title: Viewing restorative approaches to addressing challenging behaviour of minority ethnic students through a community of practice lens

authors: Wearmouth, Janice

subjects: restorative practice

abstract: The disproportionately high rates of school exclusion and lower levels of academic achievement of students from particular minority ethnic groups have been a focus of investigation in educational research across the world for some time. This articles uses a communities of practice framework to examine how restorative practice can draw on family and community values to support students whose behaviour is unacceptable in schools to recognize their own agency in behaving for good or ill and reintegrate them into the school community. At the same time, it acknowledges hurt that may be done to victims of wrong-doing and emphasizes putting things right between all those affected. The examples here are from Aotearoa New Zealand. They relate to practices influenced by traditional Māori cultural values. However, the principles and process associated with restorative practices that aim to restore harmony between the individual, the victim and the collective rather than to punish and exclude may be relevant within other student groups where high rates of exclusion from school are problematic.

text: Viewing restorative approaches to addressing challenging behaviour of minority ethnic students through a community of practice lens The disproportionately high rates of school exclusion and lower levels of academic achievement of students from particular minority ethnic groups have been a focus of investigation in educational research across the world for some time. This articles uses a communities of practice framework to examine how restorative practice can draw on family and community values to support students whose behaviour is unacceptable in schools to recognize their own agency in behaving for good or ill and reintegrate them into the school community. At the same time, it acknowledges hurt that may be done to victims of wrong-doing and emphasizes putting things right between all those affected. The examples here are from Aotearoa New Zealand. They relate to practices influenced by traditional Māori cultural values. However, the principles and process associated with restorative practices that aim to restore harmony between the individual, the victim and the collective rather than to punish and exclude may be relevant within other student groups where high rates of exclusion from school are problematic.

year: 2012

title: 'Freedom’s Ramparts on The Sea': The postcolonial New Zealand landscape and the quest for sustainability

authors: Morad, Munir

subjects: postcolonialism

abstract: New Zealand’s colonial legacy has had a major impact on the shape of its landscape. The European settlement of New Zealand transformed both the land itself as well as the tenure arrangements that had hitherto followed traditional Maori practices. The increasing political influence of the modem conservation movement in New Zealand has been mirrored by a parallel rise in Maori engagement with environmental issues. Land tenure claims brought by the Maori under the 1970’s Treaty of Waitangi Act have enabled an alliance of Maori and environmental interests to be forged. This linkage however is very recent, and if the current unsustainable land use practices are to be mitigated in New Zealand, a synthesis of the essential elements in both cultural traditions is necessary.
Culture shapes how people identify and evaluate elements of their environment, and influences their behaviour and experiences. At a more pragmatic level, culture provides the social infrastructure and institutions that determine how renewable land resources are used and managed. The authors highlight the links between postcolonial culture and landscape management in New Zealand, contrasting Pakeha-Maori points of view and attempting to mediate between these conflicting positions. These links are examined in the context of new social, economic and ecological forces that are shaping the country’s postcolonial landscape.

text: 'Freedom’s Ramparts on The Sea': The postcolonial New Zealand landscape and the quest for sustainability New Zealand’s colonial legacy has had a major impact on the shape of its landscape. The European settlement of New Zealand transformed both the land itself as well as the tenure arrangements that had hitherto followed traditional Maori practices. The increasing political influence of the modem conservation movement in New Zealand has been mirrored by a parallel rise in Maori engagement with environmental issues. Land tenure claims brought by the Maori under the 1970’s Treaty of Waitangi Act have enabled an alliance of Maori and environmental interests to be forged. This linkage however is very recent, and if the current unsustainable land use practices are to be mitigated in New Zealand, a synthesis of the essential elements in both cultural traditions is necessary.
Culture shapes how people identify and evaluate elements of their environment, and influences their behaviour and experiences. At a more pragmatic level, culture provides the social infrastructure and institutions that determine how renewable land resources are used and managed. The authors highlight the links between postcolonial culture and landscape management in New Zealand, contrasting Pakeha-Maori points of view and attempting to mediate between these conflicting positions. These links are examined in the context of new social, economic and ecological forces that are shaping the country’s postcolonial landscape.

