PESA CONFERENCE 2017 #2 Authors: Gloria Dall’Alba & Jörgen Sandberg Author/s University/institution/affiliation: The University of Queensland, Australia Proposed title: (Re-)Birthing the Self as Professional in Biotechnology Abstract: In education for the professions, students not only learn a broad array of knowledge and skills, but are also transformed on the way to becoming economists, social workers or physiotherapists. What is entailed in this transformation or ‘(re-)birthing of the self’ as professional and how it is enabled through professional education programs is rarely made clear, however. A central aspect of this transformation is that aspiring professionals learn to enact and embody professional practice in learning to be professionals (Dall’Alba 2009). Moreover, Martin Heidegger considers modes of knowing, such as architecture, history and physics, as ways of being human (1927/1962, p. 408). This means we embody our knowing in our ways of teaching, engineering, nursing and so on. As students in professional programs learn to enact what they know, this involves a form of (re-)birthing as (aspiring) professionals, both individually and as part of a profession. This paper explores ambiguities, challenges and successes experienced as this (re-)birthing occurs, while knowing becomes embodied, in the process of learning to be professionals in the newly emergent field of biotechnology. The contributions of this paper are both theoretical and empirical. Drawing upon Merleau-Ponty’s notion of the lived body and subsequent work of others, we outline a theoretical account of (re-)birthing the self, both individually and as part of a profession, in learning to be (aspiring) professionals. In addition, we illustrate and enrich this theoretical account through empirical inquiry into students learning to embody the practice of biotechnology. Keywords (Limit 6 keywords): 1. embodiment 2. lived body 3. professional education Proposed bibliography (key texts): PESA CONFERENCE 2017 1 Dall’Alba, G. (2009). Learning to be professionals . Dordrecht: Springer. Dall’Alba, G. & Sandberg, J. (2014). A phenomenological perspective on researching work and learning. In S. Billett, C. Harteis, & H. Gruber (Eds.), Handbook of research in professional and practice-based learning (pp. 279-304). Dordrecht & New York: Springer. Heidegger, M. (1962/1927). Being and time (J. Macquarrie & E. Robinson, Trans.). New York: SCM Press. Merleau-Ponty, M. (1962/1945). Phenomenology of perception (C. Smith, Trans.). London: Routledge & Kegan Paul. O’Loughlin, M. (2006). Embodiment and education: Exploring creatural existence. Dordrecht: Springer. Sheets-Johnstone, M. (2015). Embodiment on trial: A phenomenological investigation. Continental Philosophy Review , 48, 23-39. Wolkowitz, C. (2006). Bodies at work. Thousand Oaks, Ca & London: Sage. Young, I.M. (1990). Throwing like a girl: A phenomenology or body comportment, motility, and spatiality. In Throwing like a girl and other essays in feminist philosophy and social theory (pp. 141-159). Bloomington: Indiana University Press. Young, I.M. (1984). Pregnant embodiment: Subjectivity and alienation. Journal of Medicine and Philosophy 9, 45-62. PESA CONFERENCE 2017 2 PESA CONFERENCE 2017 #3 Author/s: Dr Yael Klangwisan Author/s University/institution/affiliation: Laidlaw College, New Zealand Proposed title: Learning to live, learning to die: tracing Cixous’s and Derrida’s encounters on mortality Abstract: This paper will trace the remarkable interactions between Hélène Cixous and Jacques Derrida on the subject of life and death. Engaged will be themes and excerpts on life/death from their oeuvre i.e. H.C. for Life, Learning to live finally, The work of mourning, The Gift of Death, The School of the Dead, Rootprints and Hemlock . In terms of this discourse on mortality in literature, I will ask what role learning plays in their coming to face to face, or, as it turns out, finding a place to rest in their discourses. Cixous and Derrida (particularly in Derrida’s description of their sorties in H.C. for Life) engage in an extraordinary demonstration of not only listening to and understanding the other at the edge of death and life, but more in that their discourse itself becomes a poignant, transformational and ultimately humbling learning encounter. Keywords (Limit 6 keywords): 1. Life/Death 2. Learning 3. Jacques Derrida 4. Hélène Cixous 5. Writing Proposed bibliography (key texts): Cixous, Hélène. Hemlock . Cambridge: Polity, 2011 Cixous, Hélène. Rootprints: Memory and Life Writing. London: Routledge, 2014. Cixous, Hélène. The School of the Dead, in Three Steps on the Ladder of Writing . New York: Columbia University Press, 2005 Derrida, Jacques. Learning to live finally : An interview with Jean Birnbaum . Hoboken, N.J: Melville House, 2007. Derrida, Jacques. The gift of death . Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2008. Derrida, Jacques. The work of mourning . Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2003. PESA CONFERENCE 2017 3 PESA CONFERENCE 2017 #7 Author/s: Andrew Gibbons Author/s University/institution/affiliation: Auckland University of Technology Proposed title: Dead on your feet: The subject of early childhood teaching Abstract: This paper reads the song Power and The Passion from Midnight Oil’s first ‘countdown’ in order to explore early childhood teacher subjectivity. The paper takes as its start point the phrase ‘it is better to die on your feet than live on your knees’. Midnight Oil reference Emiliano Zapata phrase in the song’s broad reaching critique of the Australian socio-political landscape. A critical reading of the song is applied in this paper to make sense of the working conditions of early childhood teachers. It takes a leap from the idea of dying on one’s feet to the idea of being already dead on your feet, weaving the themes of the song with research of working conditions to show that early childhood teachers, whether on their knees or on their feet, are treated, and arguably come to understand themselves, as already dead subjects. The paper then turns to the problem of a deadened socio-political audience. While these working conditions have been widely questioned, there has been little traction in terms of significant change in political awareness. Conditions look to be getting worse, with corporate control of the sector growing, and as the OECD promotes more control over the work of teachers. In order to explore this lack of traction and the philosophical implications for the subject of early childhood early childhood teaching, the paper engages with the work of Jacques Rancière on politics, resistance and aesthetics, and Albert Camus on absurdity, resistance, and rebellion. Keywords (Limit 6 keywords): 1. Early childhood teaching 2. Subjectivity 3. Resistance 4. Rancière 5. Camus Proposed bibliography (key texts): Ball, S.J. (2016). Neoliberal education? Confronting the slouching beast. Policy Futures in Education , 14 (8), 1046-1059. Camus, A. (1991). The myth of Sisyphus. In The myth of Sisyphus and other essays (J. O’Brien trans) (pp. 1-138). New York: Vintage International. Camus, A. (1995). Resistance, rebellion, and death: Essays (J. O’Brien trans.). New York: Vintage International. Camus, A. (2002). A happy death (R. Howard trans.) London: Penguin Books. Camus, A. (2000). The stranger (J. Laredo trans.). London: Penguin Books. Bonastre, R. (2011). Beyond rock. Social commitment and political conscience through Popular Music in Australia 1976-2002. The case of Midnight Oil. Coolabah , 5, 54-61. PESA CONFERENCE 2017 4 Brunk, S. (1998). Remembering Emiliano Zapata: Three moments in the posthumous career of the martyr of Chinameca. The Hispanic American Historical Review , 78 (3), 457- 490. May, T. (2008). Political thought of Jacques Rancière: Creating equality . Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. Moloney, M., & Pope, J. (2012). An undervalued, under-appreciated profession, long hours, hard work, poor pay. Early Childhood Care and Education Policy , 114. Moss, P. (2006). Structures, understandings and discourses: Possibilities for re-envisioning the early childhood worker. Contemporary issues in early childhood , 7(1), 30-41. Moss, P. (2010). We cannot continue as we are: The educator in an education for survival. Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood , 11 (1), 8-19. Moss, P., Dahlberg, G., Grieshaber, S., Mantovani, S., May, H., Pence, A., ... & Vandenbroeck, M. (2016). The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s International Early Learning Study: Opening for debate and contestation. Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood , 17 (3), 343-351. Olssen, M., & Peters, M.A. (2005). Neoliberalism, higher education and the knowledge economy: From the free market to knowledge capitalism. Journal of Education Policy , 20 (3), 313-345. Rancière, J. (2010). Dissensus: On politics and aesthetics (S. Corcoran, trans.). London, England: Continuum. Riddle, S. (2012, October). Putting the political into the personal: Midnight Oil and education research. In Proceedings of the 10th Postgraduate and Early Career Research Symposium (PGECR 2012) . University of Southern Queensland. Stevens, R. J. (2004). Peter Garrett, Midnight Oil and their opinions on environmental justice. Retrieved from http://www.angelfire.com/cantina/favouriteurls/Midnight_Oil.html Womack, J. (2011). Zapata and the Mexican revolution . New York: Vintage. PESA CONFERENCE 2017 5 PESA CONFERENCE 2017 #8 Author/s: Peter Strandbrink, Associate professor in political science Author/s University/institution/affiliation: