Background and problem: During childbirth, one of the most common diagnoses of pathology is ‘failure to progress’, frequently resulting in labour augmentation and intervention cascades. However, failure to progress is poorly defined and evidence suggests that some instances of slowing, stalling and pausing labour patterns may represent physiological plateaus. Aim: To explore how midwives conceptualise physiological plateaus and the significance such plateaus may have for women's labour trajectory and birth outcome. Methods: Twenty midwives across Australia participated in semi-structured interviews between (...) September 2020 and February 2022. Constructivist grounded theory methodology was applied to analyse data, including multi-phasic coding and application of constant comparative methods, resulting in a novel theory of physiological plateaus that is firmly supported by participant data. Findings: This study found that the conceptualisation of plateauing labour depends largely on health professionals’ philosophical assumptions around childbirth. While the Medical Dominant Paradigm frames plateaus as invariably pathological, the Holistic Midwifery Paradigm acknowledges plateaus as a common and valuable element of labour that serves a self-regulatory purpose and results in good birth outcomes for mother and baby. Discussion: Contemporary medicalised approaches in maternity care, which are based on an expectation of continuous labour progress, appear to carry a risk for a misinterpretation of physiological plateaus as pathological. Conclusion: This study challenges the widespread bio-medical conceptualisation of plateauing labour as failure to progress, encourages a renegotiation of what can be considered healthy and normal during childbirth, and provides a stimulus to acknowledge the significance of childbirth philosophy for maternity care practice. (shrink)

This article presents results of research analysing the views on the nature of science (NOS) among primary and secondary teachers working in state schools in two different cities in Colombia. Previous studies have reported that science teachers maintain ‘eclectic’ epistemological perspectives on science; in this article, we test if such hypothesis holds when teachers’ ideas are ‘anchored’ in specific periods and topics of the philosophy of science. Thirty-five teachers attending a postgraduate teaching course with emphasis on the natural sciences at (...) the Universidad del Norte (Barranquilla, Colombia) were assessed with the use of quantitative, descriptive and parametric research methods. The most important conclusion of this study is that teachers’ expressed views on NOS maintain their epistemological eclecticism even when examined with more detail in relation to specific periods and topics of the philosophy of science. Such results can have negative implications for teachers’ professionalisation, since fragile or labile conceptions of NOS could restrict the possibility of presenting a coherent view on science in the classroom. (shrink)

The editorial group acknowledges the wisdom of Indigenous knowledge keepers and their past and continuous relationships with place, on every continent on earth where humans have lived for aeons. Indigenous wisdom is their life-giving gift to communities everywhere for planetary futures. It is precious, having integrity and an ethic of responsibility and care. Indigenous wisdom as environmental education is the oldest education, being tens of thousands of years of continuity before waves of apocalyptic colonial violence during the last few centuries (...) interrupted lifeways and language-embedded knowledge systems, some forever gone... (shrink)

Objective: Midwifery graduates may experience transition shock that makes them question their fit for their workplace and the profession and in extreme cases, may lead to them leaving. Understanding graduate midwives’ worldviews, job intentions and work experiences is important to inform retention strategies. Factors such as having a strong professional identity and experiencing strong job satisfaction are important for midwife retention. Conversely, stress, trauma and work-life imbalances are examples of factors that lead to attrition from midwifery. Transition shock experienced by (...) some graduates can exacerbate these factors if not managed effectively. This study aimed to identify causes and impact of any changes in graduate and early career midwives’ philosophy, practice, and intention to stay in the profession. Design, setting and participants: We invited the 2021 and 2022 cohorts of graduating midwifery students from all educational pathways in Victoria, Australia to participate in a longitudinal descriptive study using a questionnaire with both closed and open -ended questions. This paper reports the findings from 16 participants that completed the first survey of a five-year longitudinal descriptive study. Findings: The sixteen participants predominantly held a woman centred philosophy and ideally wanted to work in a midwife-led model of care. Although excited about moving into practice, they also disclosed a sense of needing to ‘survive’ in a maternity care system that their beliefs were not fully in alignment with. Key conclusions: The hopes, expectations and concerns of midwifery students who are anticipating moving into practice in this study resonate with those previously reported and demonstrate the need to consider personality-job fit in supporting this vulnerable group to transition. Implications for practice: This study provides insights into graduating midwives’ hopes for, expectations of, and concerns about transitioning into practice that may inform the design of transition programs and support expansion of midwifery led models of care. (shrink)

Background: During childbirth, one of the most common diagnoses of pathology is ‘failure to progress,’ frequently resulting in labour augmentation and intervention cascades. However, ‘failure to progress’ is poorly defined and some evidence suggests that plateauing labour (slowing, stalling and pausing of labour processes) may represent a typical and physiological occurrence during normal childbirth. Therefore, this study aimed to explore what exactly midwives define as ‘physiological plateaus’ and which significance such plateaus may have for the labour trajectory and birth outcome. (...) Methods: This study followed a constructivist grounded theory approach, assuming a position of ontological critical realism combined with epistemological constructivism. Twenty midwives across Australia participated in individual semi-structured interviews between September 2020 and February 2022. Midwives were eligible to participate if they had a midwifery qualification (any type, any country) and had experience with supporting women during normal childbirth (any birth setting). Interviews were transcribed and analysed using multiple, inductive and deductive, coding steps and constant comparative methods, resulting in a descriptive and explanatory grounded theory. This research was funded through an Australian Government Research Training Program Scholarship as part of MW’s PhD program. Ethical approval was obtained from Edith Cowan University’s Human Research Ethics Committee. Findings: This study found that physiological plateaus are common, can occur during the entire continuum of labour and birth, are typically followed by a self-resumption and acceleration of labour and result in good birth outcomes for mother and baby. The primary aetiology of physiological plateaus appears to be a self-regulation of the mother-baby-unit. Further, it was found that the conceptualisation of plateauing labour depends largely on health professionals’ philosophical assumptions around childbirth. Whereas the ‘Medical Dominant Paradigm’ frames plateaus as invariably pathological, the ‘Holistic Midwifery Paradigm’ acknowledges plateaus as a normal and valuable element of labour. Consequently, some midwives find themselves in a position of philosophical dissonance in their workplace, perceiving that physiological plateaus are misinterpreted as pathological and subsequently reverting to (overt and covert) juggling strategies aimed at protecting women from undue medical interventions. Conclusions: This study provides evidence that midwives’ unique holistic philosophy can have a direct positive impact on birth outcomes for mothers and babies, as it challenges narrow definitions of normality and adapts flexibly to women’s individual labour patterns, including patterns with physiological plateaus. The novel theory presented in this study emphasises the significance of physiological plateaus during labour and encourages a renegotiation of what can be considered healthy and normal during childbirth. (shrink)

Introduction: Contemporary ethical issues in the maternity system are nuanced, complex and layered. Medicalisation and the reported rise in incidence of mistreatment and birth trauma, has been described as unethical. Some authors suggest bioethical principles are limited in terms of guiding everyday care of pregnancy and birth. There is currently no known published research which explores what birthing people say is ethical. Aims: This study sought to explore women's experience of maternity care from an ethical perspective. Method: A Feminist Participatory (...) Action Research (FPAR) was conducted over three years, in two phases. A Community Action Research Group (CARG) was formed of nine participants, and data were captured from five focus groups. A further ten participants were recruited for individual in-depth interviews, the data corpus was combined, and thematic analysis was applied. All 19 participants had experienced a midwifery model of care in Western Australia. Results: A unique ethical perspective was described by the participants. The central theme: ‘Radical desires: Individuals values and context’ placed the woman at the centre of the care, in determining what is ethical. Two categories captured the care experienced: Woman-centred ethics or Authoritarian ethics. A conceptual model Woman-centred ethics is offered to enhance everyday ethical midwifery care. Discussion: The participants in this study perceived care as either ethical or unethical based on the quality of the relationship, the knowledge that was shared and the manner of the care given. The Woman-centred ethics model may be a starting point for moving the field forward in ethical discussion. (shrink)

