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    Experiences of women of colour who were third culture kids or internationally mobile youth : an exploratory study of implications for global leadership development : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Management at Massey University, Manawatū, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2023) Chatiya Nantham, Rhema Roja
    Global leadership development programmes (GLDPs) are typically focussed on competency development and teaching culturally appropriate etiquette, but, adapting to new contexts often involves challenges to people’s sense of self, addressing an area which is known as identity work. Learning from people who encountered such challenges early in life could assist in developing global leaders by offering insights into the kinds of identity work strategies needed to deal with their offshore posting, and to ensure that identity work processes are designed into such programmes. To address these aims, this study draws on the lived experiences of nine women of colour who lived outside their home country as children or adolescents, a cohort known as Third Culture Kids (TCKs), to identify various identity-related issues they encountered and the lessons these experiences offer for global leadership development. As such, this interdisciplinary study draws on and contributes to literatures related to TCKs and Adult TCKs (ATCKs), global leadership development, and identity work for leadership development. This qualitative study comprised a series of workshops designed specifically to foster identity work amongst the participants. The data was collected via virtual focus group discussions. The study adopted a combination of participatory and emancipatory action research approaches, underpinned by a social constructionist epistemology and is theoretically informed by Critical Race Feminism, anti-racist feminisms, and identity theory as key influences. These decisions reflect the aim of centring attention on a cohort routinely understudied in the TCK, global leadership development and leadership development literatures, namely women of colour. The findings were thematically analysed via an inductive approach to identify the experiences and identity work strategies of participants as TCKs in response to the racist-sexist prejudices they encountered, their implicit leadership theories and their approach to leadership, showing how the focus group process was itself a vehicle for doing identity work in relationship to their leader identities. I identify the lessons that can be drawn from TCKs, and from the methods used in this study, to inform the deployment of identity work in GLDPs. From these findings, I develop frameworks explaining the identity work processes experienced by TCKs and how they internalised their leadership identity via the methods used in my study and build models for GLDPs from these insights.
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    Teacher agency in synchronous one-to-one Chinese online language teaching : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Applied Linguistics at Massey University, Manawatū, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2022) Dai, Chujie
    This study explores the teacher agency of four Chinese language teachers who teach in one-to-one videoconferencing settings. Since these teachers only had limited teaching experience in such a context, four preparatory workshops were designed for the teacher participants before they began teaching. The study seeks to answer three questions: 1) What kinds of competencies did teachers identify as required in their teaching via one-to-one videoconferencing? 2) What kinds of affordances and constraints did teachers perceive in teaching, and how was their agency influenced by these factors? 3) What was the main value of the preparatory workshops from the teachers’ perspective? The study is informed by ecological perspectives and employs a qualitative longitudinal case study approach. The data collected through teaching recordings, stimulated recall interviews, semi-structured interviews and group discussions formed the main data set. The data collected through a teacher questionnaire, written reflection sheets, opinion frames, and text chat on a social media platform formed the supporting data set. The main part of the study, spanning about eight months, comprised three stages. At the first stage, there were four teacher preparatory workshops, each including a lecture and a group discussion. At the second stage, each teacher conducted a series of Chinese learning sessions with a single learner, which were recorded and analysed. At the third stage, semi-structured interviews with individual teachers were conducted. The findings suggest that the teachers identified four important competencies required for online teaching: pedagogical competency, multimedia competency, social-affective competency and the competency of being reflective and reflexive. Different beliefs about teacher roles, perceived social hierarchy, and their relationships with peer teachers and the learners were the factors that enabled or constrained teachers’ actions. The perceived value of the teacher preparatory workshops was in providing opportunities for the teachers to bridge the gap between theories and teaching practice and to explore the pedagogical possibilities. They collectively formed an idealised notion of online teaching as a result of their discussions and this notion influenced their identity and teaching practice. The study concludes with implications for research methodology and a theoretical frame, shedding light on how the factors from the outer world, and teachers’ experience and aspirations could impact the enactment of agency. It is hoped that this study will be valuable for future online language teacher training and research.
