The Australian art and design curriculum is informed by the country's status as an island continent as well as a specific historical and contemporary cultural milieu. Australia is the smallest continent and the only one surrounded by water, and is administered by one national federal government. Australia is the sixth largest country in area after Russia,Canada, China, the USA, and Brazil. However, one of the key historical and contemporary challenges for Australia in educational provision relates to the size and distribution of its population of 24million people, which is small relative to the landmass.This brings a suite of social and political ecologies into the purview of curriculum organization and authority. In terms of population dispersal and differentiation, diverse populations are largely concentrated in cities mostly along the coastal fringe, in addition to smaller rural communities and large unpopulated remote regions. High levels of postwar immigration, alongside religious and cultural diversity, ensure a wide range of approaches to curriculum design, implementation, resourcing, and impact.
This paper will discuss a Distributed Facilitator Framework (DFF) that was created to visualise the reflective practice processes that were utilised to develop educators Teaching International Students (TIS) partnerships. The DFF is non-hierarchical, non-judgmental, authentic, generative, interconnected and inclusive Career Development Learning (CDL) Model. It aims to promote transformative practice with the outcome of producing authentic artefacts to inform TIS. The processes used in educator interactions and knowledge exchange are visualised in the DFF to capture the nuances of moving from the generalised to the specific TIS transformative CDL model. An Action Practitioner Research (APR) methodology over a one-year cycle was utilised to capture design educators' CDL, which is visually mapped in a flexible, adaptive, practice-based scaffold architecture. How the DFF was created to visually capture an interconnected series of processes and events utilising the Kemmis and Heikkinen, (2011) characteristics of 'sayings, doings and relatings' to develop a creative 'Ecology of Practice' will be explained. The DFF is underpinned by the theoretical premise of Kruger's (2013) Iceberg Model for surface and deep culture; the Australian Government International Education Strategy 2025 and Leask and Carroll (2013) 'Good Practice Principles: Teaching across Cultures'. The DFF provides a reflective practice visualisation that is in the service of providing transformative professional learning, which is transferable to other educational settings and disciplinary contexts. The ultimate objectives of the Ecologies of Practice DFF include engaging in meaningful international educational development and empowering educators to self-direct their own CDL after the TIS scaffold architecture is removed.
Walking and embodiment, groundedness and mobilities are the key pedagogical and research creation strategies that emerge as key findings from this book and from the focus of this chapter, which also addresses the significance of visualisation across artforms, perspectives, publics and dimensionality. Within the broader context of the book, research and practices in walking (Solnit, 2000; Gros, 2015; O' Rourke, 2016) and concerns with diverse trajectories for mobility (Cresswell, 2006; Urry, 2011, Snepvangers, Davis & Taylor, 2017) have been foregrounded through the concerns of the various authors. For example: ecological art/science collaborations in remote locations, contemplative art practices and artmaking and the analysis of walking in cinematic representations in south east Asia, sit actively alongside innovative participatory work with a range of diverse audiences. The sensorial and ecological aspects of walking as pedagogy are also central to the work of many new materialist scholars, especially with regard to the agency of participants and the role of data gathering, analysis and presentation. Coole and Frost (2010) for example in referring to a resurgence of interest a what they call a critical new materialism (p.27) highlight how power develops and practically manages 'embodied subjectivities' which extend beyond human subjectivities to other non-human and material objects and networks. They particularly highlight sociologies of everyday life and, significantly for the work in this book, focus on phenomenologies of the ordinary alongside critical geographies of space (Coole & Frost, 2010, p. 27-28). Through the lens of exploring how walking and in some cases sitting strategies inform visual and performative practices, production and political interrogation have been articulated as a central concern of the authors' in this volume. What is now the task of this chapter is an examination of the potentiality of prioritising embodied pedagogies as " learning encounters", visualised, envisaged and embodied using arts-based research methodologies. Fundamental questions about visual and embodied practice have been developed through both singular and collaborative responses to walking and visually derived scopic regimes of practice as engaged with systems of inquiry.
This paper investigates how connectedness in graduate employability is discussed in the current topography of Australian international education (IE) policies. Tensions are explored in contemporary media articles (Powell, 2018) where high levels of particularly Chinese students in business courses are questioning continuing to study in Australia, as many peers are also Chinese. In the Art and Design context of a large research-intensive university in Sydney, the Masters of Design postgraduate program attracts high numbers of international students (IS). Participating in real-world learning and Work Integrated Learning (WIL) in the Australian context is both an institutional and individual student aim, yet lack of curriculum articulation and opportunities for 'connectedness' with Australian creative industries can impede engagement. A selection of Australian IE policies, strategies and frameworks are reviewed to identify gaps in contextualising graduate connectedness capabilities from a government policy perspective. Four key themes emerge that support employability outcomes by higher education (HE) institutions engaging with quality teaching and learning, demonstrating careful management of IE experience, while supporting the development of partnerships and social networks. We argue that for many IS seeking a creative industry WIL experience, these connections can be difficult to achieve without greater institutional and policy support.
This poster visualises a project that investigates Teaching International Students (TIS) through the lens of government policy, theories and practice. It provides a scaffolded ecological system for building practice-based architecture to inform educators' career development learning. The focus is on providing a "Distributed Facilitator Framework" (DFF) for empowering educators to embark on situational-based learning activities to engage International students in the tertiary learning environment. Through a visualisation process, staged professional learning activities and an established theoretical premise, the core elements behind providing professional learning are shown. An ecologies of practice lens has been used to envisage a TIS Community of Practice (CoP) as an integral component of global outreach as expressed in the UNSW 2025 Strategy. The 'National Strategy for International Education' underpinned by Leask and Carroll's (2013) guide to: 'Good practice principles of teaching across cultures' will be linked to the colourful bricolage of student and educator experience. The aim is to enhance International student engagement through educator driven mentoring, events and Students as Partners. Firstly, through portraying ways that a DFF can be educator-led to promote transformative practice to address quality outcomes through 'Inspired learning through Inspired teaching'. Secondly, to develop a deeper understanding of TIS in the techno-driven environment of higher education.
