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Don’t glorify war – and five other excellent ways to explore commemoration days with children
No full textAnzac Day and Remembrance Day hold a prominent place in Australian cultural and education calendars, and educators and parents are often encouraged to engage children in commemorative events. This article explores some of the challenges involved in engaging children with commemoration days. It offers six tips to support children’s understanding of these events and participate in them in meaningful and respectful ways. We also explore how to challenge cultural myths and avoid glorifying war
Organic solvent transport through reduced graphene oxide membranes with controlled oxygen content
No full textRecent advances in membranes based on 2-dimensional (2D) materials have enabled precise control over angstrom-scale pores, providing a unique platform for studying diverse mass transport mechanisms. In this work, we systematically investigate the transport of solvent vapors through 2D channels made of graphene oxide (GO) laminates with precisely controlled oxygen content. Using in-situ chemical reduction of GO with vitamin C, we fabricated reduced GO membranes (VRGMs) with oxygen content systematically decreased from 31.6 % (pristine GO) to 24.0 % (VRGM-maximum reduction). Vapor permeability measurements showed a distinct correlation between oxygen functional groups and solvent transport behaviour. Specifically, non-polar hexane exhibits 114 % of enhanced permeance through the reduced membranes with larger graphitic domains, while the permeance of water decreases by 55 %. With the support of density functional theory (DFT) simulations, we modelled the hydrogen-bond and dispersion complexes between the solvents and GO and calculated the complexation energies. The simulation results suggest that polar molecules interact with the oxygen functional groups of GO via a hydrogen-bond network, supporting in-plane transport. In contrast, van der Waals forces drive the transport of low-polarity solvents along the graphitic domains of the 2D channel in reduced GO membranes. Our findings provide potential strategies for future design of organic solvent nanofiltration membranes
Indigenous perspectives for teaching children about days of remembrance by decolonising curriculum
No full textIn this discussion paper, we argue the need to decolonise curricula in our educational institutions and outline practical steps to do this to acknowledge, respect, empower and elevate Indigenous voices. As an example of colonised curriculum, Australian children previously learned about remembrance of war service days, such as Anzac Day and Remembrance Day, through teaching resources that tended to focus on the service of military personnel in wars external to Australia, for example, WWI and WWII. Less emphasis has been placed on other wars, and despite a century of conflict on homelands, even scarcer mention is being made of Australia's Frontier Wars. We explore an exemplar that aimed to address this gap, but despite meritorious intentions, the authors did not ensure that Indigenous authors were part of the process, thereby recolonising curricula. After practising reflexivity, we recommend better ways forward for future projects, by embracing truth-telling that empowers Australian Indigenous voices. This will be of interest to researchers, educators, curriculum designers and policymakers
Think Tanks in Public Policy Development: Contributions, Impact, and Challenges in the Global South
No full textThink tanks are non-profit, independent research institutions that influence policy development through expert analysis and policy recommendations generated in various socio-political contexts, frequently collaborating with policymakers and other stakeholders. In today’s world of inclusive governance and pluralist political systems, their position as policy advocates, credible sources of information, and intelligent experts in policy formulation is more critical than ever. This chapter will highlight the importance and contributions of think tanks in creating public policy by providing an overview of their research and analytical capabilities and the value of their ‘independent’ and ‘nonpartisan’ viewpoints. It will describe their impact on policy discourse, public opinion, and advocacy by delineating the scenarios of think tanks in developing nations—the Global South, in juxtaposition with advanced countries. Furthermore, it will assess the effectiveness and impact of think tanks’ policy recommendations and the obstacles and criticisms they face, such as accusations of partisan bias, donor interest, funding issues, and the need for accountability and transparency in changing bureaucratic and political contexts
Learning Needs Including Preferences and Digital Technologies: A Study of Mature Students in Higher Education in England