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    The impact of postgraduate initial teacher education on beginning teachers' professional preparedness to cater for diverse learners : a thesis presented in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Education, Massey University, Manawatū, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2021) Safa, Abdelhamid Helmy
    This thesis investigates the impact of an exemplary post-graduate initial teacher education (ITE) programme, the MTchgLn, on beginning teachers’ professional preparedness to cater for diverse learners. In comparison to similar cohorts in other OECD countries, a huge gap exists between high-achieving Pākeha students and low-achieving 1 priority learners (Education Review Office, 2012; OECD, 2015). With existing studies mapping the exemplary ITE terrain, the research field is now moving towards building a sounder basis on which to benchmark equity-centred ITE programme design. For this purpose, a mixed-methods approach was adopted to assess the effectiveness of the programme on the Graduate Teachers’ (GTs) practice. Twenty-five GTs completed an online questionnaire to assess their perceptions of confidence to teach all learners, as well as to assess their perceptions of the value of the programme in enabling them to teach all learners. Interviews were then conducted with 12 GTs and four Lead Teachers (LTs) to better understand the GTs’ responses and to investigate the LTs’ perceptions of the GTs’ professional preparedness. The present study findings indicate that most GTs were confident in developing the professional standards required for the profession and felt that their learning was supported by the programme’s innovations: (i) extended clinical placements in partner schools; (ii) evidence-informed inquiry; (iii) exemplary school visits; (iv) culturally responsive practices; and (v) community placements. Likewise, all the LTs felt that the GTs were professionally prepared with the necessary skills and competencies to teach diverse students effectively and improve their outcomes. This study has provided evidence of the positive contributions of an equity-centred ITE programme’s design to create an informative learning experience for the GTs to ensure informed links between research and practice, driven by equity and social justice. Implications based on these findings are considered for ITE educators and education policy makers to respond to the challenges of today’s multicultural education by prioritizing equity.
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    The role of the private sector in providing access to educational and employment opportunities in PNG : a case study of the Work Readiness Institute, Lihir Island, PNG : a research project presented in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of International Development, Institute of Development Studies, Massey University, Manawatu, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2020-06) Tyro, Sophie Lynne
    Despite Papua New Guinea being resource rich, the country has struggled to turn these revenues into positive development results with PNG still lagging behind in all development indicators. Mining companies within the country have made effort to contribute positively to development, and are increasingly held to account through critical evaluation and measuring effects by way of social impact assessments. This paper seeks to look specifically at the role of the Work Ready Institute, situated within the special mining lease of Newcrest Mining Ltd., Lihir Island, New Ireland Province. The WRI has been developed by the mining company as a training and development program that provides trainees with the skills necessary to access employment opportunities available within Newcrest and is specifically aimed at young Lihirians. The aims of this research project are, firstly, to investigate the obstacles to educational success that exist for students at the Work Ready Institute, an educational training facility administered by Lihir Gold Limited (LGL). In understanding these challenges, the second aim is to explore how the mine, the WRI, and the trainees can work together for better educational outcomes. The overall context of this research project is to critically examine the education system in PNG by looking at the history of education in PNG and how this history relates to recent curriculum reforms. The research considers the available literature surrounding education in PNG as well as the extractive industries and the way in which the latter can partner with the government to improve educational outcomes in the country. This research considers these through the framework of Corporate Social Responsibility, particularly looking at the motivations of CSR within the mining industry and its influence on outcomes and sustainability of social performance initiatives. Broadly speaking, the conclusion of this research project speaks to the need for social performance initiatives to be well considered in partnership with the very people the project is aimed at through effective social assessment and monitoring. There needs to be a clear objective for the program, and all stakeholders need to understand the objective in order to find success. Most importantly, the outcome of the initiative needs to satisfy business objectives in order to ensure continuity and sustainability during the mine life, as social performance requires long-­term investment in order to deliver effective social change. And herein lies the difficulty: placing priority on business outcomes, like social performance, while also prioritising the needs of the community. True partnerships in sustainable development are when interests of all stakeholders are met.
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    An investigation into the preparedness for and experiences in working with Māori nursing students among New Zealand tertiary institutes, schools and nurse educators : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment for the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Education, Massey University, Manawatū, Aotearoa New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2020) Roberts, Jennifer
    Nursing education in Aotearoa New Zealand is situated in a unique bicultural context. Māori, the Indigenous people of Aotearoa New Zealand have overall, poorer outcomes in health and education compared to non-Māori, which relate to the colonial legacy of the nation. One strategy to address Māori health outcomes is to increase the Māori nursing workforce. Despite a range of strategies in tertiary education and in nursing, the number of Māori nurses remains relatively static, and overall Māori nursing students do not have equity of educational outcomes in nursing. With a critical lens informed by Freire’s Pedagogy of the Oppressed, this explanatory sequential mixed method study uses a questionnaire followed by interviews to understand the experiences and preparedness of nurse educators in working with Māori nursing students. The findings of the questionnaire demonstrate that throughout New Zealand, nursing schools and the educational institutes in which they are situated are informed by a range of strategies aimed at supporting Māori learners. Overall, nurse educators felt prepared to work with Māori, but the questionnaire also revealed resistance to Māori as priority learners. This finding was followed up in the interviews. Interview findings demonstrated that environments encompassing te ao Māori (the Māori world) and staff practises that aligned with this were enabling for Māori nursing students. Despite this, a counter-narrative described many barriers to this becoming fully realised in nursing education practice. Ongoing colonising practices in education, racism, varied understandings and practices of Cultural Safety and dissatisfaction with current Cultural Safety regulatory guidelines were found to be hindering a nursing culture that is responsive to Māori. The research posits that the nursing profession needs to develop a shared critical consciousness and refocus efforts to position Cultural Safety as a critical concept in nursing education and practice. One method proposed to achieve this is in returning to the original intent of Kawa Whakaruruhau/ Cultural Safety and begin to apply it as a decolonising model for nursing education and practice.
