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    Why a strategic shift in action is needed to recognise and empower Indigenous plant pathology knowledge and research
    (Springer Nature on behalf of the Australasian Plant Pathology Society Inc, 2024-05-01) Ehau-Taumaunu H; Williams NM; Marsh A; Waipara NW; Higgins CM; Geering ADW; Mesarich CH; Rigano LA; Summerell BA; Johnson GI; Williamson P; MacDiarmid RM
    Plant pathology researchers play a pivotal role in thought leadership and its translation to action regarding the recognition and demonstration of the value of Indigenous knowledge and science. For many scientists, navigating the space of Indigenous rights and perspectives is challenging. In pursuit of a cultural shift in research and development within the field of plant pathology, the 2019–2021 Management Committee of the Australasian Plant Pathology Society (APPS) undertook a review and modernization of the Society’s Constitution. The aim was to ensure its alignment with principles that foster inclusivity of Indigenous peoples in the development and implementation of relevant research projects impacting their communities. Additionally, a dynamic repository of guidelines and resources was compiled. These resources are designed to assist plant pathologists, while respecting and not superseding the guidance provided by local Indigenous researchers, practitioners, and advisors. The collective efforts of plant pathologists hold immense potential in championing Indigenous Peoples and their rights, steering the field toward a more inclusive and equitable future. This paper builds upon the thesis presented in the APPS Presidential Address at the Biennial APPS Conference in 2021, held virtually in lutruwita (Tasmania) on the unceded lands of the Palawa people. It underscores the potential impact when plant pathologists unite in advocating for Indigenous Peoples and their rightful place within the field.
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    Frustration and ennui among Amazon MTurk workers
    (Springer Nature on behalf of the Psychonomic Society, Inc, 2023-09) Fowler C; Jiao J; Pitts M
    Academics are increasingly turning to crowdsourcing platforms to recruit research participants. Their endeavors have benefited from a proliferation of studies attesting to the quality of crowdsourced data or offering guidance on managing specific challenges associated with doing crowdsourced research. Thus far, however, relatively little is known about what it is like to be a participant in crowdsourced research. Our analysis of almost 1400 free-text responses provides insight into the frustrations encountered by workers on one widely used crowdsourcing site: Amazon's MTurk. Some of these frustrations stem from inherent limitations of the MTurk platform and cannot easily be addressed by researchers. Many others, however, concern factors that are directly controllable by researchers and that may also be relevant for researchers using other crowdsourcing platforms such as Prolific or CrowdFlower. Based on participants' accounts of their experiences as crowdsource workers, we offer recommendations researchers might consider as they seek to design online studies that demonstrate consideration for respondents and respect for their time, effort, and dignity.
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    Logic and the basis of ethics : a critical evaluation with respect to the naturalistic fallacy : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Philosophy at Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2008) Broom, Stacey Lauren
    Arthur Prior (1914-1969) was a New Zealand philosopher who worked primarily on Logic and is often referred to as the father of tense logic. In 1949, while lecturing at Canterbury University in Christchurch, New Zealand, Prior published Logic and the Basis of Ethics, in which he developed a historical background of the 'issue' as he called it of describing character and conduct by using ethical predicates. Prior believed that when one attempts to describe character and conduct using terms such as 'good' and 'bad' one will likely resort to giving a definition of those terms to support their use in a situation, and then one will be guilty of fallacious reasoning since those terms are indefinable. Prior makes reference to almost fifty philosophers and others over the course of about one hundred pages, but spends more time on G. E. Moore and Ralph Cudworth than many of the others he covers. In this thesis I will critically evaluate Prior's arguments in Logic and the Basis of Ethics, in particular those that relate to Moore, Cudworth, and the naturalistic fallacy. There is a long-standing debate about the naturalistic fallacy because while some argue that it is obviously a fallacy, others argue that it is not a fallacy at all, thus the aim in this thesis will be to consider whether Prior's arguments regarding the naturalistic fallacy are confused and to illustrate the nature of the scholarly controversy.
