title: Migrants’ communication practices with ICTs: tools for facilitating migration and adaptation?

authors: Holmes, Prue

subjects: migrants

abstract: Migrants to a new homeland face significant adaptation and communication challenges. Information communication technologies (ICTs) are obvious tools to bridge these challenges. In this paper we investigate how migrants’ communication practices shape their use of email and the Internet as part of their settlement process, and consequently, their inclusion in and contribution to the community, economy, and society. The study used an experimental research design whereby student researchers undertook email and follow-up face-to-face interviews with 28 diverse migrants to New Zealand. The findings showed that their use of computer-mediated communication (CMC) was influenced by their preferred cultural communication practices in some instances, but not in others. CMC enabled migrants to make sense of their immigration/adaptation experience, as well as manage daily living, thus negating earlier research that “problematizes” migrants with respect to technology use and adaptation. Yet, this empowerment did not necessarily facilitate intercultural communication or cultural inclusion. Further, both inter- and intra-cultural communication differences emerged, especially in relation to trust and emotion, and in differences between CMC and face-to-face communication: ICTs are not neutral tools for communication. Yet, migrants valued CMC as a tool for long term economic integration with potential widespread results for success in the host society. The outcomes of the study indicate the need to research cultural groups both separately and within, and the need to explore migrants’ economic and social contributions to the receiving society through ICT uptake.

text: Migrants’ communication practices with ICTs: tools for facilitating migration and adaptation? Migrants to a new homeland face significant adaptation and communication challenges. Information communication technologies (ICTs) are obvious tools to bridge these challenges. In this paper we investigate how migrants’ communication practices shape their use of email and the Internet as part of their settlement process, and consequently, their inclusion in and contribution to the community, economy, and society. The study used an experimental research design whereby student researchers undertook email and follow-up face-to-face interviews with 28 diverse migrants to New Zealand. The findings showed that their use of computer-mediated communication (CMC) was influenced by their preferred cultural communication practices in some instances, but not in others. CMC enabled migrants to make sense of their immigration/adaptation experience, as well as manage daily living, thus negating earlier research that “problematizes” migrants with respect to technology use and adaptation. Yet, this empowerment did not necessarily facilitate intercultural communication or cultural inclusion. Further, both inter- and intra-cultural communication differences emerged, especially in relation to trust and emotion, and in differences between CMC and face-to-face communication: ICTs are not neutral tools for communication. Yet, migrants valued CMC as a tool for long term economic integration with potential widespread results for success in the host society. The outcomes of the study indicate the need to research cultural groups both separately and within, and the need to explore migrants’ economic and social contributions to the receiving society through ICT uptake.

year: 2008

title: The Solomon Islands School of Education Partnership: Aspirations, context and design in educational change.

authors: McGee, Clive

subjects: educational change

abstract: This article provides a background and context for a project that linked the School of Education in Solomon Islands College of Higher Education (SOE) with an external partner to work together on institutional and educational change. The four and a half year Partnership was funded by the New Zealand Aid Programmei. Pre-service teacher education in Solomon Islands is mainly provided by the School of Education. For a number of years the school has faced many challenges in its attempt to offer quality pre-service teacher education. Some challenges were external, such as political instability and ethnic unrest, and some were internal, such as a need to address the school's aims, design of programmes, quality of teaching, learning and assessment and the professional development of academic staff. We explain how the partnership responded to challenges and evolved in a way that recognised the input of the School of Education staff and avoided the imposition of solutions by the external partner. The major aspirations and intentions of the Partnership are described along with indications of positive changes that led to an extension of the project. A major change in the school was the inclusion of a teacher education programme for some of the many untrained practising teachers in the Solomon Islands. It is pointed out, however, that there were risks and challenges that faced the Partnership over its duration. Some were outside the control of the partners and others could be addressed and improvements made, especially within the school using a collaborative approach. It is argued that issues remain and further impetus is needed to effect more lasting change.

text: The Solomon Islands School of Education Partnership: Aspirations, context and design in educational change. This article provides a background and context for a project that linked the School of Education in Solomon Islands College of Higher Education (SOE) with an external partner to work together on institutional and educational change. The four and a half year Partnership was funded by the New Zealand Aid Programmei. Pre-service teacher education in Solomon Islands is mainly provided by the School of Education. For a number of years the school has faced many challenges in its attempt to offer quality pre-service teacher education. Some challenges were external, such as political instability and ethnic unrest, and some were internal, such as a need to address the school's aims, design of programmes, quality of teaching, learning and assessment and the professional development of academic staff. We explain how the partnership responded to challenges and evolved in a way that recognised the input of the School of Education staff and avoided the imposition of solutions by the external partner. The major aspirations and intentions of the Partnership are described along with indications of positive changes that led to an extension of the project. A major change in the school was the inclusion of a teacher education programme for some of the many untrained practising teachers in the Solomon Islands. It is pointed out, however, that there were risks and challenges that faced the Partnership over its duration. Some were outside the control of the partners and others could be addressed and improvements made, especially within the school using a collaborative approach. It is argued that issues remain and further impetus is needed to effect more lasting change.

year: 2011

title: Memento Mori : Memento Maori – moko and memory

authors: Te Awekotuku, Ngahuia

subjects: tangi

abstract: Moko patterns, mau moko, “wearing ink” is often explained as an act of remembrance, a symbol of honour or success, of grieving or loss. Memento mori, remembering the dead and remembrance of death, pervades the Maori world, and is profoundly expressed in customary practice – haehae, upoko tuhi, and ta moko. These embodied and visceral experiences are described in waiata tangi, in whai korero, in moteatea, in the traditional context, and graphically recorded on the living flesh in our contemporary world. Mau moko celebrates identity, so modern memorial ornamentation mourns and reflects on this in ‘memento mori’; and also reinforces and engages reality in the correspondent notion of ‘memento Maori’; an assertion that claims dominion and understanding across generations, across time, across space.

text: Memento Mori : Memento Maori – moko and memory Moko patterns, mau moko, “wearing ink” is often explained as an act of remembrance, a symbol of honour or success, of grieving or loss. Memento mori, remembering the dead and remembrance of death, pervades the Maori world, and is profoundly expressed in customary practice – haehae, upoko tuhi, and ta moko. These embodied and visceral experiences are described in waiata tangi, in whai korero, in moteatea, in the traditional context, and graphically recorded on the living flesh in our contemporary world. Mau moko celebrates identity, so modern memorial ornamentation mourns and reflects on this in ‘memento mori’; and also reinforces and engages reality in the correspondent notion of ‘memento Maori’; an assertion that claims dominion and understanding across generations, across time, across space.

year: 2009-11