title: Context-specific bioturbation mediates changes to ecosystem functioning

authors: Needham, Hazel Rosemary

subjects: benthic–pelagic coupling

abstract: Species are often grouped according to their biological or functional traits to better understand their contribution to ecosystem functioning. However, it is becoming clear that a single species can perform different roles in different habitats. Austrohelice crassa, a burrow-building mud crab shifts its primary bioturbational role to that of a vertical mixer in non-cohesive sediments as frequent burrow collapse greatly enhances sediment reworking. We conducted in situ crab density manipulations in two sediment environments (a non-cohesive sand and a cohesive muddy-sand) to examine if the contextspecific functional roles were linked to changes in solute fluxes across the sediment–water interface. Across both habitats, we show that A. crassa regulated nutrient cycling, creating strong density driven effects on solute exchanges. Increasing crab density increased sediment O₂ demand and the flux of NH₄⁺ from the sediment, indicating much of the response was physiologically driven. Clear interactions between A. crassa and microphytobenthos were also detected in both habitats. Despite lowering microphyte standing stock through deposit feeding, A. crassa increased benthic primary production per unit of chlorophyll a. Our experiment also revealed important context-specific differences, most notably for NH₄⁺ fluxes, which were higher where burrows and their associated microbial communities were most stable (muddy-sand). This study highlights the need to integrate interactions between organism behavior and habitat type into functional group studies to broaden conceptual frameworks and avoid oversimplification of highly complex organism–sediment interactions.

text: Context-specific bioturbation mediates changes to ecosystem functioning Species are often grouped according to their biological or functional traits to better understand their contribution to ecosystem functioning. However, it is becoming clear that a single species can perform different roles in different habitats. Austrohelice crassa, a burrow-building mud crab shifts its primary bioturbational role to that of a vertical mixer in non-cohesive sediments as frequent burrow collapse greatly enhances sediment reworking. We conducted in situ crab density manipulations in two sediment environments (a non-cohesive sand and a cohesive muddy-sand) to examine if the contextspecific functional roles were linked to changes in solute fluxes across the sediment–water interface. Across both habitats, we show that A. crassa regulated nutrient cycling, creating strong density driven effects on solute exchanges. Increasing crab density increased sediment O₂ demand and the flux of NH₄⁺ from the sediment, indicating much of the response was physiologically driven. Clear interactions between A. crassa and microphytobenthos were also detected in both habitats. Despite lowering microphyte standing stock through deposit feeding, A. crassa increased benthic primary production per unit of chlorophyll a. Our experiment also revealed important context-specific differences, most notably for NH₄⁺ fluxes, which were higher where burrows and their associated microbial communities were most stable (muddy-sand). This study highlights the need to integrate interactions between organism behavior and habitat type into functional group studies to broaden conceptual frameworks and avoid oversimplification of highly complex organism–sediment interactions.

year: 2011

title: A body of one's own: Representations of women's bodies in the poetry of Emily Dickinson and Anne Sexton, and breaking free of the gendering patriarchy

authors: Rowell, Dadon

subjects: feminist

abstract: Waxing, shaving, plucking, eye-brow tinting, hair dying, makeup, diets, plastic surgery – if all women were instantaneously in love with their natural bodies, millions of people would be out of work. For centuries, women’s bodies have been sites of patriarchal control: are they too fat, too thin, too loud, too quiet, too modest, too revealing, too innocent, too experienced? The list of dichotomous expectations goes on for miles, but what remains most important is that women act like women, look like women, and are attractive to men. Unfortunately, what it means to be a woman has not been democratically chosen by women – the Western patriarchal power structure has dictated expectations of gender for centuries, and is showing no sign of ceasing. This thesis looks at the representations of women’s bodies, specifically the breast, hands and mouth in the poems of Emily Dickinson and Anne Sexton. Through body-focused language and metaphor, the narrators of the poems illustrate the extreme and debilitating nature of patriarchal control. The reader sees the effects of this control on the bodies and lives of multiple women. Breasts are commodified, idealised and turned into sites of fragmentation, hands are cut-off and stripped of power, and mouths are punished if they attempt to question or raise their voices. The work of several theorists, and viewing the poetry through a feminist Foucauldian lens, reveals the extent to which women’s bodies are focused on, criticised and controlled. Dickinson’s and Sexton’s narrators do offer some light: it is not all doom and gloom. They show that through the narratives of those the patriarchy oppresses, a conversation can begin, a call to rebellion can be sounded, and that even if people are too weak, they can still undermine and subvert power until their voices and bodies are heard – until they can be unshackled from the enforced gender binary the patriarchy uses to control and punish those who are not conformist, white, able, cisgender men. A creative component in the form of a poetry collection, We Wash Our Hands in Fire, is also included in this thesis. The creative work explores many of the themes addressed in the thesis; it seeks to further understand Dickinson’s and Sexton’s poetry by using a poetic medium and lens, and exploring forms similar to those of the two poets. The poetry is also intended to add another voice to the body-focused, rebellious chorus highlighting patriarchal control and challenging it.

