With the backdrop of the recent introduction of Early Years Learning Framework for Australia, this paper presents some of the findings from doctoral research which investigated Australian early childhood teachers’ beliefs and practices within classrooms teaching four to six year old children in Catholic schools. It will explore the literature related to this study, with particular reference to beliefs and practice and the relationship that exists between them; examination of the barriers which impact on teachers’ teaching in accordance to their beliefs, and an exploration about what constitutes ‘good’ learning and teaching in the early years with regard to religious education. Examples from four case studies will be used to exemplify key findings from this study.

The purpose of this research was to explore the beliefs and practice of early childhood teachers in Catholic schools in Australia. In particular, the research investigated the teachers’ beliefs about teaching, learning and Religious Education. Also examined in this thesis was the classroom practice of early childhood teachers and the factors that impacted on their stated beliefs and translation into classroom practice. Whilst there are empirical studies that explore early childhood teachers’ beliefs and practice, there were no studies which explore early childhood teachers’ beliefs and practice with regard to learning, teaching and Religious Education in Australia. This study was conducted within both positivist and interpretivist paradigms, using a mixed methodological approach to data collection. Phase One was a large scale (n=540) use of a questionaire to ascertain teachers' beliefs. The Early Childhood Teachers' beliefs about learning, teaching and Religious Education questionaire was developed specifically for this study. Early childhood teachers from 6 states of Australian Catholic schools were surveyed using the Early Childhood Beliefs about Learning, Teaching and Religious Education Questionnaire. Following the quantitative analysis, four teachers were purposefully selected to develop rich, descriptive case studies. Classroom practice was observed and documented providing further insights into beliefs and practices with regard to Early Childhood and Religious Education. Analysis of the quantitative and qualitative data was conducted using three computer software packages including: SPSS, Leximancer and NVIVO. The analysis of data revealed both differences and similarities that exist between teachers’ stated beliefs and classroom practice and in particular their pedagogy with regard to Religious Education Key findings of the research included a confirmation that early childhood teachers’ in Catholic schools generally taught in accordance with their beliefs. It was highlighted specifically that a range of factors impact on teachers’ practice, which both support and constrain their practice. Some of the implications for teachers, teacher educators, providers of professional development are delineated. There is evidence presented in the results that supports the hypothesis that teachers' beliefs do underpin their classroom practice and that there are factors that constrain or support teachers' in their efforts to teach according to their beliefs about learning and teaching. The study highlighted implications for Religious Education in the early years of schooling, for the continued professional development and curriculum development for Religious Education in the early years of schooling. In summary, this thesis examined the role of Early Childhood teachers’ beliefs about learning, teaching and Religious Education and the relationship to classroom practice. It critically explored the impact that a range of factors have on teachers’ ability to implement practice that was consistent with their stated beliefs.

Using Pedagogical Documentation as a tool for assessing children, this chapter reports on research conducted with children, asking the question " What matters to you? " The chapter presents the origins of Pedagogical Documentation from Reggio Emilia, and presents a justification for its use by early childhood educators. Drawing on current research, theory and policy, this chapter explores the tensions that exist for teachers/educators and practitioners working with young children and including their voice. Children's words, drawings, photographs and artefacts will be used to narrate five themes from the data about what is important to children about their lives.

An analysis of the nurturing of children's spirituality in the Christian tradition in terms of power reveals the complex interplay of various forms of power dynamics within the pedagogic relationship. Nurturing children's spirituality is aimed at empowering children and thus at stimulating the 'power within' children. Various reflections on nurturing children's spirituality use methods where power is shared between adults and children ('power with'). Nevertheless, forms of 'power over' interact with forms of power with. When the content of the tradition is perceived as being unalterable, there is a greater probability that one will use a teaching style where 'power over' is more central. This does not mean that 'content' is not important in 'nurturing children's spirituality in the Christian tradition'. The author explains various aspects of a 'theology of theologizing' that forms the basis for an open way of dealing with the balances of power in the pedagogical relationship and in relating to the content of the theological tradition.

