Australian Academics Research Articles

When Comedy and Intellectual Disability Collide: Who Says What Goes, and How Far, When Actors with Intellectual Disabilities Appear on Screen?

As part of a creative-practice PhD in Australia in 2007, the author of this paper embarked on the conception and production of a comedy feature film starring two men with intellectual disabilities. Its purpose was to forge a new model of creative collaboration, which abandoned the “us” and “them” and found a wide audience for the rich and diverse voices of people with intellectual disabilities. This paper uses self-reflection and a review of primary and secondary sources to discuss the intense debate that was sparked by the published objections to the work by two Australian academics. Issues raised were the representation of intellectual disability in screen comedy; the vulnerability, protection, independence, and capacity of people with intellectual disability when they are involved in media productions; and the role of the disability community in defining the terms of the debate. The debates, though often divisive and confrontational, ultimately strengthened and enhanced the finished work. The lessons from this experience and the challenges it presented may help to better prepare film-makers of the future who seek to include and collaborate with actors with intellectual disabilities.

Amazingly resilient Indigenous people! Using transformative learning to facilitate positive student engagement with sensitive material

If health professionals are to effectively contribute to improving the health of Indigenous people, understanding of the historical, political, and social disadvantage that has lead to health disparity is essential. This paper describes a teaching and learning experience in which four Australian Indigenous academics in collaboration with a non-Indigenous colleague delivered an intensive workshop for masters level post-graduate students. Drawing upon the paedagogy of Transformative Learning, the objectives of the day included facilitating students to explore their existing understandings of Indigenous people, the impact of ongoing colonisation, the diversity of Australia’s Indigenous people, and developing respect for alternative worldviews. Drawing on a range of resources including personal stories, autobiography, film and interactive sessions, students were challenged intellectually and emotionally by the content. Students experienced the workshop as a significant educational event, and described feeling transformed by the content, better informed, more appreciative of other worldviews and Indigenous resilience and better equipped to contribute in a more meaningful way to improving the quality of health care for Indigenous people. Where this workshop differs from other Indigenous classes was in the involvement of an Indigenous teaching team. Rather than a lone academic who can often feel vulnerable teaching a large cohort of non-Indigenous students, an Indigenous teaching team reinforced Indigenous authority and created an emotionally and culturally safe space within which students were allowed to confront and explore difficult truths. Findings support the value of multiple teaching strategies underpinned by the theory of transformational learning, and the potential benefits of facilitating emotional as well as intellectual student engagement when presenting sensitive material.

ICT's participatory potential in higher education collaborations: Reality or just talk

AbstractRecently, interest has sparked in collaboration and networking within and between universities, industry, government and the wider populace. Knowledge transfer has gradually become a strategic issue, so that many governments and funding bodies now use economic‐based incentives to mandate collaboration in hope of stimulating innovation, improving efficiency and promoting inclusion. Web 2.0 has been heralded as an enabler of collaboration. Powerful new tools abound to enhance collaborative initiatives. I investigate uptake of these tools and their impact on collaboration in the Australian context. Although research is scant, the literature provided a preliminary picture of Web 2.0 usage patterns among Australian academics, researchers and professionals. Adoption of virtual collaboration tools for work activities is lower than expected. Connectivity, accessibility and availability do not seem to be major deterrents to Web 2.0 use, suggesting appropriation is the problem. It remains unclear whether these technologies have encouraged further collaboration; at present, these are primarily social devices and tools, their beneficial work applications yet to be fully unmasked. It is argued that further research and broader professional learning opportunities would support greater Web 2.0 appropriation.

The contribution of email volume, email management strategies and propensity to worry in predicting email stress among academics

The present study explored the contribution of email volume, email management and worry in predicting email stress among a sample of Australian academics. The sample comprised 114 academic staff from Curtin University in Perth, Australia. An online survey was conducted to gather data on the target variables. A moderated hierarchical regression indicated that the combined model accounted for a significant 11.90% of the variance in email stress (p=.008, f2=.135). Worry individually accounted for a significant proportion of the variance (p=.010, f2=.06, 95% CI [.028, .202]). Email volume also significantly predicted email stress (p=.00, f2=.057, 95% CI [.011, .079]). Email management did not moderate the email volume and stress relationship. The findings suggest that email stress is impacting upon academic teaching staff and that research on mitigating this stress needs to be undertaken.

