title: Meanings of 'the Outdoors': Shaping outdoor education in Aotearoa New Zealand

authors: Straker, Jo

subjects: Outdoor Education

abstract: Abstract
The issue of human-nature relationships has become increasingly important given the environmental issues affecting the world. Thus, education which can encourage students to positively engage and connect with the world around them is vital. Outdoor education offers one way to help build relationships, but only if outdoor educators have an understanding and appreciation of the ways 'the outdoors' influences their pedagogy. Over the years, growing emphasis on adventure activities, social and personal development, and experiential learning styles, has subsumed the role of 'the outdoors' within outdoor education.
Using an interpretive narrative framework, this research focuses on 'the outdoors' as a defining feature of outdoor education.  A series of three semi-structured interviews with 11 outdoor educators provided opportunities to explore meanings of the outdoors and how those meanings influenced their understandings and practices of outdoor education. An inductive analysis of the interviews identified five primary themes; locations, activities, living simply, emotional responses, and relationships, and these were used to unpack the participants' beliefs and experiences of 'the outdoors' and outdoor education. In order to retain the richness and complexity of the meanings the participants shared, the findings are presented in a variety of formats including vignettes and poetic text. 
The findings are multi-layered, something that reflected the dynamic nature of 'the outdoors' and the ensuing opportunities offered for creative and critical thinking. There was also evidence that the participants were vigilant about adopting a multi-dimensional approach to outdoor education. This required integrating pragmatic pro-environmental actions, experiential opportunities, challenge activities, spontaneous learning moments, and quiet time into many of their sessions. In so doing, they ensured experiences for their students were holistic, meaningful, and engaging, as well as promoting a respectful relationship with 'the outdoors'. Some of these practices were constrained at times by the expectations of current secondary school educational orthodoxies, especially those relating to assessing pre-determined outcomes. Nonetheless, there was an unreserved belief that outdoor education has an increasingly distinct and important role to play in the school curriculum. How this will be enacted depends on the challenges and opportunities that rise and fall with changing social, political, and economic agendas.

text: Meanings of 'the Outdoors': Shaping outdoor education in Aotearoa New Zealand Abstract
The issue of human-nature relationships has become increasingly important given the environmental issues affecting the world. Thus, education which can encourage students to positively engage and connect with the world around them is vital. Outdoor education offers one way to help build relationships, but only if outdoor educators have an understanding and appreciation of the ways 'the outdoors' influences their pedagogy. Over the years, growing emphasis on adventure activities, social and personal development, and experiential learning styles, has subsumed the role of 'the outdoors' within outdoor education.
Using an interpretive narrative framework, this research focuses on 'the outdoors' as a defining feature of outdoor education.  A series of three semi-structured interviews with 11 outdoor educators provided opportunities to explore meanings of the outdoors and how those meanings influenced their understandings and practices of outdoor education. An inductive analysis of the interviews identified five primary themes; locations, activities, living simply, emotional responses, and relationships, and these were used to unpack the participants' beliefs and experiences of 'the outdoors' and outdoor education. In order to retain the richness and complexity of the meanings the participants shared, the findings are presented in a variety of formats including vignettes and poetic text. 
The findings are multi-layered, something that reflected the dynamic nature of 'the outdoors' and the ensuing opportunities offered for creative and critical thinking. There was also evidence that the participants were vigilant about adopting a multi-dimensional approach to outdoor education. This required integrating pragmatic pro-environmental actions, experiential opportunities, challenge activities, spontaneous learning moments, and quiet time into many of their sessions. In so doing, they ensured experiences for their students were holistic, meaningful, and engaging, as well as promoting a respectful relationship with 'the outdoors'. Some of these practices were constrained at times by the expectations of current secondary school educational orthodoxies, especially those relating to assessing pre-determined outcomes. Nonetheless, there was an unreserved belief that outdoor education has an increasingly distinct and important role to play in the school curriculum. How this will be enacted depends on the challenges and opportunities that rise and fall with changing social, political, and economic agendas.

year: 2014

title: A structural realist assessment of the strategic competition between the US and Iran in Iraq from 2003-2016

authors: Ram, Avish

subjects: United States

abstract: The invasion of Iraq in 2003 sparked a competition between two major Middle Eastern powers, the US and Iran, for influence in the former Ba’athist dictatorship. For the US, influencing Iraq would reinforce its position, strengthen Washington’s security in the international system by turning a former enemy into an ally, and provide the US with the ability to engage Iran, its chief rival more effectively by positioning itself right on Tehran’s border. It would also help secure its border by ensuring that Baghdad would never rise to threaten Tehran’s national security in the future and decrease American power in the wider region while enhancing its own capabilities in the Middle East. To interrogate this competition, the thesis investigates the strategic competition between the US and Iran from 2003-2016 through the lens of structural realism (and its offensive and defensive sub-variants) and examines the tactics, actors, and policies adopted by each side in their quest to gain an advantage over the other. It finds, ultimately, that Iran proved to be more successful than the US in acquiring a position of relative strength in Iraq.

text: A structural realist assessment of the strategic competition between the US and Iran in Iraq from 2003-2016 The invasion of Iraq in 2003 sparked a competition between two major Middle Eastern powers, the US and Iran, for influence in the former Ba’athist dictatorship. For the US, influencing Iraq would reinforce its position, strengthen Washington’s security in the international system by turning a former enemy into an ally, and provide the US with the ability to engage Iran, its chief rival more effectively by positioning itself right on Tehran’s border. It would also help secure its border by ensuring that Baghdad would never rise to threaten Tehran’s national security in the future and decrease American power in the wider region while enhancing its own capabilities in the Middle East. To interrogate this competition, the thesis investigates the strategic competition between the US and Iran from 2003-2016 through the lens of structural realism (and its offensive and defensive sub-variants) and examines the tactics, actors, and policies adopted by each side in their quest to gain an advantage over the other. It finds, ultimately, that Iran proved to be more successful than the US in acquiring a position of relative strength in Iraq.

year: 2022

title: On the Role of Literature and Translation in Language Maintenance

authors: Harlow, Ray

subjects: literature

abstract: The paper investigates the actual and potential role which is played by the promotion of traditional and innovative literature in efforts to maintain minority language under threat from a dominant language. The arguments advanced in the controversy surrounding the incorporation of translated material in a minority language’s corpus are discussed, and the view represented that the appropriateness or otherwise of translating material into a minority language depends on the (sometimes implicit) ideological goals of the maintenance movement. Fishman’s (1991, 2001) Graded Intergenerational Disruption Scale provides a framework for this discussion.

text: On the Role of Literature and Translation in Language Maintenance The paper investigates the actual and potential role which is played by the promotion of traditional and innovative literature in efforts to maintain minority language under threat from a dominant language. The arguments advanced in the controversy surrounding the incorporation of translated material in a minority language’s corpus are discussed, and the view represented that the appropriateness or otherwise of translating material into a minority language depends on the (sometimes implicit) ideological goals of the maintenance movement. Fishman’s (1991, 2001) Graded Intergenerational Disruption Scale provides a framework for this discussion.

year: 2002-02