title: Speed bumps and l-plates: Female deputy principals' perceptions of the barriers in aspiring to principalship

authors: Neidhardt, Catherine

subjects: leadership

abstract: The majority of New Zealand's teaching workforce is female. In leadership positions,
women outnumber men in the deputy principal role, yet are significantly
underrepresented in principalship. How do women themselves explain this leadership
disparity? This small-scale qualitative research study explores the perceived barriers
in aspiring to principalship that are held by female deputy principals in the primary
sector. It utilises semi-structured interviews to gather data from seven female deputy
principals in primary schools in the Bay of Plenty. Data is analysed thematically in
order to extrapolate the significant barriers identified by the participants.
While international academic literature has acknowledged the disproportional gender
representation within principalship and identified potential factors, the New Zealand
research base is still limited. Further research into the barriers facing female
leadership may benefit future female aspiring principals in New Zealand by providing
an awareness of the potential challenges and offer possible strategies to contend with
the identified barriers.
The research findings indicate a common set of factors perceived to pose barriers to
women aspiring to principalship. These include: the impact of gender, the evolving
role of principalship, the demands of management versus leadership, the maintenance
of work/life balance, familial obligations, participant's self perceptions and the desire
for a  best fit  school as a first time principal.
This study suggests that further professional support structures and leadership
development opportunities be created to respond to the specific needs of aspiring
female principals. The provision of targeted programmes would go some way
towards addressing the barriers identified by participants and ensuring the promotion
and cultivation of aspiring female leaders that is necessary to sustain future
educational leadership in New Zealand primary schools.

text: Speed bumps and l-plates: Female deputy principals' perceptions of the barriers in aspiring to principalship The majority of New Zealand's teaching workforce is female. In leadership positions,
women outnumber men in the deputy principal role, yet are significantly
underrepresented in principalship. How do women themselves explain this leadership
disparity? This small-scale qualitative research study explores the perceived barriers
in aspiring to principalship that are held by female deputy principals in the primary
sector. It utilises semi-structured interviews to gather data from seven female deputy
principals in primary schools in the Bay of Plenty. Data is analysed thematically in
order to extrapolate the significant barriers identified by the participants.
While international academic literature has acknowledged the disproportional gender
representation within principalship and identified potential factors, the New Zealand
research base is still limited. Further research into the barriers facing female
leadership may benefit future female aspiring principals in New Zealand by providing
an awareness of the potential challenges and offer possible strategies to contend with
the identified barriers.
The research findings indicate a common set of factors perceived to pose barriers to
women aspiring to principalship. These include: the impact of gender, the evolving
role of principalship, the demands of management versus leadership, the maintenance
of work/life balance, familial obligations, participant's self perceptions and the desire
for a  best fit  school as a first time principal.
This study suggests that further professional support structures and leadership
development opportunities be created to respond to the specific needs of aspiring
female principals. The provision of targeted programmes would go some way
towards addressing the barriers identified by participants and ensuring the promotion
and cultivation of aspiring female leaders that is necessary to sustain future
educational leadership in New Zealand primary schools.

year: 2009

title: Laowai: Contested Identity and Imagined Community among Shanghai's Expatriates

authors: Foote, David

subjects: Expatriate

abstract: Considering their significance to the globalised economy, expatriate communities have attracted relatively little scholarly scrutiny.  Much has been written about non-Western migration to the West, but there has been little attention paid to population transfers in the opposite direction.  Shanghai has a long historical and cultural association with the West and, thanks to China’s continued economic growth, the city's Western expatriate population has more than tripled since 2001. This research utilises ethnographic methods to examine identity and community within Shanghai's expatriate population. Using data from participant-observation, as well as text gleaned from interviews and personal narrative, I document the construction, by expatriates, of small, tightly bounded networks of support as well as the broader imagined community of "Westernness" from which these fictive kinship groups were typically drawn.  Analysing transmigrancy through a ritual lens, I argue that this imagined Western community is best understood as an expression of communitas and that expatriates are liminal figures themselves, stalled in the middle phase of the migration ritual.  Indeed, expatriates frequently located themselves between China and the West, unable to become Chinese but also unwilling to be seen as just another tourist. Local Chinese constructions of self also position the Western Other on the periphery - entangling "whiteness" and Westernness with assumptions of class, cosmopolitanism and personal freedom.  Walled compounds and private drivers allowed some expatriates to move easily from one comfortable enclave of Westernness to another, only engaging with the local Chinese Other touristically.  However, many expatriates made deeper claims of local emplacement, stitching together patchwork cosmopolitan neighbourhoods out of scattered, often discontiguous local and expatriate spaces.  These blended neighbourhood bubbles provided expatriates with a space for the performance of new, liminal, transnational identities - rooted in Shanghai but still comfortably Western.

