Rebecca Bennett (she/her)

Tertiary mathematics teaching is predominantly face-to-face, yet large, diverse cohorts and limited contact hours constrain opportunities for individually paced practice and timely feedback. We developed three bespoke, self-paced online numeracy modules, each targeting a specific mathematical concept and disciplinary context. Module design was informed by learning theory (constructivist, active learning, Universal Design for Learning, inclusive learning practices). We ran a qualitative pilot study to gain insight into user perceptions of modules in terms of engagement and perceived learning support, conducting semi-structured interviews with undergraduate science students (n = 11) and educators (n = 7). We applied thematic analysis to interview data, which generated the following insights. Students—many reporting high mathematics anxiety—responded positively, valuing low-stakes iterative practice, clear stepwise scaffolding, multimodal presentation, contextualized examples aligned to their course, and a supportive instructor voice. These features were described as reducing anxiety, reframing errors as part of learning, and supporting inclusion, despite prevalent math avoidance in the cohort. Staff feedback was more cautious, recognizing similar strengths but focusing on areas for improvement. We argue that bespoke, contextualized modules can augment face-to-face instruction by delivering individualized pacing and immediate feedback at scale, while contributing to the creation of an accessible, inclusive, supportive learning environment. Future work should quantify learning outcomes, track affective changes longitudinally, and isolate contributions of specific design features across diverse cohorts and disciplines.

This paper reveals the discursive mechanisms through which generative AI reinforces societal hegemony and denies scope for Indigenous Data Sovereignty (IDS). We interrogate the implicit positionality of text-based generative AI Large Language Models (LLMs) through responses to a single ontological question: What is life's purpose? The first answer to this question was then modified by three respective prompts: ‘Indigenise response’; ‘queer response’; ‘Indigenise and queer response’. The baseline (normative) response focused on global impact, personal joy, continuous growth, inspiring others, and creating a legacy; an ‘Indigenous’ modifier focused on nature, connection, community, ancestors, and sharing knowledge; a ‘queer’ modifier returned a politicised purpose of radical kindness, LGBTQ+ rights, and inclusivity, and the ‘Indigenous-queer’ modifier returned a randomised mash-up of the previous responses, loosely focused on cultural strength and queer liberation. Comparative critical discourse analysis of the findings, from our Indigenous, queer, and Indigenous-queer author positionalities, found that Indigenised life purpose was positioned outside of settler colonialism, denying the situatedness of Indigenous ways of knowing, being, and doing within coloniality and the related IDS priority issues of sovereignty and self-determination. Conversely, queered life purpose was radical and resistive, an inherently political way of being with no scope for existing outside of politics. The intersectional response was not cohesive, but it did both contain political and apolitical elements. This analysis exposes the limits of LLMs such as ChatGPT for IDS priorities such as community speaking for community and control of our own narratives and ontologies. It debunks notions of AI neutrality by highlighting settler colonial, cis-hetero-normative, and otherising responses within in seemingly ‘apolitical’ tech. GPT thus provides a contemporaneous example of the hegemonic systems the IDS movement is challenging. Further, intersectionality is revealed as a potential hegemonic disrupter through the system's inability to control a narrative that includes multiple identities.

A field trial of a home-delivered hearing and vision support intervention will assess its impact on the quality of life and well-being of home care recipients with hearing and/or vision impairment and their care partners.
This paper outlines the protocol for a process evaluation of the field trial. The process evaluation aims to identify discrepancies between expected and actual outcomes, understand contextual influences, assess implementation fidelity and evaluate the feasibility, appropriateness and acceptability of the intervention.
Data will be collected from 87 home care recipients with hearing/vision impairment, their care partner and the sensory therapist who will deliver the intervention at multiple points during the 3-month intervention. Likert-scale ratings for feasibility, appropriateness and acceptability will be gathered. Proxy measures of fidelity, such as intervention session completion rates, will be obtained to ascertain whether the intervention was delivered as designed. Post-intervention, 20% of participants will complete semi-structured interviews to explore contextual and causal factors. Data analysis will include descriptive statistics, regression analysis and thematic qualitative analysis.
The process evaluation will elicit the perspectives of home care recipients and their care partners regarding the intervention experience.
Older adults with lived experience with dementia and hearing and/or vision will contribute to the proposed research by shaping the interview topic guide to ensure its appropriateness and relevance for the target population. Their insights will result in a more rigorous study and improve the likelihood of the final intervention meeting real-world needs.

Objective
Skin health is widely recognised as being important for overall good health and well-being, yet the burden of skin infections in remote Aboriginal communities remains high. This project aimed to explore if virtual support for skin health could be a strategy to reduce community barriers to skin health engagement.

Methods
This study collected qualitative data using a yarning methodology within a participatory action research design. A community co-researcher who was intimately familiar with the Country, language, and community in which this study was based was employed to guide the research process.

Results
The final dataset comprised of interviews with 21 participants. Three primary themes were identified including: Reach Further into the Community with Education and Skin Checks, Virtual Skin Health Support is not Preferred but Acceptable, and Environmental Health Cannot be Ignored.

Conclusions
Participants provided several suggestions on improving health promotion messaging within community whilst emphasising the need for a stronger focus on environmental health. The employment of a community co-researcher was integral to informing the methodology.

