title: “My ideas are important too!”: Student perceptions of a transport safety education experience based on a critical pedagogical approach to learning

authors: Thwaite, Janine Alison

subjects: transport

abstract: School students are the key audience or target group for transport safety education programmes in Australia. These programmes aim to instil in young Australians an understanding of how to stay safe across various aspects of the transport system. Yet insights into how students learn best do not always form part of policy making, ethos or design of current transport safety education programmes. Moreover, there is little understanding as to how these young people actually view and respond to transport safety education experiences.

As a transport safety educator, I was curious to find out more about students’ thoughts as core participants and informants. What comments would students have about content; methods employed for interacting with students; and the relevance of the learning experiences? In other words, from the students’ perspectives, are we getting it right?

The research question, therefore, was: how does a class of thirteen to fourteen-year‐old students in a rural school in New South Wales (NSW), Australia view and respond to a transport safety education experience that uses a critical pedagogical approach to learning? Taking an interpretivist approach with a critical stance, I adapted and taught a short transport safety unit with year eight students in a rural high school setting in New South Wales, Australia. Evidence gathered and analysis in this study included observations and products of students' responses to transport safety lessons and student views from focus groups.

Student participants in this study had a level of pre‐existing knowledge about and understanding of transport safety, including hazards, risks and consequences, appropriate for their age and circumstances. The whole class, both male and female, acknowledged they knew some risky behaviours were against the law and unsafe. They also exhibited an awareness of the importance of having an audience. Student lived experience of transport systems and safety, as reported, is not neatly bounded by agency segregation (such as rail, road, or farm safety).

Developing trust and rapport with the students was an integral part of the whole pedagogical experience. Teachers listening without judgement, being open to talk about things that 'adults' may try to shut down or disapprove of can be mutually beneficial for students and teachers: students get to speak openly, and the teacher learns more of students' current beliefs and behaviours. Evidence in this study also advocates active, collaborative learning and that involves novelty and use of technology when appropriate. Students in this study were also keen for educational experiences outside the classroom.

text: “My ideas are important too!”: Student perceptions of a transport safety education experience based on a critical pedagogical approach to learning School students are the key audience or target group for transport safety education programmes in Australia. These programmes aim to instil in young Australians an understanding of how to stay safe across various aspects of the transport system. Yet insights into how students learn best do not always form part of policy making, ethos or design of current transport safety education programmes. Moreover, there is little understanding as to how these young people actually view and respond to transport safety education experiences.

As a transport safety educator, I was curious to find out more about students’ thoughts as core participants and informants. What comments would students have about content; methods employed for interacting with students; and the relevance of the learning experiences? In other words, from the students’ perspectives, are we getting it right?

The research question, therefore, was: how does a class of thirteen to fourteen-year‐old students in a rural school in New South Wales (NSW), Australia view and respond to a transport safety education experience that uses a critical pedagogical approach to learning? Taking an interpretivist approach with a critical stance, I adapted and taught a short transport safety unit with year eight students in a rural high school setting in New South Wales, Australia. Evidence gathered and analysis in this study included observations and products of students' responses to transport safety lessons and student views from focus groups.

Student participants in this study had a level of pre‐existing knowledge about and understanding of transport safety, including hazards, risks and consequences, appropriate for their age and circumstances. The whole class, both male and female, acknowledged they knew some risky behaviours were against the law and unsafe. They also exhibited an awareness of the importance of having an audience. Student lived experience of transport systems and safety, as reported, is not neatly bounded by agency segregation (such as rail, road, or farm safety).

Developing trust and rapport with the students was an integral part of the whole pedagogical experience. Teachers listening without judgement, being open to talk about things that 'adults' may try to shut down or disapprove of can be mutually beneficial for students and teachers: students get to speak openly, and the teacher learns more of students' current beliefs and behaviours. Evidence in this study also advocates active, collaborative learning and that involves novelty and use of technology when appropriate. Students in this study were also keen for educational experiences outside the classroom.

year: 2020

title: Strengthening flood governance in Aotearoa New Zealand: Achieving multi-level policy coherence

authors: Hanna, Christina Jane

abstract: Effective flood risk management in Aotearoa New Zealand requires more directive and coherent governance across all levels. This includes clear national direction and policy frameworks for natural hazards and climate change adaptation planning.

text: Strengthening flood governance in Aotearoa New Zealand: Achieving multi-level policy coherence Effective flood risk management in Aotearoa New Zealand requires more directive and coherent governance across all levels. This includes clear national direction and policy frameworks for natural hazards and climate change adaptation planning.

year: 2025

title: Re-presenting Māori and Indigenous understandings of Being: Deconstructing the notion of mental illness

authors: Southey, Kim Marie

subjects: Maori

abstract: This thesis examines metaphysics in order to re-present Māori and indigenous understandings of Being and deconstruct the notion of mental illness.  A holistic understanding of Being is crucial to Māori and indigenous worldviews and takes priority as a focus for this thesis. Holistic notions of Being allow indigenous peoples to reimagine potentiality in general and the possibility of a renewed experience of being-in-the-world more specifically. Through an exploration of Māori and indigenous (complex) holism, I seek to re-turn to the influence of things in the world that exist outside of the self-contained individual - that is, beyond the cognitive rational agent.  Doing so shifts the concept of well-being to reside not simply within the person (or the individual’s reactions), but within the entire world in which we live.  

