title: How educators lead the shift in pedagogy and policy to encourage international student success: An evaluative inquiry of one New Zealand tertiary institute

authors: Vail, Heather

subjects: internationalisation

abstract: This thesis demonstrates why and how New Zealand-based tertiary educators can claim a leadership role in contributing to international student success. As international student populations rise rapidly within New Zealand’s tertiary sector (Education New Zealand, 2017), educators are called on to promote intercultural competencies within the now-global classroom (Huber & Reynolds, 2014). Adaptive pedagogical changes required in such an emerging learning environment fall to the educators, who have a primary role when teaching to all learner cohorts (Edmondson, 2004; Randi & Corno, 2005; Trippestad, 2015). At one institute of technology and polytechnic (ITP), as examined for this thesis, issues raised by educators were found to reflect national concerns arising alongside the increased emphasis on international education; specifically, that educators face a lack of resources provided to help manifest appropriate strategies supporting international students’ range of academic and pastoral care needs. 
In response to this gap, I used evaluation methodology (Davidson, 2005) to develop a framework of inquiry into how pedagogical practices at the ITP examined are shifting to accommodate student success. Four Western educational values were identified as a starting point to guide my inquiry: i) the educator leadership role, ii) experiential learning, iii) critical thinking, and iv) praxis. These values informed key evaluative questions that guided my analysis of mixed data collected from a staff survey, educator interviews, and institutional documents. 
Findings illuminated the tensions between educators’ pedagogical aspirations and their actual classroom situations. The findings also revealed that the process of shared, reflective practice allows educators to develop more effective strategies for facilitating international student learning. Recommendations that emerged advocate for educators to consider within their teaching practices: i) accommodation of both educational and wellbeing needs of students; ii) appreciation of the variation among learner norms; and iii) leading the shifting terms of educational delivery through continually questioning one’s relationship to the perceptions, struggles, politics, economics and success emergent from teaching international students. 
I conclude that ongoing dialogue informs educator action, in practice and through advising policy, to address the broader educational needs of international students and, ultimately, the global citizenry.

text: How educators lead the shift in pedagogy and policy to encourage international student success: An evaluative inquiry of one New Zealand tertiary institute This thesis demonstrates why and how New Zealand-based tertiary educators can claim a leadership role in contributing to international student success. As international student populations rise rapidly within New Zealand’s tertiary sector (Education New Zealand, 2017), educators are called on to promote intercultural competencies within the now-global classroom (Huber & Reynolds, 2014). Adaptive pedagogical changes required in such an emerging learning environment fall to the educators, who have a primary role when teaching to all learner cohorts (Edmondson, 2004; Randi & Corno, 2005; Trippestad, 2015). At one institute of technology and polytechnic (ITP), as examined for this thesis, issues raised by educators were found to reflect national concerns arising alongside the increased emphasis on international education; specifically, that educators face a lack of resources provided to help manifest appropriate strategies supporting international students’ range of academic and pastoral care needs. 
In response to this gap, I used evaluation methodology (Davidson, 2005) to develop a framework of inquiry into how pedagogical practices at the ITP examined are shifting to accommodate student success. Four Western educational values were identified as a starting point to guide my inquiry: i) the educator leadership role, ii) experiential learning, iii) critical thinking, and iv) praxis. These values informed key evaluative questions that guided my analysis of mixed data collected from a staff survey, educator interviews, and institutional documents. 
Findings illuminated the tensions between educators’ pedagogical aspirations and their actual classroom situations. The findings also revealed that the process of shared, reflective practice allows educators to develop more effective strategies for facilitating international student learning. Recommendations that emerged advocate for educators to consider within their teaching practices: i) accommodation of both educational and wellbeing needs of students; ii) appreciation of the variation among learner norms; and iii) leading the shifting terms of educational delivery through continually questioning one’s relationship to the perceptions, struggles, politics, economics and success emergent from teaching international students. 
I conclude that ongoing dialogue informs educator action, in practice and through advising policy, to address the broader educational needs of international students and, ultimately, the global citizenry.

year: 2017

title: Microbial Biodiversity of Thermophilic Communities in Hot Mineral Soils of Tramway Ridge, Mt. Erebus, Antarctica

authors: Soo, Rochelle M.

