title: A peer professional learning group: A professional identity forum

authors: Alford, Zoë

subjects: peer

abstract: In response to the challenges of academic work when studying for Masters of Counselling degrees at a distance from the university while living in a geographically isolated community in Aotearoa New Zealand, Kandyce Bevan, Nicola Carroll and I came together to work in a peer professional learning group. This thesis tells the stories of how we worked together, and what we did when we worked together. Although our original intentions in working together were to help each other with our university studies and practise counselling skills, what we achieved was the provision of a forum for performing, audiencing, and authenticating our fledgling professional identities and knowledge in the liminal phase of the rite of passage between being positioned as students at university and full immersion in professional practice.

Nicola, Kandyce and I collaborated in deciding the focus, research question, and method for this project. We drew on the practices and postmodern philosophies of narrative therapy in our deliberations. Accordingly, social constructionism, post-structuralism, discourse and positioning theories underpin this project. The method chosen was a bricolage of qualitative research methods: co-operative inquiry, appreciative inquiry, narrative inquiry, and participatory action research.
We met five times for this project. The first three meetings were to decide and refine the focus of the project, the research question and the method. The fourth meeting was the main data-generating conversation. In the fifth meeting Nicola and Kandyce were invited to comment on, and contribute to, the stories I had constructed from our conversations. 
The key finding of this project was that it is important, useful, and indeed may be necessary, for students learning a postmodern approach to counselling to have an appropriate forum outside the university in which their fledgling professional identities and knowledge can be performed, audienced and authenticated. Many students will be able to engage supervisors with a matched paradigm for the purpose of such performances. However, in the absence of supervisors who know narrative practice, such performance of professional identity may not be possible. A peer professional learning group, such as ours, may not be able to fulfil all of the functions of supervision, but it can provide a forum to contribute significantly to the shaping of professional identity. It can also provide a safe place to practise counselling skills ethically, and act as a crucible for the co-construction of knowledge.

text: A peer professional learning group: A professional identity forum In response to the challenges of academic work when studying for Masters of Counselling degrees at a distance from the university while living in a geographically isolated community in Aotearoa New Zealand, Kandyce Bevan, Nicola Carroll and I came together to work in a peer professional learning group. This thesis tells the stories of how we worked together, and what we did when we worked together. Although our original intentions in working together were to help each other with our university studies and practise counselling skills, what we achieved was the provision of a forum for performing, audiencing, and authenticating our fledgling professional identities and knowledge in the liminal phase of the rite of passage between being positioned as students at university and full immersion in professional practice.

Nicola, Kandyce and I collaborated in deciding the focus, research question, and method for this project. We drew on the practices and postmodern philosophies of narrative therapy in our deliberations. Accordingly, social constructionism, post-structuralism, discourse and positioning theories underpin this project. The method chosen was a bricolage of qualitative research methods: co-operative inquiry, appreciative inquiry, narrative inquiry, and participatory action research.
We met five times for this project. The first three meetings were to decide and refine the focus of the project, the research question and the method. The fourth meeting was the main data-generating conversation. In the fifth meeting Nicola and Kandyce were invited to comment on, and contribute to, the stories I had constructed from our conversations. 
The key finding of this project was that it is important, useful, and indeed may be necessary, for students learning a postmodern approach to counselling to have an appropriate forum outside the university in which their fledgling professional identities and knowledge can be performed, audienced and authenticated. Many students will be able to engage supervisors with a matched paradigm for the purpose of such performances. However, in the absence of supervisors who know narrative practice, such performance of professional identity may not be possible. A peer professional learning group, such as ours, may not be able to fulfil all of the functions of supervision, but it can provide a forum to contribute significantly to the shaping of professional identity. It can also provide a safe place to practise counselling skills ethically, and act as a crucible for the co-construction of knowledge.

year: 2012

title: Holiday Destinations: Understanding the Perceptions of Omani Outbound Tourists

authors: Alsawafi, Abdulaziz Mohammed

subjects: Motivation

abstract: It is becoming increasingly difficult to ignore the growing numbers of Islamic tourists from countries such as the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) zone and Indonesia. This thesis aims to understand Omani outbound pleasure travellers by identifying their travel motivations, the main travel and leisure constraints they experience, and how they overcome these constraints. It also investigates the influence of Islamic teachings on their choice of a pleasure destination and their participation in leisure activities. 
The main data collection methods involved in-depth interviews (n = 27) (the qualitative phase), and the distribution of a self-completion questionnaire (n = 298) (a quantitative phase) to both actual travellers and non-travellers. A mixed method approach allowed further insight into the research phenomenon as well as enhancing the trustworthiness of the research findings. Content analysis was used to analyse the qualitative data using CatPac (CATegory PACkage) and Leximancer software, while the quantitative data were analysed by utilising analysis techniques including T-tests, ANOVA, factor analysis, cluster analysis, regression, and MANOVA in SPSS.
The study identifies: (a) the most important push and pull travel motivations for Omani outbound tourists; (b) the main travel and leisure constraints that inhibit Omanis from travelling overseas and participating in leisure activities; and, (c) the most frequent travel and leisure negotiation strategies that are adopted to overcome these constraints. The results of the study also determine the influence of socio-demographic variables (gender, marital status, age, educational level, income, and occupation) on Omani tourists' perceptions and behaviours. In terms of the impact of Islamic teachings, this study finds that the Islamic teachings have an indirect influence on the choice of a pleasure travel destination and a direct influence on participation in leisure activities. In relation to market segmentation, the study finds that it is possible to segment Omani outbound tourists based on their travel motivations. Further, this study suggests that participation, or nonparticipation, in overseas travel is an outcome of the joint action of travel motivations and constraints. Other useful findings relate to the three-dimensional leisure constraints model as well as the influence of travel motivations and constraints on the use of negotiation strategies are reported.
The current study provides information that will aid the travel and leisure industry in targeting the Muslim travel market to formulate effective marketing strategies and develop appropriate product plans. Finally, both the managerial implications of the study’s results, and possible future research directions, are discussed.