Background: The maternity system has a complexity of everyday ethical issues. The bioethical principles: non maleficence, beneficence justice and autonomy, that govern health care practice have been criticised as abstract, patriarchal and even rhetorical in maternity care practice (MacLellan, 2014) and consequently may be insufficient in guiding care of childbearing women. Midwifery-led care is guided by the International Confederation of Midwives International Code of Ethics, which considers more than the bioethical principles, such as the importance of relationship. Care ethics is (...) a relational based feminist ethics first described by Gilligan (1983) and has been theorised as an alternate paradigm for midwifery (Newnham & Kirkham, 2019). A paper was published in Nursing Ethics as a result of the literature review; Care ethics framework for midwifery practice: A scoping review and it was determined that care ethics is demonstrated in practice with four domains; Relationship, Context, Caring Practices and Attention to power. In addition, there is limited empirical evidence as to women’s experiences of care from an ethical perspective, and importantly what women describe as ethical, revealing a gap in the literature that has yet to be explored. Objective: The aim of the study reported in this thesis was to investigate women’s experience of maternity care from an ethical perspective and to determine whether a care ethics paradigm would better suit midwifery. Methods: The transformative research was undertaken using Feminist Participatory Action Research (FPAR). FPAR is a feminist and transformative research design, which includes participants as central to research design. Purposive sampling was used to recruit women who had experienced midwifery-led care. Nine women formed the Community action research group (CARG), they worked with me over three years, guided the research and planned action. The CARG participated in five focus groups, for data collection and organising action toward the changes they wished to see. Their involvement in the research included: defining the research problem, creating a priori codes for analysis, reviewing analysis, disseminating findings and provided recommendations for policy change. A paper was published in Woman and Birth: Navigating midwifery solidarity: A feminist participatory action research framework, describing some of the finer points of FPAR including a framework for novice researchers. In phase two a further ten women who had had midwifery-led care were involved in this study and interviewed about their experiences of ethical maternity care. Data were collected from September 2019 to April 2022 via five focus group interviews and ten one-on-one semi-structured interviews. The interviews were recorded, and transcribed, and template and Reflexive thematic analysis was applied (Braun & Clark, 2021). Findings: The findings in this study were presented in two parts. The first phase of the study revealed midwifery-led care demonstrated care ethics in practice. The Community Action Research Group (CARG) created a priori codes and a template analysis determined that midwifery models of care demonstrate care ethics. A paper of these findings was published in Nursing Ethics; Does midwifery-led care demonstrate care ethics? A template analysis. In the second phase of the study, the data corpus was analysed using reflexive thematic analysis and the primary theme, Radical desires: Individuals’ values and context, captures the woman at the centre of the care, her values and context, as central to understanding ethics. The quality of the relationship, the knowledge that was shared, and the manner of the care given were deemed important elements of ethical care. I assigned categories Woman-centred ethics or Authoritarian ethics to describe these elements of ethical or unethical aspects of care. Woman-centred ethics contains the subcategories of: harmonised relationship, transparent wisdom, and midwifery solidarity. The category Authoritarian ethics contains the subcategories of: uneasy alliance, opaque information, and saving women from themselves. How the woman experienced these categories affected the liminality and sense of self, and are described in subthemes, Claiming power and Surrendered power. Discussion: The themes were explained, discussed, and contrasted against the extant literature in the discussion. Pregnancy and birth as a transformative rite of passage was valued by the women in this study and they perceived care as more ethical when the care providers respected this. Authoritarian ethics, when viewed with a feminist and care ethics lens highlighted continued female oppression from the maternity system structures and culture. A conceptual model, Woman-centred ethics, was developed based on midwifery philosophy and feminist care ethics, which may help midwives embody a different kind of ethics and provides a way to enhanced ethical practice. A paper was published that shared the conceptual model in Midwifery Journal: Woman-centred ethics: A feminist participatory action research. Conclusion: This study has contributed to the body of knowledge that describes how women perceive ethics in maternity, and honours women’s voices as central to ethical care. The study advances midwifery philosophy through exploring midwifery ethics and offers a conceptual model to guide practice. The woman-centred ethics model describes an embodied way of practicing ethical care and may provide a starting point for moving the field forward in ethical discussion. The CARG group involvement in the research and action together were an important feature of this project. Several recommendations arose from this study for practice, organisational, and educational processes. (shrink)

Justifications for defunding the Arts and Humanities are well rehearsed: public funds should be reallocated toward developing skills directly leading toward sustainable employment, that is, toward labour streams demanded by industry. President John F. Kennedy took a different view, envisioning the role of the artist (and poet in particular) as an essential moral function. For Kennedy, the poet is both philosopher and prophet, providing a moral compass that leads the nation back to its better self when excesses of power have (...) corrupted it from within. The role Kennedy assigned to poets echoes the civic/cultural practice of theoria (contemplation), a pilgrimage for the pursuit of knowledge enacted by ancient Greek intellectuals. Notably, for Plato and earlier Greek intellectuals, the insight gained from this contemplative endeavour was expected to have practical value and advance the city state, which indicates that outcomes mattered. Like Plato, Hannah Arendt also links the progress of civilisation with the quality of our thinking. As is well known now, Arendt attributes banal acts of evil to thoughtlessness, thus heightening the imperative ‘to think what we are doing’. There is evidence to suggest that contemplative compassion training can work as a potential mode to bridge the motivational gap between empathetic awareness and moral action. Western pedagogic and psychotherapeutic strategies incorporate contemplative principles for their capacity to support transformation. These interventions draw on Buddhist conceptions of wisdom, distress tolerance, and non-judgmental awareness to develop a structure for training compassion, thereby enabling the agent to move from intention to productive action. This thesis therefore explores the potential for poetry to participate in this work. The first part of this thesis considers how poets have long modelled the capacity of poetry to do political work, as demonstrated by fifth century BCE poet-legislator Solon, who recorded justifications of his laws in poetry. The second part examines how the Romantic poets foreshadowed Kennedy’s idealised philosopher poet by 200 years, including the 18th century poet Anna Letitia Barbauld, who enacted the political work elevated by Arendt through poetry and prose that outlines the obligations of the citizen and critiques the actions of the state. The third part explores how poets in the early 20th century participated (or not) in this kind of work. The contribution of ‘High Modernist’ T. S. Eliot is assessed as well as the Modernist anarchist poet, Lola Ridge, who advocated for marginalised, incarcerated, and deceased identities in both the public and private realm. By reinserting poetry into the public sphere, Ridge models how poetry can be repurposed toward political/moral ends and provide a unique platform for social critique and the emergence of new identities. The thesis concludes by considering how, in addition to public advocacy, poetry may also participate in compassion training. Following psychotherapeutic interest in Buddhist principles to facilitate transformation, this thesis explores the capacity of poetry to participate in cultivating compassion by reading T. S. Eliot’s ‘The Waste Land’ and Four Quartets and Lola Ridge’s ‘The Ghetto’ (and other poems) through the Buddhist lens of the Four Noble Truths. These readings demonstrate that poetry can do more than provide aesthetic pleasure. As an effect of and a medium for contemplation, poetry can facilitate critical thinking; further, it can stimulate creative possibilities toward realising moral ends. Crucially, it can cultivate moral agency by enlarging our capacity for compassion. In short, the contemplation of poetry can enable us to follow Arendt’s council to ‘think what we are doing’. (shrink)

The research study investigated early childhood teacher perceptions of mindset theory and how teachers can be supported to incorporate the teaching of mindset theory in early childhood contexts. Teachers are pivotal in extending children’s passion for learning to help them aim high and pursue their goals. Substantial research has shown that students with a growth mindset are better positioned for success in learning and in life. The development of a growth mindset to support student learning is recommended as it leads (...) to greater motivation, self-regulation and academic achievement to develop agile and confident 21st century learners. While the literature identifies the impact a growth mindset can have on learning in the upper primary and adolescent years, little is known about supporting early childhood teachers to develop a growth mindset in students in early childhood contexts. This study addresses the need to support early childhood teachers to implement mindset theory to lay solid foundations for learning early in life. A sample of early childhood teachers’ perceptions of mindset was initially examined. Following this, a smaller group of teachers collaboratively developed a set of design principles to support teachers to foster a growth mindset in students in early childhood contexts. Drawing on a pragmatist theoretical framework, four phases of design-based research (Reeves, 2006) were conducted with early childhood teachers in one school in Western Australia. An online survey in Phase One initially gathered 95 early childhood teachers’ (K–2) perceptions of mindset theory through four closed early childhood teacher Facebook groups. The survey data informed the remaining phases of the research. One school in Western Australia was chosen for the remaining phases. Over two five-week iterations, six teachers of children aged 3.5 years to 6.5 years in early childhood classrooms designed, implemented, trialled, refined and evaluated a set of design principles. During the iterations, video reflection diaries, jottings, focus group discussions and a final evaluative survey were used to inform the development and refinement of the principles. Results from Phase One of the study revealed that while early childhood teachers had some understanding of mindset theory and believed that it is an important factor for successful learning, most did not know how to include it in practice. Phases Two, Three and Four aimed to address the identified problem and findings indicated that early childhood teachers found the design principles highly effective and practical in implementing mindset theory in early childhood classrooms. This study offers theoretical and practical contributions to improve early childhood teacher knowledge and practice to assist young learners to develop a growth mindset. All six early childhood teachers indicated that their knowledge of mindset theory improved after developing and implementing the design principles. Additionally, teachers found that the principles were highly effective in providing crucial guidance on the teaching of mindset theory. This novel study was conducted from an educator’s perspective rather than through a psychological lens. It provides findings to develop early childhood teachers’ knowledge and practice of mindset theory in early childhood contexts and highlights the importance of mindset theory to inform strategic direction and policy development. (shrink)

A theoretical essay, based on the results of research projects on teacher education, teachers’ work, and justice in education developed by the author, is presented. It reflects on teacher education and the epistemology of teachers’ work, and proposes a mediational and a narrative perspective towards a third space in Teacher education. An alternative mediation epistemological approach to justice in education and the epistemology of teachers’ work is presented, aiming towards an understanding of the ways in which teachers’ education has the (...) possibility of making a difference in the construction of a more just public school. (shrink)

We share a story about a katitjin bidi, a learning journey in a bioregion with a multimillennial Aboriginal history. As part of this katitjin bidi, three environmental educators implemented a place-based pedagogy called 'becoming family with place', while a fourth participated in the preplanning and final reflective stages. Our story includes cycles of ways of knowing, resulting in an enriched practice of being-with our place. Our story is underpinned by Aboriginal epistemologies to reimagine regenerative futures linked with those of 'the (...) long now'-the past, present and future here now. Ours is a particular story that lives in a particular southwest place. There are layers of meanings that live right across the landscapes in the southwest of Australia- A nd many of them are hiding in full view. You might like to try this pedagogy in school learning, teacher education, and community education contexts. (shrink)

Drawing from a variety of sources - literary, visual, archaeological; papyri, inscriptions and coins – the author studies the nature of Diocletian’s imperial strategy, his wars, his religious views and his abdication. The author also examines Galerius’ endeavour to take control of Diocletian’s empire, his failures and successes, against the backdrop of Constantine’s remorseless drive to power. The first comprehensive study of the Emperor Galerius, this book offers an innovative analysis of his reign as both Caesar and Augustus, using his (...) changing relationship with Diocletian as the principal key to unlock the complex imperial politics of the period. (shrink)

