Multiculturalism, religious tolerance and inclusion in Islamic education were the themes of a symposium held at Griffith University that brought together a group of educationalists from Indonesia with speakers from institutes involved in promoting multiculturalism in Australia.
The symposium was part of an Australia Awards Indonesia Short Term Award funded by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT). The course, titled Islamic Education to Promote Multiculturalism, brought a group of principals, school teachers and ministry officials attached to the Ministry of Religious Affairs (MoRA) in Indonesia to Australia for two weeks in June 2016 to learn lessons from Australia’s own experiences in introducing multiculturalism and pluralism into the school curriculum and society.
The 26 participants were introduced to a framework for promoting multiculturalism through the curriculum via a broad range of classroom visits delivered by experts in the field.
In her opening remarks at the Symposium, Alison Carrington, Director Queensland State Office for DFAT, said that freedom of religion was an important right supported by Australia.
She said the participants in this program have been identified as future leaders in promoting multiculturalism and pluralism in Indonesia and would receive support as part of the prestigious Australia Awards network.
“You will play a vital role as recipients of the prestigious Australia Awards; I would urge you to stay in contact with the professional and personal links made in Australia.”
The program was implemented by Griffith University and supported by the Griffith Asia Institute (GAI), the Centre for Interfaith and Cultural Dialogue and the International Business Development Unit at Griffith.
Tolerance of others
Challenges and successes encountered by religious places of worship were addressed by a panel which included the Venerable Miao Xin, Chung Tian Temple in Brisbane and Imam Afroz Ali, Head of the Al Ghazzali Centre in Sydney.
“Muslims in Australia are part of a multicultural society and, by far, Australians are very tolerant of others, characterised by actions such as the ‘#Ill ride with you’ Twitter movement after the Lindt Café atrocity,” said Imam Ali.
“A focus on positive citizenship would be more productive than an emphasis on programs focusing on de-radicalising Muslims,” he said. “Violence and harmony begins at the family level and increasing funding to programs that support reduction of domestic violence and drug use would be more productive than increasing funding for targeting radical Muslims, who are a very small part of Muslims in Australia.”
Panelists at the symposium included John Fox, from the Queensland Police; Ana Bran, General Manager for Aurizon; Rueban Keehan, Curator of the Gallery of Modern Art and Queensland Art Gallery; Keith Shangare, Diversity Coordinator for AFL Queensland; and Clem Campbell, President of UNAA Queensland. Panelists spoke dynamically as to how government, business, and the arts, sports and school sectors promote multiculturalism and diversity in the workplace.
Remaining relevant
“We cannot be what we cannot see,” noted Keith Shangare. “Remaining relevant and communicating with a diversifying audience is important so that AFL can remain Australia’s number one sport of choice.”
In closing the Symposium, Dr Kathleen Turner, Manager Strategy at the Griffith Asia Institute, noted that GAI places a priority focus on Australia’s important bilateral relationship with Indonesia.
“Programs such as such these are an important part of GAI’s mission to facilitate dialogue on contemporary issues of significance affecting our region,” Dr Turner said.
The Symposium moderator was Robert Kingham, who has worked in Indonesia for more than30 years and is a specialist in Islamic education with work conducted in Indonesia forDFAT.
In addition, the two-week short course program included visits to primary and secondary schools including Coorparoo State School; St Laurence’s College and John Paul College; the Australia Indonesia Business Council Queensland Education Forum; Kuraby Mosque; Ethnic Communities Council of Queensland; and the Queensland Interfaith Network.
Griffith Business School has landed a top 10 position at the Aspen Institute’s 2016 Business & Society International MBA Case Competition held in the United States.
The annual event, now in its seventh year, saw 25 teams from universities around the world compete for a US$30,000 prize pool.
The Griffith team, headed by Senior Lecturer Dr Ki-Hoon Lee, was awarded an honourable mention behind the top five placings. The team comprised Griffith MBA students Marc Daley, Adam Hoey and Indy Sivakumar.
It was Griffith Business School’s first attempt at the Aspen Case Competition in four years and, according to Griffith’s MBA Director Associate Professor Chris Fleming, the competition this year was strong.
