title: Quality of Life - Impacts from the Family Planning Policy in China

authors: Liang, Yun

subjects: fertility

abstract: The relationship between population size, the quality of human capital, and the quality of life, interests social scientists. This topic is particularly important in China, where a previous ‘demographic gift’ is becoming a ‘demographic debt’ due to fertility below the replacement rate, and an aging society that places pressure on the social welfare system for elderly and young children. In this thesis, impacts of family size on aspects of the quality of life, such as the nutrient intakes of children and health outcomes of elderly are studied. The response of the working-age population in supporting the two groups through the channel of fertility is also studied.  Multiple waves of data from the China Health and Nutrition Survey are used as the major data source. 
The thesis uses changes in local regulations of family planning policy over time and space as a source of exogenous variation in family size to assist in identifying the causal effect of family size on the selected outcomes. Panel analysis is also applied to deal with the unobservable factors at individual level. For children, a quantity-quality trade-off is apparent when quality of children is measure by the nutrient intakes. The trade-off would be less apparent if exogenous sources of variation in family size were ignored.  For the elderly, their health appears to be adversely affected by the number of grandchildren, especially for grandmothers and especially in urban areas. 
Decomposition analysis for the urban-rural fertility gap finds that the fertility gap between women living in rural and urban area is mostly caused by their different characteristics, whereas the fertility gap between urban and rural hukou holders is more of an inherent thing that lowers the fertility of women with urban hukou. This finding suggests the possible policy trade-off between encouraging urbanisation and encouraging higher fertility may not be as strong as they initially appear.

text: Quality of Life - Impacts from the Family Planning Policy in China The relationship between population size, the quality of human capital, and the quality of life, interests social scientists. This topic is particularly important in China, where a previous ‘demographic gift’ is becoming a ‘demographic debt’ due to fertility below the replacement rate, and an aging society that places pressure on the social welfare system for elderly and young children. In this thesis, impacts of family size on aspects of the quality of life, such as the nutrient intakes of children and health outcomes of elderly are studied. The response of the working-age population in supporting the two groups through the channel of fertility is also studied.  Multiple waves of data from the China Health and Nutrition Survey are used as the major data source. 
The thesis uses changes in local regulations of family planning policy over time and space as a source of exogenous variation in family size to assist in identifying the causal effect of family size on the selected outcomes. Panel analysis is also applied to deal with the unobservable factors at individual level. For children, a quantity-quality trade-off is apparent when quality of children is measure by the nutrient intakes. The trade-off would be less apparent if exogenous sources of variation in family size were ignored.  For the elderly, their health appears to be adversely affected by the number of grandchildren, especially for grandmothers and especially in urban areas. 
Decomposition analysis for the urban-rural fertility gap finds that the fertility gap between women living in rural and urban area is mostly caused by their different characteristics, whereas the fertility gap between urban and rural hukou holders is more of an inherent thing that lowers the fertility of women with urban hukou. This finding suggests the possible policy trade-off between encouraging urbanisation and encouraging higher fertility may not be as strong as they initially appear.

year: 2018

title: Technology teacher education in New Zealand

authors: Fox-Turnbull, Wendy

subjects: New Zealand

abstract: Undertaken in universities and other approved private providers, technology teacher education in New Zealand involves students in theory and practice. The New Zealand Teaching Council, the teaching professional body, regulates and approves courses and programs. Based on Constructivist principles situated within Sociocultural theory, teacher education in New Zealand focuses on meeting students’ individual learning needs, and is founded on the principles of equality and inclusion, guided by the Te Tiriti o Waitangi, The Treaty of Waitangi, ensuring the specific rights of Māori and the New Zealand Curriculum. Technology, briefly defined as Intervention by Design, occurs through a range of contexts across three strands for learning: Technological Practice, the Nature of Technology, and Technological Knowledge, and within five technological areas: Designing and Developing Materials Technologies, Designing and Developing Processed Technologies and Designing and Developing Digital Technologies, Design and Visual Communication and Computational Thinking. Technology in New Zealand, although world leading, faces a number of challenges. These include a lack of understanding of the philosophy and key ideas that underpin technology, low subject status based on its predecessor technical education, and the lack of time and facilities available in teacher education programs. Many currently practicing specialist technology teachers struggle with the philosophical changes needed to move technology from a technical, skills-based program to the needs-based student-centered program outlined in the current curriculum. Over recent years in primary education in New Zealand, the Ministry of Education’s focus on literacy and numeracy has led to the marginalization of technology education in schools and teacher education programs. It is hoped that recent revisions to increase the presence of digital technologies in the technology curriculum, and the move to teaching through inquiry, whilst acknowledging students’ lived experiences facilitates the consolidation of technology education as a learning area of status incorporating the duality of practical and academic thinking.

text: Technology teacher education in New Zealand Undertaken in universities and other approved private providers, technology teacher education in New Zealand involves students in theory and practice. The New Zealand Teaching Council, the teaching professional body, regulates and approves courses and programs. Based on Constructivist principles situated within Sociocultural theory, teacher education in New Zealand focuses on meeting students’ individual learning needs, and is founded on the principles of equality and inclusion, guided by the Te Tiriti o Waitangi, The Treaty of Waitangi, ensuring the specific rights of Māori and the New Zealand Curriculum. Technology, briefly defined as Intervention by Design, occurs through a range of contexts across three strands for learning: Technological Practice, the Nature of Technology, and Technological Knowledge, and within five technological areas: Designing and Developing Materials Technologies, Designing and Developing Processed Technologies and Designing and Developing Digital Technologies, Design and Visual Communication and Computational Thinking. Technology in New Zealand, although world leading, faces a number of challenges. These include a lack of understanding of the philosophy and key ideas that underpin technology, low subject status based on its predecessor technical education, and the lack of time and facilities available in teacher education programs. Many currently practicing specialist technology teachers struggle with the philosophical changes needed to move technology from a technical, skills-based program to the needs-based student-centered program outlined in the current curriculum. Over recent years in primary education in New Zealand, the Ministry of Education’s focus on literacy and numeracy has led to the marginalization of technology education in schools and teacher education programs. It is hoped that recent revisions to increase the presence of digital technologies in the technology curriculum, and the move to teaching through inquiry, whilst acknowledging students’ lived experiences facilitates the consolidation of technology education as a learning area of status incorporating the duality of practical and academic thinking.

year: 2020

title: How is the circular economy emerging in Aotearoa New Zealand? Research Brief

authors: Diprose, G

abstract: The results of the environmental scan show that there is grass-roots activity and that we have some high level conceptualisations of circular economies (CE) however there is little in-between. As such, it is in the middle that activity needs to occur to transition towards a circular economy. We see a need to move beyond business-as-usual with an entity focus to an ‘ecosystem phase.’ This means that for CE, partnerships are needed across business, organisations, Treaty partners, institutions, NGOs and stakeholders to form collaborations around material and people flows in order for ecosystems to form and create circular economies.

text: How is the circular economy emerging in Aotearoa New Zealand? Research Brief The results of the environmental scan show that there is grass-roots activity and that we have some high level conceptualisations of circular economies (CE) however there is little in-between. As such, it is in the middle that activity needs to occur to transition towards a circular economy. We see a need to move beyond business-as-usual with an entity focus to an ‘ecosystem phase.’ This means that for CE, partnerships are needed across business, organisations, Treaty partners, institutions, NGOs and stakeholders to form collaborations around material and people flows in order for ecosystems to form and create circular economies.

year: 2022