title: Research tropospheres: assemblages of cows, sharemilkers and researcher in Aotearoa New Zealand

authors: Adams-Hutcheson, Gail

abstract: Cresswell (2011) broadens mobility studies to include non-human objects and structures, but rarely, non-human animals and the weather. I add here both livestock and the more literal atmospheric conditions of sun, wind and rain which are largely missing from mobilities studies. Weather is ubiquitous, yet hard to ignore – it impacts on both researcher and the researched. I visited farms and was: jumped-up-on by dogs, rode on 4-wheel bikes, got licked by calves [happy/sunny], felt hot, got covered in dust [tired/sweltering], stood still in the milking-shed [tension/cold], and was blasted by freezing winds and slopped through thick mud [depression/winter wet]. For Ash (2013a, 35) "the body is a kind of living or somatic memory, which is composed of various retentional apparatuses", which become ignited by alignment of senses. In this paper I argue for attention to be paid to sharemilking and the materiality of atmospheres to draw attention to the 'centrifugal' forces of mobile rural dwelling. Sharemilking is a largely unique agrarian practice in New Zealand which is embedded in the notion of mobility. Sharemilkers typically own the livestock and machinery, but not the land and enter into contract with landowners on a share profit basis. Contracts are finished and new ones are taken up on a set day, the 1st June which is often termed colloquially as 'Gypsy-day'. The contract nature of sharemilking stimulates a cascade of mobilities and enabling infrastructures (assemblages) as farmers move on a stuttering schedule of contract renewals.

text: Research tropospheres: assemblages of cows, sharemilkers and researcher in Aotearoa New Zealand Cresswell (2011) broadens mobility studies to include non-human objects and structures, but rarely, non-human animals and the weather. I add here both livestock and the more literal atmospheric conditions of sun, wind and rain which are largely missing from mobilities studies. Weather is ubiquitous, yet hard to ignore – it impacts on both researcher and the researched. I visited farms and was: jumped-up-on by dogs, rode on 4-wheel bikes, got licked by calves [happy/sunny], felt hot, got covered in dust [tired/sweltering], stood still in the milking-shed [tension/cold], and was blasted by freezing winds and slopped through thick mud [depression/winter wet]. For Ash (2013a, 35) "the body is a kind of living or somatic memory, which is composed of various retentional apparatuses", which become ignited by alignment of senses. In this paper I argue for attention to be paid to sharemilking and the materiality of atmospheres to draw attention to the 'centrifugal' forces of mobile rural dwelling. Sharemilking is a largely unique agrarian practice in New Zealand which is embedded in the notion of mobility. Sharemilkers typically own the livestock and machinery, but not the land and enter into contract with landowners on a share profit basis. Contracts are finished and new ones are taken up on a set day, the 1st June which is often termed colloquially as 'Gypsy-day'. The contract nature of sharemilking stimulates a cascade of mobilities and enabling infrastructures (assemblages) as farmers move on a stuttering schedule of contract renewals.

year: 2017

title: Contextual complexities shaping primary teachers' pedagogical practices with digital technologies: An interpretive phenomenological study in the Maldivian ESL context

