Faculty of Education - Research Publications
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ItemNo Preview AvailableMeaning Making in Early Childhood Research: Pedagogies and the Personal(Routledge, 2017)Meaning Making in Early Childhood Research asks readers to rethink research in early childhood education through qualitative research practices reflective of arts-based pedagogies. This collection explores how educators and researchers can move toward practices of meaning making in early childhood education. The text’s narrative style provides an intimate portrait of engaging in research that challenges assumptions and thinking in a variety of international contexts, and each chapter offers a way to engage in meaning making based on the experiences of young children, their families, and educators.
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ItemNo Preview AvailableNarrative Language and Literacy Education Research Within a Postcolonial Framework(Springer, 2017)This chapter explores the heuristic value of narrative as it might be applied to researching language and literacy education in postcolonial settings. We focus specifically on the importance of autobiographical writing as a means of enabling educators and researchers to engage with a ‘plurality of consciousnesses’ (Bakhtin MM, Problems of Dostoyevsky’s poetics (Emerson C, ed and trans). University of Minnesota Press, Minneaplois, 1984) and to explore the values and beliefs they bring to their work. In this way we challenge the pretensions to objectivity of the scientific research privileged by standards-based reforms. By locating autobiographical writing in a postcolonial framework, however, we also seek to differentiate our standpoint from the claims typically made on behalf of ‘narrative inquiry’ (Clandinin J, Connelly M, Narrative inquiry: experience and story in qualitative research. Jossey-Bass, San-Francisco, 2000). We argue that personal narratives should prompt analyses that investigate how our individual situations are mediated by larger social and historical contexts. This means combining storytelling with analytical writing in order to produce hybrid texts that challenge accepted forms of academic writing. Crucially, this also means embracing ‘trans-lingualism’ (Canagarajah S, Translingual practice: global English and cosmopolitan relations. Routledge, London/New York, 2013), working at the interface between English and other languages, and engaging with issues of language and socio-cultural identity vis-à-vis the globalization of English as the language of science.
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ItemExploring the Self through Songwriting: An Analysis of Songs Composed by People with Acquired Neurodisability in an Inpatient Rehabilitation Program(Oxford University Press, 2017-03-01)Background: Neurological trauma is associated with significant damage to people’s pre-injury self-concept. Therapeutic songwriting has been linked with changes in self-concept and improved psychological well-being. Objective: This study analyzed the lyrics of songs composed by inpatients with neurological injuries who participated in a targeted songwriting program. The aim of this study was to understand which of the subdomains of the self-concept were the most frequently expressed in songs. Methods: An independent, deductive content analysis of 36 songs composed by 12 adults with spinal cord injury or brain injury (11 males, mean age 41 years +/– 13) were undertaken by authors 1 and 2. Results: Deductive analysis indicated that when writing about the past self, people created songs that reflected a strong focus on family and descriptions of their personality. In contrast, there is a clear preoccupation with the physical self, on the personal self, and a tendency for spiritual and moral reflections to emerge during the active phase of rehabilitation (song about the present self). Statistical analyses confirmed a significant self-concept subdomain by song interaction, F(10, 110) = 5.98, p < .001, ηp2 = .35), which was primarily due to an increased focus on physical self-concept and a reduced focus on family self-concept in the present song, more than in either past or future songs. Conclusions: The analysis process confirmed that songwriting is a vehicle that allows for exploration of self-concept in individuals with neurological impairments. Songwriting may serve as a therapeutic tool to target the most prevalent areas of self-concept challenges for clients undergoing inpatient neurological rehabilitation programs.
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ItemA theoretical framework and therapeutic songwriting protocol to promote integration of self-concept in people with acquired neurological injuries(The Grieg Academy Music Therapy Research Centre, 2016)A positive self-concept after neurological injury is associated with enhanced quality of life and good mental health. Therefore, effective reconstruction of identity is heralded as an important goal of rehabilitation. We have developed and tested a songwriting protocol for people with acquired brain injury and/or spinal cord injury (SCI) that focuses on six domains of self-concept (physical, personal, social, family, academic/work, and moral). Over 12 music therapy sessions, people create three songs that reflect their perception of their past, present, and future selves. The therapeutic process of creating these songs aims to integrate residual components of the past self with that of the present injured self. This article outlines the theoretical foundations for the use of songwriting as a medium for change and describes the protocol in detail. We then present a case study of a man with SCI to illustrate the application of the protocol and the ensuing changes in self-concept.
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ItemNo Preview AvailableePoster Mathematics and assessment in early childhood education( 2017)https://vimeo.com/230711323/44d98316b5
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ItemNo Preview AvailableSpatial reasoning and mathematics in early childhood education(Early Childhood Australia Inc, 2017)Spatial reasoning is a set of cognitive functions, processes and skills that enable us to understand and describe representations and spatial relationships between objects, ourselves and our environment—it is a life skill. Spatial reasoning is at the core of mathematical thinking. There are three key areas of spatial reasoning associated with mathematics ability in early childhood: perspective taking, mental rotation and spatial visualisation.
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ItemNo Preview AvailablePositive early childhood education: Expanding the reach of positive psychology into early childhood(National Wellbeing Service, 2017)There are inherent links between early childhood educational theory and practice and the science of positive psychology. Opportunities exist for the implementation of positive psychology interventions and the harnessing of synergies between early childhood services and global pedagogies (such as the Reggio Emilia approach and Nature pedagogy), yet they currently lack articulation, connection and application. Early childhood history, theory and practice recognise child wellbeing as complementary to education and both educator and child wellbeing are critical for the delivery of quality early childhood education services. Globally there exists regulation, pedagogy, standards and learning and development frameworks that mandate a focus on wellbeing but provide the profession with little to no tools, training or interventions in the science of wellbeing. Future directions for research into the rich connectivity of positive psychology and early childhood education are called for. Identification, design and implementation of positive psychology interventions (PPIs) along with training of educators and educational leaders in the science of wellbeing (for themselves and their students) is timely and required.
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ItemNo Preview AvailableEnlivening STEM education through school-community partnerships(Springer Singapore, 2017-08-09)A major response to the growing concern with diminishing engagement and participation of students in STEM pathways, in Australia and internationally, has been the involvement of the STEM community in school outreach activities. In Australia there has been a proliferation of links between scientists and schools, with the aim of engaging students in authentic activities and providing models of what STEM work pathways might entail. This chapter will draw on a series of projects studying partnerships between the professional science/mathematics communities and schools, to explore a range of partnership models, the experience and outcomes for students and teachers, and challenges for crossing the boundary between school and STEM professional communities. Such school/STEM community partnerships are particularly suited to studies related to environmental and sustainability issues, a focus explored in the chapter. Further, we will draw on a recent evaluation of the Australia-wide, CSIRO-led Scientists and Mathematicians in Schools (SMiS) program. That study provided insight into the use and outcomes of the SMiS model. We will explore some of the challenges of working across the school-STEM professional practice boundary, implications for curriculum, and differences in partnerships for mathematics compared to science.
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ItemTopic Study Group No. 27: Learning and Cognition in Mathematics(Springer International Publishing, 2017)
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ItemNo Preview AvailableTeaching Academies of Professional Practice.(AARE, 2016)