title: Mentoring: Using an inquiry approach to support the development of higher education teachers' pedagogical practice

authors: Ferrier-Kerr, Jenny L.

subjects: Higher education teaching

abstract: Mentoring has been proven to contribute to the development of higher education teachers’ pedagogical practice by expanding their knowledge and understanding for teaching in an adult learning context. This development can be enhanced when in parallel, mentors encourage higher education teachers to explore the factors that influence their practice.
In this study the influence of mentoring on the development of higher education teachers’ pedagogical practice was investigated. The study was conducted in one New Zealand university where the participants and the researcher are academics who teach and engage in research. The seven participants hailed from two faculties and a teaching development centre. They elected to take part in the study because of their articulated commitment and desire to contribute to the development of effective higher education teaching. Their respective lived experiences of the ways that mentoring can support the development of higher education teachers’ pedagogical practice was integral to their decision-making. 
A qualitative in-depth narrative methodology framed by a constructivist research paradigm was used to investigate the participants’ experiences of mentoring and the implications for their practice. The main sources of data were generated by the in-depth narrative semi-structured interviews. Thematic data analysis was conducted via the interview transcripts and subsequently reinforced by re-storying. These approaches to data generation and analysis enabled an in-depth scrutiny of the participants’ experiences of both teaching and mentoring.
The study revealed that the participants’ beliefs about teaching, their prior experiences, professional development, tacit theories of learning, reflection, and mentoring were factors that had shaped and influenced their pedagogical practice. In the subsequent exploration of the participants’ experiences of being mentored and of mentoring others, mentoring was identified as a significant influence. For most of the participants mentoring had not only supported the development of their pedagogical practice, it had helped them to make sense of why they taught the way that they did. Notably, the participants indicated a preference for mentoring approaches which promoted the co-construction of learning about teaching, encouraged co-inquiry into their teaching practice and gave them ownership of the mentoring process.
Three key recommendations about mentoring for the development of higher education teachers’ pedagogical practice emerged from the study, and signal implications for higher education teachers and universities. First, that the influences on higher education teachers’ practice should be intentionally explored in mentoring settings given the significant impact these influences have upon teachers pedagogical practice; second, that mentoring must be understood and pertinent to sustain higher education teachers’ motivation and commitment to the ongoing development of their practice; third, that mentoring should be positioned as intentional and purposeful for learning about teaching.
This study has the potential to add to understandings about mentoring for the development of teachers’ pedagogical practice in higher education. It is anticipated that it will contribute to both higher education teaching and mentoring discourses. A key aspiration of this study, drawn from the participants’ insightful and honest sharing of their experiences, is for mentoring to be deliberately employed as an inquiry approach to support the development of higher education teachers’ pedagogical practice.

text: Mentoring: Using an inquiry approach to support the development of higher education teachers' pedagogical practice Mentoring has been proven to contribute to the development of higher education teachers’ pedagogical practice by expanding their knowledge and understanding for teaching in an adult learning context. This development can be enhanced when in parallel, mentors encourage higher education teachers to explore the factors that influence their practice.
In this study the influence of mentoring on the development of higher education teachers’ pedagogical practice was investigated. The study was conducted in one New Zealand university where the participants and the researcher are academics who teach and engage in research. The seven participants hailed from two faculties and a teaching development centre. They elected to take part in the study because of their articulated commitment and desire to contribute to the development of effective higher education teaching. Their respective lived experiences of the ways that mentoring can support the development of higher education teachers’ pedagogical practice was integral to their decision-making. 
A qualitative in-depth narrative methodology framed by a constructivist research paradigm was used to investigate the participants’ experiences of mentoring and the implications for their practice. The main sources of data were generated by the in-depth narrative semi-structured interviews. Thematic data analysis was conducted via the interview transcripts and subsequently reinforced by re-storying. These approaches to data generation and analysis enabled an in-depth scrutiny of the participants’ experiences of both teaching and mentoring.
The study revealed that the participants’ beliefs about teaching, their prior experiences, professional development, tacit theories of learning, reflection, and mentoring were factors that had shaped and influenced their pedagogical practice. In the subsequent exploration of the participants’ experiences of being mentored and of mentoring others, mentoring was identified as a significant influence. For most of the participants mentoring had not only supported the development of their pedagogical practice, it had helped them to make sense of why they taught the way that they did. Notably, the participants indicated a preference for mentoring approaches which promoted the co-construction of learning about teaching, encouraged co-inquiry into their teaching practice and gave them ownership of the mentoring process.
Three key recommendations about mentoring for the development of higher education teachers’ pedagogical practice emerged from the study, and signal implications for higher education teachers and universities. First, that the influences on higher education teachers’ practice should be intentionally explored in mentoring settings given the significant impact these influences have upon teachers pedagogical practice; second, that mentoring must be understood and pertinent to sustain higher education teachers’ motivation and commitment to the ongoing development of their practice; third, that mentoring should be positioned as intentional and purposeful for learning about teaching.
This study has the potential to add to understandings about mentoring for the development of teachers’ pedagogical practice in higher education. It is anticipated that it will contribute to both higher education teaching and mentoring discourses. A key aspiration of this study, drawn from the participants’ insightful and honest sharing of their experiences, is for mentoring to be deliberately employed as an inquiry approach to support the development of higher education teachers’ pedagogical practice.

year: 2022

title: Introduction to tephra-derived soils and farming, Waikato-Bay of Plenty, North Island, New Zealand. University of Wisconsin-Platteville Education Abroad Program: Winterim Field Trip (15-17 January, 2019).

