This thesis is an investigation into lesbian, and its primary focus is an analysis of the discursive conditions of the ?sex wars?: a moment in feminist politics in which contestations over sexuality became the central focus of feminist debate. In particular, the question is asked how it was possible for lesbian sadomasochism to be problematized as an ?anti-feminist? sexual practice. Lesbian feminism was committed to a modernist logic which compelled the production of ?regimes of truth?, which promoted a certain construction of ?lesbian? as a privileged form of feminist while problematizing lesbian sadomasochism. This problematization is traced to Enlightenment and humanist logics and precepts operative within feminist, lesbian feminist and gay liberationist discourses. The tendency of modernist discourses to produce singular, exclusionary identity categories and a hierarchical ordering of subject positions is also found to be present within the discourse of contemporary ?queer? theory. It is the contention of this thesis that the work of lesbian writers like Judith Butler, Shane Phelan and Teresa de Lauretis disrupts the modernist logic of the ?one? operative in both lesbian feminism and ?queer? theory and points to the theoretical and political work that needs to be done. The most urgent task facing current lesbian, gay and ?queer? theorists is the elaboration of an ethico-politics of difference, one that is attentive to the mutually constitutive multiple differences within and between subjects. / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

The study focuses on the types of cultural practice that are, in the main, generated by the young people themselves (hereafter referred to as youth generated cultures) who fall within the age group of 14-20 yrs of age. The research was undertaken in the Western Sydney region, which is the largest expanding population in Australia, and is regularly defined as a socio-economically disadvantaged region, therefore, an important factor within this study is the issue of class determinants. The paper explores the youth generated cultural practice of graffiti, skateboarding, street machining, and street dancing. These creative practices challenge traditional notions of culture and the arts, however the young people also employ strategies of an aesthetic nature in their creative process. Youth generated cultures are actively engaged in criticism through the use of instrumentalist aesthetics such as Monroe Beardsley describes. The thesis proposes that youth generated cultures have, in a united and structured manner, provided for themselves a framework of economic and pedagogical support that has afforded them a place within the cultural mainstream without the recognition or approval of mainstream cultural establishments. It is argued that these particular youth generated cultures are not rebellious or destructive subcultures, that they are creative in nature and have been established primarily to produce and display their creative cultures. Youth agency is essential to the character of these youth generated cultures and it is this agency that is under challenge from the cultural hegemony. The young people involved in youth generated cultures demand that any account of their cultural practice must also accept the agency of youth as fundamental to their cultural status. / Master of Arts (Hons) (Art History and Theory)

This research comprised of three studies designed to investigate the coping strategies utilised by high and low performing university students with non-academic stressors. Coping research has frequently focused on single stressors providing a distorted picture of coping. Utilising a combination of quantitative and qualitative methodologies, this research provides new insights into the dynamic and multi-dimensional nature of coping with long-term, multiple stressors. It extends our understanding of coping beyond traditionally individualistic conceptualisations where active coping is valued over prosocial relationship-focused coping. Conceptualisations of social support is broadened to view it in more complex interactional terms. In Study 1, 521 university students were surveyed using a standardised coping inventory, the Ways of Coping Checklist revised. Several demographic groups were identified as at academic risk. Having good health, along with the high use Social Support and Problem Solving and the low use of Self Blame strategies all predicted high GPA. Study 2 involved a content analysis of 179 Exclusion Appeal letters submitted by excluded students. When confronted with multiple stressors, poor performing students compartmentalised or amplified multiple stressors which resulted in patterns of reactive problem-focused or emotion-focused coping. Passive and uni-directional approaches to social support resulted in the depletion of such resources. Study 3 investigated adaptive coping patterns using an open-ended questionnaire and a semi-structured interview with twenty high performing students. High performers viewed multiple stressors as inter-related, which is termed cross situational appraisal and displayed a versatile coping pattern across stressors termed cross situational versatility. Proactive and prosocial coping are critical for the acquisition and maintenance of social support over a long-term period. Implications of these research findings for Student Services staff are discussed. / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Despite the popularity of home program interventions there is little evidence to demonstrate effectiveness, particularly when an explicit family centred framework is adopted. This single-group pre-post design study evaluates the impact of a standardised occupational therapy home program implemented with a group of 20 children (2-7 years, mean age 3.8)with spastic hemiplegic cerebral palsy. The study measured the effect of the program using: goal attainment scaling(GAS);pediatric evaluation of disability inventory (PEDI); and quality of upper extremity test(QUEST). In addition, parent participation intensity was measured through a home program log. The use of a standardised occupational therapy home program for children with cerebral palsy is recommended as an effective method to achieve therapy goals. Further research using more rigorous designs is required to fully explore treatment efficacy. / Master of Science (Hons.)

