Associate Professor Kim Snepvangers

This paper will discuss a Distributed Facilitator Framework (DFF) that was created to visualise the reflective practice processes that were utilised to develop educators Teaching International Students (TIS) partnerships. The DFF is non-hierarchical, non-judgmental, authentic, generative, interconnected and inclusive Career Development Learning (CDL) Model. It aims to promote transformative practice with the outcome of producing authentic artefacts to inform TIS. The processes used in educator interactions and knowledge exchange are visualised in the DFF to capture the nuances of moving from the generalised to the specific TIS transformative CDL model. An Action Practitioner Research (APR) methodology over a one-year cycle was utilised to capture design educators’ CDL, which is visually mapped in a flexible, adaptive, practice-based scaffold architecture. How the DFF was created to visually capture an interconnected series of processes and events utilising the Kemmis and Heikkinen, (2011) characteristics of ‘sayings, doings and relatings’ to develop a creative ‘Ecology of Practice’ will be explained. The DFF is underpinned by the theoretical premise of Kruger’s (2013) Iceberg Model for surface and deep culture; the Australian Government International Education Strategy 2025 and Leask and Carroll (2013) ‘Good Practice Principles: Teaching across Cultures’. The DFF provides a reflective practice visualisation that is in the service of providing transformative professional learning, which is transferable to other educational settings and disciplinary contexts. The ultimate objectives of the Ecologies of Practice DFF include engaging in meaningful international educational development and empowering educators to self-direct their own CDL after the TIS scaffold architecture is removed.

This paper investigates how connectedness in graduate employability is discussed in the current topography of Australian international education (IE) policies. Tensions are explored in contemporary media articles (Powell, 2018) where high levels of particularly Chinese students in business courses are questioning continuing to study in Australia, as many peers are also Chinese. In the Art and Design context of a large research-intensive university in Sydney, the Masters of Design postgraduate program attracts high numbers of international students (IS). Participating in real-world learning and Work Integrated Learning (WIL) in the Australian context is both an institutional and individual student aim, yet lack of curriculum articulation and opportunities for ‘connectedness’ with Australian creative industries can impede engagement. A selection of Australian IE policies, strategies and frameworks are reviewed to identify gaps in contextualising graduate connectedness capabilities from a government policy perspective. Four key themes emerge that support employability outcomes by higher education (HE) institutions engaging with quality teaching and learning, demonstrating careful management of IE experience, while supporting the development of partnerships and social networks. We argue that for many IS seeking a creative industry WIL experience, these connections can be difficult to achieve without greater institutional and policy support.

This paper presents a research seminar as a case study to explore the role of artists/educators and agencies in contemporary learning. Drawing on the international report 'Moving Forward on Arts and Education' (2006), a number of potential areas for action emerge: • that we should regard teaching and learning in the arts as open-ended, iterative and evolving, and not necessarily content-driven; • that educators should enhance the learning and development of both artists and educators; • that education should increase the collaborations with other key partners.The paper focuses on the role played by a high profile exhibition of secondary student art in relation to contemporary art practice and art, design and education. The paper discusses how the seminar aimed to generate dialogues around the significance of a key contemporary student exhibition that resides within a web of agencies and institutions.The paper discusses the critical, but largely undiscussed, aspects of a key student exhibition as a public reflection of contemporary art practice, encompassing some of the following themes: • exhibitions and contemporary art/design practice; • dialogues between secondary and tertiary institutions and agencies; • the significance of exhibitions for the public broadly defined.