Editorial 1.1: Journal to address gap in high education sector

Journal to address gap in high education secto

Experiences of school administrators and teachers: Challenges and promising practices during the COVID-19 pandemic

This study examined the lived experiences of teachers and administrators as reflected in their responses regarding instructional materials, instructional delivery, social and emotional well-being of students, and access to critical school services during the COVID-19 pandemic. Participants shared their experiences about how the instructional materials and delivery modes were selected as well as the guidance and support given by school administrators. Major challenges and concerns along with promising practices related to student engagement, social and emotional well-being of students, and access to critical school services were identified

Responses to gypsies in Britain 1900-1939

The thesis examines the perceptions and treatment of Gypsies in Britain during the early twentieth century. This enquiry touches upon a number of historically important themes and also has a contemporary relevance. Firstly it outlines the tradition of writing about the Gypsies which had developed over the previous two centuries and considers the treatment of the group in the work of early commentators. Secondly, it explores the nature of stereotypes of the Gypsies in early twentieth century society and considers the ways in which romantic and antipathetic images of the Gypsies could be crafted into a coherent rather than a contradictory body of thought by drawing on ideas of hierarchy and degeneration. Thirdly, it analyses responses to Gypsies from across sedentary society. The focus here is on the treatment of the group by legislators, local authorities, missionaries and scholars. Finally, it argues that responses to the group must be considered as of part of the age-old tradition of hostility towards nomadism in Europe. The examination of the treatment of the Gypsies in Britain reveals significant differences with their treatment elsewhere in Europe during the same period. Although there is evidence of antipathy towards the Gypsies at every level of British society there is a relative absence of institutionalised intolerance. However, it is evident that the ideas which were used to justify such treatment of the Gypsies elsewhere in Europe were also present in Britain, and that the treatment of immigrant Gypsies by the British state, in particular, reveals that it was not immune from antipathy

E-survey of current international physiotherapy practice for children with ataxia following surgical resection of posterior fossa tumour.

ObjectiveTo determine current international practice regarding physiotherapy input for children with ataxia following surgery for posterior fossa tumour. Design: An e-survey covering the following domains: participant demographics, treatment/ intervention, virtual training, intensity/timing of treatment, and aims and outcomes of physiotherapy management.ParticipantsPhysiotherapists involved in the management of children with ataxia following surgical resection of posterior fossa tumour. Participants were contacted via 6 key groups; Paediatric Oncology Physiotherapy Network (POPs), Association of Paediatric Chartered Physiotherapists (APCP), European Paediatric Neurology Society (EPNS), International Society of Paediatric Oncology (SIOP)-Europe Brain Tumour Group, Posterior Fossa Society (PFS), and Pediatric Oncology Special Interest Group (SIG) (American Physical Therapy Association).ResultsA total of 96 physiotherapists participated: UK (n =53), rest of Europe (n = 23), USA/ Canada (n = 10), and Australia/NZ (n = 10). The most common physiotherapy interventions used were balance exercises, gait re-education and proximal control activities. The most frequently used adjuncts to treatment were mobility aids and orthotics. Challenges reported regarding physiotherapy treatment were: reduced availability of physiotherapy input following discharge from the acute setting, lack of evidence, impact of adjuvant oncology treatment, and psychosocial impact.ConclusionThis e-survey provides an initial scoping review of international physiotherapy practice in this area. It establishes a foundation for future research on improving rehabilitation of ataxia in this population

Bayesian Covariance Matrix Estimation using a Mixture of Decomposable Graphical Models