Implications for Public Health
This project provides further evidence of the significance of community engagement, inclusion and capacity building when conducting research in remote Aboriginal communities and the benefits of two-way learning as foundational to good research practices.

There is an urgency in Australia around addressing the question as to why there is a lack of women in STEM leadership positions. Previous research has engaged with this concept, but statistics on women entering leadership have not dramatically shifted (Ladkin & Probert, 2019; Roberts, 2014; Rice, 2017; Still, 2006; White, 2015). This phenomenon aligns with Australia's national gender pay gap, which is currently at 13% (Australian Government, 2022), meaning women earn substantially less than men.

Based on a qualitative study, this presentation highlights gender (in)equity and women's experiences with STEM leadership in Western Australia's private sector. Showcasing emergent themes, and based on semi-structured interviews, the presentation reports on women's narratives about their opportunities and challenges in STEM. Findings will be particularly useful for educational stakeholders and decision makers in the private, public and not-for-profit sectors.

This chapter explores engaging Indigenous university students and draws lessons for other under-served student groups. It begins with an overview of historical policies that have hindered Indigenous inclusion in higher education. We discuss the concept of Indigenous relationality, highlighting its significance for Indigenous student engagement. Case studies illustrate how universities incorporate Indigenous relationality practices. Additionally, the chapter explores how a relational approach benefits other equity groups, such as international and mature-aged students. Finally, it discusses recommendations for applying Indigenous relationality practices across university operations.

Previous studies on the impacts of racism on adolescent development have largely overlooked Indigenous youth. We conducted a scoping review of the empirical literature on racism against Indigenous adolescents to determine the nature and scope of this research and to establish associations with developmental outcomes. Our literature search resulted in 32 studies with samples from the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. Studies were limited to self-reported experiences of racism and thus primarily focused on perceived discrimination. Quantitative studies found small to moderate effects of perceived discrimination on adolescent psychopathology and academic outcomes. Qualitative studies provided insight into structural forms of racism. We offer recommendations for future investigations into the impacts of overt and covert racism on Indigenous adolescents.

Successive generations of First Nation scholars have critiqued the ongoing institutional and disciplinary complicity of Higher Education to support settler colonialism. These critiques extend to include Cultural Studies, despite the field’s inter (anti)disciplinary efforts to expose power and inequality in social relations, dominant institutions, popular culture, and everyday life. As part of the university-machine, Cultural Studies is disconnected from the inherently pedagogical experiences and knowledge of Culture and Country for many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. With an emphasis on praxis, we critique three autoethnographic examples of interactions between Indigenous agents and the settler colonial academe as a call to mobilize Cultural Studies literacies as a pedagogy of critical allyship to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander scholars. Cultural Studies as critical allyship pedagogy supports non-Indigenous agents to conduct rigorous critique of internalized and institutional settler colonial hegemony, identifying absences and erasures of Indigenous agency, autonomy, and self-determination. These gaps and silences are not for allies – or Cultural Studies – to fill; rather the project is to leverage Cultural Studies methodologies to cede epistemological space in the academe to Indigenous ways of knowing and being without intervention, assimilation, or academic critique.

Poor numeracy/quantitative skills (QS) development is a widespread issue across Australian tertiary education. Lack of fundamental QS can impede students' progression in STEM degrees, and disadvantage individual students across other domains of life (e.g., financial literacy and active citizenship). Our ACDS-funded Diversity in Numbers (DiN) project seeks to evaluate a targeted, course-wide, just-in-time model for undergraduate development of QS. Digital numeracy modules will be designed to scaffold QS development through embedded interactive content and rich automated feedback. Each module targets a core QS concept (e.g., statistical testing, unit conversions, mathematical relationships) and is framed around a published article relevant to unit content, to expand student awareness of numbers as a tool across diverse fields of science. Given the ongoing under-representation of women, LGBTIQA+ people and other minorities in STEM, the selection of journal articles aims to increase students' appreciation of diversity from many different viewpoints, while developing their QS. At a broader level, the project aims to address the ongoing lack of diversity among STEM graduates and within the STEM workforce by enabling students to "see themselves" within published research. Here we will present the design of our research project to assess the success of our pilot DiN modules.

This conceptual article asserts the importance of building and sustaining trust between higher education students and practitioners within the online environment. Instilling trust can construct sustainable learning environments that are abundant with collaborative inquiry and dialogue. In this article, we highlight and investigate the conceptual construct of trust and its antecedents. Considering the nature and purpose of interpersonal trust in student-instructor relationships within online higher education institutions, we explore several factors (in particular, performativity, casualisation of teaching staff, neoliberalism, non-traditional student identities, and the digital divide) which influence the development of trust. We also investigate the role of trust in influencing student engagement and achievement, in terms of attainment of academic goals. Notably, we highlight the importance of further inquiry into methods of rapport-building in higher education. Theoretical foundations have been drawn from Indigenous scholarship as well as organisational and socio-psychological literature. We close by welcoming further discussion and reflection on institutional practices and performance measures in the digital environment, particularly in terms of whether they allow instructors to embed relational aspects and elicit cognitive and affective trust from their students.