American landscape and wilderness photography has lived under the aegis of the aesthetic, and in particular under the sign of the sublime and the picturesque, for some time. Ansel Adams' photographs of towering mountains and canyons are the obvious major expressions and exemplars of the sublime in photography. The sublime involves the formlessness of uplifting spectacles and produces feelings of awe and terror. By contrast, Carleton Watkins's photographs of mountains reflected in still lakes express the picturesque in photography. The picturesque (...) presents well-formed depictions of serene scenery and produces feelings of pleasure. (shrink)

I begin in hope, and end in hope. In the middle I consider the way we look at the future as a timescape that stretches before us, at how we regard the future in some ways like a landscape with various aesthetic possibilities as either, to cut a long story short and simplifying to the extreme, a pleasing prospect or a terrifying prospect with also the same double meaning. Along the way, I draw on the past work of Walter Benjamin (...) and Raymond Williams who both provide some resources for a journey of hope through the landscape of the future. The photographic minescapes of Edward Burtynsky, including his aerial photograph of 'the Super Pit', are terrifying prospects as they do not provide much by way of resources of hope as they aestheticize mining and its impacts on and in the earth, though they do demonstrate the monumental threat that the depths of mining pose to human habitation of the earth, not least in and for Kalgoorlie. Despite the doom and gloom of these minescapes, however, hope lives on - the note I end on. (shrink)

This article discusses the regulation of artificial intelligence from a Jewish perspective, with an emphasis on the regulation of machine learning and its application to autonomous vehicles and machine learning. Through the Biblical story of Adam and Eve as well as Golem legends from Jewish folklore, we derive several basic principles that underlie a Jewish perspective on the moral and legal personhood of robots and other artificially intelligent agents. We argue that religious ethics in general, and Jewish ethics in particular, (...) show us that the dangers of granting moral personhood to robots and in particular to autonomous vehicles lie not in the fact that they lack a soul-or consciousness or feelings or interests-but because to do so weakens our own ability to develop as fully autonomous legal and moral persons. Instead, we argue that existing legal persons should continue to maintain legal control over artificial agents, while natural persons assume ultimate moral responsibility for choices made by artificial agents they employ in their service. In the final section of the article we discuss the trolley dilemma in the context of governing autonomous vehicles and sketch out an application of Jewish ethics in a case where we are asking Artificial Intelligence to make life and death decisions. Our novel contribution is two-fold; first, we bring a religious approach to the discussion of the ethics of Artificial Intelligence which has hitherto been dominated by secular Western philosophies; second, we raise the idea that artificial entities who are trained through machine learning can be ethically trained in much the same way that human are-through reading and reflecting on core religious texts. This is both a way of ensuring the ethical regulation of artificial intelligence, but also promotes other core values of regulation, such as democratic engagement and user choice. (shrink)

This paper evaluates the association between new public policy requirements for B.Ed. programs in Colombia —1) demand high-quality accreditation, 2) restrict distance modality, 3) restrict multidisciplinary programs, and 4) increase academic credits in education courses and pedagogical practices— and the outcomes of 1387 B.Ed. in Philosophy students in the National Saber Pro test 2016-2018, in ‘Education’ component. The methodology was multilevel linear regression; the residential region is the level variable, and were included other control variables. The results show that outcomes (...) are associated with pedagogical practices and with non-multidisciplinary programs, supporting new regulations. Students attending on campus programs had better outcomes, but students in distance programs came from regions where there are no programs, so this must be taken carefully. Contrary to the hypothesis, high-quality accreditation was not significant. This should lead to a review of accreditation criteria and its mandatory nature. (shrink)

An unexamined life is not worth living Socrates (470-399 BC) In this article I reveal transformative experiences stemming from non-verbal communication in the context of active interviewing in narrative research. Drawing upon my recent experience interviewing positive veteran teachers about the relationships they believe vital in maintaining their passion and enthusiasm for teaching, I explore the unique nature of narrative research in fostering intra-personal transformation. The goal of the article is to highlight transformation as an outcome in narrative research, with (...) particular focus upon non-verbal communication in active interviewing. The article is constructed to examine transformation in thinking and understanding within the relational nature of narrative research in education; to highlight the complexity of non-verbal communication in the context of narrative research; and, to consider the nature of personal reflective practice in examining one's ontological and epistemological framework for establishing respectful and ethical relationships between researcher and participants in narrative research. (shrink)

The text analyses identities within virtual on-screen environments. Investigating regions in Second Life, it explores topical issues of the body in virtual space, nature and mythology in virtual environments, and the key arguments surrounding normative and subversive representations of gender, sexuality and subversion in screen-based environments.

Psychologists working in prisons and secure settings frequently feel their codes of ethics do not assist them, especially when they face novel and challenging ethical problems for a more comprehensive discussion). The reason for this might be that the standards of codes reflect the minimum level of professional conduct the profession will tolerate and therefore mirror the well-crystallised expectations of the majority of psychologists, that is, mainly those who do research or provide assessment, counselling and therapeutic services to individuals presenting (...) with mental health issues in health or private practice settings. Codes, therefore, seldom provide specific guidance to psychologists who provide services to people or groups outside these parameters, leaving it to psychologists who provide these services to develop specific practice guidelines that flow from general ethical codes. (shrink)

Drawing on the art historical criticism of Georges Didi-Huberman and Aby Warburg, Brecht is here reconsidered as a montage artist who not only produces on-stage juxtapositions, but one whose dramaturgy fractures and divides the body against itself in its fleeting response to pain-what Warburg called the "pathos formula" By keeping constituents within a state of suspended tension, Didi-Huberman argues such iconographic formulations communicate not only "knowledge-visible, legible, or invisible-but... the intertwinings, even the imbroglio, of transmitted and dismantled knowledges" and "notknowledges." (...) The perpetual sufferings of history elude full visibility, emerging "like a flash" within a dramaturgy of dialectical montage. This gives such a dramaturgy its ethical character. (shrink)

This thesis shows how The Orphic Hymns function as a katábasis, a descent to the underworld, representing a process of becoming and psychological rebirth. I begin with the Greek concept of sparagmόs, a dismemberment or deconstruction, as a necessary precursor in that it emphasises at once both primordial unity and yet also the incipient tensions within the Orphic initiates on this path to katabasis. The argument herein extends beyond literary explication to consider how the Orphics sought to enact this process (...) in Greek society itself. The thesis then establishes the connections between the Hymns and the thinking of Nietzsche and Jung. Each writer drew influences from Orphism, which influenced modern thinkers in turn. I argue that the dynamic between key Orphic pairs, such as Orpheus and Eurydike, or Persephone and Demeter, reflects aspects of the psychosocial process of individuation, that is, from darkness to light, or from fractured to psychological wholeness. Finally, this thesis demonstrates how the poetry of Rilke and H.D. functions as an Orphic katabasis. Both the Hymns and these early twentieth century poets (Rilke in “Orpheus. Eurydike. Hermes” and H.D. in “Eurydice”) treat Eurydike as an aspect of Persephone, reclaiming Eurydike as a goddess of rebirth. I argue that their purpose is to resist hegemonic and authoritarian violence in their respective contexts. (shrink)

The paper describes how a meta-theoretical approach developed in Design Research points to weaknesses in systems theory. It identifies ways that new findings from brain research help address these weaknesses in systems involving humans. The paper suggests that including the findings of brain research marks the beginning of a new direction in Systems theory making.

The ubiquitousness of failures in new information systems designs and implementations indicates that the design methodologies that the field has developed are inadequate or faulty. This paper points to the body of knowledge developed from design research as a potential source of expertise for developing design methods that are more successful. The paper describes a meta-theoretical method for classifying theories in the Information Systems field, and identifying areas that need farther development.

Contributors to this special edition have agreed that we want a future of ecojustice and ecological sustainability. Our article unpacks experiences of oppression within the context of middle class academic privilege, undertaking resistances and working, in relationship, learning to live more sustainably in the Year of Living Sustainably. In this writing, we argue the case for activism in the academy and collaboratively build resilience toward more sustainable ways of being. By co-writing and analyzing fictionalized stories, we demonstrate how contemporary universities (...) contribute to the unsustainability of social and ecological systems. This article presents a love story grounded in poststructural ecofeminist epistemology using collaborative autoethnography. Rather than re-presenting a heroic masculinist narrative of transcendence and success, we describe how our loving relationships support our activism. (shrink)

It is argued that case studies can be classified as either describing or explaining a particular research phenomenon and as such researchers first need to finalize which approach they are going to adopt. The concept of explanation suggests a realist approach and description suggests an interpretive approach. If explanation is the target, the selection of a theoretical approach for a longitudinal study is made more difficult as organizational contexts can alter radically from that in place at the initiation of a (...) study—totally different approaches may be necessary to best explain the underlying "reality" of the situation. This article suggests that Bhaskar's philosophy of critical realism can provide some guidance as to the theoretical approach to adopt. A framework is developed based on a critical realist argument for the consideration of both structure and agency in research, the suggestion being that different organizational situations require differing emphasis on structure or agency. (shrink)

