title: Compulsory proportional representation: allaying potential concerns

authors: Harcourt, Mark

abstract: The present union certification system has many faults, the most important of which is its failure to deliver employee representation to all but a small and declining minority of workers. As an alternative, compulsory proportional representation (CPR) would have many advantages, particularly when compared with other reform proposals, most of which are designed to only reinvigorate, modify, or supplement the existing system. Would CPR have any disadvantages? We identify four potential concerns: reduced freedom to contract, increased interunion competition and raiding, depleted union strength, and compromised union independence. However, we argue that some of these problems would be more imagined than real, some less serious than expected, and some would have secondary effects to compensate any shortcomings.

text: Compulsory proportional representation: allaying potential concerns The present union certification system has many faults, the most important of which is its failure to deliver employee representation to all but a small and declining minority of workers. As an alternative, compulsory proportional representation (CPR) would have many advantages, particularly when compared with other reform proposals, most of which are designed to only reinvigorate, modify, or supplement the existing system. Would CPR have any disadvantages? We identify four potential concerns: reduced freedom to contract, increased interunion competition and raiding, depleted union strength, and compromised union independence. However, we argue that some of these problems would be more imagined than real, some less serious than expected, and some would have secondary effects to compensate any shortcomings.

year: 2008

title: Business managers in children’s playground : Exploring a problematic (or not!) identity construction of early childhood teachers in New Zealand.

authors: Kamenarac, Olivera

subjects: Discourses

abstract: The impacts of neo-liberal education reforms on the early childhood education sector have been a focal point of scholarly critiques in New Zealand. Interestingly, only a few studies have addressed how teacher professional identities and professionalism have changed in response to the neo-liberal context of New Zealand early childhood education. It has been, however, recognised that understanding the complexity of teacher professional identities within the rapidly transforming landscape of early childhood education is a key consideration in implementing and sustaining a change agenda in education policies and practices. In this article, the author draws on data from her research study about how teachers’ professional identities have been reconstructed in response to the shifting discourses in New Zealand early childhood education policies and practices. Specifically, the author explores the construction of teachers as business managers, which has emerged through an interplay of discourses of marketisation and privatisation driving some of the country’s early childhood education policies and practices. It is argued that the construction of teachers as business managers has altered core professional ethical values underpinning the teaching profession, professionalism and the purpose of early childhood education in New Zealand, which were traditionally embedded in discourses of collective democracy, equity and social justice.

text: Business managers in children’s playground : Exploring a problematic (or not!) identity construction of early childhood teachers in New Zealand. The impacts of neo-liberal education reforms on the early childhood education sector have been a focal point of scholarly critiques in New Zealand. Interestingly, only a few studies have addressed how teacher professional identities and professionalism have changed in response to the neo-liberal context of New Zealand early childhood education. It has been, however, recognised that understanding the complexity of teacher professional identities within the rapidly transforming landscape of early childhood education is a key consideration in implementing and sustaining a change agenda in education policies and practices. In this article, the author draws on data from her research study about how teachers’ professional identities have been reconstructed in response to the shifting discourses in New Zealand early childhood education policies and practices. Specifically, the author explores the construction of teachers as business managers, which has emerged through an interplay of discourses of marketisation and privatisation driving some of the country’s early childhood education policies and practices. It is argued that the construction of teachers as business managers has altered core professional ethical values underpinning the teaching profession, professionalism and the purpose of early childhood education in New Zealand, which were traditionally embedded in discourses of collective democracy, equity and social justice.

year: 2021

title: Te Piringa

authors: Dickson, Matiu

abstract: Māori have an oral tradition, that is, the transfer of knowledge within and between generations, which was carried out orally by way of story-telling or the more formal speech-making. Ngā korero purākau are the stories and whaikōrero is formal talking on the marae or ancestral gathering places of Māori people. The value of public speaking is expressed in the saying: Ko te kōrerote kai a te Rangatira – (The chiefs thrive on talking and debating). This article looks at the transfer of knowledge to the next generation.

text: Te Piringa Māori have an oral tradition, that is, the transfer of knowledge within and between generations, which was carried out orally by way of story-telling or the more formal speech-making. Ngā korero purākau are the stories and whaikōrero is formal talking on the marae or ancestral gathering places of Māori people. The value of public speaking is expressed in the saying: Ko te kōrerote kai a te Rangatira – (The chiefs thrive on talking and debating). This article looks at the transfer of knowledge to the next generation.

year: 2010