title: Footprints: Participant perspectives informing pedagogy for asynchronous online discussion in initial teacher education

authors: Forbes, Dianne Leslie

subjects: online learning

abstract: This study looks at how students and staff experience asynchronous online discussion (AOD) within initial teacher education. The aim is to explore participant perspectives, including expectations of fellow participants, with a view to informing pedagogy, defined as the relationship between teaching and learning (Loughran, 2006). 

The underpinning argument is essentially that learning and teaching can be enhanced by awareness of how participants experience the situation. Understanding the complexities of AOD entails a better understanding of participants’ tacit reasoning, expectations, misunderstandings, and responses to tasks and behaviours (Brookfield & Preskill, 2005; Loughran, 2006). It is the situation as it is perceived which is central to the quality of teaching and learning, and this puts participants and their experiences at the centre of efforts to improve pedagogy and to enhance deep learning.

This study is framed by sociocultural theory and phenomenography to explore AOD through the eyes of teacher educators and teacher education students in a specific teacher education context. Participants engaged in focus groups (face-to-face and online) and a series of semi-structured interviews, generating data about experiences and perspectives of AOD. 

Key findings show the need for participants in AOD to: establish expectations for purposeful communication; to maintain a presence for learning premised on formative interaction; and to work together in ways conducive to community and student leadership in pursuit of deep learning. 

This thesis adds to the limited research literature on teacher perceptions about online teaching (Spector, 2007), and makes a contribution to addressing the neglect of student approaches to study in higher education using eLearning technologies for discussion (Ellis et al, 2008; Jackson et al, 2010; Sharpe et al, 2010). The results contribute to knowledge in the field of online learning in initial teacher education by giving rise to specific pedagogical strategies for teachers and students in given situations, and by providing conceptual tools for participants when thinking about teaching and learning through AOD. 

Participant experiences function as footprints, picking out pathways as others make their way through AOD (Salmon, 2002).

text: Footprints: Participant perspectives informing pedagogy for asynchronous online discussion in initial teacher education This study looks at how students and staff experience asynchronous online discussion (AOD) within initial teacher education. The aim is to explore participant perspectives, including expectations of fellow participants, with a view to informing pedagogy, defined as the relationship between teaching and learning (Loughran, 2006). 

The underpinning argument is essentially that learning and teaching can be enhanced by awareness of how participants experience the situation. Understanding the complexities of AOD entails a better understanding of participants’ tacit reasoning, expectations, misunderstandings, and responses to tasks and behaviours (Brookfield & Preskill, 2005; Loughran, 2006). It is the situation as it is perceived which is central to the quality of teaching and learning, and this puts participants and their experiences at the centre of efforts to improve pedagogy and to enhance deep learning.

This study is framed by sociocultural theory and phenomenography to explore AOD through the eyes of teacher educators and teacher education students in a specific teacher education context. Participants engaged in focus groups (face-to-face and online) and a series of semi-structured interviews, generating data about experiences and perspectives of AOD. 

Key findings show the need for participants in AOD to: establish expectations for purposeful communication; to maintain a presence for learning premised on formative interaction; and to work together in ways conducive to community and student leadership in pursuit of deep learning. 

This thesis adds to the limited research literature on teacher perceptions about online teaching (Spector, 2007), and makes a contribution to addressing the neglect of student approaches to study in higher education using eLearning technologies for discussion (Ellis et al, 2008; Jackson et al, 2010; Sharpe et al, 2010). The results contribute to knowledge in the field of online learning in initial teacher education by giving rise to specific pedagogical strategies for teachers and students in given situations, and by providing conceptual tools for participants when thinking about teaching and learning through AOD. 

Participant experiences function as footprints, picking out pathways as others make their way through AOD (Salmon, 2002).

year: 2012

title: Boarders, Babes and Bad-Asses: Theories of a Female Physical Youth Culture

authors: Thorpe, Holly Aysha

subjects: Youth culture

abstract: Young women occupy unprecedented space in contemporary society. Their professional ambitions, educational achievements, practices of cultural consumption, and participation in sport and leisure all offer evidence of a new position for young women. This thesis analyzes female snowboarders as exemplars of young women in contemporary society and popular physical culture. Many young women today play sport and engage in physical activity with a sense of enthusiasm and entitlement unknown to most of their mothers and grandmothers. Against this background the female snowboarder is an excellent barometer of the nature of contemporary youth and popular culture, of the changes in those cultures including the development of niche female cultural industries, and of the emerging opportunities available to middle-class women in Western society.

