RESEARCH STUDENTS FORUM Thursday 13 June 2013, 3.30-8pm

Faculty of Education and Social Work

JUNE FORUM PROGRAM 3.30PM 4.05PM 5.05PM 6.05PM 6.50PM 7PM

REGISTRATION

Foyer, Education Building

4.05 – 4.55pm

PAPER PRESENTATIONS (see timetable for presentation titles & room allocations)

5.05 – 5.55pm

PAPER PRESENTATIONS (see timetable for presentation titles & room allocations)

6.05 – 6.50pm

WELCOME & KEYNOTE ADDRESS

Professor Peter Freebody

Pre-early career … : Priorities for research students

LT 424

6.50 – 6.55pm

BEST RESEARCH STUDENT PAPER ANNOUNCEMENT

Professor Gabrielle Meagher, Associate Dean and Director, Office of Doctoral Studies

7:00 – 8:00pm

REFRESHMENTS

Staff Common Room, Room 401

TIMETABLE FOR 4.05PM SESSIONS ROOM 418 ROOM 419 ROOM 436 ROOM 459 ROOM 461 ROOM 521

Chair: Dr Ruth Phillips Chair: Dr Susan Colmar Chair: A/Professor Alyson Simpson

Chair: Dr Arathi Sriprakash

Chair: Professor Gabrielle Meagher

Feifei Han

Evidence for two hypotheses in foreign language reading among Chinese learners of English: inhibition or compensation? Supervisor: Dr Marie Stevenson

Associate Supervisor: Dr David Hirsh

Natalie Johnston-Anderson Retaining the first generation of professionally accredited teachers: A mixed methods study of second-stage teachers’ career perceptions and goals Supervisor: Dr Susan Colmar

Associate Supervisor: Honorary A/Prof Dianne Bloomfield

Rebecca Kummerfeld Stephens’ “At Home”: Art education for girls and women Supervisor: Dr Helen Proctor

Associate Supervisor: Professor Geoff Sherrington

Huu Ly Le An Investigation into the Leadership of Deans at Private Universities in the Mekong Delta Region of Vietnam Supervisor: Dr Kevin Laws

Associate Supervisor: Dr George Odhimabo

Leticia Funston Providing a safer space? The key debates and tensions of Trauma Informed Practice in the context of homelessness Supervisor: Dr Lesley Laing

Associate Supervisor: Dr Margot Rawsthorne

The first presentation in this room is on at 5.05pm

Baili Lilienfeld Leaning a tonal language: tone production by English background learners Supervisor: A/Professor Ken Cruickshank

Associate Supervisor: A/Professor Linda Tsung

Alison O’Grady 'Unloosening the cord from the bag of dreams. How the identity of new drama teachers is shaped through engagement with social justice practices. Supervisor: Dr Kelly Freebody

Associate Supervisor: A/Professor Jackie Manuel

Amy Mortimer Re-conceptualizing Creative Writing – an exploratory case study at Sydney Story Factory.

Supervisor: Professor Robyn Ewing

Associate Supervisor: Dr Catherine Keenan

Gillian Kerr-Sheppard Qualitative data collection in conflict zones: is ‘Trustworthiness’ the first casualty? Supervisor: Professor Murray Print

Associate Supervisor: Professor Anthony Welch

Thea Workhoven Promoting Fitness not Fatness, a program to reduce anti-fat attitudes and weight prejudice among trainee health and physical education teachers. Supervisor: Dr Wayne Cotton

TIMETABLE FOR 5.05PM SESSIONS ROOM 418 ROOM 419 ROOM 436 ROOM 459 ROOM 461 ROOM 521

Chair: Dr Yeow-Tong Chia

Chair: Professor Anthony Welch

Chair: Dr Minkang Kim Chair: Professor Gabrielle Meagher

Chair: Dr Susan Colmar

Katie Bokan-Smith Theory into practice: Investigating teacher practices, perceptions of motivation and self-evaluation in adult English language classrooms in Australia Supervisor: Dr Lindy Woodrow

Associate Supervisor: Dr Aek Phakiti

Eve Mayes

Participation, connection and rupture: Cross-age, cross-school and cross-sectoral links across heterogeneous Australian settings Supervisor: A/Professor Deb Hayes