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    Tūpekepeke! Māori knowledge and practices in health and physical education : the perspectives, experiences and aspirations of secondary school teachers' : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Masters of Arts in Māori Studies at Massey University, Palmerston North, Aotearoa New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2016) Tawhai, Daniel Tiotio Burfield
    This thesis explores What are the perspectives, experiences and aspirations of secondary school Health and Physical Education teachers’ to better implement Māori knowledge and practices in their lessons? Individual, semi-structured, in-depth qualitative interviews were conducted with three secondary school Health and Physical Education (HPE) teachers with similar teaching experience, but different ethnic backgrounds. It was found that HPE teachers see Māori knowledge and practices as an effective way to enhance Māori student achievement, increase awareness of Māori culture amongst non-Māori students, and promote the overall development of Aotearoa New Zealand as a nation where indigenous knowledge and practices are a valued and contributing part of life and society. In order to achieve this, HPE teachers recommended development in teacher training programmes, professional development for practicing teachers’, and the development of resources and networks of teachers in the area of Māori knowledge and practices specific to HPE in Aotearoa New Zealand
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    Preparedness to teach : the perceptions of Saudi female pre-service mathematics teachers : a thesis presented in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Education at Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2019) Alsaleh, Fatimah Ibrahim
    Being well prepared and experiencing a sense of preparedness for teaching is a key learning outcome of any initial teacher education (ITE) program. In order to understand more about the nature, development, and sufficiency of mathematics teacher readiness to teach, this study explores the phenomenon of preparedness. The aim of this study was to investigate how well Saudi pre-service teachers (PSTs) feel prepared to teach mathematics at secondary or middle schools (i.e. to explore their sense of preparedness to teach), delving into the nature and origins of that sense. The participants in the study were a sample of female mathematics PSTs (N=105), who were near the end of their teaching methods course in the final year of their 4-year education degree. The construct of preparedness was operationalized through a survey of PSTs’ efficacy to teach mathematics and an interview-based exploration of the factors influencing these perceptions. The data were collected over 4 months from 2015 to 2016. The quantitative data were analysed in SPSS and thematic analysis was used to analyse the qualitative data. The key findings of this study indicated that for the PSTs, being prepared to teach means having teaching efficacy, good knowledge for teaching, a sense of preparedness, and professionalism. However, PSTs are not fully aware of all the kinds of knowledge needed for being prepared. The study showed that PSTs were generally confident that they were sufficiently prepared to teach. They felt most confident in the areas of content knowledge (CK) and pedagogical knowledge (PK) rather than pedagogical content knowledge (PCK). The findings showed that the PSTs felt inadequately prepared in some aspects of their teaching roles, and needed more support and guidance from their university–school communities. The majority felt that classroom and behaviour management was the aspect in which they felt least prepared. They also expressed only a moderate level of general teaching efficacy (GTE), expressing a lower sense of efficacy relating directly to supporting students as learners. These were related to the disjunction between theory and practice that resulted from the two most influential factors shaping PSTs’ sense of preparedness and feelings of efficacy: the practicum experience and the ITE. Although these factors had positive impacts on their perceptions, they also expressed how the classroom environment, challenges, and school culture encountered during the practicum had lowered the PSTs’ sense of preparedness and teaching efficacy. Indeed, half of the PSTs felt that the school was neither sufficiently prepared nor sufficiently resourced to support PSTs learning the work of teaching. The challenge of closing the gap between theory and practice has led to PSTs’ desire to have more time in the mathematics methods course, as well as extra time in the practicum. It is hoped that the findings from this study concerning PSTs’ current perceptions about preparedness, combined with the suggestions for improving their levels of preparedness, will contribute to improvements in ITE and teaching quality in Saudi Arabia.
