughout their university journey. Many employed ‘concessional bargaining’ techniques to effectively navigate the oral assessment requirements during their degrees. Analysis of the interview and survey data is interspersed with critical self-reflection by the author – as a university lecturer who himself stutters. This thesis makes a significant contribution to shaping our understanding of the social identities and trajectories of university students who stutter. These students have been recast as positive, purposeful, resourceful and creative agents whose actions can be largely understood from a social model of disability. A series of recommendations for supporting and teaching these students are made to key stakeholders in higher education.
Description:
The Making and Placing of a Personal View: Questions of Place uses various making methods to explore both the artist’s and others personal connection to place. The research investigates the intersection of memory, identity, and place. Memory is what informs personal history and collective futures. Identity, for the artist is as daughter, sister, mother, wife, friend, crafter, artist, woman and now widow. For others involved in the research, it is as Indigenous Elders, rangers and locals connected to specific sites. Place as which grounds and locates memories and landscapes that preoccupy the creative works. Memory and identity is explored materially through making, connecting art to place using craft’s historical connection with domestic and natural environments. Using the postmodern feminist geography of Doreen Massey, place is a site of flow and routes, rather than origins and roots. The relation between art and Massey’s notion of place is investigated as sympathetic to craft as a feminine epistemology. The creative work created comprises of four large textile patchworks, a series of small embroideries, and a pair of gouache paintings. The making of three large patchwork banner works were informed by conversational interviews conducted with Indigenous and non-Indigenous rangers. The banner works were installed for the duration of a weekend in Darebin Parklands in Alphington, Victoria in 2016 and at Pigeon House Mountain Didthul, Morton National Park, NSW in 2017. Performative and documentation photographs and videos were created in response to these installations. In addition a hand-stitched patchwork was slowly constructed over a year of grief and then used as a cloak and protective cloth in directed performative photos shot in the garden and on the roof of the artist’s home.
Description:
The Making and Placing of a Personal View: Questions of Place uses various making methods to explore both the artist’s and others personal connection to place. The research investigates the intersection of memory, identity, and place. Memory is what informs personal history and collective futures. Identity, for the artist is as daughter, sister, mother, wife, friend, crafter, artist, woman and now widow. For others involved in the research, it is as Indigenous Elders, rangers and locals connected to specific sites. Place as which grounds and locates memories and landscapes that preoccupy the creative works. Memory and identity is explored materially through making, connecting art to place using craft’s historical connection with domestic and natural environments. Using the postmodern feminist geography of Doreen Massey, place is a site of flow and routes, rather than origins and roots. The relation between art and Massey’s notion of place is investigated as sympathetic to craft as a feminine epistemology. The creative work created comprises of four large textile patchworks, a series of small embroideries, and a pair of gouache paintings. The making of three large patchwork banner works were informed by conversational interviews conducted with Indigenous and non-Indigenous rangers. The banner works were installed for the duration of a weekend in Darebin Parklands in Alphington, Victoria in 2016 and at Pigeon House Mountain Didthul, Morton National Park, NSW in 2017. Performative and documentation photographs and videos were created in response to these installations. In addition a hand-stitched patchwork was slowly constructed over a year of grief and then used as a cloak and protective cloth in directed performative photos shot in the garden and on the roof of the artist’s home.
Description:
This article aims to contribute to understandings of youth homelessness and subjectivity by analysing identity construction in terms of young people’s negotiation of the structural and institutional environment of youth homelessness. I suggest that while existing literature on this topic concentrates mainly on micro-social encounters, the identities of young people experiencing homelessness can be understood as constructed by structural processes described by Ulrich Beck’s individualisation thesis. Narratives from 20 Australian young people are analysed for how their identities are constructed in their contact with the institutions which govern youth homelessness, and the way these young people make sense of the structural conditions they are facing. Two narrative trajectories are identified. In narratives describing movement into homelessness, young people articulate feelings of failure and shame, consequences of their individualised understanding of their biography. In narratives describing movement out of homelessness into a home, young people articulate feelings of strength and pride, while also describing those who remain homeless in ways which reflect the status of homelessness as a stigmatised difference. This article concludes by discussing the way that structural, institutional and subjective processes interact to produce the identities of young people experiencing homelessness, and reflects on the utility of understanding youth homelessness as a form of individualised social inequality.