title: Transition experiences of first-year initial teacher education students: Barriers and enablers

authors: Amundsen, Diana Leigh

subjects: Transitions

abstract: Globally, schools and governments have strong expectations for Initial Teacher Education (ITE) programmes to prepare ‘profession-ready’ graduates (Charteris & Dargusch, 2018). Such demands require ITE students to go through various transition experiences during their endeavours to become teachers. This research explored the barriers and enablers for ITE students during their initial transition into a teacher education programme in a New Zealand context. Using Bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems model (1979), data were analysed to report barriers and enablers identified by students in their initial transition into teacher education. Bronfenbrenner’s ideas around layers of contexts offered appropriate explanations for how students’ dispositions and resources inter-related with features of the higher education learning environment. Data were gathered as part of a wider longitudinal project investigating well-being and resilience of people preparing for careers in caring professions. During phase one, ethical consent was gained to invite 60 ITE students to share an assignment completed six weeks into the beginning of their Bachelor of Teaching programme about their transitions into university. Thematic analysis was used to identify emerging themes related to experiences within each of Bronfenbrenner’s contexts. Transition enablers clustered around the individual and microsystem contexts, clearly highlighting how a ‘strong sense of purpose’ and ‘supportive family relationships’ facilitate effective transition experiences. Similarly, barriers were clustered within the individual and microsystems, although financial strain (attributed to the macrosystem context) also stood out as a significant transition barrier. The results of our research have highlighted both barriers and enablers to ITE programme student transitions. The challenge for teacher educators, ITE programmes, and higher education institutions more widely is to consider the extent to which they can acknowledge students’ lived realities, provide effective support to pre-empt or mitigate transition barriers, and promote students’ experiences of transition enablers. This presentation considers how these objectives might be achieved.

text: Transition experiences of first-year initial teacher education students: Barriers and enablers Globally, schools and governments have strong expectations for Initial Teacher Education (ITE) programmes to prepare ‘profession-ready’ graduates (Charteris & Dargusch, 2018). Such demands require ITE students to go through various transition experiences during their endeavours to become teachers. This research explored the barriers and enablers for ITE students during their initial transition into a teacher education programme in a New Zealand context. Using Bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems model (1979), data were analysed to report barriers and enablers identified by students in their initial transition into teacher education. Bronfenbrenner’s ideas around layers of contexts offered appropriate explanations for how students’ dispositions and resources inter-related with features of the higher education learning environment. Data were gathered as part of a wider longitudinal project investigating well-being and resilience of people preparing for careers in caring professions. During phase one, ethical consent was gained to invite 60 ITE students to share an assignment completed six weeks into the beginning of their Bachelor of Teaching programme about their transitions into university. Thematic analysis was used to identify emerging themes related to experiences within each of Bronfenbrenner’s contexts. Transition enablers clustered around the individual and microsystem contexts, clearly highlighting how a ‘strong sense of purpose’ and ‘supportive family relationships’ facilitate effective transition experiences. Similarly, barriers were clustered within the individual and microsystems, although financial strain (attributed to the macrosystem context) also stood out as a significant transition barrier. The results of our research have highlighted both barriers and enablers to ITE programme student transitions. The challenge for teacher educators, ITE programmes, and higher education institutions more widely is to consider the extent to which they can acknowledge students’ lived realities, provide effective support to pre-empt or mitigate transition barriers, and promote students’ experiences of transition enablers. This presentation considers how these objectives might be achieved.

year: 2020-11-19

title: Antecedents of User Acceptance of Technology in the Workplace: An extension of the Technology Acceptance Model

authors: Botha, Danielle

abstract: In a world that is highly dependent on technology, it has become increasingly important for organisations to stay up to date with the rapid technological changes. The introduction of new technology is more often than not motivated by the need to increase employee productivity and efficiency in order to achieve maximum work output; all while keeping organisational costs down.
Drawing on 96 participants from an organisation within the power, gas and infrastructure industry, the current study investigated user acceptance of technology and the antecedents to this acceptance that impact upon the acceptance and adoption of new technology.
Results supported past research in showing that perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use are strong determinants of, both direct and indirect, behavioural intention to use. Job relevance, computer anxiety and computer self-efficacy are also shown to be important antecedents of technology acceptance. Additionally, the results failed to provide support for the commonly held belief that age has a negative relationship with technology use.
Mediation analysis showed that the effect perceived ease of use has on behavioural intention to use, operates through perceived usefulness; suggesting that, despite being easy to use, new technology will not be used if it does not prove its usefulness. Mediation analysis also showed that the effect of computer anxiety on perceived ease of use was indirect through computer self-efficacy. This means that the self-efficacy an individual has will weaken the effect that their computer anxiety has on their perceived ease of use.