Beliefs about the certainty of teaching knowledge may influence how preservice teachers engage with and learn from knowledge sources in teacher education, and their subsequent practice. In light of inconsistencies in prior findings that mainly employ epistemic questionnaires, we extended research focusing on a contextual analysis. Sixty-six elementary and lower-secondary preservice teachers in Norway responded to the Beliefs about the Certainty of Teaching Knowledge scale in the first and second year of study, respectively. Participants believed knowledge about teaching and learning (...) was more tentative and evolving at T2 than at T1 = 2.0, p =.049, Cohen’s d =.23). We uncovered beliefs about the ways knowledge and practice will change, reasons for change, and the rate of change in teaching knowledge. The results suggest preservice teachers hold specific beliefs about the certainty of teaching knowledge that should be addressed by teacher educators. (shrink)

Using a contextualist epistemology, it would be expected that regional differences in community psychology would develop over time. It is argued that the epistemology and theory of Western Australian community psychology, while largely based on North American approaches, has developed its own idiosyncracies. These developed through the integration of practice and theory in an “iterative-generative” fashion. The process of development is conceptualized in terms of Schön's and Altman's distinctions between foundational knowledge, and professional and socially responsive knowledge. It has also (...) been characterized as an incremental development based on the reflection on tacit and conceptual knowledge. From the small differences that have developed between regions, a dialogue can emerge that will better allow understanding of how social forces shape people's actions. (shrink)

This paper explores some of the philosophical problems associated with building a unified and coherent cross-disciplinary body of knowledge and theory associated with designing and designs. The paper identifies issues that a cross-disciplinary unified body of knowledge would be expected to address. It describes general criteria for improving the definitions of concepts and theories, and outlines relationships and boundaries between design research and other disciplines for nine areas of theory. The paper closes by proposing definitions of core concepts in research (...) and theory-making relating to designing and designs, and draws attention to the practical political difficulties in building a more coherent body of knowledge in this area. (shrink)

There has been increasing interest in international comparisons of teaching and learning extending from the TIMSS and PISA comparisons of achievement to video studies that compare pedagogical practices of teachers from different countries and cultures. Video capture of classrooms across national boundaries has raised questions about the varying foci of teaching and learning including relative attention to reasoning in mathematics and science classrooms and the possibility of significant cultural determinants of classroom practice. Given that teaching and learning are embedded in (...) culture, any comparisons of teaching across countries needs to take account of the contextual factors that shape the history and culture of teaching in those countries. This chapter provides a framework to consider the broader social and cultural factors that shape the ways in which the teaching and learning of science are transacted in different countries. (shrink)

Impact assessment is carried out as an ex ante process to inform decision-making. It includes requirements for engagement with stakeholders regarding actions proposed by a proponent. A key issue with the various stakeholders involved is the perceived legitimacy of the IA, which can have implications both for the reputation of the proponent, and the likelihood of conflict over the decision. But the understanding of legitimacy in the IA literature has changed over time in line with an ontological shift from positivism (...) to the post-positivist acknowledgement of the limitations of scientific method whereby assumptions must be subject to transparency, deliberation and openness. This has led to an epistemological shift towards greater subjectivism which, we suggest, has created new opportunities to subvert knowledge through the increased use of the Internet and social media. To address the potential for such subversion of legitimacy, we seek to conceptualise legitimacy in the IA context through framing IA around a critical realist ontology and a reliabilist virtue epistemology. This allows us to identify ‘knowledge legitimacy’ as an equally important component of IA legitimacy along with organisational legitimacy. We conceptualise knowledge legitimacy through literature review drawing on rich understandings of knowledge from IA and other fields of research in order to develop a four-dimensional typology. This includes the dimensions of: knowledge accuracy; knowledge restriction; knowledge diffusion; and knowledge spectrum. This is the first theoretically grounded attempt to understand legitimacy in IA. It is hoped that it will provoke discussion in the IA community to further advance theoretical understandings of IA and legitimacy of practice. (shrink)

This creative Honours project explores Taoist body cultivation practices and the traces of the absent figure and creature in the landscape within Shanghainese parks. This exploration, presented in the form of a documentary and an audiovisual meditation, share a yin and yang relationship. Although they both contain elements of each other, the documentary celebrates body cultivation practices and their relationship to Taoism, while the audiovisual meditation examines the darker side of human relationships with the natural world in Shanghainese parks. Informed (...) by Rod Giblett’s and Brian Eno’s theories concerning the human body’s relationship with the environment and the natural world, and Taoism’s most significant philosophers Lao Tzu (ca. 600-400 BC) and Chuang Tzu (ca. 550-250 BC), it seeks to find a place in which the Tao and it’s manifestations coexist. (shrink)

Much of project management theory has been devoted to the praxis of project management with a focus upon project processes and the development of project documents. The extant literature abounds with project practices such as the rules and norms of project management. Much less concerns the ontology of projects and the environment in which they exist; the individuals who are involved and the interactions that occur. The process of project management in many sectors, such as the construction industry, has not (...) improved for many years. For instance multi-factor productivity statistics in the construction industry have been static for three decades, projects are also still regularly over budget and often later than scheduled. This paper critically analyses the processes of project management and specifies the interactions that occur. It takes a metaphysical approach, and loosely utilises process philosophy, whereby the artefact of project management in the construction industry is scrutinised and the causations of the processes proposed, the suggestion being that we are going about project management with the wrong emphasis but with ever increasing precision. (shrink)

This paper explores how popular ideological discourses within public policy are influencing the views and practices of pre-service teachers at a university in Melbourne. The research began by examining how educational success has been historically understood by individuals vis-à-vis government discourse. Three values and four corresponding ideological positions were used to create a theoretical framework. The researcher then surveyed a small cross-section of pre-service teachers to investigate how these values contributed to their understandings of educational success, and how these understandings (...) were used to justify their receptions of neoliberal reforms in education. The data shows that democratic equality was the most influential value in participant understandings of educational success. However, attitudes and justifications towards the reforms diverged significantly, suggesting that these values were being positioned differently in discourse. The results were then critically analysed with reference to the theoretical framework. The paper concludes with a discussion of potential implications for policymaking in teacher education, and highlights the importance of preserving the intellectual autonomy of pre-service teachers as they enter the profession. (shrink)

Silence may traditionally have been golden, but how is it valued today? Can it survive the impact of a technology which can, and does, bring the apparently irresistible seductions of noise to the remotest parts of the world, and which invades the most reclusive aspects of our lives? And what place has silence in a culture such as ours which classifies it as "unproductive"? But what is silence anyway? Professor Taylor considers two ways in which, from the Romantic period onward, (...) silence has been conceived. One tradition equates silence with Truth itself; the other considers it the condition which enables Truth to become manifest. In contrast, today's technology brings about a devaluation of silence by making it easy to avoid. This has profound consequences for the conception of Thought which, until recently, has been characteristic of the Western intellectual tradition. The consequences of this change, and their implications for the teaching and study of literature and for university education in general, are then considered. (shrink)

This thesis interrogates the practices of the Socrates Café initiative since it was inaugurated nearly 13 years ago by the author of this dissertation. It seeks to critique whether Socrates Café – which strives to establish democratic communities of philosophical inquiry – has successfully embodied the stated goals of the non-profit Society for Philosophical Inquiry, or SPI, as enumerated on the website www.philosopher.org. These goals are to support “philosophical inquirers of all ages and walks of life as they become more (...) empathetic and autonomous thinkers who take active part in creating a more deliberative democracy” The author of this dissertation co-founded SPI, and it is under its auspices that the Socrates Café project is spearheaded. The Socrates Café ‘movement’ has spawned the establishment of more than 500 democratic communities of philosophical inquiry around the globe, with a decided majority in the U.S., gathering in sundry venues and contexts. Meetings convene primarily in cafés, but also in places like community centres, seniors’ residences, churches, schools from primary to secondary level, universities, libraries, prisons, as well as on the radio and in cyberspace, e.g. online dialogue groups and social networking sites, and virtual reality applications such as Second Life (www.secondlife.com). The working hypothesis is that the Socrates Café initiative has had signal accomplishments, even if these have not always completely coincided with, or fully realised, the stated overarching aims of the non-profit SPI, of which Socrates Café is the flagship undertaking. In some instances, the Socrates Café dialogue groups may have met or exceeded objectives; in others, they have made beneficial advances for fostering a more participatory democracy, perhaps in unexpected or unintended ways; and still in others, they have not achieved the elaborated aims SPI. Consequently, it is incumbent to speculate, evidentially, discursively and creatively, on what might be further required to realise the long-term ends of Socrates Café, namely of fomenting greater grassroots deliberative democracy. This thesis recognises the embodied nature of face-to-face dialogical exchange as the foundation for the Socrates Café movement. It further interrogates the inclusive and participatory approach of embracing all participants, regardless of age, education, background or philosophical experience, as potential facilitators of a Café exchange. Building on the thirteen years of evolving public practice, the project combines performative components, to demonstrate engagement in action and the processual nature of the investigation, with more traditional research, including quantitative and qualitative analysis. It includes the results of a survey of Socrates Café facilitators and coordinators for evaluating the achievements of Socrates Café against the stated goals of the Society for Philosophical Inquiry. Ultimately, this thesis strives to identify a gap between the aims of the SPI and the achievements of the Socrates Café initiative which will be assessed via critical analysis of research outcomes. This in turn will serve as a platform for proposing how best to remedy such a prospective gap, bringing the practice of Socrates Cafe into closer alignment with its promise. (shrink)

Almost since its inception, the dominant narrative of modern psychology has embraced positivism through its insistence that psychological science is objective, generalisable, and value free. Consequently, quantitative research and, in particular, experimental designs, are privileged over other forms of enquiry, and other epistemologies, methodologies, and methods remain marginalised within the discipline. We argue that the enduring hegemony of positivism needs to be opposed to enable psychology to genuinely understand the antecedents of, and provide meaningful sustainable solutions for, complex human issues (...) without being constrained by a narrow focus on method. We discuss the ways in which psychology in Australia can move towards embracing a constructionist epistemology that provides the framework for methodological pluralism. We provide a number of suggestions for change across the interrelated areas of accreditation, curriculum, the Australian Psychological Society, and research. (shrink)

