title: Creating an Effective Learning Culture in a New School

authors: Taylor, Melanie Suzanne

subjects: new schools

abstract: The purpose of this study was to describe the experiences of the Principal and staff during the establishment of a new school, to understand the development of a learning culture and to examine the tensions for leadership. 
This study is situated within an interpretive paradigm and uses two methodologies: self-study research and case study research. Methods of collecting information in this study were designed to capture the culture in the school as it developed.  The combined documentation of my professional journal, the focus group and school documents allowed an insight into the realities of developing a learning culture in a new school.
 The findings of this study highlight four themes:
•	Stakeholders having ownership of touchstone documents to provide focus. 
•	The importance of relationship building. 
•	Focusing on learning for students, staff and the community.
•	Leadership challenges for new schools.  

The study concludes by making recommendations at policy level to support new school principals and at school level to offer suggestions for focus points.

text: Creating an Effective Learning Culture in a New School The purpose of this study was to describe the experiences of the Principal and staff during the establishment of a new school, to understand the development of a learning culture and to examine the tensions for leadership. 
This study is situated within an interpretive paradigm and uses two methodologies: self-study research and case study research. Methods of collecting information in this study were designed to capture the culture in the school as it developed.  The combined documentation of my professional journal, the focus group and school documents allowed an insight into the realities of developing a learning culture in a new school.
 The findings of this study highlight four themes:
•	Stakeholders having ownership of touchstone documents to provide focus. 
•	The importance of relationship building. 
•	Focusing on learning for students, staff and the community.
•	Leadership challenges for new schools.  

The study concludes by making recommendations at policy level to support new school principals and at school level to offer suggestions for focus points.

year: 2013

title: Work hardening of quaternary powder metallurgy Ti alloys

authors: Al-hajiri, M

abstract: The concurrent addition of Al as α stabiliser and Nb and Cu or Mn as β stabilisers was used to design new powder metallurgy quaternary Ti alloys and investigate their manufacturability and consequent performance. It is found that the powder blend's compressibility decreases with the total amount of alloying elements due to the characteristics of the powders used. Consequently, the sintered density of the quaternary Ti alloys decreases and slightly higher values are achieved if Mn instead of Cu is used, despite the higher diffusivity of Cu at the sintering temperature. The quaternary Ti alloys are characterised by a lamellar microstructure comprising α grain boundaries and α+β lamellae where the amount and type of alloying elements determine the coarseness of the microstructural features. This results in stronger and harder but less ductile quaternary Ti alloys for higher alloying elements contents and for stronger β stabilisers, although of their overall elastoplastic behaviour. Because of their lamellar microstructure, the quaternary Ti alloys show similar deformation behaviour but the actual work hardening rate is governed by the fineness of the microstructure.

text: Work hardening of quaternary powder metallurgy Ti alloys The concurrent addition of Al as α stabiliser and Nb and Cu or Mn as β stabilisers was used to design new powder metallurgy quaternary Ti alloys and investigate their manufacturability and consequent performance. It is found that the powder blend's compressibility decreases with the total amount of alloying elements due to the characteristics of the powders used. Consequently, the sintered density of the quaternary Ti alloys decreases and slightly higher values are achieved if Mn instead of Cu is used, despite the higher diffusivity of Cu at the sintering temperature. The quaternary Ti alloys are characterised by a lamellar microstructure comprising α grain boundaries and α+β lamellae where the amount and type of alloying elements determine the coarseness of the microstructural features. This results in stronger and harder but less ductile quaternary Ti alloys for higher alloying elements contents and for stronger β stabilisers, although of their overall elastoplastic behaviour. Because of their lamellar microstructure, the quaternary Ti alloys show similar deformation behaviour but the actual work hardening rate is governed by the fineness of the microstructure.

