title: Researching perceptions of childhood sexuality: Using vignettes in interviews with teachers, counsellors, parents and young children

authors: Flanagan, Paul G.

abstract: Adults interpret children’s actions from their own positionings within culture and gender discourses. Children’s ‘sexual’ actions or ‘sexualised behaviour’ is responded to from ideas of innocence and indifference to moral panics and protective interventions. Adults express discomfort and uncertainty about how to understand and respond to young children acting this way.
Researching sexuality traverses social and cultural environments in which people live. Frayser (2003) refers to ‘shifting cultural maps’ as constructions of sexuality move from reproductive to relational and recreational understandings. “An expanded view of sexuality has meant an expanded interpretation of what is sexual; Words, looks, touches, pictures, and movements can all be construed in sexual ways” (Frayser, 2003, p. 267). Mitchell (2005), researching children’s sexuality in the Australian context, noted limitations in the literature, including the conceptualisation of sexuality; the difficulty of defining ‘normal’ sexual development when children’s sexuality is not considered in a wider, social and cultural context; and the dearth of research about children’s understandings of sexuality.
This paper describes a New Zealand doctoral study exploring discourses shaping constructions of sexuality in childhood. In particular, the paper focuses on the methodological approach of using vignettes.
Primary school teachers, parents, counsellors and children responded to a series of vignettes within focus groups and semi-structured interviews. The use of vignettes produced a context of safe participation for participants. This method supported participants’ confidence and trust with both the research process and their relationship with the researcher. As understandings were shared, enquiry brought forward further ideas and experiences from participants. Many readily disclosed more personal information, telling stories of child sexual activity: about themselves; their own children; family members; or stories of other children known to them.
A social constructionist framework underpins this research: children’s experiences are multi-storied and multiple meanings are available in understandings of sexuality. Foucault’s concepts of the genealogical method are used in the analysis of the literature, policies and practices on childhood sexuality, together with discursive positioning from the participants’ narratives.
Vignettes gave a safe entry into discussions about childhood sexuality, beginning with less problematic stories and then further examples of developing complexity. They provided stories to be viewed at a distance, then allowing for closer and more personal sharing of experiences. Awareness and understanding multiple social and cultural discourses shaping constructions of childhood sexuality is useful for teachers, parents and counsellors.

text: Researching perceptions of childhood sexuality: Using vignettes in interviews with teachers, counsellors, parents and young children Adults interpret children’s actions from their own positionings within culture and gender discourses. Children’s ‘sexual’ actions or ‘sexualised behaviour’ is responded to from ideas of innocence and indifference to moral panics and protective interventions. Adults express discomfort and uncertainty about how to understand and respond to young children acting this way.
Researching sexuality traverses social and cultural environments in which people live. Frayser (2003) refers to ‘shifting cultural maps’ as constructions of sexuality move from reproductive to relational and recreational understandings. “An expanded view of sexuality has meant an expanded interpretation of what is sexual; Words, looks, touches, pictures, and movements can all be construed in sexual ways” (Frayser, 2003, p. 267). Mitchell (2005), researching children’s sexuality in the Australian context, noted limitations in the literature, including the conceptualisation of sexuality; the difficulty of defining ‘normal’ sexual development when children’s sexuality is not considered in a wider, social and cultural context; and the dearth of research about children’s understandings of sexuality.
This paper describes a New Zealand doctoral study exploring discourses shaping constructions of sexuality in childhood. In particular, the paper focuses on the methodological approach of using vignettes.
Primary school teachers, parents, counsellors and children responded to a series of vignettes within focus groups and semi-structured interviews. The use of vignettes produced a context of safe participation for participants. This method supported participants’ confidence and trust with both the research process and their relationship with the researcher. As understandings were shared, enquiry brought forward further ideas and experiences from participants. Many readily disclosed more personal information, telling stories of child sexual activity: about themselves; their own children; family members; or stories of other children known to them.
A social constructionist framework underpins this research: children’s experiences are multi-storied and multiple meanings are available in understandings of sexuality. Foucault’s concepts of the genealogical method are used in the analysis of the literature, policies and practices on childhood sexuality, together with discursive positioning from the participants’ narratives.
Vignettes gave a safe entry into discussions about childhood sexuality, beginning with less problematic stories and then further examples of developing complexity. They provided stories to be viewed at a distance, then allowing for closer and more personal sharing of experiences. Awareness and understanding multiple social and cultural discourses shaping constructions of childhood sexuality is useful for teachers, parents and counsellors.

year: 2014

title: Editorial: Entrepreneurship research: follow the yellow-brick road?