Competence to practice is regarded as fundamental for a professional psychologist. Competence generally captures the knowledge, skills and experience necessary to provide direct and professional services to human clients. The dictionary defines competence as 'ability; the state of being competent' and 'an area in which a person is competent; a skill'. Competent is defined as 'adequately qualified or capable'. There are also definitions of competence that are applicable in law. The dictionary therefore concurs with the commonly accepted description of an (...) ability and skill. (shrink)

Many Western countries around the world have been reviewing policy and practice aimed at enhancing the quality and professional practice of early childhood education. The response has been to establish government-sanctioned curriculum frameworks based on current research and the dominant discourses of educational provision. The successful implementation of a curriculum framework relies not simply on the policy or regulatory practice, but on educators; their interpretation, knowledge and understanding of the framework; and their ability to apply it to their pedagogical practices. (...) Australia too has introduced a new national learning framework, the Early Years Learning Framework, titled Belonging, Being and Becoming. ‘Being’ is central to the framework but what does it really mean? Our Being is part of who we are and yet is difficult to describe. This article aims to provide insights into the meaning and importance of Being in the context of early childhood education and care settings. It draws on Heidegger’s ontological explanation of the concept of Being and offers clarification on what it means to Be and why it is significant for early childhood educators and children. (shrink)

As a people, Australians have lost contact with the world of nature, Risking the collapse of civilization. One factor in the alienation of nature in Australia is the failure of the scientific community to take responsibility for the technology created by the knowledge generated from scientific research. Science has failed to protect Australia's flora and fauna. Scientists must communicate more widely with society, but need to be educated on how to communicate and on their ethical responsibilities to others and other (...) species. Government needs to show leadership in environmental management and nature conservation, while conservationists need to 'invert the paradigm', taking a new, less anthropocentric approach to conservation. None of this is possible in a market-place economy and Australians must move to an economic system that is ecocentric. This will not be easy as it requires a reduction in the consumption of resources and a smaller population. (shrink)

My thesis is a work of creative non-fiction, in the form of an introductory, philosophy workbook. The workbook, tentatively named Everyday Philosophy, is intended to appeal to upper secondary students aged sixteen to seventeen, and contains a broad cross-section of information about the philosophy tradition. The workbook is loosely constructed around the new Western Australian Certificate of Education 'Philosophy and Ethics' curriculum, due to be launched in 2008. The aim of my thesis is to provide an introduction to Philosophy and (...) Ethics that is thought-provoking yet easy to understand, employing examples, analogies and illustrations that are relevant and current to the intended readership. In order to achieve this I have employed a mixture of non-fiction and fictional scenarios to illustrate philosophical themes. The scenarios range from the commonplace to the ridiculous, in order to effectively promote the curiosity and enthusiasm of a sixteen or seventeen year-old high school student. The language and tone are friendly, grounded, conversational and, at times, amusing. I believe this strategy to be a necessary antidote to the perception that the study of philosophy is academic, lofty and inaccessible to mere mortals. The workbook contains: • topical, essay-style discussions of the main themes of philosophy. • historical information regarding key philosophers and their contributions. • creative and anecdotal scenarios to illustrate fundamental tenets. • in-chapter, journal exercises. • recommendations for supplementary reading and viewing material. • interesting quotes by philosophers. • profiles of famous philosophy students, and their impact on the world today. The rationale behind Everyday Philosophy is to create an innovative and interactive introduction to the sometimes daunting discipline of philosophy, in a style that specifically addresses the needs and interests of upper secondary students. (shrink)

Landscape, both the actual and the representational, "is a work of the mind" (Schama, 1995, p. 7) it encompasses ideas of difference, arcadia, commodification, nationalism and many others. How does one negotiate the physical and the representational when trying to reach beyond the traditions of the sublime? Anchoring my research in the physical landscape of Kings Park, Perth, Australia whilst looking at looking this paper explores the manifestation of ideas about land in both forms. Central to my research approach is (...) W.J.T. Mitchell's theses on landscape number eight, which states: "landscape is an exhausted medium, no longer viable as a mode of artistic expression" (1994, p. 5). Countered immediately by his next, tongue in cheek, sentence: "like life, landscape is boring; we must not say so" (1994, p. 5). I agree, and this written and visual investigation explores the possibility of rupture to the accepted and traditional Western forms for landscape as a means of creating new conceptualisations. The Australian landscape genre's seminal nature in articulating and circulating national character and identity is central to the need to reapproach it as a valid form for interrogation. This paper examines the place for oppositional voices through the medium to the prevailing nationalistic rhetoric and uses the actual landscape of Kings Park as a physical and represented site to investigate the manifestations of such. (shrink)

... catching the underground home from the performance. Alone... tears streaming down my face... but I feel warm, uplifted, acutely sensitive. I can't pinpoint exactly what part of the performance or what idea is particularly affecting me. There is a broadening in my screen of vision, an excitement in previously unnoticed detail... an older wisdom (Journal 2007). "Reality' is always, already encoded, it is never raw" (Fiske in Underwood.2003, p5). Codification negates abstraction or loss of information. "We do not live (...) among and relate to physical objects and events. We live among and relate to systems of signs" (Underwood.2003.p3). If communication must always occur through coded systems does this means the viewers experience is therefore a lesser experience, or, can an artwork defy the inevitably reductive systems society builds for itself? Can codification be bypassed to create something that is raw, that "exists" for the viewer. My concern is for the medium of dance. Can the dance "exist" in such a way that the viewer experiences it as "reality"? Does the dance performance, with all its parts incorporated, have the capability to affect its audience in such a way that is at once ''wounding" and revelatory? Can dance rumble the history of a body? Roland Barthes states a Photograph(1) has the ability to ''wound" or "prick" him. This instinctual, almost physical response to a photograph is the factor which, for Barthes, defines the existence of the Photograph!. This phenomenon he names punctum and this is the main point of interest in his text Camera Lucida. With this notion of punctum Barthes offers that something that will cut across the maze of code systems and "wound" the viewer with a mnemonic experience of their own, individual "reality". I henceforth propose to pursue the existence of this punctum within the medium of dance. Through an exploration of the photographic medium, Barthes' Camera Lucida, and my own experience of the photographic punctum I hope to arrive at an understanding of the contributing factors, optimal conditions, and medium-specific traits that amount to the Photograph's puncta. These findings will then be combed through the medium of dance. Through a parallel process of analysis I intend to discover the element/s exclusive to dance that testifies to its "existence", to its essential feature or being-ness. (shrink)

Research in the field of community psychology supports findings that membership, influence, integration and fulfilment of needs, a shared emotional connection, and a sense of belonging contribute to a sense of community (SOC) (McMillan & Chavis, 1986). Sarason (1993) proposes that individuals have a basic instinctual need for transcendence which leads them to seek religious groups and experiences. Hill (1993; 2000) posits that Sarason's sense of transcendence (SOT) is a construct that is closely related to and can be useful for (...) conceptualizing and exploring spirituality and suggests that SOC may not be fully understood until Sarason's (1993) related concept of SOT is explored. Furthermore, Hill suggests that it is the aspect of existence that people refer to as spiritual which forms the basis for religious beliefs. This review will discuss research that explores how involvement in a religious community affects wellbeing (Frazier, Mintz, & Mobley, 2005; Mattis, 2002; Wink & Dillon, 2003); how different ways of being religious relate differentially to wellbeing and other psychosocial outcomes (Allport, 1950; Batson & Ventis, 1982; Batson, Schoenrade, & Ventis, 1993); how different ways of being religious relate to identity integration (Hackney & Sanders, 2003; Ryan, Rigby, & Scott, 1993); and how the relationship between religious orientation and identity integration influences psychosocial outcomes, prejudiced attitudes and moral behaviour (Fulton, 1997; Maclean, Walker, & Matsuba, 2004). SOC, SOT, and identity are also discussed in reference to the work of Maslow (Koltko-Rivera, 2006) and Erikson (Guisinger & Blatt, 1994). Implications for a greater understanding of religious and spiritual perspectives in psychology are discussed. The concept of psychological sense of community was first posited by Sarason (1974). Sarason (1993) also proposed that individuals have a basic instinctual need for transcendence which leads them to seek religious communities and experiences. Research supports findings that membership, influence, integration and fulfilment of needs, a shared emotional connection, and a sense of belonging contribute to a sense of community (SOC) (McMillan & Chavis, 1986). However, few studies have explored SOC in religious settings. Furthermore, religion and spirituality have been considered to be fundamental to identity (James, 1958; Jung, 1964; Marcia, 1980), with recent studies exploring the relationship between religious involvement and identity integration (Hackney & Sanders, 2003; Ryan, Rigby, & King, 1993). The aim of this study was to explore experiences of community and identity in a religious setting. Conceptualisations of community, identity, and relationships between them were explored among 12 Anglican Christians using semi-structured in-depth interviews. Results were analysed using interpretive phenomenological analysis. Participants identified six interrelated concepts: (1) Active involvement and participation; (2) Support, for and from the Christian community, and for the wider community; (3) Sense of belonging; (4) Identity; (5) Journey; and (6) Religion and Spirituality. Implications of this research include a greater understanding of SOC, of religious perspectives in psychology, and religious identity development. Implications for future research are discussed. (shrink)

