title: History, Memory, and Moral Knowledge: William Godwin's Essay on Sepulchres (1809)

authors: Weston, Rowland

subjects: history

abstract: In 1809 the radical English philosopher, novelist, and historian William Godwin published Essay on Sepulchres—a proposal to mark the burial sites of the morally great with a simple wooden cross. This paper explores Godwin's essay in terms of his evolution as moral philosopher and historian. While Godwin is commonly renowned as a utilitarian rationalist given to optimistic assertions on human perfectibility, this essay demonstrates the extent to which his moral theory depended on emotion and intuition and how he came to posit an alternative mode of historical perception which queried the progressivist assumptions of 'Enlightenment' historiography.

text: History, Memory, and Moral Knowledge: William Godwin's Essay on Sepulchres (1809) In 1809 the radical English philosopher, novelist, and historian William Godwin published Essay on Sepulchres—a proposal to mark the burial sites of the morally great with a simple wooden cross. This paper explores Godwin's essay in terms of his evolution as moral philosopher and historian. While Godwin is commonly renowned as a utilitarian rationalist given to optimistic assertions on human perfectibility, this essay demonstrates the extent to which his moral theory depended on emotion and intuition and how he came to posit an alternative mode of historical perception which queried the progressivist assumptions of 'Enlightenment' historiography.

year: 2009

title: A critical thinking thematic framework and observation tool for improved theory and developing secondary teachers’ instructional practice: Proof of concept

authors: Shafer, Derek

abstract: Theoretical understandings of critical thinking, including how it is positioned and developed across educational contexts, remains contentious. While critical thinking features across school curricula internationally with increasing prominence as an educational priority for young people, efforts to explore and develop secondary teachers’ practices of critical thinking reveal diverse theoretical influences and instructional approaches, without reaching a consensus model of best practice. To address this, a new critical thinking thematic framework was developed towards reconciling theoretical tensions within the question of: what is critical thinking?, so that understandings of what it might look like as part of teacher instructional practice can be developed. Together with this thematic framework, a critical thinking observation tool and thematic coding guide were constructed to code and analyse teacher interview and classroom observations in order to guide a year-long investigation of secondary teachers’ beliefs and practices of critical thinking.
Applied across multiple studies within a design-based research project, this critical thinking thematic framework enabled the effective exploration and dissemination of secondary teachers’ perceptions and instructional practices of critical thinking across English, Social Science and Science subject contexts. Engaged as a community of practice, and supported with contextualised evidence, 28 participant teachers across five New Zealand secondary schools were able to reflect their beliefs and practices for future planning. Significant shifts in the frequency and conceptual nature of teachers’ beliefs and practices of critical thinking in response to professional development across repeated measures suggest that the Critical Thinking Thematic Framework and Observation Tool can be employed to produce consistent and reliable coding of beliefs and practices with effective researcher training.

text: A critical thinking thematic framework and observation tool for improved theory and developing secondary teachers’ instructional practice: Proof of concept Theoretical understandings of critical thinking, including how it is positioned and developed across educational contexts, remains contentious. While critical thinking features across school curricula internationally with increasing prominence as an educational priority for young people, efforts to explore and develop secondary teachers’ practices of critical thinking reveal diverse theoretical influences and instructional approaches, without reaching a consensus model of best practice. To address this, a new critical thinking thematic framework was developed towards reconciling theoretical tensions within the question of: what is critical thinking?, so that understandings of what it might look like as part of teacher instructional practice can be developed. Together with this thematic framework, a critical thinking observation tool and thematic coding guide were constructed to code and analyse teacher interview and classroom observations in order to guide a year-long investigation of secondary teachers’ beliefs and practices of critical thinking.
Applied across multiple studies within a design-based research project, this critical thinking thematic framework enabled the effective exploration and dissemination of secondary teachers’ perceptions and instructional practices of critical thinking across English, Social Science and Science subject contexts. Engaged as a community of practice, and supported with contextualised evidence, 28 participant teachers across five New Zealand secondary schools were able to reflect their beliefs and practices for future planning. Significant shifts in the frequency and conceptual nature of teachers’ beliefs and practices of critical thinking in response to professional development across repeated measures suggest that the Critical Thinking Thematic Framework and Observation Tool can be employed to produce consistent and reliable coding of beliefs and practices with effective researcher training.

year: 2025

title: Housing quality, health and whānau wellbeing

authors: Kukutai, Tahu

abstract: Shelter is a basic human need (Maslow 1943) and access to housing is a fundamental human right. A house is more than a physical dwelling that offers shelter; for many, it is a space that provides structure and meaning, and relates to feelings, emotions, memories and experiences, whether raising a whānau or discovering newfound independence. 
For Māori, the multi-layered concept of kāinga is broader still. Literally meaning ‘village’, kāinga is a home space where identity, whakapapa and whenua come together (Henare 2014). Kāinga is where individuals and whānau can sustain and care for themselves and others through practices of whanaungatanga (connecting with kin) and manaakitanga (acts of reciprocal caring). 
Kāinga is also closely related to the concept of tūrangawaewae, denoting a sense of physical and spiritual belonging or attachment to a place. Kāinga and tūrangawaewae thus share similarities with the meaning of home but mean much more than simply ‘being housed’ (Brown 2017). 
While housing and housing quality form only part of what it means to be ‘at home’, access to a warm, dry, safe, secure and watertight house is a basic right for all whānau and tamariki. 
In this section, we focus on the relationships between housing quality, health and wellbeing to better understand the extent of housing quality issues that whānau Māori face, and how housing quality, in turn, affects health and wellbeing. To our knowledge, this is the first nationally representative study that focuses specifically on Māori assessments of housing quality. It does so using data from the Māori Social Survey Te Kupenga.

text: Housing quality, health and whānau wellbeing Shelter is a basic human need (Maslow 1943) and access to housing is a fundamental human right. A house is more than a physical dwelling that offers shelter; for many, it is a space that provides structure and meaning, and relates to feelings, emotions, memories and experiences, whether raising a whānau or discovering newfound independence. 
For Māori, the multi-layered concept of kāinga is broader still. Literally meaning ‘village’, kāinga is a home space where identity, whakapapa and whenua come together (Henare 2014). Kāinga is where individuals and whānau can sustain and care for themselves and others through practices of whanaungatanga (connecting with kin) and manaakitanga (acts of reciprocal caring). 
Kāinga is also closely related to the concept of tūrangawaewae, denoting a sense of physical and spiritual belonging or attachment to a place. Kāinga and tūrangawaewae thus share similarities with the meaning of home but mean much more than simply ‘being housed’ (Brown 2017). 
While housing and housing quality form only part of what it means to be ‘at home’, access to a warm, dry, safe, secure and watertight house is a basic right for all whānau and tamariki. 
In this section, we focus on the relationships between housing quality, health and wellbeing to better understand the extent of housing quality issues that whānau Māori face, and how housing quality, in turn, affects health and wellbeing. To our knowledge, this is the first nationally representative study that focuses specifically on Māori assessments of housing quality. It does so using data from the Māori Social Survey Te Kupenga.

year: 2018