title: Book Review: Revival of the Gnostic Heresy: Fundamentalism – By Joe E. Morris

authors: Pratt, Douglas

subjects: book review

abstract: This article reviews the book: “Revival of the Gnostic Heresy: Fundamentalism”, by Joe E. Morris.

text: Book Review: Revival of the Gnostic Heresy: Fundamentalism – By Joe E. Morris This article reviews the book: “Revival of the Gnostic Heresy: Fundamentalism”, by Joe E. Morris.

year: 2010

title: Young women and leadership development: Co-constructing leadership learning in a New Zealand secondary school.

authors: McNae, Rachel Elizabeth

subjects: Leadership

abstract: Young women’s leadership is an area frequently overlooked in educational leadership development. When it is addressed, it is often done so from the perspective of adults resulting in planned learning opportunities being disconnected from the contexts in which young women lead. This thesis brings young women’s voices into educational leadership conversations and illustrates the importance of including their beliefs and understandings about leadership when developing an alternative approach to leadership development. This thesis describes a qualitative, collaborative action research study conducted between 2007 and 2008 with twelve Year Twelve female secondary school students from a Catholic Girls’ School. This research sought the perceptions and views these young women held about leadership in the secondary school context. The students were involved in co-constructing a leadership development programme (Revolution) with the researcher and participating in it. After the delivery of the leadership programme the students and the researcher evaluated both the programme and the process by which it came about. The questions that guided this research were: 1. What are young women’s beliefs about leadership and how are these influenced by contextual factors in their secondary school? 2. What would a leadership curriculum that was co-constructed through an adult/student partnership look like? 3. How effective is the process of co-construction in developing a youth leadership programme and how successful is the programme in developing leadership understanding? Within an action research framework youth-adult partnerships were formed that allowed the voices of the young women and the researcher to be included in the process of designing the leadership programme. The students and the researcher met regularly in the process of creating a collaborative learning community to share perceptions, create, participate in and reflect upon the leadership programme. Semi-structured interviews and focus groups were used to ascertain the young women’s beliefs and perceptions about leadership as well as their preferred ways of learning, what content should be included in the programme and how the programme should be structured, both prior to participating in the programme and after completing the leadership programme. First, the perceptions and understandings about leadership that the young women held about leadership were addressed. The findings indicated that the school was a site of significant influence on the young women’s beliefs and understandings of leadership and the opportunities to develop and practice leadership. There was a wide range of beliefs about leadership ranging from very basic to highly complex and this influenced the process of co-constructing the leadership programme. The changes to these understandings were later explored after participating in the Revolution leadership programme and this process served as a means of evaluating the effectiveness of the leadership programme. Second, the process of co-construction that created the content and structure for the created leadership programme was examined. The findings indicated that co-construction was an effective way to create a relevant and authentic leadership programme for young women. It was also a highly complex process that required significant efforts to balance input and share ownership between the researcher and the young women. The co-constructed programme was different from programmes constructed by adults, was influenced by the school context and challenged the young women’s existing views of teaching and learning. Overall, both the co-construction process and the leadership programme itself enhanced the young women’s leadership understandings and feelings of ownership towards the learning process, and was enjoyable. This study adds to the sparse literature on young women and leadership as it provides details of how young women perceive and practice leadership in the secondary school. This research suggests that involving young women in designing their leadership learning experiences can help ensure the experiences are meaningful and relevant to the contexts in which they practice leadership.

text: Young women and leadership development: Co-constructing leadership learning in a New Zealand secondary school. Young women’s leadership is an area frequently overlooked in educational leadership development. When it is addressed, it is often done so from the perspective of adults resulting in planned learning opportunities being disconnected from the contexts in which young women lead. This thesis brings young women’s voices into educational leadership conversations and illustrates the importance of including their beliefs and understandings about leadership when developing an alternative approach to leadership development. This thesis describes a qualitative, collaborative action research study conducted between 2007 and 2008 with twelve Year Twelve female secondary school students from a Catholic Girls’ School. This research sought the perceptions and views these young women held about leadership in the secondary school context. The students were involved in co-constructing a leadership development programme (Revolution) with the researcher and participating in it. After the delivery of the leadership programme the students and the researcher evaluated both the programme and the process by which it came about. The questions that guided this research were: 1. What are young women’s beliefs about leadership and how are these influenced by contextual factors in their secondary school? 2. What would a leadership curriculum that was co-constructed through an adult/student partnership look like? 3. How effective is the process of co-construction in developing a youth leadership programme and how successful is the programme in developing leadership understanding? Within an action research framework youth-adult partnerships were formed that allowed the voices of the young women and the researcher to be included in the process of designing the leadership programme. The students and the researcher met regularly in the process of creating a collaborative learning community to share perceptions, create, participate in and reflect upon the leadership programme. Semi-structured interviews and focus groups were used to ascertain the young women’s beliefs and perceptions about leadership as well as their preferred ways of learning, what content should be included in the programme and how the programme should be structured, both prior to participating in the programme and after completing the leadership programme. First, the perceptions and understandings about leadership that the young women held about leadership were addressed. The findings indicated that the school was a site of significant influence on the young women’s beliefs and understandings of leadership and the opportunities to develop and practice leadership. There was a wide range of beliefs about leadership ranging from very basic to highly complex and this influenced the process of co-constructing the leadership programme. The changes to these understandings were later explored after participating in the Revolution leadership programme and this process served as a means of evaluating the effectiveness of the leadership programme. Second, the process of co-construction that created the content and structure for the created leadership programme was examined. The findings indicated that co-construction was an effective way to create a relevant and authentic leadership programme for young women. It was also a highly complex process that required significant efforts to balance input and share ownership between the researcher and the young women. The co-constructed programme was different from programmes constructed by adults, was influenced by the school context and challenged the young women’s existing views of teaching and learning. Overall, both the co-construction process and the leadership programme itself enhanced the young women’s leadership understandings and feelings of ownership towards the learning process, and was enjoyable. This study adds to the sparse literature on young women and leadership as it provides details of how young women perceive and practice leadership in the secondary school. This research suggests that involving young women in designing their leadership learning experiences can help ensure the experiences are meaningful and relevant to the contexts in which they practice leadership.

