Government & industry research
Faculty staff currently hold a number of exciting grants with government agencies and industry partners. These grants exemplify the Faculty's commitment to integrating practice and theory in research that "makes a difference".
This page contains a listing of Gov't & Industry grants (Cat. 2 & 3 plus Cat. 1 non-ARC) awarded within the faculty for first year funding 2009. (Projects receiving funds from ARC Linkage partners do not appear in this list - see ARC funding).
Other annual lists: 2007 2008 2010 2011 2012 2013
Full listing of all Gov't & Industry grants (Cat. 2 & 3) awarded within the faculty for first year funding 2007 - 2013
Faculty of Arts and Education research projects with first year funding 2009
Homework Club Evaluation Project
Assoc Prof C Hickey
Bethany Community Support funding 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012
Administering Organisation: Deakin University
Project Summary: This research (located in a regional context) explores the experiences of participants involved in Homework Clubs set up to capture and support young people with particular learning needs in the Corio- Norlane area. The membership of these Homework Groups comprises students from Indigenous, ethnic (refugee) and socially disadvantaged contexts. Successful participation in a Homework Club has the potential to build learning and connection.
ID Scanners in the night-time economy: social sorting or social order?
Dr D Palmer, Dr I Warren, Dr P Miller
Criminal Research Council funding 2009, 2010 (Category 1 grant)
Administering Organisation: Deakin University
Project Summary: The project investigates the introduction of ID scanners in 'high risk' entertainment venues in Geelong (Vic) as part of an attempt to enhance community safety. Recently the inner city area of Geelong has been transformed into a significant 'night-time economy'. However, such developments come with potential harms, such as increases in crime and anti-social behaviour. Networked ID scanners are a unique innovation introduced to address these issues. The project documents what has been done, why, with what impact and what potential (or actual) harms exist to serve as a model for future policy and programme development.
Authentically Assessing Beginning Teaching: Professional Standards and Teacher Performance Assessment
Prof D Mayer, Assoc Prof M Dixon, Dr A Gallant, Dr A Allard
DEECD funding 2009, 2010
Administering Organisation: Deakin University
Project Summary: This project will develop and trial the implementation of a capstone summative assessment – a teacher performance assessment (TPA) – designed to authentically assess teacher education graduates’ readiness for beginning teaching as defined by the VIT Standards of Professional Practice for Graduating Teachers, and research the processes and outcomes of this development and implementation. The trial being proposed will draw on the work that various members of the Deakin School of Education team have been involved with in California – PACT (Performance Assessment for California Teachers) - and in Malaysia in developing a TPA linked to the newly developed Malaysian Teacher Standards.
Facilitating Public Consultation in China through Deliberative Polling
Prof. B He, Prof J Fishkin
Stanford University funding 2009, 2010
Administering organisation: Deakin University
Project Summary: A collaborative project between Deakin and Stanford Universities, building on previous work in China relating to deliberative polling. The project aims to spread the process and train local officials and practitioners in its methodology. The process could achieve wide application in China. Such a result would help realize some key democratic values: responsiveness of policy to informed and representative public opinion, transparency of decision making, a sense of efficacy among ordinary citizens, expectations among citizens that government must respond to their concerns, and the spread of democratic norms among public officials.
Evaluation of BHP Billiton Science Awards
Prof. R Tytler, Dr P Hubber, Dr G Chittleborough, Dr C Campbell,
BHP Billiton funding 2009, 2010
Administering organisation: Deakin University
Project summary: The BHP Billiton science awards are a national scheme for recognising students who engage with investigative science research and teachers who contribute significantly to school science education. This study researched the impact of the BHP Billiton awards on students and teachers over a number of years. The research involved a student online survey and interviews with students, teachers, award winners and others to build insight into the operation and the outcomes of the awards. For students the study focused on their attitudes towards and knowledge of science, and on their perceptions of their futures in relation to STEM careers. The study concluded that the award system was effective in providing support for enthusiastic and innovative teachers and students, and that open investigation work was highly valued by those involved. A number of case studies were constructed that provided insight into how schools operate to build a culture of research, and the nature of the experience for teachers and students. Interviews with the teacher awardees demonstrated the role of enthusiastic teachers in promoting innovation and sustaining professional learning in the schooling system. A number of papers are in preparation, arising from the study.