“Our MBA team was up against some big players, including University of Oxford’s Saïd School of Business, so we are very pleased to have achieved an honourable mention,” said Professor Fleming.
The competition is hosted annually by Aspen Institute in Washington, DC, for MBA students and this year teams were asked to analyse a new case study authored by the Yale School of Management. The case study focused on creating an equitable coffee supply chain and featured Illy, a global premium coffee company based in Italy.
“Each team had just three days to write a response, so it’s a great credit to the talent of the Griffith team that we achieved a top 10 finish,” said Professor Fleming.
The Lazaridis School of Business & Economics at Wilfrid Laurier University secured first prize in the competition which aims to communicate that social, environmental and ethical issues are central to business growth in the 21st century.
Professor Fleming said Griffith Business School was looking forward to taking on the challenge again next year.
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Griffith University researchers have found evidence that demonstrates Aboriginal people were the first to inhabit Australia, as reported in the prestigious Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences journal this week.
The work refutes an earlier landmark study that claimed to recover DNA sequences from the oldest known Australian, Mungo Man.
This earlier study was interpreted as evidence that Aboriginal people were not the first Australians, and that Mungo Man represented an extinct lineage of modern humans that occupied the continent before Aboriginal Australians.
Scientists from Griffith University’s Research Centre for Human Evolution (RCHE), recently used new DNA sequencing methods to re-analyse the remains of Mungo Man from the World Heritage listed landscape of the Willandra Lakes region, in far western New South Wales.
Professor David Lambert, from RCHE, said it was clear that incorrect conclusions had been drawn in relation to Mungo Man in the original study.
“The sample from Mungo Man which we retested contained sequences from five different European people suggesting that these all represent contamination,” he said.
“At the same time we re-analysed more than 20 of the other ancient people from Willandra. We were successful in recovering the genomic sequence of one of the early inhabitants of Lake Mungo, a man buried very close to the location where Mungo Man was originally interred.
“By going back and reanalysing the samples with more advanced technology, we have found compelling support for the argument that Aboriginal Australians were the first inhabitants of Australia.”
Professor Lambert explained that the results proved that the more advanced genomic technology was capable of unlocking further secrets from Australia’s human past.
“We now know that meaningful genetic information can be recovered from ancient Aboriginal Australian remains,” he said.
“This represents the first time researchers have recovered an ancient mitochondrial genome sequence from an Aboriginal person who lived before the arrival of the Europeans.”
The research, which has just been published in the prestigious Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences journal, was planned and conducted with the support of the Barkindjii, Ngiyampaa and Muthi Muthi indigenous people.
There has been considerable debate in Australia and around the world about the origins of the first Australians since the publication in 1863 of Thomas Henry Huxley’s Man’s
Place in Nature.
Related article: Archaeologists find key to dingo mystery
TheSchool of Education and Professional Studies is leading the way in addressing the national skills shortage by offering intensive maths and science courses to hundreds of Queensland teachers.
Announced by Education Minister Kate Jones, classroom teachers can apply to take part in Australia’s first state-wide professional development program from July 2016.
The Queensland Department of Education and Training (DET) has identified a number of key priority curriculum areas in state schools for the delivery of STEM (Science, Technology (including programming, coding and robotics), Engineering and Mathematics).
Professor Donna Pendergast.
Led by Professor Donna Pendergast, Griffith will deliver six modules to 2700 teachers. These include: Senior Physics, Maths and Chemistry and Junior Secondary Science, Primary Science and Digital Technologies.
“The project is typical of the type of PD we offer via the Professional Learning Hub where teachers can find out about and undertake professional development courses and future teachers can enrol in teaching degrees,’’ Professor Pendergast said.
“We are thrilled to be able to offer this training which is integral in ensuring Queensland students are able to learn the skills necessary for jobs of the future from today’s best teachers.”
The professional development is offered online from Semester 2, 2016.
With a strong technology industry background, Associate Professor Mohan Thite’s research is global and heavily practice-focussed. We spent five minutes with Mohan to learn a little more about his work…
In what area/s does your current research interests lie?