This position paper evaluates a response to challenges faced during the Covid-19 pandemic. The creation of 'Study Buddy Club,' saw Childhood Studies undergraduate students operate daily online sessions with children of university staff. This provided much-needed respite for parents and carers working from home, as evidence outlines negative impacts of reduced peer interaction for children, and the loss of routine associated with school settings. With a focus on the educational needs of young children, 'Study Buddy Club' appealed to a 'family-friendly' working policy, acknowledging the disproportionate impacts of the pandemic on parents, particularly working mothers. A second aim of the project was to offer work experience for undergraduate students, who need to meet a compulsory requirement for their degree. The aims, impact and features of the 'Study Buddy Club' align in this paper to expose the difficulties families faced in the pandemic and the role of a simple, yet effective solution.

Despite the widespread application of digital technologies in higher education there is scant evidence to suggest that these have had a significant impact on student learning. A contemporary psychoanalytic model of teaching and learning is offered, which suggests this lack of impact, may be the result of an unconscious avoidance with the difficult thinking human learning requires (Kahn and Hasbach, 2012). Anxiety is a component inherent within the process of education, as it continually threatens what is known about the self (Bainbridge and West, 2012). As such, effective human learning requires a ‘holding environment’, originating in the natural world, where anxieties can be managed (Winnicott, 1964). Paradoxically, digital technologies further separate humans from holding environments and possess an internal logic which leads to an ‘untenable violation’ (Glendinning, 1995). Consequently, to prevent teachers and learners being overwhelmed by anxiety, unconscious defences are mobilised to avoid difficult thinking. This results in the seductive influence for simplistic solutions to complex problems. Digital technologies therefore become fetishes as they assume power and value beyond their objective state (Berger, 1967; Marx, 1867). The power of the fetish is to confuse and deceive and in the context of learning, digital technologies continue to enforce the separation of teachers and learners from relational holding environments. The role of the learning developer is to acknowledge the complex nature and difficult nature of education and to not remove the anxiety this creates.

I was struck, both while reading the Entwistle and Nisbet paper and listening to Noel’s conference presentation on the nature and experience of academic understanding, by the many parallels between the themes raised and those also to be found within psychoanalytic theory and practice. The Entwistle and Nisbet paper ends with a commitment to be open to interpretation from other perspectives and I wish to do just that by offering a psychoanalytically informed discussion to explore what I see, despite the use of very different concepts and languages, as common ground. It is not my intention to suggest that this alternative perspective is better than that already provided but I will contend that psychoanalytic thinking does provide a more nuanced view of human understanding as well as supporting practical interventions. Within this context I shall  provide a brief insight into how psychoanalysis perceives learning and understanding and also highlight the similarities between the nature of academic understanding and the therapeutic process. Surface and deep understanding will then be considered in the light of defence mechanisms. Finally, I shall indicate how psychological insights into academic understanding can benefit from a psychoanalytic approach and ultimately how this could be employed to help students, and their teachers, engage with understanding.

Previous research has suggested that support for environmentally responsible projects can be linked to an attachment to place and place-protective action. A case study, focussed on a local community development initiative, provided an opportunity to reconceptualise the contested space of the ‘backyard’ in the Not In My BackYard (NIMBY) response. A narrative research approach provided detailed insight into individual experience of those who supported the project. The application of psychoanalytic theory was used to explain how the relationship with place may provide an insight into the location of the backyard. Places, both local and global, can become ‘holding environments’ for the anxiety related to separation from carers, meaningful places and subsequent identity formation. It is argued that unconscious responses, to the near and far holding environment, represent self-protective action. Ultimately, it may be helpful to consider opposition and support behaviours in the light of Klein’s paranoid-schizoid and depressive thinking positions.

