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WRITING THE NUN’S BODY: CORPOREAL FEMINISM, ÉCRITURE FÉMININE, AND MONASTIC PRACTICE
Get PDFThis essay explores the production of corporeal writing through a creative writing-as-research methodology, with the latter aiming to develop a narrative of the bodily experiences of a fictional 1960s Catholic nun. This essay engages with Elizabeth Grosz’s proposed framework for a feminist corporeal subjectivity, and Hélène Cixous’s notion of écriture féminine. Cixous discusses such writing as something that comes from the body; it is not a technique per se but a way of being-in-language that attempts to bypass traditional modes of language and engage with the female self – and the language of that self. It is within this context of écriture féminine that I will discuss the creation of the narrative ‘Consumption’. This essay explores the ways in which the methodology constitutes an attempt to create a protagonist with modes of language derived from an embodied, sensorial practice that resist, in a small way at least, traditional literary discourses and patriarchal processes
Editorial: Teaching EAL/D learners across the curriculum
Get PDFThis Special Issue has two primary goals. Firstly, we aim to bring together diverse perspectives and voices from across Australia that showcase the remarkable efforts that teachers and educators are already doing to cater for the needs of EAL/D learners in schools and mainstream environments. Secondly, and while acknowledging these commendable efforts by educators, we argue that more work is needed to address the persistent challenges in providing tailored support that addresses the diverse linguistic and cultural backgrounds of EAL/D students. We acknowledge that catering for EAL/D learners’ needs in schools and mainstream classes involves more than just structural adjustments. It necessitates a paradigm shift in educational perspectives. Beyond the accommodation of linguistic diversity, there is a crucial need to challenge and disrupt dominant deficit views that may prevail in educational settings. The insights gathered from these articles illuminate the multifaceted and dynamic landscape of EAL/D education in Australia. They collectively underscore the necessity for an integrated approach that encompasses not only specialized pedagogies but also a deep understanding of the cultural and linguistic diversity present in our classrooms
Science and EAL teachers’ perspectives and practices in building word knowledge in implementing the new Victorian EAL curriculum
Get PDFThe recent implementation of The Victorian Curriculum F-10: EAL requires content teachers who teach EAL students to be familiar with the revised EAL curriculum for the purposes of planning and developing approaches to assist learners’ development in English. In the literature and in curriculum frameworks, word knowledge is considered an important aspect of EAL students’ learning. However, little is known about what pedagogical practices teachers across the curriculum perceive as being important, and use, in developing EAL students’ vocabulary. In this study, we investigated linguistically responsive vocabulary teaching in a Year 7 science class. Our aim was to elucidate teachers’ perceptions and practices in teaching vocabulary in science. The qualitative case study drew on principles of linguistically responsive instruction (LRI), which refers to practices for meeting the needs of students in culturally and linguistically diverse classrooms. Analysis of interview and classroom data from an EAL teacher and a science teacher revealed a range of LRI practices for developing word knowledge based on understanding the distinction between conversational and academic language, language learning principles, responsive teacher talk, plurilingual awareness, and the importance of social interaction for learners. We offer recommendations for a whole school approach to LRI, adaptation to online LRI, and curriculum development
Equity and employability: A study into the challenges faced by healthcare learners with a disability and/or learners pursuing part-time work
Get PDFAn increasing amount of evidence suggests that learners within Higher Education (HE), and graduates, are struggling with their transition into the workplace. With the increased prominence of workplace learning requirements, these challenges are becoming more evident for learners during HE studies. This study aimed to identify the challenges faced by learners and graduates transitioning into the healthcare workforce, and the challenges experienced by key groups such as healthcare employers and other influencers within HE. The key focus was on disability, part-time work and transitions into the workplace. Thirty-two individuals participated in an online survey focused on equity and employability. Questions were both quantitative and qualitative in nature. Participants were learners, graduates, academics, career advisory staff, and employers. Thematic analysis of the qualitative data identified eight themes.