Associate Supervisor: Honorary Professor Susan Groundwater- Smith

There are no further presentations in this room

Edgardo Martinez A psychological approach to business ethics through dynamic systems theory Supervisor: Dr Minkang Kim

Associate Supervisor: A/Professor Richard Walker

Ann Applebee An investigation of the variation of students' learning experiences in clinically-related nursing education Supervisor: A/Professor Robert Ellis

Associate Supervisor: Professor Peter Goodyear

Roger Bourne

Stella's talk-in-interaction: Driving her Bildungsroman Supervisor: Professor Peter Freebody

Associate Supervisor: Dr Kelly Freebody

Jozef Miskolci Relating goals of inclusive education to school practices identified as inclusive Supervisor: Professor Derrick Armstrong

Associate Supervisor: Dr Ilektra Spandagou

Gerald McRae Research methodology: getting a conceptual framework right. Supervisor: A/Professor Alyson Simpson

Associate Supervisor: Dr Lesley Scanlon

Brad Papworth Attending Boarding School: What’s the Difference in Academic and Non-Academic Student Outcomes? Supervisor: Professor Andrew Martin

Associate Supervisors: Dr Paul Ginns and Dr Arief Liem

Kathrine Petersen Let's Get Serious: Games Encourage Positive Learning Outcomes Supervisor: Dr Lina Markauskaite

Associate Supervisor: Dr Rabbi Ari Lobel

Sarah Moore

Reconciliation songs and stories A performance by Sarah Jane Moore Supervisor: A/Professor Nigel Bagnall

Associate Supervisor: A/Professor Janet Mooney and Professor Robyn Ewing

NOTES

KEYNOTE ADDRESS

Pre-early career … : Priorities for research students

6.05pm, LT 424

The backgrounds from which students come to university, the career, civic, and personal goals they pursue through their work at university, the ways in which they are accustomed to learning, and the professional settings that await them on graduation, have become more diverse and complex. Also it is increasingly the case that doctoral graduates enter fields other than university teaching and research – including research-based fields in both the private and public sectors. Further, there are recent developments in the global research environment that are relevant to its consideration of research training and supervision (RTS), including increased competition between countries, universities, and faculties, the changing clientele for graduate research studies, and emerging practices in research in the social sciences. So what are the basic ingredients that students should be looking for in their RTS? This presentation will address that question by drawing on some international approaches to RTS and on the Faculty’s recent Review of RTS, chaired by Prof Freebody. The Review stressed the importance of providing students with both opportunities to create new knowledge through both instruction and immersion in a field of study, and structured experiences and apprenticeships to active and experienced researchers. The recommendations of this Review will form the starting point for the presentation. The session will include time for questions and discussion.

Professor Peter Freebody is a Fellow of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia with interests in literacy education, educational disadvantage, classroom interaction and research methodology. He has authored or edited 10 books and over 20

research reports to government. He has published in international journals such as Reading Research Quarterly, Harvard Educational Review, American Educational Research Journal and the International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education. He has also contributed numerous invited entries in international handbooks and encyclopedias on literacy, critical literacy, and research methodology. He has served on numerous Australian state and national advisory groups in the area of literacy education and curriculum design. He was evaluator of the Australian national on-line curriculum initiative conducted by the Australian Curriculum Corporation, a co-founder of the Centre for Research in Pedagogy and Practice at the National Institute of Education, Singapore, and lead consultant in the development of the Australian English Curriculum. He has been a member of the New South Wales State Ministerial Advisory Group on Literacy and Numeracy. He is the Australian Commonwealth Government’s nominee on the National Literacy and Numeracy Expert Group, and a member of the Literacy Research Panel of the International Reading Association.

ABSTRACTS

An investigation of the variation of students' learning experiences in clinically-related nursing education