The thesis of panpsychism is that throughout the natural universe there is mentality, although I prefer the term "mind". We human beings experience this mentality in everyday consciousness and by analogy we are able to assert that mentality is not confined to the human experience alone. The extent to which this mentality penetrates, or is imbued by, our natural world has been a subject for discussion in western schools of philosophy since the ancient Greeks and in the even more ancient (...) eastern schools of theosophy, such as Buddhism and the Hinduism of the Upanishads. I use the term "theosophy" here to bring a sense of esoteric speculation to the panpsychism debate (Oxford English Dictionary). A recent resurgence of interest in panpsychism has recognised the inadequacy of the materialist perspective, and attempts have been made to resolve the main stumbling block, the mind-body/mind-matter problem, and to provide a realistic and adequate account of panpsychism. But, it is generally accepted by most of those interested in the debate and whose works I review, that so far this has not succeeded. Therefore, a new and more radical approach is required. It is the intention of my thesis to demonstrate that only when we break free from our dualistic perspective, a perspective reflective of our thinking mind, our language, and our cultural/social constructs, can we intuitively understand the true nature of the mind-body relationship. I will argue that the truth of this intuitive understanding becomes apparent when we experience what I have termed "personal panpsychic experiences," and that these experiences are epistemologically valid. These experiences give rise to knowledge if reality that I have called the "dual-aspect singularity" perspective. The "dual-aspect singularity" perspective acknowledges the dual nature of reality but asserts that any duality as such is merely aspectivism. As such everything that exists has both a mental and material aspect, neither of which is ontologically real, as together they form a singularity. I will argue that the "dual-aspect singularity" perspective resolves the mind-body mind-brain paradox. (shrink)

In this thesis I will examine the construction of the concept of Virtual Reality. I argue that rather than a technology of liberation as it is often perceived, virtual realities' conception has been influenced significantly by a discourse of control and order. I examine books, articles and films concerning Virtual Reality to support this claim. Furthermore this discourse of control and order is born out of a larger ideology of Western culture that values order and control. Throughout modernity this ideology (...) has manifested itself through techniques and technologies of social and environmental control. I provide a brief historical outline highlighting some of these techniques and technologies focusing particularly upon surveillance. I suggest that under the guiding influence of the ideology of order and control one possible future use for Virtual Reality technology may be as a surveillance technology. The ideology of order and control is born out of a desire to transcend the unpredictable nature of life. This desire is reflected in the VR proponents aim to create a totally known and controlled artificial environment. I contend that an alternative way of thinking is needed so that objects such as Virtual Reality can be used for more appropriate purposes other than controlling and ordering. I draw upon the philosophy of Martin Heidegger to outline a thinking that is more open, and reflective, and that embraces the chaotic nature of existence. Such a thinking that is focused more upon the actual conditions of our everyday lives, may yield uses for technologies such as Virtual Reality that are more focused upon people's needs. (shrink)

This exploratory study of women's experience of the martial art of aikido comes as a response to the paucity of texts on women in the martial arts. My 16-year involvement with aikido and my studies in the field of Leisure Science have led me to explore the apparent contradiction between the traditionally masculine domain of martial arts and prescribed female/feminine behaviour. As a feminist researcher and as an aikido participant I acknowledge a close connection with my topic and hence the (...) subjective nature of this study. I am not trying to produce an absolute truth, but present some of the complex individual realities of the participants of this study. Twelve women who had been practising aikido for more than two years were interviewed for this study. Their stories sketched pictures of their personal experiences of aikido and illustrated what aikido meant to them. After reviewing relevant literature and its relationship to participants' stories five major themes emerged: female values in a masculine environment; empowerment and self development; spirituality; social behaviour and intimacy; and sport, martial arts and aikido. While the construction of physicality, sport and the martial arts has been largely from a male perspective, applying a postmodern feminist perspective lead to a redefining of masculine and feminine behaviours. Dispensing with the binary opposition of masculine versus feminine the redefined behaviours were interpreted as female value qualities and, according to the participants' stories, these qualities were to be found in aikido. (shrink)

This thesis is an exploration of the way in which David Malouf develops ideas of epistemology and ontology in three of his novels. The novels discussed are Child's Play (1982), The Great World (1990) and Remembering Babylon (1993). Of particular concern here are the different ways in which figures in the text are constructed as having imperfect and sometimes contradictory systems of making sense of their world.

The intent of this research was to explore the phenomenon of remote area nursing in relation to a theoretical framework, the SUN Conceptual Model. A Theory-Research-Theory strategy was chosen in order to modify, refine or redevelop the model. Using a descriptive, interpretive design, a sample of eight Remote Area Nurses (RANs) in Western Australia were asked to describe their experiences of remote area nursing. The data were collected by telephone interview. Themes were extrapolated and categorised according to key concepts of (...) the previously developed model. Common components of significant statements were identified in order to gain understanding of the meanings of responses. Analysis revealed that some overlap existed between the original key concepts of the model which were subsequently regrouped or made redundant. This process culminated in a revision of the original model. The revised SUN Conceptual Model was thus considered to be a useful theoretical framework for reflecting the reality of remote area nursing, as supported by the literature. Study findings point to the need for more research to further examine the model as a theoretical framework for RAN practice and to identify factors which contribute to the effectiveness of RANs. The study provides a contribution to the knowledge base of RANs while moving towards the development of a theoretical framework which may be included in education programmes and ultimately practice. (shrink)

History is a complex subject. It is more propositional than procedural in nature (Nichol, 1984), and involves adductive thinking (Booth, 1983), where historical evidence and facts are 'teased out' and a convincing account of the past is then reconstructed through speculation, imagination and empathy (Nichol, 1984; Booth, 1983). The teaching and learning of history should not just be the transmission of knowledge, but rather it should involve a process whereby students and teachers interact in order to analyze evidence, raise questions (...) and hypotheses, synthesize facts, and communicate their ideas, understand others' viewpoints, consider values, reflect and engage in moral reasoning (Brophy, 1996). It is through this interaction that development of thinking in history will occur (Coltnam, 1975). The main focus of the research is on the language used in the history classroom, particularly during critical episodes when the teachers and students appeared to be engaged in the process of historical thinking. This research is particularly concerned with historical thought embedded in the language used in history classrooms. To investigate this, both high and low inference coding systems were adopted to code, describe and analyze the verbal behaviour that occurred. The data were gathered in six classes from schools in Singapore. They constituted two classes of above average students (Special stream), two classes of average students (Express stream) and two classes of below average (Normal stream) students. Audio and video recordings were made of two lessons from each of the six classes. These lessons were transcribed, coded and analyzed to ascertain which contexts were more conducive for the production of higher order thought. It was found that a complex interrelationship of factors including pedagogic activity, type of teacher talk and student talk, and even more importantly the interaction between them, determined whether or not there was historical thinking. The findings revealed that there was historical thinking when explicit and implicit contact was established during interaction between the teacher and the students. For explicit contact to he made the teacher and the students needed to be language game (Wittgenstein, 1972). This is where the teacher made those moves that elicited student responses that demonstrated historical thinking. For implicit contact to be made the element of voice (as in the concept of “voice” described in Bakhtin's theory on the dual-voicing and polyphony) becomes essential. During such episodes the teacher mediated between the characters in history, his or her own talk and that of the students. These responses which were often dramatised, the teacher used first and second person forms (dual voicing) to evoke empathy and imagination. In doing so they also engaged in a dialogic interaction with the characters of the past and there was back channelling. There were evidences of such dialogues in all the Special, Express and Normal stream lessons but in various contexts. These dialogues reveal that the nature of talk and interaction is distinct to the subject history. (shrink)

The research examined whether the transition of students into junior high school from primary could school be managed with less alienation for the students by using a school restructure that intentionally attempted to increase psychological sense of community. The objectives of the research were therefore to (a) describe and understand students' perspectives of their community life world, (b) contribute to the knowledge of community-based practice in education, and (c) to add to the scope of understanding of the psychological sense of (...) community. (shrink)

The creative work, The Wounded Sinner, and the accompanying exegesis, form a volume of writing that considers aspects of place and belonging in a contemporary Australian context through the agencies of Aboriginality, migration and homelessness. While these issues are present and, at times, contentious in the structure of modern Australian society they have roots in past eras of empire building, racism and the movement from agrarianism to industrialisation. The characters are drawn from my own experiences and, as such, validate both (...) the creative work and give the exegesis substance. Jeanie Bayona is an Aboriginal woman who was raised, from infancy, by an Anglo family in Perth. She and her partner, Matthew, a fellow teacher, move to Leonora in the eastern goldfields, the lands of the ‘dingo dreamers,’ her people. Jeanie is for many years content to exist on the edge of Aboriginal society, reluctant to leave the security of the ‘white’ life she had grown up with. However, her eldest daughter, Jaylene, already enmeshed in both worlds, challenges Jeanie to answer the spiritual calling to embrace her roots. Matthew Andrews is chasing the elusive dream to become a writer while nursing his ailing father in the ancestral home, The Wounded Sinner, in Guildford. He lacks the ability to do either well. Still, it keeps him away from the responsibility of fatherhood three weeks out of four and for that he is secretly grateful. However, five years of commuting from Leonora to Perth has strained Jeanie and Matthew’s relationship, though Matthew rarely sees anything outside of his ego-centric world. Both Jeanie and Matthew engage in new relationships: she with the perverse Ben Poulson and he, the troubled Vince Romano and homeless ex-Vietnam veteran, Lazslo Smith. The central character of the creative work, however, is the old Guildford house, The Wounded Sinner, which symbolises the old establishment values that were, for better or worse, the values that built Australia. Australia is undergoing change which The Wounded Sinner is raggedly reluctant to accept. It remains a bastion of Anglo-Celtic ideals and is personified through Matthew’s father, Archie, as he rails against what he sees as the ‘problems’ of contemporary Australia: the homeless, the Aboriginals and the non-Anglo Australians. The exegesis, titled ‘A stirring of cultures: the contest for place, belonging and identity in Australia,’ explains through the experiences of migrants, Aboriginal Australians and the homeless the problems and difficulties of those who don’t meet the strict criteria of the core values representing Anglo-Celtic society. The contest for place, belonging and identity in Australia as expressed in my creative work, The Wounded Sinner, is exemplified in the exegesis around those aforementioned themes and corroborated throughout by a wide authorship, both present and past. Interspersed through the text, too, are personal reflections of relevant episodes that have contributed to my understanding of Australian society and how I am part of it. (shrink)

Unbraided Lines offers a foray into environmental writing—an emerging literary genre that engages the current ecological crisis through poetry, creative non-fiction and other textual forms.

