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Beliefs of teachers of Chinese in Australian schools: how teacher perceptions of culture in language teaching impact their interculturality and their teaching of Chinese
No full textTheoretical thesis.Bibliography: pages 270-279.Chapter 1. Introduction -- Chapter 2. Literature review -- Chapter 3. Research methodology -- Chapter 4. Findings from the survey data -- Chapter 5. Findings from the ethnographic data -- Chapter 6. Discussion -- Chapter 7. Conclusion -- References -- Appendices.In the last decade, it has been identified that the study of Chinese language in Australian schools, despite political rhetoric and funding, has been struggling to attract and retain students. The Chinese teacher professional community is keen to achieve greater learning outcomes in an increasing number of students. Understanding the cultural context of language use, and 'culture teaching', is placed today in the foreground of foreign language pedagogy. In current language pedagogy, which has been shaped by sociocultural theory, the teaching of culture has moved from being an isolated "extra" element of language, to being integrated and embedded, and 'intercultural' in orientation. With 90% of teachers of Chinese having been educated in China, it has been suggested that current Chinese teaching in Australian schools, may be perpetuating older models of culture learning. The individual teacher's voice is largely absent in current research on Chinese teacher education programs in both China and internationally. This study meets that gap, examining teacher beliefs, which we know shape teacher practice, and thus student learning. The research questions of this study were: 1. What beliefs do teachers of Chinese language in Australian schools hold about culture as it relates to language and the teaching of language? 2. How can the interculturality of teachers be understood from the way they describe themselves and their beliefs about culture, teaching, language and values? 3. How does this interculturality impact upon pedagogy in the teaching of Chinese language? This qualitative study employed two approaches to data collection. The data collection instruments used in this project were firstly an online survey to capture a broad picture of Chinese language iii teacher beliefs nationally. Secondly, to achieve depth in four case studies, semi-structured interviews and classroom observations were employed, to construct ethnographies of the four teachers. The theoretical frameworks of the study are sociocultural theory and the theoretical model of Communities of Practice. The results of the survey showed that teachers perceive culture as long-established customs or ways of living, including common behaviours and beliefs, largely manifested in relationships and ways of communicating, or celebrated in practices such as festivals and iconography. In addition to commonalities, the ethnographies revealed the nuanced and individual nature of construction of beliefs and interculturality in the four teachers, underlining the need to recognise diversity within any investigation of a professional group. The study has provided, counter to the frequent essentialisation of supposed beliefs amongst Chinese teachers, a mapping of the diverse beliefs evident in the professional community of practice, and teachers' interest in forward change and innovation, some of which can be aligned directly with aspects of interculturality. The study concludes with a number of implications for future professional development of the Chinese teacher community.1 online resource (298 pages
Functional ecological processes in upland swamps and chain of ponds systems in the Blue Mountains and Southern Highlands of eastern New South Wales, Australia
No full textEmpirical thesis.Bibliography: pages139-161.Globally, biodiversity is declining, leading to concerns of permanent loss of ecosystems, central to which is the increasing strength of evidence for the inextricable linkage between biodiversity and ecosystem function. There is an urgent research need to identify the crucial relationships between biodiversity and the functions they require and provide. Many Australian aquatic ecosystems are still poorly studied, including remote and atypical streams, rare and groundwater ecosystems. Furthermore, even in systems where biodiversity is known, ecological functions have rarely been examined.By investigating functional attributes alongside biodiversity measures it was possible, through a sequence of studies to more fully understand dynamics of two rare and at-risk wetland systems west of the Sydney Basin in eastern NSW, Australia. The aquatic ecology and function of Blue Mountains upland peat swamps as part of the THPSS (Temperate Highland Peat Swamps on Sandstone) and Mulwaree ‘chain-of-ponds’ are little known. They represent fundamentally different ecosystems, but both face growing anthropogenic