title: Passing lane & other stories

authors: Raleigh, Mary Isobel

subjects: Short fiction

abstract: Abstract
The process of growing into ourselves is one that we navigate through interactions with other people and, in turn, through interactions with the self. We learn from how the world refracts back to us and lodges deep within. This can be a bewildering experience as we attempt to discover who we are, trying to filter the continuous feedback thrown our way without losing ourselves. We build an absolute sense of self from the inside out. Despite the damage inflicted along the way, we seek to share and be understood.
This collection of stories intersplices experiences of what it is to be female - curious, observant, open, angry, lover of life, artist, idealist. It takes us on a journey forward and back through time, in the way our flickering minds and memories work to seek sense-making of the past from an ever-changing position in the now. As our lived experiences accumulate, time’s gift is that we can see with clarity what was hidden from view at the time.
Inspired by the idea of the arc from innocence to enlightenment we all traverse, I sought to allow fragments of female experience to explore themselves on the page. What happens when the unexpected happens? How do we reconcile fantasy with reality? How do we cope when expected to contort ourselves for others? Can we know ourselves entirely?
Womens’ lives are frequently fragmented and interrupted. We are always seeking to juggle the necessities of ordinary life, accept compromises, suppress or follow desires. I wanted to explore the lived reality of this fragmentation in the approach I took to these pieces of writing and how despite this, somehow, we still manage to hold on and savour life. Some of the stories are of traditional length, whereas others are shorter and more splintered. My goal was to capture the sense of how moments flicker by in our lives yet so many of them are poignant and extraordinary, gone in a flash and not always held on to.
The voices in these pieces are a female chorus, one woman on many different days, having many different epiphanies, or many women on a single day all experiencing life simultaneously. They are female harmonics seeking to make sense of the world. 
The stories are narrated by unnamed female narrators, ranging in age from four to 49. They are in first person ‘I’ or third person ‘she’ with two narratives in second person ‘you’ to express a different energy. I sought to draw the collection together using this approach with the hope that it allows the reader intimately inside the world of the narrator.
From vulnerable and tender to sardonic and impatient, these female personae are honest and raw, funny and insightful. The plural She who speaks here seeks to understand how life shapes a person.

text: Passing lane & other stories Abstract
The process of growing into ourselves is one that we navigate through interactions with other people and, in turn, through interactions with the self. We learn from how the world refracts back to us and lodges deep within. This can be a bewildering experience as we attempt to discover who we are, trying to filter the continuous feedback thrown our way without losing ourselves. We build an absolute sense of self from the inside out. Despite the damage inflicted along the way, we seek to share and be understood.
This collection of stories intersplices experiences of what it is to be female - curious, observant, open, angry, lover of life, artist, idealist. It takes us on a journey forward and back through time, in the way our flickering minds and memories work to seek sense-making of the past from an ever-changing position in the now. As our lived experiences accumulate, time’s gift is that we can see with clarity what was hidden from view at the time.
Inspired by the idea of the arc from innocence to enlightenment we all traverse, I sought to allow fragments of female experience to explore themselves on the page. What happens when the unexpected happens? How do we reconcile fantasy with reality? How do we cope when expected to contort ourselves for others? Can we know ourselves entirely?
Womens’ lives are frequently fragmented and interrupted. We are always seeking to juggle the necessities of ordinary life, accept compromises, suppress or follow desires. I wanted to explore the lived reality of this fragmentation in the approach I took to these pieces of writing and how despite this, somehow, we still manage to hold on and savour life. Some of the stories are of traditional length, whereas others are shorter and more splintered. My goal was to capture the sense of how moments flicker by in our lives yet so many of them are poignant and extraordinary, gone in a flash and not always held on to.
The voices in these pieces are a female chorus, one woman on many different days, having many different epiphanies, or many women on a single day all experiencing life simultaneously. They are female harmonics seeking to make sense of the world. 
The stories are narrated by unnamed female narrators, ranging in age from four to 49. They are in first person ‘I’ or third person ‘she’ with two narratives in second person ‘you’ to express a different energy. I sought to draw the collection together using this approach with the hope that it allows the reader intimately inside the world of the narrator.
From vulnerable and tender to sardonic and impatient, these female personae are honest and raw, funny and insightful. The plural She who speaks here seeks to understand how life shapes a person.

year: 2022

title: Young children, solitude and singing: self-directed singing and personal agency in three- and four-year-old children at home

authors: Dean, Bronya

abstract: This article uses explores how young children use self-directed spontaneous singing at home as a tool of personal agency. Although researchers are increasingly interested in spontaneous singing that takes place outside formal education and care settings, there remains little research into young children’s self-directed singing at home. With improvements in recording technology, it is now possible to continuously record children’s singing. Listening to and analysing singing that takes place when children are alone – and which would otherwise go unnoticed by adults – is a new development in the field of music and children studies. Fifteen children aged from 3:0 to 4:10 years were recorded at home using a continuous recording device and self-directed spontaneous singing was analysed using an interpretive framework of musical agency. The children used self-directed singing as a tool of personal agency to structure their experiences and to manage the self.

text: Young children, solitude and singing: self-directed singing and personal agency in three- and four-year-old children at home This article uses explores how young children use self-directed spontaneous singing at home as a tool of personal agency. Although researchers are increasingly interested in spontaneous singing that takes place outside formal education and care settings, there remains little research into young children’s self-directed singing at home. With improvements in recording technology, it is now possible to continuously record children’s singing. Listening to and analysing singing that takes place when children are alone – and which would otherwise go unnoticed by adults – is a new development in the field of music and children studies. Fifteen children aged from 3:0 to 4:10 years were recorded at home using a continuous recording device and self-directed spontaneous singing was analysed using an interpretive framework of musical agency. The children used self-directed singing as a tool of personal agency to structure their experiences and to manage the self.

year: 2021

title: Diversity in Aotearoa New Zealand picturebooks published between 2021 and 2022

authors: Daly, Nicola

subjects: Design

abstract: It is widely accepted that diversity in the literature read by and with children is of great importance, both for ensuring all children see themselves in the stories they share and in ensuring children are aware of lives and experiences outside their own. There is a growing body of international literature critically exploring the diversity present in English-language children’s literature, but to date very little analysing diversity in Aotearoa New Zealand. This study examines 90 picturebooks published between 2021 and 2022 in terms of representations of ethnicity, skin colour, gender, disability, family structures, and language use. Findings indicate similar representations of gender, disability, and family structure to those found internationally but higher representation in relation to the ethnicity and skin colour of primary and secondary characters. New findings in relation to language use are presented. Future research concerning the details of representation in picturebooks and other formats of children’s literature in Aotearoa New Zealand is called for.

text: Diversity in Aotearoa New Zealand picturebooks published between 2021 and 2022 It is widely accepted that diversity in the literature read by and with children is of great importance, both for ensuring all children see themselves in the stories they share and in ensuring children are aware of lives and experiences outside their own. There is a growing body of international literature critically exploring the diversity present in English-language children’s literature, but to date very little analysing diversity in Aotearoa New Zealand. This study examines 90 picturebooks published between 2021 and 2022 in terms of representations of ethnicity, skin colour, gender, disability, family structures, and language use. Findings indicate similar representations of gender, disability, and family structure to those found internationally but higher representation in relation to the ethnicity and skin colour of primary and secondary characters. New findings in relation to language use are presented. Future research concerning the details of representation in picturebooks and other formats of children’s literature in Aotearoa New Zealand is called for.

year: 2025