title: Heteronormativity and early childhood education: Social justice and some puzzling queries.

authors: Gunn, Alexandra Claire

subjects: Early childhood education

abstract: This thesis investigated the discursive production of heteronormativity in the  historical and present day contexts of early childhood education in Aotearoa New Zealand.  A Foucauldian genealogical investigation of early childhood policy and documents revealed how heteronormative discourses shaped understandings in early childhood education in the twentieth century.  Then a study of practices as accounted for and produced in focus group interviews showed how heteronormative discourses were confirmed and resisted in the present day.  
 
The thesis argues that the locus of heteronormativity in early childhood education centres on constructions of the family, of genders and of sexualities.  It sought to investigate whether heteronormative discourses were shaping practices in early childhood education, and if so how.  Following the writing of a genealogy of heteronormativity in early childhood education, the fieldwork of the study entailed three rounds of focus group interviews with queer teacher, queer ally and teacher educator participants.  Discussions in the interviews were provoked by dilemmas of heterosexism, homophobia and heteronormativity in early childhood settings.  Participants were asked to talk about what they thought was occurring in the dilemmas and they were also asked to share examples of practices from their own professional lives where same-sex sexualities had been troubled or affirmed. 
 
The texts produced from the focus group interviews were read the same way as the historical and policy and documents.  Foucault's discourse analysis combined with questions from Davies' (1994) study of teaching practices, and queer theory provided a theoretical framework through which I was able to explore relations between constructions of genders, families, and sexualities; concepts of insiders and outsiders; and notions of power.  A queer turn in the project enlarged the focus of the study to investigate how heteronormative discourse might have been shaping the research interviews too.  A discourse of silence along with a discourse of risk was interpreted as contributing to heteronormativity in this work.  A strategy designed to assist teachers to interrupt heteronormativity was explored.  It allowed teachers to bring together ideas and concepts that would constitute families and parents in ways inclusive of and broader to the (hetero)norm.  
 
In the study, teachers, children and parents were shown to draw on (hetero)normalising discourses in their interactions with each other in early childhood education.  Such activity limited opportunities for valid alternative options to heterosexuality to be known.  This meant that heterosexuality was repeatedly constituted as dominant and normative, thus supporting heteronormativity.  Constructions of genders, families and sexualities in the study were regularly shaped by traditional and essentialising discourses that positioned heterosexual sexuality as normal and non-heterosexual sexualities as not.  These in combination with other discourses, such as a discourse of developmentalism, provided few opportunities for non-heterosexual sexualities to be recognised, valued and included in early childhood education. The extent to which socially just and inclusive policy aims in early childhood education might therefore be met in practice, could be seriously questioned.  
 
However, examples of practices that worked to expand opportunities for the recognition of diverse families and sexualities in early childhood education were also documented.  These provided evidence that some teachers, parents and children in some circumstances can and do access and use discourses of social justice, family and sexual diversity, inclusion and human rights.  Sustained access to these was not documented, in fact, discourses of social justice, family and sexual diversity, and inclusion were often immediately countered by limiting and (hetero)normalising responses.  The thesis concludes with suggestions as to how such processes might be explored and challenged so that more teachers, more children, more families can enjoy recognition and welcome in early childhood education settings designed to include.

text: Heteronormativity and early childhood education: Social justice and some puzzling queries. This thesis investigated the discursive production of heteronormativity in the  historical and present day contexts of early childhood education in Aotearoa New Zealand.  A Foucauldian genealogical investigation of early childhood policy and documents revealed how heteronormative discourses shaped understandings in early childhood education in the twentieth century.  Then a study of practices as accounted for and produced in focus group interviews showed how heteronormative discourses were confirmed and resisted in the present day.  
 
The thesis argues that the locus of heteronormativity in early childhood education centres on constructions of the family, of genders and of sexualities.  It sought to investigate whether heteronormative discourses were shaping practices in early childhood education, and if so how.  Following the writing of a genealogy of heteronormativity in early childhood education, the fieldwork of the study entailed three rounds of focus group interviews with queer teacher, queer ally and teacher educator participants.  Discussions in the interviews were provoked by dilemmas of heterosexism, homophobia and heteronormativity in early childhood settings.  Participants were asked to talk about what they thought was occurring in the dilemmas and they were also asked to share examples of practices from their own professional lives where same-sex sexualities had been troubled or affirmed. 
 
The texts produced from the focus group interviews were read the same way as the historical and policy and documents.  Foucault's discourse analysis combined with questions from Davies' (1994) study of teaching practices, and queer theory provided a theoretical framework through which I was able to explore relations between constructions of genders, families, and sexualities; concepts of insiders and outsiders; and notions of power.  A queer turn in the project enlarged the focus of the study to investigate how heteronormative discourse might have been shaping the research interviews too.  A discourse of silence along with a discourse of risk was interpreted as contributing to heteronormativity in this work.  A strategy designed to assist teachers to interrupt heteronormativity was explored.  It allowed teachers to bring together ideas and concepts that would constitute families and parents in ways inclusive of and broader to the (hetero)norm.  
 