pressure.These studies highlighted the importance of including functional indicators into biodiversity studies as a way of gaining better information for restoration and management. The THPSS swamps were porous to pollutants, with groundwater and streams downstream carrying stormwater nutrients. Leaf litter and cotton strip decay rates were very low, invertebrate abundances were low, but urban stormwater increased both. Release of excavated naturally occurring ironstone, combined with nutrients and high groundwater, led to proliferation of iron bacteria, complex redox reactions, anoxia and reduced productivity.The Mulwaree chain-of-ponds are geomorphic anomalies that act as mesotrophic monomictic lakes once disconnected from river flows. The ponds maintain significant aquatic macrophyte biodiversity, which maintains unusual clear water conditions. The majority of macrophytes are perennial rhizomatous species, but some, such as Water Ribbons (Cycnogeton procerum) are at risk due to water borne dispersal. Water ribbons play a pivotal role in maintaining macrophyte dominance and in carbon cycling within the ponds.Mode of access: World wide web1 online resource (xiv, 265 pages) colour illustrations, colour map
Towards an understanding of celebrity worship among Indian consumers: an ethnoconsumerist approach
No full textThesis by publication.Bibliography: pages: 88-98.Chapter 1. Prologue -- Chapter 2. Paper 1. Towards an understanding of the Indian kaleidoscope and Bollywood films - a text view -- Chapter 3. Paper 2. Understanding Bollywood movie consuming experiences - a marketing perspective through the lens of darshan -- Chapter 4. Paper 3. Bollywood star worship through the lens of darshan -- Chapter 5. Epilogue -- References -- Appendices.Celebrity worship is a significant phenomenon in India. The stars of the Bollywood film industry are highly prominent celebrities. Their deification is not unusual in India, to the extent that some stars have temples dedicated to them. Although the need and importance of studies of consumption in non-Western societies has been recognised, little research has been undertaken in the marketing literature to better understand worship of Bollywood celebrities. This research interprets religious influences in the consumption and worship of Bollywood stars. Specifically, it examines the religious concept of darshan (a mode of seeing) and how it manifests itself invarious forms to influence Indian consumer behaviour. An ethnoconsumerist interpretive approach was adopted to address this research. Participants of different age groups, sex and religiosity were recruited in the North Indian region of Delhi for the study using in-depth interviews. The thesis consists of three research papers. The first research paper follows the guidelines of the ethnoconsumerist approach by presenting a text view. This is obtained from a collection of secondary sources and provides cultural insights. It also traces the historical development of Bollywood films and summarises religious and theatrical influences. The second research paper examines the impact of darshan on movie consuming experiences in India. Some important thematic findings reveal that Bollywood stars are viewed as mythical beings and act as role models for Indian consumers. The third research paper examines consumer devotional behaviour towards Bollywood stars in the context of masala films. Findings suggest three distinct levels with varying degrees of devotional consumer behaviour: bounded consumers, devoted followers and worshippers. Based on the findings, an interpretive framework of consumer devotion is proposed. This research contributes to the marketing literature in three ways: firstly, it integrates literature from both anthropology and marketing to suggest a new way of looking at Indian consumption. Second, it introduces the cultural concept of darshan to better understand Indian consumer behaviour in relation to Bollywood celebrity worship. Third, it suggests a new interpretive framework of consumer devotion which can stimulate future research.Mode of access: World wide web1 online resource (106 pages
Can Cyrus speak?: Cyrus the Great and his reception from antiquity to the modern Iranian national-state