My current research interests are strategic human resource management (HRM), HRM information systems, multinational corporations (MNCs) from emerging economies (particularly, Indian MNCs), HRM in South Asia, and the global mobility of talent via services offshoring and skilled migration.
What are you working on at the moment?
Any academic has to have many projects in the pipeline to ensure a steady and quality supply of research data, research funding and publication[!] Having just completed a major research project on Indian multinationals, I have submitted a research grant application on global talent management in collaboration with a US academic. I have also started a book project on e-HRM.
Are there ongoing or emerging trends in your field/s of research?
I have strategically focused on a few key research topics for maximum impact. My initial work on ‘leadership of technical professionals’ was based on my PhD study.
My first sole authored book, and subsequent work on global strategic HR, paved the way for linking my research with teaching and practice.
The third research cluster on interface between technology and HRM resulted in a world-class textbook on HR information systems and an edited book on the Indian call center industry.
My recent work on emerging Indian multinationals contributes to a growing body of literature on emerging economies. I am currently working on global mobility of talent exploring the contribution, challenges and prospects of skilled migration and services offshoring. …
Have there been major developments or key findings that have directed the trajectory of your research?
International business is today heavily influenced by emerging economies and offshoring. The field of HRM has become more strategic and technology-intensive. Talent management also is driven by global mobility of talent. All these trends have influenced the choice of my research topics.
Finally, are there challenges in your field/s in trying to bridge the gap between research, practice and policy?
Having come from an industry background, everything that I do is heavily practice-focused. … [As founding Editor of the] South Asian Journal of HRM, we have a practitioner perspective section. I also run an e-HRM network forum for Australian Human Resources Institute (AHRI). These linkages help tremendously in teaching, service to industry and research impact.
Gold medals make the eyes of people around the world twinkle with awe, delight, ambition, pride and a little envy. The eyes of our nearest neighbour twinkle just as brightly and they’ve decided they want to give their athletes the best chance possible of reaching the top of the dais.
Papua New Guinea (PNG) has a tradition of international sporting success going back the 1960s, but has been particularly successful on a regional level. In 2015 PNG won the medal count at the Pacific Games, held in Port Moresby, including 88 Gold medals. But the PNG Olympic Committee (PNGOC) knows that sporting glory at the Olympics and Commonwealth Games is a significant step up and they’re keen to assist the nation get the right structures in place to make the most of its talent.
Griffith University is a proven leader in sports coaching, development, management and medicine and along with University of Technology Sydney (UTS) has teamed up on a project led by the University of Stirling in Scotland to advise the PNGOC on how best to take the next step.
Griffith’s consultation has been led by Professor Kristine Toohey from the Department of Tourism, Sport and Hotel Management in the Griffith Business School. Together with Griffith Sports College Director and former Olympic rower, Duncan Free OAM the pair are assisting to develop a strategic plan for the PNGOC’s high performance area.
“We are finding out, firstly, what they think they need. It’s not about us coming in and telling them what to do, the government has a National Sports Institute in Goroka in the highlands, a high performance unit in Port Moresby and a government organisational structure,” said Professor Toohey.
“They realise they’ve had some success and want to build on those successes and understand they need to be systematic about how they go about it. They have a genuine intent to improve the delivery of their coaching and development.”
Part of the challenge for PNG is transitioning from a system built almost entirely on the energy of passionate volunteers to more well trained local professionals. The system will also need to be self-sustaining so that it doesn’t depend on endless external advisors.
“Their sport organisations will move past the volunteers stage at some point, but it’s how they do that while keeping all those fantastic people engaged. High performance sport is a very challenging thing to maintain over time while continuing to build capacity through the ups and downs,” Professor Toohey said.
The University of Stirling has been working with PNG for the last 3 to 4 years across activities ranging from supervising Masters research projects, to holding elite training camps. Professor Leigh Robinson is the lead researcher.
“PNG has good sporting infrastructure and a very encouraging commitment to build elite sporting success. It is a good extension of our previous work to be involved in this project. Linking with Kristine and Duncan (through Griffith) provides a great chance to improve high performance sport in PNG,” she said.
