title: Tertiary education experiences of students with visual impairment

authors: Otu-Danquah, Kwame

abstract: An increasing number of students with disabilities are attending tertiary education institutions in New Zealand. Understanding the experiences of students with disabilities will enable education providers to develop policies and practices that promote the inclusion of these students. This study examined the tertiary experiences of students with visual impairment, an understudied group of students with disabilities in New Zealand. It examined their transition, social, and academic experiences.

Qualitative research, critical theory, and participatory research were adopted as the research approach, paradigm, and design, respectively. Semistructured interviews were used to collect data from six students with visual impairment, two accessibility advisors, and an official of Blind Low Vision New Zealand. Students with visual impairment also participated in a focus group discussion. Due to the participatory nature of the study, students with visual impairment were involved in the formulation of focus group questions. The coconstruction of focus group questions ensured that the questions were relevant to participants’ lived experiences. The process of coconstruction was also empowering for participants as their feedback shaped the “direction” of the research. For example, the incorporation of transition experience into the study was at the request of participants. The focus group was also empowering as the conversation produced new insights among participants. Three themes emerged from thematic analysis, and these were transition experiences, negotiating the social environment, and learning experiences.

The findings indicate that tertiary institutional support offered to students with visual impairment relates mostly to academic participation (note-taking and examinations) and, thereby, seems to neglect other aspects of students’ inclusion. This study found that aspects of tertiary education other than academic issues are equally important to students’ inclusion and must be given the needed attention by tertiary institutions. For instance, the social environment, according to some participants, was the most important barrier to inclusion. Further, it emerged that the transition, specifically pre-enrolment factors, could influence students’ tertiary experiences.

It was observed in the study that participants experienced both barriers and enablers to inclusion in tertiary education. However, participants experienced more barriers than enablers. The barriers included delays in the provision of support, problems of the physical environment, perceived misconception of disability by peers, disregard for participants’ request for support, and inexperienced reader–writers. Some of the enablers were psychosocial and practical support from peers, the contacting of participants prior to enrolment, and support with laboratory experiments. The barriers faced by participants imply disconnect between inclusive education policy and practice in tertiary education. Inclusion is about creating a tertiary environment and system that is barrier-free, flexible, equitable, and supportive for all students.

Based on the findings of the study, it is recommended that tertiary institutions include nonacademic programmes, such as social participation initiatives and transition programmes, in the support they offer to students with visual impairment. Moreover, accessibility advisors and academic staff should be provided with training on disability issues.

text: Tertiary education experiences of students with visual impairment An increasing number of students with disabilities are attending tertiary education institutions in New Zealand. Understanding the experiences of students with disabilities will enable education providers to develop policies and practices that promote the inclusion of these students. This study examined the tertiary experiences of students with visual impairment, an understudied group of students with disabilities in New Zealand. It examined their transition, social, and academic experiences.

Qualitative research, critical theory, and participatory research were adopted as the research approach, paradigm, and design, respectively. Semistructured interviews were used to collect data from six students with visual impairment, two accessibility advisors, and an official of Blind Low Vision New Zealand. Students with visual impairment also participated in a focus group discussion. Due to the participatory nature of the study, students with visual impairment were involved in the formulation of focus group questions. The coconstruction of focus group questions ensured that the questions were relevant to participants’ lived experiences. The process of coconstruction was also empowering for participants as their feedback shaped the “direction” of the research. For example, the incorporation of transition experience into the study was at the request of participants. The focus group was also empowering as the conversation produced new insights among participants. Three themes emerged from thematic analysis, and these were transition experiences, negotiating the social environment, and learning experiences.

The findings indicate that tertiary institutional support offered to students with visual impairment relates mostly to academic participation (note-taking and examinations) and, thereby, seems to neglect other aspects of students’ inclusion. This study found that aspects of tertiary education other than academic issues are equally important to students’ inclusion and must be given the needed attention by tertiary institutions. For instance, the social environment, according to some participants, was the most important barrier to inclusion. Further, it emerged that the transition, specifically pre-enrolment factors, could influence students’ tertiary experiences.

It was observed in the study that participants experienced both barriers and enablers to inclusion in tertiary education. However, participants experienced more barriers than enablers. The barriers included delays in the provision of support, problems of the physical environment, perceived misconception of disability by peers, disregard for participants’ request for support, and inexperienced reader–writers. Some of the enablers were psychosocial and practical support from peers, the contacting of participants prior to enrolment, and support with laboratory experiments. The barriers faced by participants imply disconnect between inclusive education policy and practice in tertiary education. Inclusion is about creating a tertiary environment and system that is barrier-free, flexible, equitable, and supportive for all students.

Based on the findings of the study, it is recommended that tertiary institutions include nonacademic programmes, such as social participation initiatives and transition programmes, in the support they offer to students with visual impairment. Moreover, accessibility advisors and academic staff should be provided with training on disability issues.

year: 2022

title: Danger-zone tourism: Emotional performances in Jordan and Palestine

authors: Buda, Dorina Maria

subjects: danger-zone tourism

abstract: This thesis discusses danger-zone tourism in Jordan and Palestine. It explores emotional performances in tourist places of ongoing socio-political conflict. I bring together dark tourism, emotional, affectual and sensuous geographies as well as psychoanalytic theories on the death drive to examine danger-zone tourism as a form of tourism performance based on danger and conflict as enticing factors.

