bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
The PRIDE Project: Assessing the Regional Approach to Basic Education Delivery
Authors:   , Mitchell Lucy 
Published: November 2021

<p>The PRIDE Project was conceived as a way to bolster the awareness, coordination and delivery of basic education in the Pacific region. The project‟s mandate was to enhance the capacity of Pacific education agencies to effectively plan and deliver quality basic education through formal and non-formal means. The project focused on the provision of technical assistance as well as support and advice to build national capacities through three key areas. First, the development of effective and realistic education strategic plans, secondly the implementation of plans (through sub-project activities) and thirdly sharing best practice through online networks, a resource centre and regional and sub- regional workshops. In total the project received €8 million from the European Union Development Fund and NZD$5 million from NZAID.1 2 The project‟s concept was developed by Pacific Ministers of Education who believed many past educational aid initiatives had not delivered successful, relevant or sustainable results. PRIDE was therefore established as a project that would be housed and operated from within the Pacific region. Being based out of the University of the South Pacific in Suva, Fiji, the project wanted to utilise and foster Pacific capacity, knowledge and ownership as much as possible. This thesis will explore The PRIDE Project‟s activities within the region. Discussion will focus on why the mandate of sector planning was chosen, and how it has many similarities to sector wide approaches. Investigation into PRIDE within the Solomon Islands will demonstrate that the project had an overoptimistic mandate which struggled to make any considerable achievements in the everyday delivery of basic education. The regional dynamics of this project will be analysed against local priorities and agendas, ultimately showing that they can sit uncomfortably next to each other. Discussion will highlight how ideas of complete Pacific ownership will continue to be a challenge for the region as capacity and infrastructure is limited. In addition, development projects need to move beyond top level sector planning to implementation and delivery if any significant changes to education provision are to be made.</p>
Bath and the Body, Bamboo and the Soul
Authors:   , Palamountain Dion 
Published: November 2021

<p>Bathing at a fundamental level is desired for two attributes cleansing the body, and cleansing the soul. Historically the act of bathing has been a combination of hot and cold water bathing; this act cleanses both the body and soul, and is seen as an enjoyable pastime for both eastern and western cultures. The priority then is to architecturally express the 'body and soul' through a careful material selection. The choice of materials reflects this, concrete and bamboo, expressing the solid (body) and the light (soul). Design precedents, material comparison, eastern and western beliefs are used to establish a rationale between the material contrast of body and soul. The location for the design reflects the natural connection between 'body and soul' in a location that references the land and water, geothermal and steam, lake and landscape. The final project includes detailing of non-penetrating fixings for the use in bamboo construction, including natural and industrial products into a public bath that compliments the body and the soul.</p>
Feeling the Fear and Doing It Anyway: A Case Study of CHRS-City, an Intervention for Adolescent Mental Health
Authors:   , Thompson Lisa 
Published: November 2021

<p>Provision for adolescent mental health in New Zealand is in its infancy. CRHS-City is the first Ministry of Education funded initiative that addresses adolescent mental health and transition back to school in New Zealand. This thesis examines the experiences of students and their families attending CRHS-City and how they were supported to transition back to school or further education. This research is important as it focuses on a growing need and documents Central Regional Health School’s attempt to address it. The methodological approach was a multiple case study underpinned by a constructivist paradigm. A qualitative approach was appropriate for this study as the research wanted to capture the impact attending CRHS-City had on a specific group of students and their transition back to a regular school or further education. Three students and their families identified they would be willing to be interviewed as part of this study. Eight overarching themes emerged from the research. Participants described positive outcomes from their experience of attending CRHS-City. This study has found being at CRHS-City helped the participants explore different ways of managing their mental health condition and gain confidence in their abilities to do so, which in turn supported the overall goal of a return to school or further education. However this was not an easy process for either the students or their parents. The findings from this research identified recommendations specific to CRHS-City and for the education sector in general to support students who have a mental health condition continue with their education goals. Support for the student’s family and the regular school is an essential part of this process. Research into effective interventions within mainstream schools to support students who have mental health needs is seen as a logical next step.</p>
Expression and Emotion: Cultural Diplomacy and Nation Branding in New Zealand
Authors:   , MacDonald Katherine 
Published: November 2021