text: A body of one's own: Representations of women's bodies in the poetry of Emily Dickinson and Anne Sexton, and breaking free of the gendering patriarchy Waxing, shaving, plucking, eye-brow tinting, hair dying, makeup, diets, plastic surgery – if all women were instantaneously in love with their natural bodies, millions of people would be out of work. For centuries, women’s bodies have been sites of patriarchal control: are they too fat, too thin, too loud, too quiet, too modest, too revealing, too innocent, too experienced? The list of dichotomous expectations goes on for miles, but what remains most important is that women act like women, look like women, and are attractive to men. Unfortunately, what it means to be a woman has not been democratically chosen by women – the Western patriarchal power structure has dictated expectations of gender for centuries, and is showing no sign of ceasing. This thesis looks at the representations of women’s bodies, specifically the breast, hands and mouth in the poems of Emily Dickinson and Anne Sexton. Through body-focused language and metaphor, the narrators of the poems illustrate the extreme and debilitating nature of patriarchal control. The reader sees the effects of this control on the bodies and lives of multiple women. Breasts are commodified, idealised and turned into sites of fragmentation, hands are cut-off and stripped of power, and mouths are punished if they attempt to question or raise their voices. The work of several theorists, and viewing the poetry through a feminist Foucauldian lens, reveals the extent to which women’s bodies are focused on, criticised and controlled. Dickinson’s and Sexton’s narrators do offer some light: it is not all doom and gloom. They show that through the narratives of those the patriarchy oppresses, a conversation can begin, a call to rebellion can be sounded, and that even if people are too weak, they can still undermine and subvert power until their voices and bodies are heard – until they can be unshackled from the enforced gender binary the patriarchy uses to control and punish those who are not conformist, white, able, cisgender men. A creative component in the form of a poetry collection, We Wash Our Hands in Fire, is also included in this thesis. The creative work explores many of the themes addressed in the thesis; it seeks to further understand Dickinson’s and Sexton’s poetry by using a poetic medium and lens, and exploring forms similar to those of the two poets. The poetry is also intended to add another voice to the body-focused, rebellious chorus highlighting patriarchal control and challenging it.

year: 2019

title: How learning stories shape understandings of children’s learning identities in one community of practice: A narrative inquiry

authors: Sands, Lorraine May

subjects: Narrative inquiry

abstract: Mā te mahi, ka mōhio; mā te mōhio, ka mārama; mā te mārama, ka mātau; mā te mātau, ka ora.
From hard work comes knowledge; from that knowledge comes understanding; from that understanding comes strength; from that strength comes wellbeing and life.
This thesis is a listening, dialogic investigation into ways the community of learners at Greerton Early Learning Centre considers learning stories have affected their children’s learning identities—that is, how they view themselves as learners. Aotearoa New Zealand’s early childhood curriculum, Te Whāriki, focuses on responsive, reciprocal relationships wrapped around the uniqueness and mana of each child. Learning stories—a research-based sociocultural narrative assessment approach—have been used in Aotearoa New Zealand early learning settings for over two decades to capture children’s learning while honouring the intent of Te Whāriki to nurture children’s languages, cultures, and identities. In the current climate of privatisation and neoliberalism, however, the value of learning stories is increasingly contested. This study refutes such discourses and instead navigates the value of multiple ways of knowing, meaningfully embedded in the lived experiences of children in relational communities.

This study was embedded in a narrative inquiry paradigm that sees reality as a socially mediated construction contained within stories that are told and retold across times, social contexts, and places. The study aimed to understand and document how storying children’s lived experience makes a meaningful difference to ways children view themselves as learners. Six children, their families, and their teachers were invited to reengage with selected learning stories from the children’s learning portfolios and then to rethink and retell how these learning stories contributed to their views of children’s learning identities.

The study found that learning stories have powerful effects on the ways children see themselves and on the ways those around them see the children as learners. It was clear from the data that children’s learning identities are embedded in the complex social and cultural contexts that surround them. The teachers’ long-term whanaungatanga relationships with mokopuna and whānau enabled kaiako to write learning stories that connected meaningfully with children’s wider historical, social, and cultural contexts. Insights into children’s learning from the learning stories were actively taken up by the parents and shaped the ways they saw and interacted with their children as learners. Likewise, teachers listened to stories shared from home (whether in a written learning story form or simply in the course of conversations), and these contributed to the teachers’ understandings of the children as agentic learners within sociocultural contexts. The physical folders of learning stories offered children powerful ways to maintain connections and a sense of pride in their learning achievements, linked to the people and places that surrounded those achievements.

