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An exploration of language teachers' multilingual identities in Australia
Get PDFDespite the growing diversity and multicultural makeup of Australian society, certain social norms, practices, and teaching pedagogies are still heavily rooted in monolingual frameworks. This affects the complex processes and practices that language teachers navigate as they construct and negotiate their positionings as speakers of languages other than English, speakers of non-dominant languages, and teachers of languages that have a peripheral role in New South Wales (NSW), Australia. In this complex context, this study delves into the process of language teachers’ development of multilingual identities within educational contexts entrenched in monolingual, Eurocentric ideologies. Informed by a qualitative, interpretive paradigm, data were collected through in-depth semi-structured interviews with eight secondary school teachers of languages in NSW. Analysis of the data revealed that teachers’ multilingual identities are both facilitated and, at times, deterred by a range of personal, social, contextual and educational factors that are predicated mostly on monolingual ideologies. The findings also implicate that the current dominant NSW languages curriculum, which impinges on and further disempowers teachers’ multilingual identities, epitomises such monolingual and Eurocentric ideologies that, ironically, are still prevalent in a multicultural, plurilingual society such as Australia
Waste(d) values
Get PDFThis chapter reviews global waste management and the resource recovery and scarcity challenges that result from poor waste management. An opportunity to enhance resource management can be realised through employing sustainability values and waste principles. Sustainable waste management education is paramount in tackling this increasing global challenge. The discussion presents a number of waste values and principles that can be taught and embodied by all disciplines and explores the crucial role of the educator in conveying the sustainability values that are needed to drive improvements in the global waste management challenge
Radioactivity and Exposure to Radiation in Lithium Mining in Western Australia
Get PDFBackground
Lithium is a crucial commodity; however, the mining and processing of lithium is associated with exposure to Naturally Occurring Radioactive Material (NORM) from the uranium-238 and thorium-232 decay chains. The sources and pathways of exposure include the inhalation of dust containing alpha-emitting radioactive elements, radon, thoron and their decay products, the ingestion of drinking water containing alpha and beta emitting radioactive elements, and exposure to gamma.
Methods
This study used industry radiation emission and occupational exposure to NORM data from three surface lithium mines in Western Australia (WA) for the period between 2018 and 2024. Samples were collected from the lithium ore, spodumene concentrate, tantalum concentrate, wet tailings and dry tailings to determine radioactivity. Exposure to radiation was compared between the departments including Administration and Support Services, Mining, Crushing & Processing, and Maintenance.
Results
The study found a high mean radiation emission in the tantalum concentrate of 2.169 Bq/g. The radiation exposures for all the departments ranged from 0.262 mSv per year to 0.544 mSv year, which were significantly below the occupational dose limit of 20 mSv per year. The study found that the reverse osmosis plants significantly reduced the radiation levels in the bore water after treatment.
Conclusion
The study demonstrated low levels of radiation exposure with the treatment of bore water using reverse osmosis plants. Based on the study results, proactive control measures to protect workers from exposure to tantalum concentrate and the treatment of bore water should be considered
University student mentor experiences of the Comfort Corner well-being program
No full textUniversity Students’ psychological well-being can impact their health, academic performance, retention, and ability to complete university. Participation in peer mentoring well-being programs has been found to help improve student outcomes. This study aimed to explore student mentors’ experiences of a co-designed university student peer-to-peer well-being program, the “Comfort Corner”. The study utilised a sequential mixed methods design collecting survey and interview data from student mentors about their experiences, knowledge and attitudes about psychological well-being as well as their skills and confidence to support the psychological well-being of their peers. Thirteen student mentors completed pre-post program surveys which revealed higher post-program scores on assessments related to their perceived communication skills (pre-test M=84.3, SD=13.7, post-test M=86.7, SD=11.5) and their knowledge about psychological well-being (pre-test M=10.9, SD=5.4, post-test M=15.6, SD=2.7). All 8 student mentors who completed a post-program satisfaction survey indicated that the peer-mentoring program improved their skills and was very useful (100% respectively). Thematic analysis of interviews conducted with 10 student mentors revealed 2 themes, 1) understanding psychological well-being and, 2) knowing how to engage and help others as accounting for improvements in student mentors’ skills and knowledge. Student mentors described their experience with Comfort Corner under a central theme, ‘fostering a community of support for students on campus’, they felt Comfort Corner provided welcoming, safe, and supportive space for students. These findings revealed the benefits of co-design using a student as partners framework for a peer mentoring well-being program in improving areas of student mentors’ skills and knowledge as well as promoting a sense of belonging and connection for students enrolled in higher education
Exposure to Airborne Contaminants and Respiratory Health Among Lithium Mine Workers in Western Australia
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Exploring safety aspects of maternity care through the lens of midwifery students’ clinical experiences in Belgium, Czech republic, Estonia, Norway, Slovakia: A qualitative study.