<p>States need to be recognised by other states to be legitimate and diplomacy is the way in which states represent their interests overseas. Cultural diplomacy is an important part of this diplomacy as it allows states to present their culture internationally and use it to build and maintain relationships that will be of value. Historically, cultural diplomacy has been a long term project, and the benefits to the state are not always immediate. In recent years, the more short term and immediate benefits of nation branding have become popular with states. Nation branding allows a state to promote itself and its products, resulting in quick and often very profitable economic benefits to the country. Like cultural diplomacy, nation branding draws heavily on the culture and imagery of the nation and uses it to gain an advantage. This thesis looks at New Zealand’s cultural diplomacy programmes and the very successful 100% Pure New Zealand nation brand. It looks at the way in which the cultural diplomacy programme meets New Zealand’s aims and is able to build long term relationships, promote understanding and protect its cultural sovereignty, and examines the way in which the new Zealand nation brand has managed to build such a distinctive image and attract customers. The thesis argues that the traditional long term cultural diplomacy is beginning to be changed as economic aims take precedence and it discusses some implications of this for New Zealand.</p>
A Slice of Tourism: The Nature, Dimensions and Geographies of International Golf Tourism in New Zealand
Authors:   , Gazley Chris 
Published: November 2021

<p>Tourism is one of the largest and fastest growing industries in the world and for New Zealand it is the most important industry along with dairy. Of the 2.5 million tourists who visit New Zealand each year, it is estimated that around 65,000 (3%) of visitors will play at least one game of golf while in the country. New Zealand’s profile as a golfing destination has increased in recent years and now boasts a number of the worlds top ranked courses. This, along with the low cost of playing golf in New Zealand has made it an attractive golfing destination. This thesis aims to gain a greater insight into the nature and dimensions of the golf tourism industry in New Zealand and of those who visit. This research was conducted through a range of interviews with 19 stakeholders in the golf tourism industry, as well as a golfer’s questionnaire to which 44 international visitors responded. This research has found that international golf tourism plays an important role for many golf courses throughout New Zealand and the number of visitors is on the rise. These visitors tend to be wealthier and spend more money than the average tourist during their stay and so the benefits of increasing this market go beyond what is spent on the golf course alone. However, New Zealand must first overcome a number of barriers if international golf tourism is to reach its full potential. The key barriers to growth are New Zealand’s geographic isolation, the large distances between New Zealand’s top courses, competition from other golfing destinations and a lack of marketing to increase the awareness of New Zealand as a golfing destination.</p>
Early Childhood Teachers’ Thinking and Reflection within their Communities of Practice
Authors:   , Cherrington Susan Ann 
Published: November 2021

<p>This multiple-case study investigated teachers’ thinking and reflection about their interactions with children in three early childhood (EC) centres. Located within a constructivist-interpretive paradigm, the study used video-stimulated recall interviews as the primary data source. Teachers’ interactions with children were video-recorded and used in group interviews with the teaching team to uncover teachers’ thinking and reflections at the time of the interactions and their individual and collective reflections on the episodes. Group interviews enabled insights into teachers’ thinking and reflection to emerge, which would be unlikely in individual interviews. The study drew upon several theoretical constructs, including reflection-in- and -on-action (Schön, 1983, 1987), interactive thinking (Mitchell & Marland, 1989), communities of practice (Lave & Wenger, 1991; Wenger, 1998) and the literature on professional learning communities to understand teachers’ thinking and reflection and how these were mediated by the team. The study found that children are central to teachers’ thinking about their interactions. Teachers held extensive knowledge about individual children, and their emphasis on relationships and being responsive to children provides empirical evidence of relational pedagogy (Papatheodorou & Moyles, 2008) and of teachers’ engagement with the philosophical underpinnings of Te Whāriki (Ministry of Education, 1996). The study also found teachers were less able to articulate their thinking and reflections about their own teaching intentions, use of teaching strategies, and the theories and principles influencing their practices. These findings are represented in a model of EC teacher thinking, using a mat or whāriki as a metaphor for teachers’ thinking. The model presents a whāriki that, woven from broad, robust child- and curriculum-focused strands and narrower, weaker teacher-focused strands, has gaps and thus, is weakened. The thesis argues that the child-centred discourse evident in the data is reflective of a broader early childhood education (ECE) discourse that backgrounds teaching, and that greater attention to teaching and to teacher thinking is necessary to strengthen teaching and learning in ECE settings. The study revealed how each case study team operated as a uniquely framed and patterned community of practice, providing empirical evidence of the usefulness of Wenger’s (1998) community of practice model for understanding how teaching teams mediate individual teachers’ thinking and practices. Concepts from professional learning community literature informed analysis of teachers’ engagement in collective reflection about their practices, resulting in a contribution to this literature from an EC perspective.</p>
Getting the Message: Development Communication Strategies in the Kingdom of Tonga
Authors:   , Lewis Kennith Robert 
Published: November 2021

