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At the onset of COVID-19, many Local Government Areas (LGAs) indicated they were struggling to communicate effectively with multilingual migrant communities. Communities were isolated from vital LGA support due to factors including the digital divide, barriers to language access, and top-down communication strategies. The pandemic also provided insights into the ways migrant communities mitigate hardship by engaging in placemaking and place-shaping, using existing networks and resources to provide vital support during crisis, which requires significant invisible labour. In this article, we present three case studies from a larger community-based project which began in early 2020 with an LGA in Western Australia. We use case narratives to illustrate and analyse three common actions migrant women used to engage their communities prior to, and during, COVID-19 recovery. These simple, yet profound actions, which include visiting communities, acknowledging challenges, and identifying opportunities further evidence the ways community leaders facilitate culturally sustaining placemaking, even during crisis; they underscore the intense emotional, cultural, and linguistic labour required to enact support in contexts where resources are inaccessible or misaligned with community stories. We argue it is only in partnership with communities that LGAs can learn to address some of the long-standing issues COVID-19 highlights. more...

This presentation takes as its basis 20 years of research into online networks of teachers. It critically discusses this literature in order to suggest a research agenda about the kinds of studies that can lead to actionable knowledge about how to design for, support, and convene online networks of teachers. The motivations for studying online networks of teachers have been well-established in the literature: the potential for peer social support, for the sharing and re-use of knowledge about the profession and for the creation of authentic communities of practice. However, despite the plethora of studies of teachers in social networks sites there is a lack of actionable knowledge that can be used by teacher educators, policy makers, or teachers themselves. Two recent reviews of the literature by Lantz-Andersson et al., (2017) and Macià & Garcia (2016) demonstrate how much is still not known despite over 20 years of research into online networks of teachers. The conclusions focus upon three interrelated areas: adoption of a common language for describing studies, clarity of design goals, and use of appropriate methodology. Firstly, we propose that studies of teachers in online network need to adopt a common language for describing the context of studies. As proposed by Kelly & Antonio (2016) certain distinctions matter, such as whether a network is: open or closed to the public; small, large, or massive; limited to a theme/subject or more general; geographically specified or more general. Further, Carvalho & Goodyear (2014) propose a framework for Activity Centred Analysis and Design that describes networks through their set design, social design, epistemic design, and design for co-configuration. Secondly, networks for teachers need to have clear goals specified using this common language. We propose that the type of knowledge that is needed from research in this domain is of the form "if this type of network is desired, then this ap more...

Better managing diabetes has become a global priority, especially given the exponential increase in the number of diabetes patients and the financial implications of treating this silent epidemic. In this paper, we focus on how it might be possible to use a mobile technology solution to support and enable superior diabetes monitoring and management. To test this solution, we examined the context of gestational diabetes and adopted a non-blinded randomized control trial with two-arm cross over applied to a private hospital in Victoria, Australia. Further, we use an accountable care system as the theoretical lens and, from this, develop a conceptual framework to bridge evidence-based management with technologies. Theoretically, we unpack McCleallan, McKethan, Lewis, Roski, and Fisher’s (2010) study with our conceptual framework that comprises providers for information (evidence-based management) and technology (smartphone). We enhance Muhlestein, Croshaw, Merrill, Pena, and James’ (2013) accountable care paradigm with three concepts: 1) quality of life, 2) evidence-based management, and 3) affordable care. From the perspective of practice, far-reaching implications have arisen particularly for hospital management pertaining to the cost and quality of care issues. In particular, it appears that adapting mobile technology solutions such as smartphones to support various aspects of care and patient-clinician interactions is a prudent choice to minimize costs and yet provide highquality care. more...

