Melbourne School of Government - Research Publications
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ItemClinical Practice in Education: Towards a Conceptual Framework(Springer, 2017)Clinical practice has recently emerged as a promising approach that is being applied to teaching and teacher education. Despite this growing interest, however, conceptual and practical ambiguities continue to surround the term. This chapter provides a critical and comprehensive review of how clinical practice is being conceptualised in education by: (a) identifying the core components that characterise clinical practice in education; and (b) discussing the complexities and possibilities of clinical practice in theory and practice. The chapter begins by forging a conceptual framework for understanding clinical practice by identifying three core components that are central to characterising teaching as a clinical practice profession: (1) a focus on student learning and development; (2) evidence-informed practice; and (3) processes of reasoning that lead to decision-making. In summary, we argue that clinical practice offers important possibilities for deepening the theoretical and practical aspects of teaching and teacher education, but that several cautions need to be born in mind in order for it to continue to develop into a meaningful and sustainable concept. While adapting a medical model to teaching should be done with caution and a number of caveats, on balance it offers an approach that has the capacity to strengthen teaching and teacher education.
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ItemHuman Rights Conditionality in European Union Trade Negotiations: the Case of the EU-Singapore FTA(WILEY, 2017-07)Abstract Trade policy is among the EU's most significant capabilities in promoting values including human rights. Yet trade policy and the EU's values‐based foreign policy are often in tension. Scholarship on the social dimension of trade policy has emphasized the tension between values and the EU's commercial interests. Human rights and conditionality clauses have not been the focus of analysis, yet conditionality is one of the EU's most visible links between the trade agenda and its values‐based foreign policy. Analyzing the EU's decision‐making in negotiating human rights conditionality, this paper employs the EU–Singapore free trade agreement and its negotiation as an in‐depth single case study. The tension between commercial interests and values results in decision‐makers promoting incoherent interests. We argue that organizationally defined preferences and issue salience circumscribed the Parliament's impact on decision‐making, resulting in concessions on human rights conditionality with Singapore.
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ItemEXIT AND VOICE IN LOCAL GOVERNMENT RECONSIDERED: A "CHOICE REVOLUTION'?(WILEY, 2016-09)Market‐based public management reform has introduced customer choice among competing providers of public services. Choice entails exit, an option which Albert Hirschman famously reserved for the market, while voice is the key mode of communication in political life. Based on elite and mass surveys, the article studies how exit is perceived by citizens and local political and administrative leaders in Norway and Sweden, and how the two strategic options relate to each other. Citizens are more positive towards customer choice and exit than are leaders, albeit with some variation across different public service sectors. Political and administrative leaders are positive towards customer choice models as a strategy to empower clients but more critical in terms of the potential loss of accountability and control that contracting out services may entail.
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ItemSecurity Through Sustainable Peace: Australian International Conflict Prevention and Peacebuilding(The University of Melbourne, 2020)Review of the Australian Department of foreign Affairs and Trade's experience with conflict prevention and peacebuilding and recommendations for policy development and strengthening capacity.
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ItemNo Preview AvailableAvatar Therapy for people with schizophrenia or related disorders(Wiley, 2020-05-08)Many people with schizophrenia do not achieve satisfactory improvements in their mental state, particularly the symptom of hearing voices (hallucinations), with medical treatment. Objectives To examine the effects of Avatar Therapy for people with schizophrenia or related disorders.
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ItemNo Preview AvailableNew Zealand: Whānau Ora Agile Government Case(Agile Government Center, National Academy of Public Administration, 2020)Aotearoa-New Zealand walks between two cultural worlds - Māori[1] and Western/Anglo traditions - which were embedded following British colonisation, what happens when social policy is designed to reflect these worlds? Māori have perpetually demanded their perspectives be listened to and acted on in public policy since colonisation, but in the past 30 years this call has been gaining broader support. In 2010, Whānau Ora health and social initiative was legislated into action. This came after years of former Minister for the Community and Voluntary Sector Hon. Dame Tariana Turia agitating for change to how Māori health and social services were delivered. For Māori, whānau[2] sits at the centre of culture and community. Whānau Ora, “family wellbeing” in Māori, aims to improve outcomes across areas such as health, education, housing, and employment, with a focus on the hauora of the whānau, as opposed to the traditional focus on individual crisis intervention. “Hauora” is a Māori philosophy of wellbeing entailing four mutually supportive dimensions: taha tinana (physical wellbeing); taha hinengaro (mental and emotional wellbeing); taha whanau (social wellbeing); and taha wairua (spiritual wellbeing) (Durie 1994). As background, it is important to recognize that a central goal of this endeavor is to recognize in Whānau Ora the principle that whānau are best placed to develop their own plans to meet their needs and achieve their aspirations. This contrasts with past practice where services are thrust upon them in times of crisis and with little consideration for their strengths.. Thus, this radical shift towards whānau self-determination required different approaches to developing and implementing Whānau Ora. While not drawing directly from Agile methodology, Whānau Ora shares many of the principles of it, but through a particular Māori and pasifika[3] lens. This case shows us that application of the principles of agile government can be seen in delivering services in a manner that resonates in many communities and has roots in a wide variety of practices.
