title: Access to primary music education in Aotearoa New Zealand

authors: Wrathall, Jade

subjects: music education

abstract: Music is a compulsory subject in the New Zealand Curriculum, intended for every child. Despite this, the literature illustrates inconsistent provision and enactment of music education in Aotearoa New Zealand, suggesting that some children are unable to access the full curriculum. While this situation has been attributed to a range of factors, there are significant gaps in the literature, making it difficult to determine how children’s access to music education is enabled and constrained by these factors.

To understand the provision and enactment of music education, case studies were conducted in three different primary and intermediate schools in New Zealand. Informed by critical realism, a range of data collection methods were used, including semi-structured interviews, surveys, focus groups, observations, documents, and field notes. Participants were principals, members of senior leadership teams, generalist, specialist, and itinerant teachers, in addition to private contractors, children and their parents. Data were thematically analysed, revealing the intricacies of how the policy technologies of neoliberalism operate in schools. To understand generative mechanisms that impact children’s access to music education, a deeper layer of analysis was undertaken using Pierre Bourdieu’s (2018) theoretical concepts of capital and habitus. These analytical tools provided the opportunity to carefully examine the intersectionality of neoliberalism and social class.

The findings of this study demonstrate how neoliberalism has reinforced a hierarchy of subjects in the curriculum, which positions music as an extracurricular activity that is either omitted, sidelined, or enacted for social objectives. Participation and success in music education are also informed by social class, with the subject being used as a tool by some parents to advantage their children and develop cultural capital. Nevertheless, this study also revealed that music education is not universally valued by the middle class, thus challenging widely held assumptions about the relationship between music and social class. These findings highlight the importance of context, in particular the role of school structure, teacher agency, and the pressures of managerialism and marketisation. This contributes to a broader understanding of policy enactment, and how the enactment of music education is influenced by the neoliberal policy regime. The study concludes that children are not given equal access to music education and that substantive change needs to occur. Implications are discussed at national and local levels, examining the role of policy alongside the roles of principals, teachers, and parents, all of whom have the agency to make change. Implications for international contexts are also considered, reinforcing the complexity of policy enactment and how children’s access to the full curriculum cannot be solved through policy alone.

text: Access to primary music education in Aotearoa New Zealand Music is a compulsory subject in the New Zealand Curriculum, intended for every child. Despite this, the literature illustrates inconsistent provision and enactment of music education in Aotearoa New Zealand, suggesting that some children are unable to access the full curriculum. While this situation has been attributed to a range of factors, there are significant gaps in the literature, making it difficult to determine how children’s access to music education is enabled and constrained by these factors.

To understand the provision and enactment of music education, case studies were conducted in three different primary and intermediate schools in New Zealand. Informed by critical realism, a range of data collection methods were used, including semi-structured interviews, surveys, focus groups, observations, documents, and field notes. Participants were principals, members of senior leadership teams, generalist, specialist, and itinerant teachers, in addition to private contractors, children and their parents. Data were thematically analysed, revealing the intricacies of how the policy technologies of neoliberalism operate in schools. To understand generative mechanisms that impact children’s access to music education, a deeper layer of analysis was undertaken using Pierre Bourdieu’s (2018) theoretical concepts of capital and habitus. These analytical tools provided the opportunity to carefully examine the intersectionality of neoliberalism and social class.

The findings of this study demonstrate how neoliberalism has reinforced a hierarchy of subjects in the curriculum, which positions music as an extracurricular activity that is either omitted, sidelined, or enacted for social objectives. Participation and success in music education are also informed by social class, with the subject being used as a tool by some parents to advantage their children and develop cultural capital. Nevertheless, this study also revealed that music education is not universally valued by the middle class, thus challenging widely held assumptions about the relationship between music and social class. These findings highlight the importance of context, in particular the role of school structure, teacher agency, and the pressures of managerialism and marketisation. This contributes to a broader understanding of policy enactment, and how the enactment of music education is influenced by the neoliberal policy regime. The study concludes that children are not given equal access to music education and that substantive change needs to occur. Implications are discussed at national and local levels, examining the role of policy alongside the roles of principals, teachers, and parents, all of whom have the agency to make change. Implications for international contexts are also considered, reinforcing the complexity of policy enactment and how children’s access to the full curriculum cannot be solved through policy alone.

year: 2024

title: Diverse patterns of ascent, degassing, and eruption of rhyolite magma during the 1.8 ka Taupo eruption, New Zealand: Evidence from clast vesicularity

authors: Houghton, Bruce F.

