Grrr, got my final Interpersonal Violence assignment back today. I got 55% for it, so I just scraped a Level One Pass (P1), and so for the whole subject I will be around P1, possibly a low C. I’m not happy. Apparently I completely missed the point, and wrote a well referenced and researched essay about something that wasn’t actually relevant. I wrote about the intersection of Indigenous family violence and Restorative Justice. My marker and course coordinator indicated in her notes at the end of my assignment that I should have written about an entirely different point, which was the safety of clients who have been victims of family violence and choose to address that violence through Restorative processes. You know, even though the literature review was only 800 words, i read a LOT on both RJ and family violence and not once did I come across anything that refered to safety concerns. I’m not saying its not out there, but I didn’t find it, nor did I come across it in the course of an entire semester on RJ. So I am willing to admit that i may have missed the point, but even if i had been aware of it, without any material to reference how would i have been able to mention it in the essay?

(I probably need to point out here that in South Australian universities, my opinions are worthless unless I can show that someone else has held them previously.)

So I have asked for some discussion about the essay with higher-up people. I think that assignments are set in a rather large vacuum (pick a topic of your choice) and with some inappropriate assumptions (“include the relevance and importance of the topic to your chosen profession” - what profession? I have no profession as yet! Will I be a mediator, anthropologist, RJ conference facilitator, trainer????) and a lack of support (“The topic should be negotiated in consultation with the teaching team prior to commencement of the assignment. You will be required to deliver a short ‘work in progress’ presentation to explore the topic and how you will undertake the essay” - didn’t happen. Both course coordinators left after the course, one on holidays and the other on sabbatical. There was no discussion or mention made of this consultation during the intensive).

If these points can be addressed, I won’t ask for a re-mark. I mean, if I missed the point, then theres not much point…

• arumanda said on 07/05/25 at 02:08 PM.....

  that’s too bad about your results, because i know you’re an incredibly hard worker. it must have been very disappointing. i wish you luck in the hearing. good on you for taking it further.

• j-ster (home, adelaide) said on 07/05/27 at 04:17 PM.....

  Well i wasnt going to push it too far, but i have since found out that a whole bunch of Conflict Management students got really low grades, which suggests that the Social Work staff are making some assumptions about what should be included in the assignments, and not communicating them to us. Those assumptions may have been more explicit earlier in the Social Work course, but we have a different focus. Im interested to see how it turns out, and how long it takes the usually overloaded head of Conflict Management to sort it out.