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The notion of social inclusion has currently gained extraordinary credence in Australia. Policy incorporating social inclusion abounds across all discipline areas with the federal government for the first time instituting a government portfolio for this area, headed by the Deputy Prime Minister. Such a move indicates the importance of managing aspects of inclusion across all sectors, in a country where diversity abounds. However, this focus on inclusion can prove highly problematic, when it becomes such an integral part of policy formulation and of the assumptions, omissions and contradictions that policy produces. This paper examines how policy discourse produces ways of thinking about inclusion/exclusion. Using three vignettes, the author applies the theories of Michel Foucault to argue that the discursive production of such inclusive policy works to simultaneously exclude by categorising particular types of individuals and families as "proper" participants in society. The author contends that understandings of propriety relating to the inclusion/exclusion binary reinscribe each other, in ways that situate particular citizens outside of possibilities for "success" in social and systemic participation. Such understanding is highlighted by a conceptual examination of the ways in which discursively produced notions of propriety become normalised.

This phenomenological study explored how individual young adults understood their lived experience of acquiring life skills with congenital total blindness (CTB). Four young adults with CTB, and five parents of the young adults, participated in the study. In depth, semi-structured interviews were used to gather information from the research participants. The interviews were analysed using interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA). Five superordinate themes emerged from the IPA: (1) life skills acquisition as 'a means to an end', (2) appraising life skills acquisition, (3) acquiring disability-specific skills, (4) reaching adulthood with life skill gaps, and (5) making sense of independence. The findings revealed that the young adults had reached adulthood with significant gaps in their acquisition of basic life skills. This indicates that more needs to be done, to improve the efficacy and meaning of life skill acquisition programmes provided in childhood and adolescence, to young people living with CTB.

Integrated service delivery in the early childhood education and care sector is burgeoning as a direct result of government agendas in Australia that privilege services for young children and families, especially those considered most vulnerable and at risk. In many cases this means reviewing and revising current practice to work more collaboratively with other professionals. This paper reports the findings of one aspect of a larger Australian study entitled: 'Developing and sustaining pedagogical leadership in early childhood education and care professionals'. The focus of this paper is the understandings and practices of professionals in both Queensland and Victoria working in integrated Children's Services across the education, care, community and health sectors. The notion of transdisciplinary practice is also explored as a way to sustain practice. Qualitative data collection methods, including the 'Circles of Change' process, the 'Significant Change' method and semi-structured interviews were used. The findings indicate concerns around professional identity, feeling valued, role confusion and the boundaries imposed by funding regulations. Working in a transdisciplinary way was generally considered a useful way to move practice forward in these settings, although the ramifications for leadership that this approach brings requires further consideration.

There is sparse research on playgroups for fathers, therefore, the benefits of such programmes are difficult to discern. However, there is much research on the positive developmental outcomes children experience with involved fathers (Appl, Brown, & Stone, 2008; Evans, Harrison, Rempel, & Slater, 2006; Green, 2003; Rosenberg & Wilcox, 2006). This research focused on a Dad's playgroup run as part of the Communities for Children Logan Project in south-east Queensland, Australia. The research found that the fathers gained positive results as being a part of the playgroup, including improved family functioning, a feeling of belonging to a community in which advice was freely available, improved relationships with their child/children and feelings that this programme met the unique needs of fathers when others in the community have not. These needs were met through the play environment, scheduling, staffing and support networks.