title: Embedded numeracy teaching practices at an Institute of Technology: Vocational tutors' characterisations of embedding numeracy and related professional development

authors: Winter, Lynette

abstract: As part of a multi-pronged strategy to improve levels of adult numeracy, embedded numeracy provision is a required element of foundation-level vocational education in New Zealand. Embedded numeracy, as it is interpreted in New Zealand, means learners develop numeracy skills within vocational courses and programmes rather than as a separate programme of study. This approach means that vocational educators, rather than numeracy specialist educators, are largely responsible for teaching numeracy. While it is acknowledged that the crux of embedding is good teaching practice, little is known about the embedded numeracy teaching practices of these vocational educators.
The purpose of this study was two-fold. Firstly, I set out to explore how vocational tutors characterise embedding numeracy as part of their teaching practice with respect to evidence-based knowledge of effective practice. Secondly, I wanted to consider how professional learning and development has impacted their practice, and what further professional development approaches might prove useful.
To that end, I undertook a case study research approach using qualitative analysis of data collected through semi-structured interviews. I conducted interviews with six foundation-level vocational tutors employed in the Institutes of Technology and Polytechnics (ITP) sector. Additionally, participants provided examples of teaching and learning resources, and I consulted official programme documentation for each sample case. 
Approaches to embedding numeracy can be situated on a continuum from numeracy-saturated, practice-based embedding to opportunistic embedding. In all cases, tutors use authentic contexts that are meaningful to the learners, a key element of an embedded approach. Learners’ anxieties towards mathematics are acknowledged and assuaged as tutors model numeracy practices in the vocational role that learners aspire to rather than as a teacher of a subject that many learners loathe and fear. Collectively, tutors’ characterisations of their practice align with evidence-based effective practices, but mathematical expertise and confidence varies between tutors and so, therefore, does the depth and quality of the mathematical tuition. Tutors gauge learners’ numeracy development through their engagement in context-related numeracy practices; this development may not be captured by numeracy proficiency measures. Benefits of an embedded approach to numeracy development are compromised by a lack of resourced collaboration time between vocational tutors and numeracy specialists.
Given that good teaching is at the heart of embedded numeracy, further research that includes observations in teaching spaces and the voices of tutors and students is warranted. Tutors desire more collaborative opportunities to learn from each other and from numeracy experts. Professional learning going forward should include opportunities to create professional knowledge and skills through interaction with information and other people.

text: Embedded numeracy teaching practices at an Institute of Technology: Vocational tutors' characterisations of embedding numeracy and related professional development As part of a multi-pronged strategy to improve levels of adult numeracy, embedded numeracy provision is a required element of foundation-level vocational education in New Zealand. Embedded numeracy, as it is interpreted in New Zealand, means learners develop numeracy skills within vocational courses and programmes rather than as a separate programme of study. This approach means that vocational educators, rather than numeracy specialist educators, are largely responsible for teaching numeracy. While it is acknowledged that the crux of embedding is good teaching practice, little is known about the embedded numeracy teaching practices of these vocational educators.
The purpose of this study was two-fold. Firstly, I set out to explore how vocational tutors characterise embedding numeracy as part of their teaching practice with respect to evidence-based knowledge of effective practice. Secondly, I wanted to consider how professional learning and development has impacted their practice, and what further professional development approaches might prove useful.
To that end, I undertook a case study research approach using qualitative analysis of data collected through semi-structured interviews. I conducted interviews with six foundation-level vocational tutors employed in the Institutes of Technology and Polytechnics (ITP) sector. Additionally, participants provided examples of teaching and learning resources, and I consulted official programme documentation for each sample case. 
Approaches to embedding numeracy can be situated on a continuum from numeracy-saturated, practice-based embedding to opportunistic embedding. In all cases, tutors use authentic contexts that are meaningful to the learners, a key element of an embedded approach. Learners’ anxieties towards mathematics are acknowledged and assuaged as tutors model numeracy practices in the vocational role that learners aspire to rather than as a teacher of a subject that many learners loathe and fear. Collectively, tutors’ characterisations of their practice align with evidence-based effective practices, but mathematical expertise and confidence varies between tutors and so, therefore, does the depth and quality of the mathematical tuition. Tutors gauge learners’ numeracy development through their engagement in context-related numeracy practices; this development may not be captured by numeracy proficiency measures. Benefits of an embedded approach to numeracy development are compromised by a lack of resourced collaboration time between vocational tutors and numeracy specialists.
Given that good teaching is at the heart of embedded numeracy, further research that includes observations in teaching spaces and the voices of tutors and students is warranted. Tutors desire more collaborative opportunities to learn from each other and from numeracy experts. Professional learning going forward should include opportunities to create professional knowledge and skills through interaction with information and other people.