subjects: Tramway Ridge

abstract: Only a few studies have looked at microbial biogeography in soils and whether microorganisms are endemic to an area is still debatable. Tramway Ridge, a geothermal area on Mount Erebus, Antarctica, provides a unique opportunity due to its isolation and extreme conditions to explore the possibilities of microbial endemism and to identify novel Bacteria and Archaea. This site was chosen for a culture-independent study with a preliminary culturing survey for bacterial communities along three temperature gradients (65 C - 2.5'C). In addition, a physico-chemical analysis was undertaken to identify which environmental factors were driving the different diversity along the transects. An automated rRNA intergenic spacer analysis (ARISA) was used to assess the diversity across the transects using Bacteria and Cyanobacteria-specific primers and results showed that temperature and pH were the main drivers for these communities. Due to its unique physico-chemical and ARISA profile, a hot temperature site (T-3A, 65'C) was chosen for further investigation by bacterial and archaeal 16S rDNA clone libraries. Unique rDNA types among the 78 bacterial and 83 archaeal clones were identified by restriction fragment length polymophisms and 18 bacterial and 5 archaeal operational taxonomic units (gt97% identity) were observed. All of the bacterial sequences were deeply branching and loosely affiliated with other recognised bacterial divisions, with 40% of the sequences not affiliated to any genus. The archaeal clones were found to be deep-branching and sequences clustered together within the Crenarcaheota. In addition, two strains of Bacilli were isolated. The novel microorganisms show that the Tramway Ridge communities are unique from organisms found in other environments and show that quotEverything is (not) everywherequot.

text: Microbial Biodiversity of Thermophilic Communities in Hot Mineral Soils of Tramway Ridge, Mt. Erebus, Antarctica Only a few studies have looked at microbial biogeography in soils and whether microorganisms are endemic to an area is still debatable. Tramway Ridge, a geothermal area on Mount Erebus, Antarctica, provides a unique opportunity due to its isolation and extreme conditions to explore the possibilities of microbial endemism and to identify novel Bacteria and Archaea. This site was chosen for a culture-independent study with a preliminary culturing survey for bacterial communities along three temperature gradients (65 C - 2.5'C). In addition, a physico-chemical analysis was undertaken to identify which environmental factors were driving the different diversity along the transects. An automated rRNA intergenic spacer analysis (ARISA) was used to assess the diversity across the transects using Bacteria and Cyanobacteria-specific primers and results showed that temperature and pH were the main drivers for these communities. Due to its unique physico-chemical and ARISA profile, a hot temperature site (T-3A, 65'C) was chosen for further investigation by bacterial and archaeal 16S rDNA clone libraries. Unique rDNA types among the 78 bacterial and 83 archaeal clones were identified by restriction fragment length polymophisms and 18 bacterial and 5 archaeal operational taxonomic units (gt97% identity) were observed. All of the bacterial sequences were deeply branching and loosely affiliated with other recognised bacterial divisions, with 40% of the sequences not affiliated to any genus. The archaeal clones were found to be deep-branching and sequences clustered together within the Crenarcaheota. In addition, two strains of Bacilli were isolated. The novel microorganisms show that the Tramway Ridge communities are unique from organisms found in other environments and show that quotEverything is (not) everywherequot.

year: 2007

title: Nobody knows me even though I’m always there: Why Māori men do exist - in all the wrong places

authors: Stanley, Paul

subjects: Maori

abstract: In the study of psychology, Māori men are often only seen as the perpetrators of the problems. There is very little focus on finding solutions for Māori men, with Māori men. In the top eight causes of death for Māori males aged 15 to 24 are car crashes, homicide, and suicide. With respect to car crashes, there is a close link between alcohol-related car crashes and suicide. As a nation, we should be concerned with all of the above issues, as each of them is preventable. Invariably, we fail see the deaths of these young men as warning signs of much wider issues about why they wanted to die, or why they felt the need to kill someone close to themselves. The argument tendered in this paper is that the same way in which Māori as a group have been researched, as being “the problem”, equally applies to the way in which Māori men have continued to be have been researched: Māori men are only ever portrayed as “the problem” and are never portrayed as part of a solution subjected to this process as well. The lyrics of a well known song by UB40, One in Ten, exemplify this notion of being unknown, even though Māori men do exist in Aotearoa.

text: Nobody knows me even though I’m always there: Why Māori men do exist - in all the wrong places In the study of psychology, Māori men are often only seen as the perpetrators of the problems. There is very little focus on finding solutions for Māori men, with Māori men. In the top eight causes of death for Māori males aged 15 to 24 are car crashes, homicide, and suicide. With respect to car crashes, there is a close link between alcohol-related car crashes and suicide. As a nation, we should be concerned with all of the above issues, as each of them is preventable. Invariably, we fail see the deaths of these young men as warning signs of much wider issues about why they wanted to die, or why they felt the need to kill someone close to themselves. The argument tendered in this paper is that the same way in which Māori as a group have been researched, as being “the problem”, equally applies to the way in which Māori men have continued to be have been researched: Māori men are only ever portrayed as “the problem” and are never portrayed as part of a solution subjected to this process as well. The lyrics of a well known song by UB40, One in Ten, exemplify this notion of being unknown, even though Māori men do exist in Aotearoa.

year: 2003