In the study, teachers, children and parents were shown to draw on (hetero)normalising discourses in their interactions with each other in early childhood education.  Such activity limited opportunities for valid alternative options to heterosexuality to be known.  This meant that heterosexuality was repeatedly constituted as dominant and normative, thus supporting heteronormativity.  Constructions of genders, families and sexualities in the study were regularly shaped by traditional and essentialising discourses that positioned heterosexual sexuality as normal and non-heterosexual sexualities as not.  These in combination with other discourses, such as a discourse of developmentalism, provided few opportunities for non-heterosexual sexualities to be recognised, valued and included in early childhood education. The extent to which socially just and inclusive policy aims in early childhood education might therefore be met in practice, could be seriously questioned.  
 
However, examples of practices that worked to expand opportunities for the recognition of diverse families and sexualities in early childhood education were also documented.  These provided evidence that some teachers, parents and children in some circumstances can and do access and use discourses of social justice, family and sexual diversity, inclusion and human rights.  Sustained access to these was not documented, in fact, discourses of social justice, family and sexual diversity, and inclusion were often immediately countered by limiting and (hetero)normalising responses.  The thesis concludes with suggestions as to how such processes might be explored and challenged so that more teachers, more children, more families can enjoy recognition and welcome in early childhood education settings designed to include.

year: 2008

title: Steady free surface flows induced by a submerged ring source or sink

authors: Stokes, Tim E.

subjects: critical layers

abstract: The steady axisymmetric flow induced by a ring sink (or source) submerged in an unbounded inviscid fluid is computed and the resulting deformation of the free surface is obtained. Solutions are obtained analytically in the limit of small Froude number (and hence small surface deformation) and numerically for the full nonlinear problem. The small Froude number solutions are found to have the property that if the non-dimensional radius of the ring sink is less than ρ=√2, there is a central stagnation point on the surface surrounded by a dip which rises to the stagnation level in the far distance. However, as the radius of the ring sink increases beyond ρ=√2, a surface stagnation ring forms and moves outward as the ring sink radius increases. It is also shown that as the radius of the sink increases, the solutions in the vicinity of the ring sink/source change continuously from those due to a point sink/source (ρ=0) to those due to a line sink/source (ρ→∞). These properties are confirmed by the numerical solutions to the full nonlinear equations for finite Froude numbers. At small values of the Froude number and sink or source radius, the nonlinear solutions look like the approximate solutions, but as the flow rate increases a limiting maximum Froude number solution with a secondary stagnation ring is obtained. At large values of sink or source radius, however, this ring does not form and there is no obvious physical reason for the limit on solutions. The maximum Froude numbers at which steady solutions exist for each radius are computed.

text: Steady free surface flows induced by a submerged ring source or sink The steady axisymmetric flow induced by a ring sink (or source) submerged in an unbounded inviscid fluid is computed and the resulting deformation of the free surface is obtained. Solutions are obtained analytically in the limit of small Froude number (and hence small surface deformation) and numerically for the full nonlinear problem. The small Froude number solutions are found to have the property that if the non-dimensional radius of the ring sink is less than ρ=√2, there is a central stagnation point on the surface surrounded by a dip which rises to the stagnation level in the far distance. However, as the radius of the ring sink increases beyond ρ=√2, a surface stagnation ring forms and moves outward as the ring sink radius increases. It is also shown that as the radius of the sink increases, the solutions in the vicinity of the ring sink/source change continuously from those due to a point sink/source (ρ=0) to those due to a line sink/source (ρ→∞). These properties are confirmed by the numerical solutions to the full nonlinear equations for finite Froude numbers. At small values of the Froude number and sink or source radius, the nonlinear solutions look like the approximate solutions, but as the flow rate increases a limiting maximum Froude number solution with a secondary stagnation ring is obtained. At large values of sink or source radius, however, this ring does not form and there is no obvious physical reason for the limit on solutions. The maximum Froude numbers at which steady solutions exist for each radius are computed.

year: 2012

title: Intra-propositional relations and their signalling: An investigation of authentic Māori texts

authors: Whaanga, Hēmi

subjects: Language & education

abstract: I report here on one part of a research project that involved the investigation of a range of authentic Māori texts in terms of two types of meaning relation – those that operate within propositions (‘intra-propositional relations’) and those that link propositions or groups of propositions (‘inter-propositional relations’). The focus here is on intra-propositional relations (relationships within propositions). On the basis of the comparison of a number of intra-propositional relational models, a new model which draws inspiration from the work of Crombie is proposed and applied to a corpus of texts written in Māori, the emphasis being on the ways in which these relations are signalled in Māori.

text: Intra-propositional relations and their signalling: An investigation of authentic Māori texts I report here on one part of a research project that involved the investigation of a range of authentic Māori texts in terms of two types of meaning relation – those that operate within propositions (‘intra-propositional relations’) and those that link propositions or groups of propositions (‘inter-propositional relations’). The focus here is on intra-propositional relations (relationships within propositions). On the basis of the comparison of a number of intra-propositional relational models, a new model which draws inspiration from the work of Crombie is proposed and applied to a corpus of texts written in Māori, the emphasis being on the ways in which these relations are signalled in Māori.

year: 2010