Digital Commons Network^™

A Cross-Cultural Study Of The Montreal Cognitive Assessment For People With Hearing Impairment, Stacey Theocharous, Greg Savage, Anna Pavlina Charalambous, Mathieu Côté, Renaud David, Kathleen Gallant, Catherine Helmer, Robert Laforce, Iracema Leroi, Ralph N. Martins, Ziad Nasreddine, Antonis Politis, David Reeves, Gregor Russell, Marie Josée Sirois, Hamid R. Sohrabi, Chyrssoula Thodi, Christiane Völter, Wai Kent Yeung, Piers Dawes

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Background: Cognitive screening tools enable the detection of cognitive impairment, facilitate timely intervention, inform clinical care, and allow long-term planning. The Montreal Cognitive Assessment for people with hearing impairment (MoCA-H) was developed as a reliable cognitive screening tool for people with hearing loss. Using the same methodology across four languages, this study examined whether cultural or linguistic factors affect the performance of the MoCA-H. Methods: The current study investigated the performance of the MoCA-H across English, German, French, and Greek language groups (n = 385) controlling for demographic factors known to affect the performance of the MoCA-H. Results: In a …

Capital, Labour And Currency: Book Love In The Economy Of Young Adult Publishing, Katya Johanson, Bronwyn Reddan, Donald Matheson, Leonie Rutherford

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

This article examines the relationship between emotion, production and sales in the book publishing industry, specifically how ‘book love’ operates in the publication and promotion of Young Adult (YA) titles. Through interviews conducted in 2020–2023, the article examines how commissioning editors, booksellers and associated professionals in Australia experience and use emotion in their production and sale of YA titles. It argues that emotion plays three economic roles in the intersubjective transferral of ‘book love’ through the chain of production, distribution and sales. Australian industry professionals mobilize book love as capital, as labour and as currency in fulfilling the expectations of …

Youth And Community Work For Climate Justice: Towards An Ecocentric Ethics For Practice, J. Gorman, A. Baker, T. Corney, Trudi Cooper

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

This paper traces an expanded ethical perspective for youth and community work (YCW) practice in response to the climate and biodiversity crises. Discussing ecological ethics, we problematise the liberal humanist emphasis on utilitarianism and reject it as inappropriate for YCW in these times. Instead, we argue for an ecocentric practice ethic which intrinsically values the non-human world. To advance an ecocentric ethical perspective for YCW we draw on decolonial and posthuman theory. Inspired by a Freirean dialogical approach, we apply these theoretical domains as lenses to problematise YCW practice, seeking a generative dialogue between perspectives. Through this, we identify three …

Contested Spaces: An Interdisciplinary Collaboration, Lyndall Adams, Nicola Kaye, Marcella Polain, Emma Jayakumar

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

The world in 2020 presented Australia with a world on fire, in lock down, and in environmental ruin, with potentially unprecedented social dislocation, homelessness, unemployment and mental health issues. Four artists reaction was to collaborate in an attempt to make sense of the complex COVID-19 context that was unfolding in front of them. Their interdisciplinary collaboration resulted in the multimedia artwork: Contested Spaces. Two iterations of the artwork (2020 and 2021) were exhibited as the artists navigated the unfolding spaces inhabited as they learnt to live and cope under the strictures of COVID-19. The 2021 iteration, was part of a …

Ghanaian Values In Motion: A Content Analysis Of Slogans On Commercial Vehicles In Accra, Abraham Kenin, Vivian Dzokoto, Annabella Osei-Tutu, Kwabena Asamoah-Gyadu

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Slogans on commercial vehicles are a common sight in Ghana. These material artefacts can provide insight into beliefs and values about the sociocultural, spiritual, and political experiences of life in the contemporary Ghanaian context. In this study, we collected and analysed a total of 438 commercial vehicles’ slogans from 5 main transportation terminals in the Accra metropolitan area. Our thematic analysis of these slogans shows a major emphasis on religious and spiritual values to the extent that most of the recorded slogans serve as positive affirmations of religious values and sources of spiritual encouragement. The dominance of religious references in …

Friendship, Connection And Loss: Everyday Digital Kinning And Digital Homing Among Chinese Transnational Grandparents In Perth, Australia, Catriona Stevens, Loretta Baldasar, Raelene Wilding