More and more it is becoming increasingly difficult to discern photo reality from digital reality. Digital imagery is revolutionising photography and challenging preconceived notions of this art form. Over the years, photography has been viewed metaphorically as a window on the world and on the past. No longer however, is the creation of photographic imagery reliant upon its intrinsic relationship with reality. Using computer technology original photographic material can be altered, manipulated and seamlessly combined with other fictional imagery without obvious (...) detection and with relative ease. The proliferation of digital imaging is producing two apparent crises for photography. The first is the perceived threat to photography, involving the fear that traditional photographic processes, methods and product will be superseded by manipulated digital images passing themselves off as real photographs. Added to these growing concerns for photography's longevity, is the prospect that viewers will no longer believe m photography as a deliverer of objective truth and that the medium itself will lose its power as a 'privileged conveyer of information'(Batchen, 1994,p.47). The second crisis pertains to ethical concerns that these digital simulations raise: copyright, moral rights and artistic integrity. (shrink)

This thesis seeks to provide an overview and examination of the thought of the significant contemporary sociologist, Peter L. Berger. Berger is concerned with the issue of how meaning is constructed in modern, secular, bureaucratic society. Furthermore, this thesis seeks to outline, and trace the development of, Berger's thought. To achieve this the thesis examines Berger's use of the disciplines of the sociology of knowledge and religion, along with contemporary studies in religion and theology. Berger, by linking the function of (...) a theodicy with that of making meaning, allows for theodicies to be conceived of in the broader context of making meaning in contemporary society. As such, a contemporary theodicy needs to include (indeed, it needs to be inclusive, rather than exclusive) such factors as the relationship between self, others, the world, and the transcendent so as to provide some basis for an authentic and meaningful existence. There is a need for a more inclusive theodicy (other than the traditional individualistic type) which has hermeneutic concern for the 'whole' (wholeness of self, wholeness in relationships with others, wholeness with the world/environment, and wholeness with the transcendent). However, this 'wholeness' will not be provided by over-arching, public, structures or systems; it will need to be through chosen, private means which reflect the Post-Modernist situation where 'closure' on a grand scale is unobtainable (Marshall, 1992, pp. 192 -193). Berger's work provides the possibility for this legitimation of a theodicy (or theodicies) which will provide meaning in Post-Enlightenment society. The construction of meaning in contemporary society needs an ability to cope with complexity, it needs to be reasonable, as well as contemporary (to cope with the plurality in modern society), and it is on the way (that is, not given to closure). Therefore any contemporary theodicy, or system of meaning, must be able to be historically concerned (that is, conscious of its origins and open to the future), empirical (that is, open to scrutiny and review), inductive (that is, dealing with concrete reality, not abstract theory), and concerned with people's lived experience. Berger's signals of transcendence allow for the legitimation of this private, deinstitutionalized religion; that is, they legitimate a meaningful theodicy for contemporary humanity. This theodicy, which is able to accommodate the wider view current in modern society provided by the ecological movement, interaction between the various religious traditions, the feminist movement, the reality of multi-culturalism, and the resulting pluralism from the above factors, can provide some basis for a meaningful and authentic existence in contemporary society. The signals of transcendence are able to correlate people's lived experience (their 'natural reality') to a reality which is "in, with and under" that natural reality (Berger, 1992, p. 155). (shrink)

In recent years several policy changes have occurred in Western Australia regarding the provision of pre-compulsory education, particularly for children turning five. These changes have led to education of such children centred largely in full-time, on-site classes rather than in sessional, independent community centres, resulting in pre-primary education becoming mainstream school business. As such it is incorporated in the administrative, managerial and educational policies of the school including school development planning. The school development plan (SDP), a major tool of accountability (...) within the school, provides a planning framework in selected priority areas in which methods of assessment and evaluation of children's progress are an important tool in demonstrating that accountability. There is a concern among some pre-primary teachers and Early Childhood Education specialists that these changes may lead to a trend towards practices more indicative of upper primary school levels, known as a 'push down' effect, on pre-primary classes. There is also a concern that an emphasis on assessment and evaluation for accountability purposes may lead to a decline in the use of assessment data in classroom planning. This qualitative study examined how and why teachers in selected Perth metropolitan pre-primary classes gathered and recorded information on children's progress, and how these choices related to the teacher's responsibility as articulated in the school development plan. The study also identified how that information was used both at class and school levels. (shrink)

This retrospective interview study focused on the impact that training and implementation of Philosophy, in Lipman's tradition of Philosophy for Children, had on the pedagogy of 14 primary teachers at one school. Semi-structured interviews were conducted to document the impact of teaching Philosophy on pedagogy, the resources required to facilitate and sustain such change, including the necessary dispositions required to teach Philosophy, and the critical junctures in pedagogical change associated with teaching Philosophy. Interview data were coded and analysed to generate (...) a grounded theory regarding the efficacy of teaching Philosophy in terms of its impact on the pedagogy of the teachers interviewed. This pedagogical transformation is then theorised in terms of Vygotsky's Zone of Proximal Development re the learning of the adults in this study. This study formed the pilot for a larger empirical study. (shrink)

This study explored the transcending experience as described by visual artists that sometimes occurs during the art-making process. The exploration was conducted within a philosophical framework informed by the researcher's practice of Transcendental Meditation (TM). From this perspective, transcending is related to personal, inner (subjective), and ephemeral aesthetic experiences which never-the-less make a powerful contribution to the visual artist's experience of the creative process and to a lesser extent, the final product. The focus of the study was on the identification (...) and documentation of the personal and subjective aspects of art-making. The study consisted of two parts; (a) this written thesis that elucidates and supports the argument, and (b) an exhibition of paintings, drawings, and journals which represent a personal narrative. The research questions for the written document are directed towards extracting artists' statements that describe the nature and benefits of transcending during art-making. Document analysis techniques were employed to study the writings of a variety of artists and to create a mosaic of insightful commentary. As a visual arts educator, the significance of the study related to the benefits of the art-making process for students of all ages. Both the exhibition and written document are presented to demonstrate that art-making and the viewing of art can provide access to silent (inner) experiences of the human mind. Strengthening the students' spiritual/aesthetic experience through art-making may bring the benefits of personal enrichment for some students by promoting the development of stronger self-concepts and self-esteem. This study presents research about an aspect of visual arts education that has to date been largely ignored. Arguments for the development of self-realization and a fuller understanding of the aesthetic experience may contribute to a case for strengthening the place of the visual arts within the curriculum. (shrink)

The purpose of this study was to present issues and the paradoxes surrounding advanced nurse specialisation (ANS) and education, This study was conducted in two parts. Part A examined the prospective experiences of 13 registered nurses (RNs) who were advancing in an area of special is III ion: they were working in a specialist area of practice and studying in II course specific 10 their specialisation. Two rounds of interviews were completed over six-month intervals. Part B examined the data gathered (...) from a focus group interview and follow-up feedback from 10 nurse executives as stakeholders. The intersubjective data from this group of nurses expanded on the political, economic, and social complexities surrounding the same phenomenon of interest. (shrink)

This paper presents a novel research model - Contextual Constructs Model and the theory that underpins it - Contextual Constructs Theory. First developed as part of a complex project investigating user perceptions of information quality during Web-based information re-trieval, the CCM is not a single research method per se, but is a modelled research framework providing an over-arching perspective of scientific inquiry, by which a researcher is able to iden-tify multiple possible methods of study and analysis according to the identified (...) research con-structs and their contexts. Central to CCM/CCT is that all research involves the fusion of two key elements: 1) context; and 2) cognitively-driven constructs; and that the co-dependent nature of the relationship between these two research components inform the research process and eventual outcomes. The resulting CCM is one that frames research as a contextual process of phases, in-dentifying the conceptual, philosophical, implementation, and evaluation tasks associated with a research investigation. The value of framing research within a CCM comes from its capacity to frame complex, real world phenomena since its epistemology is a blend of a critical-real world view - where reality can be both constructed and constant; within a systems-science paradigm - where constructs are not reduced to isolated parts, but investigated in terms of multiple co-constructions and the contextual relationships between them. (shrink)

Plants have been—and, for reasons of human sustenance and creative inspiration, will continue to be—centrally important to societies globally. Yet, plants—including herbs, shrubs, and trees—are commonly characterized in Western thought as passive, sessile, and silent automatons lacking a brain, as accessories or backdrops to human affairs. Paradoxically, the qualities considered absent in plants are those employed by biologists to argue for intelligence in animals. Yet an emerging body of research in the sciences and humanities challenges animal-centred biases in determining consciousness, (...) intelligence, volition, and complex communication capacities amongst living beings. In light of recent theoretical developments in our understandings of plants, this article proposes an interdisciplinary framework for researching flora: human-plant studies. Building upon the conceptual formations of the humanities, social sciences, and plant sciences as advanced by Val Plumwood, Deborah Bird Rose, Libby Robin, and most importantly Matthew Hall and Anthony Trewavas, as well as precedents in the emerging areas of human-animal studies, I will sketch the conceptual basis for the further consideration and exploration of this interdisciplinary framework. (shrink)

