Students crossing cultural boundaries within a transnational design course in China: An activity theory analysis

<p>The focus of this thesis is on visual communication design (VCD) students’ engagement with creative design process learning within a transnational context. The context is an international partnership between a higher education institution in New Zealand and Hunan City University (HNCU) in China. The Chinese government is currently positioned in a third wave of an internationalisation strategy which encourages cooperative agreements with foreign or overseas institutional partners situated within Chinese universities. For design institutions in particular, the Made in China government initiative has led universities to actively engage with design education approaches imported from the west. The aim for Chinese institutions is to encourage student creativity in order to build on government aspirations to move China from a manufacturing, to an innovation and design led economy. Cultural historic activity theory (CHAT) was used to analyse data from a VCD studio classroom at HNCU in China. A three-level hierarchy of artefacts model was developed for the analysis, which by extention offers a CHAT approach for creative design scenarios. The study had two phases. The first comprised two project-based case studies exploring how creative design process learning occurred when the students were exposed to design thinking. Students were organised into dyads to foster collaborative work for the projects, a branding project, and a cultural project involving illustration design. Data gathered through video stimulated recall interviews with eight dyad participants (sixteen VCD students) and 200 written reflections were analysed. The second phase of the research focused on understanding the cultural and historic pedagogical context. Eight semi-structured interviews were conducted with local teachers at HNCU, and observations were undertaken in Chinese language medium classrooms. Underpinning the findings, are the ways in which Chinese design education practices at HNCU are shaped by an interweaving of Confucian thought within contemporary social and political tenets (e.g., striving for perfection). The analysis revealed that familiar and unfamiliar learning practices, including previous models encountered by students in the classroom, together with an adjustment to new practices, directly impacted student actions. Imported educational practices resulted in tensions and contradictions between step-by-step and iterative design thinking processes, and collaboration within the division of labour. Non-creative and creative activity outcome conclusions were drawn, and it is argued that a fresh perspective emerged. A creative craft practice situated within its historic and cultural context exists at HNCU. Key to the idea of creative craft practice is that historic and current sociocultural contexts participate in the creative process and contextual elements such as materiality, and teaching practices which use imitation, repetition and precedents, are assembled. The practice contained deeply intertwined student object-oriented motives of product over process, and productions of excellence or perfection. Over time, the efficacy of these motives, alongside drawing from examples for conceptual development, led to enhanced student agency and engagement. This overall finding challenges the creativity deficit belief about students from China, and the originality syndrome imposed on VCD students. The contribution is timely owing to a dearth of studies about graphic or VCD education in general and the potential influence of transnational teaching on creative design process learning in China.</p>

Students crossing cultural boundaries within a transnational design course in China: An activity theory analysis

<p>The focus of this thesis is on visual communication design (VCD) students’ engagement with creative design process learning within a transnational context. The context is an international partnership between a higher education institution in New Zealand and Hunan City University (HNCU) in China. The Chinese government is currently positioned in a third wave of an internationalisation strategy which encourages cooperative agreements with foreign or overseas institutional partners situated within Chinese universities. For design institutions in particular, the Made in China government initiative has led universities to actively engage with design education approaches imported from the west. The aim for Chinese institutions is to encourage student creativity in order to build on government aspirations to move China from a manufacturing, to an innovation and design led economy. Cultural historic activity theory (CHAT) was used to analyse data from a VCD studio classroom at HNCU in China. A three-level hierarchy of artefacts model was developed for the analysis, which by extention offers a CHAT approach for creative design scenarios. The study had two phases. The first comprised two project-based case studies exploring how creative design process learning occurred when the students were exposed to design thinking. Students were organised into dyads to foster collaborative work for the projects, a branding project, and a cultural project involving illustration design. Data gathered through video stimulated recall interviews with eight dyad participants (sixteen VCD students) and 200 written reflections were analysed. The second phase of the research focused on understanding the cultural and historic pedagogical context. Eight semi-structured interviews were conducted with local teachers at HNCU, and observations were undertaken in Chinese language medium classrooms. Underpinning the findings, are the ways in which Chinese design education practices at HNCU are shaped by an interweaving of Confucian thought within contemporary social and political tenets (e.g., striving for perfection). The analysis revealed that familiar and unfamiliar learning practices, including previous models encountered by students in the classroom, together with an adjustment to new practices, directly impacted student actions. Imported educational practices resulted in tensions and contradictions between step-by-step and iterative design thinking processes, and collaboration within the division of labour. Non-creative and creative activity outcome conclusions were drawn, and it is argued that a fresh perspective emerged. A creative craft practice situated within its historic and cultural context exists at HNCU. Key to the idea of creative craft practice is that historic and current sociocultural contexts participate in the creative process and contextual elements such as materiality, and teaching practices which use imitation, repetition and precedents, are assembled. The practice contained deeply intertwined student object-oriented motives of product over process, and productions of excellence or perfection. Over time, the efficacy of these motives, alongside drawing from examples for conceptual development, led to enhanced student agency and engagement. This overall finding challenges the creativity deficit belief about students from China, and the originality syndrome imposed on VCD students. The contribution is timely owing to a dearth of studies about graphic or VCD education in general and the potential influence of transnational teaching on creative design process learning in China.</p>

