title: Maori & Psychology Research Unit annual report 2005

authors: Rua, Mohi

subjects: Maori and Psychology Research Unit

abstract: Annual report of the Maori and Psychology Research Unit (MPRU) 2005. The unit was established in August of 1997. The unit is designed to provide a catalyst and support network for enhancing research concerning the psychological needs, aspirations, and priorities of Maori people. The MPRU is well situated to draw together skilled and experienced interdisciplinary research groups by networking and establishing working relationships with staff and students within the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, the University, and the wider community.

text: Maori & Psychology Research Unit annual report 2005 Annual report of the Maori and Psychology Research Unit (MPRU) 2005. The unit was established in August of 1997. The unit is designed to provide a catalyst and support network for enhancing research concerning the psychological needs, aspirations, and priorities of Maori people. The MPRU is well situated to draw together skilled and experienced interdisciplinary research groups by networking and establishing working relationships with staff and students within the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, the University, and the wider community.

year: 2005

title: “It’s becoming part of their knowing”: a study of bicultural development in an early childhood teacher education setting in Aotearoa/New Zealand

authors: Ritchie, Jenny

abstract: This study is an exploration of the implementation of bicultural development within a university-based early childhood teacher education programme in Aotearoa/New Zealand, which can be considered to be a bicultural country (Walker, 1987, p. 221). Bicultural development is a process in line with obligations contained within the Te Tiriti o Waitangi/The Treaty of Waitangi, which are reflected within the New Zealand Ministry of Education’s Revised Statement of Desirable Objectives and Practices (Ministry of Education, 1996a) and the early childhood curriculum, Te Whāriki (Ministry of Education, 1996b). The study adopts a critical, transformative theoretical paradigm, and employed an eclectic and emergent qualitative methodological approach, that reflected aspects from ethnographic, narrative and grounded theory methodologies. Interviews with university lecturers, early childhood care and education teachers, and professional development facilitators within the early childhood field; observations within early childhood care and education centres; audio taping of university class discussions; samples of university student assignments; and a written survey of graduates of the university teacher education programme provide the sources of data for the study. Central to the methodological process is a commitment to ethical care for participants, which involves attentive accountability to the interpretations that they place on the material that they contribute to the study and to the overall theorising of the significance of the findings. 

Key research questions of the study were to define ‘bicultural development’ in the context of early childhood care and education in this country; to identify key components of the bicultural development implementation process employed within the university teacher early childhood education programme; to distinguish some useful ‘indicators’ of bicultural development within early childhood centres; and to consider the implications for the teacher education programme in terms of preparing graduates to facilitate bicultural development within their future work in early childhood education. 

A significant finding of the study was the identification of a range of strategies for implementing bicultural development in early childhood education teacher education and care and education settings. The key strategies include Tiriti-based partnership models of teaching whereby Māori and Pākehā work alongside each other, enabling the paralleling of Māori and Western perspectives within both university teacher education and early childhood care and education programmes. It was considered essential that universities employ Māori lecturers to enable Māori content within the teacher education programme to be adequately provisioned. Since there are few Māori educators employed in mainstream early childhood services, it was suggested that teachers might seek to employ a “whanaungatanga” approach. This involves the early childhood centre staff creating a climate and environment in which Māori families/whānau are comfortable to participate fully in programme planning, implementation, and evaluation, which will enable all children attending to access Māori perspectives alongside the Western curriculum content. This approach is consistent with Article Two of Te Tiriti o Waitangi, which guaranteed to Māori their tino rangatiratanga, or self-determination. 

An implication for management and staff of early childhood teacher education programmes in Aotearoa/New Zealand is the need to equip graduates with the knowledge bases and commitment that will enable them to implement bicultural development, ideally through adopting, a whanaungatanga approach. This involves facilitating teacher education students to move beyond the dysconscious racism (King, 1994) that is deeply embedded in mainstream Pākehā culture in this country, to the position where they are able to adopt a critical, transformative stance that is humble, respectful and responsive to cultural difference. This stance includes valuing the inclusion of te reo me ōna tikanga throughout early childhood programmes, in a partnership initiated by teachers, but one in which whānau Māori are then able to take the lead in determining the nature and application of Māori content.