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

This chapter explores how practices of digital kinning and digital homing enacted through smartphones shape the experiences of Chinese older adults in Perth, Australia. Transnational grandparent carers must balance the risks of diminished social networks with the benefits of providing intergenerational care. Some form strong friendships in Perth, but many yearn for a leisured life with their friends in China. Findings illustrate the central role of digital migration practices in transnational families and friendships, not only sustaining distant support networks, but also building new communities in host settings. However, for some, the co-presence afforded through WeChat may intensify feelings of …

Where Are The Diverse Families In Australian Children’S Literature? Impacts And Consideration For Language And Literacy In The Early Years, Helen Adam, Sally Murphy, Yvonne Urquhart, Katira Ahmed

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

A lack of representation of diverse families in children’s books can affirm insecurities and contribute to a sense of “otherness”. This study reports on the representation of family diversity in award-listed Australian children’s picture books. A critical theoretical framework was employed to analyse both texts and images. This study found a lack of diverse family structures in children’s books, especially LGBTIQA+, foster, step and blended families. This paper argues that to ensure inclusive and equitable literacy learning opportunities for all, educators need to go beyond award-listed books when selecting books for early literacy environments.

Cross-Cultural Validation Of The Chinese Cultural Value Scale In Tourism, Songshan Huang, Jian Xu, Jin Wang

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

This study aims to validate the Chinese Cultural Value Scale in Tourism (CCV-T) across cultures, using a sample of 405 Australian tourists. Through the application of Confirmatory Composite Analysis (CCA) within Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM), the study demonstrates that the CCV-T scale exhibits excellent measurement qualities, including indicator reliability, construct reliability, convergent validity, discriminant validity, and nomological validity. The CCV-T scale comprises five dimensions: Life and Leisure Enjoyment (LLE), Filial Piety and Relationship (FPR), Self-fulfilment, Righteousness, and Humanity, consisting of 17 measurement items. The findings indicate that this scale is suitable for use with Australian tourists, representing …

How Do Australian Majority-Group Members Acculturate? A Person-Centred Approach, Justine Dandy, Adrian Doidge, Katharina Lefringhausen, Jonas R. Kunst, Abraham Kenin

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Understanding how majority-group members adapt to cultural diversity is increasingly important in plural societies such as Australia. However, little is known about majority-group members’ acculturation towards immigrants and self-identifying minority-group members in a shared society. We address this with data from two white Australian majority group samples (Study 1, n = 212 undergraduate students and Study 2, n = 300 community sample). Using person-centred latent profile analysis, we identified majority-group members to be following an integrated (endorsing both majority and ethnic minority cultures, study 1), dominant (endorsing mostly the majority culture), disengaged (rejecting both cultures) and receptive strategy (endorsing mostly …

Seeking Tourism In A Social Context: An Examination Of Chinese Rural Migrant Workers’ Travel Motivations And Constraints, Guanghui Qiao, Songshan Huang, Oscar Vorobjovas-Pinta

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

This study examines travel motivations and constraints of rural migrant workers in China as a socially disadvantaged group. Through 20 in-depth interviews, the study identified 21 motivations in three categories: personal seeking, interpersonal seeking and personal escaping. Nine travel constraint factors were also identified. The identified motivations and constraints were interpreted through the Escaping-Seeking tourism motivation framework and the Hierarchical Constraint Model. The study concludes that personal seeking motivations predominate rural migrant workers’ travel motivations, whereas structural constraints are more influential than intrapersonal and interpersonal constraints. Social context was found to be a significant confounding factor in determining travel motivations …

Digital Media, Ageing And Faith: Older Sri Lankan Migrants In Australia And Their Digital Articulations Of Transnational Religion, Shashini Gamage, Raelene Wilding, Loretta Baldassar

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

To date, older adults have received little attention in the newly emerging technological narratives of transnational religion. This is surprising, given the strong association of later life with spiritual and religious engagement, but it likely reflects the ongoing assumption that older adults are technophobic or technologically incompetent. Drawing on ethnographic interviews with older Sinhalese Buddhist migrants from Sri Lanka, living in Melbourne, this paper explores the digital articulations of transnational religion that arise from older migrants’ uses of digital media. We focus on how engagements with digital media enable older Sinhalese to respond to an urgent need to accumulate merit …

Developing Resilient Cyber-Physical Systems: A Review Of State-Of-The-Art Malware Detection Approaches, Gaps, And Future Directions, M. Imran Malik, Ahmed Ibrahim, Peter Hannay, Leslie F. Sikos

