'A tough place to grow up in if you are not a well-dressed, sport and beach-loving, good looking young human being’ or 'Looking at society through a bigger window' — A student-based investigation into the cultural construction of knowledge, values and practices

Abstract

In 2003, five QUT academics, including two from the School of Humanities and Human Resources, successfully applied for a Teaching and Learning Large Grant to 'Internationalise the Curriculum' in the university. Part of the project consisted of a number of student-focused case studies. With a particular emphasis on assessment, the case study investigated in this paper involved seventy Australian and seventy international students attending QUT. For the Australian students, the activity was a requirement of a Brisbane history elective and for the international students, an assessed task within an Australian Studies unit designed specifically for non-Australians. In groups, the students firstly determined five positive and five negative aspects of living in Brisbane. Upon combining with their Australian or international counterparts, most found the differences in belief systems and attitudes surprising. This paper particularly examines how, for students and the lecturer alike, the project was enlightening, with the students’ self-initiated learning offering unexpected insights and pedagogical understandings.