text: Laowai: Contested Identity and Imagined Community among Shanghai's Expatriates Considering their significance to the globalised economy, expatriate communities have attracted relatively little scholarly scrutiny.  Much has been written about non-Western migration to the West, but there has been little attention paid to population transfers in the opposite direction.  Shanghai has a long historical and cultural association with the West and, thanks to China’s continued economic growth, the city's Western expatriate population has more than tripled since 2001. This research utilises ethnographic methods to examine identity and community within Shanghai's expatriate population. Using data from participant-observation, as well as text gleaned from interviews and personal narrative, I document the construction, by expatriates, of small, tightly bounded networks of support as well as the broader imagined community of "Westernness" from which these fictive kinship groups were typically drawn.  Analysing transmigrancy through a ritual lens, I argue that this imagined Western community is best understood as an expression of communitas and that expatriates are liminal figures themselves, stalled in the middle phase of the migration ritual.  Indeed, expatriates frequently located themselves between China and the West, unable to become Chinese but also unwilling to be seen as just another tourist. Local Chinese constructions of self also position the Western Other on the periphery - entangling "whiteness" and Westernness with assumptions of class, cosmopolitanism and personal freedom.  Walled compounds and private drivers allowed some expatriates to move easily from one comfortable enclave of Westernness to another, only engaging with the local Chinese Other touristically.  However, many expatriates made deeper claims of local emplacement, stitching together patchwork cosmopolitan neighbourhoods out of scattered, often discontiguous local and expatriate spaces.  These blended neighbourhood bubbles provided expatriates with a space for the performance of new, liminal, transnational identities - rooted in Shanghai but still comfortably Western.

year: 2017

title: The Price of Mauri: Exploring the validity of Welfare Economics when seeking to measure Mātauranga Māori

authors: Awatere, Shaun

subjects: welfare economics

abstract: Since the 1980s New Zealand has pursued neo-classical or market-based policies with a particular fervour. Market-based options are seen by resource management decision makers as essential frameworks for efficiently allocating resources, an approach that continues to support the view of the inherent dominance of Western knowledge. This is particularly concerning, given that Māori (the indigenous people of New Zealand), have an important role to play in New Zealand resource management and perceive their own knowledge systems have been marginalised. The primary goal of this thesis is to explore the validity of welfare economics when seeking to measure quantitatively Mātauranga Māori or Māori views of the environment through the contingent valuation method. A contingent valuation study is carried out using three separate samples drawn from the general Māori population in Auckland city, a hāpu/sub-tribe indigenous to the Auckland isthmus, and drivers of motor vehicles in Auckland city. Data collection modes include a postal survey and face-to-face interviews. This thesis challenges the validity of political-legal ethnicity constructs to measure Mātauranga Māori. The search for a central tendency will lead to biased, misleading and inaccurate results. The thesis also challenges the validity of contingent valuation to produce true economic measures and to measure and identify Mātauranga Māori. Despite advances in analytical techniques, economic efficiency measures are always deficient, given the difficulty of capturing and anticipating all impacts and valuing them appropriately. Mātauranga Māori is derived from a Māori epistemology and should be considered or analysed with primary reference to this body of knowledge. Economic analysis is only one important cog in the machinery of resource management policy. Given that an economist's contribution to local and regional resource management is most valuable when focusing on the  economic efficiency  of the proposed resource allocation, it is appropriate that other perspectives such as Mātauranga Māori be considered.

text: The Price of Mauri: Exploring the validity of Welfare Economics when seeking to measure Mātauranga Māori Since the 1980s New Zealand has pursued neo-classical or market-based policies with a particular fervour. Market-based options are seen by resource management decision makers as essential frameworks for efficiently allocating resources, an approach that continues to support the view of the inherent dominance of Western knowledge. This is particularly concerning, given that Māori (the indigenous people of New Zealand), have an important role to play in New Zealand resource management and perceive their own knowledge systems have been marginalised. The primary goal of this thesis is to explore the validity of welfare economics when seeking to measure quantitatively Mātauranga Māori or Māori views of the environment through the contingent valuation method. A contingent valuation study is carried out using three separate samples drawn from the general Māori population in Auckland city, a hāpu/sub-tribe indigenous to the Auckland isthmus, and drivers of motor vehicles in Auckland city. Data collection modes include a postal survey and face-to-face interviews. This thesis challenges the validity of political-legal ethnicity constructs to measure Mātauranga Māori. The search for a central tendency will lead to biased, misleading and inaccurate results. The thesis also challenges the validity of contingent valuation to produce true economic measures and to measure and identify Mātauranga Māori. Despite advances in analytical techniques, economic efficiency measures are always deficient, given the difficulty of capturing and anticipating all impacts and valuing them appropriately. Mātauranga Māori is derived from a Māori epistemology and should be considered or analysed with primary reference to this body of knowledge. Economic analysis is only one important cog in the machinery of resource management policy. Given that an economist's contribution to local and regional resource management is most valuable when focusing on the  economic efficiency  of the proposed resource allocation, it is appropriate that other perspectives such as Mātauranga Māori be considered.

year: 2008