The role of grassroots administrators in building international partnerships

This article explores how grassroots administrators interact with various other actors in the process of forming international partnerships. A top-down and a bottom-up case of building international partnerships for masters and PhD programmes were selected from my fieldwork in a Danish university. The cases were elaborated and analysed using Tatiana Fumasoli’s organisational approach to multi-level governance in higher education. This article concludes that with their personal networks and knowledge about the normative frameworks of certain powerful actors, grassroots administrators could help academic staff who might not know the regulations involved in the internationalisation process, to balance their own interests with their intention of complying with the normative frameworks, and thus enhance their capacities of forming and participating in a successful international partnership.

Gastrocnemius medialis contractile behavior during running differs between simulated Lunar and Martian gravities

The international partnership of space agencies has agreed to proceed forward to the Moon sustainably. Activities on the Lunar surface (0.16 g) will allow crewmembers to advance the exploration skills needed when expanding human presence to Mars (0.38 g). Whilst data from actual hypogravity activities are limited to the Apollo missions, simulation studies have indicated that ground reaction forces, mechanical work, muscle activation, and joint angles decrease with declining gravity level. However, these alterations in locomotion biomechanics do not necessarily scale to the gravity level, the reduction in gastrocnemius medialis activation even appears to level off around 0.2 g, while muscle activation pattern remains similar. Thus, it is difficult to predict whether gastrocnemius medialis contractile behavior during running on Moon will basically be the same as on Mars. Therefore, this study investigated lower limb joint kinematics and gastrocnemius medialis behavior during running at 1 g, simulated Martian gravity, and simulated Lunar gravity on the vertical treadmill facility. The results indicate that hypogravity-induced alterations in joint kinematics and contractile behavior still persist between simulated running on the Moon and Mars. This contrasts with the concept of a ceiling effect and should be carefully considered when evaluating exercise prescriptions and the transferability of locomotion practiced in Lunar gravity to Martian gravity.

Deep borehole disposal of intermediate-level waste

Around the world, deep borehole disposal is being evaluated for intermediate-level waste (ILW), high-level waste (HLW), spent nuclear fuel (SNF), separated plutonium waste and some very high specific activity fission product waste. In Australia, long-lived ILW from research reactors and radiopharmaceutical production represents the principal waste stream that requires deep geologic disposal. Whilst the Australian government has not yet made a decision on its preferred strategy for ILW disposal, deep borehole disposal of small volumes of ILW would be a more cost-effective and modular solution compared to a conventional geologic disposal facility (GDF). CSIRO, ANSTO and SANDIA have created an international partnership to execute a full-scale borehole research, development and demonstration (RD&amp;D) project in Australia. The project will demonstrate the technical feasibility of the long-term safety of borehole disposal in deep geological formations. The execution of this project could also demonstrate options for nuclear waste disposal that would reduce proliferation risks, potentially up to the termination of compliance with international safeguards requirements. The RD&amp;D includes demonstration of surface handling and waste/seal emplacement capabilities, basic research on foundational science areas, and full-scale field testing in both a deep characterization borehole and a larger-diameter (0.7 m or 27.5 inch) 2000 m deep demonstration borehole. The multi-barrier system designed for such a deep disposal borehole concept places much less reliance on engineered barriers at the disposal zone to achieve safety as compared to a conventional GDF. It rather relies on geological features for waste containment. The concept being explored uses disposal containers with primary waste packages, such as vitrified waste canisters, inside; to be both cost effective and fit for purpose, such a container could have a mild steel-based structural component with copper coating. A critical review of six coating technologies showed that cold spray has the greatest advantages, such as minimal porosity and compressive residual stress. The RD&amp;D has delivered novel enabling tools that assist with site screening, borehole design and post-closure safety assessments. For instance, an automated geological fault mapping and meshing tool was developed that assists with ranking the suitability of potential disposal sites based on proximity to faults. New codes were developed for better representation of fault zones in 2D/3D numerical flow and transport models, while also being more efficient to execute. Post-closure safety assessments tested the sensitivity of long-term safety with respect to disposal depth, rock permeability and sorption. Heat transport calculations explored the sensitivity of temperature evolution within the borehole to parameters such as heat load, borehole depth, geothermal gradients and rock thermal conductivity. For verification of host rock tightness while also demonstrating the absence of recent groundwater, a new noble gas analytical facility has been established for measuring rare noble gases in mineral fluid inclusions as indicators of very old pore fluids.

