Faculty of Education - Theses
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ItemThe Internet of Toys: Exploring multimodal learning in the lifeworlds of young children( 2023-09)Young children are growing up with an array of playthings including those in the category of the Internet of Toys (IoToys). They are not only playing with certain Internet-connected items that are manufactured to be children’s toys, but also turning many Internet of Things (IoT) devices, such as smartphones and tablets, into their playthings. To provide a clear and comprehensive interpretation of what the IoToys might be, and to enable future research on the IoToys to be conducted in a systematic and holistic way, a new conceptualisation of the Internet of Toys is proposed in this work. Based on this novel conceptualisation, an online survey and five case studies were conducted following a convergent mixed methods design, in order to explore young children’s play practices with their IoToys in the home settings and to determine any associated influences on children’s play and learning. Additionally, some elements influencing young children’s play choices with the IoToys were investigated. A total of 730 Chinese parents/caregivers from four different schools participated in the survey. Descriptive analyses and correlational analyses were conducted to analyse the survey data. Five families with six children participated in the case studies. Each participant family was visited on five to eight occasions, with interviews and observations being conducted over a period of four months. Thematic analysis was then employed to analyse the data generated from the case studies. The findings from this research reveal that the IoToys items, with their range of activities, were very popular among young children. Because of the ubiquitous nature of the IoT devices, a majority of the children started to play with the IoToys at a young age. The qualitative data suggested several similarities among the children’s play practices with the IoToys, and demonstrated that the children could acquire varied knowledge from their free play with their IoToys. What the children may learn from their IoToys play was largely determined by the specific content of the play activities conducted (e.g., games and cartoons) rather than the devices themselves. The survey explored whether there existed a relationship between the IoToys play at home and academic performance at school. The data from the case studies and those from the survey together showed some elements that may influence children’s play practices with their IoToys, such as their parents’ mediation strategies and attitudes, and the parents’ own IoToys play habits. Several challenges associated with the children’s IoToys play were revealed, such as a consideration of what is now regarded as being age-inappropriate content in social media. The findings have important implications for future research and make a significant contribution to the current debates in the research literature about digital play. Finally, valuable suggestions for families about IoToys possibilities and for the toy industry about design can also be obtained.
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ItemYoga Pathways to Wellbeing: Exploring Conceptualisations, Profiles and Mechanisms in Regular Ashtanga Yoga Practitioners( 2023-05)Yoga is an embodied practice founded in philosophical frameworks intended for the evolution of different dimensions of human existence and optimal functioning. With a solid body of research demonstrating its positive impact on health and wellbeing, recent studies mostly using quantitative methods have shifted their focus to understand practitioners’ characteristics and the mechanisms yielding positive benefits. This thesis adds to these studies by exploring the pathways of yoga towards wellbeing by understanding how an international sample of regular practitioners within the Ashtanga Yoga (AY) tradition conceptualise wellbeing and yoga, examining differences and similarities in their wellbeing and yoga profiles, and understanding the mechanisms of yoga from their lived experience of a developing a long-term practice. Guided by a social constructivist epistemology and interweaving Reflexive Thematic Analysis and Cluster Analysis, this predominately qualitative mixed-methods research comprises five studies using data from an online survey and semi-structured interviews to gain in-depth analysis of yoga, wellbeing, and their inter-relationships. While the first three studies were designed to understand how regular AY practitioners conceptualised wellbeing and yoga, the two subsequent studies focused on understanding the characteristics of practitioners and the pathways that their yoga practice paved towards wellbeing. Wellbeing was conceptualised as embodied, multidimensional, integrated, holistic, and dynamic, being experienced and perceived by the self as a whole. Wellbeing outcomes experienced in one dimension of the individual (i.e., physical, emotional, psychological, social, spiritual) were seen as permeating into other dimensions and in dynamic interaction with one another. Yoga was conceptualised as an evolving system interweaving philosophical and practical components, and in close relation to health and wellbeing. Yoga was represented as a formal practice, as a lifestyle and a way of seeing the world, which could be further used as a path for self-inquiry and for spiritual development. The pathways of yoga towards wellbeing were varied across regular AY practitioners. While practitioners shared some common characteristics, including high levels of perceived health and wellbeing, mindfulness, compassion, openness to experience, and conscientiousness, they also varied in their engagement with the AY practice. The pathways towards wellbeing involved different levels of engagement with different components of the AY system (e.g., breathing, philosophical framework), in addition to experiencing increased autonomy and awareness through the AY method (i.e., way of teaching/learning), and the integration of mechanisms across neurophysiological, intrapersonal, interpersonal, and transpersonal domains. These findings suggest that AY can cater to different individuals, providing autonomy in ways of engaging with the practice over time, activating various pathways leading to wellbeing outcomes involving neurophysiological, intrapersonal, interpersonal, and transpersonal elements and processes. Two conceptual models emerged from this thesis: a conceptual model of human functioning and wellbeing, and a conceptual model of the pathways of AY towards wellbeing. Together, these models articulate how a regular yoga practice can permeate into every dimension of human existence, yielding wellbeing benefits within the self and in relation to others. The ability to navigate through different levels of individual functioning, (i.e., from coping, to personal growth, to transcendence) in an embodied and regulated manner can ultimately translate into a sense of integrated self, which is attuned to oneself, to others, and to the world around them. Overall, the thesis underscores the relevance of incorporating an embodied, holistic, transdisciplinary, and systems lens into wellbeing research, theory, and practice, as well as moving from purely cognitive wellbeing interventions to embodied and holistic ongoing practices and lifestyles that can lead to sustained intrapersonal, interpersonal, and transpersonal wellbeing outcomes.