Learning stories also enabled children to review their learning growth over time, including times when they had set goals, been supported in pursuing those goals by those around them, and had their achievements and dispositions honoured through documentation as a learning story. The process of robust engagement with crafting and reviewing their own and their colleagues’ learning stories played an important role in teachers’ ongoing professional learning. Finally, it was clear that across the whole community of practice—spanning mokopuna, whānau, and kaiako—learning stories played an important role in developing and reinforcing a shared language of learning as well as a shared understanding of the importance of children’s dispositions and working theories as the most highly valued forms of learning.

Although centred in one community, this research stands on the shoulders of many and may have resonance and implications for those in broader contexts. At a time when the usefulness and appropriateness of learning stories are increasingly contested, this study provides an important demonstration of the power of thoughtfully written learning stories and the alignment of this assessment approach with the vision and values of Te Whāriki. Further, with limited past research looking at the intersection of learning stories and children’s learning identities, this study’s rich account of this interaction in one community of practice provides a valuable contribution to the literature.

text: How learning stories shape understandings of children’s learning identities in one community of practice: A narrative inquiry Mā te mahi, ka mōhio; mā te mōhio, ka mārama; mā te mārama, ka mātau; mā te mātau, ka ora.
From hard work comes knowledge; from that knowledge comes understanding; from that understanding comes strength; from that strength comes wellbeing and life.
This thesis is a listening, dialogic investigation into ways the community of learners at Greerton Early Learning Centre considers learning stories have affected their children’s learning identities—that is, how they view themselves as learners. Aotearoa New Zealand’s early childhood curriculum, Te Whāriki, focuses on responsive, reciprocal relationships wrapped around the uniqueness and mana of each child. Learning stories—a research-based sociocultural narrative assessment approach—have been used in Aotearoa New Zealand early learning settings for over two decades to capture children’s learning while honouring the intent of Te Whāriki to nurture children’s languages, cultures, and identities. In the current climate of privatisation and neoliberalism, however, the value of learning stories is increasingly contested. This study refutes such discourses and instead navigates the value of multiple ways of knowing, meaningfully embedded in the lived experiences of children in relational communities.

This study was embedded in a narrative inquiry paradigm that sees reality as a socially mediated construction contained within stories that are told and retold across times, social contexts, and places. The study aimed to understand and document how storying children’s lived experience makes a meaningful difference to ways children view themselves as learners. Six children, their families, and their teachers were invited to reengage with selected learning stories from the children’s learning portfolios and then to rethink and retell how these learning stories contributed to their views of children’s learning identities.

The study found that learning stories have powerful effects on the ways children see themselves and on the ways those around them see the children as learners. It was clear from the data that children’s learning identities are embedded in the complex social and cultural contexts that surround them. The teachers’ long-term whanaungatanga relationships with mokopuna and whānau enabled kaiako to write learning stories that connected meaningfully with children’s wider historical, social, and cultural contexts. Insights into children’s learning from the learning stories were actively taken up by the parents and shaped the ways they saw and interacted with their children as learners. Likewise, teachers listened to stories shared from home (whether in a written learning story form or simply in the course of conversations), and these contributed to the teachers’ understandings of the children as agentic learners within sociocultural contexts. The physical folders of learning stories offered children powerful ways to maintain connections and a sense of pride in their learning achievements, linked to the people and places that surrounded those achievements.

Learning stories also enabled children to review their learning growth over time, including times when they had set goals, been supported in pursuing those goals by those around them, and had their achievements and dispositions honoured through documentation as a learning story. The process of robust engagement with crafting and reviewing their own and their colleagues’ learning stories played an important role in teachers’ ongoing professional learning. Finally, it was clear that across the whole community of practice—spanning mokopuna, whānau, and kaiako—learning stories played an important role in developing and reinforcing a shared language of learning as well as a shared understanding of the importance of children’s dispositions and working theories as the most highly valued forms of learning.

Although centred in one community, this research stands on the shoulders of many and may have resonance and implications for those in broader contexts. At a time when the usefulness and appropriateness of learning stories are increasingly contested, this study provides an important demonstration of the power of thoughtfully written learning stories and the alignment of this assessment approach with the vision and values of Te Whāriki. Further, with limited past research looking at the intersection of learning stories and children’s learning identities, this study’s rich account of this interaction in one community of practice provides a valuable contribution to the literature.

year: 2022