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    An investigation of some correlates of mature moral judgement : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Education at Massey University
    (Massey University, 1974) Whalley, David George
    From Kohlberg's cognitive developmental perspective, moral judgement has been viewed as an aspect of ego development which is related to other aspects of ego development. The purpose of this research was to investigate some possible correlates of mature moral judgement: although some research had been conducted with children practically no research into correlates in adult populations has been reported. A sample of 50 male and 32 female first year teachers' college volunteer subjects was used. Of these, a random subsample of 10 males was used to test the congruent validity of the written questionnaire form of 4 of Kohlberg's (1958) moral dilemma situations devised for this research, with the original interview technique. Using a design counterbalanced for order of presentation with one week retest interval the difference between the measuring devices was found to be non-significant (t = -0.13, p>.55) . The remaining subjects wore randomly assigned to one of two testing orders - 20 males and 16 females to each group. In three testing sessions at 3-4 day intervals both groups were administered the: Kohlberg Moral Judgement Scale (written form). Study of Ethical Attitudes, C.P.I., P.O.I., Study of Values, E.P.I., Californian F-test and Mill Hill Vocabulary Scales. The order of presentation was counterbalanced. Two-way ANOVAs were performed on the data to test for sex or order effects. In the majority of cases no significant effects wore found and so the data was contained to provide a sample n of 72. On scales on which significant differences were found separate analysis of the subgroups was performed. A measure of Piagetian cognitive level was obtained 2 months later by individual testing. Analysis of the Kohlberg scale revealed a high level of stage mixture: only 5.5 percent of subjects had a range as low as 4 stages. Evidence was put forward that indicates that high levels of stage mixture have also been found by others and the conflict between this finding and Kohlberg's theory was discussed. A factor analysis of the item scores revealed 6 factors with eigen values greater than one. Five of these could be interpreted meaningfully in terms of Kohlberg's theory but the second factor was difficult to interpret; it seemed because of its correlations with other measures to be concerned with general sensitivity to ethical issues. The factors were identified as: factor 1 (conflict between obedience to the law and the value of human life), factor 3 (duty vs contractual obligation), factor 4 (spirit of the law), factor 5 (property rights) and factor 6 (power rights vs moral rights). Contrary to Kohlberg's finding but in line with a number of other studies no major moral judgement factor emerged. Correlations between Moral maturity scores and other personality measures were largely non-significant. A correlation of -.30 (p<.05) confirmed the negative correlation between these two measures reported by Kohlberg (1964). The correlation of .34 (p<.05) with the Study of Values religious scale for the male subsample was in the opposite direction to that reported by Klinger et al (1964). The only other significant correlation was that of .34 (p<.05) with Piagetian cognitive level in the females. Failure to find a similar correlation in the males was attributed to the high level of male responses resulting in little variability over the critical range. Reanalysis involving correlations between Kohlberg scale factor scores and the other personological scales revealed 11 significant correlations; i.e. 4.8 percent of those calculated reached the .05 level or higher. 4 of these correlations were with the first factor (conflict between obedience to the law and the value of human life), and seemed to show that conventional level judgements related to the acceptance of conventional Christian attitudes toward life and work and to authoritarian tendencies. Reanalysis of the data, from subsamples in which clearer personological differences could be expected, was conducted. t-tests between Ss whose moral maturity scores were in the extreme quartiles were calculated for those C.P.I. and P.O.I. scales measuring traits expected to be most closely related to moral maturity. No significant differences were found. Correlations between moral maturity and all other scales were calculated for those 14 Ss with the most homogeneous moral judgement profiles and again those for 34 Ss with the most homogeneous moral judgement profiles. In both of these subsamples the only significant correlations were with the Californian F test (r xy = -.80, p<.01, n = 14: r xy = -.37, p<.05, n = 34). 2-way ANOVA of the effects of empathy and autonomy on moral maturity revealed do significant effects. A factor analysis of all scales including moral maturity, but excluding the ipsative Study of Values scales, extracted 10 factors with eigen values greater than 1. The eighth factor had a loading of -.90 on moral maturity and was clearly a Kohlberg scale factor. Canonical correlation between Kohlberg scale item scores and the other scales revealed 15 significant correlations, the first of which was a canonical correlation of .97. Inspection of the normalized weights showed that meaningful interpretation of these linear combinations within existing theoretical and conceptual frameworks was not possible. A considerable number of variables were measured and intensive analysis of results conducted but the only variable that was found to consistently relate to moral maturity was authoritarianism. Evidence obtained from this sample pointed to the possibility that a positive correlation between moral maturity and cognitive development may be found in samples more representative of adult variability on this dimension.