Gold Coast’s hosting of the Commonwealth Games in 2018 is shining a light on the vast array of top-shelf, sports-based research at Griffith University and Professor Toohey is keen to spread the impact of that research excellence into the region.
“We are and have always been a regionally focussed university, connected to our neighbours, partnering in research and sharing the benefits. PNG is our nearest neighbour and we should be part of building their capacities. It benefits everybody.
“I love these kind of commercial consultancies, it gets our research out into the world where it can do the most good. If we can help PNG it behoves us to do it,” Professor Toohey said.
While the Wik decision has been a positive catalyst for creating a workable system for Indigenous Land Use Agreements, legal questions over Native Title as a property right and compensation still remain.
During Reconciliation Week, National Native Title Tribunal Member Mr James McNamara spoke at the Griffith Law School and GUMURRII Mabo Day Lecture about the turbulent environment in which the Wik decision emerged.
“There was an outcry of judicial activism, the Prime Minister John Howard said that the pendulum had swung too far in favour of Aborigines. On the 7:30 Report he claimed that Aborigines would have the right of veto over 78% of Australia,” said Mr McNamara.
State and Territory governments had to act swiftly to consider the impact that the Wik decision would have over affected pastoral leases said Mr McNamara.
“In Queensland, the area of what was though to be claimable land pre-Wik was thought to be 6% of the state, post-Wik, at least 50% of the state. This naturally changed the dynamic considerably.”
With pressure from pastoralists and the mining industry mounting, the Howard Government sought to bring more certainty about their rights with the ‘10 Point Plan’, a raft of amendments to the existing Native Title Act.
“But there were no concessions in favour of Native Title [and Native Title holders] in any of that, it was all certainty on the part of everyone else dealing with Native Title land,” says Mr McNamara.
The sun never sets on Parliament House
Mr McNamara, who participated and provided advice on behalf of the States, says the fifty-five hour debate in the Senate on the ‘10 Point Plan’ was confusing and at times shambolic.
“There is so much confusion going on, you get told so many different things. These were the days before mobile technology where you could get messages through quickly and directly.”
“You would see handwritten amendments passed around and you had to think about the implication for States, for interest groups, for the traditional owners and you had to try and present a view on workability,” recalls Mr McNamara.
According to McNamara the Ten Point plan ended up being about ‘900 individual amendments that had been debated and about 107 amendments to the bill as tabled’.
“The Commonwealth didn’t want to make the same mistake that was made the first time around and made it clear what did and didn’t extinguish Native Title, these were called the Confirmation of Extinguishment provisions.”
Some of the amendments were completely new concepts, including the revival of Native Title in limited circumstances. Other amendments included the Aboriginal Land Use Agreements which are commonplace today says Mr McNamara.
The Commonwealth placed responsibility on the States to pass complimentary legislation, giving effect to these changes.
According to Mr McNamara the newly elected Beattie Government in Queensland made a commitment to pursuing agreement-based solutions to Native Title issues as a matter of policy.
The political situation had gone from being a benign issue to the Queensland Government needing to consider every thing it did and whether it had an impact on Native Title.
“Every cabinet submission about legislative reform or any major announcements had to go past me to see what were the implications, how are they being managed, everything had to go through that filter,” says Mr McNamara.
The Queensland Government at the time also sponsored an Indigenous Working Group, which worked with stakeholders to develop solutions such as the Indigenous Land Use Agreements for small mining.
According to Mr McNamara, these Indigenous Land Use Agreements have had the most impact.
“Indigenous Land Use Agreements are the greatest legacy of Wik. Cumulatively across Australia and particularly in Qld which has taken it up in a more significant way than anywhere else.”
What lies ahead for Native Title in Australia
Mr McNamara says that Indigenous Property Rights and compensation still loom on the horizon.
The Human Rights Commission has taken the long term view that Native Title is a property right, which has significant economic implications.
Native Title holders that manage large areasof land might be eligible for significant Carbon Credit payments because oftraditional fire management practices that reduce the amount of carbon in the atmosphere says Mr McNamara.
“The Human Rights Commission are on to it, the roundtable that they held last year has become an Indigenous Property Rights project that might drive this a bit further.”