A narrative review of Men’s Sheds literature: reducing social isolation and promoting men’s health and well-being

Men's Sheds are community-based organisations that typically provide a space for older men to participate in meaningful occupation such as woodwork. Men's Sheds are considered an exemplar for the promotion of men's health and well-being by health and social policy-makers. The objective of this literature review was to determine the state of the science about the potential for Men's Sheds to promote male health and well-being. Between October 2011 and February 2012, we conducted searches of databases, the grey literature and manual searches of websites and reference lists. In total, we found 5 reports and 19 articles about Men's Sheds. The majority of the literature has emanated from Australian academics and is about older men's learning in community contexts. There is a limited body of research literature about Men's Sheds; the literature consists of either descriptive surveys or small qualitative studies. The range of variables that might contribute towards best practice in Men's Sheds has not yet been adequately conceptualised, measured, tested or understood. Future research should be focussed on the health and well-being benefits of Men's Sheds; it needs to incorporate social determinants of health and well-being within the study designs to enable comparison against other health promotion research. Without this research focus, there is a danger that the potential health and well-being benefits of Men's Sheds as supportive and socially inclusive environments for health will not be incorporated into future male health policy and practice.

Australian information education in the 21st century – the synergy among research, teaching and practice

In 2011 a group of Australian Library and Information Science academics led by Prof. Helen Partridge conducted an investigation into the Australian Library and Information Science education in the 21st century. The project was funded by the Australian Learning and Teaching Council (ALTC) and the final report, titled “Re-conceptualising and re-positioning Australian library and information science education for the 21st century” was published in December 2011. The report presents a framework for educating information professionals in Australia and highlights a range of trials for the Australian Information Education in the 21st century. Among other challenges, the report reveals the need for more research opportunities, a lack of opportunities to apply the acquired knowledge in practice and the need for ‘sustainable, attractive and relevant’ programs, competitive on the international market. This paper discusses potential enhancements to the Australian Information Education in response to some of the challenges presented in the 2011 Partridge et al. report. The analysis is based on a model covering three main areas of activity in Information Education (IE) – research, teaching and practice (RTP). The paper provides an insight into the research capabilities of LIS in Australia, emphasising the importance of research informed teaching and practice.

Job stress, wellbeing, work-life balance and work-life conflict among Australian academics

Escalating stress and pressures, along with organisational change in universities has led to the increased importance of research in to the impact of perceived job stress, work-life balance and work-life conflict amongst academics. Yet, very few studies have examined academics’ ability to balance work and personal life, and overcome work-life conflict. Drawing on Spillover theory (Zedeck, 1992), our study hypothesised that high levels of perceived job pressure stress and job threat stress would predict increased levels of work-life conflict, and decreased levels of work-life balance. Due to the well-documented relationship between stress and health, the influence of job stress on wellbeing was also investigated in this sample of academics (N =139). Perceived job stress (threat and pressure-type stressors) was associated with poorer work-life balance, and increased conflict between academics’ work and personal lives. Perceived job threat-type stress made a stronger contribution and was a significant predictor of work-life balance and work-life conflict scores, than perceived job pressure-type stress. Perceived job threat-type stress among academics was also a significant predictor and associated with poorer wellbeing and increased ill-being, but perceived job pressure-type stress was not related to academics’ wellbeing or ill-being.

Perspectives of academic social scientists on knowledge transfer and research collaborations: a cross-sectional survey of Australian academics

This paper reports results from a survey of academic social scientists in Australian universities on their research engagement experience with industry and government partners and end-users of research. The results highlight that while academics report a range of benefits arising from research collaborations, there are also significant impediments to research translation and uptake, including organisational processes within universities. Using the scale of research utilisation, we examine research transfer and uptake and explore a range of variables to understand factors influencing the use of academic social science research by policy makers and practitioners.