year: 2011

title: Whānau Stories: Creating meaningful engagement and wellbeing for the indigenous culture of Aotearoa New Zealand

authors: Cruse, Diana Caroline Annavale

subjects: Engagement

abstract: This research sees my interests coalesce into a particular focus on how collaborative partnerships with parents/caregivers can provide whānau Māori with opportunities to strengthen wellbeing in their own lives. It is located in Aotearoa New Zealand and within the context of Te Whāriki (Ministry of Education, 1996), Aotearoa New Zealand’s early childhood curriculum.  The Ministry of Education has a target that 98% of all children in Aotearoa New Zealand under 5 will attend an early childhood education setting (Ministry of Education, 2016), with Māori children having lower participation rates than the national participation rate (Ministry of Education, 2013).  The premise for this thesis is that meaningful whānau engagement in early learning contexts within Aotearoa New Zealand can empower whānau Māori, and honour the promises made in Te Tiriti o Waitangi of partnership, participation, and protection.
Therefore, this thesis sets out to examine what constitutes meaningful engagement for whānau Māori in an early childhood setting in Aotearoa New Zealand, and how meaningful engagement can assist whānau to enjoy an increase of wellbeing.
To explore this issue, I conducted research within an early childhood setting in Aotearoa New Zealand, using methodologies of Kaupapa Māori Research and Narrative Inquiry.  I listened to the narratives of whānau Māori indicating how meaningful engagement was created for them, and investigated if links were generated between engagement and wellbeing for their whānau. These links were identified in the literature as significant levers for educational success.
This research discovered three stages of engagement for the whānau Māori who participated in this study: establishing engagement, developing engagement and solidifying engagement.  Once created, meaningful engagement can lead to flourishing, indicating that there is relationship between meaningful engagement and whānau wellbeing.

text: Whānau Stories: Creating meaningful engagement and wellbeing for the indigenous culture of Aotearoa New Zealand This research sees my interests coalesce into a particular focus on how collaborative partnerships with parents/caregivers can provide whānau Māori with opportunities to strengthen wellbeing in their own lives. It is located in Aotearoa New Zealand and within the context of Te Whāriki (Ministry of Education, 1996), Aotearoa New Zealand’s early childhood curriculum.  The Ministry of Education has a target that 98% of all children in Aotearoa New Zealand under 5 will attend an early childhood education setting (Ministry of Education, 2016), with Māori children having lower participation rates than the national participation rate (Ministry of Education, 2013).  The premise for this thesis is that meaningful whānau engagement in early learning contexts within Aotearoa New Zealand can empower whānau Māori, and honour the promises made in Te Tiriti o Waitangi of partnership, participation, and protection.
Therefore, this thesis sets out to examine what constitutes meaningful engagement for whānau Māori in an early childhood setting in Aotearoa New Zealand, and how meaningful engagement can assist whānau to enjoy an increase of wellbeing.
To explore this issue, I conducted research within an early childhood setting in Aotearoa New Zealand, using methodologies of Kaupapa Māori Research and Narrative Inquiry.  I listened to the narratives of whānau Māori indicating how meaningful engagement was created for them, and investigated if links were generated between engagement and wellbeing for their whānau. These links were identified in the literature as significant levers for educational success.
This research discovered three stages of engagement for the whānau Māori who participated in this study: establishing engagement, developing engagement and solidifying engagement.  Once created, meaningful engagement can lead to flourishing, indicating that there is relationship between meaningful engagement and whānau wellbeing.

year: 2017