title: National Fitness or Failure? Heredity, Vice and Racial Decline in New Zealand Psychiatry: A Case Study of the Auckland Mental Hospital, 1868-99

authors: Dawson, Maree Elizabeth

subjects: history

abstract: This thesis examines anxieties about national fitness and efficiency in nineteenth-century New Zealand through a detailed study of medical and popular ideas about the causes of mental illness. In particular, it foregrounds the perceived roles played by heredity and vice in medical diagnoses both inside institutions and in wider discussions about mental illness. The thesis draws upon medical journals, popular newspaper articles, government reports and debates, and patient case notes from the Auckland Mental Hospital between 1868 and 1899 to investigate discourses about the mentally ill, and to highlight the relationships between anxieties about this ‘problem’ section of the population and contemporary social concerns. This methodology demonstrates how a range of texts helped to produce a discursive association between heredity and vice, mental illness, and a feared decline in the ‘fitness’ of the ‘British’ race in New Zealand and in the wider British World, and also that the mentally ill in nineteenth-century New Zealand were often depicted as living consequences of a family history of indulgence in various forms of vice, or of the procreation of the mentally unfit. Medical and popular ideas about general paralysis and puerperal insanity, in particular, were strongly related to gender and class norms, and throughout this thesis, ideals of class and gender are explored as shaping influences on medical and popular theories about the aetiology of mental illness in general.
By drawing on medical discourses from Britain and New Zealand, this thesis also demonstrates the transnational nature of psychiatric medical theories deployed in Britain and New Zealand. This transnational transmission of ideas occurred through the migration of British born and educated psychiatrists to New Zealand, the context of British medical journals (such as the British Medical Journal and the Journal of Mental Science) which circulated in New Zealand, and attendance at Intercolonial Medical Congresses, shared between New Zealand and the Australian colonies from 1892. Transactions from these congresses, along with medical journal articles and popular sources, reveal that the period from 1868 until the end of the nineteenth century was an intellectual environment ripe for the emergence of concerns about racial decline, a trend highlighted by the presence of the mentally ill, in a ‘new’ society.

text: National Fitness or Failure? Heredity, Vice and Racial Decline in New Zealand Psychiatry: A Case Study of the Auckland Mental Hospital, 1868-99 This thesis examines anxieties about national fitness and efficiency in nineteenth-century New Zealand through a detailed study of medical and popular ideas about the causes of mental illness. In particular, it foregrounds the perceived roles played by heredity and vice in medical diagnoses both inside institutions and in wider discussions about mental illness. The thesis draws upon medical journals, popular newspaper articles, government reports and debates, and patient case notes from the Auckland Mental Hospital between 1868 and 1899 to investigate discourses about the mentally ill, and to highlight the relationships between anxieties about this ‘problem’ section of the population and contemporary social concerns. This methodology demonstrates how a range of texts helped to produce a discursive association between heredity and vice, mental illness, and a feared decline in the ‘fitness’ of the ‘British’ race in New Zealand and in the wider British World, and also that the mentally ill in nineteenth-century New Zealand were often depicted as living consequences of a family history of indulgence in various forms of vice, or of the procreation of the mentally unfit. Medical and popular ideas about general paralysis and puerperal insanity, in particular, were strongly related to gender and class norms, and throughout this thesis, ideals of class and gender are explored as shaping influences on medical and popular theories about the aetiology of mental illness in general.
By drawing on medical discourses from Britain and New Zealand, this thesis also demonstrates the transnational nature of psychiatric medical theories deployed in Britain and New Zealand. This transnational transmission of ideas occurred through the migration of British born and educated psychiatrists to New Zealand, the context of British medical journals (such as the British Medical Journal and the Journal of Mental Science) which circulated in New Zealand, and attendance at Intercolonial Medical Congresses, shared between New Zealand and the Australian colonies from 1892. Transactions from these congresses, along with medical journal articles and popular sources, reveal that the period from 1868 until the end of the nineteenth century was an intellectual environment ripe for the emergence of concerns about racial decline, a trend highlighted by the presence of the mentally ill, in a ‘new’ society.

year: 2013

title: Teachers: Having a Voice and Being Heard? Evidence from Two Private Schools in Nepal