Ann Applebee – 5.05pm, Room 461

Effective clinically-related nursing education aims to produce nurses who are able to make decisions, act independently and solve problems in their professional context. Since the move of nursing education to the tertiary sector and arising from the aspiration for nursing graduates to be ‘practice ready‘ on entry to the health workplace, self-directed learning activities have been incorporated into the nursing curriculum. But technological changes are shaping both nursing practices and continuous professional development learning opportunities. Stemming from these changes, self-directed learning pedagogy in universities is now routinely including online, technology-mediated processes in order to produce well-trained nurses. In doing so, the self-directed learning activities are moving away from paper-based, face-to-face teaching and learning methods, and are increasingly becoming technology-mediated. Students are expected to engage in technology-mediated inquiry as part of their self-directed learning tasks; yet, the contribution of these online portions of the student learning experience is unknown and unclear. Plus, research that examines whether or not the introduction of new practices are effective, often lags behind the practical changes, such that students’ experiences of learning can be disrupted or fragmented. This presentation provides a context for this thesis, which uses a second year undergraduate nursing experience in which students are engaged in self-directed learning activities both in face-to-face and online contexts. In particular this presentation explores the qualitative and quantitative online aspects of the way students approached their learning (approaches), the way students reported thinking about their experiences (conceptions), and the way they perceived the context of learning (perceptions).

Supervisor: Associate Professor Robert Ellis

Associate Supervisor: Professor Peter Goodyear

Theory into practice: Investigating teacher practices, perceptions of motivation and self-evaluation in adult English language classrooms in Australia

Katie Bokan-Smith – 5.05pm, Room 418

Teachers play an essential role in second language (L2) classrooms and their behaviour has been shown to affect learner motivation (Brophy, 2004; Burden, 2000; Dörnyei, 2001; Reeve, 2006). Some researchers believe that without ample motivation, students with even the highest of abilities cannot achieve long-term goals (Babaee, 2012; Guilloteaux & Dörnyei, 2008). According to Ebata (2008), motivation produces successful second language communicators and fosters self-confidence. There is, however, a lack of empirical evidence in L2 research that reveals how pedagogical strategies effectively promote student motivation. Past research (Bernard & Gardner, 2008; Bernaus et al., 2009; Dörnyei & Csizér, 1998; Guilloteaux, 2012) has only addressed which motivational strategies are most frequently used rather than the effects of teachers’ motivational strategies on student learning and behaviour (Moskovsky et al., 2012). This presentation comes from a larger mixed methods study that triangulates data from classroom observations, semi-structured interviews and questionnaires from expert and novice teachers and their students in three adult language schools in Australia. Using an adapted survey from Dörnyei’s (2001) motivational strategies framework, this presentation will examine which motivational strategies are considered most motivating by a group of adult English teachers. This presentation will also report on initial findings from semi-structured teacher interviews in which teachers self-evaluated their teaching practices. Findings from this study may encourage teachers to implement more effective teaching strategies and increase teacher awareness of their own practices. In this presentation, initial results from the teacher survey and self-evaluation interviews will be discussed and further implications explored. Keywords: L2 motivation, English as a second language, teaching strategies, self-evaluation, mixed methods classroom research, Australia

Supervisor: Dr Lindy Woodrow

Associate Supervisor: Dr Aek Phakiti

Stella's talk-in-interaction: Driving her Bildungsroman

Roger Bourne – 5.05pm, Room 521

The literary genre Bildungsroman is a particular way of constructing a life story. Indigenous Australians often transmit their culture through story-telling. An extensive stretch of talk-in-interaction was recorded with a nineteen year old Aboriginal woman while travelling between Sydney and her place of origin in the remote perimeter of the Murray River basin. This phenomenon is reflected throughout the logical sequential organisation of Stella’s extended series of ten conversations that embody different life-forming movements in her life. Stella discloses through topical talk and the strategic use of membership categorical devices the significant passages of life that have characterised her progress from infancy to the coming-of-age as a young adulthood. Stella’s local talk encompasses episodes, phenomena and obstacles that she has overcome to achieve a degree of maturity, dignity and autonomy. This Bildungsroman construction is characteristic of Aboriginal expression whereby their lives and their culture become synonymous with storytelling. The conversation devices, her moral agency and categorical devices accomplish the integrity of her developing life story. This achievement Stella proposes to pass onto her community in the form of a book. The study illustrates the contribution that Ethnomethodology and Conversation Analysis can make to our understanding of the Aboriginal episteme.