Estimating a covariance matrix efficiently and discovering its structure are important statistical problems with applications in many fields. This article takes a Bayesian approach to estimate the covariance matrix of Gaussian data. We use ideas from Gaussian graphical models and model selection to construct a prior for the covariance matrix that is a mixture over all decomposable graphs, where a graph means the configuration of nonzero offdiagonal elements in the inverse of the covariance matrix. Our prior for the covariance matrix is such that the probability of each graph size is specified by the user and graphs of equal size are assigned equal probability. Most previous approaches assume that all graphs are equally probable. We give empirical results that show the prior that assigns equal probability over graph sizes outperforms the prior that assigns equal probability over all graphs, both in identifying the correct decomposable graph and in more efficiently estimating the covariance matrix. The advantage is greatest when the number of observations is small relative to the dimension of the covariance matrix. The article also shows empirically that there is minimal change in statistical efficiency in using the mixture over decomposable graphs prior for estimating a general covariance compared to the Bayesian estimator by Wong et al. (2003), even when the graph of the covariance matrix is nondecomposable. However, our approach has some important advantages over that of Wong et al. (2003). Our method requires the number of decomposable graphs for each graph size. We show how to estimate these numbers using simulation and that the simulation results agree with analytic results when such results are known. We also show how to estimate the posterior distribution of the covariance matrix using Markov chain Monte Carlo with the elements of the covariance matrix integrated out and give empirical results that show the sampler is computationally efficient and converges rapidly. Finally, we note that both the prior and the simulation method to evaluate the prior apply generally to any decomposable graphical model.Covariance selection; Graphical models; Reduced conditional sampling; Variable selection

The university third space phenomenon: investigating perceptions of professional staff working across boundaries in an Australian university and its Singapore campus

The University third space is often presented as a powerful driver and an increasingly widespread phenomenon of shifting job roles and identities of both professional and academic staff in the contemporary global university environment (Birds, 2015; Graham, 2013); Whitchurch, 2008/2015). It is defined as new and emerging, or re-invented forms of university activities that transcend traditional academic and professional portfolio binaries, as well as professional identities, creating new work engagements between academic and professional staff (Whitchurch, 2012, 2015). The advancement of globalisation leads to convergences of higher education policies and workplace practices (Gopinathan, 2001; Gopinathan & Lee, 2011; Green, 1997, 1999; Mok & Lee, 2003); to renegotiation of spaces occupied by university staff in the course of their professional engagements, and to redefined boundaries within universities and across multiple national and international professional, geographical and sectoral domains (Henkel, 2010). Third space may be viewed as a potential way of reinventing academic and professional staff professional engagement. It may be used as a meta-discourse to interpret universities’ local responses to globalisation. Australia’s location in the Asia-Pacific region, with its close political, economic and trade connections with countries of Southeast and East Asian countries, including Singapore – the “region of exceptional economic dynamism” (Marginson, 2013, p. 87) – has far-reaching implications on the way higher education systems and processes in these countries are operationalised and how education services are delivered. This systemic convergence and the increasing connection between tertiary institutions has a flow-on effect on how university staff, academic and professional, operate and collaborate within their own organisations, across professional and geographical borders, and how their roles and professional identities blend and integrate. The international presence of an Australian university affords a unique research opportunity to explore how university professional staff navigate these simultaneously challenging and propitious new professional spaces in a cross-cultural and cross-national context. A qualitative multiple case study (Patton, 2015; Simons, 2009; Stake, 2006) will explore the emerging phenomenon of the university third space from the perspective of professional staff working in Australian and Singaporean campuses of an Australian university. The impact of national culture and its dimensions (collectivism/individualism (Triandis, 1993, 1995) and the Confucian dynamism (Hofstede & Bond, 1988) in particular), will be examined to understand professional staff predispositions towards working across professional and geographic boundaries (Cohen & Mankin, 2002; Mankin, Cohen, & Fitzgerald, 2004; Mankin & Cohen, 2004). The new understanding of the university collaborative engagement will be created through building the university third space narratives. These will be analysed using contemporary frameworks of professional staff identities and a typology of third space (Graham, 2013; Whitchurch, 2012). The narratives will provide recommendations to build university professional staff expertise and resilience in their evolving roles within the emerging university third space