No full textTheoretical thesis.Bibliography: pages 76-93.Introduction -- Chapter 1: Cyrus as constructed by the Greeks -- Chapter 2: Cyrus in Near Eastern context -- Chapter 3: Cyrus (re) enters Iran -- Conclusion -- Bibliography.The Achaemenid Persian King Cyrus the Great has been remembered as a model ruler in comparison with later despotic Achaemenid kings and as the liberator of Jewish people. More recently, he has been celebrated as a human rights icon, supposedly initiating the first charter of human rights. This idolised view has been appropriated by nationalist agendas of the Iranian state, drawing on a selective reading of ancient classical, Biblical and Near Eastern texts stressing his exceptional leadership. The ongoing attraction to Cyrus is reflective of the appropriation of European colonial scholarship of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries by Iranian nationalists. Utilising a post- structuralist lens, this thesis examines the ancient texts of Herodotus, Xenophon, the books of Ezra and Isaiah and the influential Cyrus Cylinder, investigating the circumstances molding Cyrus' reputation from antiquity to the post-colonial era. This thesis reflects on the complicated representations of Cyrus as part of a broader problem connected to the reconstruction of the Achaemenid Persian; Cyrus' benevolence is routinely polarised against the popular perception of Persian decadence dominating popular perceptions today. By tracing Cyrus' reconstruction from antiquity to the modern Iranian nation-state, this thesis highlights how Iran's pre-Islamic past remains the stage on which ideas about the nation are debated and critiques the outdated discourses inherited and appropriated from Iran's encounter with Europe --summary.1 online resource (93 pages
Story, song & voice: investigating the musical creativities of Australian singer-songwriters
No full textTheoretical thesis.Bibliography: pages 267-282.1 Overview -- 2 Literature review -- 3 Research design and methodology -- 4 The contemporary singer - songwriter -- 5 Motivation and creative impetus -- 6 Interactions, collaboration and the field -- 7 The singer - songwriter voice -- 8 Survey results -- 9 Artistic realisations -- 10 Conclusions: the contemporary singer - songwriter.As artists, singer - songwriters are critically revered for their reflective and introspective craft. They are described and understood as conduits of personal and artistic expressivity, for reflecting the times, for activism and social change, and for self - development. The essence, tradition and duality of their work is identified in the literature as being both musically and ideologically based. While such literature on these segmented creative processes exist, there are limited evidence - based understandings on the singer - songwriter as an artistic entity. The definitions and descriptions of singer - songwriters often focus on the resultant artefacts or the associated style and creator persona. Such accounts often neglect to consider the specific influences that occupy creative practice, and more specifically, the inherent meaningful connections found within the creative processes that bind the individual, the singing voice and the original song. To address this, the following study offers evidence - based understandings on singer - songwriter artistry and creative practice. Through implementing a mixed methods approach, this research adopts qualitative and quantitative methodologies. Of the 115 research participants, 20 engaged in in - depth interviews and 95 completed an online survey. The data included narratives from emerging and established Australian singer - songwriters, and provided broad perspectives on diverse and highly individual, creative practices. The emergent themes signify singer - songwriters as complex and pluralistic artists distinguished by their inherent consolidation of several art forms and behavioural processes. These include singing, songwriting, performance, entrepreneurship, community and social focus, and singing/songwriting as a strategy for wellbeing. This research contributes to the understanding of the contemporary singer - songwriter, the attributes of songwriting through singer - songwriter perspectives, of the singing voice as a creative and performative construct, and of singer - songwriter musical creativities. Lastly, the research findings are used to progressively develop a creative practice framework that situates the contemporary singer - songwriter.1 online resource (xiv, 282 pages
Returning to Ararat and home at last: Western Armenian diasporan discourse on return to 'Eastern' Armenia
No full textTheoretical thesis.Bibliography: pages 224-236.Chapter One: Introduction -- Chapter Two: Literature Review -- Chapter Three: Methodology -- Chapter Four: Contemplating Homecoming -- Chapter Five: Arriving in the Homeland -- Chapter Six: Negotiating Identities in the Homeland -- Chapter Seven: Perceptions of 'Other' Language Use in Armenia -- Chapter Eight: Confronting a Contrasting Set of Societal Norms -- Chapter Nine: Adjustment and Acculturation - The Last Stage of Homecoming? -- Chapter Ten: Conclusion.Centuries of division under foreign rule led to the physical and linguistic separation of the Armenian nation into an eastern and western portion. The Armenian Genocide represented the final chapter in this division as the two components diverged further apart; the eastern component becoming an independent, then Soviet Armenia, and the western component constituting Eastern Turkey as its Armenian inhabitants were exterminated and deported, with those surviving forming the diaspora. Armenia's