The Global Knowledge Value Chain on Sustainability: Addressing Fragmentations through International Academic Partnerships

While research on universities’ role in sustainability transitions has flourished in recent years, explorations into the potential of academic internationalization for the promotion of sustainability transitions are still rare. This article aims at contributing to this incipient literature by emphasizing an underexplored property of international academic networks and transnational academic cooperation: their potential to break disciplinary and geographical barriers in the global debates on how transitions towards sustainability can be achieved. When realizing this potential, international partnerships are able to provide more comprehensive knowledge to inform sustainability transitions while shaping sustainability transitions in various places at the same time. This article pursues three objectives: First, it introduces the concept of the “global knowledge value chain on sustainability” and explores its value as a heuristic to understand global knowledge production relevant for sustainability transitions. Furthermore, it identifies two fragmentations in this chain resulting from global inequalities and specific dynamics within the global science community. Second, it confirms empirically the fragmentations of this global knowledge value chain on sustainability. Third, it provides good practice ideas on how international academic partnerships can overcome these fragmentations by drawing on the authors’ experience with the international partnership “trAndeS—Postgraduate Program on Social Inequalities and Sustainable Development in the Andean Region” carried out by the Institute of Latin American Studies of Freie Universität Berlin and the Department of Social Sciences of the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Peru (PUCP).

Impact of Technological Changes on the Social Relations of Production. Steel and Automotive Industries

This article aims to analyze the development of the productive forces as a central element to understand the modifications generated in the social relations of production, as shown by the technological changes incorporated into the production process in the automotive and steel industries in Mexico. This work was based on the most recent technological revolutions and the productive reconfiguration that results from them. In a second moment, the impact of technological advances on the social relations of production upon the aforementioned industries was analyzed. Through the dialectical method, elements were proposed to suggest that the technological development achieved in these cases has led to a production process that functions as a global chain of social events, which generate social products, where the trend in innovation is to implement cooperative practices of international partnership.

Building Capacity in Monitoring Urban Liveability in Bangkok: Critical Success Factors and Reflections from a Multi-Sectoral, International Partnership

Cities are widely recognised as important settings for promoting health. Nonetheless, making cities more liveable and supportive of health and wellbeing remains a challenge. Decision-makers’ capacity to use urban health evidence to create more liveable cities is fundamental to achieving these goals. This paper describes an international partnership designed to build capacity in using liveability indicators aligned with the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and social determinants of health, in Bangkok, Thailand. The aim of this paper is to reflect on this partnership and outline factors critical to its success. Partners included the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration, the UN Global Compact—Cities Programme, the Victorian Government Department of Health and Human Services, the Victorian Health Promotion Foundation, and urban scholars based at an Australian university. Numerous critical success factors were identified, including having a bilingual liaison and champion, establishment of two active working groups in the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration, and incorporating a six-month hand-over period. Other successful outcomes included contextualising liveability for diverse contexts, providing opportunities for reciprocal learning and knowledge exchange, and informing a major Bangkok strategic urban planning initiative. Future partnerships should consider the strategies identified here to maximise the success and longevity of capacity-building partnerships.

Cooking up engagement during a pandemic: The international Great Rare Books Bake Off between the Penn State and Monash University Libraries

In July 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, the Monash University Library in Melbourne, Australia, and the Penn State University Libraries in Pennsylvania, USA, leveraged their previously established international sister-library partnership to host a virtual engagement event focused on promoting the partnership and selected special collections at both institutions. The Monash–Penn State Great Rare Books Bake Off, a friendly competition collaboratively developed by the two academic libraries, engaged both institutions’ communities with their collections and resources by inviting participants to bake featured recipes from their collections and post evidence of their experiences on social media platforms. In addition to promoting awareness of the institutions’ international partnership and their respective collections, a primary goal of the collaborative project was to offer their local communities an enjoyable and creative outlet during a difficult time. This illustrative case study describes how the two institutions planned, executed, and assessed the project.