Research
projects
The Hawke Research Institute's collaborative and innovative research covers a wide range of topics. Here are some highlights of current and recent research.
Taste and place: the transglobal production and consumption of food and drink
Prof Elspeth Probyn
ARC Discovery project 2009–2012
In recent times what and where we eat and how and where it is produced
have become hot topics. From the global obesity epidemic, to worries about
the use of land to grow bio-fuel, food has never been so bewildering. As
production and supply chains separate where food is produced from where it
is consumed, the analysis of globalisation, gender, class, ethnicity, place
and taste are becoming vital.
Still in my mind: Gurindji experience, location and visuality
Prof Elspeth Probyn (with Dr Brenda Croft)
ARC Discovery Indigenous grant 2012–2014
This project will develop an innovative historical account of the effects
of pictorial representation of Aboriginal identity, using visual,
ethnographic and archival sources. It will investigate and critique the
impact of ethnocentric codification through which Aboriginal peoples have
been framed and refracted throughout the nineteenth century and into the
twenty-first century, from a specific Gurindji standpoint.
Negotiating a space in the nation: the case of Ngarrindjeri
Assoc Prof Robert Hattam, Assoc Prof Peter Bishop and Prof Pal Ahluwalia
ARC Discovery project 2010–2012
One of the hopeful sites in post-apology Indigenous affairs in Australia
is found in Indigenous community responses to contemporary governmentality.
This project aims to research the case of the Ngarrindjeri nation and its
negotiations across a complex agenda including caring for country, community
leadership and governance, economic development, media representations, and
inter(national) coalition building. The project is interested in
understanding the negotiation, translation and transmission of cultural
difference and aims to grasp the full range of Indigenous ways to be
contemporary, and that includes especially engagements with capitalism,
bureaucracy and media culture.
Indigenous knowledge: water sustainability and wild fire mitigation
Dr Irene Watson (with Mr Lewis W O'Brien, A/Prof John W Boland, Dr Suzi J Hutchings)
ARC Discovery Indigenous Researchers Development project 2011–2012
Sustainable management of the environment in Australia is currently informed by science. This project will create a space for cross-cultural translation between Indigenous knowledge on environmental management practices and mainstream science practices.
Protecting and nurturing children: building capacity, building bridges
Australian Centre for Child Protection
Funded by the Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs
This three-year initiative aims to build the capacity of practitioners to support their adult clients to meet the immediate needs of the children in their care, and to strengthen collaboration between adult-focused and child-focused services. It will enhance ways of working with families in adult-focused services such as domestic violence, alcohol/drugs, housing and mental health services. And it will strengthen inter-agency collaboration to provide more holistic responses to families with multiple needs.
Decent work and gender equality in frontline care work
Centre for Work + Life (more CWL
projects)
Future Fellow: Sara Charlesworth
ARC Future Fellowship 2013–2016
This four-year Future Fellowship research program critically examines regulatory strategies to improve the quality of jobs held by frontline care workers. It focuses in particular on frontline care work undertaken in non-professional care occupations such as disability support, personal care and home care workers both in institutions and in clients' homes. The project aims to investigate employment regulation and policy responses in Australia and internationally, and to contribute to theoretical understandings of gender inequality in paid work and the role of employment regulation in addressing this.
A study of flexibilities that enable workforce participation and skill development and use, and their implications for work–life outcomes in Australia
Centre for Work + Life
Prof Barbara Pocock
ARC Linkage project 2011–2015
Partner organisations: Department of Education, Employment and
Workplace Relations, NSW Department of Services, Technology and
Administration and SafeWork SA
This project will examine how improved flexibility can assist the reconciliation of work and caring responsibilities, higher levels of employment participation and increasing skill development and utilisation across the Australian workforce, underpinning a more productive economy and improved well-being for Australian workers and their families.
The meaning of work, well-being and the changing terms, times and spaces of service sector jobs
Centre for Work + Life
Prof Barbara Pocock
ARC Discovery project 2011–2012
This research investigates how work and its terms, timing, technologies and location are changing, and how these affect well-being. It will analyse the meaning that service sector workers draw from work, and how workers at the top (like professionals and consultants) compare with those at the lower end (like carers and cleaners).
