When caring ends: Understanding and supporting informal care trajectories. This project aims to advance understandings of how, why, when, and for whom caring ends, including the socio-cultural and relational factors that shape experiences before, during, and after caring. Using an innovative, multi-method sociological approach, and foregrounding carers’ voices, this project expects to generate new knowledge on the meaning and experience of care and caring. This project is significant in bringing ....When caring ends: Understanding and supporting informal care trajectories. This project aims to advance understandings of how, why, when, and for whom caring ends, including the socio-cultural and relational factors that shape experiences before, during, and after caring. Using an innovative, multi-method sociological approach, and foregrounding carers’ voices, this project expects to generate new knowledge on the meaning and experience of care and caring. This project is significant in bringing together leading researchers and key carer-focused organisations, spanning service sectors and moving across care relationships, life stages and contexts. Expected outcomes include enhanced service capacity with tangible policy and practice benefits that will enable sustainable and fulfilling informal caring experiences.Read moreRead less
Understanding heavy alcohol consumption cultures among nurses and lawyers . This Project aims to investigate drinking cultures among nurses and lawyers – two sizeable Australian workforces where heavy drinking is common. Addressing drinking cultures among social groups is an emerging strategy to complement population and individual level efforts to reduce alcohol-related harm. Alcohol use among workers has implications for health, safety and performance, yet researchers have paid little attentio ....Understanding heavy alcohol consumption cultures among nurses and lawyers . This Project aims to investigate drinking cultures among nurses and lawyers – two sizeable Australian workforces where heavy drinking is common. Addressing drinking cultures among social groups is an emerging strategy to complement population and individual level efforts to reduce alcohol-related harm. Alcohol use among workers has implications for health, safety and performance, yet researchers have paid little attention to occupational drinking cultures. Using rigorously collected qualitative and quantitative data, this Project expects to generate new knowledge on sociocultural practices and meanings of drinking in the groups, illuminate relations between drinking cultures and harms, and enable innovative intervention opportunities.
Read moreRead less
Enhancing School Retention: School and Community Linkages in Regional/Rural Western Australia. One of the most intractable issues confronting schools, communities and education systems in Australia, is how to create and sustain the conditions to retain young people for twelve years of schooling, particularly in regional/rural areas. This project will ethnographically map, investigate and describe a small number of schools and communities that have improved their levels of school retention. A Pr ....Enhancing School Retention: School and Community Linkages in Regional/Rural Western Australia. One of the most intractable issues confronting schools, communities and education systems in Australia, is how to create and sustain the conditions to retain young people for twelve years of schooling, particularly in regional/rural areas. This project will ethnographically map, investigate and describe a small number of schools and communities that have improved their levels of school retention. A Profile of Conditions Supporting Improved Retention will be developed and validated using an action research process. Finally, a set of materials focussing on the conditions promoting school retention, will be developed for wider use by schools and communities.Read moreRead less
Changing schools in changing times: Stabilising and sustaining whole school change in schools serving low-income communties. This project addresses an enduring issue in educational research: how to achieve whole school change (WSC) to support improved student learning in communities experiencing significant social dislocation, educational disadvantage and student disengagement from learning. It tackles the industry partner's policy commitment to delivering substantive equity outcomes by research ....Changing schools in changing times: Stabilising and sustaining whole school change in schools serving low-income communties. This project addresses an enduring issue in educational research: how to achieve whole school change (WSC) to support improved student learning in communities experiencing significant social dislocation, educational disadvantage and student disengagement from learning. It tackles the industry partner's policy commitment to delivering substantive equity outcomes by researching a sustainable approach to WSC. We will work collaboratively with four schools to utilise a new technology of WSC that conceptualises the work of classroom teachers and school administrators as primarily pedagogical in nature. The findings will provide theoretical and practical insights on effective schooling in low income communities throughout Australia.Read moreRead less
Enhancing social research in Australia using dual-frame telephone surveys. The growing surge in mobile phones and mobile-phone only households has had a significant impact on the representativeness of social surveys and accuracy of social outcome measures. This project will develop methods for generating sampling lists of both types of telephone numbers to improve population coverage and accuracy of outcome measures.
