title: Hikoitanga tapuwae o te hunga ke To take a walk in another's shoes: Using process drama to teach the underlying principles of restorative practice

authors: Bleaken, Susan

subjects: process drama

abstract: Hikoitanga tapuwae o te hunga ke To take a walk in another’s shoes
Using process drama to teach the underlying principles of restorative practice.

An increasing number of schools in New Zealand are changing the way they work with at risk students by adopting a restorative approach to anti- social behaviour. Challenges are on-going for schools and educational leaders who wish to implement restorative practice in their schools, since this requires on –going education for students, teachers and parents in this more democratic way of working.
This study looks at the impact on student understandings of restorative principles during five weeks of teaching process drama in a New Zealand Middle school. The teaching described in this short term intervention occurred within this school’s on –going programme of professional development and teaching in restorative practice. Prior to the study, whole staff professional development in restorative practice had occurred and a restorative drama programme had been piloted with a group of year 8 students. For this study, the programme was repeated with a class that reflected the cultural socio-economic and ability levels of the school as a whole. The purpose of this small scale study was to produce findings to inform the on-going development and enhancement of the programme, which is to be implemented school wide in 2012.
The teacher researcher in this study worked closely with the classroom teacher who acted as a critical friend and mentee. Data was collected through mixed methods and a critical ethnographic lens was applied. After the five week drama intervention findings indicated that levels of anti-social behaviour had decreased especially around swearing and name calling. Students and teachers reported shifts in their understandings of what it must be like to be another. As relationships developed within the drama, data indicated high levels of student engagement, inclusion of marginalised students and academic achievement via quality writing developed.

It was noted that students wrote for longer and their writing demonstrated depth of quality particularly those students who were often reluctant or disengaged during formal writing sessions.
 Further and perhaps most significant of all, findings showed that both the classroom teacher and teacher researcher were prompted to reflect on their own restorative and pedagogical practices.

text: Hikoitanga tapuwae o te hunga ke To take a walk in another's shoes: Using process drama to teach the underlying principles of restorative practice Hikoitanga tapuwae o te hunga ke To take a walk in another’s shoes
Using process drama to teach the underlying principles of restorative practice.

An increasing number of schools in New Zealand are changing the way they work with at risk students by adopting a restorative approach to anti- social behaviour. Challenges are on-going for schools and educational leaders who wish to implement restorative practice in their schools, since this requires on –going education for students, teachers and parents in this more democratic way of working.
This study looks at the impact on student understandings of restorative principles during five weeks of teaching process drama in a New Zealand Middle school. The teaching described in this short term intervention occurred within this school’s on –going programme of professional development and teaching in restorative practice. Prior to the study, whole staff professional development in restorative practice had occurred and a restorative drama programme had been piloted with a group of year 8 students. For this study, the programme was repeated with a class that reflected the cultural socio-economic and ability levels of the school as a whole. The purpose of this small scale study was to produce findings to inform the on-going development and enhancement of the programme, which is to be implemented school wide in 2012.
The teacher researcher in this study worked closely with the classroom teacher who acted as a critical friend and mentee. Data was collected through mixed methods and a critical ethnographic lens was applied. After the five week drama intervention findings indicated that levels of anti-social behaviour had decreased especially around swearing and name calling. Students and teachers reported shifts in their understandings of what it must be like to be another. As relationships developed within the drama, data indicated high levels of student engagement, inclusion of marginalised students and academic achievement via quality writing developed.

It was noted that students wrote for longer and their writing demonstrated depth of quality particularly those students who were often reluctant or disengaged during formal writing sessions.
 Further and perhaps most significant of all, findings showed that both the classroom teacher and teacher researcher were prompted to reflect on their own restorative and pedagogical practices.

year: 2012

title: Full model selection in the space of data mining operators

authors: Sun, Quan

subjects: genetic algorithm

abstract: We propose a framework and a novel algorithm for the full model selection (FMS) problem. The proposed algorithm, combining both genetic algorithms (GA) and particle swarm optimization (PSO), is named GPS (which stands for GAPSO-FMS), in which a GA is used for searching the optimal structure of a data mining solution, and PSO is used for searching the optimal parameter set for a particular structure instance. Given a classification or regression problem, GPS outputs a FMS solution as a directed acyclic graph consisting of diverse data mining operators that are applicable to the problem, including data cleansing, data sampling, feature transformation/selection and algorithm operators. The solution can also be represented graphically in a human readable form. Experimental results demonstrate the benefit of the algorithm.

