title: The identification of threshold concepts and their application in curriculum development: Exploring threshold concepts through the context of engineering education

authors: Morgan, Alan Alexander Harold

subjects: Threshold Concepts

abstract: Threshold Concept (TC) theory was introduced by Erik Meyer and Ray Land in 2003 and states that every discipline of study contains troublesome concepts that transform the learner when they come to be understood. This transformation will concern either the learner’s thinking about the discipline and/or their perception of the discipline. Five characteristics were originally proposed that can help to signalise TCs, which are, troublesome, transformative, irreversible, integrative and bounded.

This thesis explores both, the in-depth ways in which TCs have sought to be identified, and to what extent the role of TCs in curriculum development has been studied. This was done by exploring researchers’ thinking in regard to the importance of each of the five TC characteristics, the data collection methods and participants that were included in their studies, and the extent to which they attempted to study TCs in relation to the development of curricula. Engineering education TC studies formed the context through which I attempted to answer the research questions. The first method I used to obtain my data was to carry out a systematic quantitative literature review (SQLR) of peer-reviewed TC research articles that were published between 2003 and the present day. From the relevant 147 papers that resulted from my database searching, I narrowed this down to the 15 articles that related directly to engineering education. The SQLR data was then used to inform the semi-structured interviews that I conducted with three TC researchers in the field of engineering education.

The findings suggested troublesome and transformative to be the TC characteristics that are the most essential of the five to consider when seeking to identify TCs. This finding was based on the fact that they were the two characteristics most highly referenced in the SQLR literature and were the ones thought most important by two of three of my interviewees. The inclusion of  multiple types of participants and data collection methods were found to be common and effective practices amongst TC researchers. Again, this finding was supported with the SQLR data and by all three interviewees. Lastly, it was discovered that, despite TCs being considered the potential centrepieces of a curriculum, there is a lack of TC studies focussing on the role of TCs in curriculum development. There existed no studies within the SQLR literature that held this aspect as a sole focus.

text: The identification of threshold concepts and their application in curriculum development: Exploring threshold concepts through the context of engineering education Threshold Concept (TC) theory was introduced by Erik Meyer and Ray Land in 2003 and states that every discipline of study contains troublesome concepts that transform the learner when they come to be understood. This transformation will concern either the learner’s thinking about the discipline and/or their perception of the discipline. Five characteristics were originally proposed that can help to signalise TCs, which are, troublesome, transformative, irreversible, integrative and bounded.

This thesis explores both, the in-depth ways in which TCs have sought to be identified, and to what extent the role of TCs in curriculum development has been studied. This was done by exploring researchers’ thinking in regard to the importance of each of the five TC characteristics, the data collection methods and participants that were included in their studies, and the extent to which they attempted to study TCs in relation to the development of curricula. Engineering education TC studies formed the context through which I attempted to answer the research questions. The first method I used to obtain my data was to carry out a systematic quantitative literature review (SQLR) of peer-reviewed TC research articles that were published between 2003 and the present day. From the relevant 147 papers that resulted from my database searching, I narrowed this down to the 15 articles that related directly to engineering education. The SQLR data was then used to inform the semi-structured interviews that I conducted with three TC researchers in the field of engineering education.

The findings suggested troublesome and transformative to be the TC characteristics that are the most essential of the five to consider when seeking to identify TCs. This finding was based on the fact that they were the two characteristics most highly referenced in the SQLR literature and were the ones thought most important by two of three of my interviewees. The inclusion of  multiple types of participants and data collection methods were found to be common and effective practices amongst TC researchers. Again, this finding was supported with the SQLR data and by all three interviewees. Lastly, it was discovered that, despite TCs being considered the potential centrepieces of a curriculum, there is a lack of TC studies focussing on the role of TCs in curriculum development. There existed no studies within the SQLR literature that held this aspect as a sole focus.

