title: Responding to the writing of children in a Health School:  Developing an appreciative approach

authors: Gray, Tanya

subjects: writing assessment

abstract: Responding to writing is a crucial component of writing pedagogy, with teachers frequently engaging in this as part of their daily teaching practice. However, extensive research indicates that teachers' feedback is often framed in terms of deficits, emphasising what is lacking in students' writing or what needs improvement. Students who are perceived to be at risk of failing or struggling to meet predetermined writing standards typically experience responses to their writing that focus on surface features and include marginal comments and empty praise. Underpinned by sociocultural, critical theories and qualitative research methods, this study investigated teachers' experiences in a New Zealand Health School as they inquired into an approach that mitigates the narrow and predominantly negative responses some students previously received.  
  
This research followed five Health School teachers who inquired into and adopted appreciative pedagogical practices and focused on responding to their students’ writing through an asset-based lens. Through this lens, diversity is valued and encompassed as a resource. All students, irrespective of their health condition or other dimensions of diversity, are positioned as capable and knowledgeable writers. The Health School teachers collaboratively inquired into appreciatively informed strategies, implemented these while discussing shared samples of students' writing, and adopted the new strategies when they responding to the writing of their Health School students (aged 5-19).  

Evidence was drawn from focus groups, learning inquiry group sessions, and individual interviews, and analysed using thematic analysis. The findings indicate that when teachers collaborate to reflect on the perspectives that inform education policies and practices, particularly those around standardised assessments, they become more aware of how these factors may lead them to inadvertently reproduce harmful responses. When teachers employed appreciative strength-based strategies, they became less focused on predetermined standards and surface-level features (e.g., spelling, grammar and punctuation), instead looking at how students integrated literacy knowledge they had learnt outside of school into their writing. Teachers became curious about students' writing and asked students more questions about their writing processes. As a result, participants’ response practices became more student-centred, allowing students to maintain authority over their writing. 

Findings suggest that high-stakes assessments have a powerful effect on how teachers view themselves as teachers and their students as learners. However, talking appreciatively about students and their writing was infectious; when teachers collaboratively discussed student writing strengths, participants stopped looking for conformity in students’ writing and instead began considering differences in students’ writing as assets. This research contributes to the body of literature aimed at shifting discourses that position students in deficit ways towards more appreciative stances. Further, with limited past research looking into writing teachers' experiences during times of curricular and assessment change in New Zealand and practices of Health School teachers in general, this study provides a valuable contribution to the literature. Implications for teachers and educators are discussed.

text: Responding to the writing of children in a Health School:  Developing an appreciative approach Responding to writing is a crucial component of writing pedagogy, with teachers frequently engaging in this as part of their daily teaching practice. However, extensive research indicates that teachers' feedback is often framed in terms of deficits, emphasising what is lacking in students' writing or what needs improvement. Students who are perceived to be at risk of failing or struggling to meet predetermined writing standards typically experience responses to their writing that focus on surface features and include marginal comments and empty praise. Underpinned by sociocultural, critical theories and qualitative research methods, this study investigated teachers' experiences in a New Zealand Health School as they inquired into an approach that mitigates the narrow and predominantly negative responses some students previously received.  
  
This research followed five Health School teachers who inquired into and adopted appreciative pedagogical practices and focused on responding to their students’ writing through an asset-based lens. Through this lens, diversity is valued and encompassed as a resource. All students, irrespective of their health condition or other dimensions of diversity, are positioned as capable and knowledgeable writers. The Health School teachers collaboratively inquired into appreciatively informed strategies, implemented these while discussing shared samples of students' writing, and adopted the new strategies when they responding to the writing of their Health School students (aged 5-19).  

Evidence was drawn from focus groups, learning inquiry group sessions, and individual interviews, and analysed using thematic analysis. The findings indicate that when teachers collaborate to reflect on the perspectives that inform education policies and practices, particularly those around standardised assessments, they become more aware of how these factors may lead them to inadvertently reproduce harmful responses. When teachers employed appreciative strength-based strategies, they became less focused on predetermined standards and surface-level features (e.g., spelling, grammar and punctuation), instead looking at how students integrated literacy knowledge they had learnt outside of school into their writing. Teachers became curious about students' writing and asked students more questions about their writing processes. As a result, participants’ response practices became more student-centred, allowing students to maintain authority over their writing. 

