title: Kimihia, rangahaua ngā tikanga heke iho. He taonga huahua e riro mai: Exploring whakapapa as a tool towards a kaupapa Māori assessment framework in early childhood education

authors: Paki, Vanessa Anne

subjects: kaupapa Maori assessment

abstract: This study explores whakapapa as a tool, which can be used as a kaupapa Māori assessment framework in early childhood education, positioning kaupapa Māori theory as a paradigm base underpinning a philosophical and theoretical discourse towards assessment for children's learning. This thesis represents the culmination of a personal and professional journey, derived from the writer's longstanding interest in and commitment to kaupapa Māori early childhood education, and more specifically, philosophies and practices for assessment in this context. The study has canvassed a vast terrain of kaupapa Māori philosophy in its search for a theoretical grounding for a kaupapa Māori assessment framework for early childhood education.
Foundation to the study has been the premise that the notion of whakapapa serves as an overarching philosophical matrix, encompassing the interconnected realms of genealogy, spirituality, and knowledge that precede, surround, and embrace the Māori child. Throughout the thesis, diagrams are employed to demonstrate and model the whakapapa underpinning the conceptualisations being explored. After contextualising the study within a historical overview of the impact of colonisation of kaupapa Māori education and research, it is suggested that a re-examination of key concepts from tikanga Māori will illuminate transformative possibilities applicable to the study's focus on the development of a theoretical base for an assessment tool within kaupapa Māori early childhood settings. Drawing from the literature, the thesis re-positions the view of the Māori child to one of being nurtured within a philosophical construct underpinned and immersed in tikanga such as whakapapa, ira tangata, whanaungatanga, mana and tapu, and ako, providing a strongly Māori theoretical base for the envisioning of the assessment process. The outcome of this study is to propose an assessment framework, which embodies and reflects these core kaupapa Māori philosophies as praxis.

text: Kimihia, rangahaua ngā tikanga heke iho. He taonga huahua e riro mai: Exploring whakapapa as a tool towards a kaupapa Māori assessment framework in early childhood education This study explores whakapapa as a tool, which can be used as a kaupapa Māori assessment framework in early childhood education, positioning kaupapa Māori theory as a paradigm base underpinning a philosophical and theoretical discourse towards assessment for children's learning. This thesis represents the culmination of a personal and professional journey, derived from the writer's longstanding interest in and commitment to kaupapa Māori early childhood education, and more specifically, philosophies and practices for assessment in this context. The study has canvassed a vast terrain of kaupapa Māori philosophy in its search for a theoretical grounding for a kaupapa Māori assessment framework for early childhood education.
Foundation to the study has been the premise that the notion of whakapapa serves as an overarching philosophical matrix, encompassing the interconnected realms of genealogy, spirituality, and knowledge that precede, surround, and embrace the Māori child. Throughout the thesis, diagrams are employed to demonstrate and model the whakapapa underpinning the conceptualisations being explored. After contextualising the study within a historical overview of the impact of colonisation of kaupapa Māori education and research, it is suggested that a re-examination of key concepts from tikanga Māori will illuminate transformative possibilities applicable to the study's focus on the development of a theoretical base for an assessment tool within kaupapa Māori early childhood settings. Drawing from the literature, the thesis re-positions the view of the Māori child to one of being nurtured within a philosophical construct underpinned and immersed in tikanga such as whakapapa, ira tangata, whanaungatanga, mana and tapu, and ako, providing a strongly Māori theoretical base for the envisioning of the assessment process. The outcome of this study is to propose an assessment framework, which embodies and reflects these core kaupapa Māori philosophies as praxis.