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ItemDeveloping effective wellbeing interventions using universal bite-sized, online, school-based PPIs( 2022)With high rates of mental illness and illbeing among children worldwide, it is important to find ways of building the vocabulary, knowledge and skills needed to protect and nurture student wellbeing. Schools provide an opportune place for teaching children about wellbeing. Universal, bite-sized, online positive psychology interventions (PPIs) designed to build wellbeing among school aged cohorts, provide one option for all schools, including resource poor schools. However, understanding effectiveness is important. The RE-AIM framework was used here to plan for and evaluate PPI effectiveness, and to guide answers to the overarching thesis question: Is the brief universal online PPI HQthrive effective in increasing primary school students’ wellbeing, in terms of process and outcome effectiveness? This thesis includes discovery, development and evaluation phases of HQthrive. The discovery phases included a systematic literature review and focus group research to determine existing needs, value and fit for PPIs within the primary school context. Focus groups involved 44 grade 5/6 students and 38 teachers, from six country and three city Victorian primary schools. Focus groups included rich picture mapping, as well as focus group discussion. The development phase included co-design of the online PPI HQthrive, for grade 5/6 primary school classes. The final evaluation phase involved a pilot study of HQthrive at six Victorian primary schools, including 20 classes, 20 classroom teachers, and paired data from 131 students. Evaluation included examination of the adoption and implementation process, and examination of indicators of success, including participant feedback, researcher observations, emotional vocabulary data, subjective survey data of hedonic and eudaimonic wellbeing, and objective physiological data. Overall pedagogy, implementation and learning processes, and alternative outcome measures for PPIs are highlighted as important consideration for future research.
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ItemThe Happiness Externality: Exploring the Social Role and Responsibilities of Business( 2020)Happiness refers to the way people feel and function in their lives and is something that is highly valued by most nations and their citizenry. Over the past two decades, happiness has been a topical area of interest in policy circles around the world. Today, various intergovernmental agencies and over 40 countries around the world are routinely collecting and publishing data on the subjective wellbeing of citizens. However, while much attention has been given to the role of governments in preserving and enhancing societal happiness, there has been minimal focus on the role and contributions of business in societal happiness. Businesses, in their various forms, are inseparable features of modern societies, and their activities bear far reaching consequences on all aspects of social life, including the subjective experiences of societal constituents. Given the systemic social connectedness of business in society and the importance of happiness to governments and their people, this dissertation draws on positive psychology and corporate social responsibility (CSR) concepts to frame happiness as an externality of business and examines the social roles and responsibilities of businesses for societal happiness. In the absence of specific theories and frameworks in the extant literature, my research first proposes a new humanist and normative concept termed ‘CSR for Happiness’, which contends that businesses have a social responsibility to respect, preserve, and advance people’s right to, and experience of, happiness. As a new concept, subsequent empirical work was undertaken and interpreted through the lens of social contracts, to clarify the conceptual boundary conditions of CSR for Happiness. The empirical contributions of this dissertation comprise two studies that examined lay perspectives regarding CSR for Happiness using a single large survey dataset. Study 1 was a quantitative study that analysed Likert-style responses of 1,319 participants. Study 2 was a mixed-method study that analysed open-text responses from over 1,000 participants. In undertaking Study 2, a novel mixed method was developed that used a combination of natural language processing and thematic analysis techniques to process and analyse large volumes of textual survey data, thus also contributing a method to the extant literature. Collectively, both studies found that the study participants were supportive of the notion that businesses hold some degree of social responsibility for happiness. Findings from exploratory analyses in Study 1 indicates that there is stronger support among less privileged respondents in the public and that the perceived degree of social responsibility for happiness tends to be greater for high-proximity stakeholders such as customers and employees, compared to low-proximity stakeholders such as suppliers. Study 1 also found that business activities that enhance happiness of societal constituents corresponds with stakeholder behavioural intentions that may enhance business performance outcomes. In Study 2, analysis of the textual data revealed that lay construals of happiness were defined in terms of socioeconomic conditions and psychoemotional experiences. Further, although the public believed that businesses have some social responsibilities for happiness, their expectations were tempered by a number of caveats: (1) responsibility not to harm happiness, (2) responsibility to enable happiness, (3) responsibility to exercise awareness of happiness in decision making, (4) responsibility for happiness is greatest for stakeholder that are spatially near, and (5) responsibility to act within scope of their purpose and capability. Interpreted through a contractarian lens of CSR, Study 2 clarifies the conceptual boundaries of CSR for Happiness by identifying the perceived nature and extent of businesses’ social responsibilities for societal happiness.