Insights into Gender, 'Rurality' and the Legal Practice Experience

There has been a sustained focus over the past two decades on the status and position of women lawyers in the Australian legal profession. However, limited attention has been given to the particular experiences and retention of women lawyers in rural, regional and remote (RRR) legal practice. Feminist scholarship has highlighted the gendered way in which rural social space shapes understanding of identity and experience, suggesting the need to explore the ways in which the ‘othering’ of women in ‘rural’ space might bear on their legal practice experience. This article seeks to explore the intersection of gender and rurality in the context of RRR practice and the relevance of this intersection to the legal practice experience. It highlights some particular issues for women in RRR practice, considers ways in which gender is constructed in rural space and, through the case study examples of two female rural/regional lawyers, offers some experiential insights into the intersections of law, gender and ‘rurality’

‘Placing’ the other: final year law students’ ‘imagined’ experience of rural and regional practice within the law school context

This paper discusses the partial findings from a research study involving a narrative analysis of in-depth interviews with twelve final year law students. The research explored student attitudes to, and perceptions of, legal practice in rural, regional and remote (RRR) communities – that is, their ’imagined experience’. The research findings suggests that, at least in the context of the non-regional law school, the rural/regional is both absent and ‘other’, revealing the ‘urban-centric’ nature of legal education and its failure to adequately expose students to rural and regional practice contexts that can help to positively shape their ‘imagined’ experience. This paper argues that all law schools must take up the challenge of rural inclusiveness by integrating a sense of ‘place-consciousness’ into the law curriculum

Reflections on belonging and a law student pledge

In 2017, the School of Law at the University of Wollongong commenced an experimental initiative through the introduction of a Law Student Pledge. It was designed as a symbolic statement to students that from the day they begin their law studies they become a member of the legal professional community. In this way, it invited First Year Students to commit to core values, attitudes and practices seen as important to developing a positive professional identity. This article reports on learnings following the implementation of the Pledge over 3 iterations and reflects upon its impact on shaping students’ sense of belonging. As an empirical project, this research incorporates both the student voice as well as the academic perspective, via the methodology of reflective practice. The research will consider whether the Pledge provided an opportunity for students to engage in a community of shared identity or became a perceived ‘imposed’ requirement to belong

Resourcing and recognition: Academics\u27 perceptions of challenges experienced embedding work-integrated learning in the curriculum

This paper explores academics\u27 perceptions of work-integrated learning (WIL) resourcing provisions and challenges at one institution to better envisage institutional support for WIL. The study draws on the WIL Curriculum Classification Framework to unpack how support and resourcing aligns to different modes of WIL. This study reports on the perceptions of 95 academics from a range of disciplines, teaching a variety of WIL activities. Findings are organized under core resourcing challenges: workload and recognition; developing WIL; administering and scaling WIL; sustainable management of industry relationships, and; other support requirements. Findings suggest mixed perceptions on WIL resourcing, space for more WIL integration in subjects, and consensus on the under-recognition of WIL work. Findings highlight the invisibility of academics\u27 efforts to embed WIL in curriculum, showing clashes in workload modelling and WIL practices. The study has implications for institutional WIL resourcing and recommends more coherent policies for recognition of WIL work

Sedentary behaviour among Scottish youth: prevalence and determinants - Project STIL (Scotland)

A great deal of media coverage has been devoted to the issue of physical inactivity in children and young people. Do they watch too much TV and sit for too long at the computer? Does this mean that they do inadequate amounts of physical activity? These are key questions we do not have definite answers to. This project was established to investigate the amount and types of sedentary behaviour in Scottish adolescents and what factors are related to sedentary behaviour. Concurrent with this project, we collected data for the UK, through Project STIL (‘Sedentary Teenagers and Inactive Lifestyles’) but sampling estimates meant that only 4 schools in Scotland were assessed. There was a need, therefore, for a larger, more representative, Scottish sample for reliable estimates for the prevalence of sedentary behaviour. Additional funding was therefore offered in 2002 by the young People’s Programme at NHS Health Scotland to increase the size of the Scottish sample to make it more representative. Project STIL (Scotland) addressed two fundamental questions concerning sedentary behaviour outside school time in adolescent boys and girls in Scotland: •What is the prevalence of key sedentary behaviours in young people in Scotland? •What are the main determinants of sedentary behaviour