authors: Mohamed, Zahra

subjects: Pedagogical practices

abstract: Literature on digital technology (DT) integration has revealed a range of complexities around DT use for teaching and learning. Previous research suggests that frequent DT use does not necessarily lead to the pedagogically purposeful use of DTs for student learning. However, the literature overlooks the impact the various contextual and subject content factors may have when exploring teachers’ technological pedagogical practices. This thesis examines teachers’ practices with DTs in relation to the subject content and multilevel context within which teachers’ practices are situated. My study’s context is that of primary education in Maldivian urban and rural schools, with a specific focus on how teachers use DTs in teaching English as a second language (ESL). I also examine the influence of national, school, classroom, and teacher-level factors at play on the participant primary teacher group. The research questions guiding my study are:
1. What impacts do DT use have on ESL pedagogical practices of primary teachers in two Maldivian schools?
2. What contextual factors affect teaching and learning English with and through DTs in two Maldivian schools, and do they differ across schools?
3. What interplay of factors influence Maldivian primary teachers’ DT use in their English lessons?
Adopting an interpretive phenomenological research design meant I could capture the lived experience of nine (four urban and five rural) primary teachers in two Maldivian schools over 8 months. Data collected through lesson observations, postobservation conversations, lesson plans, semistructured interviews, mini surveys and field notes helped in understanding their practices, beliefs, and attitudes about using DTs in ESL lessons. Additionally, other data collected from mini surveys and postobservation conversations with students of the participant teachers, plus interview data and school documents that principals and IT staff provided, helped my understanding of the multilevel contextual factors that influenced teachers’ DT use for teaching and learning.
The findings indicate that an important reason for using DTs was as an attention grabber, perhaps as a set induction, video explanations, form-focused instruction (FFI), and exam-format listening. These findings were examined in relation to the SAMR model to ascertain the pedagogical level of DT use teachers usually applied. The findings also point to the national, school, and classroom factors affecting primary teachers’ practices with DTs in ESL lessons, and these are addressed fully in the Discussion and Conclusion chapters. At the national level, the two factors that have a potential influence on teachers’ DTs use include the development and promulgation of a national educational ICT policy and teacher education, the focus of which needs to move from developing teachers’ technological knowledge to pedagogical applications of tools. While technology leadership and DT-based professional learning and development were factors at the school level, access to DTs and technical support were classroom-level factors that significantly influenced participant teachers’ decisions around DT use. Apart from these external factors, internal or teacher-level factors such as teachers’ knowledge, beliefs, attitudes, and existing pedagogical practices shaped their practices with DTs when teaching English.
This study has contributed to the literature by identifying primary teachers’ ESL pedagogical practices with DTs. For one thing, it fills a significant gap in TPACK research which often considers TPACK to be subject-independent. My research, therefore, contributes by showing the connection between technology, pedagogy, and subject-specific content (English language). Another contribution is the use of classroom observation data to capture teachers’ DT use, as DT integration literature predominantly uses self-reported data. My research also contributes to a TPACK-in-Context framework (Figure 2.4) adapted from the TPACK framework (Mishra & Koehler, 2006) to provide a contextually situated understanding of primary teachers’ DT use in ESL lessons. Additionally, the NVivo-enhanced Spiral QDA process (Figure 3.7) I adapted from Seidel’s (1998) qualitative data analysis (QDA) model contributes to understanding the nonlinear, recursive, and iterative nature of the qualitative data analysis process. Finally, my illustration of the complex interplay of factors affecting the pedagogical use of DTs (Figure 5.2) contributes to the understanding of the relationships between TPACK (Mishra & Koehler, 2006), TAM (Davis, 1989), and SAMR (Puentedura, 2012), three dominant models/frameworks in DT literature.