text: “It’s becoming part of their knowing”: a study of bicultural development in an early childhood teacher education setting in Aotearoa/New Zealand This study is an exploration of the implementation of bicultural development within a university-based early childhood teacher education programme in Aotearoa/New Zealand, which can be considered to be a bicultural country (Walker, 1987, p. 221). Bicultural development is a process in line with obligations contained within the Te Tiriti o Waitangi/The Treaty of Waitangi, which are reflected within the New Zealand Ministry of Education’s Revised Statement of Desirable Objectives and Practices (Ministry of Education, 1996a) and the early childhood curriculum, Te Whāriki (Ministry of Education, 1996b). The study adopts a critical, transformative theoretical paradigm, and employed an eclectic and emergent qualitative methodological approach, that reflected aspects from ethnographic, narrative and grounded theory methodologies. Interviews with university lecturers, early childhood care and education teachers, and professional development facilitators within the early childhood field; observations within early childhood care and education centres; audio taping of university class discussions; samples of university student assignments; and a written survey of graduates of the university teacher education programme provide the sources of data for the study. Central to the methodological process is a commitment to ethical care for participants, which involves attentive accountability to the interpretations that they place on the material that they contribute to the study and to the overall theorising of the significance of the findings. 

Key research questions of the study were to define ‘bicultural development’ in the context of early childhood care and education in this country; to identify key components of the bicultural development implementation process employed within the university teacher early childhood education programme; to distinguish some useful ‘indicators’ of bicultural development within early childhood centres; and to consider the implications for the teacher education programme in terms of preparing graduates to facilitate bicultural development within their future work in early childhood education. 

A significant finding of the study was the identification of a range of strategies for implementing bicultural development in early childhood education teacher education and care and education settings. The key strategies include Tiriti-based partnership models of teaching whereby Māori and Pākehā work alongside each other, enabling the paralleling of Māori and Western perspectives within both university teacher education and early childhood care and education programmes. It was considered essential that universities employ Māori lecturers to enable Māori content within the teacher education programme to be adequately provisioned. Since there are few Māori educators employed in mainstream early childhood services, it was suggested that teachers might seek to employ a “whanaungatanga” approach. This involves the early childhood centre staff creating a climate and environment in which Māori families/whānau are comfortable to participate fully in programme planning, implementation, and evaluation, which will enable all children attending to access Māori perspectives alongside the Western curriculum content. This approach is consistent with Article Two of Te Tiriti o Waitangi, which guaranteed to Māori their tino rangatiratanga, or self-determination. 

An implication for management and staff of early childhood teacher education programmes in Aotearoa/New Zealand is the need to equip graduates with the knowledge bases and commitment that will enable them to implement bicultural development, ideally through adopting, a whanaungatanga approach. This involves facilitating teacher education students to move beyond the dysconscious racism (King, 1994) that is deeply embedded in mainstream Pākehā culture in this country, to the position where they are able to adopt a critical, transformative stance that is humble, respectful and responsive to cultural difference. This stance includes valuing the inclusion of te reo me ōna tikanga throughout early childhood programmes, in a partnership initiated by teachers, but one in which whānau Māori are then able to take the lead in determining the nature and application of Māori content.

year: 2002

title: Variation in nitrate sources and delivery in space and time within the 389 ha Lake Okaro catchment

authors: Eyberg, Claire Elizabeth

subjects: Nitrate

abstract: The eutrophication of surface water is a global issue, with excessive nitrate 
concentrations reducing water quality and affecting water supplies, 
ecosystem health and its recreational use. In New Zealand, the degradation 
of freshwater quality has largely been attributed to nitrate leaching from 
intensive landuse, in particular from intensively grazed pastoral systems.   
As agricultural activity in catchments can contribute a large proportion of the 
nutrient pollution in surface waters, an understanding of nitrogen dynamics 
is therefore vital in managing the downstream effects of diffuse nitrogen 
inputs. Nitrate isotopes (δ¹⁵N, δ¹⁸O) have been increasingly used for 
determining nitrate cycling and source identification. Together with water 
isotopes (δ²H, δ¹⁸O), these conservative tracers can provide the necessary 
tools for determining the transport mechanisms of nitrate.   
    
Lake Okaro has suffered from water quality degradation for several decades, 
and has been the focus of intense lake restoration projects focused on 
nutrient management. The 389 ha agriculture-dominated catchment 
exemplifies New Zealand’s complex physiographic landscape.   