year: 2007

title: When loanwords are not lone words: Using networks and hypergraphs to explore Māori loanwords in New Zealand English

authors: Trye, David

abstract: Networks are being used to model an increasingly diverse range of realworld phenomena. This paper introduces an exploratory approach to studying loanwords in relation to one another, using networks of co-occurrence. While traditional studies treat individual loanwords as discrete items, we show that insights can be gained by focusing on the various loanwords that co-occur within each text in a corpus, especially when leveraging the notion of a hypergraph. Our research involves a case-study of New Zealand English (NZE), which borrows Indigenous Māori words on a large scale. We use a topic-constrained corpus to show that: (i) Māori loanword types tend not to occur by themselves in a text; (ii) infrequent loanwords are nearly always accompanied by frequent loanwords; and (iii) it is not uncommon for texts to contain a mixture of listed and unlisted loanwords, suggesting that NZE is still riding a wave of borrowing importation from Māori.

text: When loanwords are not lone words: Using networks and hypergraphs to explore Māori loanwords in New Zealand English Networks are being used to model an increasingly diverse range of realworld phenomena. This paper introduces an exploratory approach to studying loanwords in relation to one another, using networks of co-occurrence. While traditional studies treat individual loanwords as discrete items, we show that insights can be gained by focusing on the various loanwords that co-occur within each text in a corpus, especially when leveraging the notion of a hypergraph. Our research involves a case-study of New Zealand English (NZE), which borrows Indigenous Māori words on a large scale. We use a topic-constrained corpus to show that: (i) Māori loanword types tend not to occur by themselves in a text; (ii) infrequent loanwords are nearly always accompanied by frequent loanwords; and (iii) it is not uncommon for texts to contain a mixture of listed and unlisted loanwords, suggesting that NZE is still riding a wave of borrowing importation from Māori.

year: 2023

title: Blind testing of shoreline evolution models.

authors: Montaño, Jennifer

abstract: Beaches around the world continuously adjust to daily and seasonal changes in wave and tide conditions, which are themselves changing over longer time-scales. Different approaches to predict multi-year shoreline evolution have been implemented; however, robust and reliable predictions of shoreline evolution are still problematic even in short-term scenarios (shorter than decadal). Here we show results of a modelling competition, where 19 numerical models (a mix of established shoreline models and machine learning techniques) were tested using data collected for Tairua beach, New Zealand with 18 years of daily averaged alongshore shoreline position and beach rotation (orientation) data obtained from a camera system. In general, traditional shoreline models and machine learning techniques were able to reproduce shoreline changes during the calibration period (1999-2014) for normal conditions but some of the model struggled to predict extreme and fast oscillations. During the forecast period (unseen data, 2014-2017), both approaches showed a decrease in models' capability to predict the shoreline position. This was more evident for some of the machine learning algorithms. A model ensemble performed better than individual models and enables assessment of uncertainties in model architecture. Research-coordinated approaches (e.g., modelling competitions) can fuel advances in predictive capabilities and provide a forum for the discussion about the advantages/disadvantages of available models.

text: Blind testing of shoreline evolution models. Beaches around the world continuously adjust to daily and seasonal changes in wave and tide conditions, which are themselves changing over longer time-scales. Different approaches to predict multi-year shoreline evolution have been implemented; however, robust and reliable predictions of shoreline evolution are still problematic even in short-term scenarios (shorter than decadal). Here we show results of a modelling competition, where 19 numerical models (a mix of established shoreline models and machine learning techniques) were tested using data collected for Tairua beach, New Zealand with 18 years of daily averaged alongshore shoreline position and beach rotation (orientation) data obtained from a camera system. In general, traditional shoreline models and machine learning techniques were able to reproduce shoreline changes during the calibration period (1999-2014) for normal conditions but some of the model struggled to predict extreme and fast oscillations. During the forecast period (unseen data, 2014-2017), both approaches showed a decrease in models' capability to predict the shoreline position. This was more evident for some of the machine learning algorithms. A model ensemble performed better than individual models and enables assessment of uncertainties in model architecture. Research-coordinated approaches (e.g., modelling competitions) can fuel advances in predictive capabilities and provide a forum for the discussion about the advantages/disadvantages of available models.

year: 2020