Hawke Research Institute for Sustainable Societies - HRISS
Newsletter Number 9
May 2005
International researchers at the Hawke Research Institute investigate youth music cultures
‘Playing for life’ is the first comparative international project to explore
how young people engage with popular music in post-industrial societies,
particularly outside of formal schooling. It is based at the Hawke Research
Institute with partner researchers in the UK, US and Germany.
Andy Bennett is a British partner investigator in ‘Playing for life’ and
Senior Lecturer in Sociology at the University of Surrey. He was based at
the Hawke Research Institute from 16 January to 15 April 2005. Andy's main
areas of research are youth culture, identity, popular music, and local and
global issues in everyday life.
Dr Bruce Cohen is an Honorary Fellow of Humboldt University, Berlin and
another partner investigator on this project. He is a recipient of a
prestigious ARC fellowship, which has brought him to the Hawke Research
Institute for 12 months until March 2006. Bruce’s research takes a
participatory and community-based approach towards young people which has
included training groups of young participants in research skills to perform
their own projects. He is currently researching social exclusion of ethnic
minority youth in England and Germany.
The Playing for life project has a new website:
www.playingforlife.org.au
Social inclusion in South Australian government primary schools
Recent research by Hawke Research Institute member Judy Gill indicates that
leaders of SA primary schools are working hard to make their schools a more
inclusive place for all students and their families. But their good will and
hard work cannot solve all of the problems. The social exclusion that is
revealed in the classroom and the schoolyard has its roots in wider society,
and government departments and agencies need to work with schools to address
it. Government action is needed in particular to increase social inclusion
between schools, rather than within them. The research report contains many
recommendations to build socially inclusive schools, including addressing
the disadvantages faced by outer metropolitan primary schools, smaller
classes and more appropriately trained school counsellors.
The report ‘Social inclusion in South Australian government primary schools’
was commissioned by the South Australian Primary Principals Association and
written by Judith Gill and Robert Crotty.
Researchers urge better testing of students’ skills
Hawke Research Institute researchers have found significant shortcomings in
the 2003 literacy and numeracy testing conducted in South Australian
schools. They argue that well-designed standardised tests can be useful as
one part of an assessment regime, but the current tests need to be improved
considerably.
The test emphasises traditional notions of literacy, such as spelling and
punctuation, and ignores the ‘new basics’ such as listening, speaking and
critically analysing texts. The numeracy focus is also very narrow,
assessing a few aspects of mathematics, rather than real numeracy skills.
The test would have been familiar to students in the 1960s, and it does not
reflect the current curriculum.
The researchers recommend that the test should be reviewed to assess the
‘new basics’ as well as the ‘old basics’, and that it should be better
aligned with the curriculum at each year level. It should go beyond the
current paper and pencil format to examine a wider range of student skills.
It should also be carefully reviewed to ensure that it reflects the
experiences of all students, and does not assume knowledge that may not be
possessed by disadvantaged or culturally diverse students.
The study was commissioned by the Australian Education Union (SA) and led by
Dr Phil Cormack.
The changing roles of vocational education and training practitioners
Hawke Research Institute researchers have completed a report on the changing
work roles of vocational education and training practitioners. They found
that reforms to Australia's vocational education and training (VET) sector
have had a significant impact on practitioners' work in public and private
providers. These reforms have been driven by changes to government policy,
industry expectations and funding. The scope of these changes has been
substantial and has required shifts to practitioners' habits, norms, skills
and knowledge.
The study analysed practitioners' perceptions of, and reactions to, the
changes. Practitioners are generally positive about the changes, especially
those in the private sector. Those in public providers are more concerned
about teaching–learning practice, such as flexible delivery, training
packages and the effects these have on their roles and work.
The report 'Shifting mindsets: the changing work roles of vocational
education and training practitioners' was written by Roger Harris, Michele
Simons and Berwyn Clayton and published by NCVER in March 2005.
http://www.ncver.edu.au/research/proj/nr0005.pdf
‘True to the Earth’: conference on literature and the environment
Emily Potter, Hawke Research Institute postdoctoral fellow, recently
presented at ‘True to the Earth’ Inaugural Conference of the Association for
the Study of Literature and the Environment – Australia and New Zealand
Chapter in Melbourne in April. The study of literature and the environment
is a growing force internationally and this conference demonstrated that
Australian cultural and literary studies can also be influential in this
area.
Emily’s paper on representations of environmental crisis in literature was
well received. She challenged the conception that contemporary Australian
fiction is not engaging with ecological change and crisis. She argued,
though, that the possibilities for ecological engagement are greater when we
move beyond representations of decline and catastrophe.
Hawke Research Institute Director at international forums
Professor Alison Mackinnon organised an international panel at the European
Social Science History Association conference in Berlin in late November
2004. The panel was based on her current ARC project on university women in
the 1950s and early 60s and featured speakers Professors Pat Thane and Carol
Dyhouse from the UK and Professor Linda Eisenmann from the USA. It was
titled 'The restless 50s: expectations and realities for graduate women in
the US, UK and Australia in the 1950s’. All speakers challenged the idea
that the 1950s were a dull and conservative period. They argued that women
graduates were active in a range of careers and organisations, and many were
the precursors of feminist activists of the 1970s.
Professor Mackinnon was also invited to be the Lansdowne Lecturer at the
University of Victoria, British Columbia, in March 2004. She presented two
public lectures and several informal presentations.
New books on ethics in the media and organisations
Two new books by Hawke Research Institute researchers highlight ethical
challenges. Ian Richards, former newspaper journalist and now Associate
Professor of Journalism, has examined why journalists seem to have so much
difficulty in maintaining ethical standards, despite codes of ethics and
extensive public scrutiny.
Assoc Prof Chris Provis, leader of the Group for Research on Employment and
Workplace Change, has explored dilemmas of organisational politics. His book
considers whether we have obligations of loyalty to our organisation, and
how honest we should be at work, among other issues. It applies
philosophical principles to concrete problems in organisational settings.
Quagmires and quandaries: exploring journalism ethics
Ian Richards, UNSW Press, Sydney, 2004
Ethics and organisational politics
Chris Provis, Edward Elgar, Cheltenham, UK, 2004