ADA Body Armour Analysis
Assoc Prof K Vincs
Australia Defence Apparel (ADA) funding 2009, 2010
Administering Organisation: Deakin University
Project Summary: n/a.
UNESCO Museums Capacity Building Program -Lampang Temples
Dr J Sweet
UNESCO funding 2009
Administering organisation: Deakin University
Project Summary: The UNESCO Museums Capacity Building Programme includes a research project that is currently being conducted by UNESCO Bangkok (with assistance from Deakin University). The research is designed to help identify a range of museum management needs and priorities for museums and collecting organizations in the Asia-Pacific Region and to provide guidance for the development of relevant UNESCO museum programmes. The Lampang Temples Pilot Training in Collections Management was designed to contribute to an understanding of the collection management needs of religious organizations in Northern Thailand with strong community connections; to understand the nature of a sustainable relationship (in this context) between the resources available for the care and preservation of cultural material and the appropriate level of access to it for a range of visitor interests; and, to begin to identify and develop appropriate competencies in strategic collections management within the local community, to enable the custodians to achieve their ambitions.
Headspace Warrnambool: Evaluation Research Project
Assoc. Prof. K O’Toole, Dr A MacGarvey
Brophy Family Youth Services funding 2009, 2010
Administering organisation: Deakin University
Project Summary: n/a
Researching and Writing The Wintringham Story
Ms K Le Rossignol, Ms Elaine Farrelly
William Buckland Foundation funding 2009, 2010
Administering organisation: Deakin University
Project Summary: n/a
Rural Disadvantage and the Law
Dr R Coverdale, Dr D Palmer
VicLaw Foundation funding 2009, 2010
Administering organisation: Deakin University, School of Law
Project summary: This project, being administered through the Faculty of Business and Law, is a state-wide study investigating the disadvantages people living in rural and regional areas may face in dealing with the law compared with those living in the metropolitan area. The enquiry process is compiling numerous examples of issues of disadvantage and will bring it all together to give a clearer picture of the state of rural disadvantage and the law.
Non-DU led projects
Understanding Attitudes to National Identity in Melanesia
Dr M Leach, Assoc. Prof M Clarke, Dr H Wallace, Dr S Feeny
AusAid funding 2009 – 2010
Administering organisation: Swinbourne University
Project Summary: This research will develop and implement a survey of popular attitudes to nation and national identity in four Melanesian states (Solomon Islands, PNG, Vanuatu, and East Timor). It will achieve this by conducting a medium scale survey of tertiary students (n=300+ in each target country) in the respective national capitals. The data generated will improve understandings of regional, ethnic, intergenerational and linguistic faultlines in the region. The premise of this research is that a better understanding of challenges of nation-building will inform more effective state-building agendas, and enhance the effectiveness of aid initiatives.
Defining and Understanding Intoxication and Drunkenness: the Individual’s Response
Drinkwise Aust funding 2009-2010
Assoc Prof P Kelly, Assoc Prof C Hickey, Dr J Lindsay, Dr L Harrison,
Administering organisation: Monash University
Project summary: This is a multidisciplinary literature review documenting understandings and definitions of the terms ‘intoxication’ and ‘drunkenness’ from the perspective of the individual. There is very little consensus on what these terms mean to policy-makers, researchers and drinkers themselves – a perusal of daily newspapers and our emerging research findings show that some people define ‘intoxicated’ on the basis of very low levels of consumption, including the NHMRC recommendation of ‘2 standard drinks’ (National Health and Medical Research Council, 2009) and others fall on the other end of the continuum where intoxicated is defined as ‘severely affected by a large amounts of consumption’ or ‘staggering’, ‘throwing up’ or ‘passing out’. In this literature review we document how individuals in Australia, the UK, Europe, the US and other international contexts define intoxication and drunkenness. A key element of the review is that we compare individual, lay understandings of intoxication and drunkenness to those held by ‘experts’ in key fields and disciplines. We examine the definitions of intoxication and drunkenness used in Australian and international policy guidelines, and those held by experts in key fields including medicine and public health, politics and law, sociology and criminology, anthropology and cultural studies.
