Over the last decade authors have critiqued the hegemonic structures that perpetuate knowledge hierarchies in the dominant research regimes that foster privilege across the globe. The authors in this article use collective biography to reflectively engage with knowledge production in the academy. They explore the nature of prudentia as an affective shame that surfaces through reflexive engagement with the politics of research cultures. Collective biography, as a 'grassroots' form of deliberate and collaborative interrogation, produces insight from 'difficult knowledge' that sheds light on power imbalance in North/South relations in research practice. In endeavouring to grapple with Southern Theory, the authors surface 'unwelcome truths'. These disquieting ruptures reveal the power of prudentia for academics who are desirous to unsettle the complacency of Northern assumptions as they engage in an ongoing struggle with doing Southern Theory.

This book discusses the discipline standards of History in Australian universities in order to help historians understand the Threshold Learning Outcomes and to assist in their practical application. It is divided into two sections: The first offers a scholarly exploration of contemporary issues in history teaching, while the second section discusses each of the Threshold Learning Outcomes and provides real-world examples of quality pedagogical practice. Although the book focuses on the discipline of history in Australia, other subjects and other countries are facing the same dilemmas. As such, it includes chapters that address the international context and bring an international perspective to the engagement with discipline standards. The innovation and leadership of this scholarly community represents a new stage in the transformation and renewal of history teaching.

This article discusses the processes and outcomes of inviting a group of undergraduate students to inhabit and then reflect upon peripheral learning spaces in university through a "publishing with students" exercise during an Undergraduate Research Summer School. The students engaged in conversation, discussion, reflection, and writing around their experiences of growing into the realization that they could become researchers. The emergent collegial dialogues crossed and intertwined traditional pathways and signposts for usual academic progression, reaffirming the value of creating alternative and irregular opportunities where transformative learning can occur.

How do you create an innovative academic community of practice between more than a thousand students emanating from across the country and the globe? This was the question put to the UNE Bachelor of Arts Course Committee in 2010. The committee saw the need for effective community building that focused on the processes within the degree structure. The project officer, Adele Nye, was given a general framework to develop a Moodle space that would be interactive, engaging and primarily academic. This was not to be a student support space. UNE already had an award winning student support system. The portal was to create an academic community of practice amongst students; especially off-campus students. It would promote a specific range of learning outcomes including interdisciplinary thinking, developing the notion of the undergraduate researcher and fostering challenging and diverse academic conversations amongst the large cohort. The teaching and learning committee saw an opportunity to roll out the model across all courses in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences. Brian Landrigan was asked to assist in the development of the Online Language Community Commons (OLCC). One of the objectives of the portal was to make it dynamic using available technology. This approach has led to the incorporation of external widgets to facilitate student interaction, with the site and each other. This paper will outline the story of these organic portals and the thinking behind them. To date the university has 21 portals and all continue to promote invigorated engagement for both on-campus and off-campus students.

This paper discusses the way in which postmodern emergence was used to assist a group of undergraduate students come to new understandings of research practice as they participated in a reflective component of an Undergraduate Research Summer School. Students were encouraged to 'write the (researcher) self' through a collaborative writing group based on the theoretical and pedagogical work of Somerville. Postmodern emergence highlights three stages of learning; firstly, assigning time for wondering, then a liminal space for becoming and finally an opportunity for generating new knowledge. This article is both the tangible product of this emergence reflective writing process and a recommendation about the capacity of undergraduate students to engage with their own professionalisation and meaning-making.

A study of the history discipline in Australian universities, historical thinking in higher education, revealed that history academics were particularly modest about their innovative assessment ideas and strategies. This chapter will share some of those practices, which sometimes challenge disciplinary boundaries or revamp standard methods while others entirely disrupt epistemological traditions. Examining these assessment methods confirms the broader findings of the study, which showed that engagement in historical thinking, imagination and analysis required students to be able to locate themselves in the narratives of history and to feel a sense of authentic participation in a disciplinary dialogue. At a time when national benchmarks and standards are being implemented across the sector, it is timely to remind ourselves of the value of creative and alternative assessment strategies.