title: Analysing pedagogical change: Physics teachers' responses to a new curriculum.

authors: Fernandez, Teresa Sushama

subjects: teaching

abstract: This paper describes teachers' attempts to implement the 1994 New Zealand physics curriculum in the first year of its introduction to secondary schools in 1998. Analysis of interviews with 10 physics teachers and the three curriculum writers led to the identification of a number of barriers to changes in pedagogical practices. The barriers identified aligned with factors that had been identified by other researchers as important influences on teachers undergoing change. It is argued that a sociocultural perspective suggests that there were three main reasons why significant pedagogical change was not occasioned by the curriculum document. Firstly, there was very limited knowledge about why changes were being implemented. Secondly, there was little social and system support for the curriculum change. Finally, teachers had no time to focus on and reflect on the change.

text: Analysing pedagogical change: Physics teachers' responses to a new curriculum. This paper describes teachers' attempts to implement the 1994 New Zealand physics curriculum in the first year of its introduction to secondary schools in 1998. Analysis of interviews with 10 physics teachers and the three curriculum writers led to the identification of a number of barriers to changes in pedagogical practices. The barriers identified aligned with factors that had been identified by other researchers as important influences on teachers undergoing change. It is argued that a sociocultural perspective suggests that there were three main reasons why significant pedagogical change was not occasioned by the curriculum document. Firstly, there was very limited knowledge about why changes were being implemented. Secondly, there was little social and system support for the curriculum change. Finally, teachers had no time to focus on and reflect on the change.

year: 2003

title: The potential and the limits of mindfulness:  When and for whom is it beneficial?

authors: Roemer, Anja

abstract: Mindfulness is an inherent human capacity that is characterised as present moment awareness while maintaining an accepting and nonjudgmental stance. Mindfulness is related to better self-regulation and it enables individuals to refrain from behaviour that is driven by automaticity and impulsivity. While this is a capacity that can be beneficial in many jobs, we do not fully understand the work situations in which mindfulness may be helpful or the conditions under which mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs) improve critical outcomes such as mental health and performance. Research investigating the potential and limits of mindfulness in today’s challenging world is therefore warranted. 
This thesis set out to examine mindfulness in various contexts to investigate its potential mental health and performance benefits across different populations (N=564) distributed over five different studies. These five studies involved three different samples including employees (n=301), youth (n=239) and trainees (n=24). Cross-sectional survey designs and experimental intervention studies were used to investigate when and for whom mindfulness is beneficial. Hierarchical and stepwise multiple regression analyses, an ANCOVA and the Wilcoxon-signed rank test were applied to analyse data. It was found that mindfulness can help to buffer the negative effect of inauthenticity on depression in a sample of employees. Furthermore, more mindful employees showed a higher readiness for change in times of organisational change, but only when levels of well-being are high and distress is low. Having established that mindfulness can be beneficial in the workplace, it was investigated whether low-dose MBIs are effective in enhancing mental health and attentional performance. It was found that a low-dose-MBI could protect from performance decline in times of demanding training with positive effects on well-being at follow-up. Moreover, a low-dose MBI alleviated distress, but only for those who had higher levels of mindfulness and well-being at baseline. Finally, the contribution of different mindfulness facets to well-being and distress was investigated. The results demonstrated that the mindfulness facet Nonreacting was the main predictor of well-being, while the facet Acting with awareness was the main inverse predictor of distress.Overall, the findings of this thesis show that mindfulness can help employees to deal with demands at work, such as organisational change, and it can enhance well-being and reduce distress. However, mindfulness may not be beneficial under all conditions and for everyone. Organisations who aim to use interventions should carefully assess employees’ current levels of mindfulness and well-being to assign them to the right intervention format.

text: The potential and the limits of mindfulness:  When and for whom is it beneficial? Mindfulness is an inherent human capacity that is characterised as present moment awareness while maintaining an accepting and nonjudgmental stance. Mindfulness is related to better self-regulation and it enables individuals to refrain from behaviour that is driven by automaticity and impulsivity. While this is a capacity that can be beneficial in many jobs, we do not fully understand the work situations in which mindfulness may be helpful or the conditions under which mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs) improve critical outcomes such as mental health and performance. Research investigating the potential and limits of mindfulness in today’s challenging world is therefore warranted. 
This thesis set out to examine mindfulness in various contexts to investigate its potential mental health and performance benefits across different populations (N=564) distributed over five different studies. These five studies involved three different samples including employees (n=301), youth (n=239) and trainees (n=24). Cross-sectional survey designs and experimental intervention studies were used to investigate when and for whom mindfulness is beneficial. Hierarchical and stepwise multiple regression analyses, an ANCOVA and the Wilcoxon-signed rank test were applied to analyse data. It was found that mindfulness can help to buffer the negative effect of inauthenticity on depression in a sample of employees. Furthermore, more mindful employees showed a higher readiness for change in times of organisational change, but only when levels of well-being are high and distress is low. Having established that mindfulness can be beneficial in the workplace, it was investigated whether low-dose MBIs are effective in enhancing mental health and attentional performance. It was found that a low-dose-MBI could protect from performance decline in times of demanding training with positive effects on well-being at follow-up. Moreover, a low-dose MBI alleviated distress, but only for those who had higher levels of mindfulness and well-being at baseline. Finally, the contribution of different mindfulness facets to well-being and distress was investigated. The results demonstrated that the mindfulness facet Nonreacting was the main predictor of well-being, while the facet Acting with awareness was the main inverse predictor of distress.Overall, the findings of this thesis show that mindfulness can help employees to deal with demands at work, such as organisational change, and it can enhance well-being and reduce distress. However, mindfulness may not be beneficial under all conditions and for everyone. Organisations who aim to use interventions should carefully assess employees’ current levels of mindfulness and well-being to assign them to the right intervention format.

