title: Understanding the teacher upgrade programme in Samoa: Contextual challenges for in-service teachers, school principals and Ministry personnel

authors: Esera, Epenese

abstract: This article discusses the challenges involved in Samoa’s teacher upgrade programme. The teacher upgrade initiative came about because of the Samoan Ministry of Education, Sports and Culture’s aim for all in-service primary and secondary teachers to hold a Bachelor of Education degree. However, challenges including time scheduling, teachers’ wider responsibilities, unsupportive school principals, and communication barriers with the National University of Samoa appear to have hindered the programme’s implementation. This study employed a qualitative research approach which incorporated talanoa (rich conversation) as appropriate to the Samoan context. The findings from the talanoa sessions with teachers, principals and Ministry officials, highlight the social, cultural, educational and economic challenges that the teachers encountered on their qualification upgrade journeys. We argue that the challenges between the upgrading teachers, the schools, the National University of Samoa’s Faculty of Education and the Ministry could be being resolved through the Samoan notion of va (relational space) in which stakeholders generate mutual solutions to the challenges they encounter. This article concludes with recommendations for each of the partners involved in the upgrade programme in order to move forward.

text: Understanding the teacher upgrade programme in Samoa: Contextual challenges for in-service teachers, school principals and Ministry personnel This article discusses the challenges involved in Samoa’s teacher upgrade programme. The teacher upgrade initiative came about because of the Samoan Ministry of Education, Sports and Culture’s aim for all in-service primary and secondary teachers to hold a Bachelor of Education degree. However, challenges including time scheduling, teachers’ wider responsibilities, unsupportive school principals, and communication barriers with the National University of Samoa appear to have hindered the programme’s implementation. This study employed a qualitative research approach which incorporated talanoa (rich conversation) as appropriate to the Samoan context. The findings from the talanoa sessions with teachers, principals and Ministry officials, highlight the social, cultural, educational and economic challenges that the teachers encountered on their qualification upgrade journeys. We argue that the challenges between the upgrading teachers, the schools, the National University of Samoa’s Faculty of Education and the Ministry could be being resolved through the Samoan notion of va (relational space) in which stakeholders generate mutual solutions to the challenges they encounter. This article concludes with recommendations for each of the partners involved in the upgrade programme in order to move forward.

year: 2019

title: Everyday gambling in New Zealand

authors: Curtis, Bruce

subjects: gambling

abstract: There is a sizeable body of statistics on gambling in New Zealand which points albeit unintentionally - to the everyday status of this activity. Max Abbott and Rachel Volberg, two leading figures in the rapidly growing discipline of gambling studies, note that in 15 short years there have been no less than seven surveys on gambling in New Zealand (not including a large number of university theses). These include three assessments of people's participation in gambling by the Department of Internal Affairs, plus two surveys funded by the department focusing on problem gambling. To these can be added one conducted by a regional health authority, North Health, under contract to the Committee on Problem Gambling Management and one conducted on behalf of the Casino Control Authority. This much research on gambling should suggest to the reader that there is something about gambling that piques the interest of government bureaucrats and agencies. Here the frequency of the phrase `problem gambling' is the giveaway. In this section we will review some of the findings of this research and cover its more pathological rationale later.

text: Everyday gambling in New Zealand There is a sizeable body of statistics on gambling in New Zealand which points albeit unintentionally - to the everyday status of this activity. Max Abbott and Rachel Volberg, two leading figures in the rapidly growing discipline of gambling studies, note that in 15 short years there have been no less than seven surveys on gambling in New Zealand (not including a large number of university theses). These include three assessments of people's participation in gambling by the Department of Internal Affairs, plus two surveys funded by the department focusing on problem gambling. To these can be added one conducted by a regional health authority, North Health, under contract to the Committee on Problem Gambling Management and one conducted on behalf of the Casino Control Authority. This much research on gambling should suggest to the reader that there is something about gambling that piques the interest of government bureaucrats and agencies. Here the frequency of the phrase `problem gambling' is the giveaway. In this section we will review some of the findings of this research and cover its more pathological rationale later.

year: 2001

title: A discontinuous ca. 80 ka record of Late Quaternary environmental change from Lake Omapere, Northland, New Zealand

authors: Newnham, Rewi M.