Women's snowboarding, however, is a complicated and multidimensional phenomenon interwoven with numerous political, cultural, social and economic events and processes. In this thesis I set out to capture the complexity of female snowboarding by systematically contextualizing and interrogating the lived experiences of female boarders through drawing upon six critical social theoretical perspectives: Marxist political economy, post-Fordism, feminism, hegemonic masculinity, Pierre Bourdieu's theory of embodiment, and Foucauldian theorizing. In applying these theories, I select key concepts and engage them in conversations with my insider cultural knowledge of snowboarding, numerous periods of fieldwork, and an extensive base of artifacts and sources collected over five years.

In this thesis I extend academic understandings of female youth culture via the case study of women in snowboarding, and offer a valuable critique of contemporary social theories used to explain many different social phenomena that involve tensions and power relationships between the genders. While no single theory or concept proved adequate to deal with the multidimensional phenomenon of the female boarder, each having its shortcomings and offering quite different insights, several reveal important commonalities in relation to some key concepts in critical sociology, viz, structure, agency, culture, the body and embodiment, gender and power. These commonalities, I argue, offer future directions for theorizing about, and advancing our understanding of, young women in popular physical culture.

text: Boarders, Babes and Bad-Asses: Theories of a Female Physical Youth Culture Young women occupy unprecedented space in contemporary society. Their professional ambitions, educational achievements, practices of cultural consumption, and participation in sport and leisure all offer evidence of a new position for young women. This thesis analyzes female snowboarders as exemplars of young women in contemporary society and popular physical culture. Many young women today play sport and engage in physical activity with a sense of enthusiasm and entitlement unknown to most of their mothers and grandmothers. Against this background the female snowboarder is an excellent barometer of the nature of contemporary youth and popular culture, of the changes in those cultures including the development of niche female cultural industries, and of the emerging opportunities available to middle-class women in Western society.

Women's snowboarding, however, is a complicated and multidimensional phenomenon interwoven with numerous political, cultural, social and economic events and processes. In this thesis I set out to capture the complexity of female snowboarding by systematically contextualizing and interrogating the lived experiences of female boarders through drawing upon six critical social theoretical perspectives: Marxist political economy, post-Fordism, feminism, hegemonic masculinity, Pierre Bourdieu's theory of embodiment, and Foucauldian theorizing. In applying these theories, I select key concepts and engage them in conversations with my insider cultural knowledge of snowboarding, numerous periods of fieldwork, and an extensive base of artifacts and sources collected over five years.

In this thesis I extend academic understandings of female youth culture via the case study of women in snowboarding, and offer a valuable critique of contemporary social theories used to explain many different social phenomena that involve tensions and power relationships between the genders. While no single theory or concept proved adequate to deal with the multidimensional phenomenon of the female boarder, each having its shortcomings and offering quite different insights, several reveal important commonalities in relation to some key concepts in critical sociology, viz, structure, agency, culture, the body and embodiment, gender and power. These commonalities, I argue, offer future directions for theorizing about, and advancing our understanding of, young women in popular physical culture.

year: 2007

title: Shifting tectonic plates of key discourses in New Zealand early childhood education policy (1989-2017):  A critical discourse analysis at the dawn of change

authors: Westbrook, Fiona

subjects: New Zealand

abstract: This thesis analysed the presence of neoliberalism, socialism and te Ao Māori in fundamental policy documents that frame New Zealand early childhood practice. It did so to critically engage with, and thus make sense of, neoliberalism’s application and potential growth in New Zealand early childhood policies from 1989 to 2017. The research additionally focused on the interplay of socialist and te Ao Māori discourses in these texts, in conjunction with neoliberalism. It employed a poststructuralist conceptual framework that utilised Kristeva’s intertextuality and Foucault’s discourse, governmentality, and power/knowledge. The philosophical framework facilitated an appreciation of the early childhood education (ECE) sector and government discourses, via policies that exhibited discursive power, truths, and knowledges. This thesis’ approach was employed through a critical discourse analysis, incorporating Kristeva’s intertextuality, Fairclough’s manifest intertextuality and interdiscursivity, as well as a keyword search. This form of document analysis was selected because it enabled me as the researcher to gain a deeper more developed understanding of the policy texts, eliciting meaning and recognition of the discourses often naturalised within them. 
 
