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    Multiple veterinary stakeholders' perspectives on important professionalism attributes for career success in veterinary clinical practice : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Veterinary Science at Massey University, Manawatū, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2020) Gordon, Stuart John Galt
    There is an increasing body of literature on professionalism in the health sciences. Most research has, however, elicited the opinions of single groups of experts and tried to use these to generalise across the profession. The aim of the thesis was, therefore, to gain a broad understanding of professionalism by appraising the voices of many tiers of veterinary stakeholders involved in veterinary clinical practice. Through a mixed methods approach using card-sort analysis, online questionnaires, focus groups, critical incident reporting and analysis of client complaints, information was collected from first year and final year Massey University veterinary students, clinical veterinary practitioners and veterinary clients. An online questionnaire was also used to gather the final year veterinary students’ opinions on veterinary professionalism pedagogy. The iterative sampling method ensured that a wide range of perceptions were represented. These multiple perspectives, along with the existing knowledge contained within the literature on veterinary and medical professionalism, provide the basis upon which to develop a theoretical framework on professionalism in the veterinary context. The synthesis of data into a framework was undertaken primarily through a grounded theory approach. The research also provides support for the importance of including professionalism in veterinary curricula. Three overarching themes emerged from the analysis of the veterinary stakeholders’ opinions, namely: ‘committing to best practice’, ‘building the veterinarian-client relationship’ and ‘client expectations’. The framework of veterinary professionalism that has evolved from scrutiny of these themes revolves around the principles of ‘veterinary care’. Career success and satisfaction for practising clinical veterinarians hinges on three crucial domains of veterinary care: ‘patient-centred care’, ‘relationship-centred care’, and ‘self-care’. The focus of patient-centred care is the animal, while the foci of relationship-centred care are the client and veterinary colleagues. The self-care domain focuses on the practising veterinarian as a person. Professionalism, therefore, fundamentally revolves around veterinarians’ accountability to a social contract with patients, clients and colleagues as well as to themselves. Analysis of veterinary student opinions on the teaching of professionalism revealed constructive viewpoints and recommendations. Students recommended that the veterinary professionalism course be embedded across the whole primary veterinary teaching programme, including in the early years of study. It was further suggested that role-playing and reflective practice should be used throughout the programme to support the development of professionalism. The need to assess professionalism adequately and appropriately was also highlighted, as was the need to include rewards for displays of good professional behaviour. The potential for the hidden curriculum and negative clinical role models to undermine the teaching of professionalism was also addressed. Additionally, students recommended that the veterinary professionalism curriculum should prepare graduates for the job market by accommodating the requirements of veterinary employers. This research represents the first time that the opinions of multiple veterinary stakeholders on the attributes of professionalism important for career success have been solicited in one series of research studies. Furthermore, this study has used novel methodologies to determine the opinions of stakeholders. For the first time, a card-sort analysis has been used to solicit veterinary students’ opinions and the critical incident technique has been used to determine the perspectives of practising veterinarians. Analysing client complaints lodged with the Veterinary Council of New Zealand also represents an original method of determining those attributes of professionalism that will promote veterinary career success and satisfaction. By seeking the perspectives of multiple veterinary stakeholders, the body of knowledge about professionalism has been extended. Furthermore, the neoteric framework of veterinary professionalism, developed in the study, could help to form the basis for constructing a robust curriculum prescribing the teaching and assessment of veterinary professionalism. It may also be used by veterinarians as a guide in the practice of veterinary medicine and in their relationships with patients, clients, colleagues and society.
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    Professionalism and secondary teachers in New Zealand : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Education at Massey University
    (Massey University, 1969) Levesque, David R
    From the economic and social standpoint a country's educational system is its main means both of perpetuating the values and skills of its population and preparing it for the changes which progress requires". (Phillips 1964) One of the mainstays of a country's educational system is its teachers and therefore much of the responsibility for the future welfare of a society rests on their shoulders. From such a basis this study attempts to examine a group of teachers from a segment of New Zealand's teaching force with the aim of contributing to a more empirically based analysis of secondary teachers in this country. As this Investigation is concerned with teachers in their occupational roles, rather than with teaching, the concept of professionalism is used as the main structuring element in the research. An attempt is made to justify the basic premise that all teachers should be professionally orientated. Such an orientation is conceived as having three basic elements; technical competence, autonomy and service ideal. A professional teacher is seen as one who has a feeling of expertise in his occupational role (competence); wants the freedom to do the job the way he thinks it ought to be done (autonomy); and considers his basic loyalty to be to his pupils rather than the institution (service). An index of professionalism is calculated for each respondent on the basis of the answers to items in a composite question-set (see question 33, Appendix). The sample comprised one hundred and eighty-six teachers from ten schools situated in and around a light industrial and servicing centre in the lower half of the North Island. This number represented a response rate of just over fifty percent. Responses were coded on to I.B.M. cards for analysis, and calculation of statistical significance (using chi-square) was done by computer. The more specific purpose of the research is to examine some of the possible background correlates of a professional role perception in teaching by investigating the relationship between professionalism and sex-role, socio-economic background, advanced training and occupational position. A further intention is to see what possible consequence professionalism has on other elements of the teaching situation by looking for relationships between it and teaching style, extra-curricular activities, perceptions of aims of education, external examinations, emphasis in education, teacher satisfaction and participation in professional associations. Much of the value of this research is in terms of the lack of significant findings, pointing to one or all of the following:- (i) the methodical inadequacies in the operationalisation of the concept of professionalism; (ii) the inappropriateness of the concept for teaching; (iii) the distinction which must be made between a professional role perception and professional behaviour. However some significant findings do emerge in relation to sex-role and marital status, emphases in teaching style, emphases in other elements of education, outside examinations, interest and activity in the Post Primary Teachers' Association and satisfaction in teaching. Most of these results are consistent with the concept of a professional role orientation (especially the service element), but some point to the disparity between a professional orientation and professional behaviour. Although only limited generalisations can be drawn from the data, this study has value in that it begins research in an area of New Zealand education so far little investigated.
