title: Blood Quantum  “A Pūrākau approach to understanding the impact of ‘Blood Quantum’ in Māori Identity”

authors: Edwards, Alvina Jean

subjects: Blood quantum

abstract: “The master’s tools will never dismantle the master’s house” (Lorde, 1984, p.94)

This thesis begins and ends with being Ngāi Tahu, the two fundamental questions that generated this topic are: Who determines Indigenous legal identity? Who defines tribal membership and affiliation? Although the idea of defining Indigenous Peoples, for political purposes originated in colonial times, the complications, and complexities of defining who an Indigenous individual remains a truly contentious issue. This thesis will draw on the Indigenous Māori methodology of pūrākau, or story work for its structure and method to explore the above questions relating to Indigenous identity. The pūrākau approach enables the research to harness mātauranga Māori knowledge such as whakapapa and korero tuku iho alongside western thought, which is now inked in academic disciplines such as in the study of law. This thesis explores notions such as Indigenous ‘blood’ and our Indigenous ‘DNA.’ It is argued that to understand the history, the politics, the laws of blood quantum and DNA, it is important to understand the mind of the coloniser and the tools they continue to use. 

The study of blood quantum has become an important aspect of the tino rangatiratanga (self-determination) of many Indigenous peoples. From a historical and cultural perspective, blood quantum standards divide and alienate communities, and perpetuate a discourse that promotes internalised self-hatred, alienation, and fractionation. This research will develop pūrākau as a pedagogy through creating learning tools. These new learning tools will counteract the possibility of our Indigenous Peoples from being trapped within these social constructions. The thesis will explore possible self-determination techniques which emphasize pūrākau in establishing identity through creating a journey of recovery through the application of pūrākau in decolonising blood quantum ideology. Ultimately, Indigenous Peoples of Canada, New Zealand and the United States of America need to be the ones in control of their identity, tribal affiliation, cultural continuity, destiny, and the way they are legally defined.

Let's reclaim our stolen tools (Lorde, 1979)

text: Blood Quantum  “A Pūrākau approach to understanding the impact of ‘Blood Quantum’ in Māori Identity” “The master’s tools will never dismantle the master’s house” (Lorde, 1984, p.94)

This thesis begins and ends with being Ngāi Tahu, the two fundamental questions that generated this topic are: Who determines Indigenous legal identity? Who defines tribal membership and affiliation? Although the idea of defining Indigenous Peoples, for political purposes originated in colonial times, the complications, and complexities of defining who an Indigenous individual remains a truly contentious issue. This thesis will draw on the Indigenous Māori methodology of pūrākau, or story work for its structure and method to explore the above questions relating to Indigenous identity. The pūrākau approach enables the research to harness mātauranga Māori knowledge such as whakapapa and korero tuku iho alongside western thought, which is now inked in academic disciplines such as in the study of law. This thesis explores notions such as Indigenous ‘blood’ and our Indigenous ‘DNA.’ It is argued that to understand the history, the politics, the laws of blood quantum and DNA, it is important to understand the mind of the coloniser and the tools they continue to use. 

The study of blood quantum has become an important aspect of the tino rangatiratanga (self-determination) of many Indigenous peoples. From a historical and cultural perspective, blood quantum standards divide and alienate communities, and perpetuate a discourse that promotes internalised self-hatred, alienation, and fractionation. This research will develop pūrākau as a pedagogy through creating learning tools. These new learning tools will counteract the possibility of our Indigenous Peoples from being trapped within these social constructions. The thesis will explore possible self-determination techniques which emphasize pūrākau in establishing identity through creating a journey of recovery through the application of pūrākau in decolonising blood quantum ideology. Ultimately, Indigenous Peoples of Canada, New Zealand and the United States of America need to be the ones in control of their identity, tribal affiliation, cultural continuity, destiny, and the way they are legally defined.