independence in 1991 presented its mostly Western Armenian diaspora with an opportunity to return to a homeland. However, upon return, diasporans were confronted wit h a contrasting eastern narrative of 'Armenianness', unlike the Western Armenian and hybrid identities they possessed . Thirty Western Armenian returnees were interviewed in Armenia, with each returnee's journey of homecoming analysed using discourse theory to discover the presence of power during interactions between returnees and locals, and to determine the returnees' ability to alter discourse away from a dominant E astern Armenian narrative. Experiences show that returnees, unlike many of their generational predecessors, accept the Republic of Armenia as their homeland, relegating Western Armenia to symbolic history. As returnees adjust to life in Armenia , they switch their speech to Eastern Armenian as a sign of acceptance and integration. However, their past Western Armenian and diasporan identities are maintained, adding to the hybridity of their identity as a blended Spyurkahayastan t si (diaspora + Armenian of Armenia). 1 The process of homecoming for returnees is a negotiation of their past identity and the dominant E astern Armenian narrative of the homeland. This negotiation results in an acceptance of the linguistic component of the homeland's narrative, a recognition of the dominant E astern Armenian culture, and a hybridisation of their cultural identity. Armenia remains ill - prepared to welcome the diversity of the Armenian narrative presented by returnees, which in turn presents a challenge to attracting future returnees who require reasons other than patriotism to relocate to Armenia. Nevertheless, Armenia provides a home for returnees in the land not west, but east of Ararat.1 online resource (x, 245 pages
Wekwek en Wokwok Mijimit Bla Faindim Dismob Stori Blanga Yurapanji: working and walking together to find these stories about Urapunga
No full textTheoretical thesis.Bibliography: pages 87-93.1. "Tracking stories in the bush" -- 2. "Faindim det bilonging: finding that belonging" -- 3. Telling stories in a 'post'-colonial more-than-human world -- 4. "Traiyimbat olkainbala wei ov dum tings: trying out all kinds of ways of doing things" -- 5. Becoming co-researchers -- 6. Connecting over time and space -- 7. "It should be in Kriol and English because we're walking together remember!" -- 8. "Wal wi bin wokwok en werkwek mijimit, indit?: Well we've been walking and working together, isn't it?" -- References -- Appendices.Nestled between the Roper and Wilton Rivers of Ngalakgan Country in the Northern Territory of Australia lies Urapunga, a small and lively Aboriginal community predominately comprised of the Duncan family group. Tales of how the Duncans have lived on their land and re-gained ownership over it are celebrated locally. These stories are regionally unique and rich with emotion, multi-dimensional characters and embodied environments. Responding to calls within the community to record these stories, Lillian Tait and Ngalakgan and Ritharrŋu Elders Margaret and Rhonda Duncan co-designed a collaborative and decolonising research project. It involved talking stories, sharing on Country, participatory creative methods, archival research and co-analysis. The stories that emerged will be the heart of a bi-lingual book to be co-authored post-thesis. This thesis documents and reflects on the process of doing this storying research together as part of a cross-cultural collaboration. By mobilising a recuperative storytelling agenda as advocated by Rose (2004) and Margaret, it engages with the way stories build connections between those living, and connect those living with ancestors, future generations and Country, in relationships of belonging, responsibility and care. The thesis demonstrates how nurturing diverse academic/non-academic and more-than human collaborations within research can challenge some of the deep-colonising legacies of academia -- abstract.1 online resource (x, 101 pages
The role of insight in advancing the creativity of an advertising message
No full textTheoretical thesis.Bibliography: pages 182-201.Chapter 1. Introductionn -- Chapter 2. The creative search for an insight in account planning : an absorptive capacity approach -- Chapter 3.Does insight constrain or liberate creativity? -- Chapter 4.The role of consumer insight in creative advertising development : essential aid or cognitive bias? -- Chapter 5. Consumer insight supports the “leap” to a creative idea by shifting the advertising appeal from functional to emotional -- Chapter 6. Conclusion and discussion -- Complete reference list -- Appendices.To solve advertising problems, account planners frequently call upon insight to direct the development of advertising execution. However, how account planners identify and deploy insight to develop a compelling advertising message proposition and the empirical contribution