title: Moving beyond panaceas in fisheries governance

authors: Young, Oran R.

subjects: Science & Technology

abstract: In fisheries management—as in environmental governance more generally—regulatory arrangements thatare thought to be helpful in some contexts frequently become panaceas or, in other words, simpleformulaic policy prescriptions believed to solve a given problem in a wide range of contexts, regardlessof their actual consequences. When this happens, management is likely to fail, and negative side effectsare common. We focus on the case of individual transferable quotas to explore the panacea mindset, a setof factors that promote the spread and persistence of panaceas. These include conceptual narratives thatmake easy answers like panaceas seem plausible, power disconnects that create vested interests in pan-aceas, and heuristics and biases that prevent people from accurately assessing panaceas. Analysts havesuggested many approaches to avoiding panaceas, but most fail to conquer the underlying panaceamindset. Here, we suggest the codevelopment of an institutional diagnostics toolkit to distill the vastamount of information on fisheries governance into an easily accessible, open, on-line database of check-lists, case studies, and related resources. Toolkits like this could be used in many governance settings tochallenge users’understandings of a policy’s impacts and help them develop solutions better tailored totheir particular context. They would not replace the more comprehensive approaches found in the liter-ature but would rather be an intermediate step away from the problem of panaceas.

text: Moving beyond panaceas in fisheries governance In fisheries management—as in environmental governance more generally—regulatory arrangements thatare thought to be helpful in some contexts frequently become panaceas or, in other words, simpleformulaic policy prescriptions believed to solve a given problem in a wide range of contexts, regardlessof their actual consequences. When this happens, management is likely to fail, and negative side effectsare common. We focus on the case of individual transferable quotas to explore the panacea mindset, a setof factors that promote the spread and persistence of panaceas. These include conceptual narratives thatmake easy answers like panaceas seem plausible, power disconnects that create vested interests in pan-aceas, and heuristics and biases that prevent people from accurately assessing panaceas. Analysts havesuggested many approaches to avoiding panaceas, but most fail to conquer the underlying panaceamindset. Here, we suggest the codevelopment of an institutional diagnostics toolkit to distill the vastamount of information on fisheries governance into an easily accessible, open, on-line database of check-lists, case studies, and related resources. Toolkits like this could be used in many governance settings tochallenge users’understandings of a policy’s impacts and help them develop solutions better tailored totheir particular context. They would not replace the more comprehensive approaches found in the liter-ature but would rather be an intermediate step away from the problem of panaceas.

year: 2018-09-11

title: Unlocking curious minds evaluation report: Developing a STEM mobile makerspace and maker educator learning resources

authors: Khoo, Elaine G.L.

abstract: This report details our research project funded under the Unlocking Curious Minds initiative 2020. It was conducted in parallel with the makerspace programme: Building a city of the Future 2040. This report describes the project aims, rationale, the City of the Future themed intervention, and findings of the developmental initiative

text: Unlocking curious minds evaluation report: Developing a STEM mobile makerspace and maker educator learning resources This report details our research project funded under the Unlocking Curious Minds initiative 2020. It was conducted in parallel with the makerspace programme: Building a city of the Future 2040. This report describes the project aims, rationale, the City of the Future themed intervention, and findings of the developmental initiative

year: 2021

title: Intersecting knowledge worlds: Describing the cultural interfaces within a socioscientific issue

authors: Wagner, Brent

subjects: cultural interface

abstract: Increasing numbers of science teachers in Aotearoa New Zealand are exploring ways to incorporate indigenous mātauranga Māori (Māori knowledge and ways of knowing) into their science programmes. This article presents findings from a study that examined how senior biology students in two English-medium secondary schools incorporated mātauranga Māori alongside biological science knowledge in their discussions about the use of 1080 poison to control mammalian predators. From a social constructivist ontology and interpretivist mode of inquiry using qualitative methodology, a triadic epistemic agency conceptual framework was developed inductively and used to analyse students’ written scripts for their national school leaving qualification (NCEA), and transcriptions of individual interviews. The study took place prior to the introduction of equal status to mātauranga Māori within the New Zealand Curriculum. Deductive analysis using the Triadic identified a group of ten students who drew from both knowledge systems, with varying degrees of knowledge integration. In addition to detailed representations of the theoretical space of the locale of the learner, the findings also identified three distinctive cultural interfaces occupied by the students: conflicted, parallel, and, connected. The findings underscore the importance of enabling diverse knowledge systems in biology classes to converge. Specifically, the incorporation of mātauranga Māori alongside biological science knowledge encourages a critical stance towards knowledge claims, supports pluralist knowledge use among culturally and linguistically diverse learners and promotes critical engagement with socioscientific issues (SSI) in senior secondary school biology.

text: Intersecting knowledge worlds: Describing the cultural interfaces within a socioscientific issue Increasing numbers of science teachers in Aotearoa New Zealand are exploring ways to incorporate indigenous mātauranga Māori (Māori knowledge and ways of knowing) into their science programmes. This article presents findings from a study that examined how senior biology students in two English-medium secondary schools incorporated mātauranga Māori alongside biological science knowledge in their discussions about the use of 1080 poison to control mammalian predators. From a social constructivist ontology and interpretivist mode of inquiry using qualitative methodology, a triadic epistemic agency conceptual framework was developed inductively and used to analyse students’ written scripts for their national school leaving qualification (NCEA), and transcriptions of individual interviews. The study took place prior to the introduction of equal status to mātauranga Māori within the New Zealand Curriculum. Deductive analysis using the Triadic identified a group of ten students who drew from both knowledge systems, with varying degrees of knowledge integration. In addition to detailed representations of the theoretical space of the locale of the learner, the findings also identified three distinctive cultural interfaces occupied by the students: conflicted, parallel, and, connected. The findings underscore the importance of enabling diverse knowledge systems in biology classes to converge. Specifically, the incorporation of mātauranga Māori alongside biological science knowledge encourages a critical stance towards knowledge claims, supports pluralist knowledge use among culturally and linguistically diverse learners and promotes critical engagement with socioscientific issues (SSI) in senior secondary school biology.

year: 2026