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    The professional learning landscape for teen parent educators in New Zealand : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor in Education at Massey University , Manawatū, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2018) Wood, Johanna Julene
    Teen Parent Units (TPUs) are a unique context in the New Zealand educational system. The purpose of this study was to explore the professional learning landscape for teen parent educators in New Zealand, using the qualitative in-depth case studies of three TPUs. Drawing on the theoretical framework of complexity theory and interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA), the study provided a rich description of practice and teachers’ perceptions of their professional learning experiences, opportunities, and practice. The study considered teacher professional learning using three recursive subsystems: the teacher subsystem, the context subsystem, and the activity subsystem, to develop a more nuanced understanding of teacher professional learning in the teen parent context. Listening to educators in this space revealed that not only is professional learning a complex system but also proposes that a fourth subsystem—the student subsystem—is needed to understand the professional learning landscape in this space.
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    Determinants of successful breastfeeding by young mothers in New Zealand : a thesis presented in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Masters in Science in Nutrition and Dietetics at Massey University, Albany, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2017) Polglaze, Rebekah Leigh
    Background: International research has shown that younger mothers are less likely to initiate/maintain breastfeeding (BF) than older women. Optimising BF maintenance in young mothers is important because early cessation of BF has been associated with negative health outcomes for the infant, which may extend beyond infancy into adulthood. Despite this, little is known about the facilitators of successful BF in this group. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to investigate the factors that enabled a group of mothers who gave birth at a young age to successfully breastfeed for at least 4 months. Objective: To gain an in-depth understanding of the factors that led to a successful breastfeeding experience in mothers who gave birth at a young age. Methods: Seventeen positive deviants were identified. These were mothers who gave birth under the age of 25 years, who had successfully BF for at least 4 months. Participants were recruited through various support groups and breastfeeding networks. Semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted in person or over the phone with each of the seventeen mothers. The interviews were recorded and transcribed, which enabled theme identification. Demographic information was also collected using a short questionnaire. A thematic analysis was used to analyse the qualitative data obtained from each mother’s breastfeeding experiences. Interpretative phenomenology was used to extract themes from the transcripts, these were then double-checked by two researchers in the research team. Results: Participants were located throughout the North Island of New Zealand (NZ). Eleven mothers identified themselves as NZ European, three mothers identified as NZ European and Māori, and one mother identified as NZ European and Hawaiian. The mothers had given birth between the age of 15 through to 24 years and these births occurred between 2004 and 2017. Despite purposive sampling, of mothers who had successfully BF, participants identified core barriers to BF. These barriers were explored in depth before enablers of BF could be identified and examined. The key barriers include lack of breastfeeding knowledge, expectations, which differed from the lived experience, the quality of the initial support for BF, lack of ongoing support for BF and initial difficulties with the practice BF. Once the core barriers to BF had been fully explored, it was possible to identify and examine the enablers of successful BF. It became evident through the data analysis that the mothers found alternative solutions to overcome these barriers. These solutions were categorised into three key enablers, resilience in the face of adversity, a positive breastfeeding culture and the economy of BF. These factors facilitated the mothers to overcome the barriers they were faced with, which enabled them to successfully breastfeed. Conclusion: Intrinsic motivation amongst positive deviants appears to be a driver of information and support seeking behaviour, which enhances self-efficacy and breastfeeding resilience amongst young mothers.
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    The politicisation of motherhood : silencing sole mothers : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Psychology at Massey University
    (Massey University, 2013) Neill-Weston, Frances
    In most OECD countries adolescent child-bearing and child-rearing is regarded as the forerunner of social, economic, employment and educational disadvantage particularly for young sole mothers receiving State-provided benefits. The National-led government has argued that the cost of social welfare benefits, an estimated $7.6 billion in 2008/2009, is no longer sustainable. Towards the end of 2012 following recommendations from a government-appointed Welfare Working Party, the social welfare system was restructured to 'encourage' recipients to search for paid employment by restricting their opportunities for support if they did not. This study explored how young sole mothers experienced mothering, and made snese of the processes and consequences of the National-led government's reforms, in a socio-political environment that overtly prioritises paid work. Using thematic analysis of narratives obtained from unstructured interviews with 10 adolescent sole mothers attending a teen parent education unit in the greater Wellington area, the study also sought to understand the ways in which sole mothers are silenced on political issues affecting their futures. The research is based on feminist principles of empowerment of women and social justice and is situated within Michel Foucault's postulations that Governments, their institutions and their representatives, structure actions and use language to discipline and silence individuals and groups to maintain normative power and control. Themes from participants' narratives included an unambiguous preference for hands-on/full-time mothering with support as needed; intractable difficulties in coping with inadequate DPB benefits with social isolation as a consequence; an acceptance of the need to obtain paid work, but only when their child is settled and ready; a determination to obtain further qualifications in order to achieve a better life for their child and themselves coupled with a largely unrecognised resilience.