Let's reclaim our stolen tools (Lorde, 1979)

year: 2020

title: Nga Wahi Ipurangi - Digital Places

authors: Reilly, Alan Howard

subjects: mLearning

abstract: The Waipa district, unbeknown to many New Zealanders, is home to some of the country’s most significant historical sites and stories.  As a Learning Experiences Outside the Classroom (LEOTC) educator, one of my roles is facilitating the understanding of these places and stories with school students.  
Currently, historical sites of national significance in this area are geographically hard to recognise, and have little or no physical interpretation. The ability of students to learn at these sites relies heavily on the educator’s oratory abilities.  Recent development in mobile technology can now provide access to interpretive internet-based content anytime, anywhere and this research investigates potential for mobile technology to be used as a tool to provide meaningful learning experiences that connect students to our unique history in the environment that these events actually took place in.
This research compares different mobile learning methods’ effectiveness in increasing student understanding and retention of social history content. A mobile learning (mLearning) programme was created for the purpose of this research, with the internet-hosted content divided equally between 3 mobile learning methods and one presenter-based method. 
Three groups consisting of Yr 5-6, Yr 7-8 and Yr 9-10 school students participated in the programme. Students completed multi-choice tests before, immediately after and 4 months following the trial programme. The multi choice results were used to compare improvement in student understanding and retention. Focus group interviews were conducted immediately and 4 months after the trial and were used to explore students metacognitive reflections of the learning methods used. 
The results of the study suggest that the mobile audio method was the most effective at increasing student understanding of the learning content and also had the highest level of content retention.  Results also suggest that environmental and technological distraction may have negatively influenced the effectiveness of the two visual mobile learning methods. Distraction may account for the differences between the learning methods effectiveness suggested by the multi-choice testing. Focus group interviews indicate the importance of mobile learning in an authentic context.
Discussion around the reduction, and where possible, elimination of the identified distractions; appropriateness and feasibility of new programme development including: game/trail based mLearning; the importance of authentic contexts for Māori students; student involvement in design; student-centred methods; connection to the classroom; and the relevance of social media are explored.
This research provides a clear direction for future programme development, aligning with the Ministry of Education’s LEOTC review priorities that emphasise raising student achievement for priority students; improving student engagement; and innovative, future focused learning.

text: Nga Wahi Ipurangi - Digital Places The Waipa district, unbeknown to many New Zealanders, is home to some of the country’s most significant historical sites and stories.  As a Learning Experiences Outside the Classroom (LEOTC) educator, one of my roles is facilitating the understanding of these places and stories with school students.  
Currently, historical sites of national significance in this area are geographically hard to recognise, and have little or no physical interpretation. The ability of students to learn at these sites relies heavily on the educator’s oratory abilities.  Recent development in mobile technology can now provide access to interpretive internet-based content anytime, anywhere and this research investigates potential for mobile technology to be used as a tool to provide meaningful learning experiences that connect students to our unique history in the environment that these events actually took place in.
This research compares different mobile learning methods’ effectiveness in increasing student understanding and retention of social history content. A mobile learning (mLearning) programme was created for the purpose of this research, with the internet-hosted content divided equally between 3 mobile learning methods and one presenter-based method. 
Three groups consisting of Yr 5-6, Yr 7-8 and Yr 9-10 school students participated in the programme. Students completed multi-choice tests before, immediately after and 4 months following the trial programme. The multi choice results were used to compare improvement in student understanding and retention. Focus group interviews were conducted immediately and 4 months after the trial and were used to explore students metacognitive reflections of the learning methods used. 
The results of the study suggest that the mobile audio method was the most effective at increasing student understanding of the learning content and also had the highest level of content retention.  Results also suggest that environmental and technological distraction may have negatively influenced the effectiveness of the two visual mobile learning methods. Distraction may account for the differences between the learning methods effectiveness suggested by the multi-choice testing. Focus group interviews indicate the importance of mobile learning in an authentic context.
Discussion around the reduction, and where possible, elimination of the identified distractions; appropriateness and feasibility of new programme development including: game/trail based mLearning; the importance of authentic contexts for Māori students; student involvement in design; student-centred methods; connection to the classroom; and the relevance of social media are explored.
This research provides a clear direction for future programme development, aligning with the Ministry of Education’s LEOTC review priorities that emphasise raising student achievement for priority students; improving student engagement; and innovative, future focused learning.