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    Ethical dilemmas experienced by early career educational psychologists in Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand : a thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Educational Psychology, Institute of Education, Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2017) Martis, Debra Kaye
    The ethical dilemmas confronting early career psychologists (those with less than five years’ experience) employed in school settings in Aotearoa New Zealand and in Australia, are explored in this research. Responses were sought through requests to professional bodies to publicise the survey to their members. Sixteen responses were received, seven from New Zealand, and nine from one state in Australia, giving a total of 14 eligible responses. The research was carried out with the goal of developing an understanding of the ethical situations confronting early career educational psychologists, and the processes used to resolve ethical challenges, with findings being used to inform training practices. Being aware of the types of challenges typically confronting educational psychologists allows educators to prepare them as well as possible for those challenges. Given the small data set, at most the study can be seen as a preliminary consideration of the ethical issues confronting early career educational psychologists in the two countries however the research has provided some foundations on which future research can build. It was found that the use of inappropriate assessment tools, and issues related to security of school records were the most commonly reported ethical transgressions, and issues related to interventions, such as failure to follow up on interventions were also encountered frequently by respondents. Uncertainty about contacting child protective services in cases of suspected child abuse was the most frequently experienced and highly challenging ethical dilemma, followed by challenges related to disclosure to parents of minors engaging in risky behaviour. iii Data suggest that increased collaboration between educational psychologists, the professional bodies representing them, school stakeholders, and other agencies representing students with educational challenges, is likely to be beneficial to all parties. Additionally, research to identify the strategies used by more experienced practitioners to cope with extensive work commitments and limited time is another area worthy of consideration. Exploration of the different types of supervision and their effectiveness is indicated to enhance the supervision process, and finally ensuring that educational psychologists are familiar with current best practice to ensure the security of electronic data is recommended.
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    Bureaucracy and professionalism in an educational organisation : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Education at Massey University
    (Massey University, 1971) Shaw, Brian
    The development of human societies has been in essence a development of forms of social organisation. In modern societies, social organisation is complex, diverse, and characterised by conditions of industrialisation, division of labour, urbanisation, and the aggregation of individuals into large organisations with specific purposes. One form of social organisation which has developed to maintain social relationships in such conditions is the bureaucracy. Bureaucracies as structures, or systems of rational procedures deliberately set up to achieve specifically prescribed social ends, affect to some degree the lives of all citizens of modern societies. Educational organisations are bureaucratised to varying degrees, and the rapid and accelerating demand for popular education suggests that bureaucratisation is likely to be a dominating characteristic of education in the future.
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    "Integrity matters : an inquiry into social workers' understandings" : a thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Social Work, School of Health and Social Services, Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2010) Appleton, Cherie May
    This small scale study recruited a sample of qualified and experienced social work practitioners to explore the research question: “How do social workers in Aotearoa New Zealand perceive, understand and interpret the concept of integrity and how do they assess it as being relevant in their work?” The aim of this research was to capture and reflect the participants’ voices in relation to their perceptions, appreciation and application of the notion of integrity to their work. The reasons for choosing to interrogate the topic of integrity were three-fold: i) I was intrigued with the word ‘integrity’ which I perceived to be much used and rarely defined or contextualised in social work conversations, Codes of Ethics and Codes of Conduct. ii) I suspected that the term ‘integrity’ could be a container or integrating concept for a range of values and virtues such as respect, dignity, spirituality, trustworthiness. iii) I wondered if in the process of discovering the practitioner voices in relation to integrity we might also reveal factors or processes that could strengthen critical reflection, enhance job satisfaction, and increase resilient practice. Beginning with an e-survey, participants identified and described some of their definitions and key concepts in relation to integrity. The e-survey provided material that was used in subsequent focus group interviews to further explore participants’ understandings and experiences of integrity. The data collected from the focus group interviews then underwent a thematic analysis and coding process. Findings from this process were distilled and collected under two main headings: Practitioners ‘constructing’ integrity and practitioners ‘maintaining’ integrity. Several themes such as practitioners ‘making meaning’ of integrity, professional and personal integrity, integrity in the workplace, practitioners ‘doing’ integrity and practitioners experiencing challenges to integrity were identified and explored. The discussions and conclusions reached as a result of this study contribute to the advancement of social work knowledge and offer social work practitioners a perceptive framework for enhanced professional reflexivity around constructing and measuring integrity with the possibility of balancing and strengthening integrity in their practice.