title: Book Review: The globalisation of school choice

authors: Thrupp, Martin

subjects: book review

abstract: This article reviews the book “The globalisation of school choice?” edited by Martin Forsey, Scott Davies and Geoffrey Walford.

text: Book Review: The globalisation of school choice This article reviews the book “The globalisation of school choice?” edited by Martin Forsey, Scott Davies and Geoffrey Walford.

year: 2010

title: The Social Impacts of seasonal migration on left-behind children: An exploratory study from Lifuka, Tonga

authors: Moala-Tupou, Lupe

subjects: seasonal migration

abstract: There is a dearth of knowledge about the social impacts of seasonal migration on children left behind in Tonga and Pacific countries more generally. The economic benefits of remittances on families have been studied quite extensively but the social costs and benefits have not been the subject of much inquiry. This exploratory study in a Tongan village setting seeks to better understand children who are left behind and who are being affected by lengthy absences of older family members when they are employed as seasonal workers in the horticulture and viticulture industries of New Zealand and Australia.

Three main questions are addressed. Firstly, how do community leaders, teachers, parents and the children themselves perceive the impacts on the children left behind by older family members when they are working overseas? Social impacts on children are examined with reference to health, education, social and religious participation. Secondly, how do the social impacts vary by gender and age of the children? Finally, what, if any, coping strategies are used or are being planned to mitigate the social impacts of seasonal migration overseas on teenage children? The data that was collected to address these questions came from three major sources: i) informal talanoa, ii) semi-structured interviews iii) and focus group discussions held in Lifuka, Ha’apai, Tonga.

This study revealed that children left behind in Tonga experience both positive and negative impacts on their education, health, social and religious participation when their mother/father or older siblings are working overseas. Seasonal workers’ earnings raise household incomes and assist with paying children’s school fees and other financial needs at school, improving access to health and church services through the purchasing of cars for transportation, and providing new clothes for children especially for special occasions.


Children affected by migration faced several challenges including suffering from loneliness, fear and sadness as a result of the absence of parents and sometimes experienced abuse in the communities. There can also be problems with diet, school performance, and permission to participate in social activities, especially young girls going out at night. Girls and boys face different challenges as a result of the absence of parents and older siblings, as do younger children. The main coping strategy is accessing support from teachers and other community leaders, but there needs to be more research on both impacts and strategies before definitive conclusions can be drawn.

text: The Social Impacts of seasonal migration on left-behind children: An exploratory study from Lifuka, Tonga There is a dearth of knowledge about the social impacts of seasonal migration on children left behind in Tonga and Pacific countries more generally. The economic benefits of remittances on families have been studied quite extensively but the social costs and benefits have not been the subject of much inquiry. This exploratory study in a Tongan village setting seeks to better understand children who are left behind and who are being affected by lengthy absences of older family members when they are employed as seasonal workers in the horticulture and viticulture industries of New Zealand and Australia.

Three main questions are addressed. Firstly, how do community leaders, teachers, parents and the children themselves perceive the impacts on the children left behind by older family members when they are working overseas? Social impacts on children are examined with reference to health, education, social and religious participation. Secondly, how do the social impacts vary by gender and age of the children? Finally, what, if any, coping strategies are used or are being planned to mitigate the social impacts of seasonal migration overseas on teenage children? The data that was collected to address these questions came from three major sources: i) informal talanoa, ii) semi-structured interviews iii) and focus group discussions held in Lifuka, Ha’apai, Tonga.

This study revealed that children left behind in Tonga experience both positive and negative impacts on their education, health, social and religious participation when their mother/father or older siblings are working overseas. Seasonal workers’ earnings raise household incomes and assist with paying children’s school fees and other financial needs at school, improving access to health and church services through the purchasing of cars for transportation, and providing new clothes for children especially for special occasions.


