title: Exploring approaches to support pacific student success in secondary schools

authors: Laban, Annette

abstract: The New Zealand education system has historically fallen short in addressing the needs of Pacific students, specifically at secondary school as they advance towards National Certificate of Educational Achievement (NCEA) levels. Efforts to improve the education of Pacific students have often focused on institutions making changes based on their own assumptions of what students need, without adequately involving students' own views. This thesis argues that attention should be directed towards the perspectives of Pacific students and how they can be motivated and encouraged to succeed in education. The study highlights the crucial role of teachers and how appropriate practices are used to develop their understanding of Pacific cultures to help these students thrive. The research aimed to uncover effective strategies employed by two secondary schools to promote Pacific students’ success. It explored Pacific students' views on their teachers' roles in their education and their interpretations of success in relation to their goals. Data collection was conducted through Talanoa sessions that embraced Teu le vā as an acknowledgement of mutual respect for each other’s space. Talanoa was carried out with Pacific students using two fa’afaletui, and with two Pacific liaison teachers using semi-structured interviews. Thematic analysis was used to organise the data and identify themes. 

Three key findings resulted from the study. Firstly, building on existing research demonstrated the integration of Pacific cultural values within the wider school curriculum. This approach supported and promoted effective relationships between teachers and Pacific students to achieve success as Pacific. Secondly, it highlighted that success for Pacific students was a collective endeavour that encompassed their cultural values, families, and broader Pacific communities. Thirdly, it pointed out that teachers deepened their understanding of Pacific cultural values through specific cultural frameworks. These frameworks included the Kāinga Tongan model, Tapasā, and the Pacific Values framework, that consequently improved knowledge and enhanced the engagement and academic success of Pacific students.

text: Exploring approaches to support pacific student success in secondary schools The New Zealand education system has historically fallen short in addressing the needs of Pacific students, specifically at secondary school as they advance towards National Certificate of Educational Achievement (NCEA) levels. Efforts to improve the education of Pacific students have often focused on institutions making changes based on their own assumptions of what students need, without adequately involving students' own views. This thesis argues that attention should be directed towards the perspectives of Pacific students and how they can be motivated and encouraged to succeed in education. The study highlights the crucial role of teachers and how appropriate practices are used to develop their understanding of Pacific cultures to help these students thrive. The research aimed to uncover effective strategies employed by two secondary schools to promote Pacific students’ success. It explored Pacific students' views on their teachers' roles in their education and their interpretations of success in relation to their goals. Data collection was conducted through Talanoa sessions that embraced Teu le vā as an acknowledgement of mutual respect for each other’s space. Talanoa was carried out with Pacific students using two fa’afaletui, and with two Pacific liaison teachers using semi-structured interviews. Thematic analysis was used to organise the data and identify themes. 

Three key findings resulted from the study. Firstly, building on existing research demonstrated the integration of Pacific cultural values within the wider school curriculum. This approach supported and promoted effective relationships between teachers and Pacific students to achieve success as Pacific. Secondly, it highlighted that success for Pacific students was a collective endeavour that encompassed their cultural values, families, and broader Pacific communities. Thirdly, it pointed out that teachers deepened their understanding of Pacific cultural values through specific cultural frameworks. These frameworks included the Kāinga Tongan model, Tapasā, and the Pacific Values framework, that consequently improved knowledge and enhanced the engagement and academic success of Pacific students.

year: 2024-01-01

title: Demonstration of a strategy to create hybrid materials with stochastic 3D mesostructures

authors: Hussein, A

abstract: A strategy to create hybrid materials with stochastic 3D mesostructures is proposed. The strategy entails the combination of commodity materials significantly different in terms of length-scale and their processing via induction sintering. Materials composed of a ferrous filaments mesostructure embedded in a sintered titanium microstructure are manufactured as representative example. The study shows that the presence of the random 3D mesostructure prevents the catastrophic fracture by impact of the hybrid materials.

text: Demonstration of a strategy to create hybrid materials with stochastic 3D mesostructures A strategy to create hybrid materials with stochastic 3D mesostructures is proposed. The strategy entails the combination of commodity materials significantly different in terms of length-scale and their processing via induction sintering. Materials composed of a ferrous filaments mesostructure embedded in a sintered titanium microstructure are manufactured as representative example. The study shows that the presence of the random 3D mesostructure prevents the catastrophic fracture by impact of the hybrid materials.

year: 2025

title: Foresight in hindsight: Visions of the future from Julius Vogel, Āpirana Ngata, Truby King, and Ettie Rout, 1889-1923

authors: Lemberg, Nicola Johanna

subjects: history

abstract: This thesis examines seven future-focused texts authored by four New Zealanders: Julius Vogel, Āpirana Ngata, Truby King, and Ettie Rout. ‘The future’ is a neglected lens for historical research and this thesis explores the value of such an approach, using New Zealand society from the 1880s and to the 1920s as a case study. A methodological combination of textual analysis, biography, and historical contexts, including consideration of print culture, allows for nuanced examination of depictions of the future, and suggests such connections are vital to fully understanding histories of the future. This research serves as a framework to inform further exploration of historical future imaginings, either in New Zealand or in other geographic or temporal contexts.

From Vogel’s novel Anno Domini 2000 (1889) to Ngata’s 1892 essay The Past and Future of the Maori to King’s and Rout’s twentieth-century guidebooks on the care of babies and the use of contraception, the four authors utilize various textual forms to communicate their imagined future, and commonly frame their ideas within concepts of utopia and dystopia. This thesis compares the futures depicted by male and female authors, and those emerging from Māori and Pākehā cultural contexts. It examines futures envisioned by politicians, community leaders, and ostracized individuals. Shaped by preoccupations with empire, gender, and identity, these future-focused texts highlight relationships between national and global spaces. This in turn allows for a fresh exploration of New Zealand’s past, and especially the country’s colonial histories.

text: Foresight in hindsight: Visions of the future from Julius Vogel, Āpirana Ngata, Truby King, and Ettie Rout, 1889-1923 This thesis examines seven future-focused texts authored by four New Zealanders: Julius Vogel, Āpirana Ngata, Truby King, and Ettie Rout. ‘The future’ is a neglected lens for historical research and this thesis explores the value of such an approach, using New Zealand society from the 1880s and to the 1920s as a case study. A methodological combination of textual analysis, biography, and historical contexts, including consideration of print culture, allows for nuanced examination of depictions of the future, and suggests such connections are vital to fully understanding histories of the future. This research serves as a framework to inform further exploration of historical future imaginings, either in New Zealand or in other geographic or temporal contexts.

From Vogel’s novel Anno Domini 2000 (1889) to Ngata’s 1892 essay The Past and Future of the Maori to King’s and Rout’s twentieth-century guidebooks on the care of babies and the use of contraception, the four authors utilize various textual forms to communicate their imagined future, and commonly frame their ideas within concepts of utopia and dystopia. This thesis compares the futures depicted by male and female authors, and those emerging from Māori and Pākehā cultural contexts. It examines futures envisioned by politicians, community leaders, and ostracized individuals. Shaped by preoccupations with empire, gender, and identity, these future-focused texts highlight relationships between national and global spaces. This in turn allows for a fresh exploration of New Zealand’s past, and especially the country’s colonial histories.

year: 2024