Contrary to the dominant claims in ECE literature concerning contemporary discourse, the analysis did not discover the neoliberal discourse’s predominance within the selected policies and documents, as was expected. The neoliberal discourse did exist within government endorsed texts, such as the foreword of Te Whāriki (Ministry of Education, 2017b) and Four Year Plan 2016-2020 (Ministry of Education, 2016). However, when the texts came closest to the sector, such as Te Whāraki (Ministry of Education, 1996; 2017b) and the Licensing Criteria Early Childhood Education and Care (Ministry of Education, 2008), the discourses of socialism, te Ao Māori and neoliberalism, nullified, transformed and modified one another. These findings were exemplified in the updated Te Whāraki (Ministry of Education, 2017b), that limited the neoliberal use of individualism from the original, while also upgrading children’s future potential. ‘Future’ within this text, however, was constructed through a modification of te Ao Māori by absorbing and embodying it in incomplete ways.  
 
This thesis analysed the presence of neoliberalism, socialism and te Ao Māori in fundamental policy documents that frame New Zealand early childhood practice. It did so to critically engage with, and thus make sense of, neoliberalism’s application and potential growth in New Zealand early childhood policies from 1989 to 2017. The research additionally focused on the interplay of socialist and te Ao Māori discourses in these texts, in conjunction with neoliberalism. It employed a poststructuralist conceptual framework that utilised Kristeva’s intertextuality and Foucault’s discourse, governmentality, and power/knowledge. The philosophical framework facilitated an appreciation of the early childhood education (ECE) sector and government discourses, via policies that exhibited discursive power, truths, and knowledges. This thesis’ approach was employed through a critical discourse analysis, incorporating Kristeva’s intertextuality, Fairclough’s manifest intertextuality and interdiscursivity, as well as a keyword search. This form of document analysis was selected because it enabled me as the researcher to gain a deeper more developed understanding of the policy texts, eliciting meaning and recognition of the discourses often naturalised within them. 
 
Contrary to the dominant claims in ECE literature concerning contemporary discourse, the analysis did not discover the neoliberal discourse’s predominance within the selected policies and documents, as was expected. The neoliberal discourse did exist within government endorsed texts, such as the foreword of Te Whāriki (Ministry of Education, 2017b) and Four Year Plan 2016-2020 (Ministry of Education, 2016). However, when the texts came closest to the sector, such as Te Whāraki (Ministry of Education, 1996; 2017b) and the Licensing Criteria Early Childhood Education and Care (Ministry of Education, 2008), the discourses of socialism, te Ao Māori and neoliberalism, nullified, transformed and modified one another. These findings were exemplified in the updated Te Whāraki (Ministry of Education, 2017b), that limited the neoliberal use of individualism from the original, while also upgrading children’s future potential. ‘Future’ within this text, however, was constructed through a modification of te Ao Māori by absorbing and embodying it in incomplete ways.  
 
This thesis analysed the presence of neoliberalism, socialism and te Ao Māori in fundamental policy documents that frame New Zealand early childhood practice. It did so to critically engage with, and thus make sense of, neoliberalism’s application and potential growth in New Zealand early childhood policies from 1989 to 2017. The research additionally focused on the interplay of socialist and te Ao Māori discourses in these texts, in conjunction with neoliberalism. It employed a poststructuralist conceptual framework that utilised Kristeva’s intertextuality and Foucault’s discourse, governmentality, and power/knowledge. The philosophical framework facilitated an appreciation of the early childhood education (ECE) sector and government discourses, via policies that exhibited discursive power, truths, and knowledges. This thesis’ approach was employed through a critical discourse analysis, incorporating Kristeva’s intertextuality, Fairclough’s manifest intertextuality and interdiscursivity, as well as a keyword search. This form of document analysis was selected because it enabled me as the researcher to gain a deeper more developed understanding of the policy texts, eliciting meaning and recognition of the discourses often naturalised within them. 
 