subjects: explosive volcanism

abstract: The 22 km³ (DRE) 1.8 ka Taupo eruption ejected chemically uniform rhyolite in a wide range of eruptive styles and intensities. The 7 eruptive units include the 'type examples' of phreatoplinian (units 3, 4) and ultraplinian fall (unit 5) deposits, and low-aspect-ratio ignimbrite (unit 6). Contrasts in bulk vesicularity, vesicle (and microlite) number densities and the size distributions of bubbles (and crystals) in the Taupo ejecta can be linked to the influence of shallow conduit processes on volatile exsolution and gas escape, before and during eruption, rather than changes in pre-eruptive chemistry. Existing work has modeled the individual phases of this complex eruption but not fully explained the abrupt shifts in style/intensity that occur between phases. We link these rapid transitions to changes in vent position, which permitted contrasts in storage, conduit geometry, and magma ascent history.
Samples in the study show that coalescence of bubbles was a late-stage process in the pre-fragmentation degassing of even the most rapidly ascending magma, but, in most cases, nucleation of new bubbles continued until close to fragmentation. In the two phases of the Taupo eruption linked to dome or cyptodome formation, we can also recognize an influence of onset of permeability, partial outgassing, limited syn-eruptive crystallization, and bubble collapse. Post-fragmentation expansion or contraction of vesicles was only marked in some pumices within the deposits of the two heat-retentive yet nonwelded pyroclastic density currents (units 5B and 6).
We can recognize three different types of history of ascent, bubble nucleation, and degassing for the Taupo eruption. Units 1, 2 3, 5, and 6 involved magma that ascended rapidly under the southern and central portions of the vent system and underwent late-stage closed system, coupled vesiculation without syn-eruptive crystallisation of microlites. The limited contrasts in textures amongst these units reflect only slightly different ascent histories, including slower rise permitting extended bubble coalescence (unit 1), rapid, accelerating ascent (units 2, 3 and 5), and exceptionally rapid decompression and ascent at the time of highest mass discharge rates (unit 6).
In contrast to all these units, the unit 4 magma also rose rapidly initially but then underwent some degree of limited and shallow storage, permitting variable degrees of prolonged bubble maturation (growth and coalescence), development of permeability and outgassing, under the northern portion of the 10-km-long vent system, probably beginning at the time of eruption of units 1-3 from the southern portion of the fissure. Finally, the magma which formed the late-stage dome (unit 7), remained deeper in the plumbing system for an extended time permitting limited growth of microphenocrysts, (perhaps in response to partial depressurisation occurring during the earlier phases of the eruption), before ascending and continuing to outgas in equilibrium fashion.

text: Diverse patterns of ascent, degassing, and eruption of rhyolite magma during the 1.8 ka Taupo eruption, New Zealand: Evidence from clast vesicularity The 22 km³ (DRE) 1.8 ka Taupo eruption ejected chemically uniform rhyolite in a wide range of eruptive styles and intensities. The 7 eruptive units include the 'type examples' of phreatoplinian (units 3, 4) and ultraplinian fall (unit 5) deposits, and low-aspect-ratio ignimbrite (unit 6). Contrasts in bulk vesicularity, vesicle (and microlite) number densities and the size distributions of bubbles (and crystals) in the Taupo ejecta can be linked to the influence of shallow conduit processes on volatile exsolution and gas escape, before and during eruption, rather than changes in pre-eruptive chemistry. Existing work has modeled the individual phases of this complex eruption but not fully explained the abrupt shifts in style/intensity that occur between phases. We link these rapid transitions to changes in vent position, which permitted contrasts in storage, conduit geometry, and magma ascent history.
Samples in the study show that coalescence of bubbles was a late-stage process in the pre-fragmentation degassing of even the most rapidly ascending magma, but, in most cases, nucleation of new bubbles continued until close to fragmentation. In the two phases of the Taupo eruption linked to dome or cyptodome formation, we can also recognize an influence of onset of permeability, partial outgassing, limited syn-eruptive crystallization, and bubble collapse. Post-fragmentation expansion or contraction of vesicles was only marked in some pumices within the deposits of the two heat-retentive yet nonwelded pyroclastic density currents (units 5B and 6).
We can recognize three different types of history of ascent, bubble nucleation, and degassing for the Taupo eruption. Units 1, 2 3, 5, and 6 involved magma that ascended rapidly under the southern and central portions of the vent system and underwent late-stage closed system, coupled vesiculation without syn-eruptive crystallisation of microlites. The limited contrasts in textures amongst these units reflect only slightly different ascent histories, including slower rise permitting extended bubble coalescence (unit 1), rapid, accelerating ascent (units 2, 3 and 5), and exceptionally rapid decompression and ascent at the time of highest mass discharge rates (unit 6).
In contrast to all these units, the unit 4 magma also rose rapidly initially but then underwent some degree of limited and shallow storage, permitting variable degrees of prolonged bubble maturation (growth and coalescence), development of permeability and outgassing, under the northern portion of the 10-km-long vent system, probably beginning at the time of eruption of units 1-3 from the southern portion of the fissure. Finally, the magma which formed the late-stage dome (unit 7), remained deeper in the plumbing system for an extended time permitting limited growth of microphenocrysts, (perhaps in response to partial depressurisation occurring during the earlier phases of the eruption), before ascending and continuing to outgas in equilibrium fashion.

year: 2010

title: Working at the interface: Indigenous students’ experience of undertaking doctoral studies in Aotearoa New Zealand

authors: McKinley, Elizabeth

subjects: Māori

abstract: Māori (indigenous)¹ doctoral students in Aotearoa New Zealand face challenges not usually experienced by other doctoral candidates. We draw on data from in-depth interviews with 38 Māori doctoral candidates and argue that because of the tensions between academic disciplinary knowledge frameworks and knowledge drawn from te ao Māori (the Māori world) indigenous students have additional cultural, academic, and personal demands placed on them while aiming to produce research theses that meet conventional standards of academic scholarship. Complex methodological and ethical issues also emerge in undertaking doctoral research projects situated at the interface of academy and indigenous communities. Moreover, Māori students experience various degrees of tension between their sometimes strong cultural identities and their emerging and, therefore, less certain identities as researchers and scholars.

text: Working at the interface: Indigenous students’ experience of undertaking doctoral studies in Aotearoa New Zealand Māori (indigenous)¹ doctoral students in Aotearoa New Zealand face challenges not usually experienced by other doctoral candidates. We draw on data from in-depth interviews with 38 Māori doctoral candidates and argue that because of the tensions between academic disciplinary knowledge frameworks and knowledge drawn from te ao Māori (the Māori world) indigenous students have additional cultural, academic, and personal demands placed on them while aiming to produce research theses that meet conventional standards of academic scholarship. Complex methodological and ethical issues also emerge in undertaking doctoral research projects situated at the interface of academy and indigenous communities. Moreover, Māori students experience various degrees of tension between their sometimes strong cultural identities and their emerging and, therefore, less certain identities as researchers and scholars.

year: 2011