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One of the significant effects of the September 11 terrorist attacks in New York was the politics of the US-led war on terror encompassing secularism and calls for Islamic reformation. The political discourse of war on terror was not limited to the Americas but was witnessed in other Western nations, such as Australia. The discourse of "Islam needs reforming" by the Prime Minister of Australia, Tony Abbott, in response to the Lindt Café siege (labelled as "Islamic terrorism") tacitly associates Islam with terrorism and represents Muslims negatively to the wider Australian society. This paper with the research question of "How does 'Islam needs reforming' discourse perpetuate Islamophobia?" carried out critical discourse analysis on the selected speeches of Tony Abbott in response to the Lindt Café siege in 2014 to find out the context and implications of Abbott's discourse in relation to calls for Islamic revolution. The study found that Abbott through the example of al-Sisi's (Egypt's president) calls for Islamic reformation forwarded his stance of the need for change in Islam to counter terrorism. Therefore, the present paper argues that the calls for Islamic reformation in response to terrorism can associate Islam with terrorism, thus, perpetuating Islamophobia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since 2015, religious freedom has become a heated and divisive political and public policy issue in Australia. While rarely defined or interrogated, 'religious freedom' does not exist as a value-neutral principle with a single meaning. Rather, its discursive constructions are varied and serve to promote certain interests at the expense of others. Offering a new perspective on the politics of religious freedom, this paper draws together four separate studies of the public discourse of religious freedom in Australia (spanning 35 years from 1984 to 2019) to chart how its framing has changed over time and to explore the implications of these changes. This analysis reveals three major discourses of religious freedom emerging over three phases: 'religious diversity'; 'balancing rights'; and 'freedom of belief'. This paper demonstrates how, once used to promote a progressive social agenda, religious freedom has become weaponised by the Christian Right and culture warriors in their battle to entrench in law the ongoing acceptability of discrimination against LGBTIQ+ people. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to reduce unnecessary plastic usage, most Australian states have banned lightweight plastic bags. In the non-regulated jurisdictions, the two supermarkets Coles and Woolworths self-imposed a ban, encountering customers' rebellion against the end of the free bag era. The chains initially seemed to surrender to a slower transition to reusable bags, causing further protests by environmentalists. The present paper investigates the recontextualisation of the environmental and legal issue of the single-use plastic bags ban in news media and usergenerated discourse. The study analyses a collection of articles published by two of the major Australian online news outlets, News.com.au and Sydney Morning Herald, in 2017 and 2018 and the comments they generated. A corpus-assisted CDA aims at identifying the way actors and facts are framed in news discourse and user comments, also examining the linguistic means used by readers to express their position about the newspaper's views and to support environmentalist or consumerist positions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper outlines a case for the reconfiguration of the public sphere as discursive space, arguing that such a reconfiguration better enables investigations into public debates on education. The paper focuses on one such investigation, which studied one newspaper's reporting of a review of the school curriculum in Queensland, Australia. It employs Critical Discourse Analysis to analyse the interrelationships between policy discourses and the discourses about the review that were constructed in the print media. The paper shows how the dynamic structure of the public sphere enabled discursive connections to be made across sites in order to privilege a shared public discourse on education policy, schools and teachers. In so doing, it demonstrates the capacity of the public sphere to define educational issues and identities in particular ways. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change discourse is increasingly gaining ground in the political arena, both as a possible explanation and/or outcome of different crises and as "a climate crisis" on its own. With an increasing number of metaphors used to describe the phenomena linked to climate change, "net zero" is one the fastest emerging frames, yet it is understudied. This paper draws on climate security research and looks at the climate change discourse in Australia with a focus on the "net zero" target. Is climate change an explanatory instrument in Australian election campaigns that can be ascribed as a political concern? Climate change has been an appealing but undeveloped topic in Australian political discourse. In Australia environmental concerns have taken ground after the bushfires in 2019 and the climate discourse had an impact on the 2019 and 2022's electoral campaigns. Climate change is arguably the fastest growing concern in Australian politics; it is fair to say that the 2022 election was "the climate election". This research adopts a corpus-based Critical Discourse Analysis approach for a systematic analysis of the "net zero" target in Australian political discourse, its political significance, and its resonance both in electoral speeches and social media in the last ten years. The corpus consists of presidential speeches during the elections and tweets by the Australia Prime Ministers in the timeframe from 2013 to 2022, also taking into consideration comments by users in Australia and worldwide. The analysis of the "net zero" target can contribute to a better understanding of how climate change is politically construed and communicated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the last twenty