Contrary to the dominant claims in ECE literature concerning contemporary discourse, the analysis did not discover the neoliberal discourse’s predominance within the selected policies and documents, as was expected. The neoliberal discourse did exist within government endorsed texts, such as the foreword of Te Whāriki (Ministry of Education, 2017b) and Four Year Plan 2016-2020 (Ministry of Education, 2016). However, when the texts came closest to the sector, such as Te Whāraki (Ministry of Education, 1996; 2017b) and the Licensing Criteria Early Childhood Education and Care (Ministry of Education, 2008), the discourses of socialism, te Ao Māori and neoliberalism, nullified, transformed and modified one another. These findings were exemplified in the updated Te Whāraki (Ministry of Education, 2017b), that limited the neoliberal use of individualism from the original, while also upgrading children’s future potential. ‘Future’ within this text, however, was constructed through a modification of te Ao Māori by absorbing and embodying it in incomplete ways.  
 
The findings of this thesis imply socialism, te Ao Māori and neoliberalism are constantly competing with one another in the analysed policies that construct New Zealand ECE discourses and, as a consequence, influence practice. This plurality has the potential to hinder one discourse from gaining domination over the others. Their joint consumption's and conflicts appear to periodically lessen and strengthen neoliberalism’s power/knowledges across eras, administrations, policies and paragraphs, as exemplified in the updated curriculum. These findings imply that the ‘drivers’ of power are pivotal, hindering and strengthening these discourses which are both complementary and competing. Additionally, the thesis establishes implications regarding the rich complexities of discourses, which can conceal themselves in other discourses, calling for deeper critical reflection if some power/knowledges are to be reduced.

text: Shifting tectonic plates of key discourses in New Zealand early childhood education policy (1989-2017):  A critical discourse analysis at the dawn of change This thesis analysed the presence of neoliberalism, socialism and te Ao Māori in fundamental policy documents that frame New Zealand early childhood practice. It did so to critically engage with, and thus make sense of, neoliberalism’s application and potential growth in New Zealand early childhood policies from 1989 to 2017. The research additionally focused on the interplay of socialist and te Ao Māori discourses in these texts, in conjunction with neoliberalism. It employed a poststructuralist conceptual framework that utilised Kristeva’s intertextuality and Foucault’s discourse, governmentality, and power/knowledge. The philosophical framework facilitated an appreciation of the early childhood education (ECE) sector and government discourses, via policies that exhibited discursive power, truths, and knowledges. This thesis’ approach was employed through a critical discourse analysis, incorporating Kristeva’s intertextuality, Fairclough’s manifest intertextuality and interdiscursivity, as well as a keyword search. This form of document analysis was selected because it enabled me as the researcher to gain a deeper more developed understanding of the policy texts, eliciting meaning and recognition of the discourses often naturalised within them. 
 
Contrary to the dominant claims in ECE literature concerning contemporary discourse, the analysis did not discover the neoliberal discourse’s predominance within the selected policies and documents, as was expected. The neoliberal discourse did exist within government endorsed texts, such as the foreword of Te Whāriki (Ministry of Education, 2017b) and Four Year Plan 2016-2020 (Ministry of Education, 2016). However, when the texts came closest to the sector, such as Te Whāraki (Ministry of Education, 1996; 2017b) and the Licensing Criteria Early Childhood Education and Care (Ministry of Education, 2008), the discourses of socialism, te Ao Māori and neoliberalism, nullified, transformed and modified one another. These findings were exemplified in the updated Te Whāraki (Ministry of Education, 2017b), that limited the neoliberal use of individualism from the original, while also upgrading children’s future potential. ‘Future’ within this text, however, was constructed through a modification of te Ao Māori by absorbing and embodying it in incomplete ways.  
 
