Julie White

Creativity and performativity: counterpoints in British and Australian education

This article explores the complex interplay of power between performativity and creativity agendas—a mutual tension that resides in British and Australian education. Accountability constraints and conflicting policy debates are problematised against the wider imperatives of similar government agendas. This ‘counterpoint’ of freedom and control has significant implications for pedagogy and, through accommodating performativity, teacher agency and professionalism are under threat. The authors propose a ‘rebalancing’ where pedagogy transforms from a site of struggle for control, to one where a higher trust is placed in teacher professionalism. The idea of ‘rebalancing pedagogy’ offers a way for teachers to navigate and be supported through the opposing demands of performativity and creativity. It acknowledges the importance of teacher agency and where teaching is judged against the characteristics of a systemic approach that facilitates the building of creative learning communities capable of supporting any ...

Phosphoinositide-mediated oligomerization of a defensin induces cell lysis

Cationic antimicrobial peptides (CAPs) such as defensins are ubiquitously found innate immune molecules that often exhibit broad activity against microbial pathogens and mammalian tumor cells. Many CAPs act at the plasma membrane of cells leading to membrane destabilization and permeabilization. In this study, we describe a novel cell lysis mechanism for fungal and tumor cells by the plant defensin NaD1 that acts via direct binding to the plasma membrane phospholipid phosphatidylinositol 4,5-bisphosphate (PIP2). We determined the crystal structure of a NaD1:PIP2 complex, revealing a striking oligomeric arrangement comprising seven dimers of NaD1 that cooperatively bind the anionic headgroups of 14 PIP2 molecules through a unique ‘cationic grip’ configuration. Site-directed mutagenesis of NaD1 confirms that PIP2-mediated oligomerization is important for fungal and tumor cell permeabilization. These observations identify an innate recognition system by NaD1 for direct binding of PIP2 that permeabilizes cells via a novel membrane disrupting mechanism. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.01808.001

Collecting Data or Creating Meaning

Plagued by doubt and methodological unease, two researchers from a large Australian study resolve their quandary by revisiting methodological literature related to narrative inquiry, visual approaches and contemporary interviewing to find that the application of poststructuralist theory to methodology provides a useful way of addressing their concerns. Before embarking on extensive writing about the project, they trouble issues of data authenticity, analytic integrity and the problem of voice. The main value of this deliberation is its applicability to the wider discourse about contemporary qualitative inquiry that other researchers facing analytical dilemmas may also find helpful.

Ethnography Versus Case Study ‐ Positioning Research and Researchers

In this paper we narrate a story of working on a large project funded by an Australian Research Council Linkage grant the ‘Keeping Connected: Young People, Identity and Schooling’ project. The purpose of the study is to consider the social connection and schooling of young people who have experienced long‐term chronic illness. While the research involves both quantitative and qualitative elements, the qualitative component is the largest and involves the most researcher time and diversity. At an early stage of the project, three of the researchers working on the qualitative team consider why the study was framed as a series of case studies rather than as ethnography. The second issue considered in this paper is the different approaches to data collection, data analysis and truth claims we might take.

Arias of learning: creativity and performativity in Australian teacher education

This article reports on a five‐year Australian study where pre‐service primary and secondary teachers were encouraged to enhance their creativity through the development of ethnographic operatic performances. The creativity focus of this project was the important aspect of risk‐taking and daring. The methodological basis for the study is ethnographic and narrative methods of enquiry were employed. Rather than learning ‘about’ curriculum and pedagogy, participants were encouraged to learn ‘through’ action and involvement. A new conceptualization of performance pedagogy is provided as well as a discussion of two different interpretations of performativity. A research narrative about the development of the ethnographic operatic performances is told and the implications for creativity in education are discussed.

Mice deficient in heparanase exhibit impaired dendritic cell migration and reduced airway inflammation.