The motivations, values and future plans of Australian academics

The Australian academic profession is more differentiated than is acknowledged in national and institutional policies and academic roles are more diverse than many academics themselves may recognise. However, the evolution of the nature and purposes of the profession and its implicit diversification have been incremental and largely unplanned. A consequence of this piecemeal approach is the attitudes and pressures on academic staff uncovered by this study, including a widespread intent to leave the Australian higher education sector for other work, or work in overseas universities. The study is based on a large-scale survey of over 5,500 academics across 19 Australian universities, and explores the attitudes, motivators and career plans of the present academic workforce in Australia.

Perceptions of quality in higher education: a comparative study of Turkish and Australian business academics

Finding a common definition of ‘quality’ in studies of quality and quality improvement in higher education institutions is very important. This study identifies the views of a key stakeholder group, academics, with reference to their beliefs (what is currently occurring) and their attitudes (what ought to be occurring) in relation to quality in their departments. The focus of this paper is on the collection of data from 64 business administration academics in Turkish universities. Face-to-face interviews were conducted using an instrument titled ‘Quality in Accounting Education Survey’. The questionnaire was developed by Watty and is based on the conceptions of quality framework, developed by Harvey and Green. The results are compared with the beliefs and attitudes of Australian accounting academics as reported in an earlier paper by Watty. The findings show that academics from Turkey adopt the perspective of quality as excellent or élitist, both in their beliefs (current situation perception) and in their attitudes (desired situation perception). This compares with the findings that Australian academics’ attitudes reflect a quality perspective as fitness for purpose in the current situation and beliefs that reflect a transformational quality perspective as the desired situation (what ought to be).

Copyright and Contracts: the Use of Electronic Resources Provided by University Libraries

AbstractUniversities enter into contracts with publishers or providers of aggregated resources on behalf of university libraries to provide staff and students with access to material in electronic format for educational and research purposes. Following a brief review of twelve database provider contracts, our research demonstrates that Australian academics are potentially breaching the contractual terms and conditions of electronic resources when accessing, downloading and printing articles and other materials. They are covered for research purposes, but not for educational purposes.

Heat shock hits muscular dystrophy

Australian academics have used N-Gene's BGP-15, a small molecule inducer of Hsp72, to increase muscle strength and survival in mice with muscular dystrophy. The biotech, which is testing the compound in Phase IIb for diabetes, now hopes to find a partner for the new indication.

Academics as Educators in Australian Universities: Power, Perceptions and Institutions*

In this paper, I take a simple game-theoretic view of educational production within universities to frame a discussion of pedagogical power, effort, and influence in Australian higher education. After introducing the stylised game structure, I first compare the role of teachers in Australian universities to that of university teachers elsewhere in the world, in terms of Australian academics’ power in pedagogical affairs relative to the power of the higher-education institutions within which they operate. I then review some existing empirical evidence using Australian data that sheds light on the role of both teacher inputs and student inputs in creating educational outcomes, and discuss some new evidence on students’ perceptions of teacher influence. The paper concludes with some recommendations for changes to the current system designed to improve student outcomes.

Best Foot Forward, Watching Your Step, Jumping in with Both Feet, or Sticking Your Foot in it? ‐ The Politics of Researching Academic Viewpoints

This article presents our experiences of conducting research interviews with Australian academics, in order to reflect on the politics of researcher and participant positionality. In particular, we are interested in the ways that academic networks, hierarchies and cultures, together with mobility in the higher education sector, contribute to a complex discursive terrain in which researchers and participants alike must maintain vigilance about where they ‘put their feet’ in research interviews. We consider the implications for higher education research, arguing that the positionality of researchers and participants pervades and exceeds these specialised research situations.

Digital storytelling in Australia

This project explored the experiences of a small sample ( N = 6) of Australian academics with the use of digital storytelling as a pedagogical tool in higher education contexts. This article describes two case studies of academic uses of digital storytelling, along with interpretive analysis of six semi-structured interviews of academics working within media and communication studies and their reflections on the potential of digital storytelling to enhance student learning and the student experience. Three consistent themes emerged, based around issues of definition, the need for ‘constructive alignment’, and resource and planning requirements. Academics regarded digital storytelling as a complement to, not a substitute for, conventional methods of learning and assessment such as the critical research essay. Overall, reservations exist regarding the promise of digital storytelling as a pedagogical tool that some academics have recently claimed for it.