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ItemNo Preview AvailableAustralia Post Case Study(Agile Government Center, National Academy of Public Administration, 2020)Australia Post faced both disruption and opportunity as the digital era began to shift consumer demands towards ecommerce. The government business enterprise needed to adjust to these headwinds, so in 2012, it embarked on a reinvention of how its Digital Division operated. On a quest to improve customer experience, the Division grew from 15 to 270 open and collaborative people in a couple of years. The Digital Division consciously adopted the Agile methodology in setting out on its transformation.
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ItemCollaborating After Crisis: How Public Administration Scholars and Practitioners Can Work Together(Melbourne School of Government, 2020)Key Points This Policy Brief makes the following key points: (a) COVID-19 has laid bare the capacity challenges faced by governments and exacerbated entrenched disadvantage and inequality. The pandemic has acted as an accelerant of many problems that confront governments, shining light on how decades of reform have eroded government capacity and bought to the fore deep divisions in society. (b) Practitioners and scholars can work together on big challenges that confront us during the crisis and in the aftermath. We need a pivot from ‘big questions’ towards ‘big challenges’, so that public administration and management scholars can work closely with practitioners to address these challenges in real time. (c) To make a difference we need new ways of working collaboratively. If we are keen to collaborate in this crisis and beyond it makes more sense to look to successful collaborations rather than dwell on supposed tensions between scholars and practitioners.
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Item"B in IT" - a community-based model for the management of hepatitis B patients in primary care clinics using a novel web-based clinical tool.(Springer Science and Business Media LLC, 2018)BACKGROUND: The current model of care for the treatment of chronic hepatitis B (CHB) in Australia is through specialist Hepatology or Infectious Diseases clinics, and limited accredited primary care practices. Capacity is limited, and less than 5% of Australians living with CHB currently access therapy. Increasing treatment uptake is an urgent area of clinical need. Nucleos(t)ide analogue therapy is safe and effective treatment for CHB that is suitable for community prescribing. We have evaluated the success of a community-based model for the management of CHB in primary care clinics using a novel web-based clinical tool. METHODS: Using guidelines set out by the Gastroenterological Society of Australia, we developed an interactive online clinical management tool for the shared care of patients with CHB in primary care clinics, with remote oversight from tertiary hospital-based hepatologists and a project officer. We call this model of care the "B in IT" program. Suitable patients were referred from the specialist liver clinic back to primary care for ongoing management. Compliance with recommended appointments, pathology tests and ultrasounds of patients enrolled in "B in IT" was assessed and compared to that of the same patients prior to community discharge, as well as a matched control group of CHB outpatients continuing to attend a specialist clinic. RESULTS: Thirty patients with CHB were enrolled in the "B in IT" program. Compliance with attending scheduled appointments within 1 month of the suggested date was 87% across all 115 visits scheduled. Compliance with completing recommended pathology within 1 month of the suggested date was 94% and compliance with completing recommended liver ultrasounds for cancer screening within 1 month of the suggested date was 89%. The compliance rates for visit attendance and ultrasound completion were significantly higher than the control patient group (p < 0.0001) and the "B in IT" patients prior to community discharge (p = 0.002 and p = 0.039, respectively). CONCLUSIONS: The "B in IT" program's novel web-based clinical tool supports primary care physicians to treat and monitor patients with CHB. This program promotes community-based care and increases system capacity for the clinical care of people living with CHB.