Work, life and sustainable living: how work, household and community life interact to affect environmental behaviours and outcomes
Centre for Work + Life
Prof Barbara Pocock and Dr Natalie Skinner
ARC Linkage project 2010–2013
Partner organisations: Community and Public Sector Union,
Land Management Corporation, State Public Services Federation, Zero Waste SA
The fight against climate change is being conducted on many fronts by governments around the world, but the amount we work and the amount we spend is not one of those. Many Australians work long hours, take few holidays and spend lots of money. This project will consider the potential to reduce our impact on the environment simply by rebalancing our work and family lives. Working four-day weeks and taking six weeks leave each year not only means more time for our lives, but less money spent on stuff.
Work–life balance, well-being and health: theory, practice and policy
Centre for Work + Life
Prof Barbara Pocock
ARC Linkage project 2010–2013
Partner organisations: State Health Advisory Committee on Work Life:
Creating Family Friendly Workplaces, and SafeWork SA.
This project addresses well-being and work–life issues within the WA health sector and the larger Australian workforce. Its two major components are a national work–life survey, the Australian Work and Life Index (AWALI) and an in-depth study of work–life challenges, policies and practices in the WA public sector health workforce. AWALI is a national survey of work–life outcomes amongst working Australians, repeated annually through this project in March/April from 2007 to 2010. AWALI examines the range of workplace, employment and personal/family factors that impact on the work–life relationship, and outcomes of work–life conflict for health and well-being.
People, pumps and pipes: a social study of change in the collaborative supply of irrigation services
Research Centre for Gender Studies (more
RCGS projects)
Dr Lia Bryant
ARC Linkage project 2010–2012
Partner organisations: Primary Industries and Resources SA, Renmark
Irrigation Trust, Social Inclusion Unit (SA).
As a result of climate change, water legislation and agricultural
adjustment, the Renmark Irrigation Trust (RIT), Australia's oldest trust, is
facing unprecedented change. Water management for RIT has moved from a
collective enterprise to devolution of licences to individuals. This
movement may divide existing social networks. Using participatory research,
community and individual perceptions and responses to change will be traced
over 3 years. Social dynamics within RIT's multicultural community will be
examined as well as community identity, noting the significance of the trust
and water as fundamental to working and living for irrigators. Results will
inform policies to enable better integration of social dynamics with water
trading.
Missing workers: retaining mature age women workers to ensure future labour security
Prof Rhonda Sharp (with Siobhan Austen, Rachel Ong, Therese Jefferson and Gill Lewin)
ARC Discovery project 2011–2013. Administered by Curtin University of Technology
This project will generate new data and analyses of the factors affecting
the retention of mature age women in paid work. It will produce an evidence
base on mature age women's employment for the development of policy
frameworks aimed at strengthening labour security in the aged care and other
sectors.
Educational leadership and turnaround literacy pedagogy
Assoc Prof Rob Hattam and Prof Barbara Comber (with Assoc Prof Debra Hayes)
ARC Linkage project 2012–2014
Partner organisation: SA Department of Education and
Children's Services
This project will provide new ways of thinking about school reform for
improving literacy achievement in high poverty contexts. The project will
examine the ways in which new forms of educational leadership are developing
in South Australian public schools and their effects on school culture,
pedagogy and student literacy learning.
Renewing the teaching profession in regional areas through community partnerships
Prof Marie Brennan, Prof Alan Reid, Dr Faye McCallum and Assoc Prof Michele Simons
ARC Linkage project 2010–2013
Partner organisations: Catholic Education Office Port Pirie, City
of Mt Gambier, Eyre and Western Regional Office, Limestone Coast District
Education, Limestone Coast Regional Development Board, SA Department of
Education and Children's Services, Tenison Woods College
Schools are at the heart of community, social and economic regeneration in regional areas but teacher shortages and high turnover put quality of learning at risk. Improving teacher quality, attracting new teachers and retaining more experienced teachers will expand learning opportunities for young people in rural and remote areas, and make the region attractive to other workers recruited to bring their families to the area – for mining, industry, service or professional employment. This partnership study will enable policy makers, employers, country community groups and teacher education faculties to be more strategic in working together in providing necessary teaching staff, with potential implications for other professional groups.
