title: International faculty in Japanese university contexts: Understanding their belonging experiences through art

authors: Miyashiro, Maryann

subjects: international faculty

abstract: Belonging has long been recognized as a fundamental human motivation characterized by the need for emotional attachment, interpersonal connection, and feelings of safety. Over time, belonging has come to be taken for granted as a uniformly positive experience to be sought after and achieved. This generalization has prompted debate amongst theorists. One of the most prominent arguments is that belonging is vaguely defined in the literature and that it lacks the conceptual depth and nuance of other key constructs. In the university context, research has primarily focused on belonging’s impact on student achievement and well-being. At the same time, academic mobility and diversity in higher education institutions have increased the world over. This invites further investigation of how belonging is experienced not only by students but by members from across entire campus communities. This thesis seeks to understand how four international faculty members experience belonging in their Japanese higher education institutions. Data was gathered through a combination of semi-structured interviews and arts-based unstructured drawing elicitation. These methods resulted in eight transcripts and four participant-produced drawings. Reflexive thematic analysis of the data carried out through a fully qualitative interpretivist constructionist lens led to the generation of four themes. These themes explore belonging as not only a dynamic and relational process, but one that is deeply felt yet risky, uniquely spatial and material, and indicative of the desire for meaning and purpose. Recurring threads of power, identity, and agency were identified throughout these themes. These not only highlight the distinct nature of the Japanese university context but also echo wider debates in higher education literature at large. This analysis aligns with recent research problematizing dominant understandings of belonging as fixed, linear, or readily attainable. By rejecting such oversimplistic views, this study embraces complexity and draws attention to the multiple, messy, and nuanced ways belonging is experienced by international faculty in Japan. Additionally, this study demonstrates that arts-based research methods like drawing elicitation can be used to garner rich understandings of belonging together with participants. This thesis hopes not only to contribute to the literature on international faculty and the Japanese university context. It also seeks to encourage novel approaches to making sense of belonging. Most of all, this thesis hopes to underscore the importance of attending to belonging as an evolving construct critically and with care in higher education contexts.

text: International faculty in Japanese university contexts: Understanding their belonging experiences through art Belonging has long been recognized as a fundamental human motivation characterized by the need for emotional attachment, interpersonal connection, and feelings of safety. Over time, belonging has come to be taken for granted as a uniformly positive experience to be sought after and achieved. This generalization has prompted debate amongst theorists. One of the most prominent arguments is that belonging is vaguely defined in the literature and that it lacks the conceptual depth and nuance of other key constructs. In the university context, research has primarily focused on belonging’s impact on student achievement and well-being. At the same time, academic mobility and diversity in higher education institutions have increased the world over. This invites further investigation of how belonging is experienced not only by students but by members from across entire campus communities. This thesis seeks to understand how four international faculty members experience belonging in their Japanese higher education institutions. Data was gathered through a combination of semi-structured interviews and arts-based unstructured drawing elicitation. These methods resulted in eight transcripts and four participant-produced drawings. Reflexive thematic analysis of the data carried out through a fully qualitative interpretivist constructionist lens led to the generation of four themes. These themes explore belonging as not only a dynamic and relational process, but one that is deeply felt yet risky, uniquely spatial and material, and indicative of the desire for meaning and purpose. Recurring threads of power, identity, and agency were identified throughout these themes. These not only highlight the distinct nature of the Japanese university context but also echo wider debates in higher education literature at large. This analysis aligns with recent research problematizing dominant understandings of belonging as fixed, linear, or readily attainable. By rejecting such oversimplistic views, this study embraces complexity and draws attention to the multiple, messy, and nuanced ways belonging is experienced by international faculty in Japan. Additionally, this study demonstrates that arts-based research methods like drawing elicitation can be used to garner rich understandings of belonging together with participants. This thesis hopes not only to contribute to the literature on international faculty and the Japanese university context. It also seeks to encourage novel approaches to making sense of belonging. Most of all, this thesis hopes to underscore the importance of attending to belonging as an evolving construct critically and with care in higher education contexts.

year: 2024

title: Systematic evidence map of disparities in police outcomes: final report

authors: Tompson, Lisa

subjects: police

abstract: To support the New Zealand Police Understanding Policing Delivery (UPD) project, we were tasked with completing an academic literature review on bias in policing. However, the vastness and complexity of the relevant research, and the short timeframe for completion meant that it was not possible to complete a single literature review that accurately reflected the evidence base; indeed, it would be difficult to do justice to this literature in a single review under any circumstances. Thus, rather than attempting a traditional literature review, we developed an evidence and gap map of the international research on bias in policing. In this report, we present the rationale, methods used, and key features of the studies on the evidence and gap map (referred to as the ‘evidence map’). This evidence map serves several purposes. Its overarching purpose is to be a resource for more targeted work on specific areas of apparent disparity in policing, including areas prioritised by New Zealand Police as part of the UPD project: decisions about stops, charges, and the use of force. Researchers will be able to use the map to easily identify a) the extent of research in the area of interest, and b) the key features of the research that has been conducted in that area, as a basis. The map will guide rapid evidence reviews and future primary research, both of which can be used to design police practice-based interventions to reduce police-generated disparities in New Zealand.

