A Narrative Inquiry into Experiences and Perceptions of Creative Education in 21st Century Caribbean/OAS Contexts

Abstract In thisthesis, you will find an account of a narrative and auto/biographical inquiry into the experiences and perceptions of persons involved in creative education in 21st century Caribbean/OAS contexts. I wanted to elicit stories about creativity in education from a range of participants in postcolonial spaces. This is premised on my belief in the notion—expounded by people such as Ken Robinson (2001) and Rex Nettleford (2009)—that creative approaches are needed to foster creativity to help people/countries function as effectively as possible within the current global climate. As a creative practitioner, I am also interested in the distinction made by persons such as Anna Craft (see Craft et al. 2001), between creative teaching and teaching for creativity. Here, too, I critically examine my personal and academic journey and the process of my narrative inquiry which involved forty-eight participants, using semi-structured, open-ended individual and group narrative interviews. These narrative interviews were ‘thematised’ and compared using an eclectic, theory-based axiological lens comprising perspectives on creativity in education, critical pedagogy and transformative learning. Moreover, this thesis highlights new understandings that emerged from the narrative data about definitions of creative education; initiation into creative education, memorable experiences, challenging experiences, perceptions about the impact of creative teaching and values in creative education in the research contexts. Based on insights gained from the narrative interviews of the participants, this thesis suggests a re-visioning of creative education as ‘critical-transformative pedagogy for creativity’ that aims to empower learners for creativity learning outcomes through creative education that is aligned to ethical principles. As such, this thesis also makes a recommendation for the practical application of the knowledge gained from this inquiry to the conceptualisation of a hybrid model of creative education as a core-curricular, creativity-focused pedagogical construct

Re-defining Post-Literacy in a Changing World

Teaching/Communication/Extension/Profession,

Wangkiny Yirra “Speaking Up” project: First Nations women and children with disability and their experiences of family and domestic violence

First Nations women and children with disability are at greater risk of family and domestic violence (FDV) and its consequences than their non-Indigenous peers. A recent report (Ringland et al., 2022) found that First Nations women with disability had the highest rates of victimisation of any group, with 34.4% recorded as being victims of crime. Despite this, the voices of First Nations people are largely missing from disability research in Australia (Dew et al., 2019). The purpose of this research was to engage with First Nations women and children and key stakeholders in Western Australia to: gain an understanding of their experiences of FDV, identify factors they believe open them up to the risk of harm, document their observations and experiences of barriers and/or enablers to seeking assistance and support, obtain their views on what works in currently available programs, and make recommendations for future culturally safe prevention and protection programs. Key findings: Research focus on experiences of FDV of First Nations women and children with disability appears to be growing, but is still limited within the broader body of research focused on First Nations women and children and FDV. First Nations people, wherever located, are significantly more likely than non-Indigenous people to be confronted with a range of barriers to service access, diagnosis and service delivery. Current strategies for prevention and support for First Nations women and children involved with the justice and child protection systems are demonstrably inadequate and harmful and must be reformed

Impact of research activity on performance of general practices: a qualitative study

Background: There is evidence that engaging in research is directly associated with better performance. If this relationship is to be strengthened, it is necessary to understand the mechanisms which might underlie that relationship. Aim: To explore the perspectives of staff and wider stakeholders about mechanisms by which research activity might impact on the performance of general practices. Design & Setting: Qualitative study using semi-structured interviews with general practice professionals and wider stakeholders in England. Method: Individual interviews with purposively sampled staff in ‘research ready’ or ‘research active’ general practices and other stakeholders. Interviews were analysed using a Framework approach. Results: Participants described potential ‘direct’ and ‘indirect’ impacts on their work. ‘Direct’ impacts included research changing practice work (e.g. additional records searches for particular conditions), bringing in additional resources (e.g. access to investigations or staff) and improving relationships with patients. ‘Indirect’ impacts included job satisfaction (e.g. perception of practice as a centre of excellence and innovation, and the variety afforded by research activity reducing burnout) and staff recruitment (increasing the attractiveness of the practice as a place to work). Respondents identified few negative impacts. Conclusions: Staff and stakeholders identified a range of potential impacts of research activity on practice performance, with impacts on their working lives most salient. Negative impacts were not generally raised. Nevertheless, respondents generally discussed potential impacts rather than providing specific examples of those impacts. This may reflect the type of research activity conducted in general practice, often led by external collaborators

Cross-kingdom signalling regulates spore germination in the moss <i>Physcomitrella patens</i>

Plants live in close association with microorganisms that can have beneficial or detrimental effects. The activity of bacteria in association with flowering plants has been extensively analysed. Bacteria use quorum-sensing as a way of monitoring their population density and interacting with their environment. A key group of quorum sensing molecules in Gram-negative bacteria are the N-acylhomoserine lactones (AHLs), which are known to affect the growth and development of both flowering plants, including crops, and marine algae. Thus, AHLs have potentially important roles in agriculture and aquaculture. Nothing is known about the effects of AHLs on the earliest-diverging land plants, thus the evolution of AHL-mediated bacterial-plant/algal interactions is unknown. In this paper, we show that AHLs can affect spore germination in a representative of the earliest plants on land, the Bryophyte moss Physcomitrella patens. Furthermore, we demonstrate that sporophytes of some wild isolates of Physcomitrella patens are associated with AHL-producing bacteria