The High Court has yet to make a ruling about compensation, but when it does there is the potential for a flurry of ‘legal excitement’ says Mr McNamara.
“The High Court may well tell us all how to measure compensation and when it is payable, so a figure can be put on it. Then who pays for it will be the next question, it might be that the whole question about property rights might feature in a more meaningful way.”
How music can bring about social change and play a critical role in addressing some of the most pressing issues of our time will be explored in a public lecture on June 7 from Associate Professor Brydie-Leigh Bartleet, Director of Queensland Conservatorium Research Centre (QCRC).
Drawing on work from recent national and international music projects and the latest research, she will examine the critical role musicians, educators and researchers are playing inhealth,social justice andpoverty alleviation,intercultural understanding,prisons, post conflict settings and environmental conservation.
It’s a topic close to Brydie’s heart, as she explains her earliest childhood memories stem from growing up in politically turbulent, apartheid South Africa.
“Being surrounded by music in that very politically charged cultural environment left a lasting impression on me,” she says.
“It sparked this intense interest in the way that music can facilitate a cultural connection amongst people and an intense interest in the role that music can play in healing and reconciling the past, but also in self-determination and imagining a different kind of future.”
Associate Professor Brydie-Leigh Bartleet.
Brydie is a national leader in arts-based service learning with First Peoples and internationally recognised as a catalyst for the creation of learning programs that mobilise and connect students, educators and community partners.
For seven years she has led a student cohort from the Queensland Conservatorium Griffith University on an incredible 2,484km journey to Tennant Creek in remote central Australia.
“The immersive project has brought together students and Indigenous musicians for a cross-cultural learning and performing experience, which allows students to experience first-hand the “richness of Indigenous cultures”.
“Initiatives like this develop intercultural understanding, deepens students’ appreciation of Indigenous culture and also supports Indigenous communities through arts activities that directly benefit them,” she says.
“I’m very blessed to spend quite a bit of time in central Australia working with Warumungu and Walibri elders and community musicians.
“What’s been remarkable has been watching those students and elders and musicians sit alongside one another, pick up an instrument, look into one another’s eyes, play together and have a conversation through music making in a way they never could have.”
Can music change the world?
Griffith University AEL Public Lecture
Tuesday 7 June
5.30pm — 7.00pm
Ian Hanger Recital Hall at Queensland Conservatorium, 140 Grey Street, South Bank.
RSVP essential as places are limited
Associate Professor Jacqui Ewart and Professor Mark Pearson from the School of Humanities, Languages and Social Science answer key questions about their flagship Reporting Islam Project.
What is this project about?
The Reporting Islam Project is developing user-friendly and readily accessible resources underpinned by research-based evidence to help journalists adopt more mindful practices in stories about Islam and Muslims. It is believed that fair, ethical and accurate reporting on matters involving Islam and Muslim communities will help promote social cohesion and may assist in the reduction of community tensions.
While it is a highly nuanced body of scholarship, the research overwhelmingly highlights the problematic nature of the framing of Islam and Muslims by Western news media. This includes routine negative stereotyping of Islam and its adherents, the incorrect use of key terms in news stories, a lack of Muslim sources or voices in news stories, the portrayal of Muslims as religious or cultural “others” at odds with democracy and Western values, the conflation of Islam with violence and terrorism, and the portrayal of Islam as a religion that condones both.
The independent research project is national in its ambit and has been funded under a competitive grants scheme facilitated by the Commonwealth’s Attorney-General’s Department (about $480,000 has been allocated over the 2014-2015 and 2015-2016 financial years).
Professor Mark Pearson
We completed stage 1 of the project in June 2015. This involved an extensive review of the literature about news media coverage of Islam and Muslim people, an assessment of case studies of news media reportage across media types at national and community levels, interviews with experts in the field, and the distillation of international studies to develop a schema for assessing reportage against world best practice in the area. We recommended the development of a suite of research-driven curricula, training and resources to better equip the news media report more mindfully in this space.
Stage 2 of the project started in mid-2015 and we are due to complete it in mid-2016. Funding for a third stage in 2016-2017 will be subject to a new application process under the Commonwealth competitive grant scheme.