<p>All development initiatives comprise a communications component, whether a public notice in the local newspaper, community meetings or a mass media public awareness campaign. But communication within development involves more than simply informing recipient populations of initiatives, events and targets. Communication is central to eliciting buy-in and creating a sense of community ownership; it is integral to maintaining public trust through the transparency and accountability it encourages; and, most importantly, it allows target populations to have their say in development initiatives that impact on their lives. Different countries, cultures and socio-political conditions will suit different communication types. Determining factors include, literacy rates, geographic distance, telecommunications infrastructure, religion, culture and politics. This thesis examines the communication strategies deployed by NGOs working in the Kingdom of Tonga. These strategies are analysed in the context of wider political, cultural and mass media conditions, with particular reference to the state of Tonga’s news media. In-country research for this thesis was conducted at the culmination of a tumultuous period for the Pacific’s only Constitutional Monarchy. Tonga has experienced rapid socio-political changes in recent decades with an increasingly dependent economy, growing challenges to traditional institutions and the crowning of a new King in 2006. In November 2010, the nation elected the first Parliament in 135 years to give commoners, rather than nobles, the majority in the Legislative Assembly. The General Election was conducted under an amended constitution, and was the first since riots destroyed much of the capital of Nuku’alofa four years earlier. With these events as a backdrop, this research asks what forms of communication work best in Tonga? Are these as effective on the relatively developed main island of Tongatapu as remote, outer islands? And what role does mainstream media play in keeping the population informed of development issues?</p>
Clickers, Best Uses and Benefits
Authors:   , Herrera Hernández Renato 
Published: November 2021

<p>This study provides an analysis of the use student response systems in undergraduate and postgraduate classrooms. Research was conducted utilising a qualitative analysis approach, grounding theories by reviewing related literature, interviewing lecturers and conducting class observation. The study was carried out over two consecutive trimesters, summer 2010 and first trimester of 2011, at Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand. By conducting this research it is hoped to help improving the quality of teaching. Within this study, it was determined that student response systems are useful for both engaging student and increasing their overall enjoyment of the class. The benefit of using student response systems in the classroom was also found to be dependent on preserving the novelty of the technology and keeping students’ responses anonymous, by redesigning lecturers to have proper student response system questions in order to make the most out of the technology. Overall, this study determined that the decision whether or not to utilise student response systems in the classroom should be made based on the level of education of the class and its objectives, whether it is a lecture, tutorial or seminar, with clickers working best in large size, undergraduate classrooms.</p>
Let Them Eat Cake: Gender, Nationalism and Tyranny in Revolutionary France and Russia
Authors:   , Eldred-Grigg Hugh 
Published: November 2021

<p>The origin of the phrase ‘let them eat cake’ is obscure. Conversely, it is widely understood that the woman whose name is most associated with the phrase, Marie Antoinette, the last pre-revolutionary Queen of France, never said it. But despite its lack of veracity the phrase demonstrates neatly the degree of disdain and anger directed at the Queen to the point where hatred becomes a useful term. This hatred was not unique to Marie Antoinette. While there is no phrase to highlight her role in the public eye, Alexandra Fedorovna, the last Czarina of Russia, was the focus of parallel disdain. Despite the timescale their situations are strikingly similar. The French and Russian revolutions form the backdrop for the close of these two women’s lives. Political historians de-emphasise the role of individual actors in shaping events, but the events of individual lives – or more precisely, the way in which those events are interpreted in the public sphere – can provide an insight into the impersonal events that constitute noteworthy targets of analysis. This study identifies a common dynamic that explains the reason why Marie Antoinette and Alexandra Fedorovna were both the target of such intense hatred during the revolutions that overthrew the systems they were part of and contributed collectively and individually to the shaping of the modern world.</p>
‘The Hero Stuff’ and the ‘Softer Side of Things’: Exploring Masculinities in Gendered Police Reform in Timor-Leste
Authors:   , Bevan Marianne 
Published: November 2021