subjects: Last Glacial

abstract: We present an integrated record of environmental change from Lake Omapere, Northland, New Zealand, based on palaeolimnological analysis of a 7-m-long core and eight adjunct cores spanning part of the last 80 calendar (cal.) ka. The chronology was developed using tephrochronology, palaeomagnetism and radiocarbon dating together with climato- and palyno-stratigraphy. Two of 14 tephra layers in the cores provide markers for correlating the record with other New Zealand climato-stratigraphic sequences, deep-sea cores and the global marine isotope record. Pollen, diatom, palaeomagnetic, sedimentologic and pigment analyses show that Lake Omapere, currently 2 m deep, has had a discontinuous history. Occupying a shallow basin perched partly within old basalt lavas, the initial (alkaline) lake formed towards the end of MIS 5a at ca. 80 cal. ka, presumably because of blockage of local drainage of a swampy alluvial floodplain, inundating peat deposits and forest trees, including kauri (Agathis australis). The lake filled rapidly to a level 1–2 m above that at present. Such filling was probably unrelated to climate but a subsequent phase of variable but generally falling lake levels and increasing dystrophy may have been climatically controlled, commencing during MIS 4 and culminating in periods early in MIS 3 when the lake became swampy or dry. Conditions of non-deposition (or non-preservation) obtained for most of the period after ca. 55 cal. ka (Rotoehu Ash) until formation of the modern lake approximately 600–700 cal. years ago or soon after, as indicated by the presence of Tephra-1, identified in part as Kaharoa Tephra (AD 1314), near the top of the core. The modern lake originated possibly through damming of the western outlet as a consequence of accelerated erosion accompanying earliest Polynesian deforestation, an interpretation supported by Maori oral tradition.
The pollen record indicates that beech Nothofagus (presumably N. truncata) was much more common in Northland during the Last Glacial, and that for this region the relative abundance of Nothofagus vs. Agathis pollen serves as a better indicator of cooler versus warmer intervals during the Quaternary than the ratio of tree to non-tree pollen. However, it seems likely that moisture balance was a more critical factor than temperature in vegetation composition and distribution, particularly during the LGM, and the long periods of hiatus may also be linked to a drier climate than present. Correlation coefficients between the pollen curves confirm that several tree species (Halocarpus bidwillii, H. biformis and Phyllocladus alpinus), previously palynologically concealed within generic taxonomic groups, occurred about two degrees latitude further north and at a much lower altitude than their current limits during cooler or drier phases of the Last Glacial. A temperature depression in Northland of 4 °C at various times during the Last Glacial is inferred from these range expansions. Nevertheless, the persistence of widespread forest cover suggests that the late Pleistocene climate of Northland was less severe than for most of the rest of New Zealand and strengthens the argument for a heightened temperature gradient across northern New Zealand during the Last Glacial.

text: A discontinuous ca. 80 ka record of Late Quaternary environmental change from Lake Omapere, Northland, New Zealand We present an integrated record of environmental change from Lake Omapere, Northland, New Zealand, based on palaeolimnological analysis of a 7-m-long core and eight adjunct cores spanning part of the last 80 calendar (cal.) ka. The chronology was developed using tephrochronology, palaeomagnetism and radiocarbon dating together with climato- and palyno-stratigraphy. Two of 14 tephra layers in the cores provide markers for correlating the record with other New Zealand climato-stratigraphic sequences, deep-sea cores and the global marine isotope record. Pollen, diatom, palaeomagnetic, sedimentologic and pigment analyses show that Lake Omapere, currently 2 m deep, has had a discontinuous history. Occupying a shallow basin perched partly within old basalt lavas, the initial (alkaline) lake formed towards the end of MIS 5a at ca. 80 cal. ka, presumably because of blockage of local drainage of a swampy alluvial floodplain, inundating peat deposits and forest trees, including kauri (Agathis australis). The lake filled rapidly to a level 1–2 m above that at present. Such filling was probably unrelated to climate but a subsequent phase of variable but generally falling lake levels and increasing dystrophy may have been climatically controlled, commencing during MIS 4 and culminating in periods early in MIS 3 when the lake became swampy or dry. Conditions of non-deposition (or non-preservation) obtained for most of the period after ca. 55 cal. ka (Rotoehu Ash) until formation of the modern lake approximately 600–700 cal. years ago or soon after, as indicated by the presence of Tephra-1, identified in part as Kaharoa Tephra (AD 1314), near the top of the core. The modern lake originated possibly through damming of the western outlet as a consequence of accelerated erosion accompanying earliest Polynesian deforestation, an interpretation supported by Maori oral tradition.
The pollen record indicates that beech Nothofagus (presumably N. truncata) was much more common in Northland during the Last Glacial, and that for this region the relative abundance of Nothofagus vs. Agathis pollen serves as a better indicator of cooler versus warmer intervals during the Quaternary than the ratio of tree to non-tree pollen. However, it seems likely that moisture balance was a more critical factor than temperature in vegetation composition and distribution, particularly during the LGM, and the long periods of hiatus may also be linked to a drier climate than present. Correlation coefficients between the pollen curves confirm that several tree species (Halocarpus bidwillii, H. biformis and Phyllocladus alpinus), previously palynologically concealed within generic taxonomic groups, occurred about two degrees latitude further north and at a much lower altitude than their current limits during cooler or drier phases of the Last Glacial. A temperature depression in Northland of 4 °C at various times during the Last Glacial is inferred from these range expansions. Nevertheless, the persistence of widespread forest cover suggests that the late Pleistocene climate of Northland was less severe than for most of the rest of New Zealand and strengthens the argument for a heightened temperature gradient across northern New Zealand during the Last Glacial.

year: 2004