of insight to the creativity of advertising executions is not well understood. To address these concerns, this thesis uses qualitative research to explore account planners’ views on the value of insight and then tests the contribution of insight with an experiment involving working creatives. To this end, this thesis consists of 3 papers.Paper 1 explores how account planners identify, evaluate and apply insight in developing a compelling advertising message proposition and the contribution of insight to the creative process. Using grounded theory, the study investigates the insight phenomenon through in-depth interviews with 20 Sydney-based account planners. The findings reveal that insight is a creative process designed to inform an appropriate and original message proposition, from which creative execution can leap. In searching for insight, account planners rely upon various techniques: research, personal domain knowledge, challenging conventions, borrowed sources and central narrative extension. However, as not all insight is equal in its contribution to an advertising message proposition, account planners evaluate the strength of insight based on its originality and three types of appropriateness: the relatability of an insight among consumers, the usability of the insight by creatives, and the vision insight opens for the brand.Paper 2 investigates how insight interacts with strategy and originality to predict the perceived creativity of advertising execution. This study explores the effect of insight on originality and appropriateness (strategy) based on a 3 x 2 between-subject experiment with 60 Sydney advertising agency creatives, who developed a print and television advertisement against a fictitious brief, manipulating insight under three conditions: strong insight, weak insight and no insight. Independent judges assessed the work produced for how strategic, original and creative it is. The results show that insight interacts with the originality of advertising execution to predict creativity. However, strategy does not interact with insight. That is, when the originality of creative execution is weak, insight can substitute for originality; however, insight cannot substitute for strategy.Paper 3 goes deeper than Paper 2 in that a more sophisticated and comprehensive modelling framework is used. I draw from the Componential Model of Creativity by integrating insight into the context of intrinsic motivation and domain knowledge. Also from a theoretical perspective, I consider how insight may induce mental-set fixation, but sometimes compensate for low intrinsic motivation. In light of these effects, I also compare actor-observer differences in that both self-assessment and judge assessments are used. Thus, the influence of insight on strategy, originality and creativity is explored, especially where the measure for creativity conforms to the “standard definition” of creativity, e.g., being both original and strategic at the same time.A 3 x 2 between-subject experiment was performed on 60 Sydney agency creatives, manipulating insight quality under three conditions: strong, weak and no insight. Participants developed a print and television commercial that was judged by professional creatives and completed a self-evaluation questionnaire for measures of creativity, domain knowledge and intrinsic motivation. The findings identified that insight can improve originality in print execution, however, in television, insight displayed classic signs of inducing mental set fixation. The study also suggests that insight improves the self-assessment of creatives’ intrinsic motivation, yet in judge assessments, insight interacted with intrinsic motivation such that when motivation was low, insight improved creativity. Domain knowledge had the most consistently positive effects on strategy, originality and creativity of advertising, as it improved the advertising execution in all cases except self-assessments of originality.Paper 4 explores a possible mechanism for insight’s influence: shifts in the balance of functional and emotional appeals. The way insight works on creatives is that it provides them creative licence to focus on emotional advertising. Effectively, insight guides creatives to develop “inherent drama” or brand narrative based on the deep consumer motivation identified in insight. This emotional focus, however, does crowd out functionally oriented themes, presenting a trade-off between functional and emotional appeals. Strong insight provides a more efficient trade-off in that one does not have to sacrifice as much functionality to gain in emotionality.The findings in this thesis make a significant contribution to closing the gap between the academic and practitioner divide in our understanding of insight. The qualitative study provides a definition for insight based on practitioner accounts, extends the current literature that suggests insight is based solely on consumer research and identifies the attributes of quality insight. The experimental-based studies provide the first empirical study of insight into the creative development process. These findings have important implications for practitioners who adopt insight in constructing a compelling message proposition, and provide important constructs through which insight can be further investigated.Mode of access: World wide web1 online resource (xiii, 237 pages) diagrams, graphs, table