Addressing the teacher exodus: enhancing early career teacher resilience and retention in changing times
Prof Bruce Johnson, Assoc Prof Rosie Le Cornu, Dr Judy Peters and Dr Anna Sullivan
ARC Linkage Grant 2008–2012
Partner organisations: Department of Education and Training, Australian
Education Union SA, State School Teachers Union of Western Australia,
Association of Independent Schools of South Australia, Association of
Independent Schools of Western Australia, Catholic Education Office of
Western Australia.
The first few years of teaching are difficult for many teachers. Yet research into the problems of beginning teachers is nearly exhausted. Few new ideas about how to address these problems are emerging. There is a need for a new generation of collaborative research that investigates how beginning teachers develop resilience and sustain their commitment to teaching. Therefore, this project aims to find out how early career teachers deal with threats to their well-being. It will identify what internal strengths and external strategies promote teacher resilience. It will provide the evidence base for interventions that will increase teacher commitment and reduce teacher attrition.
Early Career Teacher Resilience website
Punish them or engage them? Identifying and addressing productive and unproductive student behaviours in SA schools
Prof Bruce Johnson and Dr Anna Sullivan (with Prof Laurence Owens and Prof Robert Conway)
ARC Linkage grant 2011–2013
Partner organisations: Association of Independent Schools SA, Association of
Principals of Catholic Secondary Schools, Department of Education and Children's
Services (SA), SA Catholic Primary Principals Associations, SA Commission for
Catholic Schools, SA Primary Principals Association, SA Secondary Principals
Association.
This project will provide a contemporary understanding of productive and
unproductive student behaviour, which is a key educational concern in Australia.
Evidence will be obtained to inform educational decisions to engage and promote
positive student behaviour and improve academic achievement.
A legally informed intervention for schools to prevent and intervene in cases of cyber bullying
Dr Barbara Spears (with Assoc Prof Marilyn Campbell, Prof Desmond Butler, Prof Donna Cross, Prof Sally Kift, Prof Phillip Slee, Mr Andrew Knott)
ARC Linkage project 2011–2014
Partner organisations: Australia and New Zealand Education
Law Association Queensland Chapter, Brisbane Girls Grammar School, Emil Ford
and Co, Macrossans Lawyers, Queensland Guidance and Counselling Association,
Queensland Independent Education Union of Employees, Queensland Teachers
Union of Employees
Administering organisation: Queensland University of
Technology
Cyber bullying is a growing problem for young people as well as amongst
adults in the workplace. This project will develop and trial a legally
informed intervention that will be delivered by young people in order to
increase student, parent and teacher knowledge of the law to prevent and
manage cyber bullying incidents.
Improving water market outcomes through a better understanding of market behaviour
Prof Martin Shanahan (with Dr SA Wheeler, A/Prof H Bjornlund, et al)
ARC Linkage grant 2009–2012
Partner organisations: Murray Darling Basin Commission,
University of Lethbridge, Goulburn-Murray Water, NSW Department of Water and
Energy, Department of Sustainability and Environment.
The issue of water resources and their sustainable use is probably the
most important issue facing the rural sector. The water reform process and
its aim to secure water for the environment will cause economic and social
pain and result in structural change within the irrigation sector. Properly
functioning water markets will play an instrumental role in facilitating
this process by providing water for the environment and allowing water to
move between competing resources. This study will enable policy makers and
water managers to optimise the positive outcome of water markets and
increase the likely success of programs to purchase environmental water.
A model of sex offender registration, monitoring and risk management
Prof Ed Carson (with Prof Andrew Day, Dr James Vess, Prof Martine Powell, Prof Anthony Ward, Prof Joseph Graffam and Dr Sharon Casey)
ARC Discovery grant 2012–2014
Administering organisation: Deakin University
This research will investigate the ways in which sexual offenders are
managed in the community and identify the most effective means of preventing
further offending, thereby promoting community safety.