Perceptions of Joint Family Storytelling as Mediators of Family Communication Patterns and Family Strengths

Using family communication patterns theory, this study tested the degree to which perceptions of joint family storytelling mediate the relationship between family communication patterns (i.e., conversation and conformity orientations) and family strengths. Participants included 267 young adults from first-marriage families. Results indicated that conversation orientation is positively associated with the interactional sense-making (ISM) behaviors that characterize jointly told family stories (i.e., engagement, polite turn-taking, perspective-taking and coherence) and family strengths, while conformity orientation is negatively associated with ISM behaviors and family strengths. Indirect effects emerged for conversation and conformity orientations on family strengths through perceptions of ISM behaviors. Specifically, perceptions of storytelling engagement and polite turn-taking mediated the positive association between conversation orientation and family strength, while engagement, perspective-taking, and polite turn-taking mediated the inverse association between conformity orientation and family strength.     

Intersecting work and learning: assembling advanced liberal regimes of governing workers in Australia

Much had been written over the past few years on the intersections of work and learning. This article suggests that the analysis of the intersections of work and learning can benefit greatly from understanding the ways in which governing workers as individuals and populations has changed in Western liberal democracies in the latter part of the twentieth century. Through the use of an analytics of government perspective based on the later governmentality work of Foucault and others, the article analyses the shifts in ways of governing paid workers through the programmes of reforms in industry, industrial relations and vocational education and training in Australia. These shifts can be understood, it is suggested, as shifts in the mentalities of governing – from social liberal regimes to advanced liberal regimes of government. The article foregrounds the assembling of a new subjectivity and character of the post-industrial paid worker – the ‘worker as learner’ as the lifelong learner who is continually required to reskill to maintain paid work in economic life in order to sustain desirable and normal lifestyles. The article concludes with a discussion of the implications for researching work and learning.     

Benchmarking as a Meaning Approach to Learning in Online Settings

Reforms currently taking place in organisations and their implications for education, training and learning in these organisations requires new and different ways of understanding. The recent focus on workplace learning and notions of "the learning organisation" raise challenges to understanding their significance as "technologies of training" applied within organisations. In social services organisations struggling with decades of reforms pushing them to be more "competitive and business-like", these reforms are even more complex. This paper, based on a study of child protection agencies in the state of New South Wales, Australia, indicates the ways in which the notion of the "learning organisation" is used to "govern" child protection services and workers. Rather than being a technique for encouraging team-work and increased participation by workers as part of post-Fordist forms of work organisation, as described by many commentators, this research indicates the ways in which it has been adopted as a technique in making neoliberal reforms practicable in organisations. It opens new questions in how we understand new "technologies of training", the way they are made practicable in work organisations and the changes demanded in the identity and character of the worker.     

Foreword

Despite growing interest in the condition of school facilities as a dimension of school finance adequacy, reliable measures of capital stock for large samples of schools are hard to come by. In this article, we offer new methods for (a) measuring the existing capital stock of public schools, (b) defining adequacy in school facilities, and (c) measuring the cost of bringing existing school facilities up to an adequate standard. We apply our procedures to all school districts in Michigan, one of the few states that offers no state aid to local districts for the construction of capital facilities. Our estimates indicate large variations in school buildings and facilities across local communities that are highly correlated with local property wealth. Because we use publicly available data that are recently available for school districts nationwide, these methods can be readily replicated for other states.     

Disciplinary exclusion: the influence of school ethos

Disciplinary exclusion is a strategy used by some schools in response to challenging behaviour. While some studies have explored interventions that can be implemented to reduce the exclusion of ‘at risk’ pupils, others have considered how the underlying school ethos influences how challenging behaviour is understood and managed. The current study explored factors within school ethos that may influence how challenging behaviour is managed. It aimed to identify differences in school ethos between excluding and non-excluding primary and junior schools in areas with the highest rates of social deprivation. Three focus groups and two interviews were initially conducted to identify factors that staff believed to be relevant to the inclusion and exclusion of pupils. Focus groups and interviews explored staff perceptions of practices in school and beliefs about inclusion and exclusion. Inductive-semantic thematic analysis was performed to identify statements indicating a difference between excluding and non-excluding schools. Statements were used to create a questionnaire that was distributed to 16 schools and completed by 128 staff. Thematic analysis identified 13 themes, 10 of which indicated a difference in view between excluding and non-excluding schools. Multivariate analysis of variance indicated significant differences in responses between groups on the themes of Responsibility, Clarity, Consistency, Behaviour Management, Beliefs about Inclusion and Beliefs about Reducing Exclusion. Further analysis also indicated greater consistency across responses from non-excluding school staff. These findings provide support for previous literature emphasising the importance of some key features of school ethos in creating an inclusive environment.     

Effects of a specific numeracy educational program in kindergarten children: A pilot study

The present study compared the relative effects of 2 educational programs on kindergarten children. The experimental group took part in a numeracy-specific program, which focused on conceptual knowledge. Children were taught basic numerical skills such as understanding and handling numbers and their relations as well as counting principles. The control group participated in a more general program which involved training in procedural skills.

Results revealed significant learning effects in the children who participated in the numeracy program particularly for counting sequences and mental calculation. Since neither group was explicitly trained in mental calculation, our findings suggest that a learning transfer took place in the experimental group.     

A Review of Innovation Systems Framework as a Tool for Gendering Agricultural Innovations: Exploring Gender Learning and System Empowerment

Abstract

Purpose:

To reflect on the opportunities that a systems understanding of innovation provides for addressing gender issues relevant to women, and to provide some insight on how these might be tackled.     

Integrated Contextual Learning and Food Science Students’ Perception of Work Readiness

Abstract: The expectation that universities will produce graduates with high levels of work readiness is now a commonplace in government policies and statements from industry representatives. Meeting the demand requires that students gain industry related experience before graduation. Traditionally students have done so by undertaking extended work placements. With increasing numbers of students competing for a limited number of placements, virtual and simulated work environments are becoming popular alternative strategies. This paper describes the simulation of workplace practices through the introduction of integrated contextual learning (ICL) into the Food Science Program at Curtin Univ. as a way of enhancing employability and increasing students’ confidence that they are work ready.     

Teacher collaborative inquiry as a professional development intervention: benefits and challenges

The paper reports on a collaborative learning project coded as the teacher inquiry community that was carried out over a year in a private higher education institution to improve the professional capability of language-based subject teachers. Nine teachers completed the project all of whom were females and shared work experience of 2–29 years. Six of them held some form of qualification in education, and all except for one possessed at least a basic degree in some field. The study focused on three questions namely teacher benefits, impact of practice, and application of solutions. Findings revealed that the former two questions were well substantiated for most teachers, but the same thing could not be said of the third. While a number of senior teachers benefitted at the level of classroom implementation, the others explained away their inability to incorporate new ideas in their teaching. Individual characteristics and personality, and culture seemed to make a difference. However, the study concluded that the collaborative learning model could serve as a viable mechanism for the teachers’ professional development.