year: 2024-04-01

title: The embodied and lived experiences of welfare and care for highly impaired, high performance para-sport athletes in Aotearoa New Zealand

authors: Lowry, Amanda

abstract: Aligning with calls in critical disability studies to bring the body and impairment into disability sport, this thesis examines the welfare and care experiences of highly impaired athletes in high-performance sport. While a focus on athlete welfare has gained some international prominence, and a duty of care is increasingly invoked as an organisational and coaching responsibility, these developments remain largely disconnected from disability.  
The research is centred around two main objectives. First, to amplify the lived and embodied experiences of highly impaired, high performance disabled athletes as they prepare for, train, and compete in sport, and those who support them. Second, to understand how sporting institutions and regulations (within the broader context of government funding and national health care provision) influence welfare and care practices for high performance disabled athletes. 
Crip methodologies and Indigenous Māori storytelling methodologies such as pūrākau centres lived experience as a site of resistance and knowledge production. Using a reflexive, qualitative approach, including semi-structured interviews, autoethnographic vignettes, and visual ethnography, I expose how impairment effects are managed in ableist sporting environments that valorise normative athlete ideals. I interviewed 11 high-performance paraathletes, seven organisational representatives and two support workers. 
The research highlights the material, emotional, and temporal labour of care in highperformance sport. Findings are organised around three core themes: the embodied labour of care, impairment effects and interdependence; the tension between crip time, care time, and performance time; the intersecting structural, institutional, and ableist barriers that shape and constrain highly impaired athletes’ participation in disability sport.  
The first theme shows how high-performance sport privileges autonomous, efficient, and normative bodies, while marginalising those whose messy, gritty embodied impairment effects demand more time, support, and interdependence. The findings bring to the fore biosocial, psycho-emotional costs of navigating care and its impact on athlete welfare. The second theme uncovers how the rhythms of highly impaired bodies disrupt the linear, clockbound time of high-performance sport, revealing the incompatibility between care time and high performance cultures. It highlights the vital yet invisible labour of support workers, ii unacknowledged in contemporary sporting discourse. The third theme addresses the barriers that highly impaired athletes face when navigating ableist institutional and organisational structures. It exposes the complexity of the ableist disability sporting landscape and the gap between duty of care rhetoric and practice. 
Ultimately, this thesis calls for a radical reimagining of disability sport, one that centres interdependence, affirms bodily difference, and addresses the structural failures that marginalise highly impaired athletes.

text: The embodied and lived experiences of welfare and care for highly impaired, high performance para-sport athletes in Aotearoa New Zealand Aligning with calls in critical disability studies to bring the body and impairment into disability sport, this thesis examines the welfare and care experiences of highly impaired athletes in high-performance sport. While a focus on athlete welfare has gained some international prominence, and a duty of care is increasingly invoked as an organisational and coaching responsibility, these developments remain largely disconnected from disability.  
The research is centred around two main objectives. First, to amplify the lived and embodied experiences of highly impaired, high performance disabled athletes as they prepare for, train, and compete in sport, and those who support them. Second, to understand how sporting institutions and regulations (within the broader context of government funding and national health care provision) influence welfare and care practices for high performance disabled athletes. 
Crip methodologies and Indigenous Māori storytelling methodologies such as pūrākau centres lived experience as a site of resistance and knowledge production. Using a reflexive, qualitative approach, including semi-structured interviews, autoethnographic vignettes, and visual ethnography, I expose how impairment effects are managed in ableist sporting environments that valorise normative athlete ideals. I interviewed 11 high-performance paraathletes, seven organisational representatives and two support workers. 
The research highlights the material, emotional, and temporal labour of care in highperformance sport. Findings are organised around three core themes: the embodied labour of care, impairment effects and interdependence; the tension between crip time, care time, and performance time; the intersecting structural, institutional, and ableist barriers that shape and constrain highly impaired athletes’ participation in disability sport.  
The first theme shows how high-performance sport privileges autonomous, efficient, and normative bodies, while marginalising those whose messy, gritty embodied impairment effects demand more time, support, and interdependence. The findings bring to the fore biosocial, psycho-emotional costs of navigating care and its impact on athlete welfare. The second theme uncovers how the rhythms of highly impaired bodies disrupt the linear, clockbound time of high-performance sport, revealing the incompatibility between care time and high performance cultures. It highlights the vital yet invisible labour of support workers, ii unacknowledged in contemporary sporting discourse. The third theme addresses the barriers that highly impaired athletes face when navigating ableist institutional and organisational structures. It exposes the complexity of the ableist disability sporting landscape and the gap between duty of care rhetoric and practice. 
Ultimately, this thesis calls for a radical reimagining of disability sport, one that centres interdependence, affirms bodily difference, and addresses the structural failures that marginalise highly impaired athletes.

year: 2025-10