title: Cross-case analysis

authors: Ryan, Chris

abstract: Prior to the development of low-cost computing and the ease of completing statistical analysis, case studies played a significant role in the development of the social sciences. However, since the mid-1990s statistical modelling and empirically driven work has come to dominate academic literature; yet there remain epistemological similarities between some forms of case study work and statistical modelling. Nonetheless, issues of the qualitative versus quantitative divide and the purported role of value judgments made by the researchers have in part muddied the waters until quite recently, when the researchers using statistical methods started to adopt the use of the first person in their writing and began to recognise that the choice of a given statistical technique is just as surely a value judgment or exercise of experience and expertise as is any interpretation of text by a qualitative researcher. Similarly, qualitative researchers have become increasingly familiar with textual analysis using software programmes based on neural network theory, and a new generation of researchers have become comfortable with a mixed method mode of analysis.

text: Cross-case analysis Prior to the development of low-cost computing and the ease of completing statistical analysis, case studies played a significant role in the development of the social sciences. However, since the mid-1990s statistical modelling and empirically driven work has come to dominate academic literature; yet there remain epistemological similarities between some forms of case study work and statistical modelling. Nonetheless, issues of the qualitative versus quantitative divide and the purported role of value judgments made by the researchers have in part muddied the waters until quite recently, when the researchers using statistical methods started to adopt the use of the first person in their writing and began to recognise that the choice of a given statistical technique is just as surely a value judgment or exercise of experience and expertise as is any interpretation of text by a qualitative researcher. Similarly, qualitative researchers have become increasingly familiar with textual analysis using software programmes based on neural network theory, and a new generation of researchers have become comfortable with a mixed method mode of analysis.

year: 2012

title: Learning as spirituality and nurture - Pacific indigenous peoples' perspectives of lifelong learning

authors: Vaioleti, Timote Masima

subjects: Pacific

abstract: This paper discusses characteristics of an adult education practice for peoples in the Pacific. There is no one Pacific way as the Pacific population is diverse consisting of many cultures, languages, social structures and differing colonial experiences. For many Pacific peoples learning is holistic, is driven by cultural motivation, which is often for the benefit of their extended families(the collective)rather than personal gains or self-actualisation. Learning is constantly intervened by spiritual matters, the same being true for most aspects of Pacific peoples’ day-to-day lives. Therefore spirituality is integral to learning at all levels formal and informal.

text: Learning as spirituality and nurture - Pacific indigenous peoples' perspectives of lifelong learning This paper discusses characteristics of an adult education practice for peoples in the Pacific. There is no one Pacific way as the Pacific population is diverse consisting of many cultures, languages, social structures and differing colonial experiences. For many Pacific peoples learning is holistic, is driven by cultural motivation, which is often for the benefit of their extended families(the collective)rather than personal gains or self-actualisation. Learning is constantly intervened by spiritual matters, the same being true for most aspects of Pacific peoples’ day-to-day lives. Therefore spirituality is integral to learning at all levels formal and informal.

year: 2012

title: The piano as cultural symbol in colonial New Zealand

authors: Moffat, Kirstine

subjects: piano

abstract: The piano was an important cultural symbol in colonial New Zealand, yet although there is a significant body of international scholarship on the social and cultural history of the instrument in Britain, America, Canada, Norway, Spain and India there is a dearth of scholarly criticism relating to New Zealand. Research to redress this absence has revealed that the piano was central to settler culture, demonstrating a migrant desire to replicate the known and familiar but also highlighting settler innovations and an emerging nationalism. International connections between New Zealand, Britain, Western Europe, America and Australia are also apparent in relation to migrant patterns, the importation of instruments and sheet music and networks of musical performance and study. The instrument played a role in the complex dynamic of cultural encounter between Maori and settler, with an initial indigenous negativity and bemusement giving way to an interest in the piano and an appropriation of the instrument into Maori cultural contexts and spaces, including the marae. Prevailing perceptions of gender roles and identity are also challenged by research on the piano. Likewise, an examination of piano and class reveals that the instrument was popular with New Zealanders from all socio-economic backgrounds.

text: The piano as cultural symbol in colonial New Zealand The piano was an important cultural symbol in colonial New Zealand, yet although there is a significant body of international scholarship on the social and cultural history of the instrument in Britain, America, Canada, Norway, Spain and India there is a dearth of scholarly criticism relating to New Zealand. Research to redress this absence has revealed that the piano was central to settler culture, demonstrating a migrant desire to replicate the known and familiar but also highlighting settler innovations and an emerging nationalism. International connections between New Zealand, Britain, Western Europe, America and Australia are also apparent in relation to migrant patterns, the importation of instruments and sheet music and networks of musical performance and study. The instrument played a role in the complex dynamic of cultural encounter between Maori and settler, with an initial indigenous negativity and bemusement giving way to an interest in the piano and an appropriation of the instrument into Maori cultural contexts and spaces, including the marae. Prevailing perceptions of gender roles and identity are also challenged by research on the piano. Likewise, an examination of piano and class reveals that the instrument was popular with New Zealanders from all socio-economic backgrounds.

year: 2009