year: 2003

title: Hearing their voices: The perceptions of children and adults about learning in health education

authors: Scratchley, Margaret Joyce

subjects: children's voice

abstract: Children were the central focus of this study which was grounded in a belief that children’s voices should be listened to and heard, in particular about their perceptions about their health and health education in schools. Also heard in this study were the voices of adults (parents and teachers of the sample of children). Six research questions were explored related to the health knowledge children already had about health and health issues; where children acquired their health knowledge and perceptions; the aspects about their own health children were concerned about; what children most wanted to learn about in health education; the ways the views of children differed from the views of adults, and how teachers might make use of the children’s views in curriculum planning.
This study was carried out with a sample of children, parents and teachers drawn from a suburban full-status primary school (inclusive of children from new entrants to Year 8). The sample (Year 3 to Year 8) facilitated coverage of the voices and views from young children to young adolescents in response to the research questions.
The theoretical perspective lay in the use of grounded theory. Ideas were discovered and formed as data were interpreted. In this study children provided pictures of their knowledge and understanding of health through their responses to two draw-and-write tasks. Both children and adults then expressed their views and ideas about health education and learning about various health issues in informal conversational interviews. Other methods used were parent questionnaires and Chi square testing of some results.
The major finding was that the sample of children did have views on health education and could, and did, express them. It was also found that adults were surprised when they realised the extent of the issues about health with which their children were grappling, or at least thinking about. These results indicated a need for teachers and parents to rethink some of their own assumptions about what children need to learn about in health education.
It was also found that children were disappointed that teachers did not meet their expectations for health education. There were reservations about the way health education was presented to them; the type and the amount of information was thought inappropriate, and health education did not include issues in which they really had an interest. Although both adults and children thought health education was important, it appeared that children from as early as Year 5 were developing a more critical view about the importance of health education and what health education should include than did adults.
From the findings there are a number of implications for the health curriculum in schools, not least that classroom content for health, objectives and the process of delivery should be done in partnership, with adults and children working together so that programmes become more appropriate and children’s concerns satisfied.
The findings also indicated that more research is needed, particularly in New Zealand schools, about health education in general and the way it is presented at school, curriculum construction and implementation, and the more topical health issues in which children appear to have an interest. It was also revealed that research is needed into gender issues, particularly the relationship between what boys and girls are interested in learning about, and also the power relationships between those who determine what children should learn and the children themselves.
Finally, this study has contributed to a growing body of international research which has investigated the extent to which children possess knowledge that is of value in classroom teaching and learning in health education. The evidence in this study is that children do indeed possess knowledge, they can express themselves, and in so doing, can contribute to classroom curriculum construction and curriculum design.

text: Hearing their voices: The perceptions of children and adults about learning in health education Children were the central focus of this study which was grounded in a belief that children’s voices should be listened to and heard, in particular about their perceptions about their health and health education in schools. Also heard in this study were the voices of adults (parents and teachers of the sample of children). Six research questions were explored related to the health knowledge children already had about health and health issues; where children acquired their health knowledge and perceptions; the aspects about their own health children were concerned about; what children most wanted to learn about in health education; the ways the views of children differed from the views of adults, and how teachers might make use of the children’s views in curriculum planning.
This study was carried out with a sample of children, parents and teachers drawn from a suburban full-status primary school (inclusive of children from new entrants to Year 8). The sample (Year 3 to Year 8) facilitated coverage of the voices and views from young children to young adolescents in response to the research questions.
The theoretical perspective lay in the use of grounded theory. Ideas were discovered and formed as data were interpreted. In this study children provided pictures of their knowledge and understanding of health through their responses to two draw-and-write tasks. Both children and adults then expressed their views and ideas about health education and learning about various health issues in informal conversational interviews. Other methods used were parent questionnaires and Chi square testing of some results.
The major finding was that the sample of children did have views on health education and could, and did, express them. It was also found that adults were surprised when they realised the extent of the issues about health with which their children were grappling, or at least thinking about. These results indicated a need for teachers and parents to rethink some of their own assumptions about what children need to learn about in health education.
It was also found that children were disappointed that teachers did not meet their expectations for health education. There were reservations about the way health education was presented to them; the type and the amount of information was thought inappropriate, and health education did not include issues in which they really had an interest. Although both adults and children thought health education was important, it appeared that children from as early as Year 5 were developing a more critical view about the importance of health education and what health education should include than did adults.
From the findings there are a number of implications for the health curriculum in schools, not least that classroom content for health, objectives and the process of delivery should be done in partnership, with adults and children working together so that programmes become more appropriate and children’s concerns satisfied.
The findings also indicated that more research is needed, particularly in New Zealand schools, about health education in general and the way it is presented at school, curriculum construction and implementation, and the more topical health issues in which children appear to have an interest. It was also revealed that research is needed into gender issues, particularly the relationship between what boys and girls are interested in learning about, and also the power relationships between those who determine what children should learn and the children themselves.
Finally, this study has contributed to a growing body of international research which has investigated the extent to which children possess knowledge that is of value in classroom teaching and learning in health education. The evidence in this study is that children do indeed possess knowledge, they can express themselves, and in so doing, can contribute to classroom curriculum construction and curriculum design.

year: 2003