Learning catalysts: improving educational outcomes for disadvantaged children. This project will identify what works to improve educational outcomes for disadvantaged young people. In so doing, this project will contribute to Australia's prosperity and social well-being, and help address problems such as unemployment and homelessness, that arise when a large proportion of young Australians is denied an effective education.
Globalisation and Teacher Movements into and out of multicultural Australia. Education underpins a cohesive and successful society, but today education is increasingly globalised. This project explores the 'brain circulation' of Australian teaching professionals. It will produce a comprehensive national picture of the dynamics (personal and institutional) underlying the movement of teachers into and out of Australia, with a focus on regional and rural areas as well as the cities. It will result ....Globalisation and Teacher Movements into and out of multicultural Australia. Education underpins a cohesive and successful society, but today education is increasingly globalised. This project explores the 'brain circulation' of Australian teaching professionals. It will produce a comprehensive national picture of the dynamics (personal and institutional) underlying the movement of teachers into and out of Australia, with a focus on regional and rural areas as well as the cities. It will result in a refining of Australia's policies and procedures in order to better attract and retain immigrant teachers and to regain emigrant teachers. Read moreRead less
Coordinating Innovation in Knowledge-Based Multinational Organisations. Integration into global supply chains is one of the fundamental challenges for manufacturing companies in Australia. This project seeks to identify the optimal design for coordinating innovation in globally-dispersed organisations. It will analyse three mechanisms for transferring knowledge within organisations: hierarchies, communities of practice, and social networks. Outcomes will include a new multilevel statistical netw ....Coordinating Innovation in Knowledge-Based Multinational Organisations. Integration into global supply chains is one of the fundamental challenges for manufacturing companies in Australia. This project seeks to identify the optimal design for coordinating innovation in globally-dispersed organisations. It will analyse three mechanisms for transferring knowledge within organisations: hierarchies, communities of practice, and social networks. Outcomes will include a new multilevel statistical network modelling framework and organisational designs to overcome barriers to knowledge-transfer, such as language, culture and distance. The project will collect and apply data from Boeing Global Technology, the international research arm of The Boeing Company, a world leading business with major subsidiaries in Australia.Read moreRead less
Understanding and managing 'risk' for 15-19 year olds in a learning network: a case study of the Geelong LLEN. Learning networks are new strategies of educational reform and community capacity building addressing risk and interdependence arising from globalisation. This Deakin/Smart Geelong Region Local Learning and Employment Network partnership investigates the effectiveness of learning networks dealing with 15-19 year olds at risk. It explores stakeholders' understandings of learning networks ....Understanding and managing 'risk' for 15-19 year olds in a learning network: a case study of the Geelong LLEN. Learning networks are new strategies of educational reform and community capacity building addressing risk and interdependence arising from globalisation. This Deakin/Smart Geelong Region Local Learning and Employment Network partnership investigates the effectiveness of learning networks dealing with 15-19 year olds at risk. It explores stakeholders' understandings of learning networks and risk, undertakes a case study of the SGRLLEN, and considers the responses of schools and young people to the SGRLLEN using innovative youth researcher methodologies. It will inform policies, practices and evaluation of Victorian LLENs, provide professional development within SGRLLEN, and theoretically and empirically advance an emerging under researched field.Read moreRead less
Unintended consequences? A sociological study of how social relations influence decisions about antibiotics. Professional decision-making can be difficult to influence, particularly in health contexts. Decisions are often not just about scientific evidence of best practice. Rather, decisions are heavily influenced by social context and the relationships that surround them. An 'antimicrobial perfect storm' is predicted to occur within the next two decades, in part due to poor antibiotic decision- ....Unintended consequences? A sociological study of how social relations influence decisions about antibiotics. Professional decision-making can be difficult to influence, particularly in health contexts. Decisions are often not just about scientific evidence of best practice. Rather, decisions are heavily influenced by social context and the relationships that surround them. An 'antimicrobial perfect storm' is predicted to occur within the next two decades, in part due to poor antibiotic decision-making, presenting a major threat to Australia. Using rigorous sociological research methods, this project aims to explore the social underpinnings of antibiotic decision-making, incorporating professional, lay and managerial perspectives. It aims to provide a means of understanding current practice and the barriers to enacting change.Read moreRead less