When students are learning to read, the materials supplied typically will include extensive illustrations. The implicit assumption is that the inclusion of such illustrations will assist students in learning to read. Cognitive load theory suggests that this way of formatting learning materials may not be maximally effective as the inclusion of illustrations with written text constitutes redundant information that may interfere with learning. If working memory resources are devoted to the illustrations rather than the text, as is likely with young children, those resources will be unavailable to decipher the text. The elimination of redundant illustrations may thus enhance learning to read. Three experiments were conducted to investigate the effects of including illustrations in beginning reading materials. Experiment 1 compared reading materials consisting solely of simple prose passages with materials consisting of the same passages plus informative illustrations depicting the content of each passage. Reading proficiency improved more under the no illustrations condition. Experiment 2 compared the informative illustrations with uninformative illustrations. Reading proficiency improved more using uninformative illustrations. Experiment 3 compared uninformative illustrations with no illustrations and found no significant differences between these conditions. These results were interpreted within a cognitive load theory framework. It was concluded that informative illustrations are redundant and so impose an extraneous working memory load that interferes with learning to read.

Children???s attitudes towards school singing have been a growing concern in recent years. While negative attitudes towards school singing have been acknowledged as one of the factors contributing to the decline of singing in schools, these attitudes conflict directly with the socially acceptable, esteemed and desired status that children place on singing in the world in which they live. Given the popularity of singing outside of school, negativity towards singing is of particular concern. Identifying the factors that determine a child???s attitude towards singing in both the school and home context is crucial if positive attitudes towards singing are to be sustained through to adolescence. The purpose of this research was to explore children???s attitudes towards singing in each stage level between Kindergarten and Year 6 in the home and school context, to identify the factors which determine positive and negative attitudes towards singing and to consider the relationships between attitudes in relation to gender. Interviews were conducted with 147 children between Kindergarten and Year 6 in five New South Wales public schools and attitudes towards singing were tested using a three point attitude measurement scale. Further data were collected from 118 parents in order to gain an understanding of children???s singing experience within the home context. Results showed that children???s preference to sing at home, rather than at school, increases with age. While boys have a stronger preference to sing at home than girls, girls are more positive towards school singing. Relational reasons such as fear of criticism and singing in front of others were central reasons for children???s dislike of school singing. While children across all stage levels enjoy singing with CD???s and singing on their own, boys??? particularly enjoy having ownership over song choice and composing their own songs. Lack of song choice and singing in front of others evokes negative attitudes towards singing. Teachers have a strong influence on attitudes towards singing at ES1 and Stage 1 level, however by Year 6, there is a strong correlation between parents and children???s attitudes towards singing. These results provide new insights and implications for the teaching of singing in schools.