year: 2019

title: Learning as spirituality and nurture - Pacific indigenous peoples' perspectives of lifelong learning

authors: Vaioleti, Timote Masima

subjects: Pacific

abstract: This paper discusses characteristics of an adult education practice for peoples in the Pacific. There is no one Pacific way as the Pacific population is diverse consisting of many cultures, languages, social structures and differing colonial experiences. For many Pacific peoples learning is holistic, is driven by cultural motivation, which is often for the benefit of their extended families(the collective)rather than personal gains or self-actualisation. Learning is constantly intervened by spiritual matters, the same being true for most aspects of Pacific peoples’ day-to-day lives. Therefore spirituality is integral to learning at all levels formal and informal.

text: Learning as spirituality and nurture - Pacific indigenous peoples' perspectives of lifelong learning This paper discusses characteristics of an adult education practice for peoples in the Pacific. There is no one Pacific way as the Pacific population is diverse consisting of many cultures, languages, social structures and differing colonial experiences. For many Pacific peoples learning is holistic, is driven by cultural motivation, which is often for the benefit of their extended families(the collective)rather than personal gains or self-actualisation. Learning is constantly intervened by spiritual matters, the same being true for most aspects of Pacific peoples’ day-to-day lives. Therefore spirituality is integral to learning at all levels formal and informal.

year: 2012

title: Fragmentation and Restoration: Generational Legacies of 21st Century Māori

authors: Malcolm-Buchanan, Vincent Alan

subjects: Maori

abstract: The content of this thesis is premised on a reflexive examination of some historical juxtapositions culminating in critical aspects of being Māori in the twenty first century and how such aspects have informed contemporary indigenous identity. That is, the continuing acknowledgement and exponential public recognition of critical concepts which inextricably link indigenous and civic identity. 

The theoretical sources for this research are, in the main, derived from anthropological and religious studies, particularly on the significance of mythologies and oral histories, as well as from the oral theorising of elders in Aotearoa New Zealand. A very significant contribution from one such elder, a senior Māori woman academic, has been included in the form of the transcript of an interview. She herself had collected the views of a number of elders on myth, creating a rare and valuable resource.  In the interview she married her reflections on these with her own experiences and her cogent analyses. 

From the outset, it was necessary to be discerning so as to ensure the thesis workload was manageable and realistic.  For this reason the selected critical aspects that have been used to frame this research are (1) a developing Western validation (that is, acknowledgement and respect) of Māori, Māori culture and their mythology; (2) oral history (genealogy) and traditions that have remained constant despite the influences of modernity; and (3) notions of fluidity, negotiation and pragmatism regarding kinship legacies and cultural heritage. The thesis is comprised of six chapters starting from a subjective narrative leading through increasingly objective discourses that culminate in a conclusion which supports a belief that modern Māori require a balancing of critical aspects of cultural heritage, with a broad understanding of the world of the 'other', in order to realise and develop their contemporary indigenous identity.

Ultimately, indigenous ideologies, practices and knowledge recorded and examined in the world of academia today, become potential resources for tomorrow. The intention of this research is to aggregate and discuss intrinsic aspects of the Māori past as well as developing aspects of the present, in order to better understand the significance of the future, and to add to the growing corpus of indigenous worldviews.

text: Fragmentation and Restoration: Generational Legacies of 21st Century Māori The content of this thesis is premised on a reflexive examination of some historical juxtapositions culminating in critical aspects of being Māori in the twenty first century and how such aspects have informed contemporary indigenous identity. That is, the continuing acknowledgement and exponential public recognition of critical concepts which inextricably link indigenous and civic identity. 

The theoretical sources for this research are, in the main, derived from anthropological and religious studies, particularly on the significance of mythologies and oral histories, as well as from the oral theorising of elders in Aotearoa New Zealand. A very significant contribution from one such elder, a senior Māori woman academic, has been included in the form of the transcript of an interview. She herself had collected the views of a number of elders on myth, creating a rare and valuable resource.  In the interview she married her reflections on these with her own experiences and her cogent analyses. 

From the outset, it was necessary to be discerning so as to ensure the thesis workload was manageable and realistic.  For this reason the selected critical aspects that have been used to frame this research are (1) a developing Western validation (that is, acknowledgement and respect) of Māori, Māori culture and their mythology; (2) oral history (genealogy) and traditions that have remained constant despite the influences of modernity; and (3) notions of fluidity, negotiation and pragmatism regarding kinship legacies and cultural heritage. The thesis is comprised of six chapters starting from a subjective narrative leading through increasingly objective discourses that culminate in a conclusion which supports a belief that modern Māori require a balancing of critical aspects of cultural heritage, with a broad understanding of the world of the 'other', in order to realise and develop their contemporary indigenous identity.

Ultimately, indigenous ideologies, practices and knowledge recorded and examined in the world of academia today, become potential resources for tomorrow. The intention of this research is to aggregate and discuss intrinsic aspects of the Māori past as well as developing aspects of the present, in order to better understand the significance of the future, and to add to the growing corpus of indigenous worldviews.

year: 2009