year: 2013

title: Understanding the emotional environment of the classroom

authors: Harvey, Shane Trevor

abstract: Gottman's work on "meta-emotion" reveals the impact of parents' emotional interactions on their children's emotional development; however there has been no analysis of comparable teacher influences on children in school settings. This research was an attempt to understand how emotion-related variables influence classroom atmosphere and pupils' emotional competence. Several studies were conducted in this research project. The first part of the thesis involved two studies. First, teachers identified by reputation as having an emotionally sensitive and calming teaching style were asked in focus groups to explain the methods they used to ensure that children developed emotionally as well as educationally. Second, students whose emotional and behavioural difficulties had improved dramatically from one year to the next were asked to provide attributions for the change. Transcripts were analysed using content analysis and nonparametric grouping procedures to extract the predominant themes. These were subsequently organised into a descriptive model that represented the classroom emotional environment. 
The second part of this project involved three studies. First, teacher questionnaires for primary, secondary, and student teachers were designed to assess the qualities of the emotional environment. The Mayer-Salovey-Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test (MSCEIT, Mayer, Salovey, & Caruso, 2002) and the Brief Symptom Inventory (BSI, Derogatis, 1993) were administered concurrently to teachers for discriminative validation purposes. Second, two separate questionnaires on the classroom emotional environment for (i) primary and (ii) secondary school students were constructed. Students were asked to concurrently complete the student questionnaire on the classroom emotional environment, the Bar-On Emotional Intelligence Test for Youth (EQ-i:YV, Bar-On & Parker, 2000), and the Emotion Regulation Scales for Youth (ERS-Y, Kovacs, unpublished test). These questionnaires were structurally analysed and the relationships between the emotional environment, emotional intelligence, and emotion regulation were explored and discussed. 
Findings from these series of studies are as follows. First, based on the focus group studies, five superordinate dimensions were found to contribute to the classroom emotional environment. The five-dimensional model consists of emotional relationship, emotional awareness, emotional intrapersonal beliefs, emotion coaching, and emotional interpersonal guidelines. These dimensions were further sub-divided into secondary categories: Emotional relationships involves rapport between teachers and their students, and students' connectedness with their peers; emotional awareness includes teachers' awareness of emotions-both their own and their pupils'; emotion coaching consists of teachers' emotion regulation and their coaching of students' emotional responses; emotional intrapersonal beliefs involves emotional philosophy, emotional attitude, and emotional acceptance of self and others. Emotional interpersonal guidelines are separated into emotional boundaries and emotional standards. Four exemplars relating to emotional boundaries are boundaries in self, limit setting, expectations, and structure. Likewise, four examples representing emotional standards include fairness, respect, availability, and trust or belief in students. These dimensions exist to varying degrees across four contexts: Personal, teacher-student, student-student, and teacher-class. Not all superordinate dimensions distribute evenly across these four contexts. Factor loadings of the teacher-based questionnaire provided support for these five superordinate dimensions and their respective subcomponents. Second, teachers' emotional intelligence and psychological symptoms were found to be unrelated to the emotional environment. Third, emotion regulation and emotional intelligence as measured by the ERS-Y and the Bar0n EQ-i:YV respectively, were significantly related to the questionnaires on the classroom emotional environment for both primary and secondary students. Fourth, primary school students' data from the Classroom Emotional Environment Questionnaire loaded on positive and negative factors. In contrast, secondary school student data loaded onto five components representing both negative and positive factors and factors indicative of hypothesised model dimensions such as emotional awareness, emotional relationship, and emotional intrapersonal beliefs. 
Various implications emerge as a direct result of this study. First, this study organises groupings of emotional behaviours that occur within the classroom context into a framework. This introduces the possibility of measuring and critiquing the emotional environment of the classroom. Second, understanding the classroom emotional environment may act as an adjunct to successful management of pupils' behaviour. Third, interventions designed to address teachers' skills in developing the emotional environment may promote positive emotional development in children. These results emphasise the complexity of the work teachers perform on a daily basis. To continue teachers' invaluable contribution and commitment to pupils' emotional well being invariably means ensuring that teachers' emotional health and safety are protected and that psycho-education is provided to teachers on skills contributing to healthy classroom emotional atmospheres. These results contribute to a developing field of knowledge in both education and psychology investigating the link between implicit everyday emotional experiences and emotional development in children.

