Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Which Way From Here? An Exploration Of Local Perspectives On Strengths, Needs And Goals In The Aurukun Community, Jack R. Menges, Marie L. Caltabiano, Alan Clough, Tim White

Journal of the Australian Indigenous HealthInfoNet

Aurukun is a small Aboriginal community located in remote Cape York, Far North Queensland. This study explores local perspectives on the goals, strengths and areas of need in the community, and perceptions of the role of a man in Aurukun. Seventeen individuals from the Aurukun community were informally interviewed. The sample comprised eight community elders (four female, four male) and nine community members (six male, three female). A reference group comprising local community members and elders guided the research project. Results indicated that the communities’ main strength was their connection to culture, the areas most needing improvement were violence, alcohol …

Embedding Aboriginal And Torres Strait Islander Lgbtiq+ Issues In Primary Initial Teacher Education Programs, David B. Rhodes, Matt Byrne

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Existing research has explored inclusion in education, however, issues related to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander LGBTIQ+ young people, with some notable exceptions, have, until recently, seldom been included in any meaningful academic discussion. Issues of youth race, gender and sexuality have been interrogated as discrete issues. This small but growing body of research demonstrates the potential impacts of intersectional disadvantages experienced by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander LGBTIQ+ young people in Australia (Uink, Liddelow-Hunt, Daglas, & Ducasse, 2020). This article seeks to explore the existing research and advocate for the embedding of a critical pedagogy of care in primary …

The Challenge Of Monoculturalism: What Books Are Educators Sharing With Children And What Messages Do They Send?, Helen Adam, Caroline Barratt-Pugh

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

The importance of recognising, valuing and respecting a child’s family, culture, language and values is increasingly articulated in educational policy. Diversity and inclusion are central themes of the guiding principles of early childhood education and care in Australia. Children’s literature can be a powerful tool for extending children’s knowledge and understandings of themselves and others who may be different culturally, socially or historically. However, evidence suggests many settings provide monocultural book collections which are counterproductive to principles of diversity. This paper reports on a larger study investigating factors and relationships influencing the use of children’s literature to support principles of …

Dialogue Not Diatribe: Methods For A Practice Of Socio-Humanitarian Playwriting, Siobhan Dow-Hall

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

This dissertation is the result of a practice-led research exploration of how creative writing practice may be expanded and developed with particular application to the writing of what I refer to as socio-humanitarian drama. I have developed this notion to promote discussion and consideration of specific issues of social justice and human rights within playwriting. While this practice-led research enlisted reflective practice in the task of developing and extending my own writing practice, this dissertation does also outline specific, practical modes of creative process, or exercises, that could be applied more broadly for others who may seek to develop their …

Engaging Australian Aboriginal Narratives To Challenge Attitudes And Create Empathy In Health Care: A Methodological Perspective, Toni D. Wain, Moira Sim, Dawn Bessarab, Donna Mak, Colleen Hayward, Cobie Rudd

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Background:

Unconscious bias and negative attitudes towards minority groups have detrimental effects on the way health care is, or is not, provided to these groups. Recognition of racist attitudes and behaviours as well as understanding clients' experiences of health and health care are pivotal to developing better health care strategies to positively impact on the quality and safety of care provided to Indigenous people. Indigenous research demands inclusive research processes and the use of culturally appropriate methodologies. This paper presents a methodological account of collecting narratives which accurately and respectfully reflect Aboriginal Australians' experiences with health care in Western Australia. …

"The Worst Female Character": Criminal Underclass Women In Perth And Fremantle, 1900-1939, Leigh S. Straw

Research outputs 2013

Women charged with offences against good order in Perth and Fremantle from 1900 to 1939 faced institutionalised sexism through the courts, police, and legislation. While men were also criminalised for good order offences, women suffered a double punishment. Charged with drunkenness, being idle and disorderly, and vagrancy, female offenders were further outcast by a public discourse stereotyping them as "bad" women. The extent to which they were able to negotiate and contest this stereotyping was limited, but a subtle negotiation of female identities was possible. This article suggests that female criminal lives offer alternative ways in which to understand women …