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    Education, a young mother's key to success, a young mother's hope : a study of the impact of pregnancy and mothering on the educational participation and goals of young mothers
    (Massey University, 2004) Hill, Nikki
    The overall purpose of this qualitative study is to highlight factors, during pregnancy and since the birth, which impact on educational goals and the motivational levels towards achieving these goals of young mothers. Barriers which hinder the continuation of education for young mothers, as well as supports which influence and encourage educational participation are of significance. The research has involved five young mothers in in-depth, semi-structured interviews, as the primary data gathering tool, and five high school counsellors in a questionnaire, to add to the analysis. The research is underpinned by feminist methodology. Overseas and national research has found that adolescent parents and their children are often at risk of poor life outcomes, largely because of their lack of educational and employment opportunities. Many internal and external factors have been highlighted in the literature which can influence, positively or negatively, a young mother in continuing education. Despite the large amount of literature, there is limited research on the ways in which pregnancy and mothering impacts on a young mother's aspirations and hopes in regards to continuing education. This research shows that the commitment to education changed quite dramatically for the majority of the young mothers interviewed, from conception to motherhood, an angle which has not been captured in the literature. Although the young mothers interviewed believe that education is their key to finding successful and rewarding employment, and they each conveyed a desire to continue with education, obstacles are evident. Two young mothers chose to overcome barriers, placing their educational needs as high priority. The research shows that family, school and peer influences can make a significant difference to continuing education, as well as personal goals and passion towards continuing their education. This research found that responding high schools, although they offer the pregnant student a degree of support, have not seen students who choose to parent, remain in the school system. The findings raise issues about the need for the educational hopes and aspirations of young mothers, to be fostered in the early stages of mothering. This thesis makes recommendations for educational policies and programmes, governmental welfare policies, and other programmes/agencies, such as a mentoring service and professional careers advice, to be constituted to ensure that young mothers are given every opportunity to continue their education and turn their educational aspirations into workable goals.
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    Constructions of adolescent motherhood : discourse analysis of the health professional literature and health professionals' talk about young mothers : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Psychology at Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2006) Breheny, Mary Rose
    Adolescent motherhood has been linked with disadvantage and has been framed as a social problem. Research has also drawn attention to individual and socioeconomic deficit to explain poor outcomes, and proposed individual interventions to address the problems of adolescent motherhood. This ignores the social context of adolescent motherhood. Health professionals are an important aspect of this social context, as they represent authoritative social voices in strong positions of warrant that powerfully shape the experience of mothering in adolescence. Social constructionism draws attention to the variable and constructed nature of health professionals' understandings of adolescent motherhood. Discourse analysis is based on the assumptions of social constructionism, and is used to identify 'discourses' which construct objects, and make available subject positions that have material effects on those constructed. Using discourse analysis, literature for health professionals and interviews with health professionals were analysed to describe the discourses available to construct adolescent motherhood. Four scientific discourses were identified in the professional literature: a 'Naturalist' discourse that constructs parenting as a biological matter and draws upon eugenic arguments; a 'Public Health' discourse which constructs adolescent motherhood as a disease requiring surveillance; an 'Economic' discourse which understands adolescent motherhood as a drain on society and a cost to the adolescent mothers; and an 'Ethnicity' discourse that separates people into categories to determine who will reflect or resist dominant social structures. These discourses were drawn upon to construct a 'cycle of disadvantage', in which adolescent motherhood is the result of individual choice or family deviance, which can be solved by intervening with disadvantaged individuals or families. In the interviews with health professionals, adolescent mothers were constructed primarily as 'adolescents' within a 'Developmental' discourse. This adolescent positioning precluded them from being positioned as a 'good' mother within a 'Motherhood' discourse. Health professionals also constructed adolescent mothers as having individual differences in mothering ability, but these constructions supported generalisations made about the category 'adolescent mother'. An 'Ethnicity' discourse was drawn upon primarily to construct Māori as the 'other', while mainstream European cultural practices and values remained unexamined. These discourses highlight the role of the individual, the family, and social class in transmitting disadvantage, and were used to identify deviant individuals and families, rather than as a way to address the social context of disadvantage. The association of adolescent motherhood with deficiency and lack has implications for health care provision, as it is likely to impact negatively on adolescent mothers' experience of health care. In particular, advice for health professionals to be non-judgemental when providing care for adolescent mothers is unlikely to be effective, as this advice does not address the wider discursive location that produces these 'judgmental' attitudes.