years, the interest in the disciplinary practices of history has been documented by a wide array of works. However, in spite of the inspiring nature of these rich accounts, only tangentially have scholars become interested in the inherently textual dimension of historical argumentation. In an attempt to bridge some of the gaps left by existing research, this paper calls for phraseology as a suitable candidate for the study of the argumentative peculiarities of historical prose. The qualitative and quantitative study of recurrent phraseology in a synchronic corpus of research articles from a set of specialised journals provides evidence that historians appear to be keenly observant of the practice of speculating about their own job in terms of either a successful quest for research answers or its potential dead ends. Moreover, data show that historians position themselves as disciplinary experts at a variety of levels, as they attempt to establish their credentials in the eyes of their intended readership: first, when they compare sources and thereby carve out a niche of expertise from their interpretation of them; secondly, when they proceed to singling out what they see as a key-moment in the historical processes under investigation; and finally, in the act of shaping their discourse from the viewpoint of an omniscient narrator. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – Critical scholarship on work-life balance (WLB) and its associated practices maintains that workplace flexibility is more than a quasi-functionalist response to contemporary problems faced by individuals, families or organisations. Beginning with Fleetwood's contention that WLB discourses have become "detached" from their associated practices, this paper aims to explore how workplace practices support or challenge dominant WLB discourses evident in socio-cultural, political and organisational sources. Design/methodology/approach – The authors analyse individual and group interview transcripts derived from 122 white-collar employees in two different organisational contexts (one public, one private) in the construction industry in Australia. Findings – Four major themes were identified in the data, which illustrate discourse practice gaps. First, the demands facing this particular industry/sector were framed as heightened and unique. Second, productivity was prioritised, dominating employees' care-giving and lifestyle concerns. Third, employees' caring responsibilities were communicated as personal and individual choices. Fourth, commitment and efficiency were judged on the basis of presence in the workplace. Research limitations/implications – Even in industries that have embraced WLB, workplace practices legitimate and reinforce the status quo, and maintain a gap between the promises of WLB and its potential to ameliorate conflict and assist workers to span the boundaries of paid work and other life domains. Originality/value – While the practices demonstrated in the research are focused on one industry, the study provides a critical analysis of how the contextually-influenced meaning of WLB is constructed, created and contested in these workplaces and the effects it produces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This paper examines extensions in present perfect (PP) usage in a corpus of police media reports published on the web in Australia, following previous work on extensions in the uses of the PP in oral narratives (). The following were examined: proportion of tenses in the corpus, lexical aspect of VPs, co-occurrences of the PP with temporal adverbials, and discourse characteristics. The latter were the main focus of the paper, and patterns in PP usage in relation to rhetorical and information structures were examined in detail. The results show that PP clauses are almost as frequent as simple past clauses; that the PP appears frequently in sequences expressing temporal progression, and that it is often combined with a range of adverbials, including past dates and times. It is also argued that police usage of the PP can be seen to give rise to mirative effects, with consequences at the level of discourse usage. In particular, the PP is favoured for introduction of new/unexpected discourse information, while the SP is used in-between clauses in the PP to continue a sub-segment. I use and extend viewpoint analysis of perfects that have acquired perfective past meanings as well as three two-place relations system for the representation of tenses, and propose that the non-standard PP in Australian English can be represented as having a result stage filling a temporal interval between a past reference time and a present one, the extended-now. I suggest that such an interval is exploited to give rise to various meanings and discourse effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the way that learning technologies frame teaching practice in higher education using both autoethnography and discourse analysis (interpretative repertoires). The analysis juxtaposes our own experience in the form of data from two interviews, with teaching and learning policy documents from the group of five Australian Technology Network universities, as a means of investigating the centrality of these technologies in the reconfiguring of teaching practice in higher education for the networked university. The data yielded three distinct discourses: technology as a bridge to globalised opportunity; technology as delivery of learning; and technology as communication and building relationships for learning. The first repertoire provides a utopian vision which glosses over the complex practice of implementation. The second repertoire also omits details of implementation, presenting learning technology unproblematically. The third repertoire, not present in the policy documents, but central to the autoethnographic accounts, focusses on both the possibilities and challenges of learning technologies in practice, and points to the potential for a complementary approach which foregrounds the student-teacher relationship. How these discourses can be reconciled is a central issue for academic teaching practice in higher