text: Full model selection in the space of data mining operators We propose a framework and a novel algorithm for the full model selection (FMS) problem. The proposed algorithm, combining both genetic algorithms (GA) and particle swarm optimization (PSO), is named GPS (which stands for GAPSO-FMS), in which a GA is used for searching the optimal structure of a data mining solution, and PSO is used for searching the optimal parameter set for a particular structure instance. Given a classification or regression problem, GPS outputs a FMS solution as a directed acyclic graph consisting of diverse data mining operators that are applicable to the problem, including data cleansing, data sampling, feature transformation/selection and algorithm operators. The solution can also be represented graphically in a human readable form. Experimental results demonstrate the benefit of the algorithm.

year: 2012

title: Manaaki whenua. Manaaki tangata: Care for the land, care for the people: Leading critical school reform with mana whenua and whānau Māori

authors: Ford, Therese

subjects: Critical school reform

abstract: Education disparities between Māori and Pākehā students in Aotearoa, have their origins in colonial education policies and practices which considerably advantaged Pākehā students and compromised the ability of Māori students to engage with learning and succeed.  Despite the promises of equality inherent in the Treaty of Waitangi,  this historical foundation has, for over 150 years, perpetuated intergenerational cycles of education failure for Māori resulting in high levels of endemic social and economic disadvantage in many Māori communities.
This thesis examines the leadership praxis of two Pākehā principals, to understand how, with more respectful connections with Māori communities, they were able to address education disparities and facilitate success for Māori students as Māori. Culturally responsive research methodologies guided two, in-depth case studies which employed mixed methods.
Two collaborative stories, with the voices of mana whenua and whānau Māori, identified the importance of school leaders developing critical levels of consciousness, through authentic, bidirectional relationships with Māori communities.  These relationships enabled the principals to understand the authentic local, pre-colonial iwi histories of the land. This in turn fostered connections between the schools and local Māori communities that enabled them to collaboratively respond to the implications of colonisation.  
The thesis challenges the monocultural, monolingual, unidirectional policies and practices that characterise the current model of colonial education.  It presents instead a decolonising model of critical school reform and a framework for implementation and evaluation.  It contends that honouring the Treaty of Waitangi requires an equity focused response with power sharing relationships, critically led by principals alongside Māori communities.

text: Manaaki whenua. Manaaki tangata: Care for the land, care for the people: Leading critical school reform with mana whenua and whānau Māori Education disparities between Māori and Pākehā students in Aotearoa, have their origins in colonial education policies and practices which considerably advantaged Pākehā students and compromised the ability of Māori students to engage with learning and succeed.  Despite the promises of equality inherent in the Treaty of Waitangi,  this historical foundation has, for over 150 years, perpetuated intergenerational cycles of education failure for Māori resulting in high levels of endemic social and economic disadvantage in many Māori communities.
This thesis examines the leadership praxis of two Pākehā principals, to understand how, with more respectful connections with Māori communities, they were able to address education disparities and facilitate success for Māori students as Māori. Culturally responsive research methodologies guided two, in-depth case studies which employed mixed methods.
Two collaborative stories, with the voices of mana whenua and whānau Māori, identified the importance of school leaders developing critical levels of consciousness, through authentic, bidirectional relationships with Māori communities.  These relationships enabled the principals to understand the authentic local, pre-colonial iwi histories of the land. This in turn fostered connections between the schools and local Māori communities that enabled them to collaboratively respond to the implications of colonisation.  
The thesis challenges the monocultural, monolingual, unidirectional policies and practices that characterise the current model of colonial education.  It presents instead a decolonising model of critical school reform and a framework for implementation and evaluation.  It contends that honouring the Treaty of Waitangi requires an equity focused response with power sharing relationships, critically led by principals alongside Māori communities.

year: 2020