Overall, this study explores what impacts and influences the acceptance and adoption of new technology in the workplace. This research has successfully adapted the Technology Acceptance Model in order to suit the current needs and provides further support of the external factors that impact upon this model. The current study also challenges the notion that age has a negative impact upon technology usage in the workplace.

text: Antecedents of User Acceptance of Technology in the Workplace: An extension of the Technology Acceptance Model In a world that is highly dependent on technology, it has become increasingly important for organisations to stay up to date with the rapid technological changes. The introduction of new technology is more often than not motivated by the need to increase employee productivity and efficiency in order to achieve maximum work output; all while keeping organisational costs down.
Drawing on 96 participants from an organisation within the power, gas and infrastructure industry, the current study investigated user acceptance of technology and the antecedents to this acceptance that impact upon the acceptance and adoption of new technology.
Results supported past research in showing that perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use are strong determinants of, both direct and indirect, behavioural intention to use. Job relevance, computer anxiety and computer self-efficacy are also shown to be important antecedents of technology acceptance. Additionally, the results failed to provide support for the commonly held belief that age has a negative relationship with technology use.
Mediation analysis showed that the effect perceived ease of use has on behavioural intention to use, operates through perceived usefulness; suggesting that, despite being easy to use, new technology will not be used if it does not prove its usefulness. Mediation analysis also showed that the effect of computer anxiety on perceived ease of use was indirect through computer self-efficacy. This means that the self-efficacy an individual has will weaken the effect that their computer anxiety has on their perceived ease of use.

Overall, this study explores what impacts and influences the acceptance and adoption of new technology in the workplace. This research has successfully adapted the Technology Acceptance Model in order to suit the current needs and provides further support of the external factors that impact upon this model. The current study also challenges the notion that age has a negative impact upon technology usage in the workplace.

year: 2018

title: A 'class of no political weight'? Interracial marriage, mixed race children and land rights in southern New Zealand, 1840s-1880s

authors: Wanhalla, Angela

subjects: Social Sciences

abstract: Interracial marriage was a defining feature of interaction between local Ngāi Tahu and newcomers in southern New Zealand from the early nineteenth century. Scholarship has explored the importance of such relationships to development of New Zealand’s early resource-based economies and to colonial assimilation policies. However, the experiences of cross-cultural households and families in colonial New Zealand are less well documented.

Using a body of writing produced by fathers and their mixed-race children in response to land claims investigations in the mid-nineteenth century, this article explores the political, economic and social world of interracial families in southern New Zealand. The correspondence over land rights reveals the ongoing importance of kinship ties through generations as colonial expansion impinged on these communities. Through petitioning and letter writing, fathers and children contested what marriage and family meant and strategically asserted their individual and collective identity in the face of increasing land dispossession and economic hardship.

text: A 'class of no political weight'? Interracial marriage, mixed race children and land rights in southern New Zealand, 1840s-1880s Interracial marriage was a defining feature of interaction between local Ngāi Tahu and newcomers in southern New Zealand from the early nineteenth century. Scholarship has explored the importance of such relationships to development of New Zealand’s early resource-based economies and to colonial assimilation policies. However, the experiences of cross-cultural households and families in colonial New Zealand are less well documented.

Using a body of writing produced by fathers and their mixed-race children in response to land claims investigations in the mid-nineteenth century, this article explores the political, economic and social world of interracial families in southern New Zealand. The correspondence over land rights reveals the ongoing importance of kinship ties through generations as colonial expansion impinged on these communities. Through petitioning and letter writing, fathers and children contested what marriage and family meant and strategically asserted their individual and collective identity in the face of increasing land dispossession and economic hardship.

year: 2019