Results from high-resolution monitoring of streamflow during storm events 
demonstrates the potential to capture dynamic shifts in distinct water 
sources, but can be limited by insufficient monitoring of ancillary parameters, 
or a lack of pre-event characterisation of streamflow. Spatial sampling 
indicated characteristic fractionation processes for sites of similar 
environments, likely due to enhanced plant and microbial processing of 
carbon and nitrogen. This spatial sampling demonstrates that even in small 
catchments, there may be a significant degree of heterogeneity in water and 
nitrate flows, in both space and time.   
    
Nitrate contributions were much lower in summer relative to autumn and 
winter during baseflow or non-storm flow. Storm events contributed a 
disproportionate amount of nitrate, but the effect was most notable in winter.   

During baseflow, or non-stormflow, in the main inflow stream in the Lake 
Okaro catchment, nitrate had δ¹⁵N and δ¹⁸O values indicative of a soil 
nitrogen origin (+5.8 ‰ to +7.3 ‰, and -0.5 ‰ to +1.7 ‰, respectively).    

The dominant nitrate sources shifted during rain events, with streamflow in 
the winter event having δ¹⁵N and δ¹⁸O values indicative of urine, whereas 
the summer event observed δ¹⁸O-enriched baseflow signatures. Water 
isotope ratios indicated the winter event was dominated by event water. The 
differing seasonal responses to rainfall suggest nitrate inputs during storms 
in this catchment are strongly linked to seasonal nitrate availability in water 
flow paths.    

Patterns observed in temporal and spatial data collected require more 
investigation around potential reasons or mechanisms of fractionation. 
Further refinement of the Okaro catchment flows and cycling of nitrogen will 
help create more catered management techniques.

text: Variation in nitrate sources and delivery in space and time within the 389 ha Lake Okaro catchment The eutrophication of surface water is a global issue, with excessive nitrate 
concentrations reducing water quality and affecting water supplies, 
ecosystem health and its recreational use. In New Zealand, the degradation 
of freshwater quality has largely been attributed to nitrate leaching from 
intensive landuse, in particular from intensively grazed pastoral systems.   
As agricultural activity in catchments can contribute a large proportion of the 
nutrient pollution in surface waters, an understanding of nitrogen dynamics 
is therefore vital in managing the downstream effects of diffuse nitrogen 
inputs. Nitrate isotopes (δ¹⁵N, δ¹⁸O) have been increasingly used for 
determining nitrate cycling and source identification. Together with water 
isotopes (δ²H, δ¹⁸O), these conservative tracers can provide the necessary 
tools for determining the transport mechanisms of nitrate.   
    
Lake Okaro has suffered from water quality degradation for several decades, 
and has been the focus of intense lake restoration projects focused on 
nutrient management. The 389 ha agriculture-dominated catchment 
exemplifies New Zealand’s complex physiographic landscape.   

Results from high-resolution monitoring of streamflow during storm events 
demonstrates the potential to capture dynamic shifts in distinct water 
sources, but can be limited by insufficient monitoring of ancillary parameters, 
or a lack of pre-event characterisation of streamflow. Spatial sampling 
indicated characteristic fractionation processes for sites of similar 
environments, likely due to enhanced plant and microbial processing of 
carbon and nitrogen. This spatial sampling demonstrates that even in small 
catchments, there may be a significant degree of heterogeneity in water and 
nitrate flows, in both space and time.   
    
Nitrate contributions were much lower in summer relative to autumn and 
winter during baseflow or non-storm flow. Storm events contributed a 
disproportionate amount of nitrate, but the effect was most notable in winter.   

During baseflow, or non-stormflow, in the main inflow stream in the Lake 
Okaro catchment, nitrate had δ¹⁵N and δ¹⁸O values indicative of a soil 
nitrogen origin (+5.8 ‰ to +7.3 ‰, and -0.5 ‰ to +1.7 ‰, respectively).    

The dominant nitrate sources shifted during rain events, with streamflow in 
the winter event having δ¹⁵N and δ¹⁸O values indicative of urine, whereas 
the summer event observed δ¹⁸O-enriched baseflow signatures. Water 
isotope ratios indicated the winter event was dominated by event water. The 
differing seasonal responses to rainfall suggest nitrate inputs during storms 
in this catchment are strongly linked to seasonal nitrate availability in water 
flow paths.    

Patterns observed in temporal and spatial data collected require more 
investigation around potential reasons or mechanisms of fractionation. 
Further refinement of the Okaro catchment flows and cycling of nitrogen will 
help create more catered management techniques.

year: 2020