text: Systematic evidence map of disparities in police outcomes: final report To support the New Zealand Police Understanding Policing Delivery (UPD) project, we were tasked with completing an academic literature review on bias in policing. However, the vastness and complexity of the relevant research, and the short timeframe for completion meant that it was not possible to complete a single literature review that accurately reflected the evidence base; indeed, it would be difficult to do justice to this literature in a single review under any circumstances. Thus, rather than attempting a traditional literature review, we developed an evidence and gap map of the international research on bias in policing. In this report, we present the rationale, methods used, and key features of the studies on the evidence and gap map (referred to as the ‘evidence map’). This evidence map serves several purposes. Its overarching purpose is to be a resource for more targeted work on specific areas of apparent disparity in policing, including areas prioritised by New Zealand Police as part of the UPD project: decisions about stops, charges, and the use of force. Researchers will be able to use the map to easily identify a) the extent of research in the area of interest, and b) the key features of the research that has been conducted in that area, as a basis. The map will guide rapid evidence reviews and future primary research, both of which can be used to design police practice-based interventions to reduce police-generated disparities in New Zealand.

year: 2021

title: Restoring the flow: Challenging the existing management frameworks to integrate Mātauranga Māori

authors: Hall, Tredegar Rangiātea

subjects: tangata whenua water management

abstract: Within the context of the current regimes of fresh water management in Aotearoa, this thesis is an exploration of the significance of freshwater to Māori; our rangatiratanga, Treaty rights and ownership. The Māori world view and the way this relates to fresh water is described and contrasted with the principles and practices of water management in the contemporary neo-liberal governance structures of this country. The impacts of the commodification of water through ownership rights, the limited monitoring capacity and the inability to provide a governance structure that will work across diverse environments are seen to threaten the sustainability of a critical part of our environment. The primary focus of on this research is on the relationship between the exclusion of tangata whenua from decision making in resource management and the degradation of the environment.
 
The thesis comments on the development of resource management legislation and actions of the state in Aotearoa, and uses post-colonial theory as a starting point to document the subordinate relationship of Māori within contemporary governance. This has privileged mono-cultural and neoliberal forms of water management that has scarred Papatūānuku and threatens human sustainability into the future.
    
The recent co-management agreement for the Waikato River is the specific case study against which a recent effort to reduce the alienation of Māori is viewed. A kaupapa Māori methodology is used to acquire and understand the importance of mātauranga Māori/ Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) and what is required for these principles to enhance water management practices within the case study area. The original contribution of the work is drawn from interviews conducted with Māori and others who are involved in or informed by the commitment to explore co-management sustainable management options. These views are woven into a substantial and interpretative commentary on the role of Māori in future water governance.

The thesis argues that the best way to enhance water management and environmental protection is by inducing a planning paradigm shift where tangata whenua are given greater influence in environmental decision making that resembles an equal Treaty of Waitangi partnership, where the ethic of kaitiakitanga is empowered. Such a strategy would allow decision making regarding water and environmental management to be more focused on what is best for the resource and its survival rather than what most cost effective for some owners of water rights. Encouraging the acceptance of mātauranga Māori and incorporating more efficient and sustainable innovative technologies can restore the mauri of water in our place.

text: Restoring the flow: Challenging the existing management frameworks to integrate Mātauranga Māori Within the context of the current regimes of fresh water management in Aotearoa, this thesis is an exploration of the significance of freshwater to Māori; our rangatiratanga, Treaty rights and ownership. The Māori world view and the way this relates to fresh water is described and contrasted with the principles and practices of water management in the contemporary neo-liberal governance structures of this country. The impacts of the commodification of water through ownership rights, the limited monitoring capacity and the inability to provide a governance structure that will work across diverse environments are seen to threaten the sustainability of a critical part of our environment. The primary focus of on this research is on the relationship between the exclusion of tangata whenua from decision making in resource management and the degradation of the environment.
 
The thesis comments on the development of resource management legislation and actions of the state in Aotearoa, and uses post-colonial theory as a starting point to document the subordinate relationship of Māori within contemporary governance. This has privileged mono-cultural and neoliberal forms of water management that has scarred Papatūānuku and threatens human sustainability into the future.
    
The recent co-management agreement for the Waikato River is the specific case study against which a recent effort to reduce the alienation of Māori is viewed. A kaupapa Māori methodology is used to acquire and understand the importance of mātauranga Māori/ Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) and what is required for these principles to enhance water management practices within the case study area. The original contribution of the work is drawn from interviews conducted with Māori and others who are involved in or informed by the commitment to explore co-management sustainable management options. These views are woven into a substantial and interpretative commentary on the role of Māori in future water governance.

The thesis argues that the best way to enhance water management and environmental protection is by inducing a planning paradigm shift where tangata whenua are given greater influence in environmental decision making that resembles an equal Treaty of Waitangi partnership, where the ethic of kaitiakitanga is empowered. Such a strategy would allow decision making regarding water and environmental management to be more focused on what is best for the resource and its survival rather than what most cost effective for some owners of water rights. Encouraging the acceptance of mātauranga Māori and incorporating more efficient and sustainable innovative technologies can restore the mauri of water in our place.

year: 2012