Brenton Prosser

• BA (Hons), GDE, PhD
• Professor - Public Policy & Leadership at UNSW Sydney

https://www.mup.com.au/items/152294

A growing body of research suggests the existence of a disconnection between citizens, politicians and representative politics in advanced industrial democracies. This has led to a literature on the emergence of post-democratic or post-representative politics that connects to a parallel seam of scholarship on the capacity of deliberative democratic...

In recent times Australia has developed into one of the world’s leading liberal democracies. Its governments have delivered continuous economic growth for more than three decades, even against the turmoil of a global pandemic. And the country’s highly competitive elections and strong political institutions operate within a stable and balanced feder...

https://books.google.com.au/books?hl=en&lr=&id=pYY9DwAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PT62&ots=3_XmdVSf0c&sig=_gnD7lnh6EvA3Kdyj6CjGm5SrLc#v=onepage&q&f=false

In the context of ongoing debates around academic engagements with policymakers, this article discusses how academics can successfully engage with the often overlooked institution of Parliament. We argue that the UK Parliament is not a homogeneous organisation but has differing knowledge requirements for different parliamentary sites. While there a...

Foreword In a paper presented to the Bri/sh Poli/cal Studies Associa/on in April 2023, the authors explored the poten/al for the adop/on of new 'policy styles' by Australian public administra/on to liB levels of policy success and public trust. The underlying argument was that while policy disasters have significant impact, it is the day-today diff...

https://theconversation.com/rise-of-anti-politics-produces-surprise-result-in-the-uk-election-and-its-playing-a-role-in-australia-too-78813

The current process of devolving powers within England constitutes a significant change of governance arrangements. This process of devolution has been widely criticised for including insufficient consultation. This paper assesses whether that criticism is fair. Modifying Archon Fung’s framework for the analysis of public participation mechanisms,...

There has been a transformation since September 2014 in the prominence of ideas around the use of deliberative mini-publics in British politics. This transformation has occurred in part because of real-world events and processes: the Scottish independence referendum was the immediate catalyst; widespread public disillusionment with established repr...

https://www.echobooks.com.au/book-shop/from_abbott_to_turnbull

The Cities and Local Government Devolution Bill 2015–2016[HL] was introduced into the House of Lords as Bill No. 1 in the 2015–2016 parliamentary session. The Bill forms a critical element of the government's high-profile policy of devolving powers and responsibilities to local areas within England. The transition from first-generation ‘city deals’...

The Citizens’ Assembly pilots on local democracy and devolution were the first of their kind in the United Kingdom. Organised by Democracy Matters — an alliance of university researchers and civil society organisations led by Professor Matthew Flinders — and funded by the UK’s Economic and Social Research Council, the Assemblies took place in South...

Background: The Nurse Practitioner – Aged Care Models of Practice Initiative supported the roll-out of a range of Nurse Practitioner models of practice, across Australia. One of these models was a community-based clinic-located practice, situated in a remote tourist destination where there is no resident general practitioner. Services were deliver...

The Citizens’ Assembly pilots on local democracy and devolution were the first of their kind in the United Kingdom. Organised by Democracy Matters — an alliance of university researchers and civil society organisations led by Professor Matthew Flinders — and funded by the UK’s Economic and Social Research Council, the Assemblies took place in South...

The Nurse Practitioner–Aged Care Models of Practice Program involved diverse models of practice comprising multiple stakeholders located in more than 30 locations across Australia, in remote, rural, urban, and metropolitan settings. Funded by the Australian government, the aims of the program included supporting development of effective, economical...

Psychostimulant medication is considered a mainstay in the treatment of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD); however, research suggests that the typical duration of medication treatment for children and youth may be <3 years. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the psychostimulant treatment persistence for children and adolescents...

A steady decline in major party support in Commonwealth nations has resulted in changing parliamentary compositions, including the growing prevalence of minority government. Such situations pose new questions for notions of government legitimacy within Westminster systems. For instance, is negotiation with cross-benchers an example of government il...

Over the last twenty years, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) has become one of the most diagnosed childhood disorders in the western world. Research within the disciplines of psychiatry and criminology has increasingly identified a link between ADHD, delinquency and crime. So far, consideration of ADHD from sociological perspectives...

Within Westminster-based majority parliaments, the presence of minority government runs contrary to the conventional wisdom. Over the last 40 years, however, there has been a steady voting trend away from major parties in many of these parliaments. The complex composition of the Australian Senate after July 2014 reinforces that non-ministerial marg...