Resilience In Same-Sex-Parented Families: The Lived Experience Of Adults With Gay, Lesbian, Or Bisexual Parents, Angharad E. Titlestad, Julie Ann Pooley

Research outputs 2013

Gay, lesbian, and bisexual parents experience stress, as heterocentricism and/or homonegativity permeate the Australian context. Despite challenges faced by these parents and their families, research consistently shows children raised by same-sex parents to be as psychologically healthy, and as socially and academically well-adjusted, as their peers raised in traditional heterosexual-parented families. The ability of these children to flourish despite the challenges they face highlights the resilience of this minority group. Contrary to comparative research, the current study is framed by a phenomenological approach, and utilized narrative methodology to qualitatively explore the lived experiences of the adult children of same-sex parents. …

The Catalyst Clemente Project: Making Journalism Education Accessible To Disadvantaged Australians, Trevor Cullen

Research outputs pre 2011

This is a brief commentary on a new initiative to promote engagement with the wider community through the Catalyst Clemente project, which was introduced in Western Australia in 2008. It encourages participants to improve their personal situation through learning and developing essential skills in a supportive environment. It also seeks to promote self-confidence in people at risk of homelessness or physical and mental illness, by encouraging them to take control of their lives and bring about personal change through undergraduate education. The program gives applicants the opportunity to do accredited university courses in the area of the humanities. I was …

Less Than Equal: Secularism, Religious Pluralism And Privilege, Anne Aly, Lelia Rosalind Green

Research outputs pre 2011

In its preamble, The Western Australian Charter of Multiculturalism (WA) commits the state to becoming: “A society in which respect for mutual difference is accompanied by equality of opportunity within a framework of democratic citizenship”. One of the principles of multiculturalism, as enunciated in the Charter, is “equality of opportunity for all members of society to achieve their full potential in a free and democratic society where every individual is equal before and under the law”. An important element of this principle is the “equality of opportunity ... to achieve ... full potential”. The implication here is that those who …

Mad About The Boy, Debra Mayrhofer

Research outputs pre 2011

The media coverage of an out-of-control teenage party in the Melbourne suburb of Narre Warren on 12 January 2008, and its construction of the protagonist who threw the party, has highlighted once again the inequitable treatment of youth, particularly adolescent males, in the Australian media. This paper examines the coverage in terms of the discursive strategies used by the mainstream Australian media to legitimise and naturalise the denigration and humiliation of the boy involved. It will discuss the ongoing demonisation of young males in general, and the concomitant ‘panics’ about their degeneration into moral lassitude, as well as the particular …

Extending The Boundaries : Portraits Of Activism In Perth, Western Australia, Alan Wilson

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

For some analysts, post-industrial capitalist societies have pathological deficiencies which manifest themselves locally and further afield, in marginalisation and oppression of people and despoliation of the environment. For those who are passionately driven to challenge those consequences of the dominant paradigm, activism is deemed to be a potent force for effecting social and political change. The aim of this study was to establish how activists integrate issues, context, strategies, personal factors and other influences into a strategy for action.

Untying The Knot: A Scoialist-Feminist Analysis Of The Social Construction Of Care: Social Research And Development Monograph No. 7, Dani Stehlik

Research outputs pre 2011

As the Australian population ages, policy and human service practice in the field of aged care assumes an increasingly important and relevant position. In this monograph I argue that women who are providing care for aged spouses, parents or relatives in their (or their carer's) own homes, are doing essential, hard and stressful work, work which is unpaid and often unacknowledged, and that the Australian welfare system is now structured around the invisible unpaid labour of such women. The rhetoric of Australian political parties is focussing more and more on the notion of an ideal' family' and 'community' and a …