title: Homeless Māori Men: Re-connection, Re-joining, and Re-membering Ways of Being

authors: King, Pita Richard Wiremu

subjects: Māori psychology

abstract: There are a range of interventions and programmes to address the on-going issue of Māori homelessness. This thesis explores a gardening project hosted by a Ngāti Whātua marae (communal complex used for everyday Māori life) in Auckland for homeless Māori men. The garden project facilitates a sense of belonging, dignity, purpose, meaning and connectedness with other Māori people. It provides insights into how culturally-patterned relationships are centrally important to resolving the overrepresentation of indigenous peoples’ in homelessness populations. I employ the use of semi-structured interviews, reflective journaling, and photography as techniques to record and document the daily interactions in the marae gardens. Participants came from three distinct groups, which include: homeless Māori men, the Auckland City Mission, and Ngāti Whātua o Orakei. A total of eight participants were formally interviewed, along with another six who engaged in casual conversations, in this research, with ages ranged from 30 to 70 years of age. Key findings from this research relate to the construction and preservation of Māori identity while in a state of homelessness, the functioning of marae as spaces of care that foster the wellbeing of Māori, and the role of food in the reproduction of Māori cultural values in everyday life. The broader significance of my work is to use indigenous concepts to build an understanding of the activities, needs and relationships of homeless Māori men that they can recognise themselves from.

text: Homeless Māori Men: Re-connection, Re-joining, and Re-membering Ways of Being There are a range of interventions and programmes to address the on-going issue of Māori homelessness. This thesis explores a gardening project hosted by a Ngāti Whātua marae (communal complex used for everyday Māori life) in Auckland for homeless Māori men. The garden project facilitates a sense of belonging, dignity, purpose, meaning and connectedness with other Māori people. It provides insights into how culturally-patterned relationships are centrally important to resolving the overrepresentation of indigenous peoples’ in homelessness populations. I employ the use of semi-structured interviews, reflective journaling, and photography as techniques to record and document the daily interactions in the marae gardens. Participants came from three distinct groups, which include: homeless Māori men, the Auckland City Mission, and Ngāti Whātua o Orakei. A total of eight participants were formally interviewed, along with another six who engaged in casual conversations, in this research, with ages ranged from 30 to 70 years of age. Key findings from this research relate to the construction and preservation of Māori identity while in a state of homelessness, the functioning of marae as spaces of care that foster the wellbeing of Māori, and the role of food in the reproduction of Māori cultural values in everyday life. The broader significance of my work is to use indigenous concepts to build an understanding of the activities, needs and relationships of homeless Māori men that they can recognise themselves from.

year: 2014

title: Environmental performance outcomes and indicators for indigenous peoples: Review of literature

authors: Kennedy, Nathan

subjects: New Zealand

abstract: The literature review in this report was the starting point for developing a Māori research strand (2003-2009) within the Planning Under Co-operative Mandates (PUCM) research programme (1995-2009). An early task of the PUCM Māori team was to review the international literature on environmental outcomes and indicators for indigenous peoples. This was in order to gain an understanding of what had been written on the subject and to become familiar with approaches taken by others that might provide lessons for the development of our proposed kaupapa Māori outcomes and indicators framework and methodology, which was aimed at local government performance in Aotearoa/New Zealand. This current report is not intended to provide an exhaustive catalogue of writings on environmental performance outcomes and indicators for indigenous peoples, including Māori. Rather, some of the more obvious and important writings are noted as a ready reference for others interested in this topic. Before detailing the approach we took in carrying out the review, the key terms, outcomes and indicators, are defined.

text: Environmental performance outcomes and indicators for indigenous peoples: Review of literature The literature review in this report was the starting point for developing a Māori research strand (2003-2009) within the Planning Under Co-operative Mandates (PUCM) research programme (1995-2009). An early task of the PUCM Māori team was to review the international literature on environmental outcomes and indicators for indigenous peoples. This was in order to gain an understanding of what had been written on the subject and to become familiar with approaches taken by others that might provide lessons for the development of our proposed kaupapa Māori outcomes and indicators framework and methodology, which was aimed at local government performance in Aotearoa/New Zealand. This current report is not intended to provide an exhaustive catalogue of writings on environmental performance outcomes and indicators for indigenous peoples, including Māori. Rather, some of the more obvious and important writings are noted as a ready reference for others interested in this topic. Before detailing the approach we took in carrying out the review, the key terms, outcomes and indicators, are defined.

