title: The Nourishing Revolution: Exploring the Praxis of the Weston A. Price Foundation

authors: Ritchie, Isa Pearl

subjects: Weston A. Price Foundation

abstract: As consumers of food, we are faced with many choices every day. We are encouraged to make healthy choices, but ‘healthy’ in today’s supermarket can mean many things: heart healthy, light, lite, cholesterol reducing, gluten or dairy free, organic, locally made or biodynamic. The discourses around food are now expansive, confusing and contradictory. Using a lens of Freirean praxis, this thesis explores the dispraxia of modern food and the praxis of the Weston A. Price foundation (WAPF) and wider Nourishing Food Movement, (NFM), which offers an alternative. The movement calls for a return to more traditional ways of selecting, preparing and eating food. For example, it emphasises soaking grains, preparing meals from scratch, and using less processed saturated fat and non-pasteurised milk. The thesis also challenges and debunks the discourse of modern food by exploring the controversy around the consumption of animal fat and raw milk. The praxis of the WAPF and NFM is explored more deeply through qualitative case studies investigating internet blogs. The blogs serve as a dynamic and interactive example of libratory education, in comparison with messages and recipes provided by the dominant, corporate, food industry. The interplay of multiple discourses and subject positions around gender and class in food blogging are examined in a reflexive blog-based discussion, highlighting the layered complexity which must be navigated and reconciled by individuals when making food choices. Overall, this thesis argues that the praxis of the WAPF acts to help empower consumers to make more genuine choices by providing techniques and information with which they can navigate the modern food context.

text: The Nourishing Revolution: Exploring the Praxis of the Weston A. Price Foundation As consumers of food, we are faced with many choices every day. We are encouraged to make healthy choices, but ‘healthy’ in today’s supermarket can mean many things: heart healthy, light, lite, cholesterol reducing, gluten or dairy free, organic, locally made or biodynamic. The discourses around food are now expansive, confusing and contradictory. Using a lens of Freirean praxis, this thesis explores the dispraxia of modern food and the praxis of the Weston A. Price foundation (WAPF) and wider Nourishing Food Movement, (NFM), which offers an alternative. The movement calls for a return to more traditional ways of selecting, preparing and eating food. For example, it emphasises soaking grains, preparing meals from scratch, and using less processed saturated fat and non-pasteurised milk. The thesis also challenges and debunks the discourse of modern food by exploring the controversy around the consumption of animal fat and raw milk. The praxis of the WAPF and NFM is explored more deeply through qualitative case studies investigating internet blogs. The blogs serve as a dynamic and interactive example of libratory education, in comparison with messages and recipes provided by the dominant, corporate, food industry. The interplay of multiple discourses and subject positions around gender and class in food blogging are examined in a reflexive blog-based discussion, highlighting the layered complexity which must be navigated and reconciled by individuals when making food choices. Overall, this thesis argues that the praxis of the WAPF acts to help empower consumers to make more genuine choices by providing techniques and information with which they can navigate the modern food context.

year: 2011

title: FOLDER3D: A graphical file management system supporting visualisation of file relationships

authors: Luz, Saturnino

subjects: file management systems

abstract: The desktop metaphor with its hierarchical structure of folders is the basis of almost all graphical file management systems. Despite this popularity, these systems suffer from several problems, including the restrictiveness of the single inheritance structure of hierarchical file management. Although various alternative systems have been proposed, none of these have gained popularity. We argue that the reason for this failure is that these systems have generally proposed complete alternatives to the hierarchical system, thus ignoring many of its positive aspects. In this paper we describe a 3D graphical file management which complements conventional 2D hierarchical folder structures by allowing visualisation of alternative file relationships.

text: FOLDER3D: A graphical file management system supporting visualisation of file relationships The desktop metaphor with its hierarchical structure of folders is the basis of almost all graphical file management systems. Despite this popularity, these systems suffer from several problems, including the restrictiveness of the single inheritance structure of hierarchical file management. Although various alternative systems have been proposed, none of these have gained popularity. We argue that the reason for this failure is that these systems have generally proposed complete alternatives to the hierarchical system, thus ignoring many of its positive aspects. In this paper we describe a 3D graphical file management which complements conventional 2D hierarchical folder structures by allowing visualisation of alternative file relationships.

year: 2010

title: Supervision of Maori doctoral students: A descriptive report

authors: McKinley, Elizabeth

subjects: Maori education

abstract: This report follows up a previous paper that outlined the goals and plans of a research project that focused on both theoretical and cultural questions regarding the supervisory process for Māori doctoral students (McKinley, Grant, Middleton, Irwin, & Williams, 2007). The major goal of the project is to enhance understanding of the teaching and learning process of supervision for students and supervisors, particularly around issues of culture that arise in research methodologies and practices. This paper reports on the completed project by providing further operational background, design features, the nature of the student and supervisor samples and a summary of interview findings. The results show that there are indeed distinctive issues arising within the supervision of Māori doctoral students. Some of these are to do with both pleasures and challenges found in the supervision relationship, while others relate to the kinds of projects the students undertake. Many projects for example, push at the disciplinary boundaries of Western knowledge and are often rooted in a political desire to enhance the everyday lives of Māori. Yet others are connected to identity formation processes that concern many Māori during their years as doctoral students. A central message for supervisors from this work is that the supervision of Māori doctoral students may require unfamiliar forms of engagement but that these are likely to be deeply rewarding in many different ways.

text: Supervision of Maori doctoral students: A descriptive report This report follows up a previous paper that outlined the goals and plans of a research project that focused on both theoretical and cultural questions regarding the supervisory process for Māori doctoral students (McKinley, Grant, Middleton, Irwin, & Williams, 2007). The major goal of the project is to enhance understanding of the teaching and learning process of supervision for students and supervisors, particularly around issues of culture that arise in research methodologies and practices. This paper reports on the completed project by providing further operational background, design features, the nature of the student and supervisor samples and a summary of interview findings. The results show that there are indeed distinctive issues arising within the supervision of Māori doctoral students. Some of these are to do with both pleasures and challenges found in the supervision relationship, while others relate to the kinds of projects the students undertake. Many projects for example, push at the disciplinary boundaries of Western knowledge and are often rooted in a political desire to enhance the everyday lives of Māori. Yet others are connected to identity formation processes that concern many Māori during their years as doctoral students. A central message for supervisors from this work is that the supervision of Māori doctoral students may require unfamiliar forms of engagement but that these are likely to be deeply rewarding in many different ways.

year: 2009