Arts therapies treatments offer patients therapy through primarily nonverbal means (i.e., art forms such as music, art, drama, and dance movement). They are particularly effective when normal communication is absent or has broken down. This study used a randomized control design and involved a treatment (n 0/10) and a control (n 0/15) group. Treatment was one of four arts therapies delivered in group or individual format. The authors used four separate questionnaires, administered over a 6-month period, to measure effectiveness. There was also a qualitative interview at the end of that period for the treatment group patients. The numerical results were not conclusive owing to high variability and small sample size, but the qualitative data reveal interesting facets of the process (e.g., that the therapists' and patients' perceptions of the treatment coincided in all treatment cases).

Students in enabling programs bring richness, diversity, and complexity to the teaching and learning environment. They are often from under-represented backgrounds, have experienced educational disadvantage or disruption, belong to multiple equity groups, and face academic and non-academic challenges, including mental ill-health. This pilot study explored academic staff experiences in teaching and supporting students in enabling programs. Using a collaborative autoethnographical approach, four members of a multi-institutional research group wrote first-person reflections in response to guiding questions. From generative and reflective discussions, different themes arose. A major theme was the high ‘emotional labour demands’ of teaching a vulnerable cohort, with both positive and negative effects on staff. Other major themes included: the diversity of emotional responses and coping strategies; the complex, sometimes contradictory, role of the enabling educator; the importance of communities of care and support; and the impact of witnessing students’ transformations. Within these themes, the challenges, rewards, and protective factors, which mitigate stress among enabling educators, were identified.

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An alternate reality game was designed to facilitate transition and engagement amongst students commencing a tertiary preparation program at a regional university in Australia. The design of the game was informed by a student engagement framework which proposes four psychosocial constructs which mediate engagement at the intersection between student and institutional influences: self-efficacy, belonging, well-being, and emotion. The 108 participants completed a survey which measured these constructs prior to the commencement of the game. Game players (n = 13) were surveyed again immediately after the game. The results of statistical analysis indicated that game players reported a greater sense of well-being and more positive emotions than the group surveyed before the game.

Purpose Career education and employability have become Australian university curriculum and pedagogy priorities to meet the changing world of work and federal government parameters linking higher education funding to graduate employment outcomes. This conceptual paper aims to present the hypothesis that emphasis on integrating career education in the curriculum can provide an opportunity to embed future-thinking concepts by reframing future-focussed career education practice to futures focussed. It proposes that using a Futures Senses lens to expand current career pedagogy liberates career education from individualised cognitive decision-making and self-analysis; to include the affective, collective imagining, ancestral voices and innate gifts. Design/methodology/approach A suite of five career education pedagogical tools that have been embedded by the author in the curriculum of an enabling education course in a regional Australian university; are described, analysed and reconceptualised using the Futures Senses. A Causal Layered Analysis provides a layered comparison of future-focussed and futures focussed career education. Discussion The discussion reflects on current pedagogical practice by the author and indicates pragmatic implications for applying a future-focussed approach to career education practice. Implementation of these reimagined activities provides an opportunity for future qualitative research. Originality/value Opportunity exists to leverage rising institutional demands and political agendas of integrating career education in the tertiary curriculum, as a means of embedding futures concepts, thinking and pedagogy. The reimagined activities are a pragmatic offering that can be used by educators to initiate and nurture futures thinking.