text: Holiday Destinations: Understanding the Perceptions of Omani Outbound Tourists It is becoming increasingly difficult to ignore the growing numbers of Islamic tourists from countries such as the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) zone and Indonesia. This thesis aims to understand Omani outbound pleasure travellers by identifying their travel motivations, the main travel and leisure constraints they experience, and how they overcome these constraints. It also investigates the influence of Islamic teachings on their choice of a pleasure destination and their participation in leisure activities. 
The main data collection methods involved in-depth interviews (n = 27) (the qualitative phase), and the distribution of a self-completion questionnaire (n = 298) (a quantitative phase) to both actual travellers and non-travellers. A mixed method approach allowed further insight into the research phenomenon as well as enhancing the trustworthiness of the research findings. Content analysis was used to analyse the qualitative data using CatPac (CATegory PACkage) and Leximancer software, while the quantitative data were analysed by utilising analysis techniques including T-tests, ANOVA, factor analysis, cluster analysis, regression, and MANOVA in SPSS.
The study identifies: (a) the most important push and pull travel motivations for Omani outbound tourists; (b) the main travel and leisure constraints that inhibit Omanis from travelling overseas and participating in leisure activities; and, (c) the most frequent travel and leisure negotiation strategies that are adopted to overcome these constraints. The results of the study also determine the influence of socio-demographic variables (gender, marital status, age, educational level, income, and occupation) on Omani tourists' perceptions and behaviours. In terms of the impact of Islamic teachings, this study finds that the Islamic teachings have an indirect influence on the choice of a pleasure travel destination and a direct influence on participation in leisure activities. In relation to market segmentation, the study finds that it is possible to segment Omani outbound tourists based on their travel motivations. Further, this study suggests that participation, or nonparticipation, in overseas travel is an outcome of the joint action of travel motivations and constraints. Other useful findings relate to the three-dimensional leisure constraints model as well as the influence of travel motivations and constraints on the use of negotiation strategies are reported.
The current study provides information that will aid the travel and leisure industry in targeting the Muslim travel market to formulate effective marketing strategies and develop appropriate product plans. Finally, both the managerial implications of the study’s results, and possible future research directions, are discussed.

year: 2013

title: Environmentalism for the environment's sake: Towards an understanding of the influence of the Māori worldview on Western environmental management perspectives in Aotearoa New Zealand through a lens of nature connectivity

authors: Jones, Haley

subjects: Nature connectedness

abstract: Individual perceptions of the natural world may be influenced by place, culture, and value systems. In exploring these perceptions through measures of environmental connectedness, this study considers the uniqueness of the socio-cultural systems of Aotearoa New Zealand in shaping individual environmental engagement. This research examines the implications of the inclusion of Māori values in environmental management policies dominated by Western environmental conceptualisations. Through semi-structured interviews of five participants who work in environmental fields in the Hamilton, Waikato Region of Aotearoa New Zealand, this research explores conceptualisations of identity and environmental discourses, interpretations of the Māori concept of kaitiakitanga and the Western concept of stewardship, career connectedness, and place attachment to Aotearoa New Zealand. Additionally, results from an online survey questionnaire of twelve respondents compare measures of connectedness to nature of respondents from California, United States of America, with those from the Waikato Region, Aotearoa New Zealand. Key findings highlight how anthropogenic worldviews can be unconscious, how understandings of cultural values may be a key factor of a strengthened environmental commitment, how expressions of Indigeneity are of value in the sciences, and how there is importance in the link between conservation values and the Māori worldview. This study exposes the importance of the implementation of improved training about, and inclusion of, Indigenous knowledge within environmental organisations in order to develop conscious awareness of how Indigenous information is being translated, applied, and respected.

text: Environmentalism for the environment's sake: Towards an understanding of the influence of the Māori worldview on Western environmental management perspectives in Aotearoa New Zealand through a lens of nature connectivity Individual perceptions of the natural world may be influenced by place, culture, and value systems. In exploring these perceptions through measures of environmental connectedness, this study considers the uniqueness of the socio-cultural systems of Aotearoa New Zealand in shaping individual environmental engagement. This research examines the implications of the inclusion of Māori values in environmental management policies dominated by Western environmental conceptualisations. Through semi-structured interviews of five participants who work in environmental fields in the Hamilton, Waikato Region of Aotearoa New Zealand, this research explores conceptualisations of identity and environmental discourses, interpretations of the Māori concept of kaitiakitanga and the Western concept of stewardship, career connectedness, and place attachment to Aotearoa New Zealand. Additionally, results from an online survey questionnaire of twelve respondents compare measures of connectedness to nature of respondents from California, United States of America, with those from the Waikato Region, Aotearoa New Zealand. Key findings highlight how anthropogenic worldviews can be unconscious, how understandings of cultural values may be a key factor of a strengthened environmental commitment, how expressions of Indigeneity are of value in the sciences, and how there is importance in the link between conservation values and the Māori worldview. This study exposes the importance of the implementation of improved training about, and inclusion of, Indigenous knowledge within environmental organisations in order to develop conscious awareness of how Indigenous information is being translated, applied, and respected.

year: 2022