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Cyber-physical systems (CPSes) are rapidly evolving in critical infrastructure (CI) domains such as smart grid, healthcare, the military, and telecommunication. These systems are continually threatened by malicious software (malware) attacks by adversaries due to their improvised tactics and attack methods. A minor configuration change in a CPS through malware has devastating effects, which the world has seen in Stuxnet, BlackEnergy, Industroyer, and Triton. This paper is a comprehensive review of malware analysis practices currently being used and their limitations and efficacy in securing CPSes. Using well-known real-world incidents, we have covered the significant impacts when a CPS is compromised. In …

Obedience To Uli’L-Amr And Tax Compliance: Islamic Scholarly Perceptions, Prianto B. Saptono, Ismail Khozen, Ferry Jie

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

For Muslims, all aspects of human life including politics and leadership are governed by the Holy Qur’an. One of the well-known verses is QS. An-Nisa 4:59 which instructs the Muslims to obey uli’l-amr. The literature, however, shows that the scope of obedience is not absolute. Resultantly, the current research aims to understand the tax compliance in the context of obedience to authority. It provides a contemporary viewpoint from the Islamic boarding school (pesantren) communities in Depok, Indonesia about enrichment. Both quantitative research and field observations have been used to accomplish the research goals. Focusing on the pesantren communities’ support for …

Joining Bits And Pieces: A Chinese Indonesian Mother–Daughter Collaborative Witnessing As A Resource For Writing An Autobiographical Novel, Alberta N. Adji

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

In this article, I as researcher and my mother as collaborator present small stories about our own and my late grandmother’s lived experiences during the New Order and Reformasi eras in Indonesia. Both perform a collaborative witnessing, which is a form of “relational autoethnography” that enables researchers to focus on and evocatively tell the lives of others through conversation and shared storytelling as a source that informs my life writing practice. Collaborating with my mother, this article is a reflection on how I, as a young Chinese Indonesian woman writer, capture and negotiate my family’s hybrid identities as double minorities …

"Having It Both Ways: Containing The Champions Of Feminism In Female-Led Origin And Solo Superhero Films", Jessica Taylor, Laura Glitsos

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

In this article, we consider the emerging trend of solo, female-led superhero films, and their repeated location in aesthetically distinct pasts or “closed moments.” This pastness, we contend, serves to distinguish the concerns of the protagonists, which are often read as feminist, as redundant for the contemporary audience. This framing is in keeping with a postfeminist cultural context, wherein feminist values and successes are celebrated, while simultaneously declared irrelevant.

We examine the historical or closed settings in Wonder Woman (2017), Wonder Woman 1984 (2020), Captain Marvel (2019) and Black Widow (2021), and consider how this collective investment in the past …

‘We And Our Stories’: Constructing Food Experiences In A Unesco Gastronomy City, Eerang Park, Kaewta Muangasame, Sangkyun Kim

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

The experiential elements of food tourism can be transformed into meaningful experiences of local food heritage and identity in the context of a UNESCO Creative City of Gastronomy. From a local stakeholder perspective, six key drivers at three phases of the food experience are identified, and each driver involves several local elements that are coordinated and staged in various modes to create and develop four sequential food experiences. The pre-travel stage should focus on enhancing potential tourist’s awareness of the UNESCO designation. The on-site food experience is found to be twofold: exposure to the local food environment and the actual …

Gender Equity In Early Childhood Picture Books: A Cross-Cultural Study Of Frequently Read Picture Books In Early Childhood Classrooms In Australia And The United States, Helen Adam, Laurie Harper

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Children’s picture books contribute to children’s development of gender identity and can impact aspirations and expectations of roles in families and society. However, the world represented in children’s books reflects predominantly middle class, heterosexual, male heroes and characters. This paper reports on a cross-cultural study investigating gender representation in frequently read picture books across eight early learning centres in the United States and Australia. Forty-four educators working with 271 children participated. Data were collected from book audits and observations. Unique to this study is the presentation of a new data analysis instrument, Harper’s Framework of Gender Stereotypes Contained in Children’s …

‘We All Went In With An Open Mind’: Possibilities Of Professional Experience As A Catalyst For Engaging With Graduate Standards 1.4 & 2.4., Peta Salter