Hedge fund performance, capacity constraints, and relative skill
No full textEmpirical thesis.Bibliography: pages 140-150..1. Introduction -- 2. Literature review -- 3. Which institutional investor types are the most informed? -- 4. Capacity constraints in hedge funds : the impact of cohort size on fund performance -- 5. Relative hedge fund skill and the informativeness of cohort alpha -- 6. Conclusions and further research directions -- Bibliography.In this dissertation, I use empirical methods to examine the relative performance of hedge funds, as well as their capacity constraints. The research is motivated by the increasingly high allocation of assets to hedge funds combined with limited regulation of the industry, making it an important area for academic research. By introducing new methods to examine hedge fund performance and capacity constraints, I aim to add new knowledge to the increasing discussion by industry participants and financial commentators and to provide novel insight for further research.This research takes the form of three studies.The first study seeks to identify which investor types are most informed. Specifically, I examine the informativeness of quarterly disclosed portfolio holdings across four institutional investor types: hedge funds, mutual funds, pension funds, and private banking firms. I find that overweight positions outperform underweight positions only for hedge funds. By decomposing holdings and stock returns, I find that hedge funds are superior to other institutional investors; both at picking industries and stocks, and that they are better at forecasting long and short-term returns.The second study, proposes a novel method to investigate capacity constraints in the hedge fund industry. I introduce the concept of cohort size, which is measured by the total assets of all hedge funds applying similar strategies. Together, these funds impact on opportunity and execution costs, so that the total cohort size, rather than simply the individual fund size, is associated with fund performance. The study finds cohort size to be negatively related to future quarterly returns.Finally, I introduce the cohort model, used to assess relative hedge fund manager skill. The model tested uses the correlation of monthly returns to locate cohorts, and forms peer benchmarksby averaging returns across the cohort. The advantages of the cohort model are that it is able to address the omitted variable problem present in factor models, and it is better able to disaggregate skill from factor exposures common to particular investment strategies. Consistent with improved identification of manager skill, cohort alpha shows stronger persistence over longer horizons.Mode of access: World wide web1 online resource (viii, 150 pages) graphs, table
Cooperative principle and cohesion in Chinese social media texts: the case of Weibo discussion on women's role
No full textTheoretical thesis.Bibliography: pages 70-72.1. Introduction -- 2. Literature review -- 3. Methodology -- 4. Data analysis -- 5. Discussion -- 6. Conclusion -- References -- Appendices.As a growing number of people engaged in online interactions available for public access, conversations take place in social media have drawn the attention of researchers. This study aims to provide an integrated linguistic account on the continuance of social media conversation, focusing on Sina Weibo in particular. Collecting data from message exchanges between two Weibo users discussing Women’s role in contemporary China, this research takes Grice’s Cooperative Principle and its four maxims, a macro level pragmatic framework, and cohesion, a lexical level linguistic property as key analytical instruments. Under the proposed theoretical framework, five main topics and three ways of non-observance of the maxim in the conversation are identified. According to the functions of the identified topics,they are classified as pre-determined topic and conversational topic. The roles that cohesion,topic and non-observance of the maxims play in keeping the conversation going are investigated. The findings suggest that the topic networks that form various semantic connections and the non-observance of the maxims contribute to the continuance of the conversation. Moreover, cohesive relations among lexical items provide significant guidelines to identify the topics and interpret the non-observance of the maxims.Mode of access: World wide web1 online resource (95 pages) table