Scaling Up Aid and the Millennium Development Goals in the Pacific: Absorptive Capacity, Sustainability and Efficiency
Dr S Feeny, Prof. T Fry, Dr M Rogers, Assoc Prof M Clarke.
AusAid funding 2009
Administering organisation: RMIT University
Project Summary: The research examines four important questions concerned with how aid can assist Pacific countries with progress towards the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
1. What are the absorptive capacity constraints faced by Pacific countries and how can aid be used to relieve them?
2. How should donors respond to absorptive capacity constraints in their aid allocation decisions?
3. How sustainable are the impacts of foreign aid in the Pacific and how can sustainability be improved?
4. Which Pacific countries convert foreign aid flows into improvements in health and education most efficiently and what factors determine this efficiency?
Volunteering and wellbeing: Individual outcomes and organisational practice
R Hoye, M G Nicholson, K Brown , A Stukas
Dept of Planning & Community Development funding 2009
Administering organisation: Latrobe University
Project summary: The specific research aims of this project are to identify-
1. The nature of the relationship between involvement in volunteering and perceptions of wellbeing, including the differences between volunteers and non-volunteers;
2. The nature of the relationship between individuals’ motives, involvement in volunteering, perceived organisational support, and perceptions of wellbeing, social inclusion and connectedness;
3. How involvement in volunteering impacts on the social connectedness and social inclusion experienced by individuals and their subsequent wellbeing; and
4. The role of formalised volunteer-based organisations in facilitating or supporting social inclusion and connectedness of individuals.
Identifying strategies to sustain professional learning communities for teachers ion remote primary schools in Papua New Guinea - DU work component
AusAid funding 2009
Prof E Honan, Prof T Evans
Administering organisation: University of Queensland
Project summary: The purpose of the study is to identify and implement models and best practices that will support and sustain professional learning for teachers in remote parts of PNG. The findings of the study will contribute towards the improvement and the sustainability of ongoing teacher learning and effective teaching practices amongst teachers. Improving the quality of teachers’ professional learning will ultimately lead to continuous and sustained improvement in student achievement.
Learning to be Drier
Funding received from Deakin University Ballarat University Partnership Fund 2009
B Golding, M Brown, A Foley, E Smith, C Campbell, L Grace, CSchulz, J Angwin
Administering organisation: Ballarat University
Project summary: This project identified problems associated with drying across the southern Murray-Darling Basin, and the additional issues of learning to cope with and address these problems. The areas covered in the study were an alpine area in Victoria, a mid-river site in the Western Riverina in New South Wales, a lower river site in the Riverland in South Australia, and a dryland area of the northern Wimmera and Southern Mallee of Victoria. It focussed on how people in regional communities learnt to deal with the impact of reduced water availability as a result of drought or climate change. The resultant data indicates significant changes are being made to local practices as a result of the learning taking place and that there are a range of processes enabling adult learning across the communities. Results have been put into published form.
Investigating conversational competence in school-age children with hearing loss who use spoken language
Dr D Toe, Dr L Paatsch, Dr Amelia Church
ANZ Trust and Deafness Foundation of Victoria funding 2009 - 2010
Administering Organisation: The University of Melbourne
Project Summary: The aim of this project is to investigate the conversational competencies of a group of school-aged children with hearing loss who use spoken language to communicate, and to compare these skills with their hearing peers. This study will identity communicative competencies that contribute to the contingency of conversation in hearing dyads, and compare these to the levels of contingency observed in conversations between hearing and hearing-impaired students. Conversational contingency describes the way that conversational partners make connections between conversational turns, including examining the skills used to build on their partner’s contributions to increase conversational fluency.