Supervisor: Professor Peter Freebody

Associate Supervisor: Dr Kelly Freebody

Providing a safer space? The key debates and tensions of Trauma Informed Practice in the context of homelessness

Leticia Funston – 4.05pm, Room 461

People experiencing insecure housing and homelessness are frequently subjected to extreme inter-personal violence. Many are survivors of past trauma including child sexual assault and domestic violence. The enmeshed relationship between violence and homelessness is compounded by social marginalisation and oppression. This is evident in the rise of single women, mothers with young children and Aboriginal people who are over-represented in homelessness figures in Australia and in other OECD countries such as Canada. The failure to understand and respond to both traumatic reactions and the risks of violent victimisation of people experiencing homelessness has been identified as significant service gap. While Trauma Informed Practice appear to offer alternative frameworks for responding to violence and trauma, there are a number of debates and controversies around this approach. For instance Trauma Informed Practice has been criticised for reproducing the ‘symptom and treatment model’ of service provision and for maintaining ‘an individualized and de-politicized framing of trauma, that offers a reactive and mainly ameliorative approach to assisting individuals’. This research paper will discuss these criticisms alongside other concepts including Cultural Safety, community capacity building and Politicised trauma informed practice.

Supervisor: Dr Lesley Laing

Associate Supervisor: Dr Margot Rawsthorne

Evidence for two hypotheses in foreign language reading among Chinese learners of English: inhibition or compensation?

Feifei Han – 4.05pm, Room 418

This project investigated two hypotheses in foreign language (FL) reading: whether inefficient lower-level processing inhibit text comprehension (inhibition hypothesis), or whether FL readers can use strategies to compensate for lower-level processing inefficiency so that text comprehension is not influenced much when there is no time constraint on their reading (compensation hypothesis). Two studies were conducted. In study 1 (quantitative), 404 Chinese university students were required to read two English texts in both timed and untimed reading conditions. Their lower-level processing were tested by means of computerized lexical access and working memory tasks. In study 2 (mixed-methods), 30 Chinese university students were asked to report their reading strategy use while reading by think-aloud. After think-aloud, they completed comprehension questions and the above mentioned computer tests. Correlation and regression analyses were used for data analysis. The results of study 1 revealed that lower-level processing tended to inhibit FL reading comprehension only in the timed rather than in the untimed reading condition. The results of study 2 revealed that when the participants were reading without time constraints, the readers with inefficient lower-level processing were able to apply language-oriented strategies, re-reading, and pausing to compensate for processing limitations and their reading comprehension was comparable to those with efficient lower-level processing. Together, these results indicate that evidence supporting the inhibition and compensation hypotheses appears to closely relate to varying time pressure during reading.

Supervisor: Dr Marie Stevenson

Associate Supervisor: Dr David Hirsh

Retaining the first generation of professionally accredited teachers: A mixed methods study of second-stage teachers’ career perceptions and goals

Natalie Johnston-Anderson – 4.05pm, Room 419

The careers of many Australian teachers are relatively short, given that approximately twenty-five percent of new teachers leave within their first year and forty percent leave within their first five years (Riley & Gallant, 2010). For those who stay, there is a lack of clearly defined career paths (Dinham, 2011; Skilbeck & Connell, 2004). The past decade has seen significant changes in the philosophy and organisational structures surrounding teachers’ careers (Ingvarson, 2010; Timperley, 2011). Whilst considerable research attention has been devoted to pre-service and beginning teachers, there is a significant gap in the literature focusing on mid-career teachers. This study draws on two related theoretical frameworks – the ‘teacher career cycle’ model (Huberman, 1993) and the ‘teacher professional life phase’ model (Day et al., 2007). These both suggest that mid-career teachers have unique workplace needs and wants. Within this mid-career cohort are ‘second-stage teachers’ – those who have achieved accreditation at ‘Professional Competence’ with the NSW Institute of Teachers and are in their fourth to tenth year of teaching. The purpose of this mixed methods study is to investigate how second-stage teachers’ careers are conceptualised by two key stakeholders – teachers and governments. The convergence and divergence of these two perspectives has implications for potentially increasing teacher retention and making accreditation and professional development more meaningful within the context of teachers’ career goals. This presentation will outline the research literature and theoretical framework that underpins the study. It will also illustrate the study’s methodological design and consider the role of the researcher in the study.

Supervisor: Dr Susan Colmar

Associate Supervisor: Honorary Associate Professor Dianne Bloomfield

Qualitative data collection in conflict zones: is ‘Trustworthiness’ the first casualty?