year: 2021

title: Iwi cultural identity: The praxis of tūpuna narrative

authors: Williams, Amelia Amy Tuihana

subjects: Māori

abstract: This research is a narrative-based study of tūpuna narrative practices. As a privileged medium tūpuna narratives construct the conditions of iwi praxis which leads to mana-motuhake: the political independence and self-determination of Māori. This study explores how the Ngāti Koi applied ‘tūpuna narratives’ to challenge the hegemonic identity imposed on them that effectively alienated and silenced them erasing their memories of who they were and are. It is an auto-ethnography of an iwi, a whānau, a family it is a story about the writer. While this may seem a personal objective, the result indicates a cultural problematic in that the search for identity involves a critical kaupapa Māori investigation for an iwi to make sense of the act of colonisation, the colonial institutions that named them and the revitalization of their iwi identity in a Treaty of Waitangi context.  

This study has found that ‘tūpuna narratives’ represent identity conceptions that have implications for traditional normative practices. In narrative study there are no prescribed means for unearthing and creating meanings, research methods take the form of co-construction, the emphasis is on doing what is necessary to capture the lived experiences of iwi in terms of their particular-and-unique circumstances. Over time dominant theories have tended to align narrative practices with journalism, storytelling, myth and legend, tale and fable diminishing its conceptual role as the ‘epistemological other’ of the social sciences. 

The findings of this research illustrate the significant limitations of these theories. Narrative research is considered both a research method ‘in itself’ and also the phenomenon under study. In this study, narrative is applied as a conceptual metaphor to create interpreted descriptions, to understand and link causal historical and personal events to colonial institutional decision-making. Placed within the conceptual constellation of Kaupapa Māori narrative methodology becomes a powerful tool for change: creating the conditions of iwi praxis which is the making, the transformation and revitalisation of iwi cultural identity. 

As I write Hauraki enters a Treaty of Waitangi ‘settled world’ the settlement formulae premised on the falsified stories begat by nineteenth-century institutional decision-makers. These stories have created a legacy of unease as open inter iwi hostilities are unleashed. Treaty settlements should result in rangimarie-peace, justice and praxis for iwi both internal to, and external of its polity and cultural borders. Clearly, they do not and the need for tūpuna narratives, free of colonial-institutional storying, remains.

text: Iwi cultural identity: The praxis of tūpuna narrative This research is a narrative-based study of tūpuna narrative practices. As a privileged medium tūpuna narratives construct the conditions of iwi praxis which leads to mana-motuhake: the political independence and self-determination of Māori. This study explores how the Ngāti Koi applied ‘tūpuna narratives’ to challenge the hegemonic identity imposed on them that effectively alienated and silenced them erasing their memories of who they were and are. It is an auto-ethnography of an iwi, a whānau, a family it is a story about the writer. While this may seem a personal objective, the result indicates a cultural problematic in that the search for identity involves a critical kaupapa Māori investigation for an iwi to make sense of the act of colonisation, the colonial institutions that named them and the revitalization of their iwi identity in a Treaty of Waitangi context.  

This study has found that ‘tūpuna narratives’ represent identity conceptions that have implications for traditional normative practices. In narrative study there are no prescribed means for unearthing and creating meanings, research methods take the form of co-construction, the emphasis is on doing what is necessary to capture the lived experiences of iwi in terms of their particular-and-unique circumstances. Over time dominant theories have tended to align narrative practices with journalism, storytelling, myth and legend, tale and fable diminishing its conceptual role as the ‘epistemological other’ of the social sciences. 

The findings of this research illustrate the significant limitations of these theories. Narrative research is considered both a research method ‘in itself’ and also the phenomenon under study. In this study, narrative is applied as a conceptual metaphor to create interpreted descriptions, to understand and link causal historical and personal events to colonial institutional decision-making. Placed within the conceptual constellation of Kaupapa Māori narrative methodology becomes a powerful tool for change: creating the conditions of iwi praxis which is the making, the transformation and revitalisation of iwi cultural identity. 

As I write Hauraki enters a Treaty of Waitangi ‘settled world’ the settlement formulae premised on the falsified stories begat by nineteenth-century institutional decision-makers. These stories have created a legacy of unease as open inter iwi hostilities are unleashed. Treaty settlements should result in rangimarie-peace, justice and praxis for iwi both internal to, and external of its polity and cultural borders. Clearly, they do not and the need for tūpuna narratives, free of colonial-institutional storying, remains.

year: 2020