Children affected by migration faced several challenges including suffering from loneliness, fear and sadness as a result of the absence of parents and sometimes experienced abuse in the communities. There can also be problems with diet, school performance, and permission to participate in social activities, especially young girls going out at night. Girls and boys face different challenges as a result of the absence of parents and older siblings, as do younger children. The main coping strategy is accessing support from teachers and other community leaders, but there needs to be more research on both impacts and strategies before definitive conclusions can be drawn.

year: 2016

title: Maori land in Hauraki

authors: Hart, Philip

abstract: Imagining the Hauraki Peninsula to contain payable goldfields and knowing that land to the south of Thames had great agricultural potential, Pakeha were determined to acquire it, and were frustrated by what was considered to be ‘Maori intransigence’. For their part, Maori landowners were justifiably concerned about losing their land, and hindered and delayed opening it to settlement for as long as possible. A major difficulty for officials seeking to acquire land was how to determine boundaries between different blocks and how to identify the true owners when there were rival claims put forward by hapu and individuals. Land purchase agents used a variety of means to get blocks through the land court and then to individualize the title, notably the controversial ‘raihana’ policy, which benefited some landowners at the expense of others. The expensive legal process involved often forced those who had proved their ownership to sell land to pay for their success, a success which resulted in grantees treating the land as their personal property rather than tribal property. Some Pakeha as well as many Maori protested at the unfair process; even James Mackay, the most effective practitioner of raihana, came to lament his success and its consequences for the younger generation of Maori (he blamed the system, not himself). When far too late, it was urged that land should have been leased rather than sold and that proceeds from sales should not have been squandered.
Instead of having commissions of enquiry, as some suggested, the land court system meant that judges determined ownership on the evidence presented to them, even though some owners were not present nor had their interests represented. Sometimes the evidence was false, as was admitted by some witnesses when their perjury was exposed. And in the case of the Ohinemuri district, for which the records survive, when the land was sold to the Crown some Maori received too much money, some too little, and some missed out altogether. The struggles to open Ohinemuri to miners and settlers is examined in detail, revealing that some rangatira expected economic gain and that Te Hira’s party, who opposed the opening, were undermined by some of Te Hira’s followers: being ‘Hauhau’, they refused to take money from the Crown but instead took raihana, meaning goods which were charged against their land in a way they did not understand. Nor did anyone fully understand the system apart from Mackay, whose policy was eventually repudiated by the politicians who had encouraged it previously. Not all land was lost, but because the government did not assist landowners with advice and finance until well into the twentieth century what land that was retained could not be developed adequately.

text: Maori land in Hauraki Imagining the Hauraki Peninsula to contain payable goldfields and knowing that land to the south of Thames had great agricultural potential, Pakeha were determined to acquire it, and were frustrated by what was considered to be ‘Maori intransigence’. For their part, Maori landowners were justifiably concerned about losing their land, and hindered and delayed opening it to settlement for as long as possible. A major difficulty for officials seeking to acquire land was how to determine boundaries between different blocks and how to identify the true owners when there were rival claims put forward by hapu and individuals. Land purchase agents used a variety of means to get blocks through the land court and then to individualize the title, notably the controversial ‘raihana’ policy, which benefited some landowners at the expense of others. The expensive legal process involved often forced those who had proved their ownership to sell land to pay for their success, a success which resulted in grantees treating the land as their personal property rather than tribal property. Some Pakeha as well as many Maori protested at the unfair process; even James Mackay, the most effective practitioner of raihana, came to lament his success and its consequences for the younger generation of Maori (he blamed the system, not himself). When far too late, it was urged that land should have been leased rather than sold and that proceeds from sales should not have been squandered.
Instead of having commissions of enquiry, as some suggested, the land court system meant that judges determined ownership on the evidence presented to them, even though some owners were not present nor had their interests represented. Sometimes the evidence was false, as was admitted by some witnesses when their perjury was exposed. And in the case of the Ohinemuri district, for which the records survive, when the land was sold to the Crown some Maori received too much money, some too little, and some missed out altogether. The struggles to open Ohinemuri to miners and settlers is examined in detail, revealing that some rangatira expected economic gain and that Te Hira’s party, who opposed the opening, were undermined by some of Te Hira’s followers: being ‘Hauhau’, they refused to take money from the Crown but instead took raihana, meaning goods which were charged against their land in a way they did not understand. Nor did anyone fully understand the system apart from Mackay, whose policy was eventually repudiated by the politicians who had encouraged it previously. Not all land was lost, but because the government did not assist landowners with advice and finance until well into the twentieth century what land that was retained could not be developed adequately.

year: 2016