authors: Lowe, David J.

subjects: tephra

abstract: This tour guide describes the origin of tephras and tephra-derived soils in North Island, New Zealand, including via upbuilding pedogenesis, and their mineralogical and other properties relevant to farming and orcharding in the Waikato-Bay of Plenty regions.

text: Introduction to tephra-derived soils and farming, Waikato-Bay of Plenty, North Island, New Zealand. University of Wisconsin-Platteville Education Abroad Program: Winterim Field Trip (15-17 January, 2019). This tour guide describes the origin of tephras and tephra-derived soils in North Island, New Zealand, including via upbuilding pedogenesis, and their mineralogical and other properties relevant to farming and orcharding in the Waikato-Bay of Plenty regions.

year: 2019

title: “It was… like a fight and rape club”: A foucauldian discourse analysis of New Zealand’s abuse in care inquiry, exploring child sexual abuse in residential care

authors: Simpson, Karen

subjects: child sexual abuse

abstract: Children and adolescents brought to the attention of New Zealand care and protection authorities are sometimes removed from their homes and placed into State-run residential care facilities. While the aim placing young people into residences is to improve their wellbeing, child sexual abuse is common in this setting and more pronounced than in the general population. There are many psychological theories, perspectives and movements which have attempted to explain child sexual abuse spanning from the 1800s to the present day. These partial and, at times, unsupported understandings of abuse have been shaped by socio-cultural and socio-political conditions. This has had serious implications for our collective (mis)understanding of child sexual abuse and the ways in which we respond to abuse with dominant discourse often transcending into policy, law, and the courtroom where social (in)justice occurs. In addition, despite there being three centuries of child sexual abuse research, to-date there has been limited exploration of the phenomenon in residential care settings both globally and within Aotearoa. However, the opportunity to explore child sexual abuse in this setting has availed itself with the New Zealand Government launching a Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care in 2018 to better understand abuse across State and faith-based settings between 1950 and 1999. This thesis aims to provide additional insights to the inquiry by exploring the different ways in which child sexual abuse in residential care is understood as well as the conditions which legitimise or silence these understandings.

A Foucauldian Discourse Analysis was used to analyse 47 publicly available documents from the inquiry including statements, transcripts, and evidence briefs from survivors, survivor advocates, counsel, and representatives from institutions that provide care and protection for young people. Analysis found six discourses: control and punishment, fabrication, harmful, power and oppression, shameful, and State and institutional failure. These discourses reaffirm previous findings in sexual abuse research including sexual abuse as shameful and notions of fabrication. New insights were also found and include the use of sexual abuse as a method of controlling and punishing young people; predatory sexual behaviour in young people as a method of self-protection; cultural genocide and intergenerational care placement as victim sequelae; and the development of adaptive survival behaviours in residents in response to the State’s failures to protect them. In addition, systemic failures were uncovered including inadequacies in internal and external monitoring, failures in vetting, poor investment in professional capabilities of frontline workers, and a culture of tolerance toward abuse. Overall, the analysis found cultures of sexual violence and cultures of tolerance toward abuse within residential care, which emerge from the young person’s status as a State Ward.

text: “It was… like a fight and rape club”: A foucauldian discourse analysis of New Zealand’s abuse in care inquiry, exploring child sexual abuse in residential care Children and adolescents brought to the attention of New Zealand care and protection authorities are sometimes removed from their homes and placed into State-run residential care facilities. While the aim placing young people into residences is to improve their wellbeing, child sexual abuse is common in this setting and more pronounced than in the general population. There are many psychological theories, perspectives and movements which have attempted to explain child sexual abuse spanning from the 1800s to the present day. These partial and, at times, unsupported understandings of abuse have been shaped by socio-cultural and socio-political conditions. This has had serious implications for our collective (mis)understanding of child sexual abuse and the ways in which we respond to abuse with dominant discourse often transcending into policy, law, and the courtroom where social (in)justice occurs. In addition, despite there being three centuries of child sexual abuse research, to-date there has been limited exploration of the phenomenon in residential care settings both globally and within Aotearoa. However, the opportunity to explore child sexual abuse in this setting has availed itself with the New Zealand Government launching a Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care in 2018 to better understand abuse across State and faith-based settings between 1950 and 1999. This thesis aims to provide additional insights to the inquiry by exploring the different ways in which child sexual abuse in residential care is understood as well as the conditions which legitimise or silence these understandings.

A Foucauldian Discourse Analysis was used to analyse 47 publicly available documents from the inquiry including statements, transcripts, and evidence briefs from survivors, survivor advocates, counsel, and representatives from institutions that provide care and protection for young people. Analysis found six discourses: control and punishment, fabrication, harmful, power and oppression, shameful, and State and institutional failure. These discourses reaffirm previous findings in sexual abuse research including sexual abuse as shameful and notions of fabrication. New insights were also found and include the use of sexual abuse as a method of controlling and punishing young people; predatory sexual behaviour in young people as a method of self-protection; cultural genocide and intergenerational care placement as victim sequelae; and the development of adaptive survival behaviours in residents in response to the State’s failures to protect them. In addition, systemic failures were uncovered including inadequacies in internal and external monitoring, failures in vetting, poor investment in professional capabilities of frontline workers, and a culture of tolerance toward abuse. Overall, the analysis found cultures of sexual violence and cultures of tolerance toward abuse within residential care, which emerge from the young person’s status as a State Ward.

year: 2024-02-25