CREEW'S News
May 2004
Winter's here and the wonderful Autumn weather is no longer an inviting distraction for busy CREEW members, increasingly wrapped up and cosily engaging in research activities ...
- Research News
- Publications
- Conferences
- Professional Development/Service
- Seminar Program
- Postgraduate News
- Future CREEW's News
Research News
CREEW has put in three proposals for the latest round of NREC funding. They are:
- Choosing VET: evaluation of career development services
- Learning pathways for young people
- Making decisions about access to professional development for VET staff
Publications
- Judith Gills new book 'Beyond the great divide: coeducation or single-sex?'. In her book, Judy addresses popular myths about gender & learning, examines the education-for-girls movement of the 70's and 80's and compares it with the current boys-in-education movement. To order, access the UNSW Press website.
- The book, edited by Peter Willis and Pam Carden, 'Lifelong learning and the democratic Imagination' is approaching completion. Pam Carden and Liz Tilly are to be thanked for their sterling finalising work.
- Judy Peters has had an article based on a part of her PhD accepted by the journal Educational Action Research. Its called 'Teachers engaging in action research: challenging some assumptions'. It will be published later this year or early next year.
Conferences
- Alan Reid presented an invited keynote address on Curriculum for the future at the national conference of the New Zealand Secondary Teachers Association (the PPTA) at the Wellington Convention Centre, Wellington, New Zealand, on Monday April 19.
- The Adult Learning Australia 44th annual conference 'Bridging Cultures' will be held in Adelaide this year, 18-20 November. Its themes are indigenous learning, cross-cultural communication, different workplace cultures and intergenerational learning and the deadline for submission of proposals is 17 May 2004.
- The 2004 Communities in Control conference will be held in Melbourne, 7-8 June. It will focus on innovation, values and courage in Australian communities. Check the website for more information.
- Tom Stelik will be attending two international conferences in July SCUTREA in Sheffield, UK and the International Humanities Conference in Prato, Italy.
- Peter Willis attended a small writers colloquium on a sense of place. It was held at the southernmost tip of Tasmania full of still dark estuaries, tall eucalypt forests, good native birds and interesting people. The following represents a brief account of some of the Place Writers encounters at Far South Adventure Camp in Tasmania.
'There were about 6 grizzled patriarchs (I think I was so designated) plus four or so patriarchesses plus lots of midlife PhD people who tended to be supervised by one or other Grizzled Ps plus a sprinkling of young men and women, also PhD students of the G Ps. A number of old and young were involved in political action to protect the Australian eco-system in different regions of Australia. One of the youngest had just come back from chasing illegal whale fishers in the Southern Ocean.
There were academics, poets, mystics, Zen people and Christians, a few New Age rock and rollers and a mercifully small group of inexorable group process people. There were humble, invited greats who came and spoke to the group: a retired academic activist who had fought for the Franklin and a matter of fact woman who had been married to one of the great wilderness photographers.
We were well lead, well enchanted and well fed. One evening, we rowed a big old rowing boat into the estuary late at night and saw the gleaming phosphorescence around the oars. On Good Friday, we marched up a long track to visit a clear-felled site and were informed about the destruction of complex eco-systems by grid planting of one species and clearing of the dense low growing bush that harbours many species of animals and birds.
A striking ex actress turned public relations worker in the Blue Mountains (she said that older actresses were never offered parts which I kind of knew but all of a sudden saw what it would be like to spend millions of hours keeping your body and face in terrific shape and then find it not required!!!!) organized some of us into a small choir to learn some chants and activists songs.
The booklet of readings compiled a few weeks earlier was referred to many times but were not directly the topic of discussion. The readings were a mixed bag. Some were scientific, others more interpretative. Some of the latter were more a personal witness and others again a more objectivised account of local place related experience.
There was tremendous satisfaction with the camp. A fuller evaluation is being prepared as we read.'
Professional Development/Service
- Tom Stehlik has commenced the Hawke Research Fellowship. He is sharing an office in Murray House with a couple of visiting scholars from Sweden who have indicated that there are exchange opportunities for both students and staff with their home university at Umea.
- Alan Reid has sent us news of his activities:
- April 7, attended the Education Advisory Committee of the RMIT School of Education, Bundoora West Campus, RMIT, Melbourne
- External examiner for PhD thesis from the Education Faculty at the University of Sydney
- Started the consultation process for the SACE Review, including the development of the review discussion paper which was released on April 30.
Seminar Program
Professor Anja Heikken, visiting from the University of Jyvaskyla in Finland, presented a CREEW seminar on Friday 30 April on the topic of 'Social inclusion and social research'; Anja talked about the challenges of researching inclusion in a multicultural entity such as the European Economic Union. Participants discussed comparisons with the Australian situation.
Postgraduate News
- Lisa Davies will be taking over the CREEW book sales from Pam Carden as Pam is currently full time on other projects.
- Peter Geyer will shortly be joining CREEW as a PhD candidate, and has sent us news about some of his activities. We are hoping Peter will be presenting a CREEW seminar in June.
I'm giving a paper entitled 'The principles behind psychological type and contemporary approaches to personality' at the Association for Psychological Type 15th International Conference, which is in Toronto from July 21-25. I am also co-presenting a 1day Symposium at the Conference which is multicultural in focus called "New perspectives on demonstrating type" where people from across the world will be demonstrating culturally-related type exercises. I'm going to use one of Lisa Davies' exercises there.
I'm also collaborating on a paper regarding Step II Research to be presented at the AusAPT Conference in Ballarat in September. Professor Ian Ball of Deakin University is the co-presenter. He manages the Psychological Type Research Unit. Ian's the psychometrician and I'm the philosopher/practitioner.
Future CREEW's News
This newsletter reflects the activities and interests of some 80 members
of CREEW. Please keep us informed about your activities, sending all
contributions to
Linda Rainey.