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    Generic skills in accounting education in Saudi Arabia : a thesis presented in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Accountancy at Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2018) AL Mallak, Mohammed Ali
    This study examines the development of generic skills in the Saudi Arabian accounting education. The lack of generic skills among accounting graduates is an issue of ongoing concern as the gaps between the needs of employers and the skills of graduates hinders the economic development in Saudi Arabia. This concern over the development of generic skills in accounting education in Saudi Arabia provided the motivation for this study. Based on International Education Standards (IES) 3 and 4, this study examined five categories of generic skills: intellectual, personal, organizational and business management, interpersonal and communication, and ethics. Further, using Bui and Porter’s (2010) theoretical framework, the study assessed within-group constraints gap of three stakeholder groups (final year students, accounting graduates and educators), and the factors hindering the development of generic skills (i.e. constraining factors). The within-group expectation-performance gap of employers and between-group comparisons of the expectation gap and performance gap (educators vs. employers) were also explored. Finally, this study compared the expectation gap and performance gap between groups (students, graduates, employers, educators). Interviews and survey questionnaires were used to collect the data for the perceptions of the four stakeholder groups in Saudi Arabia. The results show that all stakeholders considered all generic skills as important for accounting graduates to be successful in employment with ethical skills being rated as most important. In addition, they perceived that graduates should acquire a reasonably high level of competence in all five skills categories. The stakeholder groups believed the level of competence that have been acquired by graduates is lower than the level of competence that should be acquired suggesting that there were constraints gap and expectation-performance gap. This finding indicates that accounting education in Saudi Arabia is not producing graduates with the competencies needed in the workplaces. A number of constraints were found to have hindered the development of generic skills in accounting education and they were mostly institutional related (e.g., content oriented curriculum; large class sizes and insufficient time), and student related (e.g., students’ own motivation and lack of ability). This study contributes to the literature on generic skills in non-western nations, where not much of the current literature is focused on. The results provided evidence of skills gaps, highlighted areas of concern in the Saudi graduates’ skill development in accounting education and had implications for the human capital of the nation. Some suggestions for improving graduates’ skills development were provided.
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    Shaping nursing praxis : some registered nurses' perceptions and beliefs of theory practice : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Educational Administration at Massey University
    (Massey University, 1993) Jones, E. Marion
    This thesis investigates the beliefs and perceptions of registered nurses in relation to the theory practice gap. In order to discover these perceptions and beliefs, this qualitative study used critical ethnography, a framework and process in which the paiticipants share in the journey of discovery which sets out to explore, describe and transform these beliefs and perceptions of theory-practice. The theory-practice debate has been highlighted in nursing for some time and is interpreted in many ways. This multiple interpretation causes confusion and has an impact on the development of the discipline of nursing. The participants were six nurse clinicians and six nurse educators from a large metropolitan hospital and a School of Nursing and Midwifery within a tertiary educational institution. Within the critical framework, the research methods used were interviews, observation, paiticipants' personal logs and triangulation between methods and within methods. Data analysis was through content analysis using themes, patterns, and categories arising from the data. The analysis of data indicated that through reciprocal dialogue, the paiticipants' theory-practice perceptions and beliefs had been transformed. This transformation was being premised on an assumption of the existence of a theory-practice gap to an acceptance of the theory-practice relationship as an integrated concept where nursing praxis is shaped by an ongoing development process. Empowering strategies and recommendations for the development of nursing praxis include coaching, clinical supervision, mentoring, case management, ongoing education, research, faculty practice, joint appointments and reciprocal advisory groups. These strategies provide opportunities for nurses to come together, and reflect on practice in that by becoming aware of their beliefs and perceptions, they gain the confidence and knowledge to begin transforming conditions of power and control, thereby promoting change which results in praxis and professional autonomy.
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    Beginner teacher preparedness for inclusion : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Educational Psychology
    (Massey University, 2017) Attwood, Sophia
    The exclusion of students who experience disability is a social justice issue that persists in New Zealand despite efforts to establish a fully inclusive education system. Although there has been some research into the teaching of inclusive practice in initial teacher education (ITE) in New Zealand, little research examining beginner teachers’ feelings of preparedness for inclusion has been undertaken. This mixed-methods study investigated the role of ITE in preparing beginner, secondary school teachers for including diverse groups of learners by capturing their experiences of ITE and early career. Phase one involved an online questionnaire to secondary school teachers in the first three years of their career. Phase two involved conducting four follow-up interviews exploring salient findings from the questionnaire. The findings of this study suggest that while ITE recognises the diversity of the classroom, it falls short when it comes to the pragmatic implications for teaching and learning. The vast majority of participants felt their ITE did little or nothing to help them develop their knowledge of legislation and policy as it relates to inclusion. Two-thirds of participants felt that their ITE did little or nothing to help them develop their knowledge of supports available for students who experience disability while the majority had little to no experience teaching such students on practicum. Teachers’ sense of preparedness to include learners varied significantly according to their personal connection with a person with a disability. Several key themes which align with literature in the field of teacher education for inclusion emerged, namely: knowledge about, and understanding of inclusive pedagogy; lack of focus on legislation, policy and human rights; lack of focus on collaborative practice; and beginner teachers not identifying as lifelong learners. Research-driven practices that are beneficial in preparing teachers to make socially just decisions are discussed in light of the themes. These include: (1) critical reflection about experiences gained during practicum and service-learning opportunities; (2) explicit teaching of human rights; (3) explicit teaching about effective collaboration with professionals, teacher aides and whānau.