Measuring the impact of allied health research

BackgroundExcellence in Research for Australia (ERA) rankings are given to academic journals in which Australian academics publish. This provides a metric on which Australian institutions and disciplines are ranked for international competitiveness. This paper explores the issues surrounding the ERA rankings of allied health journals in Australia.MethodsWe conducted a broad search to establish a representative list of general allied health and discipline-specific journals for common allied health disciplines. We identified the ERA rankings and impact factors for each journal and tested the congruence between these metrics within the disciplines.ResultsFew allied health journals have high ERA rankings (A*/A), and there is variability in the impact factors assigned to journals within the same ERA rank. There is a small group of allied health researchers worldwide, and this group is even smaller when divided by discipline. Current publication metrics may not adequately assess the impact of research, which is largely aimed at clinicians to improve clinical practice. Moreover, many journals are produced by underfunded professional associations, and readership is often constrained by small numbers of clinicians in specific allied health disciplines who are association members.ConclusionAllied health must have a stronger united voice in the next round of ERA rankings. The clinical impact of allied health journals also needs to be better understood and promoted as a research metric.

University corporatisation

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine the work‐related attitudes (job satisfaction, job stress and the propensity to remain) of Australian academics and their association with organisational, institutional and demographic factors.Design/methodology/approachData were collected by distributing a survey questionnaire to 750 academics, from 37 Australian universities.FindingsThe results indicate a moderately low level of job satisfaction, moderately high level of job stress, and high propensity to remain. The findings reveal that the organisational factors (management style, perceived organisational support, and the characteristics of the performance management system) exhibited the most significant association with academic work‐related attitudes, with the only significant institutional factor, the declining ability of students, negatively impacting on job satisfaction and job stress. The findings revealed that work‐related attitudes differ, based on discipline, with science academics found to be more stressed and less satisfied than accounting academics. Different organisational and institutional factors were associated with the work‐related attitudes of academics from these two disciplines.Practical implicationsThe findings will make university management aware of the work‐related attitudes of staff, and the factors that are associated with such attitudes, thereby assisting management in developing management policies, and taking appropriate action to address the concerns of staff.Originality/valueThe study provides an initial comparison of the work‐related attitudes (job satisfaction, job stress, and propensity to remain) of Australian academics across the accounting and science disciplines. The study also provides an important insight into the association between specific organisational and institutional factors, with the work‐related attitudes of Australian academics across both disciplines.

Jews from the Former Soviet Union in Australia: Assimilating or Maintaining Jewish Identities?