education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The underachievement of boys has been a focus of intense concern in Australia for over 15 years. Historical analyses suggest that male students' poor performance has traditionally been attributed to factors external to boys themselves (methods, teachers, texts), deflecting attention from the relationship between masculinity construction and successful engagement with school. This paper turns the focus back, addressing the ways in which gender itself was constructed within hearings held for the Australian Parliamentary Inquiry into Boys' Education. Discursive analysis demonstrates that witnesses to the Inquiry drew upon a series of gender binaries in representing male and female students, and accounting for their relative attainment. These binaries worked to associate masculinity with 'authentic' learning, such that the success of male students was naturalised even in the absence of achievement. Conversely, the association of femininity and 'inauthentic learning' worked to undermine female students' demonstrated success. The role of these binaries in the reproduction of a paradoxical relationship between gender and achievement is discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The full potential of discussion groups to further geographic interest in the relationship between discourse, individual and society can still be developed further. This paper briefly reviews previous applications of discussion group methodologies before suggesting a new discourse-centred approach that explores how broad social discourses impact everyday conversations. The approach is demonstrated through a case study involving supporters of environmental movements in Australia. It is concluded that small groups can be used in new ways that provide important methodologically unique insights into the reception of transient, but powerful, discourses upon everyday lives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Educational outcomes have descended on schools with a ferocity unimaginable a few years ago. We have reached the point where outcomes rhetoric is so deeply embedded in the official discourses of schooling that it appears to be `the only game in town'. This paper outlines the economic rationalist origins of outcomes orientations, and uses an Australian background to expose the pervasive myth about the relationship of outcomes to aspects of leaching and learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we use a form of discourse analysis to explore the ‘activity’ that three quite different sustainability reports set up as companies communicate their social and environmental performance. Our aim is to show what sustainability reports ‘do’ – in order to offer insights about what they ‘could do’. We show that the companies are using sustainability reporting strategically, and that sustainability is embedded in to the company's strategic priorities. Where they mostly narrate and argue a point of view, sustainability reporting can offer additional benefits by transiting towards dialogue. Dialogue provides stakeholders with the means to engage substantially with companies, and also introduce new discourses that may open up new directions in how companies contribute to sustainability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Australian data has indicated that the frequency and severity of family and domestic violence (FDV) tends to increase with remoteness. Rural communities rely on Emergency Departments (ED) within public hospitals for general health and safety needs. Public health departments within Australia are strongly influenced by Government policies which can define 'health problems' and limit institutional responses to patients presenting with FDV. The current study therefore aimed to critically examine FDV Australian Government policies to explore how policy meanings could potentially impact on ED staff and individuals within rural communities. Methods: Foucauldian Discourse Analysis and Policy Narrative Analysis were used to examine 9 policy documents which represented national, state/territory and clinical practice levels. Publication dates ranged from 2006 to 2020. Results: A total of 8 discourses were identified, with each one providing a unique construction of the target problem and determining the potential agency of health professionals and subjects of FDV. Discourses combined to produce an overall narrative within each policy document. Narrative constructions of the target problem were compared which produced three narrative themes: 1) Deficit Subject Narratives; 2) Object Oriented Narratives; and 3) Societal Narratives. Conclusion: The results reflected a transition in the meaning of FDV within Australian society and over the past decade, with policies trending away from Deficit Subject Narratives and towards Object Oriented or Societal Narratives. Institutional systems, sociohistorical context and broader societal movements may have shaped this transition by stagnating policy meanings or introducing new insights that expanded the possibilities of understanding and action. Narratives produced assumptions which significantly altered the relevance and agency of individuals and groups when applied to a rural ED setting. As FDV was moved out of the clinical space and into the public domain, the agency of health professionals was reduced, while the values and strengths of FDV subjects and rural communities were potentially recognised. Later policies provided contextual specificity and meaning fluidity that could benefit diverse groups within rural areas; however, the expectation for ED staff to learn from their communities and challenge institutionalised approaches to FDV requires careful consideration in relation to rural hospital systems and resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study focuses on the discourse of an intercontinental on-line Master’s programme in adult learning, using English as the lingua franca of the programme and involving four collaborating universities in Sweden, South Africa, Canada and Australia. The programme is highly interactive, emphasising communication between students. Taking the variation in participation as the point of