This chapter affirms the value of secure but flexible cultural identities in developing a form of critical intercultural literacy which is not merely as a set of skills, but a deeper set of understandings. Drawing on the findings of a study of a migrant group in Australia, it suggests that such literacy can be acquired in third spaces between the familiar and the new. From a sociocultural perspective, it is argued that for successful language learning and social interaction, the development of critical intercultural literacy should overarch the narrower concepts of communicative competence and cultural literacy. It is also argued that teaching and learning are much less effective if educator and learner cultural values conflict, and if school literacy learning does not connect with personal experience. more...

Northern Soul is a cultural phenomenon twice removed from its original source in Britain in the late 1960s. Rooted in gospel and rhythm and blues music, with pounding “four-to-the floor” beats, it is often accompanied by swirling strings, vibraphone flourishes, and infectious clapping. Since the 1960s Northern Soul has spread globally, via the Internet and migration, to such unlikely places as Medellin in Colombia. By giving voice to the members of this scene, this book explores theories about how identity and cultural literacy evolve through engagement with popular culture. It seeks to contribute to understandings about patterns of economic and media consumption, informal learning, intercultural communication, and about how migrants perceive themselves and form connections with others. more...

Australia's acceptance of refugees has a long and controversial history. As a nation, we have at times accommodated and accepted multitudes of various individuals of differing faiths, ethnicity and cultures into our society. Australia is indeed a cosmopolitan community of indigenous and immigrant Australian citizens that have displayed periods of welcoming refugees from war-torn states as under Malcolm Fraser's leadership in the late 1970s. Concurrently, we have actively discriminated, sometimes implicitly, although not always, against certain immigrants, including refugees from China and Papua and New Guinea during the late 1960s and early 1970s. The community's perception of refugees has often curtailed the more liberal accommodation of foreigners in need of refuge. The refugee policy and its wholesale delivery by the government of the day has the ability to change and influence the zeitgeist through government leadership, or can alternatively appeal to the popular interest and continue to be voter orientated. This thesis compares and contrasts the periods of the Bob Hawke and Paul Keating administrations (1983-1996) and the John Howard administration (1996-2007). It investigates this epoch to analyse similarities and differences between the Labor and Coalition governments with respect to rhetoric and policy associated with refugees. Case study examples are utilised to compare how Hawke and Keating as well as Howard issued rhetoric and applied policy. This study tested three main similarities between the Labor and Coalition governments. First, within policy, both governments continued to uphold Australia's refugee intake quotas to a ten per cent margin of the overall per annum immigration intake. In spite of this accomplishment, more serious problems of resettlement issues were poorly administered by both parties. Secondly, foreign policy and economic policy were major considerations for conservative and centre-left governments during their respective periods of i more...

This study looked closely at the attitudes of TESOL teachers to a range of approaches to teacher education, with particular emphasis on the role of classroom observation. The influence of pre- and in-service training and the school environment was probed through semi-structured interviews and confirmatory discussions. Participants for this qualitative study were practising TESOL teachers at the Centre for International English, Curtin University, Western Australia. The approach taken was to allow them, as far as possible, to identify issues in teacher education for themselves. At the same time, their words were used, where possible, to describe attitudes to these issues. Any categories which emerged during analysis were regarded as flexible and dynamic. The research shed useful light on the attitudes of teachers with implications for teacher educators in TESOL. It found that informants introspecting on teacher education were mainly concerned with classroom events, but also believed factors outside the classroom and teaching itself, such as personal experience, to be worthy of consideration. The range of contexts in which teacher development takes place is represented in this study as the 'Action- Reflection continuum', which covers six linked aspects. Teaching, the first aspect, is at the 'action' end of the continuum, which then moves through Observing, Being observed, Hearing and Talking about Teaching, Reading and Writing about Teaching, and finally to Personal Development, at the 'reflection' end. Within the individual aspects of teacher development a range of main factors were found to be influential. These were the degrees of experience, comfort, formality, reality, contact with others, and the appropriate balance between theory and practice. A number of clear and consistent views emerged. Teaching itself was clearly a major context for development and unobserved teaching was felt to be extremely valuable at both pre- and in-service. At the same time feedback more...