This thesis is positioned at the intersection of two fields of research: language and gender and language development, to address the lack of linguistically informed investigation into the emergence of gendered subjectivity. Rather than treat the domain of language and gender research as a site of resolve, the research problematises the area to create a site of contestation by drawing attention to the limitations of research based on a single theoretical framework which proposes unified gender identity as gender difference. Gender will be read not as singular identity but multiple, as a Foucauldian 'nexus of subjectivities'. The study is an investigation into the construction of gendered subjectivity through a critical discourse analysis of a family playing games. The initial contention is that gender is a process which may be performed in multiple ways which are linked to the subject positions taken up in competing discourses. Focusing on children playing games, the study examines how gendered relationships are constructed in discursive practices to propose that it is possible to identify the performance of multiple femininities/masculinites through an analysis of patterns of interaction where the negotiation of power relationships is made visible in language and action. The study is a reflexive ethnographic case study based on data collected of two siblings, a boy and a girl, and their parents playing games at home. Conducted from within a framework which strategically combines poststructuralist readings with linguistic analysis, the research is an example of the viability of 'postlinguistic' approach to discourse analysis. The thesis argues that the study of a culture as it is lived in a family reveals the emergence of gendered subjectivity in the constitutive relationship which exits language, subjectivity and discourse. It is suggested that the development of a child's multiple gendered identities towards normative gender patterns may be traced in the discursive practices which s/he mobilises as a result of the subject positions in which s/he is positioned during the research period / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

In this work, the author aims to trace some of the transformative effects of televisual technologies in contemporary post-industrial culture, and to critically assess their impact on the way knowledge is produced, and experience a sense of embodiment and social agency. The relation between humans and tools is questioned, and the hybridity of words such as technoculture and biotechnology is investigated, arguing that the separation of human and technology,and body and tool, at the level of both existence and knowledge is a synthetic distinction. Specifically, the author concentrates on some of the medium specific effects of postclassical visualising technologies, from high-end ensembles such as virtual reality and medical imaging apparatuses, to the mundane apparatus of television and the remote control device. Such ways of seeing, it is argued, collaborate in producing an emergent tele-body, or a telesomatic mode of perception and knowing which exceeds standard epistemologies of vision in both science and the everyday. This work thus aims to develop a theoretical and conceptual framework for understanding the variable effects of postclassical technovision and televisuality upon our modes of embodiment. / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

This work is a study in some detail of the political history and development of Laos since 1975. The contents include: Origin of the Lao Modern Political Ideology; Backgrounds of the Lao Communist Party; Development of Lao People's Revolutionary Party (LPRP); The LPRP as a ruling party; New economic policy 'Chintanakarn Mai'; Future directions of the LPRP. Several maps, tables, charts and photographs are included in the research / Master of Arts (Hons)

This thesis examined student knowledge about the nature, scope, causes and responses to poverty, student perceptions of the emphasis in the school curricula on poverty and development, student attitudes to poverty and the factors that influence such knowledge and attitudes. Knowledge and attitudes at the end of primary school were compared with those after four years of secondary school in three nations, Australia. The Philippines and Zimbabwe, involving 1296 surveys and 188 interviews. The investigation draws on earlier work in Ireland (Regan, 1996). and is a response to the recent emphasis on the role of schools in development education in Europe (Lemmers, 2001) and the call for a greater emphasis in Australia on this area (Simons. Hart and WTalsh, 1997). The survey compared student understanding with current 'knowledge' in the literature and the interview allowed an examination of the stories students constructed about people in poverty, including their cognitive and affective responses to people in poverty. Results showed that whilst almost all students recognised that poverty exists, they were more likely to define it simply as a lack of income than as a phenomenon involving social power and self esteem. Few students were aware that the majority of the world's poor are female. Nationality was an important predictor of student knowledge and values. Australian students considered nationally based causes (e.g., government, education) to be more important than personal qualities (e.g., laziness) or international causes (e.g., powerful countries). Australian students were also more likely to value hedonism, but it could not be demonstrated conclusively that this affected the ways that they defined poverty and its causes. Filipino students were more likely to perceive poverty as being the fault of the person experiencing poverty and were more pejorative towards the poor. Whilst Filipino and Zimbabwean students considered that they had learnt a lot about poverty, few Australian students thought this to be the case. Students in senior secondary school were not well informed of current understandings about poverty and development and did not possess a significantly greater knowledge than primary school students on these matters. Specifically. current school practices allow students to perceive poverty as primarily income related and do not place due emphasis on internationally related causes.