Gillian Kerr-Sheppard – 4.05pm, Room 459

This paper is concerned with qualitative data collection in conflict zones. Conflict zones include regions or places where wars are in progress, or where the results of inconclusive conflicts affect the populations. Research, both quantitative and qualitative, is currently considered important and is frequently carried out in conflict zones on behalf of interested governments; international medical organizations, non-governmental organizations dealing with refugee issues, and by representatives of academic institutions. This research involves both researchers and participants in situations of physical and psychological risk and insecurity but is nevertheless considered valuable enough to outweigh the inherent dangers to the parties involved. The paper will argue that the many pitfalls inherent in situations pertaining to conflict can negatively impact on the quality of qualitative data. Three specific parts of the data collection process are dealt with: gaining access in the field; dealing with vulnerable participants; and managing researcher bias. These three are interrogated through the framework of Lincoln and Guba’s (1985) concept of Trustworthiness. This paper is based on the researcher’s experience of qualitative data collection in Palestine in 2007/8 and 2012, firstly for a Masters of Education and then as a PhD candidate. Palestine is considered a conflict zone due to its status under military occupation, during which episodes of intense fighting take place. The paper will conclude that by approaching data collection in an informed, determined and flexible manner, the researcher can seek to mitigate or overcome many of the pitfalls.

Supervisor: Professor Murray Print

Associate Supervisor: Professor Anthony Welch

Stephens’ “At Home”: Art education for girls and women

Rebecca Kummerfeld – 4.05pm, Room 436

This paper examines the professional biography of Ethel A Stephens and considers the experience of women studying and teaching art. Her “At home” exhibitions demonstrate some of the uneasy tensions experienced by women in the art world: the tensions between her identity as an artist and as a teacher; and the way she negotiated what it might mean for a woman to be a professional artist in a scene dominated by men. In considering her role as an art teacher at the Sydney Church of England Girls Grammar School and her own professional career as an artist, we see a range of different avenues for art education available to girls and women. This paper offers insight into the ways women negotiated the Sydney art scene and found opportunities for art education outside of the established modes.

Supervisor: Dr Helen Proctor

Associate Supervisor: Professor Geoff Sherington

An Investigation into the Leadership of Deans at Private Universities in the Mekong Delta Region of Vietnam

Huu Ly Le – 4.05pm, Room 459

Private higher education institutions in Vietnam have mushroomed since the 1999 Education Act, which called for socialization in education, was promulgated. Establishment of private universities in the Mekong Delta region has positively urged changing the education of the region and the roles of administrators. This study aims to investigate the leadership role of deans in those private universities in the Mekong Delta region of Vietnam to examine how they exercise their leadership as well as lead their academic units. Twelve deans and four presidents of the target universities were individually interviewed. Four focus groups including department heads, deputy heads and lecturers from different faculties and schools, were also be interviewed. Moreover, government and university documents were analyzed. The research used leadership theory, trait theories, dimensions of leadership: ethical, strategic and entrepreneurial leadership by Davies & Davies (2005), and complexity leadership theory (Uhl-Bien et al., 2007) as a theoretical framework for data analysis. Qualitative method with grounded theory approach was employed to generate some theory about the role of academic deans in Vietnam and to indicate effective leadership models in Vietnam private universities.

Supervisor: Dr Kevin Laws

Associate Supervisor: Dr George Odhiambo

Leaning a tonal language: tone production by English background learners

Baili Lilienfeld – 4.05pm, Room 418

Unlike the use of intonation in English, tones are used to distinguish different word meanings in tonal languages such as Chinese. Second language learners who come from a non-tonal background often may not be able to recognise that tones are an integral part of every word in learning the target language. This paper investigates tonal awareness amongst learners of Mandarin Chinese, specifically focussing on English background learners. Quantitative data was collected from elementary level university students on their production of disyllabic words under two conditions: familiar and unfamiliar words. The analysis showed significant performance differences between these two conditions. The production of tones for familiar words was significantly better than for unfamiliar words, although they contained the same tone combinations. The results indicate the participants lack flexibility of tone use and their tone identification seems to rely heavily on word meaning. This inflexibility could possibly be due to their low level of tonal awareness, which results in less attention being paid to tones when processing a word. Further research should explore ways to improve L2 learners’ tonal awareness, so as to build a stronger tone foundation.