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    Teaching socioscientific issues and ethical decision-making : a self-study : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Education at Massey University, Manawatū, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2014) Farrant, Kirsty Jane
    The research outlined in this thesis involved reflecting on my teaching practice in a self-study to investigate whether changes could be made to the way I teach ethical decision-making on socioscientific issues. I wanted to improve the students’ ability to justify ethical decisions they made as part of an assessment. During 2011 I actively gathered data for a self-study in science education, investigating my teaching of ethical decision-making to my Year 13 Biology students. I was aware that students were not justifying the ethical decisions they made as part of an assessment done in the course, and wanted to develop their ability to do this. The theoretical framework of this research was constructivism. In the case of this self-study, I considered myself to be the learner, making sense out of what I found. The self-study was conducted in a New Zealand secondary school Biology classroom. The tool used for enabling the students to improve their ethical decision-making is located on the Biotechnology Learning Hub. The Ethics Thinking Tool was developed for use within science classrooms, and provides a selection of ethical perspectives for students to explore. Data were gathered from a range of sources, in particular my professional journal and interviews with a group of students in my Year 13 Biology class. The interviews, held at the conclusion of the course to minimise ethical concerns, focussed on the teaching that had occurred in a unit on socioscientific issues. These interviews, when analysed alongside my professional journal and critical conversations with a mentor, provided a rich source of data. Ten critical incidents occurring within the teaching of this unit were identified as being significant events in terms of either the teaching process or the research process. These were reflected upon and whilst each of these critical incidents revealed insight into my practice, four of them seemed to offer real impetus for change in teaching practice. These four critical incidents were unpacked for further, more in depth, analysis. Four main ideas emerged from the data, one from each of the critical incidents analysed in depth. I now recognise the significant value of being critically reflective on my teaching, particularly when using new teaching tools or resources. The second insight is that I found that my intended outcomes as a teacher did not always match what the students thought the intended outcomes were. Whilst this dissonance did not necessarily impact on the experience for the students, as a teacher it is important to reflect on differing perceptions within the same teaching and learning environment. It also highlights the tension in secondary education between preparation for university versus preparation for citizenship. The third insight is that it is also essential to teach general research skills as well as subject-specific research skills. My fourth insight is that there is significant value in talking to students about more than the content. Further, conversations with a pedagogical focus can be beneficial for both the teacher and the learner. The result of all of these insights has been a shift in how I conduct conversations with students. Only by changing the focus have I been able to make changes that I hope ensure students develop competencies they can use in future contexts. As a consequence of this study I intend to take the notion of self-study back to my school to enable other teachers to use the framework developed as part of this research to explore their practice. This type of innovative inquiry within the secondary setting has the potential to lead to real change in the way teachers reflect on their own practice, allowing them to make informed change that will make a difference for both the teacher and the learners, in a collaborative and supportive environment.
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    Religious ethical values and earnings quality : some evidence from Malaysia : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Accountancy at Massey University, Albany, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2012) Abdul Rahman, Rahayu
    The main purpose of this thesis is to examine the association between religious ethical values and earnings quality. This study builds upon the principals and ethical framework of Islamic teachings (Shariah). It analyses how such ethical values affect the earnings quality of Malaysian listed firms. Shariah is the Islamic code for day-to-day conduct of individuals under Islam. It provides principles of good practices including accountability at both individual and organizational levels. It promotes justice and welfare in society by encouraging better ethical conduct. Based on these premises, it is hypothesised in this thesis that Shariah is associated with high quality reported earnings. Two different attributes of earnings quality are used to test the above hypothesis. These are earnings management and accounting conservatism. A sample of 1,878 firm-year observations from 2000 to 2007 of Malaysian firms is used for examining the association between Shariah and earnings quality. The study finds a significant negative association between Shariah, and real and accrual-based earnings management. In particular, this study finds that Shariah is associated with lower abnormal discretionary accruals, abnormal cash flow from operations, and abnormal discretionary expenses. Further, results of the study reveal that Shariah is associated with higher levels of accounting conservatism. Overall, the results suggest that Shariah is an important monitoring mechanism in limiting managerial opportunism and, consequently, enhances the quality of accounting earnings.
