Digital Commons Network^™

Youth Matters: Shedding Light On Displacement In Syrian Girls' Memoirs, Alberta Natasia Adji

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

In the face of war and political crisis, fleeing a country seems to be the best choice to get on with life. Among many refugee memoirs, so far young adult refugee texts have received little attention. This article analyses two young Syrian girls’ memoirs by Nujeen Mustafa and Yusra Mardini to investigate their experience of displacement. I argue that both Nujeen and Butterfly are prime specimens of young displacement memoir phenomena which act as a venue for identity negotiation. This point has much to do with their navigating the tensions between personal and collective selves to disclose their trauma and …

In The Name Of Profit: Canada’S Mount Arrowsmith Biosphere Reserve As Economic Development And Colonial Placemaking, Richard M. Hutchings, Marina La Salle

Landscapes: the Journal of the International Centre for Landscape and Language

Taking a critical heritage approach to late modern naming and placemaking, we discuss how the power to name reflects the power to control people, their land, their past, and ultimately their future. Our case study is the Mount Arrowsmith Biosphere Reserve (MABR), a recently invented place on Vancouver Island, located in southwestern British Columbia, Canada. Through analysis of representations and landscape, we explore MABR as state-sanctioned branding, where a dehumanized nature is packaged for and marketed to wealthy ecotourists. Greenwashed by a feel-good “sustainability” discourse, MABR constitutes colonial placemaking and economic development, representing no break with past practices.

Friendly Schools Universal Bullying Prevention Intervention: Effectiveness With Secondary School Students, Donna Cross, Kevin C. Runions, Therese Shaw, Janice W. Y. Wong, Marilyn Campbell, Natasha Pearce, Sharyn Burns, Leanne Lester, Amy Barnes, Ken Resnicow

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Peer bullying in schools is a significant public health problem that contributes to poor health and wellbeing outcomes for those who bully or are bullied. Meta-analyses of the efficacy of secondary school bullying prevention interventions have typically found no effects or an increase in student bullying. Consequently, few secondary school studies have examined the “real-world” effectiveness of these interventions. This age-cohort study design evaluated the effectiveness of the Friendly Schools (FS) secondary school intervention, previously found to be efficacious. FS was implemented in schools under real-world conditions by an education publisher. Student survey data were collected in 12 schools. The …

Anecdotes, Experience, And ‘Learning By Osmosis’: The Role Of Professional Cultures In Preparing Teachers For Parent-School Engagement, Sue Saltmarsh, Amy K. Mcpherson, Sayan Chakrabarty, Stephen Winn, David Saltmarsh

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

Initial teacher education and experiences of the professional cultures of teaching contribute to teachers’ understandings about how to engage with parents. Drawing on qualitative research data, and informed by Michel de Certeau’s theory of culture and everyday life, this paper explores how everyday beliefs and professional practices that shape relationships between teachers and parents can remain relatively stable despite changing expectations of policy-makers and communities. The paper argues that equipping pre-service, beginning and experienced teachers and school leaders with research-based understandings about these cultural dynamics is crucial to informing professional practices that support meaningful and effective parent-school engagement.

From Criminalisation To Individual Choice: Policy Responses To Changing Constructions Of Intellectual Disability In Western Australia, Wendy Simpson, Trudi Cooper, Vicki Banham

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

This article uses an historical perspective to explore how constructions of disability influenced policy and services for people with intellectual disabilities in Western Australia (WA) from the time of British colonisation until the present day. The authors approach the discussion from a critical disability perspective in the analysis of disability constructs, political responses and social change, incorporating the Foucauldian concept of biopower to explain the physical infrastructure, classification and dividing practices that produced ‘docile subjects’. The authors argue that changing social constructions of disability since the 18th century affected the lives of people with disability in WA and continue, through …

Their Sorrow, Their Story: The Lived Experience Of Individuals Impacted By The Death Of Special Forces Members In The 1996 Black Hawk Accident, Marion Ann Smyth

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

On the 12 June 1996, the Australian Special Forces were conducting night-time counterterrorism training when two Black Hawk helicopters transporting Special Air Service Regiment (SASR) troops collided mid-air. Eighteen personnel were killed, including members from the elite SASR and crew from the 5th Aviation Regiment. In the aftermath of this accident a charity, the Special Air Service Resources Trust, was established to provide ongoing support to the dependants of those killed. This trust is now the Special Air Service Resources Fund (SASRF), and it continues to support the dependants of those killed and the injured from the accident.

There is …

Mothers’ Experiences Of Their Adult Child’S Interethnic Relationship, Nikki Rajakaruna

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

The number of interethnic relationships is increasing in many countries around the world. Research regarding the experiences of interethnic couples indicates considerable variation in the reactions of parents towards such relationship types (as reported by those within the relationship). In some studies, significant and sometimes violent opposition has been reported, resulting in negative consequences for the adult child, the couple and presumably the parents. Despite such reports, no research has considered the experiences of parents from the perspective of parents themselves. As such, I explored mothers’ experiences of their child’s interethnic relationship with the aim of determining the nature of …

Re-Composing Feminism: Australian Women Composers In The New Millennium, Talisha Goh

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

In the age of postfeminism and fourth-wave feminism online, Australian women composers are theoretically able to “have it all,” however, the proportion of women in the occupation appears to have plateaued in recent years. In this thesis, I explore the multiple ways in which gender and feminism interact with practising Australian women composers. Feminist musicology has had a large impact on the Australian musicological scene, with theorists such as McClary and Macarthur bringing the subject of women in music to the fore in the 1990s, aiding efforts to advocate for reform on behalf of women composers. Additionally, third-wave feminist scholars …

A Public Health Perspective Of The Higher Education Experiences Of Women Studying Nursing: A Hermeneutic Inquiry Into Commencement And Progression, Lesley Jane Andrew

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

While student retention is a central goal across higher education, the projected shortage in the Australian health workforce has intensified its importance to undergraduate nursing.

Nursing degrees attract a higher proportion of mature-age women students than ever before. More are therefore beginning university at life stage characterised by marriage (or co-habitation) and traditional family structures. Nursing retention strategies require an understanding of the unique university experiences of these women, however, this is missing in the nursing literature. This study is the first to explore the experiences of these women students, doing so from the perspective of Bachelor of Science (Nursing) …

The Role Of Culture In Theory Of Mind, Leslie Linares Pava

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Theory of Mind (ToM) is defined as the ability to understand our own and otherpeople’s mental representations, characterised by individual perspectives and motives,with potential for directing human behaviour (Kuntoro, Saraswati, Peterson & Slaughter,2013). Over the past 30 years this concept has captured the attention of cognitive anddevelopmental psychologists and it has been established that typically developed childrenfrom individualistic, mainly from Anglo (English-speaking) countries are most likely toacquire this ability at the age of four.

In the past decade, a growing interest in differences between children fromindividualistic and collestivistic cultural orientations led researchers to question the extentto which ToM is influenced …