Panel: T03P11 - International examples in the Political Process of Policymaking

https://theconversation.com/what-westminster-can-learn-from-minority-government-in-australia-41239

http://theconversation.com/time-to-listen-to-the-evidence-for-a-rethink-of-super-tax-concessions-41088

Emotions have been the subject of social science research for many decades. Predominantly, this research has been orientated around research on emotion. While this genre of research focuses on emotion as a topic of inquiry, I propose that research with emotion can contribute to different ways of understanding social experience. Due to a different e...

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is the most commonly diagnosed childhood mental disorder in the western world (Barkley, 2005; Berbatis et al., 2002). Diagnosis, intervention and support for ADHD in both these nations are based on the guidelines provided by the American Psychiatric Association. However, ADHD is more than just a medic...

Background: Nurse Practitioners are Registered Nurses with the knowledge, skills and regulatory endorsement to practice in advanced and extended roles that include, but are not limited to undertaking comprehensive health assessments, ordering diagnostic tests, prescribing medication and referring to other health professionals for specialist treatme...

Objective: There is a need for Australian studies of ADHD that utilize the individual child as the unit of analysis because they provide a more accurate picture of national patterns (in new prescriptions, start age, and duration). The aim of this study was to build toward a national picture of patterns in psychostimulant use for ADHD by undertaking...

The matter of legitimate forms of control over public policy and accountability for resulting policy outcomes is a central feature of governance theory. However, a review of the subject index of prominent handbooks on governance will reveal neither the words ‘legislature’ nor ‘parliament’. This is because governance literatures have developed again...

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is the most commonly diagnosed childhood mental disorder in the United States and Australia. Diagnosis, intervention and support for ADHD in both these nations is based on the guidelines provided by the American Psychiatric Association (APA). The revision of the ADHD guidelines within the APA's latest...

http://journals.heacademy.ac.uk/doi/abs/10.11120/elss.2014.00034

https://theconversation.com/its-not-a-crime-to-have-adhd-26307

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1753-6405.12154/abstract

Recently, the Australian Government has provided significant support for the expansion of Nurse Practitioner services in the community. As a result, the emerging role and ongoing retention of these professionals is an area for policy investigation. However, there is also a broader significance in the Nurse Practitioner role for which sociological p...

Aim: To consider evidence surrounding the emerging role of nurse practitioners in Australia with a particular focus on the provision of healthcare to older people. Methods: Methods used included keyword, electronic database and bibliographic searches of international literature, as well as review of prominent policy reports in relation to aged c...

A recent commentary reignited discussion within this journal about the access by clinicians to the updated Australian National Guidelines on Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) (The Royal Australian College of Physicians, 2009). We seek to extend this debate by noting that the new Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (D...

http://theconversation.com/living-in-an-i-world-a-new-way-to-think-about-work-life-conflict-16605

http://theconversation.com/why-palmers-pups-are-unlikely-to-block-the-senate-19061

http://www.crikey.com.au/2013/08/14/why-all-the-hang-ups-over-a-hung-parliament/

http://theconversation.com/the-retiring-independents-looking-inside-the-balance-of-power-15690

The advent of post-industrialism in western societies saw social theorists pay greater attention to the blurring of traditional work and life conceptual categories and the growing role of service professions. Further, much of the theorisation around the human service professions has focussed on occupational stress and professional burnout. This foc...

http://theconversation.edu.au/we-need-a-different-national-conversation-about-adhd-9289

http://theconversation.edu.au/integrity-for-all-who-is-keeping-the-crossbenchers-honest-8037

There is always a need for new measures of public accountability and integrity, not so much because current systems are lacking, but because new challenges constantly arise. One such challenge is emerging as parliamentary systems within Westminster-influenced jurisdictions are becoming more accustomed to minority parties and/or independents playing...

Research within the disciplines of Social Work and Education has for sometime acknowledged the tragedy, trauma, conflict and misery that can be experienced by workers in their associated professions. More recently, there has been an aligned interest in the role of passion, emotion and energy in sustaining these professionals through such experience...

Currently, a range of common terms are being used differently within government and the emergency management community. This paper provides a foundation for an understanding of the term 'resilience' so that constructive discussion can emerge amongst those involved in disaster management policy and practice. In doing so, we provide a short review of...

Many researchers devoted to changing education policy give up on sharing their research findings through news media. To feel that one's work has been oversimplified or misrepresented wears down even the most dedicated public scholar, leaving them to wonder if contributing to debate is worth the frustration and disappointment that results. However,...