Sedentary Behaviour in Young People: Prevalence and Determinants - Project STIL

Project STIL (Sedentary Teenagers and Inactive Lifestyles) addressed three fundamental questions concerning sedentary behaviour in adolescent boys and girls in the UK: 1. What is the prevalence of key sedentary behaviours in young people? 2. What links exist between sedentary behaviours and other healthrelated behaviours? 3. What are the main determinants of sedentary behaviour

Overview of Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health status 2016

This report provides a comprehensive overview of the most recent indicators of the health and wellbeing of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. Information focuses on: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander populations the context of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health various measures of population health status selected health conditions health risk and protective factors. The Overview shows that the health of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people continues to improve slowly and there has been a decline in the death rates for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and also a significant closing of the gap in death rates between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and non-Indigenous people. The infant mortality rate has declined significantly. There have also been improvements in a number of areas contributing to health status such as the proportion of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander mothers who smoked during pregnancy has decreased. There has been a slight decrease in the proportion of low birth weight babies born to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander mothers between 2004 and 2014. Age-standardised death rates for respiratory disease in NSW, Qld, WA, SA and NT declined by 26% over the period 1998-2012 for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. Two new sections are featured in this edition of the Overview. With the 20th anniversary of the Bringing them home report, a section has been dedicated to Healing which highlights the contribution of healing workers and organisations to supporting people, families and communities impacted by the Stolen Generations. Environmental health with its important link to the social determinants of health is also included for the first time in the Overview 2016

\u27Placing\u27 the other: final year law students\u27 \u27imagined\u27 experience of rural and regional practice within the law school context

This paper discusses the partial findings from a research study involving a narrative analysis of in-depth interviews with twelve final year law students. The research explored student attitudes to, and perceptions of, legal practice in rural, regional and remote (RRR) communities – that is, their ’imagined experience’. The research findings suggests that, at least in the context of the non-regional law school, the rural/regional is both absent and ‘other’, revealing the ‘urban-centric’ nature of legal education and its failure to adequately expose students to rural and regional practice contexts that can help to positively shape their ‘imagined’ experience. This paper argues that all law schools must take up the challenge of rural inclusiveness by integrating a sense of ‘place-consciousness’ into the law curriculum

Engendering \u27rural\u27 practice: women’s lived experience of legal practice in regional, rural and remote communities in Queensland

The experience and marginalised status of women lawyers within the Australian legal profession has been well documented over the past two decades. However, very little is known empirically about the ways in which \u27rural\u27 space and place might transform or impact that experience, and their relationship with the retention of women in rural, regional and remote (RRR) practice. This article reports on a phenomenological study of the lived experience of female solicitors practising in RRR communities in Queensland. The study asked 23 solicitors (male and female) about their experience of life and legal practice in their communities. This article concludes that women\u27s practice experience is more complex, and shaped by a distinctive gender experience. It highlights the role that socio-cultural constructions of gender and \u27rurality\u27 can play in the negotiation of womenʼs legal practice experience and considers the implications of this for their retention to practice

Belonging, being, becoming: exploring the value of a statement of law student ideals

In 2017, the School of Law at the University of Wollongong commenced an educational \u27experiment\u27, designed to make an important symbolic message to students that their career as a legal professional starts from the day they begin their law studies. It invited First Year Students to commit to core values, attitudes and practices that are seen as important to developing a positive legal professional identity. As part of the evaluation and review process, in 2018 the original \u27Pledge\u27 was redesigned as the Law Student Statement of Ideals. This article reports on the learnings gained through adopting the Law Student Statement of Ideals and reflects on its impact, benefits and effects on shaping students\u27 attitudes and understanding of their developing professional identity as future lawyers