title: Work-family responsibilities and support for women academics in Pakistan

authors: Imran, Romana

abstract: Globally women have a long history of negotiating between public and private life.  While each individual woman undertakes such negotiation, all women’s lives are already shaped by historical, political, religious and cultural forces.  This study focused on contemporary academic women in Pakistan and their experiences of negotiation between professional and family responsibilities – in an Islamic nation, shaped by an imperial history. In particular it investigated both the possibilities and limitations of family and institutional support as women worked to fulfil both work and family responsibilities.  
This qualitative study employed semi-structured interviews, with individuals from three groups:  women academics, husbands of women academics, and heads of department of two Pakistani universities. The data from these interviews were then read alongside selected theory, to produce accounts of the visible and invisible discourses shaping the positions available to women as they navigate family and career responsibilities.  The study’s findings show that patriarchal traditions that position men as breadwinners and women as homemakers are disturbed when women take up career opportunities in academia, at the same time as patriarchal gender practices rob women of opportunities they have earned, as in examples of a woman giving up a job offer in favour of her husband, or giving an academic husband financial support for publication. As a further example of contesting discourses, the study identifies that academic women are expected to be productive on the terms of  globalised neo-liberal education at the same time as a traditional school curriculum and teaching practices position educated women - parhi likihi- as responsible for the basics of their children’s learning within the home.  Academic women are caught in the tension between the expectations of globalised tertiary education and the reality of the limited material resources in universities in a developing country.  The analysis of women academics’ accounts of family support includes few but significant examples of disturbing and resisting patriarchal gender practices, in ways that the thesis argues contribute to a “democracy to come”.   However, for the most part, the narratives of support include women academics’ husbands’ limited contributions and stories of women academics’ struggles, compromises and sacrifices of their own career progression for their husbands’ careers.  The thesis argues that identifying the possibilities of questioning and undoing patriarchal gender practices and producing alternative discursive practices might open up possibilities for gender justice within family and academic institutions.

text: Work-family responsibilities and support for women academics in Pakistan Globally women have a long history of negotiating between public and private life.  While each individual woman undertakes such negotiation, all women’s lives are already shaped by historical, political, religious and cultural forces.  This study focused on contemporary academic women in Pakistan and their experiences of negotiation between professional and family responsibilities – in an Islamic nation, shaped by an imperial history. In particular it investigated both the possibilities and limitations of family and institutional support as women worked to fulfil both work and family responsibilities.  
This qualitative study employed semi-structured interviews, with individuals from three groups:  women academics, husbands of women academics, and heads of department of two Pakistani universities. The data from these interviews were then read alongside selected theory, to produce accounts of the visible and invisible discourses shaping the positions available to women as they navigate family and career responsibilities.  The study’s findings show that patriarchal traditions that position men as breadwinners and women as homemakers are disturbed when women take up career opportunities in academia, at the same time as patriarchal gender practices rob women of opportunities they have earned, as in examples of a woman giving up a job offer in favour of her husband, or giving an academic husband financial support for publication. As a further example of contesting discourses, the study identifies that academic women are expected to be productive on the terms of  globalised neo-liberal education at the same time as a traditional school curriculum and teaching practices position educated women - parhi likihi- as responsible for the basics of their children’s learning within the home.  Academic women are caught in the tension between the expectations of globalised tertiary education and the reality of the limited material resources in universities in a developing country.  The analysis of women academics’ accounts of family support includes few but significant examples of disturbing and resisting patriarchal gender practices, in ways that the thesis argues contribute to a “democracy to come”.   However, for the most part, the narratives of support include women academics’ husbands’ limited contributions and stories of women academics’ struggles, compromises and sacrifices of their own career progression for their husbands’ careers.  The thesis argues that identifying the possibilities of questioning and undoing patriarchal gender practices and producing alternative discursive practices might open up possibilities for gender justice within family and academic institutions.