year: 2009-07-31

title: “The experiences I give them, that is going to be their opinion” : Formative assessment through dialogue in Technology Education

authors: Rangarajan, Swathi Rama

subjects: Interactive Formative Assessment

abstract: The purpose of the formative assessment is for the teacher to recognise the student’s learning and guide the student to the next step in their learning. This study focuses on Interactive Formative Assessment (IFA), which is formative assessment through dialogue. IFA through dialogue is especially critical in a subject like Technology Education (TE) where students design and develop products based on a given design brief. As every student is developing something independently, formal whole-class test may not be effective for formative assessment. Formative assessment in TE is carried out mainly through dialogue. However, to participate in a dialogue, the teacher needs to plan open, high-cognitive questions that can encourage dialogue. Technology Observation and Conversation Framework (TOCF) (Fox-Turnbull, 2018) was identified as a framework of high-cognitive questions specially designed for a technology classroom. In this study, the TOCF was modified for use as a formative assessment tool and is called Questioning
Framework for Technology - Primary (QFT-P). This study, thus, contributes to the research in formative assessment and dialogue in TE in primary schools - two areas that have limited research to date. This research addresses the research gap in the process of IFA in TE, teacher beliefs and knowledge for conducting IFA, and student learning through participating in the IFA dialogue.
In this qualitative, pragmatic, design-based research, the QFT-P was aligned with the New Zealand curriculum and provided to two primary teachers teaching Year 5-6 (ages 9-10). Design-based research has dual aims - implementing a resource in a naturalistic environment and understanding the theory behind the implementation process. In this research, 175 hours of classroom observations and 35 hours of audio-recording of teacher-student dialogue were the main sources of data. Interviews, video-recording,and photographs of classroom artefacts and student work were other sources of data. Teacher’s experiences with using the QFT-P dictated the iterations of the formative assessment tool.
The findings showed that the teachers used the QFT-P as a formative assessment tool and were able to have a deep and rich dialogue with the students. Through the dialogue, teachers were able to recognise student learning and guide them to the next step in their learning. Based on analysis of dialogue in the classroom, the existing model of IFA was expanded by the addition of two steps - Student action and Teacher follow-up and conceptualised as a spiral. IFA is recognised to be a complex process due to the teacher managing the spiral for multiple students at the same time. Teachers showed implicit knowledge about TE that they were not always able to translate into teaching TE. Teachers’ beliefs about the importance of student’s voice and teachers’ content knowledge of TE were important to conduct an effective IFA. When participating in IFA, students showed concrete learning in many of the curriculum objectives and teacher’s priority objectives. However, students did not always implement their feedback and it was seen in this study that if the feedback was not implemented within the next lesson, there was a loss of opportunity for the associated learning.
This thesis brings new insights in the field of IFA and formative assessment in TE and offers a formative assessment tool in the form of the QFT-P for primary, technology teachers.

text: “The experiences I give them, that is going to be their opinion” : Formative assessment through dialogue in Technology Education The purpose of the formative assessment is for the teacher to recognise the student’s learning and guide the student to the next step in their learning. This study focuses on Interactive Formative Assessment (IFA), which is formative assessment through dialogue. IFA through dialogue is especially critical in a subject like Technology Education (TE) where students design and develop products based on a given design brief. As every student is developing something independently, formal whole-class test may not be effective for formative assessment. Formative assessment in TE is carried out mainly through dialogue. However, to participate in a dialogue, the teacher needs to plan open, high-cognitive questions that can encourage dialogue. Technology Observation and Conversation Framework (TOCF) (Fox-Turnbull, 2018) was identified as a framework of high-cognitive questions specially designed for a technology classroom. In this study, the TOCF was modified for use as a formative assessment tool and is called Questioning
Framework for Technology - Primary (QFT-P). This study, thus, contributes to the research in formative assessment and dialogue in TE in primary schools - two areas that have limited research to date. This research addresses the research gap in the process of IFA in TE, teacher beliefs and knowledge for conducting IFA, and student learning through participating in the IFA dialogue.
In this qualitative, pragmatic, design-based research, the QFT-P was aligned with the New Zealand curriculum and provided to two primary teachers teaching Year 5-6 (ages 9-10). Design-based research has dual aims - implementing a resource in a naturalistic environment and understanding the theory behind the implementation process. In this research, 175 hours of classroom observations and 35 hours of audio-recording of teacher-student dialogue were the main sources of data. Interviews, video-recording,and photographs of classroom artefacts and student work were other sources of data. Teacher’s experiences with using the QFT-P dictated the iterations of the formative assessment tool.
The findings showed that the teachers used the QFT-P as a formative assessment tool and were able to have a deep and rich dialogue with the students. Through the dialogue, teachers were able to recognise student learning and guide them to the next step in their learning. Based on analysis of dialogue in the classroom, the existing model of IFA was expanded by the addition of two steps - Student action and Teacher follow-up and conceptualised as a spiral. IFA is recognised to be a complex process due to the teacher managing the spiral for multiple students at the same time. Teachers showed implicit knowledge about TE that they were not always able to translate into teaching TE. Teachers’ beliefs about the importance of student’s voice and teachers’ content knowledge of TE were important to conduct an effective IFA. When participating in IFA, students showed concrete learning in many of the curriculum objectives and teacher’s priority objectives. However, students did not always implement their feedback and it was seen in this study that if the feedback was not implemented within the next lesson, there was a loss of opportunity for the associated learning.
This thesis brings new insights in the field of IFA and formative assessment in TE and offers a formative assessment tool in the form of the QFT-P for primary, technology teachers.

year: 2022