authors: Sharma Poudyal, Chandra Lal

subjects: Private schools

abstract: Profit-oriented private schools in Nepal are usually owned and managed by those people who put money into schools. In such private schools, owners are usually the principals, and schools’ administration is run according to the decisions of owners instead the kinds of rules and regulations applicable to state schools. These private schools exclude most of the stakeholders (parents, teachers and other non-owner staff) from the decision making process. However, with political changes in the country overthrowing an absolute monarchy for a constitutional monarchy in 1990, and then to a republic in 2008, scenarios within these schools seem to have changed. 
This research is an attempt to explore the realities of private school life from the viewpoint of teachers, administrators (middle level managers) and principals in the changed political context of Nepal. It has used semi-structured interviews from two schools selected as the prime source of data for the case study. In addition to semi-structured interviews, field notes and documentary sources form supplementary sources of data. This study suggests that the non-separation of management and ownership in both private schools created a concentration of power in the schools’ owners. However, with the political change in the country and subsequent unionisation of private schoolteachers and other non-owner staff, they have now started perceiving themselves as having a voice, even when their voice is not being heard. School owners have developed different strategies to deal with the changing context within and outside the schools, in order to maintain power, control and profits. 
 The schools’ owners, operating a hierarchy of power similar to monarchs, exercised power over the non-owner staff, including teachers working in different levels of the school, to extract their time and labour. However, since the advent of the republic and subsequent unionisation of private schoolteachers, power relations within schools began to shift. Non-owner staff (including teachers) of the two private schools in my study, by deriving power through networks and alliances, started collective bargaining on their rights and privileges. This brought about a scenario of continuous tension between the schools’ owners and non-owner staff. Arising from the study, I detected differences in the modes of power relations existing between primary level teachers and schools’ owners, and secondary level teachers and schools’ owners. One of the reasons behind such differences is linked to the market orientation of private schools. It is apparent that such schools focus on their students’ performance in the standardised national level tests, the School Leaving Certificate (SLC) examination, using these results to compete with other schools. Since the secondary level students are the ones sitting in the SLC examination, school owner attitudes towards secondary level teachers was found to be quite different from their attitudes to primary level teachers. 
This study adds to the sparse literature on the perceptions and experiences of teachers, administrators and owner/principals of private schools in Nepal in the altered political context of the country, even though the sample size is small. It also has enhanced our understanding of school organisations within the private school contexts and teachers’ professionalism in the changed political context. It furthers our understanding of how the wider political environment of the country is reflected within these schools’ organisation and distribution of power. Finally, I am expecting that my study will support academic debates about teachers’ professionalism in private schools of Nepal.

text: Teachers: Having a Voice and Being Heard? Evidence from Two Private Schools in Nepal Profit-oriented private schools in Nepal are usually owned and managed by those people who put money into schools. In such private schools, owners are usually the principals, and schools’ administration is run according to the decisions of owners instead the kinds of rules and regulations applicable to state schools. These private schools exclude most of the stakeholders (parents, teachers and other non-owner staff) from the decision making process. However, with political changes in the country overthrowing an absolute monarchy for a constitutional monarchy in 1990, and then to a republic in 2008, scenarios within these schools seem to have changed. 
This research is an attempt to explore the realities of private school life from the viewpoint of teachers, administrators (middle level managers) and principals in the changed political context of Nepal. It has used semi-structured interviews from two schools selected as the prime source of data for the case study. In addition to semi-structured interviews, field notes and documentary sources form supplementary sources of data. This study suggests that the non-separation of management and ownership in both private schools created a concentration of power in the schools’ owners. However, with the political change in the country and subsequent unionisation of private schoolteachers and other non-owner staff, they have now started perceiving themselves as having a voice, even when their voice is not being heard. School owners have developed different strategies to deal with the changing context within and outside the schools, in order to maintain power, control and profits. 
 The schools’ owners, operating a hierarchy of power similar to monarchs, exercised power over the non-owner staff, including teachers working in different levels of the school, to extract their time and labour. However, since the advent of the republic and subsequent unionisation of private schoolteachers, power relations within schools began to shift. Non-owner staff (including teachers) of the two private schools in my study, by deriving power through networks and alliances, started collective bargaining on their rights and privileges. This brought about a scenario of continuous tension between the schools’ owners and non-owner staff. Arising from the study, I detected differences in the modes of power relations existing between primary level teachers and schools’ owners, and secondary level teachers and schools’ owners. One of the reasons behind such differences is linked to the market orientation of private schools. It is apparent that such schools focus on their students’ performance in the standardised national level tests, the School Leaving Certificate (SLC) examination, using these results to compete with other schools. Since the secondary level students are the ones sitting in the SLC examination, school owner attitudes towards secondary level teachers was found to be quite different from their attitudes to primary level teachers. 
This study adds to the sparse literature on the perceptions and experiences of teachers, administrators and owner/principals of private schools in Nepal in the altered political context of the country, even though the sample size is small. It also has enhanced our understanding of school organisations within the private school contexts and teachers’ professionalism in the changed political context. It furthers our understanding of how the wider political environment of the country is reflected within these schools’ organisation and distribution of power. Finally, I am expecting that my study will support academic debates about teachers’ professionalism in private schools of Nepal.

year: 2016

title: Responsive socio-cultural contexts: Supporting five year olds to become literate in a second language.

authors: Berryman, Mere

subjects: bilingual learners

abstract: Learning one's own indigenous language and culture as a second language learner within formal mainstream education settings can pose many challenges, especially for students who have been raised in the dominant first language and who are just beginning school. This paper discusses a Māori language resource used by a Māori immersion teacher to respond to these challenges. This resource utilises community support to develop students' phonological awareness while simultaneously increasing their oral language. This study shows that within a relatively short period of time, students' phonological knowledge improved along with their confidence and ability to speak in Māori. With these skills they were then able to progress more successfully to becoming literate in Māori, their second language.

text: Responsive socio-cultural contexts: Supporting five year olds to become literate in a second language. Learning one's own indigenous language and culture as a second language learner within formal mainstream education settings can pose many challenges, especially for students who have been raised in the dominant first language and who are just beginning school. This paper discusses a Māori language resource used by a Māori immersion teacher to respond to these challenges. This resource utilises community support to develop students' phonological awareness while simultaneously increasing their oral language. This study shows that within a relatively short period of time, students' phonological knowledge improved along with their confidence and ability to speak in Māori. With these skills they were then able to progress more successfully to becoming literate in Māori, their second language.

year: 2012