No full textInterviews with eight students individually returning to higher education later in life evidence a variety of personal drivers, including financial betterment, career advancement, personal amelioration, subject appeal, formal accreditation and network enlargement. Fashioned by earlier practices, professional goals and societal influences, these factors suggest a need for approaches marked by flexibility and digital integration, including platform-based tools, artificial intelligence (AI)-supported systems, cloud functionality and IoT-enabled resources. Prominence falls on wider societal contributions of governance innovation, ecological respon-sibility, healthcare improvement and commercial educational reform. With mature learners presenting marked expectations and contexts, attention re-focuses on technology-supported environments, climate-conscious content and practice-led teaching. The authors recommend further exploration in areas related to engagement, curriculum relevance and achievement enhancement
Implementing the Plastics Treaty
No full textThere are great expectations that the proposed new plastic treaty will be able to address the fundamental challenges of plastic pollution. However, experience with other treaties (notably the convention on biological diversity) suggest that there will be many difficult impediments to successful implementation. This article highlights a number of these, and suggests that far more attention will need to be paid to practical implementation that has so far been indicated in the negotiations
3D face recognition using topographic high-order derivatives
No full textThis paper presents a novel feature, Topographic High-order Derivatives (THD) for 3D face recognition. THD is based on the high-order micro-pattern information extracted from face topography maps. Face topography maps are partitioned into polar sectors, and THDs are computed using directional highorder derivatives within the sectors. Local features are extracted by encoding directional high-order derivatives within polar neighborhoods. To evaluate the proposed method, we use Bosphorus and FRGC 3D face databases which include pose and expression changes. The performance of the proposed method is higher compared to the state-of-the-art benchmark approaches in 3D face recognition
‘CALL’ for Inclusive Practice in Teacher Education
No full textIn an increasingly globalized world, the demand for effective language learning strategies has never been higher and greater. As teachers and educators strive to meet the diverse needs of language learners, technology has emerged as a powerful tool in the educational landscape to effectively equip English language teachers to address students’ language needs. Computer-assisted language learning (CALL) represents a significant shift in how language education is delivered, particularly in teacher education. However, due to dominant socio-political forces, strong cultures of accountability, and the hegemony of English in the ‘Global South’, it becomes increasingly more complex to leverage the affordances of technology in the preparation of English language teachers
Pan-African Integration from Below: Language, Publics, Culture
No full textWould a decolonial theory of Pan-Africanism that is built from below – that is, from the perspective of lived experiences of diverse African communities of practice (the publics) – facilitate the realisation of the Pan-African dream that has eluded mainstream political initiatives for decades? This book brings linguistic, cultural, and grassroots mediators of identity narratives to the well-trodden, but elusive, project of Pan-Africanism. It pulls together three distinct, yet interrelated, strands of social-scientific theorisation—language, publics, and culture—in crafting the vernacular discourse approach as a fruitful pathway for Pan-Africanism that might work for all. The vernacular discourse approach advanced in this book pays attention to the agency of local actors in carving social, cultural, and..
Sustainable development and water use in New Zealand: water priority and allocation under section 5 of the Resource Management Act 1991 and the National Policy Statement on Freshwater Management 2011
No full textSince the enactment of the Resource Management Act 1991 (RMA) New Zealand's fresh water resources have been subject to increasing demand, challenging the ability of water resources to be redirected for new uses and threatening the ecological integrity of areas dependent upon minimum availability of water. Under the RMA, use and allocation of fresh water is determined through regional plans and the first-come first-served principle as articulated by the New Zealand High Court in Aoraki Water Trust v. Meridian Energy[2005] 2 NZLR 268. This paper explores the decision-making process for regional plans and resource consents in New Zealand (which can privilege entrenched uses, specific economic concerns of a region, or interests of organized groups) in light of the sustainability objectives of the RMA. It argues the new National Policy Statement on Freshwater Management 2011 does little to enhance the sustainability objective of the RMA because it neither affects the first-in-time priority rule for re-allocation of scarce water resources nor does it replace regional and district councils as the primary regulators of water quantity issues. These allocation decisions should be guided by a national decisionmaking entity, using national rules and guidelines to supplement local decisions. These national decision-making processes would be better able to balance the interests of existing consent holders, the general public and the environment in a manner that enhances the sustainable development objectives of the RMA