Supervisor: Associate Professor Ken Cruickshank

Associate Supervisor: Associate Professor Linda Tsung

A psychological approach to business ethics through dynamic systems theory

Edgardo Martinez – 5.05pm, Room 459

Over recent years many unethical practices in the business sector have hit the headlines as scandals, but unethical practices in business not only result in scandals, they also call into question whether business can be ethical. Surely, critics say, business is driven by the profit motive, not ethical principles. Nevertheless, as individuals within the business community, there are many personal, situational and organizational influences that help to shape our own decision-making processes. How we come to make moral or ethical decisions was a main focus of the developmental theories of Piaget and Kohlberg, which have strongly influenced courses on business ethics. However these theories, which view moral development occurring in discrete stages have seen widespread criticism over recent years. Stage theory has been criticised as too linear, with a known starting point and end point, but is that really how we develop? Also these theories ignore the cultural context. In response to these criticisms, Dynamic Systems Theory provides an image of development as culturally and historically situated and always in flux, with no set starting point and end point. This presentation explores this theoretical perspective more fully, as a potentially improved model for use in teaching business ethics.

Supervisor: Dr Minkang Kim

Associate Supervisor: Associate Professor Richard Walker

Participation, connection and rupture: Cross-age, cross-school and cross-sectoral links across heterogeneous Australian settings

Eve Mayes – 5.05pm, Room 419

Student voice initiatives are frequently conducted within a single school, as students and teachers engage in “collaborative inquiries” (Bragg & Fielding 2005) into teaching and learning. Student voice can be viewed as a rhizome, a “subterranean stem” that assumes different forms and directions, has multiple points of entry and exit, and is perpetually “becoming” (Deleuze & Guattari, 1987, pp. 6-12, 21), in contrast but also dynamic relation with hierarchical school structures. I explore the reflections of students from a low socio-economic comprehensive high school on their experiences of conducting research into teaching and learning within their school and beyond the borders of the school within a student voice initiative. Two focus groups in particular from a wider ethnographic study into student participation in school reform will be explored using “rhizoanalysis” (Masny, 2013). I argue that student voice initiatives can lead to students’ self-governance (Bragg, 2007) and acceptance of the status quo at the school, but also to other unexpected effects and affects. Students’ observations of other students’ and teachers’ enactment of student and teacher roles highlighted the “discursive habits” (Davies & Gannon, 2006, p. 7) of their own school and their subjectification as students (Youdell 2011). It is argued that the experience of participation, connection and rupture across school settings might lead to uncomfortable critique, but also to new imaginings of alternative ways of constructing teacher/ student relationships and education itself.

Supervisor: Associate Professor Deb Hayes

Associate Supervisor: Honorary Professor Susan Groundwater-Smith

Research methodology: getting a conceptual framework right.

Gerald McRae – 5.05pm, Room 419

Research methodology guides recommend students provide a conceptual framework for their project’s methodology (Cresswell, 2008; Krippendorff, 2013; Mason, 2002; McGaghie, Bordage, & Shea, 2001). Such a framework differs from design frameworks describing processes for carrying out the study. Conceptual frameworks provide a theoretical rationale and background against which a project’s problem and questions may be situated. Further, a project’s findings can be interpreted against this background and may contribute to the theory itself. This paper looks at the process of constructing the conceptual framework for a case study about the literacy knowledge in the pre-service education of primary teachers. At a theoretical level this paper reveals problems involved in the process: understanding the essence of the project’s motivation, problem and proposed questions; determining the relevant disciplines and theories underlying the project; and presenting the conceptual framework. At a personal level this paper reveals the complexities of situating a study about teachers, literacy and knowledge: philosophically - dealing with ‘literacy’, a term that while relatively new to school education is contested by anyone from linguists to school leavers; politically - teachers’ knowledge and professionalism currently under siege by governments and media in the NAPLANesque era of accountability; contextually - dilemmas with case studying a single current program but needing to place it within 100 years of pre-service education in NSW; conceptually - myriad models of knowledge from Maton’s (2010) socio-cognitive relationships, to Shulman’s (1986) professional knowledge and AITSL’s (2012) personal knowledge. The resulting framework demonstrates the importance of situating a project conceptually.