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

: Evolving discourses in Australia have resulted in an increasing focus on teachers’ abilities to engage with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students. Political concerns with achievement gaps and national education policy that require teachers to engage with curriculum priorities and professional standards that focus on strategies for teaching and understanding of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students have contributed to this move. This paper reports on efforts to develop preservice teachers’ engagement with the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers during professional experience in an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander school community. These findings highlight the complexity of challenging pre-existing …

“The Ice Is Melting And I Don’T Want Santa To Drown!”: Reflections On Childhood, Climate Action, And Futurity, Lucy Hopkins

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

This paper’s reading of a specific cultural artifact to emerge from children’s climate activism in contemporary Australia enacts an argument that children themselves can be seen to be redefining childhood and futurity through their climate activism and demonstrates how their placards are evidence of this. It argues that we as critical childhood scholars can follow their lead by uncovering the discourses that underpin their activist slogans. In doing so, we can set about contesting the limiting and disempowering discourses of childhood that would dismiss the very idea of children as political participants in the fight to save the planet.

Risky Business: Policy Legacy And Gender Inequality In Australian Opera Production, Caitlin Vincent, Katya Johanson, Bronwyn Coate

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

The field of cultural policy has seen a shift towards considerations of diversity, with government bodies increasingly leveraging funding to combat inequality within organisations. A barrier to this aim is a lack of quantitative data, which would provide a means to evaluate the impact of specific policies in practice. This article investigates the relationship between gender inequality at an organisational level and cultural policy at a sectoral level through a case study of Australia’s state-funded opera companies. Drawing on production data from 2005 to 2020, we consider women’s representation as conductors, directors, and designers at the state companies through the …

Pedagogy Of Belonging: Pausing To Be Human In Higher Education, Narelle Lemon

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Valuing care and self-care in higher education requires a conscious pause and rethinking of how we are together as educators and students. The pandemic caused various complexities, including changes in curriculum delivery, deadlines, and assessment modes, leading to feelings of overwhelm, anxiety, and change fatigue, which contributed to the emergence of panicgogy. This paper argues for the need to disrupt this way of being and experiencing the pandemic through valuing humanity and repositioning self-care and care by and for academics to inform their pedagogy. Presented is the narrative and the design story behind Pedagogy of Belonging (PoB), a systems informed …

Breaking Boundaries And Creating Inclusion-Based Organization Through Critical Performativity And Dialogical Accountability: The Case Of Fc United Manchester, Daniel Torchia, Simone D. Scagnelli, Laura Corazza

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to extend research on boundary making and breaking through alternative football clubs. These entities have borne out of the disappointment caused by the neoliberal turn of the football industry, which excluded traditional fans from being active actors and therefore call for study and generalization of specific forms of alternative accountability. Design/methodology/approach: The study looks at emerging trends in the accounting and sport literature by drawing on two concepts that emerged in critical scholarship: critical performativity and critical dialogical accountability, with the aim of better understanding how these elements are developed and shaped within …

Surviving Child Sexual Abuse In Women's Artistic Gymnastics: ‘It's Beautiful, Because Had I Stayed In The Past, I Wouldn’T Have Evolved As A Person’, Natalie Barker-Ruchti, Valeria Varea

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

The USA Gymnastics sex abuse scandal raised global awareness about child sexual abuse (CSA) in women's artistic gymnastics. The ensuing media coverage also centre-staged victims’ survivorship stories, a process that for many moved from dissociating, recognising and disclosing CSA to feeling comfort when connecting with survivors and accepting CSA as part of their life history. However, scholarship on what survivorship from CSA in sport entails, and importantly, what it means to athletes, is limited. In this article, we frame the survival of CSA using Arthur Frank’s socio-narratological conceptualisation of people being able to process the devastating consequences of a life-threatening …

Final Report June 2023: Research Impact Evidence Scheme - Research Impact: Dr. Helen Adam, Maria Enriquez-Watt, Helen Adam

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

This research addressed the question: What is the impact of the research of Dr. Helen Adam into the culturally responsive use of diverse literature on practitioners, school communities, policy makers and the wider community?