Research with young people who ‘do not fit the mould’ requires innovative and unconventional methods, but what are the implications of such methods for scholarly representation? This paper reports on the development of such a method with students diagnosed Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder and offers one view of the borderland spaces and ten...

Many teachers leave the profession within five years of graduation, which is an issue of concern for teacher educators, education researchers, and education policy makers. In Western nations, between 25 and 40 percent of teachers stop teaching within five years of commencing (Hunt and Carroll 2003). Other estimates claim that up to 30 percent leave...

Recent scholarship has identified the emergence of a new modality of policy work: the mediatisation of policy. This paper provides an Australian case study which reports on the tactics of an Australian Federal Minister of Education and a media commentator who both engaged in public pedagogical work for the purpose of spinning education policy. In p...

The aim of the present study was to undertake a retrospective analysis of archival data on psychostimulant prescriptions from South Australia for the periods 1990-2000 and 2001-2006 for 7849 youths aged from birth to 18 years. A person-based data set was used to assess: (i) rate of new prescriptions by age group; (ii) demographic characteristics (a...

The state of Middle Schooling in many Western countries has been described as under threat, at a crossroads and like a wasteland. Within Australia, it has also been claimed that the past generation focus on Middle Schooling is unfinished and exhausted. But a Middle Schooling movement continues in Australia that provides examples of a way out of a s...

In this paper, we draw on accounts from students to inform a Middle Schooling movement that has been variously described as “arrested”, “unfinished” and “exhausted”. We propose that if the Middle Schooling movement is to understand the changing worlds of students and develop new approaches in the middle years of schooling, then it is important to d...

In this paper we explore the possibilities for redesigning pedagogy in the middle years of schooling. We think that the middle schooling movement in Australia is unfinished because the pedagogical reforms promised have been patchy, not well researched and difficult to sustain. As well, middle schooling is a little exhausted because it has failed to...

This paper reports on a series of interviews from within a critical action research study with teachers in Adelaide’s northern fringe. These interviews focused on what motivated and sustained teachers who had worked for many years within an area of significant socioeconomic challenge. In the context of a synthesis between critical and mythopoetic a...

A psycho‐medical discourse that explains behavioural dysfunction through neurological deficit has dominated debate about attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). However, if only medical questions are asked, only medical answers will be found, resulting in more or less drug treatment. When behavioural dysfunction results in impairment withi...

The challenges associated with disengaged middle school students are often understood through deficit views, either of teacher or student. A focus on 'behaviour management' can frame students with difficulty as difficult students, while a focus on 'quality curriculum' can miss other influences and blame teachers for students remain ing disengaged....

A medical model that explains behavioural dysfunction through neurological deficit has dominated debate about Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). Many western educators have adopted this model, resulting in efforts to integrate students back into mainstream schooling without questioning the role of schools and pedagogy. This paper trac...

A retrospective analysis of archival data on psychostimulant prescriptions from South Australia for the period 1990 to 2000 for 5,189 youths from birth to age 18 years was conducted. A person-based data set was used to assess (1) rate of new prescriptions by age group, (2) demographic characteristics (age of psychostimulant start, male-to-female ra...

With growing numbers of Australian children receiving Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) diagnosis, special educators will increasingly be expected to provide interventions. We outline Australian special education policy and practice regarding ADHD in the public school context. Drawing upon American comparisons, we consider how recent...

There has been rapid growth in the use of medication for treatment of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder in the last decade. This growth has often been explained as the recognition of a condition that affects up to 5% of all young people. The purpose of this study is to compare past medication trends and current usage in Australia with that i...

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is one of the most contentious issues in education today. Currently, the behaviours that constitute ADHD are portrayed as resulting from an underlying medical/psychiatric disorder. We argue that this perspective on ADHD has little direct utility for educators and may actually be counterproductive in t...

This paper explores how critical awareness can be fostered within the life narratives of young people. In the process it discusses the origins, strengths and weaknesses of the critical cover narratives approach, with particular reference to current research into Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). The paper will conclude with a brief c...

Abstract Research with young ,people who ,‘do not fit the mould’ requires innovative and unconventional methods. This paper reports on the,development,of such,a method,with students diagnosed Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (Prosser, 2006). In doing so, itoffers one researcher’s view of aspects ,of the ,‘borderland spaces and tensions’ (Cl...

Abstract Researching young people who ,‘do not fit the mould’ ,often requires innovative and unconventional,methods. This paper reports on a ,study that worked ,with students diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) to produce ,stories about their schooling experiences (Prosser, 2006). In doing so, it offers one researcher’s v...