Supervisor: Associate Professor Alyson Simpson

Associate Supervisor: Dr Lesley Scanlon

Relating goals of inclusive education to school practices identified as inclusive

Jozef Miskolci – 5.05pm, Room 418

This paper explores how research participants understand the concept of inclusive education and which goals they identify or imply that inclusive education is supposed to fulfil. These goals of inclusion are then examined in relation to the school practices that research participants identify as ‘inclusive’. To explore this relationship the study used an ethnographic research strategy. The data was collected in two public primary school – one in New South Wales (NSW), Australia and one in Slovakia – which were identified as good practice examples of inclusive education. To be more specific, this paper focuses on analysing two practices – withdrawals of students for individual intervention and educating students in special classrooms – in respect to the goals of inclusive education which research participants identified in their definitions of inclusive education. This analysis shows that adult research participants overemphasise the goal of enhancing students’ educational outcomes and skills whilst sidelining and ignoring all the other goals they mentioned in their definitions of inclusive education. The analysis also demonstrates that students often refer to these other goals of inclusive education as being unfulfilled. These findings can be interpreted as a manifestation of the wider social and political contexts of the two countries in which the neo-liberal discourse of competition in educational excellence dominates the educational field.

Supervisor: Professor Derrick Armstrong

Associate Supervisor: Dr Ilektra Spandagou

Reconciliation songs and stories A performance by Sarah Jane Moore

Sarah Moore – 5.05pm, Room 521

My creative arts performance showcases the songs and stories that I have embedded within my research on Reconciliation through music and art. The presentation shares stories and songs that reflect on the time that I spent in two school communities promoting the Reconciliation process.

Supervisor: Associate Professor Nigel Bagnall

Associate Supervisors: Associate Professor Janet Mooney and Professor Robyn Ewing

Re-conceptualizing Creative Writing – an exploratory case study at Sydney Story Factory.

Amy Mortimer – 4.05pm, Room 436

The role and importance of Arts in education and creativity in education has been widely discussed (Bamford, 2006; Craft 2000, Ewing and Gibson, 2011; White 2006). Some argue this is in response to an era shaped by curricular standardization and reductionist learning outcomes (Bore, 2006; Ewing 2010; Jeffery, 2006). Creative writing has also been widely debated in the education field, with scholars such as Krauth & Brady (2006) and DeWitt (2001) discussing its definition and purpose both as a process of writing and product of writing. Much of this research, however, addresses the role of creative writing in higher education. Very little research focuses on the role it has in primary education and the impact it has on educating the “whole child” (Weare, 2000). This paper reports on the first phase of a study that investigates the potential for creative writing to be used as a learning tool to develop children’s imagination and creativity in the Arts and Creativity in Education toolbox. This study aims to explore the role and impact creative writing workshops have on primary children’s learning. It is an exploratory case study that will employ Arts Informed research methods of data collection and analysis to explore participants’ experiences of creative writing workshops at Sydney Story Factory (a not-for-profit organisation based in Redfern, Sydney). The effects of the creative writing workshops and their role in the development of rich learning will be examined to shed new light on the neglected role of creative writing in primary education.

Supervisor: Professor Robyn Ewing

Associate Supervisor: Dr Catherine Keenan

'Unloosening the cord from the bag of dreams. How the identity of new drama teachers is shaped through engagement with social justice practices.

Alison O'Grady – 4.05pm, Room 419

The privilege that is working with undergraduate students in teacher education has enabled me to see and experience the enthusiasm, verve and vivacity that neophyte drama teachers bring to their learning and their work. This paper will review and critically reflect on a range of literature that is concerned with new drama teachers' identities, their teaching philosophies and how they recruit ideas of social justice teaching into their practice. This paper will also examine what this reveals about our next generation of drama teachers and the way they teach for social justice. The literature review will reveal an insight into how neophyte drama teachers develop their own teaching philosophies through their undergraduate programs and how this 'dream weaving' shapes and develops their relationships and connectedness to their students. the literature encompasses precedent and seminal practitioners of drama and social justice and their influence on new drama teachers in developing their teaching philosophies. The review will also critically reflect on and posit the transformative nature of drama as an important element of social justice practice.

Supervisor: Dr Kelly Freebody

Associate Supervisor: Associate Professor Jackie Manuel

Attending Boarding School: What’s the Difference in Academic and Non-Academic Student Outcomes?