Fieldwork was carried out in Jordan and Palestine during April 2009 and July-November 2010. Individual interviews, both face-to-face and online, small group interviews, non-commercial photographs, and written diaries are methods that have been employed for this research. A total of 79 participants were involved, out of which 25 are international tourists and 29 tour guides. The remainder 25 participants are other tourism industry representatives, such as tourism company owners and managers, taxi drivers, souvenir shop owners, as well as tourism governmental officials in Jordan and Palestine. I use a critical qualitative methodological approach to explore emotional performances of danger-zone tourists and local guides in areas of ongoing conflict.   
My discussion addresses three points to understand the ways in which danger-zone tourism is performed in Jordanian and Palestinian tourism spaces. First, I unravel the connections between tourism, danger and ongoing socio-political conflict so as to provide opportunities to foreground danger-zone tourists’ enticement to danger and conflict. I critique dominant tourism studies literature to argue that tourism and conflict are not mutually exclusive and tourists who travel to areas of political turmoil are fascinated with danger. Second, I critically examine emotional, affectual and sensuous geographies – that which is sensed, felt and performed – in Jordan and Palestine. It is maintained that affects, emotions and senses experienced in danger-zones disrupt some dominant dichotomies in tourism studies such as peace/war, safety/danger, fun/fear and life/death. Feeling fear, shock, anger and engaging haptically with tourist places and spaces provide a disruption of these binaries. Third, it is argued that danger-zone tourists can be understood beyond the existing labels of “morbid” and “ghoulish”. By accessing the death drive danger-zoners’ motivations and enticements to travel to dangerous places are rendered visible. I argue that by travelling to dangerous places some tourists seek to purge embodied memories and archaic traumas. 
This study offers a new way of theorising danger-zone tourism. Considering emotions, affects, senses and the death drive experienced and performed in an area of ongoing conflict encourages a more critical understanding of danger-zone tourism in particular and tourism studies in general.

text: Danger-zone tourism: Emotional performances in Jordan and Palestine This thesis discusses danger-zone tourism in Jordan and Palestine. It explores emotional performances in tourist places of ongoing socio-political conflict. I bring together dark tourism, emotional, affectual and sensuous geographies as well as psychoanalytic theories on the death drive to examine danger-zone tourism as a form of tourism performance based on danger and conflict as enticing factors.

Fieldwork was carried out in Jordan and Palestine during April 2009 and July-November 2010. Individual interviews, both face-to-face and online, small group interviews, non-commercial photographs, and written diaries are methods that have been employed for this research. A total of 79 participants were involved, out of which 25 are international tourists and 29 tour guides. The remainder 25 participants are other tourism industry representatives, such as tourism company owners and managers, taxi drivers, souvenir shop owners, as well as tourism governmental officials in Jordan and Palestine. I use a critical qualitative methodological approach to explore emotional performances of danger-zone tourists and local guides in areas of ongoing conflict.   
My discussion addresses three points to understand the ways in which danger-zone tourism is performed in Jordanian and Palestinian tourism spaces. First, I unravel the connections between tourism, danger and ongoing socio-political conflict so as to provide opportunities to foreground danger-zone tourists’ enticement to danger and conflict. I critique dominant tourism studies literature to argue that tourism and conflict are not mutually exclusive and tourists who travel to areas of political turmoil are fascinated with danger. Second, I critically examine emotional, affectual and sensuous geographies – that which is sensed, felt and performed – in Jordan and Palestine. It is maintained that affects, emotions and senses experienced in danger-zones disrupt some dominant dichotomies in tourism studies such as peace/war, safety/danger, fun/fear and life/death. Feeling fear, shock, anger and engaging haptically with tourist places and spaces provide a disruption of these binaries. Third, it is argued that danger-zone tourists can be understood beyond the existing labels of “morbid” and “ghoulish”. By accessing the death drive danger-zoners’ motivations and enticements to travel to dangerous places are rendered visible. I argue that by travelling to dangerous places some tourists seek to purge embodied memories and archaic traumas. 
This study offers a new way of theorising danger-zone tourism. Considering emotions, affects, senses and the death drive experienced and performed in an area of ongoing conflict encourages a more critical understanding of danger-zone tourism in particular and tourism studies in general.

year: 2012

title: Unorthodox assistance: Novalis, Māori, scientism, and an uncertain approach to 'Whakapapa'

authors: Mika, Carl Te Hira

abstract: The reductionism of Western science is well noted among several Maori academics, who describe in various ways its methodical tendency to dissemble an organism and isolate its parts. The reductionist nature of the method of science then informs the practice, so that the manifestations of science - its latest innovations, evidenced in biotechnology, cloning, stem cell therapy and so on - become an overriding concern for these academics. Rightly, the effects of those innovations on Maori spiritual and phYSical realms are addressed, to the extent that they may constitute extensive submissions to governmental bodies. How effective these submissions are is open to considerable speculation, particularly when it is acknowledged by many of these same writers that those ministerial and judicial bodies are incapable of understanding the dilemmas posed by the effects of reductionist scientific practice on the Maori world. The Maori world, in the main, is left to wait until it is confronted with yet another scientific advancement or technology, and the rush to counter its modus operandi begins again.

text: Unorthodox assistance: Novalis, Māori, scientism, and an uncertain approach to 'Whakapapa' The reductionism of Western science is well noted among several Maori academics, who describe in various ways its methodical tendency to dissemble an organism and isolate its parts. The reductionist nature of the method of science then informs the practice, so that the manifestations of science - its latest innovations, evidenced in biotechnology, cloning, stem cell therapy and so on - become an overriding concern for these academics. Rightly, the effects of those innovations on Maori spiritual and phYSical realms are addressed, to the extent that they may constitute extensive submissions to governmental bodies. How effective these submissions are is open to considerable speculation, particularly when it is acknowledged by many of these same writers that those ministerial and judicial bodies are incapable of understanding the dilemmas posed by the effects of reductionist scientific practice on the Maori world. The Maori world, in the main, is left to wait until it is confronted with yet another scientific advancement or technology, and the rush to counter its modus operandi begins again.

year: 2011