title: Meaning and social reality of sexuality in the lives of children in Aotearoa New Zealand

authors: Flanagan, Paul G.

abstract: How sexuality in pre-pubescent childhood is spoken about varies enormously within societies: almost swinging like a pendulum between perspectives of healthy and normal exploration, to panic of children being victims of abuse and ideas of sexualisation by the media (Egan and Hawkes 2008; Jackson 1982, 1990; Postman 1994).  Reflecting initially from my practice as a family counsellor, and more recently as a counsellor educator and researcher, this chapter explores multiple discourses in children’s lives on the meaning and social reality of sexuality.  The aim is to question and deconstruct concepts that have shaped discourse of childhood and sexuality, and which is currently a binary position of children who are safe (i.e. asexual or un-sexual) or not (sexualised) (see, for example, Postman 1994).  The intention behind this questioning of constructions is not to deny this dominant discourse, but to expose the presence of multiple discourses, and multiple meanings for children’s words and actions.  Put simply: children’s sexual actions are frequently ascribed adult notions of sexuality, or taken to mean that maltreatment has occurred.  My argument here from counselling practice and research is that sexual actions by children do not necessarily mean some harm has occurred, but that adults’ understandings and responses are informed by discourses that guide them to assume the worst.  This can have effects for children’s identities, through disruption of their relationships within family, in addition to experiences of isolation and exclusion within school, neighbourhood and friendship contexts.

text: Meaning and social reality of sexuality in the lives of children in Aotearoa New Zealand How sexuality in pre-pubescent childhood is spoken about varies enormously within societies: almost swinging like a pendulum between perspectives of healthy and normal exploration, to panic of children being victims of abuse and ideas of sexualisation by the media (Egan and Hawkes 2008; Jackson 1982, 1990; Postman 1994).  Reflecting initially from my practice as a family counsellor, and more recently as a counsellor educator and researcher, this chapter explores multiple discourses in children’s lives on the meaning and social reality of sexuality.  The aim is to question and deconstruct concepts that have shaped discourse of childhood and sexuality, and which is currently a binary position of children who are safe (i.e. asexual or un-sexual) or not (sexualised) (see, for example, Postman 1994).  The intention behind this questioning of constructions is not to deny this dominant discourse, but to expose the presence of multiple discourses, and multiple meanings for children’s words and actions.  Put simply: children’s sexual actions are frequently ascribed adult notions of sexuality, or taken to mean that maltreatment has occurred.  My argument here from counselling practice and research is that sexual actions by children do not necessarily mean some harm has occurred, but that adults’ understandings and responses are informed by discourses that guide them to assume the worst.  This can have effects for children’s identities, through disruption of their relationships within family, in addition to experiences of isolation and exclusion within school, neighbourhood and friendship contexts.

year: 2013

title: Geography in New Zealand 2008-2012

authors: Chalmers, Lex

abstract: Every four years the International Geographical Union (IGU) requests a National Report from Member Countries. The text below is a version of the submission made on behalf of New Zealand Geography in August 2012. The issues that have faced geography in the 2008–2012 period in New Zealand have been transitional rather than transformational. The commentary later should be read against the impact of the economic events of 2008 (reduced research funding and the move to an auditing approach to research); the establishment of research themes in cultural geography that now sit alongside geography’s traditional interests and skills; an expressed interest in redeveloping links to physical geography; the implementation of the new National Curriculum (2007) in the secondary sector and the demographic transitions across stafﬁng in the discipline.

text: Geography in New Zealand 2008-2012 Every four years the International Geographical Union (IGU) requests a National Report from Member Countries. The text below is a version of the submission made on behalf of New Zealand Geography in August 2012. The issues that have faced geography in the 2008–2012 period in New Zealand have been transitional rather than transformational. The commentary later should be read against the impact of the economic events of 2008 (reduced research funding and the move to an auditing approach to research); the establishment of research themes in cultural geography that now sit alongside geography’s traditional interests and skills; an expressed interest in redeveloping links to physical geography; the implementation of the new National Curriculum (2007) in the secondary sector and the demographic transitions across stafﬁng in the discipline.

year: 2013

title: To act or not to act? That is the question!

authors: Bruce Ferguson, Pip

abstract: The year was 2003. I was a new Research Manager working in a Māori tertiary institution that had a history of inequitable treatment by government, through not receiving establishment funding that had gone unproblematically to non-Māori institutions. Repeating a common pattern in New Zealand, our government had decided to implement a research funding scheme, to be measured at the level of the individual academic. My institution’s decision to participate in the PBRF was not without its difficulties, and it is here that the ethics of participation become problematic. This chapter is about our ability to articulate our values, to show how we work these out in our practice, and how we are accountable to ourselves and others for that practice. Would I, with the benefit of hindsight, have encouraged my institution to enter the PBRF again?

text: To act or not to act? That is the question! The year was 2003. I was a new Research Manager working in a Māori tertiary institution that had a history of inequitable treatment by government, through not receiving establishment funding that had gone unproblematically to non-Māori institutions. Repeating a common pattern in New Zealand, our government had decided to implement a research funding scheme, to be measured at the level of the individual academic. My institution’s decision to participate in the PBRF was not without its difficulties, and it is here that the ethics of participation become problematic. This chapter is about our ability to articulate our values, to show how we work these out in our practice, and how we are accountable to ourselves and others for that practice. Would I, with the benefit of hindsight, have encouraged my institution to enter the PBRF again?

year: 2013