This thesis analysed the presence of neoliberalism, socialism and te Ao Māori in fundamental policy documents that frame New Zealand early childhood practice. It did so to critically engage with, and thus make sense of, neoliberalism’s application and potential growth in New Zealand early childhood policies from 1989 to 2017. The research additionally focused on the interplay of socialist and te Ao Māori discourses in these texts, in conjunction with neoliberalism. It employed a poststructuralist conceptual framework that utilised Kristeva’s intertextuality and Foucault’s discourse, governmentality, and power/knowledge. The philosophical framework facilitated an appreciation of the early childhood education (ECE) sector and government discourses, via policies that exhibited discursive power, truths, and knowledges. This thesis’ approach was employed through a critical discourse analysis, incorporating Kristeva’s intertextuality, Fairclough’s manifest intertextuality and interdiscursivity, as well as a keyword search. This form of document analysis was selected because it enabled me as the researcher to gain a deeper more developed understanding of the policy texts, eliciting meaning and recognition of the discourses often naturalised within them. 
 
Contrary to the dominant claims in ECE literature concerning contemporary discourse, the analysis did not discover the neoliberal discourse’s predominance within the selected policies and documents, as was expected. The neoliberal discourse did exist within government endorsed texts, such as the foreword of Te Whāriki (Ministry of Education, 2017b) and Four Year Plan 2016-2020 (Ministry of Education, 2016). However, when the texts came closest to the sector, such as Te Whāraki (Ministry of Education, 1996; 2017b) and the Licensing Criteria Early Childhood Education and Care (Ministry of Education, 2008), the discourses of socialism, te Ao Māori and neoliberalism, nullified, transformed and modified one another. These findings were exemplified in the updated Te Whāraki (Ministry of Education, 2017b), that limited the neoliberal use of individualism from the original, while also upgrading children’s future potential. ‘Future’ within this text, however, was constructed through a modification of te Ao Māori by absorbing and embodying it in incomplete ways.  
 
This thesis analysed the presence of neoliberalism, socialism and te Ao Māori in fundamental policy documents that frame New Zealand early childhood practice. It did so to critically engage with, and thus make sense of, neoliberalism’s application and potential growth in New Zealand early childhood policies from 1989 to 2017. The research additionally focused on the interplay of socialist and te Ao Māori discourses in these texts, in conjunction with neoliberalism. It employed a poststructuralist conceptual framework that utilised Kristeva’s intertextuality and Foucault’s discourse, governmentality, and power/knowledge. The philosophical framework facilitated an appreciation of the early childhood education (ECE) sector and government discourses, via policies that exhibited discursive power, truths, and knowledges. This thesis’ approach was employed through a critical discourse analysis, incorporating Kristeva’s intertextuality, Fairclough’s manifest intertextuality and interdiscursivity, as well as a keyword search. This form of document analysis was selected because it enabled me as the researcher to gain a deeper more developed understanding of the policy texts, eliciting meaning and recognition of the discourses often naturalised within them. 
 
Contrary to the dominant claims in ECE literature concerning contemporary discourse, the analysis did not discover the neoliberal discourse’s predominance within the selected policies and documents, as was expected. The neoliberal discourse did exist within government endorsed texts, such as the foreword of Te Whāriki (Ministry of Education, 2017b) and Four Year Plan 2016-2020 (Ministry of Education, 2016). However, when the texts came closest to the sector, such as Te Whāraki (Ministry of Education, 1996; 2017b) and the Licensing Criteria Early Childhood Education and Care (Ministry of Education, 2008), the discourses of socialism, te Ao Māori and neoliberalism, nullified, transformed and modified one another. These findings were exemplified in the updated Te Whāraki (Ministry of Education, 2017b), that limited the neoliberal use of individualism from the original, while also upgrading children’s future potential. ‘Future’ within this text, however, was constructed through a modification of te Ao Māori by absorbing and embodying it in incomplete ways.  
 
The findings of this thesis imply socialism, te Ao Māori and neoliberalism are constantly competing with one another in the analysed policies that construct New Zealand ECE discourses and, as a consequence, influence practice. This plurality has the potential to hinder one discourse from gaining domination over the others. Their joint consumption's and conflicts appear to periodically lessen and strengthen neoliberalism’s power/knowledges across eras, administrations, policies and paragraphs, as exemplified in the updated curriculum. These findings imply that the ‘drivers’ of power are pivotal, hindering and strengthening these discourses which are both complementary and competing. Additionally, the thesis establishes implications regarding the rich complexities of discourses, which can conceal themselves in other discourses, calling for deeper critical reflection if some power/knowledges are to be reduced.

year: 2018