In the current stage of our project we are being supported by a full-time Project Manager (Mr Abdi Hersi), a full-time Principal Research Fellow (Dr Kate O’Donnell) and part-time Muslim researchers and/or trainers.
What resources are being developed?
Associate Professor Jacqui Ewart
Our focus is on developing key training and education resources for journalists, journalism educators and journalism students. These are:
- A database-supported app for Mac and Android as an easy access tool for information, reporting tips and suggestions for journalists and journalism students;
- A website to host electronic copies of training and education materials and to provide an interface with identified stakeholders and collaborators via comment streams and social media engagement;
- Case studies and a range of print materials;
- Audio-visual material focusing on scenarios/role playing in relation to possible issues that might arise in the research and reporting of stories about Islam and Muslims;
- A Handbook of Reportage for journalism, focusing on tips and suggestions for covering stories involving Islam and Muslims, as well as suggestions for considering legal issues that might arise in the course of covering such stories.
Who are you consulting with during the project?
Open communications, consultations and meaningful collaborative relationships with a broad range of key stakeholders underpin this project. In 2015 an Expert Advisory Panel was formed to provide input into the Project, shape its direction and influence its outcomes. Members of this panel include key Muslim community members, international academic experts, educators and leading media industry personnel. This panel has been and will continue to be consulted throughout the Project.
Every effort has been made to include Muslims and journalists in the project to ensure that their voices resonate throughout the training and education resources being developed. For example, we recorded an interview with leading foreign correspondent Peter Greste on the need for more mindful coverage of Islam, while Muslim academic and community leader Professor Mohamad Abdalla explains the potential impact of adverse media coverage on Muslim people.
Having successfully trialled the resources, we are now rolling out training for a broad range of media practitioners including editors and news directors, sub-editors and producers, social media editors, digital media professionals, journalists, journalism educators and journalism students at selected locations across Australia.
What are the key research outputs?
There is a strong research dimension to this project, with several conference presentations already presented and planned, a journal article under review and several in progress, and a book proposal drafted. We are running a training session at the International Communication Association Conference in Japan in June 2016 and presenting a paper at the World Journalism Education Conference in Auckland in July 2016.
Where can I get more information?
More information is progressively being made available on the Project’s website. See www.reportingislam.org.
A study into infection prevention and control has found university education for nursing students can have a significant impact on hand hygiene practices in clinical settings.
This is according to award-winning research from Griffith’s Menzies Health Institute Queensland.
The Griffith pilot study explored the challenges facing students in clinical environments specifically relating to influencers on infection prevention and control (IPC) practises, such as hand hygiene.
Best International Abstract Award
The study was selected as the winner of the Best International Abstract Award at the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology (APIC) 2016 Annual Conference in North Carolina.
Approximately 200 undergraduate nursing students were surveyed with 52% of them saying that they would ignore poor practice in the clinical environment and perform hand hygiene as they had been instructed at university.
Meanwhile 41.5% indicated they would attempt to correct poor practice in others while a small percentage (7.7%) of senior students indicated that they would comply with poor practice, where none of the junior group indicated this. This aspect is currently being explored further.
“The good news is that the majority (97.5%) of students reported being positively influenced by their university education when it came to infection control practice, with 89.7% saying they were influenced by the good practice of their clinical mentors,” says lead researcher Dr Peta-Anne Zimmerman.
The abstract is set for publication in the American Journal of Infection Control, – Infection prevention and control heroes: The Challenge of Being a Student in the Clinical Environment – and found that the IPC of other clinicians has a significant impact on nursing students in the clinical setting and that the more senior the students were, the more likely they were to comply with poor practice.
“This appears to be due to peer influence,” says Dr Zimmerman. “The sociological dimensions of infection control practice for student nurses are important and hence preparation for these needs to occur at a curricula level in the Bachelor of Nursing.
“Prevention and control of healthcare associated infections is an increasingly important element in global health service provision. If we can provide support and prepare students in helping them to feel comfortable in challenging poor infection control, then they may also be able to feel better prepared to advocate for other patient safety concerns such as medication safety and also healthcare worker safety.”
Dr Zimmerman says the study will inform future large-scale research into infection control in the clinical setting.