This paper explores the links between Donald Winnicott and Axel Honneth in relation to developing
a pedagogy based on recognition. Winnicott's understanding of emotional development is centred
on the intimate infant/mother dyad, in which the notions of ‘good enough mothering’, potential
spaces and the true and false self are central to developing a sense of selfhood. Honneth’s three
part model of relating‐to‐self proposes that the recognition of others has an impact on constructing
an identity that has social and cultural value. A synthesis of these two approaches provides a
pedagogical framework based on mutual recognition with caring relationships. For example, ‘good
enough’ (m)others are able to recognise and acknowledge that the infant is deserving of love,
which leads to a learner who has the self‐confidence to feel as though their efforts are of value.
Recognition that learners have autonomy and can participate in playful potential spaces provides
self‐respect to enable learners to separate and be active agents. Finally, the wider recognition that
individuals are valued and contribute to the community provides learners with a meaningful sense
of self that has sufficient self‐esteem for a creative and spontaneous true self to encounter learning
throughout the lifespan.

Since feminist theorists first critiqued women’s portrayal in the cinema in the late 1960s and early 70s, female characters have become more active figures in film narratives; more likely to display traits and behaviours conventionally associated with masculinity like aggression and violence. This study explores how these changes may be linked to broader social and cultural changes around gender, using the figure of the killer girl hero in popular film to examine discourses surrounding contemporary femininity. Previous studies, using poststructuralist semiotic methodologies informed by binary theorisations of gender, have tended to focus on how female heroes fail to represent a fully realised female subjectivity. I adopt a constructionist ontology and epistemology to address some of the limitations of dualism, and develop a data led analysis. A formalist genre analysis is triangulated with a Foucauldian discourse analysis to render the articulations of discourse/power/knowledge that constitute killer girl heroes visible. Analysis of plot, trope and character conventions in fourteen killer girl hero films suggests that killer girl heroes are used to tell stories about girls and stories about society. Killer girl heroes are conventionally constructed as desirable objects for whom murder is an act of resistance which asserts their alternative vision of the world; and leads to freedom, personal growth and transformation. Possession, resistance and critique are recurrent themes within and across the texts that can be linked to discursive regimes surrounding the regulation of gender relations; the mainstreaming of feminist logic; and youth’s relation to adult culture. Analysis indicates that, as representational practice, the killer girl hero taps into tensions between objectification and agency, and patriarchy and feminism, which are relevant to the constitution of contemporary feminine identities.

Introduction 1.1 Developmental benefits of involved fathering 1.2 australian fathers' time with children 1.3 Determinants of father involvement 1.4 engaging men in child and family services 1.5 Strategies for improving engagement with a father client group 2 Aims and methodology 2.1 The research context 2.2 aims of the engaging fathers project 2.3 Method 2.4 Sampling and recruitment 3 Analysis and results 3.1 analysis 3.2 Phase 1 findings 3.3 Phase 2 findings 3.4 Perceptions of fatherhood and fathering 3.5 Barriers to successful service provision 3.6 effective strategies for recruiting fathers 3.7 Good practice in program delivery 3.8 Benefits of father involvement in child and family services 4 Discussion and conclusion 4.1 Conclusion

This resource presents and discusses a snapshot of data describing the rates of involvement of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children in child protection and out of home care. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children are over-represented in child protection and out-of-home care services compared to other children and have been since the first data collation in 1990. In 2008-09, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children comprised 4.6% of Australian children, and 25% of all confirmed reports of abuse or neglect. This means that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children were more than 7.5 times more likely than other children to be the subject of a confirmed report of abuse or neglect than non-Indigenous children

Introduction 1.1 Developmental benefits of involved fathering 1.2 australian fathers' time with children 1.3 Determinants of father involvement 1.4 engaging men in child and family services 1.5 Strategies for improving engagement with a father client group 2 Aims and methodology 2.1 The research context 2.2 aims of the engaging fathers project 2.3 Method 2.4 Sampling and recruitment 3 Analysis and results 3.1 analysis 3.2 Phase 1 findings 3.3 Phase 2 findings 3.4 Perceptions of fatherhood and fathering 3.5 Barriers to successful service provision 3.6 effective strategies for recruiting fathers 3.7 Good practice in program delivery 3.8 Benefits of father involvement in child and family services 4 Discussion and conclusion 4.1 Conclusion