Findings suggest that high-stakes assessments have a powerful effect on how teachers view themselves as teachers and their students as learners. However, talking appreciatively about students and their writing was infectious; when teachers collaboratively discussed student writing strengths, participants stopped looking for conformity in students’ writing and instead began considering differences in students’ writing as assets. This research contributes to the body of literature aimed at shifting discourses that position students in deficit ways towards more appreciative stances. Further, with limited past research looking into writing teachers' experiences during times of curricular and assessment change in New Zealand and practices of Health School teachers in general, this study provides a valuable contribution to the literature. Implications for teachers and educators are discussed.

year: 2025

title: Wage Structures and Employment Outcomes in New Zealand, and Their Relationship to Technological Change

authors: Hector, Christopher James

subjects: Inequality-New Zealand

abstract: After 100 years at an historically low level, inequality began to rise in the late 20th century, a trend which was especially marked in the English-speaking countries including New Zealand. Various explanations have been advanced, but internationally the most favoured theory is skill-biased technological change, driven by the new information and communication technologies. This thesis used income and wage data from the New Zealand Population Census and the New Zealand Income Survey to examine wage trends between 1991 and 2004. As in other developed countries wage dispersion was increasing in the 1990s, though it appears to have slowed since 2001, and the increased inequality is strongly correlated with workers' skills and qualifications. There is also a correlation between new technology and earnings inequality, but this appears to be attributable to the demand for skills in the industries which are changing fastest, rather than anything intrinsic to the new technology.

text: Wage Structures and Employment Outcomes in New Zealand, and Their Relationship to Technological Change After 100 years at an historically low level, inequality began to rise in the late 20th century, a trend which was especially marked in the English-speaking countries including New Zealand. Various explanations have been advanced, but internationally the most favoured theory is skill-biased technological change, driven by the new information and communication technologies. This thesis used income and wage data from the New Zealand Population Census and the New Zealand Income Survey to examine wage trends between 1991 and 2004. As in other developed countries wage dispersion was increasing in the 1990s, though it appears to have slowed since 2001, and the increased inequality is strongly correlated with workers' skills and qualifications. There is also a correlation between new technology and earnings inequality, but this appears to be attributable to the demand for skills in the industries which are changing fastest, rather than anything intrinsic to the new technology.

year: 2007

title: ‘Inside Out’: The politics of enumerating the nation by ethnicity

authors: Kukutai, Tahu

abstract: Since the 1990s, state practices of counting and classifying populations by ethnicity have come under increased scrutiny within the social sciences (Arel 2002 ; Kertzer and Arel 2002 ; Nobles 2000 ; Perlmann and Waters 2002 ; Petersen 1997 ; Statistics Canada and U.S. Census Bureau 1993 ). A number of excellent case studies have provided critical insights into how and why ethnic enumeration is pursued in particular times and places. ¹ However, with some notable exceptions (Morning 2008 ; Rallu
et al. 2006 ), little attention has been given to theorizing or empirically testing a global
model of ethnic classifi cation and counting. Consequently, there is a limited understanding
about the general conditions that impede or encourage state recognition of ethnicity in the national census and the forms that such recognition takes.

text: ‘Inside Out’: The politics of enumerating the nation by ethnicity Since the 1990s, state practices of counting and classifying populations by ethnicity have come under increased scrutiny within the social sciences (Arel 2002 ; Kertzer and Arel 2002 ; Nobles 2000 ; Perlmann and Waters 2002 ; Petersen 1997 ; Statistics Canada and U.S. Census Bureau 1993 ). A number of excellent case studies have provided critical insights into how and why ethnic enumeration is pursued in particular times and places. ¹ However, with some notable exceptions (Morning 2008 ; Rallu
et al. 2006 ), little attention has been given to theorizing or empirically testing a global
model of ethnic classifi cation and counting. Consequently, there is a limited understanding
about the general conditions that impede or encourage state recognition of ethnicity in the national census and the forms that such recognition takes.

year: 2015