text: Understanding the emotional environment of the classroom Gottman's work on "meta-emotion" reveals the impact of parents' emotional interactions on their children's emotional development; however there has been no analysis of comparable teacher influences on children in school settings. This research was an attempt to understand how emotion-related variables influence classroom atmosphere and pupils' emotional competence. Several studies were conducted in this research project. The first part of the thesis involved two studies. First, teachers identified by reputation as having an emotionally sensitive and calming teaching style were asked in focus groups to explain the methods they used to ensure that children developed emotionally as well as educationally. Second, students whose emotional and behavioural difficulties had improved dramatically from one year to the next were asked to provide attributions for the change. Transcripts were analysed using content analysis and nonparametric grouping procedures to extract the predominant themes. These were subsequently organised into a descriptive model that represented the classroom emotional environment. 
The second part of this project involved three studies. First, teacher questionnaires for primary, secondary, and student teachers were designed to assess the qualities of the emotional environment. The Mayer-Salovey-Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test (MSCEIT, Mayer, Salovey, & Caruso, 2002) and the Brief Symptom Inventory (BSI, Derogatis, 1993) were administered concurrently to teachers for discriminative validation purposes. Second, two separate questionnaires on the classroom emotional environment for (i) primary and (ii) secondary school students were constructed. Students were asked to concurrently complete the student questionnaire on the classroom emotional environment, the Bar-On Emotional Intelligence Test for Youth (EQ-i:YV, Bar-On & Parker, 2000), and the Emotion Regulation Scales for Youth (ERS-Y, Kovacs, unpublished test). These questionnaires were structurally analysed and the relationships between the emotional environment, emotional intelligence, and emotion regulation were explored and discussed. 
Findings from these series of studies are as follows. First, based on the focus group studies, five superordinate dimensions were found to contribute to the classroom emotional environment. The five-dimensional model consists of emotional relationship, emotional awareness, emotional intrapersonal beliefs, emotion coaching, and emotional interpersonal guidelines. These dimensions were further sub-divided into secondary categories: Emotional relationships involves rapport between teachers and their students, and students' connectedness with their peers; emotional awareness includes teachers' awareness of emotions-both their own and their pupils'; emotion coaching consists of teachers' emotion regulation and their coaching of students' emotional responses; emotional intrapersonal beliefs involves emotional philosophy, emotional attitude, and emotional acceptance of self and others. Emotional interpersonal guidelines are separated into emotional boundaries and emotional standards. Four exemplars relating to emotional boundaries are boundaries in self, limit setting, expectations, and structure. Likewise, four examples representing emotional standards include fairness, respect, availability, and trust or belief in students. These dimensions exist to varying degrees across four contexts: Personal, teacher-student, student-student, and teacher-class. Not all superordinate dimensions distribute evenly across these four contexts. Factor loadings of the teacher-based questionnaire provided support for these five superordinate dimensions and their respective subcomponents. Second, teachers' emotional intelligence and psychological symptoms were found to be unrelated to the emotional environment. Third, emotion regulation and emotional intelligence as measured by the ERS-Y and the Bar0n EQ-i:YV respectively, were significantly related to the questionnaires on the classroom emotional environment for both primary and secondary students. Fourth, primary school students' data from the Classroom Emotional Environment Questionnaire loaded on positive and negative factors. In contrast, secondary school student data loaded onto five components representing both negative and positive factors and factors indicative of hypothesised model dimensions such as emotional awareness, emotional relationship, and emotional intrapersonal beliefs. 
Various implications emerge as a direct result of this study. First, this study organises groupings of emotional behaviours that occur within the classroom context into a framework. This introduces the possibility of measuring and critiquing the emotional environment of the classroom. Second, understanding the classroom emotional environment may act as an adjunct to successful management of pupils' behaviour. Third, interventions designed to address teachers' skills in developing the emotional environment may promote positive emotional development in children. These results emphasise the complexity of the work teachers perform on a daily basis. To continue teachers' invaluable contribution and commitment to pupils' emotional well being invariably means ensuring that teachers' emotional health and safety are protected and that psycho-education is provided to teachers on skills contributing to healthy classroom emotional atmospheres. These results contribute to a developing field of knowledge in both education and psychology investigating the link between implicit everyday emotional experiences and emotional development in children.

year: 2004