departure, a discourse analysis aiming at analysing the contingencies contributing to the pattern of communication in the programme was undertaken. Data consist of a variety of texts on-line web-documents, written notes, and narratives that participants wrote about their lives related to participation in the programme. The use of English as the lingua franca contributed to a mistake anxiety, which for some students was hampering their communication in the programme. Aspects of the material world such as the vast differences in the efforts and costs for participating in the programme were also highly interrelated to the shaping of socio-culturally situated identities among the students and thereby contributing to the variation in frequency in participation. The results show that the official discourse of the programme as a text, with its emphasis on equity, change and development, gets subordinated to the discourses produced and reproduced by the students in the programme as a discursive practice and social practice. The students’ accounts reveal that there are fragments of an alternative discourse emerging, based on mutual concern and friendship, which might suggest a potential for changing the communicative patterns in the programme. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article focuses on the discourse on Filipina brides in Australia. Although the Filipina brides discourse awakens white Australian fears about the arrival of their "other," it also produces coterminous boundaries which reaffirm the contemporary structure of Australian society. The discourse constitutes differences between white Australian women and Filipina-Australians through a representation of the Australian landscape west of the Great Dividing Range as a physically harsh land, especially for white Australian women, many of whom "question why their lives should be a sacrifice" when their city sisters have it so much easier. When they arrive in Australia, Filipinas are "sheets of blank paper" to the majority of Australians, waiting to be inscribed. But once they are in Australia, the discourse inscribes these women's bodies through a network of cultural stereotyping, sexism and racism, which is then informed by those same discursive Filipina-Australians it inscribed in the first place. In the process, the operation of knowledge and power in the discourse marginalizes other knowledge about Filipina-Australians while producing that very reality it claims to be describing.

From recent doctoral research into information literacy and workplace learning, an understanding of information literacy as a complex constellation of experiences and relationships with a range of information modalities is emerging. It is constituted through the connections among people, artifacts, texts, and bodily experiences that draw a person into context and enable him or her to know the landscape. A three-year qualitative study of firefighters in regional New South Wales, Australia, is described. It was framed by constructionist thinking about the nature and role of information literacy in learning about practice and profession and about the relationship between power and knowledge. The findings of the study support a new definition of information literacy that recognizes information literacy as a way of knowing, that is, as more than just the acquisition of skills and attributes. Becoming information literate in the workplace requires experience with social and physical modalities as well as with textual information. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article investigates how the disciplinary discourse on the contemporary state of foreign languages in universities hastily refers to these disciplines as being in 'crisis'. This practice is nearly as old as the Humanities itself, and has been employed periodically since at least the 1940s. Despite a period of increasing foreign language enrolment in the first decade of the twenty-first century in Australia, calls of 'crisis' came from across the languages sector. In tracing the use of the term 'crisis', we show how the sector has long been characterised by such alarmist terminology, even when reality suggests otherwise. The article traces this usage in the recent disciplinary discourse in foreign languages. A topical report of the Australian Academy of the Humanities, which shows increased language enrolment over the period 2002-11, leads one to believe that things at universities may not be as bad as first thought. This finding has implications for language enrolments not just in Australia, but around the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The practice of obstetric ultrasound scans has undergone significant expansion in the last two decades and is now a standard part of many women's antenatal care in Australia as elsewhere. This article reviews recent evidence about the value of obstetric ultrasound, summarizing debates and contradictions in research literature and practitioner guidelines. Pregnant women's interpretations of the significance of ultrasound are examined through multiple interviews with 34 study participants. We find that ultrasound has become an integral part of women's embodied experience of pregnancy, with its own pleasures and dilemmas. The increasing use of the technology has augmented the role of scientific biomedicine in the government of pregnancy. This must be understood in the light of trends toward individualized risk management in which the pregnant woman increasingly takes responsibility for the successful outcome of the pregnancy, in a context where pregnancy is discursively constructed as a risky domain of gendered experience in contemporary Australian society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article introduce the research project that aims to understand how public librarians in Australia prioritize different types of subject knowledge. It discusses the need to understand the structure of library collections and the importance of effective selection decisions to meet users needs. It also emphasizes the lack of research on how selection decisions influence the balance of relationships between normalcy, power, knowledge, and discourse.