year: 2019

title: Baristas: The artisan precariat

authors: Piercy, Gemma Louise

subjects: interactive service work

abstract: My research on the work identit(ies) of baristas demonstrates that different workplaces, in conjunction with individual biographies, produce different kinds of work identities. Connected to these differences are the actual and perceived levels of skill and/or social status ascribed to workers within the service work triadic relationship (customers, coworkers/managers and workers). The higher the level of skill or social status, the greater the capacity of workers to experience more autonomy in their work and/or access improved working conditions. These findings are informed by my research approach, which incorporates three key methods: key informant interviews; observation/participant observation; life history interviews; all of which is underpinned by the mystory approach and autoethnography. 
My findings from the case study research on the barista work identity are expressed in the following. (1) The different work identities within a specific occupation contribute to the heterogeneity of service workers and service work. This heterogeneity, in turn, obscures the range of skills utilised in the technical and presentational labour mobilised in service work. The skills are obscured by the social and practice-based nature of knowledge transmission in service work like that of baristas, as well as by the dynamic and shifting alliances that may occur in the triadic relationship of customer, workers and employer/manager. (2) Interactive service workers are involved in providing labour or work that is more complex than is socially understood and recognised. This complexity stems from the ways in which presentational labour is commodified, appropriated and mobilised in the workplace within the spaces of the organisational context, internal practices, and the service encounter. (3) I further argue that service workers are also dehumanised as part of the service encounter through the structure of capitalism, specifically the application of commodity fetishism to workers by customers, colleagues, managers, capital and at times themselves. Commodity fetishism dehumanises workers, creating an empathy gap between customers/managers and workers. As such, the commodity fetishisation of service workers also reinforces and promotes compliance with the insecure and precarious employment practices common to occupations in the service sector. (4) As the conditions of precarious work continue to spread, the employment relationship is being altered in relation to consumption practices. Based on this shift in employment relations, I argue that we are moving towards a labour market and society shaped by the practices of the consumer society as well as the traditional production-based economy. However, the increasing influence of consumption practices stems from neoliberal inspired changes in employment relationships rather than the consumer society emphasis on agentic identity projects. As such, the self-determining identity projects highlighted by researchers engaged in aspects of service work and consumption-based research also need to be accompanied by an understanding of the political economy and structural forces which shape the labour process.

text: Baristas: The artisan precariat My research on the work identit(ies) of baristas demonstrates that different workplaces, in conjunction with individual biographies, produce different kinds of work identities. Connected to these differences are the actual and perceived levels of skill and/or social status ascribed to workers within the service work triadic relationship (customers, coworkers/managers and workers). The higher the level of skill or social status, the greater the capacity of workers to experience more autonomy in their work and/or access improved working conditions. These findings are informed by my research approach, which incorporates three key methods: key informant interviews; observation/participant observation; life history interviews; all of which is underpinned by the mystory approach and autoethnography. 
My findings from the case study research on the barista work identity are expressed in the following. (1) The different work identities within a specific occupation contribute to the heterogeneity of service workers and service work. This heterogeneity, in turn, obscures the range of skills utilised in the technical and presentational labour mobilised in service work. The skills are obscured by the social and practice-based nature of knowledge transmission in service work like that of baristas, as well as by the dynamic and shifting alliances that may occur in the triadic relationship of customer, workers and employer/manager. (2) Interactive service workers are involved in providing labour or work that is more complex than is socially understood and recognised. This complexity stems from the ways in which presentational labour is commodified, appropriated and mobilised in the workplace within the spaces of the organisational context, internal practices, and the service encounter. (3) I further argue that service workers are also dehumanised as part of the service encounter through the structure of capitalism, specifically the application of commodity fetishism to workers by customers, colleagues, managers, capital and at times themselves. Commodity fetishism dehumanises workers, creating an empathy gap between customers/managers and workers. As such, the commodity fetishisation of service workers also reinforces and promotes compliance with the insecure and precarious employment practices common to occupations in the service sector. (4) As the conditions of precarious work continue to spread, the employment relationship is being altered in relation to consumption practices. Based on this shift in employment relations, I argue that we are moving towards a labour market and society shaped by the practices of the consumer society as well as the traditional production-based economy. However, the increasing influence of consumption practices stems from neoliberal inspired changes in employment relationships rather than the consumer society emphasis on agentic identity projects. As such, the self-determining identity projects highlighted by researchers engaged in aspects of service work and consumption-based research also need to be accompanied by an understanding of the political economy and structural forces which shape the labour process.

year: 2018

title: The digital divide in New Zealand: The position of Maori and Pacific peoples

authors: Gibson, John

subjects: communication

abstract: Information and communication technology plays an ever-growing role in economic, political and social life and those who are unable to access such technologies are increasingly disadvantaged. Hence, what has come to be known as the 'digital divide' is of considerable significance. Here, indicators of that divide as it affects Maori and

text: The digital divide in New Zealand: The position of Maori and Pacific peoples Information and communication technology plays an ever-growing role in economic, political and social life and those who are unable to access such technologies are increasingly disadvantaged. Hence, what has come to be known as the 'digital divide' is of considerable significance. Here, indicators of that divide as it affects Maori and

year: 2002