year: 2023

title: Primary teachers, policy, and physical education

authors: Petrie, Kirsten Culhane

subjects: physical education

abstract: This article focuses on the challenges arising for primary school teachers who have responsibility for teaching physical education (PE) and who are working in particularly complex and contestable policy contexts. In New Zealand provision of physical education is identified as occurring amidst multiple, and not necessarily compatible, sets of expectations, associated with government priorities, initiatives focusing on children’s health, sport, and improved national achievement outcomes. This article examines the contemporary educational policy landscape, and the effect constantly shifting policy initiatives have on teachers’ work in physical education in primary schools. Key themes characterizing primary PE teaching/teachers’ situation currently centre on pressures to adhere to policies that have stricter accountability measures, the utilization of ‘external providers’, limited time for teacher learning and what appears to paralysis by policy. Discussion considers possible alternative approaches to the development of policy that would arguably better support teachers of physical education in primary schools.

text: Primary teachers, policy, and physical education This article focuses on the challenges arising for primary school teachers who have responsibility for teaching physical education (PE) and who are working in particularly complex and contestable policy contexts. In New Zealand provision of physical education is identified as occurring amidst multiple, and not necessarily compatible, sets of expectations, associated with government priorities, initiatives focusing on children’s health, sport, and improved national achievement outcomes. This article examines the contemporary educational policy landscape, and the effect constantly shifting policy initiatives have on teachers’ work in physical education in primary schools. Key themes characterizing primary PE teaching/teachers’ situation currently centre on pressures to adhere to policies that have stricter accountability measures, the utilization of ‘external providers’, limited time for teacher learning and what appears to paralysis by policy. Discussion considers possible alternative approaches to the development of policy that would arguably better support teachers of physical education in primary schools.

year: 2011

title: The 2020 cannabis referendum: Māori voter support, racialized policing, and the Criminal Justice System

authors: Dempster, Craig

abstract: In the New Zealand 2020 cannabis referendum, 50.7% of all voters rejected the creation of a legally-regulated cannabis market and instead supported retaining the current prohibitionist policy. Although the referendum failed to pass, a majority of Māori voted in favor of cannabis law reform. This paper suggests that within the Māori community there is a more nuanced appreciation of the impact of policing cannabis. Māori perceive that greater harm is caused by the racialized policing of cannabis than by the usage of it. Following McCreanor, et al. (2014), this paper employs a thematic, content analysis of the New Zealand Herald’s coverage of the 2020 cannabis referendum to investigate the presence of race-based targeting/policing in discussions of the legislation. The results reveal that racial disparities emerged as secondary to framing both the impact of cannabis and the referendum as race-neutral and affecting everyone in society equally. This paper argues that the impact of the policing of this particular drug impacts Māori differently, wherein they bear the brunt of racialized policing. Thus, Māori possess a more sophisticated understanding that warrants consideration because it is inextricably linked to lived experiences of policing that differ from wider social narratives of policing and drug policy in New Zealand.

text: The 2020 cannabis referendum: Māori voter support, racialized policing, and the Criminal Justice System In the New Zealand 2020 cannabis referendum, 50.7% of all voters rejected the creation of a legally-regulated cannabis market and instead supported retaining the current prohibitionist policy. Although the referendum failed to pass, a majority of Māori voted in favor of cannabis law reform. This paper suggests that within the Māori community there is a more nuanced appreciation of the impact of policing cannabis. Māori perceive that greater harm is caused by the racialized policing of cannabis than by the usage of it. Following McCreanor, et al. (2014), this paper employs a thematic, content analysis of the New Zealand Herald’s coverage of the 2020 cannabis referendum to investigate the presence of race-based targeting/policing in discussions of the legislation. The results reveal that racial disparities emerged as secondary to framing both the impact of cannabis and the referendum as race-neutral and affecting everyone in society equally. This paper argues that the impact of the policing of this particular drug impacts Māori differently, wherein they bear the brunt of racialized policing. Thus, Māori possess a more sophisticated understanding that warrants consideration because it is inextricably linked to lived experiences of policing that differ from wider social narratives of policing and drug policy in New Zealand.

year: 2022