text: Contextual complexities shaping primary teachers' pedagogical practices with digital technologies: An interpretive phenomenological study in the Maldivian ESL context Literature on digital technology (DT) integration has revealed a range of complexities around DT use for teaching and learning. Previous research suggests that frequent DT use does not necessarily lead to the pedagogically purposeful use of DTs for student learning. However, the literature overlooks the impact the various contextual and subject content factors may have when exploring teachers’ technological pedagogical practices. This thesis examines teachers’ practices with DTs in relation to the subject content and multilevel context within which teachers’ practices are situated. My study’s context is that of primary education in Maldivian urban and rural schools, with a specific focus on how teachers use DTs in teaching English as a second language (ESL). I also examine the influence of national, school, classroom, and teacher-level factors at play on the participant primary teacher group. The research questions guiding my study are:
1. What impacts do DT use have on ESL pedagogical practices of primary teachers in two Maldivian schools?
2. What contextual factors affect teaching and learning English with and through DTs in two Maldivian schools, and do they differ across schools?
3. What interplay of factors influence Maldivian primary teachers’ DT use in their English lessons?
Adopting an interpretive phenomenological research design meant I could capture the lived experience of nine (four urban and five rural) primary teachers in two Maldivian schools over 8 months. Data collected through lesson observations, postobservation conversations, lesson plans, semistructured interviews, mini surveys and field notes helped in understanding their practices, beliefs, and attitudes about using DTs in ESL lessons. Additionally, other data collected from mini surveys and postobservation conversations with students of the participant teachers, plus interview data and school documents that principals and IT staff provided, helped my understanding of the multilevel contextual factors that influenced teachers’ DT use for teaching and learning.
The findings indicate that an important reason for using DTs was as an attention grabber, perhaps as a set induction, video explanations, form-focused instruction (FFI), and exam-format listening. These findings were examined in relation to the SAMR model to ascertain the pedagogical level of DT use teachers usually applied. The findings also point to the national, school, and classroom factors affecting primary teachers’ practices with DTs in ESL lessons, and these are addressed fully in the Discussion and Conclusion chapters. At the national level, the two factors that have a potential influence on teachers’ DTs use include the development and promulgation of a national educational ICT policy and teacher education, the focus of which needs to move from developing teachers’ technological knowledge to pedagogical applications of tools. While technology leadership and DT-based professional learning and development were factors at the school level, access to DTs and technical support were classroom-level factors that significantly influenced participant teachers’ decisions around DT use. Apart from these external factors, internal or teacher-level factors such as teachers’ knowledge, beliefs, attitudes, and existing pedagogical practices shaped their practices with DTs when teaching English.
This study has contributed to the literature by identifying primary teachers’ ESL pedagogical practices with DTs. For one thing, it fills a significant gap in TPACK research which often considers TPACK to be subject-independent. My research, therefore, contributes by showing the connection between technology, pedagogy, and subject-specific content (English language). Another contribution is the use of classroom observation data to capture teachers’ DT use, as DT integration literature predominantly uses self-reported data. My research also contributes to a TPACK-in-Context framework (Figure 2.4) adapted from the TPACK framework (Mishra & Koehler, 2006) to provide a contextually situated understanding of primary teachers’ DT use in ESL lessons. Additionally, the NVivo-enhanced Spiral QDA process (Figure 3.7) I adapted from Seidel’s (1998) qualitative data analysis (QDA) model contributes to understanding the nonlinear, recursive, and iterative nature of the qualitative data analysis process. Finally, my illustration of the complex interplay of factors affecting the pedagogical use of DTs (Figure 5.2) contributes to the understanding of the relationships between TPACK (Mishra & Koehler, 2006), TAM (Davis, 1989), and SAMR (Puentedura, 2012), three dominant models/frameworks in DT literature.

year: 2023

title: A late-Holocene and prehistoric record of environmental change from Lake Waikaremoana, New Zealand

authors: Newnham, Rewi M.

subjects: Palynology

abstract: Further evidence in support of a late pre-European (Polynesian) settlement of New Zealand is provided by an 1850-year-long tephropalynological record from a remote region in New Zealand's North Island. The earliest unequivocally anthropogenic forest clearance is estimated from sedimentation rates to have occurred c. 375 14C years BP (c. ad 1523–1631), although the radiocarbon chronology, shown by tephrochron ology to be erroneous due to hard-water effects, suggested this occurred c. 900 years earlier. Delineation of the anthropogenic era, and the distinction between human activity and other agents of environmental change in the pollen/spore diagram, are supported by cluster analysis and detrended correspondence analysis. Two distinct phases of forest clearance are evident during the pre-European era, reflecting local changes either in population pressure or settlement patterns. We note that the lull between the two phases of forest clearance coincides with the maximum of the ‘Little Ice Age’ within the period c. late ad 1600s to early 1800s.

text: A late-Holocene and prehistoric record of environmental change from Lake Waikaremoana, New Zealand Further evidence in support of a late pre-European (Polynesian) settlement of New Zealand is provided by an 1850-year-long tephropalynological record from a remote region in New Zealand's North Island. The earliest unequivocally anthropogenic forest clearance is estimated from sedimentation rates to have occurred c. 375 14C years BP (c. ad 1523–1631), although the radiocarbon chronology, shown by tephrochron ology to be erroneous due to hard-water effects, suggested this occurred c. 900 years earlier. Delineation of the anthropogenic era, and the distinction between human activity and other agents of environmental change in the pollen/spore diagram, are supported by cluster analysis and detrended correspondence analysis. Two distinct phases of forest clearance are evident during the pre-European era, reflecting local changes either in population pressure or settlement patterns. We note that the lull between the two phases of forest clearance coincides with the maximum of the ‘Little Ice Age’ within the period c. late ad 1600s to early 1800s.

year: 1998