title: European identity in the Aotearoa New Zealand census

authors: Broman, Patrick David

subjects: New Zealand European

abstract: Although the literature on ethnicity is vast, studies have typically focused on minority groups, with white majorities, including Europeans in Aotearoa New Zealand, surprisingly absent. Demographic changes, however, and the decline of majorities, are altering politics and making white ethnicity more salient. (Re)assertions of dominance such as Brexit and the storming of Capitol Hill, and white nationalist violence such as the Christchurch mosque terror attacks, all illustrate the growing need to understand structures and processes of majority identity.
 
Recognising this gap, this study examines changing patterns of identification within the European population in the New Zealand census. To do so it uses the novel New Zealand Longitudinal Census (NZLC) dataset, which links individuals across censuses, offering an unprecedented opportunity to examine whether and how individuals change their ethnic affiliations over time. The study adopts a critical demographic conceptual framework, incorporating insights from diverse fields including social constructivism, critical whiteness studies, and a growing literature on settler colonialism.
 
Census counts are fundamentally political, with clear implications for policy and resource distribution, and offer a rich context for exploring the structure of majority ethnic identity. Existing census-based studies, though focused generally on minority groups, have demonstrated clearly how censuses form a key site in the social construction of ethnicity and ethnic groups.

The study is in two main parts. The first part considers what patterns can be observed in European identification over the five censuses held between 1991 and 2013. This broad analysis – over two decades of remarkable social and demographic change – finds that Europeans have generally had the lowest level of ethnic response change of any of New Zealand’s major ethnic groups. This contrasts sharply with the fluidity observed between and within other groups, particularly Māori and Pacific peoples. 
 
The second part focuses on an exception to this general pattern of European stability, shifts to ‘New Zealander’ ethnicity by Europeans in the 2006 census. It considers the factors associated with this one-off shift to national naming and the broader relationship between national identity and majority identity. Regression modelling shows that claims to New Zealander ethnicity were far from random. Rather it was a phenomenon significantly correlated with being male, being middle aged, having a post-secondary education, living in a solely European household, and in areas with a higher proportion of Europeans and lower levels of deprivation. These characteristics, and the ‘race-like’ stability of European ethnicity, suggests power and dominance play a key role in structuring majority ethnic claims, and offer further evidence of ethnic counts as illustrative of both the individual and the society that produced them.

text: European identity in the Aotearoa New Zealand census Although the literature on ethnicity is vast, studies have typically focused on minority groups, with white majorities, including Europeans in Aotearoa New Zealand, surprisingly absent. Demographic changes, however, and the decline of majorities, are altering politics and making white ethnicity more salient. (Re)assertions of dominance such as Brexit and the storming of Capitol Hill, and white nationalist violence such as the Christchurch mosque terror attacks, all illustrate the growing need to understand structures and processes of majority identity.
 
Recognising this gap, this study examines changing patterns of identification within the European population in the New Zealand census. To do so it uses the novel New Zealand Longitudinal Census (NZLC) dataset, which links individuals across censuses, offering an unprecedented opportunity to examine whether and how individuals change their ethnic affiliations over time. The study adopts a critical demographic conceptual framework, incorporating insights from diverse fields including social constructivism, critical whiteness studies, and a growing literature on settler colonialism.
 
Census counts are fundamentally political, with clear implications for policy and resource distribution, and offer a rich context for exploring the structure of majority ethnic identity. Existing census-based studies, though focused generally on minority groups, have demonstrated clearly how censuses form a key site in the social construction of ethnicity and ethnic groups.

The study is in two main parts. The first part considers what patterns can be observed in European identification over the five censuses held between 1991 and 2013. This broad analysis – over two decades of remarkable social and demographic change – finds that Europeans have generally had the lowest level of ethnic response change of any of New Zealand’s major ethnic groups. This contrasts sharply with the fluidity observed between and within other groups, particularly Māori and Pacific peoples. 
 
The second part focuses on an exception to this general pattern of European stability, shifts to ‘New Zealander’ ethnicity by Europeans in the 2006 census. It considers the factors associated with this one-off shift to national naming and the broader relationship between national identity and majority identity. Regression modelling shows that claims to New Zealander ethnicity were far from random. Rather it was a phenomenon significantly correlated with being male, being middle aged, having a post-secondary education, living in a solely European household, and in areas with a higher proportion of Europeans and lower levels of deprivation. These characteristics, and the ‘race-like’ stability of European ethnicity, suggests power and dominance play a key role in structuring majority ethnic claims, and offer further evidence of ethnic counts as illustrative of both the individual and the society that produced them.

year: 2021

title: The development of a whole school approach to education for sustainability

authors: Kalnins, Tatiana Irina

subjects: education for sustainability

abstract: To address environmental and sustainability problems we need a new way of educating our young people; one that provides them with the capabilities and skills to find and examine their own frameworks for solving these problems in the future.  Thus, it has been argued that we urgently need to find new models and approaches to education that reflect and contribute to sustainable practices, as traditional educational systems have contributed to the unsustainable conditions we now face.  A whole school approach to education for sustainability (EfS) supports the notion that children learn both through an enacted curriculum and informally through the messages and meanings inherent in their surroundings. A whole school approach to EfS involves transforming the system rather than reforming it or simply accommodating change. One school-focussed programme that has been fostering such whole school approaches in New Zealand is the Enviroschools programme.  The Enviroschools programme supports a whole centre/school approach to EfS, and describes four key areas of schooling life that have an effect on sustainability and student learning:  (1)  People (and Participation); (2) Programmes; (3)  Practices; and (4) Place.  
 
This thesis has examined the development of a whole school approach to EfS by investigating the planning, implementation and outcomes of such an approach in a New Zealand primary school.  An interpretive methodology was used to guide data collection through observations, interviews and analysis of student work as an Enviroschools facilitator worked with the staff and students of the school during their first year of integrating EfS into their school. An analytical framework, based on themes emerging from the ‘People, Programmes, Practices and Place’ dimensions of a whole school approach to EfS, was used to interpret the data arising from this single, case study school. 
 
 
This study found that the school leader(s), such as the Principal, have a profound effect on the success of the integration of the whole school approach to EfS. It also found that teacher knowledge and understanding of the complexity of EfS is key to successful integration into the curriculum, with particular emphasis on its transdisciplinary nature. In addition, special attention needs to be paid to the nature of EfS Facilitation and the interface between EfS theory and practice, for example, how to practically involve the ‘whole school’ in EfS participation. 
 
This research may assist schools in their own EfS journeys by providing insight and clarity around the process of development of a whole school approach to EfS. Detailing the factors that enable and inhibit the development of a whole school approach may provide schools with the direction needed to avoid possible pitfalls, and focus on factors that progress the development of EfS in their school.

text: The development of a whole school approach to education for sustainability To address environmental and sustainability problems we need a new way of educating our young people; one that provides them with the capabilities and skills to find and examine their own frameworks for solving these problems in the future.  Thus, it has been argued that we urgently need to find new models and approaches to education that reflect and contribute to sustainable practices, as traditional educational systems have contributed to the unsustainable conditions we now face.  A whole school approach to education for sustainability (EfS) supports the notion that children learn both through an enacted curriculum and informally through the messages and meanings inherent in their surroundings. A whole school approach to EfS involves transforming the system rather than reforming it or simply accommodating change. One school-focussed programme that has been fostering such whole school approaches in New Zealand is the Enviroschools programme.  The Enviroschools programme supports a whole centre/school approach to EfS, and describes four key areas of schooling life that have an effect on sustainability and student learning:  (1)  People (and Participation); (2) Programmes; (3)  Practices; and (4) Place.  
 
This thesis has examined the development of a whole school approach to EfS by investigating the planning, implementation and outcomes of such an approach in a New Zealand primary school.  An interpretive methodology was used to guide data collection through observations, interviews and analysis of student work as an Enviroschools facilitator worked with the staff and students of the school during their first year of integrating EfS into their school. An analytical framework, based on themes emerging from the ‘People, Programmes, Practices and Place’ dimensions of a whole school approach to EfS, was used to interpret the data arising from this single, case study school. 
 
 
This study found that the school leader(s), such as the Principal, have a profound effect on the success of the integration of the whole school approach to EfS. It also found that teacher knowledge and understanding of the complexity of EfS is key to successful integration into the curriculum, with particular emphasis on its transdisciplinary nature. In addition, special attention needs to be paid to the nature of EfS Facilitation and the interface between EfS theory and practice, for example, how to practically involve the ‘whole school’ in EfS participation. 
 
This research may assist schools in their own EfS journeys by providing insight and clarity around the process of development of a whole school approach to EfS. Detailing the factors that enable and inhibit the development of a whole school approach may provide schools with the direction needed to avoid possible pitfalls, and focus on factors that progress the development of EfS in their school.

year: 2018

title: A Way Forward for Te Reo Maori in English-Medium Education

authors: Waikari, Arihia

subjects: Maori

abstract: Aotearoa is the home of the Māori people and their language; te reo Māori. When European settlers arrived, they brought with them a new language; English. The Treaty of Waitangi was signed in 1840 and guaranteed Māori rangatiratanga (chiefly control) over their taonga, including te reo Māori. Over the years a negative language shift has occurred with many Māori moving from speaking te reo Māori to English. Although many initiatives, such as kōhanga reo were implemented in the 1980s, te reo Māori is still in a critical state. This research project is about te reo Māori experiences of both Māori and non-Māori whom were all attached to a English-medium primary school in Aotearoa/New Zealand. This study sought to understand the ways in which te reo Māori was being passed on, or not, from person to person and from one generation to the next.

text: A Way Forward for Te Reo Maori in English-Medium Education Aotearoa is the home of the Māori people and their language; te reo Māori. When European settlers arrived, they brought with them a new language; English. The Treaty of Waitangi was signed in 1840 and guaranteed Māori rangatiratanga (chiefly control) over their taonga, including te reo Māori. Over the years a negative language shift has occurred with many Māori moving from speaking te reo Māori to English. Although many initiatives, such as kōhanga reo were implemented in the 1980s, te reo Māori is still in a critical state. This research project is about te reo Māori experiences of both Māori and non-Māori whom were all attached to a English-medium primary school in Aotearoa/New Zealand. This study sought to understand the ways in which te reo Māori was being passed on, or not, from person to person and from one generation to the next.

year: 2011