Botanical illustration combines scientific knowledge and artistic technique. However, whereas illustrated botanical images record static visual qualities, such as form and color, written botanical narratives supply crucial sensory, ecological, historical, and cultural contexts that complement visual representation. Understanding the text-image interface—where images and words intersect—contributes to humanities-based analyses of botanical illustration and illustrators. More specifically, a process philosophy perspective reveals the extent to which botanical representations engage the temporality, cyclicality, and contextuality of the living plants being illustrated. This article takes (...) up these themes through a comparative theoretical study of three female Western Australian botanical illustrators, Georgiana Leake, Emily Pelloe, and Philippa Nikulinsky, whose lives together span the 183 year history of the Swan River Colony and the state of Western Australia. I apply a processist framework to examine the text-image interface of their works. All three illustrators use some form of textuality: marginalia, annotations, written accompaniments, introductory statements, and other narrative materials. In examining their written commentaries and traces, I identify the emergence of a process mode of botanical illustration that represents plants as ecological, historical, cultural, and temporal organisms. (shrink)

This thesis is composed of two parts. Part one is a volume of essays, commentaries, and manifesto pieces that investigate the relationship between literary tropes of landscape, such as pastoral and “nature writing”, and the development of a poetics of landscape writing. The issue of "self" and the relationship the individual might have with specific place, is examined from angles as seemingly disparate as using; a manual Olivetti Letter 32 typewriter for drafting, the ethics of anthologizing place as nation, text (...) on the world wide web, the process of writing and ageing, being struck by lightening as a child, and the effects of herbicide and pesticide usage. (shrink)

For this thesis, a detailed study was undertaken to determine whether techniques derived from traditional meditation systems can be applied to "co-participatory" music systems in order to enhance their accessibility, interactivity, and experiential impact, In order to adequately address this subject, a number of investigative steps have been taken. First, a workable list of definitions for what meditation actually is was made by comparing the practices and philosophies of a number of traditional meditation forms. The conclusions derived from this stage (...) of the discussion served to create a definitive "blueprint" for meditation and served as a theoretical foundation for the rest of the dissertation. The second stage was to see how these definitions manifest in the meditation form; of the modem world. This approach provided insight into how changed cultural perspectives exert a major influence on the effectiveness andlor appropriateness of certain traditional techniques. In addition to modern meditation practices, the definitions from chapter two were also examined from the perspective of modem science, another important aspect of modern culture. The observations from this chapter served as the basis for chapter four, in which the experiential, symbolic and conventional features of Western Art Music were examined. This was to provide some points of reference with which to consider the possibility of using meditation techniques to enhance the "musical experience". In chapter five, an examination was made of a number of composers and artists and their relevant works who have devised methods by which some of the more "restrictive" aspects of West em Art Music can be overcome or bypassed, so as to gain access to the full potential of that "musical experience". This stage of the discussion provided a practical framework with which to discuss the background, design and realization of my own wod. ~ connected to this research, collectively called the Wheel of Life project. One of the main aims of this creative project has been to subvert many of the "anachronistic" conventions of Western Art Music, particularly conventions such as performer/audience separation and overly rigid or ambiguous musical structures. By doing this, it is hoped th3t musical systems can be created that allow the participant to engage in a much more personally meaningful and actively creative experience. (shrink)

This thesis argues that the “queer” identity politics from the early 1990s, read here through the work of Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, have come to fruition in contemporary culture with results that need interrogating. I argue that male hetero/homosexual definition has become even more firmly dichotomised, with the “proliferation” of sexual identities more strongly afforded to heterosexual masculinity that appears to define itself ever more strongly against the “homosexual”. One of the contentions of this thesis is that Sedgwick’s model of “the (...) epistemology of closet” has ontological commitments that remain implicit in her work, and furthermore that this aspect of Sedgwick’s work, a founding moment of queer theory, has been given less critical attention than her articulation of a proliferative queer identity politics. I attempt to refigure queer identity politics through a Lacanian focus on “sexual difference”, and argue that this philosophical frame is the more useful for understanding both Sedgwick’s model of the closet and the cultural and symbolic relationship between heterosexual and homosexual men. This becomes most apparent through a re-reading of Sedgwick’s use of the Gothic, with a closer focus on the “monster” as subject that, through Lacan’s work, looks very much like a homosexual man locked into a relationship of sexual difference with a heterosexual man. Ultimately, building on these arguments and a particular understanding of camp practice, I intend to show that “camp”, a particularly homosexual aesthetic, offers a model of an ethical relationship, subject-to-subject, which asks that we recognise the types of limitations placed on our culturally sexed identities through a relationship that Lacan would characterise as “love”, in the sense that for Lacan to love is “to give what one does not have”. (shrink)

This paper presents the conceptual challenges to an aesthetic model of living plants based in embodied interaction with flora through smell, taste, touch, sound and sight. I argue that the science of aesthetics is deterministically visual. Drawing from theories of landscape aesthetics put forth by Carlson and Berleant, I outline four primary obstacles to an embodied aesthetics: plants as objects of sight, plants as objects of art, plants as objects of disinterestedness and plants as objects of scientific discourse. A multi-sensorial (...) aesthetics of flora requires auto-centric proximity and degrees of intersubjectivity between the appreciator and the appreciated plant that raise important philosophical questions about aesthetic experience of the natural world. (shrink)

The narratives of plants offered by science, history, poetry, mythology and direct personal experience are often thought to contradict one another and are thus held as separate. Like leaves of a tree, however, the posthumous botanical works of nineteenth-century American naturalist and philosopher Henry David Thoreau gather together the diverse stories that give meaning to plants. Drawing from the concept of multiple narrative streams as a method of writing natural history inspired by Thoreau, this article explores many accounts of the (...) flora of the biodiverse Southwest corner of Western Australia. Botanical science, Aboriginal spirituality, nature poetry and colonial histories offer versions that explain the natural histories of Southwest plants using different, though complementary, perspectives. The meandering together of narrative streams ensures the perpetuity of non-scientific stories and the potential for cross-pollination between disciplines and diverse ways of knowing the natural world. (shrink)

As an arts-based research approach, poetic enquiry has been theorised and applied recently in the social sciences and in education. In this article, I extend its usage to eco-critical studies of Australian flora and fauna. The Southwest corner of Western Australia affords opportunities to deploy arts-based methodologies, including field poetry, for celebrating the natural heritage of a region of distinguished biodiversity. I suggest that lyric practices in places such as Lesueur National Park and Anstey-Keane Damplands in southern Perth can catalyse (...) embodied engagements with flora. The outcome of these practices is the invocation of the multiple senses— including the proximities of touch and taste—towards senses of place involving physical interactions with plants and their habitats. I will discuss poetic enquiry in relation to the limitations of landscape aesthetics. Visual aesthetic modes tend to frame botanical environments as a succession of images. In contrast, an embodied aesthetics closes visual distance towards sensory intimacies and experiences of ecological processes as sensations. Throughout the article, I use an interlude structure that shifts between theoretical elaborations, narrative vignettes that contextualise the poetic practice, and the poems themselves initiated in the field. A continuum between visuality and multi-sensoriality emerges and potentially deepens human appreciation of flora. Poetic enquiry into flora is a means for exploring this continuum towards an understanding of what intimacy with plants in a place entails. (shrink)

This paper examines the relationship between language, particularly language that expresses aesthetic experiences of plant life, and corporeality. The theorisation of language is a keystone towards conceptualising participatory relationships between people and the botanical world. A comparative reading of the works of Henry David Thoreau and Martin Heidegger provides a framework for approaching language as embodied participation. Despite political differences, Thoreau and Heidegger shared a mutual conviction about the generative powers of language. Thoreau’s literary practice partly involved immersion in places (...) such as swamps and forests. Fittingly, Heidegger’s explication of Rilke’s concept of “the Open” mirrors the participatory aesthetics of Thoreau. Both thinkers looked towards the capacities of poetics to galvanise the evolution of language. In response to the increasing dissection offered by contemporaneous theories of linguistics, Thoreau and Heidegger held the notion of language as a body in itself, one brought to life through immanence between sensuous bodies in the world. For each theorist, language was both bodily and a body. Their works evidence that multi-sensorial encounters with the natural world can be captured in language. The body of language may be engaged with as a whole living phenomenon rather than a dissected corpse as this comparative reading of Thoreau and Heidegger will intimate. (shrink)

Since the eighteenth century, the study of plants has reflected an increasingly mechanized and technological view of the natural world that divides the humanities and the natual sciences. In broad terms, this article proposes a context for research into flora through an interrogation of existing literature addressing a rapprochement between ways to knowledge. The natureculture dichotomy, and more specifically the plant-to-human sensory disjunction, follows a parallel course of resolution to the schism between objective and subjective forms of knowledge. The foundations (...) of taxonomic botany, as well as the allied fields of environmental studies, ethnobotany and economic botany, are undergirded by universalizing, sensorylimited visual structuring of the natural world. As the study of everyday embodied interactions of humans with flora, expanding upon the lens of cultural ecology, "cultural botany" provides a transdisciplinary research approach. Alternate embodied cultural engagements with flora emerge through a syncretic fusion of diverse methodologies. (shrink)