Key Findings:

• The primary beneficiaries of Adam’s work include policy makers, educational professionals & consultants, academics, teacher trainers, and librarians.
• The secondary beneficiaries of Adam’s research include school children and their families, school communities and the wider community.
• Adam’s research is of pervasive and profound significance in educational sectors and is rapidly becoming of global significance.
• Adam’s research is transformative and impacts on the lives of …

Transforming Transitions To Primary School: Using Children’S Funds Of Knowledge And Identity, Fiona Boylan, Lennie Barblett, Leanne Lavina, Amelia Ruscoe

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Transition to school experiences influence children’s wellbeing, development, and learning at the time of transition and future transitions. Effective transitions require schools to engage with children and families in ways that connect and empower them in the transition process. In this study children aged 3–6 years and their teachers used a Funds of Knowledge (FoK) and Funds of Identity (FoI) lens to reimagine transition practices for children and their families. Through a design-based thinking process, qualitative data was collected from four professional learning days, as well as individual coaching sessions, observations of the first days of school, and stakeholder interviews. …

Reading Group As Method For Feminist Environmental Humanities, James Gardiner, Hayley Singer, Jennifer Hamilton, Astrida Neimanis, Mindy Blaise

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

This article argues that reading groups are a collective field building and research method in Feminist Environmental Humanities, an interdisciplinary scholarly area at the intersections of feminist social justice and environmental concerns. We begin by historicising three Australian Feminist Environmental reading groups (COMPOSTING Feminisms, Eco Feminist Fridays, The Ediths) within a longer feminist tradition, then demonstrate how they respond to declining research funding in the neoliberal university and accelerating ecological crisis. Drawing on survey data, we first thematically code and analyse the results to categorise the groups’ functions and impacts. Departing from more traditional data analysis, we then develop a …

Invisible Women: Gender Representation In High School Science Courses Across Australia, Kathryn Ross, Shanika Galaudage, Tegan Clark, Nataliea Lowson, Andrew Battisti, Helen Adam, Alexandra K. Ross, Nici Sweaney

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

The visibility of female role models in science is vital for engaging and retaining women in scientific fields. In this study, we analyse four senior secondary science courses delivered across the states and territories in Australia: Biology, Chemistry, Environmental Science, and Physics. We compared male and female representation within the science courses by examining the mentions of male and female scientists along with the context of their inclusions in the syllabuses. We find a clear gender bias with only one unique mention of a female scientist. We also find a clear Eurocentric focus and narrow representation of scientists. This bias …

Effect Of Perceived Job Risk On Organizational Conflict In Tourism Organizations: Examining The Roles Of Employee Responsible Behavior And Employee Silence, Jun Yu, Chaowu Xie, Songshan (Sam) Huang

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Job risk and organizational conflict create pervasive dilemmas within the tourism industry that significantly concern managers and practitioners. However, little research has informed the relationship between job risk and organizational conflict. Based on conservation of resources theory, this study adopted a multi-study design and examined the effect of perceived job risk on organizational conflict in the tourism industry in both tourist hotels (Study 1, n = 495) and tourist attractions (Study 2, n = 401). In addition, the roles of employee responsible behavior and employee silence in moderating the effect of job risk on organizational conflict were examined. Study 1 …

When And Why Consumers Choose Supersized Food?, Asim Qazi, Veronique Cova, Shahid Hussain, Ubedullah Khoso

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Purpose:

This study aims to achieve three objectives: to explore the perception of consumers about supersized foods (in both pre- and post-consumption scenarios), to identify why consumers prefer supersized options over other available options and to determine the types of situations that push consumers to make such decisions.

Design/methodology/approach:

This qualitative study uses the triangulation of projective methods, coupled with semi-structured interviews with 120 participants. The data was collected from major cities of Pakistan, using a convenient sample of 25 semi-structured interviews, 35 narratives and 60 sentence completions and constructions analyzed by performing thematic analysis.

Findings:

The findings indicate that …

Effect Of Childhood Developmental Coordination Disorder On Adulthood Physical Activity; Arvo Ylppö Longitudinal Study, Jocelyn L. K. Tan, Anna Mari Mari Ylä-Kojola, Johan G. Eriksson, Minna K. Salonen, Niko Wasenius, Nicolas H. Hart, Paola Chivers, Timo Rantalainen, Aulikki Lano, Harri Piitulainen

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Individuals at risk of Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD) have low levels of physical activity in childhood due to impaired motor competence; however, physical activity levels in adulthood have not been established. This study sought to determine the impact of DCD risk on physical activity levels in adults using accelerometry measurement. Participants (n = 656) from the Arvo Ylppö Longitudinal Study cohort had their motor competence assessed at the age of five years, and their physical activity quantified via device assessment at the age of 25 years. Between group differences were assessed to differentiate physical activity measures for individuals based on …