authors: Corner, Patricia

subjects: entrepreneurship

abstract: If entrepreneurship theory, research, and practice represent Oz at the culmination of the yellow-brick road, Dorothy and her companions have much company on their journey. For example, one source estimates that 460 million people worldwide either start a new business or become the owners of new businesses annually (Reynolds et al. 2002). Moreover, entrepreneurship is the fastest growing field of study in tertiary education in North America and Europe (Bygrave 2004) and fifteen specialized scholarly journals disseminate research on the topic globally. Within the policy-making arena, the governments of both Australia and New Zealand seek to promote entrepreneurship as an engine of economic growth. This special issue on entrepreneurship thus appears to be timely and can help to take stock of this topic within our Australasian context. It can also serve as a baseline from which to consider directions for future research in this important area of inquiry.

text: Editorial: Entrepreneurship research: follow the yellow-brick road? If entrepreneurship theory, research, and practice represent Oz at the culmination of the yellow-brick road, Dorothy and her companions have much company on their journey. For example, one source estimates that 460 million people worldwide either start a new business or become the owners of new businesses annually (Reynolds et al. 2002). Moreover, entrepreneurship is the fastest growing field of study in tertiary education in North America and Europe (Bygrave 2004) and fifteen specialized scholarly journals disseminate research on the topic globally. Within the policy-making arena, the governments of both Australia and New Zealand seek to promote entrepreneurship as an engine of economic growth. This special issue on entrepreneurship thus appears to be timely and can help to take stock of this topic within our Australasian context. It can also serve as a baseline from which to consider directions for future research in this important area of inquiry.

year: 2007

title: Hoera Te Mimiha

authors: Hart, Philip

abstract: Hoera Te Mimiha was a rangatira of Ngati Koi, an inferior hapu to Ngati Tamatera, and had affiliations to other hapu. Although to Pakeha he was a mere labourer, in Maori society in Ohinemuri in the 1870s and 1880s he was a leading figure. Details have been traced of his whakapapa, his wider family, and especially his children, one of whom married Hone Werahiko. 
Mimiha spent much time in the Maori Land Court trying to prove his entitlement to be included as an owner of several blocks of land, not always successfully, for he could not prove some of his cases either through ancestry or occupation. Other rangatira with superior whakapapa were able to show the weaknesses of some of his claims, forcing him into giving evasive answers to cross-examination. His evidence did reveal what land he had occupied and farmed.
Mimiha willingly sold land, including his interest in the Ohinemuri goldfield (the boundaries of which he had pointed out to surveyors), and obtained a good income, for a time. Being interested in mining from the early 1870s onwards, he was one of the few Maori willing to descend a shaft at Thames, an experience that encouraged him to push for opening Ohinemuri to mining, even, it seemed, if that endangered Maori control of their land. Having prospected at Karangahake before it was opened to mining in 1875, he participated in this rush and subsequently in the Te Aroha one of 1880, having interests in claims at all three portions of the latter field. When his daughter’s partner was murdered at Te Aroha, he calmed Maori anger, once again winning the gratitude of Pakeha.
Because of selling much of his land, he struggled financially, although unlike some Maori he did not drink his money away. Cutting off part of the ear of a Pakeha accused of raping his wife resulted in several court cases marked by dubious evidence presented by both sides. After being imprisoned for perjury, efforts by Pakeha to have his conviction reviewed resulted in his being judged to have been the only witness not to have lied to the court, but this sordid affair blackened his character.

text: Hoera Te Mimiha Hoera Te Mimiha was a rangatira of Ngati Koi, an inferior hapu to Ngati Tamatera, and had affiliations to other hapu. Although to Pakeha he was a mere labourer, in Maori society in Ohinemuri in the 1870s and 1880s he was a leading figure. Details have been traced of his whakapapa, his wider family, and especially his children, one of whom married Hone Werahiko. 
Mimiha spent much time in the Maori Land Court trying to prove his entitlement to be included as an owner of several blocks of land, not always successfully, for he could not prove some of his cases either through ancestry or occupation. Other rangatira with superior whakapapa were able to show the weaknesses of some of his claims, forcing him into giving evasive answers to cross-examination. His evidence did reveal what land he had occupied and farmed.
Mimiha willingly sold land, including his interest in the Ohinemuri goldfield (the boundaries of which he had pointed out to surveyors), and obtained a good income, for a time. Being interested in mining from the early 1870s onwards, he was one of the few Maori willing to descend a shaft at Thames, an experience that encouraged him to push for opening Ohinemuri to mining, even, it seemed, if that endangered Maori control of their land. Having prospected at Karangahake before it was opened to mining in 1875, he participated in this rush and subsequently in the Te Aroha one of 1880, having interests in claims at all three portions of the latter field. When his daughter’s partner was murdered at Te Aroha, he calmed Maori anger, once again winning the gratitude of Pakeha.
Because of selling much of his land, he struggled financially, although unlike some Maori he did not drink his money away. Cutting off part of the ear of a Pakeha accused of raping his wife resulted in several court cases marked by dubious evidence presented by both sides. After being imprisoned for perjury, efforts by Pakeha to have his conviction reviewed resulted in his being judged to have been the only witness not to have lied to the court, but this sordid affair blackened his character.

year: 2016