<p>This thesis investigates how New Zealand and East Timorese police officers involved in United Nations’ police reform understand and conceptualise masculinities. It explores how these conceptualisations compare to how masculinities are defined and outlined in United Nations’ gender policies. The United Nations have increasingly attempted to address gender in their policing work; however, within these policies, gender has continued to be equated with women and women’s issues while men’s gender identities remain invisible. My research contributes to emerging discussions about how an understanding of masculinities could be better incorporated into gendered police reform. I explore this through the case of the New Zealand Police Community Policing Pilot Programme (CPPP), a capacity building programme carried out within the wider United Nations Police mission in Timor-Leste. By speaking to New Zealand and East Timorese police officers, this research articulates how police officers themselves conceptualise policing masculinities and interpret how masculinities are framed in gender policy. My research finds that within both the East Timorese Police and the New Zealand Police involved in the CPPP, there is evidence of a variety of policing masculinities. These findings highlight the fluidity of masculinity and the processes that police officers can go through in order to challenge problematic constructions of masculinity. This provides important theoretical and practical insights into how positive masculinities can be promoted through gendered approaches to police reform. By investigating the ways in which the police interpret the United Nations’ approach to gender, this research finds that the continued framing of gender as a women’s issue in policy acts as a barrier to the police seeing masculinities as part of gendered reform.</p>
Group Mentoring of New Graduate Midwives: Emerging Professional Capacity: A Naturalistic Inquiry
Authors:   , Lennox Susan Maree 
Published: November 2021

<p>This research explores an innovative group mentoring model developed at the request of four newly graduated midwives who were mentored as a group by four experienced midwives. Since virtually all research on mentoring, both internationally and in New Zealand assumes that mentoring is a one-to-one activity, this study aimed to describe how this group mentoring model operated and explore whether it was successful in supporting new midwives to gain confidence. A naturalistic study design was used with a mixed methods approach to collecting and analysing a large amount of richly descriptive data. Data were gathered from records of individual contacts between mentors and new graduates, from a series of interviews with each of the eight participants, and from the actual audio recordings of regular group mentoring meetings across the mentoring year. Simple descriptive analysis of quantitative data and detailed thematic analysis of qualitative data were undertaken. The study found the group mentoring model provided everything that is expected of one-to-one mentoring and the new graduates felt well supported as they gained confidence during their first year in practice as autonomous self-employed midwives. The group model provided new graduates with 24/7 one-to-one mentor support whenever they asked for it. This was found to occur mostly in the first half of the year and was highly valued. The new graduates and the mentors all agreed that the most important part of the model were the regular group meetings. These meetings were entirely focused on day to day experiences that the new graduates chose to present to the group. Analysis of the meeting transcripts showed that the new graduates' issues ranged across the whole scope of practice; that they were sometimes prompted by self-reflection, sometimes by issues to do with relationships with others, and sometimes by a need to discuss technical matters. The mentors' responses were variously supportive; listening and exploring; directing or informing; and questioning or challenging. The group aspect of this mentoring model added a number of features that would not be possible in one-to-one mentoring. The new graduates valued how the group meetings exposed them to multiple perspectives from several mentors. The group meetings modelled a supportive and collegial way of working together that facilitated their emerging professional capacity now and into their future. The group provided a safe yet challenging space: a "stimulating sanctuary" for the new graduates' development. Overall the study found that group mentoring can successfully meet the needs of new graduates and provides several advantages over one-to-one mentoring. Group mentoring may be a more sustainable model than one-to-one, particularly where there are shortages of mentor midwives available. It is a model that promotes a supportive professional midwife culture, contributes to new knowledge in the area and is the preferred approach to mentoring in the future.</p>
Alternative Approaches to Development: Social Entrepreneurship in the Philippines
Authors:   , Tantingco Hilda Fatima G. 
Published: November 2021

<p>Post-development writers contend that development has failed because it created a worldview in which certain places are deemed ‘underdeveloped’ and in need of external assistance based on Western ideals of modernity. They argue that development should be abandoned and ‘alternatives to development’ must now be brought to the fore. However, this proposition is considered to be challenging at best since discussions on ‘alternatives to development’ have been vague and concrete practical examples are rarely given. Nevertheless, the arguments found within post-development thought are significant to current and future development practice and several researchers have attempted to apply post-development ideas into practice. This thesis looks into Social Entrepreneurship, an emerging development approach that seems to build on some of the ideas from post-development thought. It examines how social entrepreneurship has evolved and is defined within the context of the Philippines. The thesis attempts to understand how social entrepreneurship differs from mainstream development approaches and contributes to alternative pathways, through a case study of an NGO engaged in social entrepreneurship — A Single Drop for Safe Water, Philippines. Qualitative methods of observation, secondary data collection, and semi-structured interviews were utilized. The study reveals that social entrepreneurship practices have elements that reflect postdevelopment ideas such as highlighting community strengths, being mindful of local culture and practices, and strengthening the autonomy of community groups. However, social entrepreneurship also features activities that are based on market and business principles including having a profit motive and transferring business skills and knowledge to communities. Thus, social entrepreneurship is neither alternative nor mainstream but has the potential to be both. Development practitioners should be careful in utilizing social entrepreneurship practices, as not to expand neo-liberal ideals.</p>