Search

Action research (AR) offers an ideological fit with the culture and the work of the academy - they share a culture of collegiality, evidence- and theory-based practice, and a focus on reflection and evaluation to inform change and innovation. An AR approach and methodology are also integral to the development of leadership capacity for learning and teaching. This paper focuses on a distributed leadership approach for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SOTL) enabled by, and researched through, AR. Discussion and findings are presented through the lens of 20 funded Australian AR projects that used distributed leadership to build capacity for SOTL. These projects have made contributions to SOTL that extend the boundaries of pedagogical AR to a new area of focus: that of a distributed leadership approach to SOTL. An AR meta review of the projects revealed a synergy between AR and distributed leadership. The review generated evidence-based good practice actions for AR that also enable a distributed leadership approach for SoTL. These good practice action statements, together with illustrative vignettes, are presented in this paper. The intention is that the statements can provide a simple guide to using an AR approach to facilitate distributed leadership for higher education SOTL. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article describes the methodology developed for a PhD study to explore the perceptions of Aboriginal Hospital Liaison Officers (AHLOs) and non-Aboriginal social workers about what they understand to be good practice in their work that leads to the best possible outcomes for Aboriginal patients in hospitals in Victoria. A methodology that would facilitate building relationships and trust with Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people in a short time and within the structured setting of hospitals was essential. Integral to the action research study design was the involvement of research informants and other Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people with knowledge about supporting Aboriginal patients in hospitals in the scoping, data analysis, and presentation of findings. The sustained contribution of an Aboriginal Critical Reference Group was a critical factor for guiding the research to support implementation of Indigenous research principles and meeting NHMRC ethical guidelines for Indigenous health research. Ethical considerations, the theoretical position and values of the researcher and an explanation of the research design to address the question are outlined with the aim of sharing a practice example of action research. Participants shared experiences of working with Aboriginal people across general, specialist, urban, and regional hospitals in Victoria. The diverse narratives of good practice confirmed that there is a specific sociocultural practice with Aboriginal people in hospitals across Victoria. Focussing on the strengths reported in the practice of AHLOs and social workers, principles for good practice with Aboriginal patients, their families, and their communities, were drawn from the study and are briefly summarised at the end of the article to indicate what the action research methodology facilitated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article focuses on the Australian Government’s Values Education Program and, within its context, theValues Education Good Practice Schools Project(VEGPSP) Reports and theProject to Test and Measure the Impact of Values Education on Student Effects and School Ambience,funded federally from 2003 to 2010. Findings demonstrated the capacity of values education, properly implemented, to impact positively on a range of educational goals, emotional, social, moral and academic. On these grounds, it is argued that values education possesses largely unrealized potential to constitute good practice pedagogy. Furthermore, the article underpins these claims with recent insights from the neurosciences that explain in part why values education possesses such potential. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Australia's child protection systems and the provision of out-of-home care, in particular, have been subject to sustained criticism for decades from dozens of official inquiries and reviews. It is now well established that many children in state care are treated significantly less well than required by relevant legal frameworks and community standards. Much attention and significant resources have been directed toward trying to ameliorate this ‘wicked problem’ and yet it continues. This article focuses on one reason the problems persists, namely the secrecy and closed cultures that characterize relevant organizations which reinforce strategies of denial that avoid acknowledging or dealing with ‘uncomfortable knowledge’. It is a situation many people in child protection systems confront. It is, for example, when we know abuse is taking place, or when they see or are ourselves party to corrupt or negligent practices. It is knowing that important ethical principles are being abrogated. We draw on recent official reports and inquiries noting the repeated calls for greater transparency and independent oversight. An argument is made for a default position of total transparency subject to caveats that protect privacy and any investigation underway. An account of what this can look like is offered. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Growth in the marine wildlife tourism industry has been accompanied by concerns regarding its sustainability. This paper develops and tests a generic framework for assessing the sustainability of such ventures. The framework aims to guide the collection and collation of existing information and then use this information to identify current sustainability issues and information gaps. Development relied on a literature review and expert opinion. Testing was undertaken on whale shark tourism at Ningaloo Marine Park in north-western Australia. Evaluation of the framework suggests it has applicability (i.e. it is simple to use) and is useful, where usefulness refers to the ability to contribute to sustainable tourism management. Its reproducibility (i.e. providing consistent responses irrespective of the context) could only be determined through application to multiple case studies, a recommendation flowing from this study. The framework has at least three applications: improving existing marine wildlife tourism operations through reviewing their sustainability; developing an auditing mechanism as part of the licensing provisions for such tourism; and helping to determine the likely sustainability of proposed ventures. Overall, this framework provides an important opportunity to further develop the professionalism of the wildlife tourism sector through enhancing good practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sustainable natural resource use and management make novel demands on governance arrangements, the design of which requires normative guidance. Although governance principles have been developed for diverse contexts, their availability for sustainable natural resource governance is so far limited. In response, we present a suite of governance principles for natural resource governance that, while developed in an Australian multilevel context, has general applicability and significance at local, subnational, and national scales. The principles can be used to direct the design of governance institutions that are legitimate, transparent, accountable, inclusive, and fair and that also exhibit functional and structural integration, capability, and adaptability. Together, they can also serve as a platform for developing governance monitoring and evaluation instruments, crucial for both self-assessment and external audit purposes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]