Clemence Due

ABSTRACT While past literature has explored school engagement in older students, there is less research for younger children specifically, and very little which engages children themselves in the research process. This paper provides insight into school engagement for academically at-risk students in the second year of school through a participatory research project. Specifically, the paper reports on a project which examined three groups of students within the Catholic Education system in Australia, namely, those not considered at-risk academically, those considered at-risk but receiving one-on-one support, and those considered to be at-risk but not receiving support. Students participated in focus groups and a photo elicitation project, with questions adapted from The School Engagement Questionnaire forming the basis of data collection. In relation to behavioural engagement, the thematic analysis demonstrated that students in each group valued social interaction, while at-risk students spoke about experiences of punishment at school and students in the group receiving support spoke about rewards. In relation to cognitive engagement, themes of boredom were evident across all groups, while students in the non at-risk group were more likely to speak about the value of learning. At-risk students also displayed some anxiety in relation to school which was not displayed by students who were receiving support. Free time, favourite lessons and technology were all identified as prominent themes in all groups in relation to affective engagement. While the study has some limitations due to restricted timeframe and sample size, it provides an insight into the utility of considering school engagement in developing an understanding of the school experience of at-risk students in primary school. Future studies in this area should examine broader, more representative samples and also consider students with multiple risk factors.

ABSTRACT Natural disasters are events with far-reaching humanitarian implications that frequently receive international attention through the use of an image that comes to represent the disaster in question. The most successful images often comprise 'identifiable' and therefore human victims. What is more unusual is for a single animal image to become representative of an entire disaster. This was the case with the 2009 Victorian bushfires in Australia, when the image of a firefighter offering a koala a drink gained international fame. Given that this image of 'Sam' the koala does not conform to traditional disaster imagery, we undertook a thematic analysis of mainstream news media representations of Sam in order to identify how she was represented by the media. In this article, we discuss these themes in relation to the 'identifiable victim', together with the implications of Sam's success in terms of disaster-relief campaigns. http://search.informit.com.au/documentSummary;dn=352489733897235;res=IELLCC

In early October 2009, a blackface parody of the Jackson Five performed on the Hey Hey It's Saturday reunion reached not only an audience of over 2.5 million people in Australia, but also millions of people around the world after guest judge Harry Connick Jr accused the ...

... brothers Tim and John for support, friendship, and many thesis-‐related conversations. • My friends; particularly Kim, Ian and Dave, and Nicole for your support, understanding, friendship and many inspiring conversations along the way. ...

This paper looks at the way in which glass is used in the interior architecture of mental health facilities. Glass walls, dividers, panels and windows ostensibly increase light and a sense of space. We question how and what the glass communicates to mental health clients, clinicians and visitors. It is our aim to ascertain the attributes of the extensive use of glass in mental health facilities. The paper begins by sketching the research between mental health and architecture, followed by a background on glass in western architecture. This brief contextual section focuses upon the contribution of modernist design practice and theory to the continued use of glass in contemporary architecture. This is followed by a section on method outlining the ethnography and literature review. The remainder of the paper is structured around major questions and themes. These are ‘visibility’ and ‘security’. In the ‘visibility’ section we ask whose needs are served the most and what regimes of vision are in place, concentrating on the reflections. To address issues of ‘security’, we query the use and amount of glass in open and closed mental health wards and we question the meanings of safety to clients, clinicians and visitors in glassed spaces. With regards to both visibility and security we question the efficacy of an increased ‘sense’ of space as a result of glass and light flow when the glass also serves as a barrier to movement. Here we also draw upon reflections in the glass and what these ‘might’ communicate to different occupants of the space, given that clients are on diverse medications and also that we did not have ethics approval to interview either the clients or the clinicians for this pilot study.

ABSTRACT This paper discusses the potential relationship between surveillance techniques, the enactment of security measures, and patient violence in mental health wards. The paper draws upon data from an ethnographic study conducted in a purpose-built mental health unit containing two wards (one locked and one open) in South Australia, and argues that acts of violence observed in the unit were typically preceded by an incident within the unit that was related to the implementation of security measures aimed at controlling non-compliant behaviours. The paper argues that if a relationship between security measures and violence does exist in mental health wards, then close attention must be paid to the ways in which forms of surveillance may arguably exacerbate, rather than prevent, the need for security measures.