It is posited that a dominant Western metaphysics poses a fundamental risk to Māori and indigenous expressions of Being.  This deeper layer of influence – the metaphysics of presence - is examined to expose its structure – one that insists that things in the world will be represented as fully discernible objects.  The implications that a dominant Western metaphysics has for the notion of mental illness are explored within the context of the metaphysics of presence that sets up things in the world as Beings whose essential meaning is identified only through qualities that can be seen, measured, described and defined.  Within this view of the world, the notion of mental illness is solidified, reflected in a focus on the most discernible aspects of Being – the observable and physical parts of a person that can be examined through science.  To counter this, the more mysterious and unthinkable aspects of Being reflected in Māori and indigenous metaphysics are highlighted as a way of re-turning to holism, to the extent that they resist the expectation that things in the world will be reduced to fit the dominant (metaphysical) framework.  

I engage the relational holistic research approach of whaiwhakaaro (a non-method implicating the more-than-human entities that push thinking and characterised by a free-flowing style of reflection), to draw out the possibilities that exist for re-presenting Māori and indigenous metaphysics and the notion of mental illness.  Eleven interviews were conducted with participants from varying professional and community-based backgrounds.  While the participants represent different views on metaphysics and mental illness, each has a passion for exploring the philosophies that shape the experience of being-in-the-world and how we understand ourselves in relation to all other things.  Their responses provide important signals for how human nature, more-than-human nature, and (mental) well-being are re-conceptualised.  

The main ideas that emerged through the interviews and the process of reflecting on participant responses (whaiwhakaaro) provoked thinking about the possibilities of holism in reconsidering the notion of mental illness.  Māori and indigenous understandings of Being were used to re-turn to ideas of well-being as a collective experience. I posit that, if there is illness, then it resides in the world rather than being centred solely on the individual who experiences the world.  If there is a way to talk about illness and well-being, then it need not be restricted to assigned concepts or pre-determined categories that explain behaviour.  Through a re-turn to complex holism – to Māori and indigenous metaphysical premises – I suggest we can engage with people’s experiences on different terms.  These are the terms that carry excessive meaning, that allow for mystery – to break from conventions and categories. These terms support a different view of individualism where the person is free to express their experience of thorough interconnection – of whakapapa.  In its broadest sense, the re-turn to holism is an understanding of the self as part of a thoroughly connected whole.

text: Re-presenting Māori and Indigenous understandings of Being: Deconstructing the notion of mental illness This thesis examines metaphysics in order to re-present Māori and indigenous understandings of Being and deconstruct the notion of mental illness.  A holistic understanding of Being is crucial to Māori and indigenous worldviews and takes priority as a focus for this thesis. Holistic notions of Being allow indigenous peoples to reimagine potentiality in general and the possibility of a renewed experience of being-in-the-world more specifically. Through an exploration of Māori and indigenous (complex) holism, I seek to re-turn to the influence of things in the world that exist outside of the self-contained individual - that is, beyond the cognitive rational agent.  Doing so shifts the concept of well-being to reside not simply within the person (or the individual’s reactions), but within the entire world in which we live.  

It is posited that a dominant Western metaphysics poses a fundamental risk to Māori and indigenous expressions of Being.  This deeper layer of influence – the metaphysics of presence - is examined to expose its structure – one that insists that things in the world will be represented as fully discernible objects.  The implications that a dominant Western metaphysics has for the notion of mental illness are explored within the context of the metaphysics of presence that sets up things in the world as Beings whose essential meaning is identified only through qualities that can be seen, measured, described and defined.  Within this view of the world, the notion of mental illness is solidified, reflected in a focus on the most discernible aspects of Being – the observable and physical parts of a person that can be examined through science.  To counter this, the more mysterious and unthinkable aspects of Being reflected in Māori and indigenous metaphysics are highlighted as a way of re-turning to holism, to the extent that they resist the expectation that things in the world will be reduced to fit the dominant (metaphysical) framework.  

I engage the relational holistic research approach of whaiwhakaaro (a non-method implicating the more-than-human entities that push thinking and characterised by a free-flowing style of reflection), to draw out the possibilities that exist for re-presenting Māori and indigenous metaphysics and the notion of mental illness.  Eleven interviews were conducted with participants from varying professional and community-based backgrounds.  While the participants represent different views on metaphysics and mental illness, each has a passion for exploring the philosophies that shape the experience of being-in-the-world and how we understand ourselves in relation to all other things.  Their responses provide important signals for how human nature, more-than-human nature, and (mental) well-being are re-conceptualised.  

The main ideas that emerged through the interviews and the process of reflecting on participant responses (whaiwhakaaro) provoked thinking about the possibilities of holism in reconsidering the notion of mental illness.  Māori and indigenous understandings of Being were used to re-turn to ideas of well-being as a collective experience. I posit that, if there is illness, then it resides in the world rather than being centred solely on the individual who experiences the world.  If there is a way to talk about illness and well-being, then it need not be restricted to assigned concepts or pre-determined categories that explain behaviour.  Through a re-turn to complex holism – to Māori and indigenous metaphysical premises – I suggest we can engage with people’s experiences on different terms.  These are the terms that carry excessive meaning, that allow for mystery – to break from conventions and categories. These terms support a different view of individualism where the person is free to express their experience of thorough interconnection – of whakapapa.  In its broadest sense, the re-turn to holism is an understanding of the self as part of a thoroughly connected whole.

year: 2020