Jews from the Former Soviet Union in Australia:Assimilating or Maintaining Jewish Identities? Suzanne D. Rutland (bio) Emerging Russian Jewish Identities in Australia Australian Jewry is one of the few diaspora communities growing in size. This growth, however, is due entirely to immigration rather than natural increase. Since the 1960s, there have been three main Jewish ethnic groups immigrating to Australia: South Africans, Russians, and Israelis. It is very difficult to estimate the exact number of Jews from the Former Soviet Union (FSU) who have migrated to Australia during this period. The 2001 census shows 6,404 Jews from the FSU, which constitutes 7.6% of the total Jewish population in Australia. However, the number sponsored by the Australian Jewish community is much greater. This article will outline the history of their migration, the challenges they faced settling into life in Australia, and the way they perceive their Jewish and Russian identity. It is based on a study commissioned in 2003 by the Jewish Agency in Israel.1 Migration Patterns of Jews from the FSU There have been two distinct waves of immigration among Russian-speaking Jews. The first occurred between 1971 and 1980, when the Soviet government responded to the demands of world Jewry and protests from Soviet Jews themselves to permit family reunion in Israel. During this period, Soviet Jews received permission to migrate to Israel only, but once they left the country, many opted to go to other Western countries and were called noshrim. Migration reached its peak in 1979. During this period, Jews from the FSU coming to Australia were classified under the government's humanitarian migration program. Emigration from the Soviet Union plummeted after 1980, when, despite ongoing campaigns by world Jewry, almost no Jews were granted permission to leave. One interesting case study is that of Dr. Arkady Lipkin, a physicist who was forced to work as a common laborer after he applied to emigrate. In the 1980s, young Jewish students in Melbourne were encouraged to write to [End Page 65] refusenik Jews in the USSR. The Harp, a weekly newsletter of the Leo Baeck Centre Reform congregation in Kew, Melbourne, encouraged congregants to take up the case of Dr. Lipkin, who had family in Melbourne and had applied to immigrate there. One congregation member describes her involvement: We all started writing letters. I would write one a week, introducing myself, but I had no idea if he was receiving my letters. I came home one night from Kol Nidrei and decided that I had to register my letter. I went the next day and sent a registered letter that he would have to actually sign for. A month went past and there was no return of the slip so I went to the post office to complain. We did not know what to do but we sent an official letter through Australia Post and eventually got a formal letter back. The Russian authorities informed us that he had received the letters. We continued to write to him, but did not receive any replies. One day I saw a photo of him on the front page of the [Melbourne] Age. He had been allowed to come and he arrived with his family [in 1987]. He was a physicist and had been employed by the University of Melbourne. I found out where he was, called and asked if I could meet him. I had the official letter with me and showed it to him, but he told me he had never received any of the letters.2 In addition to members of the Jewish community writing to and on behalf of Dr. Lipkin, Australian academics led by Professor Geoffrey I. Opat of the School of Physics at the University of Melbourne also campaigned on his behalf. Following the introduction of glasnost in 1987, emigration resumed, transforming into mass emigration following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. The majority of these migrants left for Israel, which received close to one million Jews from the FSU, but Australia also welcomed some émigrés. The number of Russian-speaking Jewish migrants to Australia has declined significantly, nearly ceasing due to the fact that, since 1997, most...

E-technology and work/life balance for academics with young children

Since the late 1980s, research on post-industrialized economies shows that the boundary between work and family is increasingly becoming blurred. The continuing evolution of e-technology allows work for some to be done anywhere, anytime. This article examines the degree to which e-technology has transferred work into the home lives of academics and how this has affected their work/life balance. Drawing on a study in an Australian university of academics with young children, we utilise the terms ‘work extensification’ and ‘work intensification’ to explore whether these new technologies are a blessing or a curse in their work lives. At the same time we describe the deteriorating working conditions for Australian academics whose work has intensified and extended into their private lives with longer working hours in a speeded up environment. Our findings revealed the use of metaphors such as invasion and intrusion of e-technologies into academics’ homes and their need to establish boundaries to separate work and family life. Most felt that having e-technologies at home was of benefit to their work but they came at a cost to their family life—delivering a blessing and a curse.

The role of personality in the job demands‐resources model

Purpose ‐ The central aim of this study is to incorporate two core personality factors (neuroticism and extroversion) in the job demands-resources (JD-R) model. Design/methodology/approach ‐ It was hypothesized that neuroticism would be most strongly related to the health impairment process, and that extroversion would be most strongly related to the motivational process. The hypotheses were tested in a sample of 3,753 Australian academics, who filled out a questionnaire including job demands and resources, personality, health indicators, and commitment. Findings ‐ Results were generally in line with predictions. Structural equation modeling analyses showed that job demands predicted health impairment, while job resources predicted organizational commitment. Also, neuroticism predicted health impairment, both directly and indirectly through its effect on job demands, while extroversion predicted organizational commitment, both directly and indirectly through its effect on job resources. Research limitations/implications ‐ These findings demonstrate the capacity of the JD-R model to integrate work environmentandindividual perspectives withinasinglemodel of occupational wellbeing. Practical implications ‐ The study shows that working conditions are related to health and commitment, also after controlling for personality. This suggests that workplace interventions can be used to take care of employee wellbeing. Originality/value ‐ The paper contributes to the literature by integrating personality in the JD-R model, and shows how an expanded model explains employee wellbeing.