Challenges identified by participants included work-life balance, stigma and stereotypes, organisational and individual empowerment, navigating additional administrations tasks, information and signposting, consistency in language and messaging, advocacy, and exemplars for guidance. The study highlights the responsibilities of all involved with HE provision, and the importance of collaboration with employers to inform, educate and advocate for all learners to maximize employability opportunities and enhance transitions into employment. Policy and practice in this area should quality assure the robustness of the support, aiming to meet individual needs, including education to empower and facilitate individual agency, as well as reviewing the visibility and accessibility of resources
Pater for Millions: Negotiating the Collapse of a YouTube Father Persona
Get PDFShaytards was widely considered the original YouTube family vlog, and the family built their massive following with representations of wholesome, heteronormative, religious Americans who could have fun with everyday life. As classic microcelebrities (Senft 2013), the family of six created a valuable brand for millions of fans, which led to fame and wealth. But when the father and driving force of the vlog was caught sending sexually explicit texts to a “cam model”, more than the family brand collapsed. Shay’s persona, as the steady father force for an imagined family (Friedman & Schultermandl 2016) of millions was sent into disarray. This article follows the comments across multiple channels that show how the imagined family negotiated this collapse, demonstrating how an audience can establish a deep personal connection with a microcelebrity’s persona
Expropriating Privacy: The Public Persona of the Pandemic Unhoused
Get PDFDuring the winter of 2020, Toronto resident Khaleel Seivwright, began to construct small mobile shelters to provide insulation and privacy to unhoused residents living outdoors. Conditions produced by the COVID-19 pandemic increased demand on the city’s already underfunded and strained shelter system, subsequently accelerating development of encampments in parks throughout the city. From the outset, these “tiny shelters” served as a flashpoint in public discourse on the question of the relative health, safety, and beauty of unhoused privacy. Drawing on media coverage of Seivwright’s case, we address the question of the private persona as it emerges in relation to the unhoused, and to the practices of violent expropriation which daily police their existence. By examining the news discourses produced about Sievwrights tiny shelters, we interrogate how Sievwright’s public persona came to represent encampment residents as well as himself subsequently emerging as a boundary subject mediating the contradictory relations immanent to domesticity: between public and private space and public and private identity. Our analysis asks how the limits of privacy are actively imposed and managed under capitalism: who is allowed to have domestic space, where is that domestic space allowed to exist, and crucially what public personas emerge in relation to practices departing from the normative bounds of capitalism’s public/private distinction? Using critical discourse analysis (CDA), we examine the ways in which public personas are mediated by individuals and media institutions at the same time as addressing how personas themselves intervene in this process. CDA directs us to ask how personas are constituted through language. This emphasis on persona as both outcome of relations of power and as mediator in its own right permits us to address figures who are conventionally denied personas while simultaneously complicating and challenging the meanings behind domesticity within capitalist cities
Assessment of Strategies for Preparing Graduates for the Disruptive Workplace: Evidence from Nigeria and South Africa
Get PDFThe emergence of the 4th industrial revolution workplace and its accompanied disruptions across all industries require that Higher Education (HE) strategically aim at equipping graduates with transferable skills to navigate the disruptive workplace. This study aims at assessing the extent by which two identified strategies (experiential learning and career guidance activities) of equipping students with transferable skills are being used by HE in preparing graduates for the disruptive workplace. The study analysed perceptions of students (n=865) from six universities in two African countries, Nigeria and South Africa; on their level of engagements with the two strategies of experiential learning and career guidance activities. Mann–Whitney U tests of comparisons was used to compare the findings from the two countries while hierarchical regression analysis was employed to control for influence of gender and type of university on students’ perceived level of preparedness for work. Findings reveal gaps in students’ engagements with the two strategies; differences in employability perceptions between students in the two countries and; the role of contextual factors on the development of employability. This paper contributes to existing debate on employability by highlighting the extent at which the two identified strategies are adopted in universities in Nigeria and South Africa and, by interrogating the extent to which institutional strategic approaches to employability differ across different regional contexts. More importantly, suggestions on how to address the identified gaps in the provision of these strategies were made
WRITING, EROS AND EXCESS: RESISTING CAPITALIST LOGICS OF PRODUCTION IN WRITING PRACTICE
Get PDFThis paper takes up the writing of Pierre Klossowski, and notions of eros, to consider how writing practices are shaped by, and work to resist capitalist logics of production. Discussing Agnes Varda’s, The Gleaners, this paper argue that creative “products” can be read, reframed and celebrated as a kind of excess which emerges through playfulness. This manoeuvre of valuing excess enables this writer to re-engage with the making process as an act of play which positions desire rather than productivity as the impetus for writing. It concludes with a discussion about how positioning desire in such a way may be useful when experiencing blockages or obstacles which emerge as a result of the tension between creativity and logics of production
EXAMINING THE VALUE OF FICTOCRITICISM: THE MEANDERING NARRATIVES OF A CREATIVE WRITING PHD STUDENT
Get PDFThis article reflects on the construction of a doctoral project relating to the ‘self’, with attempts made to contextualise the author’s work in the vein of autobiographical writing. The methodology of fictocriticism is implemented into the paper in an attempt to contribute to knowledge within the discipline, both via the inclusion of original creative writing pieces and a revisiting of the usefulness of fictocriticism as a creative writing strategy. A brief overview of fictocriticism is given also. This paper questions if fictocriticism can be innovated on, and contends there is a paradox between the theory surrounding fictocriticism suggesting how ‘freeform’ it is, and how non-freeform it still seems to be due to its lack of theoretical boundaries. The theme of journeys is used as a strategy to convey the methodology of fictocriticism overall, as an untapped way of writing both personally and theoretically, with a unified and engaging ‘double-voice’. Attempts at pushing the threshold and parameters, in differing experimental creative works, advocate for what fictocriticism could be, and if it can be reinvented or innovated on, into something more stable, yet still evolve into a mode of writing that is engaging, identifiable and prominent within the academy
VET career pathways for school students living with disability: Working with employers
Get PDFResearch has shown that employers and industry are key partners in work-based learning and can hinder or enhance access to vocational education training (VET). Our capabilities approach focus concerns increasing employer understanding of what is involved in engaging in the work-based component of school-based VET for students with disability. It seeks to identify enhancers and barriers to both employer and student participation in work-based learning in workplaces and strategies to address the barriers. Using a qualitative approach, this interpretive research aims to answer the following principal question: How can employers, students, teachers and other influencers of student education and career pathway choice work together to increase opportunities for successful participation of students with disability in the work-based component of school-based VET? Employers and staff at organisations that support/place school-based VET students with disabilities were interviewed and inductive content analysis was used to code interview transcripts. Findings indicate that while communication and relationships are key factors in ensuring successful work-based learning placements, lack of understanding related to the spectrum of disability can be a barrier. Interview participants also identified workplace and policy barriers. Addressing the implications of our research findings will assist in increasing the willingness of employers to engage in work-based learning for school VET students with disability. This shift in practise has the potential to develop the workforce of the region and create greater breadth of opportunities for work-based learning in the community for school VET students with disability, leading to improved employment outcomes for people with disability