Brad Papworth – 5.05pm, Room 459

Based on data from 2,002 high school students, who participated at both Time 1 and Time 2, longitudinal analyses were conducted to compare whether over the course of a year, there were differences in gains or declines in academic and non-academic outcomes of boarders compared to day students. While initial cross-sectional analyses revealed greater difference between boarders and day students on approximately 6 out of 19 outcomes, longitudinal analysis which controlled for prior variance at Time 1 and the effects of other socio-demographic, ability, personality, and school factors revealed significant difference between these two groups of students on only 2 out of 19 academic and non-academic outcomes maintained over time. In fact, the bulk of the difference between boarding and day students can be attributed to prior variance, personality traits, and differences in types of students who made up those sampled. Attending boarding school was a significant positive predictor of participation in extracurricular activities and attendance at school (lower absenteeism). After taking into consideration socio-demographic, ability, personality, and school moderators, as well as prior variance, the role of boarding school appears to be positive in a few outcomes. Taken together, data suggests that attending boarding school shows general parity in the outcomes of boarding and day students and that the experience appears to provide boarders the same level of access and opportunities to academic and non-academic success as their day school counterparts.

Supervisor: Professor Andrew Martin

Associate Supervisors: Dr Paul Ginns and Dr Arief Liem

Let's Get Serious: Games Encourage Positive Learning Outcomes

Kathrine Petersen – 5.05pm, Room 461

”Overall, research into “Serious Games” for learning indicates that learning outcomes can be gained through the implementation of well-designed virtual environments that use curricular content and appropriate learning methods. “Serious games” research demonstrates that students find learning in virtual gaming environments enjoyable. Results show that students are both motivated and engage in learning tasks inside the learning environment. Further research indicates that various structure and design elements within the learning environment help improve student’s ability to navigate complex problems. However, while some recent research into “serious games” look at whether these advanced learning environments produce learning outcomes for science and mathematics, more research needs to be conducted that explores appropriate learning methods that lead to positive learning outcomes for teaching specific curricular in areas such as literature.”

Supervisor: Dr Lina Markauskaite

Associate Supervisor: Dr Rabbi Ari Lobel

Promoting Fitness not Fatness, a program to reduce anti-fat attitudes and weight prejudice among trainee health and physical education teachers.

Thea Werkhoven – 4.05pm, Room 461

Childhood obesity and its effect on quality of life of those who are affected by it have been widely researched along with societal attitudes towards it. Of interest to this study are the attitudes of pre-service health and physical education teachers towards obesity. This group have been found to possess weight based prejudice which has the potential to affect the quality of education provided to future obese students. Ramifications of weight based prejudice include decreased access to health care, mental and social stigmatization as well as decreased educational achievements. Through a nutrition elective offered to 4th year pre-service health and physical education teachers an intervention was conducted aimed at reducing these prejudicial attitudes in a series of lectures and tutorials spanning one university semester. The framework for this education based intervention was the Fitness not Fatness approach to health, focusing less on traditional weight based advice for treating obesity and more on a holistic approach to health that does not advocate dieting or unhealthful eating behaviours but instead promotes physical activity and wholesome eating. Preliminary results will be discussed in this presentation comparing students who completed the nutrition elective with those that completed a non nutrition related elective. Recommendations are also made for future research among the cohort and methodologies that are successful in reducing these antifat attitudes.

Supervisor: Dr Wayne Cotton

POSTER ABSTRACT

The 'parent-carer': A reconceptualization of care-giving and parenthood.

Pam Joseph – 7.00pm, Staff Common Room 401

When a child is diagnosed with a condition requiring intensive ongoing care, parents often take on a role and identity that goes beyond the usual expectations of parenthood. Service systems and bureaucracies generally expect caregivers to self-identify. However, parents themselves may contest this label, as it fails to adequately describe the relationship they have with their young or adult children. It may even be seen to mark a transition into a new relationship that overrides, rather than complements, kinship. This poster explores existing conceptualizations of care-givers, and presents the philosophical and practical implications for parents and service providers of identifying parents in this way. It questions the influence of characteristics such as gender, ethnicity, socio-economic status and educational achievement on this designation, and on the consequent relationships between parent-carers and service providers. An ecological framework is used to articulate the varied ways in which service systems conceptualize parents in families where the child is the primary client. The poster offers an alternative conceptualization that draws on parental perspectives to acknowledge qualitative differences between the concepts of ‘parent’, ‘care-giver’ and ‘parent-carer’. This re-conceptualization will form the basis of the author’s doctoral research project.

Supervisor: Dr Rosalie Pockett

Associate Supervisor: Associate Professor Fran Waugh