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    Should the law allow sentiment to triumph over science? The retention of body parts
    (2002) Thomas, C. M.
    The use of human body material including tissue and organs has been controversial for many centuries. Concerns arose in the eighteenth century about practices used to obtain corpses for dissection. Scientific studies in biotechnology have placed increased value on the body as a source of research material. At the same time there is now a greater emphasis on individual autonomy. Disputes reflect the striking differences between scientific or utilitarian perspectives and the body’s social meaning. This paper considers issues that have arisen in several countries relating to the use of body parts and considers whether the law in New Zealand is sufficient to prevent such problems from arising in New Zealand. The conclusion is that present legal structures are insufficient to keep pace with technological advances. If biotechnology is to advance, it is essential to address the issues of consent while respecting cultural and religious views of the need for respect for the human body.
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    Are we doing good? : Catholic Social Teaching and the ethics of public policy outcomes in New Zealand : a thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Public Policy, Massey University, Albany
    (Massey University, 2010) Radford, Brenda Margaret
    From the perspective that avoidable social and environmental injustices exist in New Zealand, this research examines the ethics of public policy. It suggests that our society would be more justly sustainable if the ethics of policy outcomes were to supersede political expediency as the dominant influence in government’s decision-making. An Appreciative Inquiry with expert interviewees is applied to the two-part proposition that: (a) a greater focus on ethics and social morality is required for effective policy-making; and (b) the application of the principles of Catholic Social Teaching would enhance the ethical coherence of government policy, programme and service development. The research has found that the public policy system in New Zealand enables its workers to ‘do well,’ but often prevents them from ‘doing good,’ in policy domains such as housing and employment. Erroneous assumptions by policy actors that their work is morally neutral limit their appreciation of the effects that government decisions have on society and the natural environment. The research suggests that government should insist on ethical analysis of policy proposals and impacts as a pre-requisite for its decisions. Since Catholic Social Teaching is congruent with our accepted standards of social morality, it could helpfully be applied to policy design and implementation in this country. The best way to position CST as a moral signpost for policy-making would be to apply it to specific policies and services. This project has been oriented from the outset towards applicability in the public policy environment. Accordingly, the research includes three new policy-making frameworks which combine the principles of Catholic Social Teaching with the methodology of Appreciative Inquiry. Use of these analytical frameworks would enable all policy actors to assess the ethics of recommendations and decisions in terms of their impacts on people and the earth.
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    Nurse managers' ethical conflict with their health care organizations : a New Zealand perspective : a thesis presented in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Management in Health Service Management at Management at Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2008) Chalmers, Linda Maree
    Immersed in a context of constrained health resources, nurse managers are at great risk of the experience and negative consequences of values clashes and ethical conflict, such as burnout and attrition. Replicating a qualitative descriptive study previously conducted in Canada (Gaudine & Beaton, 2002) this research is aimed at increasing knowledge of the experience of nurse managers’ ethical conflict with their health care organizations in New Zealand. Semi-structured interviews were used to gather data from eight nurse managers in New Zealand, which was analyzed using a general inductive approach to qualitative research. The experience of advocating for values that may be shared by both nursing and the health care organization, such as safety, teamwork and quality patient care, were revealed in the conceptual category of Nursing Management Advocacy. As with their Canadian study counterparts, Isolation was revealed as a key factor that made the experience of ethical conflict worse and involves the social experiences of silencing, employment barriers and invisibility. Support describes the factors that mitigated the experience of ethical conflict and involves personal, professional and organizational support, and are likewise similar to the experiences of Canadian nurse managers. The Bottom Line describes a focal point of the experience of ethical conflict where the health care organizations predominantly fiscal bottom line was confronted and challenged by nurse managers, and where the nurse manager might reach their own bottom line and choose to leave the organization. Being and Becoming Nursing Leaders describes the outcomes of ethical conflict for nurse managers who were not only transformed into nursing leaders, through learning, reflection, and growth but also counted the costs of nursing leadership. This study concludes that supportive colleagues, organizational structures and culture are essential to mitigating the experience of ethical conflict and isolation which nurse managers encounter. The study also concludes that reducing isolation and supporting nurse managers will ensure that nursing values are appropriately represented and articulated in the health care organization’s decision making systems and processes.