Heparanase is a β‐d‐endoglucuronidase that cleaves heparan sulphate, a key component of the ECM and basement membrane. The remodelling of the ECM by heparanase has been proposed to regulate both normal physiological and pathological processes, including wound healing, inflammation, tumour angiogenesis and cell migration. Heparanase is also known to exhibit non‐enzymatic functions by regulating cell adhesion, cell signalling and differentiation. In this study, constitutive heparanase‐deficient (Hpse−/−) mice were generated on a C57BL/6 background using the Cre/loxP recombination system, with a complete lack of heparanase mRNA, protein and activity. Although heparanase has been implicated in embryogenesis and development, Hpse−/− mice are anatomically normal and fertile. Interestingly, consistent with the suggested function of heparanase in cell migration, the trafficking of dendritic cells from the skin to the draining lymph nodes was markedly reduced in Hpse−/− mice. Furthermore, the ability of Hpse−/− mice to generate an allergic inflammatory response in the airways, a process that requires dendritic cell migration, was also impaired. These findings establish an important role for heparanase in immunity and identify the enzyme as a potential target for regulation of an immune response.

Researcher Tales and Research Ethics: The Spaces in Which We Find Ourselves.

The tales we tell here focus on the ethical issues arising from our research practice with vulnerable young participants and those for whom research has been inextricably linked with European imperialism and colonialism. The importance of relational obligations, temporality and potential for a continuing narrative approach to ethical research cannot be underestimated, and accordingly we recount our experiences in order to highlight these obligations as well as ethical tensions that we encountered. Importantly, our tales and the underpinning theorization suggest that Human Research Ethics Committees (HRECs) ‘perform’ their duties and make decisions to a pre‐ordained set of prescriptive standards that do not necessarily take into account the agency of vulnerable young people or Indigenous women.

Speaking ‘over’ performativity

In a time where standards and accountability override trust in teachers and principals, mandated versions of pedagogy have recently appeared in the Australian landscape. This article critiques one pedagogical reform initiative and suggests that in performative times, it may be preferable for principals and teachers to speak ‘over’ reform than to speak ‘back’ to it. While reference to competency standards increasingly replaces discussion about professionalism, the argument is developed here that key elements of professionalism include trust, agency, identity and judgement, which are excluded from the standards discourse. The article proposes that the tenuous hold teachers have on professionalism might be strengthened by critical school leaders adept at navigating their way around performative demands and who encourage teachers to speak ‘over’ codes about appropriate behaviour to instead explore what it means to be a teacher professional.

Chapter 3 Scholarly Identity

The work of academics has intensified, but the focus for most remains on teaching, research and contribution to service. Institutional imperatives and positioning within universities impact significantly on how individual academics fashion themselves to fit with expectations and demands. There is, of course, no simple version of scholarly identity and Barnett (2000) called attention to the ‘super complexity’ of academic work some time ago. ‘Scholarly’ has been deliberately used in the title of this chapter, even though ‘academic’ is also used throughout. The purpose here is to draw attention to – and avoid – the binary that Stuart Hall notes: Academic work is inherently conservative in as much as it seeks, first, to fulfill the relatively narrow and policed goals and interests of a given discipline or profession and, second, to fulfill the increasingly corporatized mission of higher education; intellectual work, in contrast is relentlessly critical, self-critical, and potentially revolutionary for it aims to critique, change, and even destroy institutions, disciplines and professions that rationalize exploitation, inequality and injustice. (reported in Olsen & Worsham, 2003, p. 13)

The Meena Communicative Initiative in Bangladesh

This chapter investigates a highly successful televised educational program in Bangladesh called ‘Meena’ and considers whether this initiative might be repurposed to support the educational inclusion of children with disabilities. This may assist Bangladesh to achieve the Education For All (EFA) goals (UNESCO, 2016). The education of girls in Bangladesh has changed radically since 1992 when a television program captured the imagination of the country and led to profound changes in attitudes and practices.