No full textBackground
Meeting the safety needs of women and newborns is crucial in preventing harm in maternity care. Recent recommendations suggest that childbirth needs to be understood through a broader framework, since maternal and newborn mortality/morbidity remain a global challenge. The unique role of midwifery students in clinical environment can provide and contribute to such understanding. This paper explores aspects of maternity care services impacting patient safety as identified by midwifery students in five European countries.
Methods
A 2-stage qualitative design employed an interpretivist approach. Thirty-five midwifery students (Belgium, Czech Republic, Estonia, Norway, Slovakia) were recruited through purposive sampling to engage students with an Erasmus + experience. Stage 1 (2022–2023): Thirty-five written narratives were collected anonymously via an online ‘Sharing LearnIng from Practice for Patient Safety‘ Learning Event Recording Tool. The dataset captured care in antenatal, maternity and postnatal wards. Stage 2 (2024): Three focus group discussions verified and added to the initial findings. Audio recordings were transcribed, NVivo software was utilised to assist reflexive thematic analysis in both stages.
Results
Three themes emerged from the analyses. ‘Treat me well’ theme captured the communication gaps and dehumanised assembly-line approach leading to compromised safety, obstetric violence and trauma. The second theme describes the paralysing impact of specific team members in ‘Team dynamics and accountability’, reducing a sense of agency among staff to advocate for patient safety. Theme ‘Traumatised team-members’ reveals the secondary trauma impact on emotional fatigue and defensive practices.
Conclusions
Midwifery students emphasised the importance of individualised, well-communicated, and respectful care, with language barriers being addressed. Ensuring that patients feel safe seems equally relevant to physical safety. Collaborative teams prevent errors/hazards through interdisciplinary simulations, debriefings and students’ continuous mentoring. By fostering a psychologically safe environment and implementing whistleblowing policies, the paralysing bystander effect among staff might be mitigated, and obstetric mistreatment, violence, and trauma could be addressed. Unresolved secondary trauma appears to increase unnecessary interventions and reduce the emotional availability of staff for patients in maternity care. Hence, effective recovery needs to be supported by management, and emotional resilience training should be incorporated into midwifery curricula to indirectly improve patient safety
An Investigation of Learning to Focus on a Felt Sense in Everyday Life, and its Effects Compared to Distraction
No full textThis thesis aimed to understand how individuals conceptualised a Felt Sense, a vague bodily signal that leads to Introspection. The effects on mental health and problem-solving skills from Focusing, the avenue to explore a Felt sense, was then compared to another distress intervention, distraction
Real-time LEO satellite precise orbit and clock determination: Strategies and Challenges
No full textTo realize the various benefits brought by Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellites in single-receiver high-precision GNSS-based Positioning Navigation and Timing (PNT) services, LEO satellite orbits and clocks need to be processed and delivered to users in real-time with precision of a few centimeters. While post-processing of cm-level LEO satellite orbits and clocks can be widely achieved, real-time processing faces various Challenges. When the number of LEO satellites increases, the observation data downlinked to the processing center may experience large and complicated discontinuities and incompleteness depending on the downlinking strategies. Even with the observations downlinked in real-time, the LEO satellite clock precision tends to be very sensitive to the continuity and quality of the GNSS real-time products. This study first introduces the procedure for ground-based cm-level real-time LEO satellite Precise Orbit Determination (POD), including near-real-time POD, short-term prediction, and ephemeris fitting/broadcasting. Next, the short-term predicted orbits and long-term predicted clocks of LEO satellites are introduced and properly constrained in filter-based real-time LEO satellite clock determination to achieve a precision of about 0.2 ns. Strategies to deal with sub-optimal observation data and GNSS products are explained. With the proposed methods, a Signal-In-Space Ranging Error at sub-dm to 1 dm can be achieved in practice
Truth Telling, Trust, and Just Intelligence Theory
No full textThe secrecy of intelligence institutions might give the impression that intelligence is an ethics-free zone, but this is not the case. In The Ethics of National Security Intelligence Institutions, Adam Henschke, Seumas Miller, Andrew Alexandra, Patrick Walsh, and Roger Bradbury examine the ways that liberal democracies have come to rely on intelligence institutions for effective decision-making and look at the best ways to limit these institutions’ power and constrain the abuses they have the potential to cause. In contrast, the value of Amy Zegart’s and Miah Hammond-Errey’s research, in their respective books, Spies, Lies, and Algorithms: The History and Future of American Intelligence and Big Data, Emerging Technologies and Intelligence: National Security Disrupted, is the access each of them provides to the thoughts and opinions of the intelligence practitioners working in these secretive institutions. What emerges is a consensus that the fundamental moral purpose of intelligence institutions should be truth telling. In other words, intelligence should be a rigorous epistemic activity that seeks to improve decision-makers’ understanding of a rapidly changing world. Moreover, a key ethical challenge for intelligence practitioners in liberal democracies is how to do their jobs effectively in a way that does not undermine public trust. Measures recommended include better oversight and accountability mechanisms, adoption of a ‘risk of transparency’ principle, and greater understanding of and respect for privacy rights