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Malleable boundaries - Creative modes of practice and inquiry in the Academy
No full textThe exhibition ‘Malleable Boundaries’ considers the burgeoning field of creative and non-traditional research outputs across our academic disciplines at the University of Waikato. The show highlights work from practicing artists, emerging and established academics, all testing the malleability of the academy's boundaries and challenging our collective understanding of what research can look like in practice.
Creativity and non-traditional research approaches have a strong footing across disciplines, at times transdisciplinary and interdisciplinary, often transcending traditional boundaries. Discover how creative thinking thrives across our faculties and schools, from the School of Arts and Faculty of Māori and Indigenous Studies, through Education and Design, to the unexpected realms of Law and the Sciences.
Across the exhibition are practicing artists working in photography and paint, weaving, audio/visual and performance. Alongside them are qualitative researchers that have ventured into non-traditional outputs including cartography, documentary-based production, game design, comic book creation and posters. Join us in recognizing the innovative spirit that defines our academic community here at the University of Waikato
Student experience in work-integrated learning
No full textSlide presentation on work-integrated learning from 'Conference on Engaged Learning' - held July 2024 at Elon University, Elon, North Carolina, USA
Joy lands
No full textFor as long as I can remember, I have been sad. When I moved from India to Aotearoa alone at eighteen, I hoped something would sand down the grief – the Pacific, green air, sidewalk lichen. I created my own displacement and I did not know how to initiate my return. This is what precedes joy.
I had not yet learned that you have to look for joy. You have to recognise it when it arrives. Before I could see that it was joy that ate wonton soup with me and found me by the lake in fur slides – it ended. I was on a one-way plane to India and my body would never be these joys again. This is what follows the end of joy.
When joy ends, it is impossible not to notice the ways in which the world demands suffering from us. We lean on no one, cry in bathrooms and eat alone. The world spins sadder. This is why you must pursue joy.
JOY LANDS is a poetry collection about finding joy across lands and inside bodies through language, girlhood, queerness, and long-haul flights. While these poems are forever in motion across time and space, they are rooted in the presence of other people and in small, indelible moments of tenderness – an almost-wishbone neck, yolk-yellow tulips, taking turns to piss.
The collection is split into three sections, each querying the conditions for joy: something unjoyful, if not terrible, must precede it; some form of hurt must always follow the end of it, and you must continue to pursue joy.
JOY LANDS is a pursuit – I enter joy. I witness joy. I make joy. These poems are lonely and dream-like, funereal and moon-shaped, and bright hot orange. Joy is a build-up and I am just getting started
Ngā Ara Auaha - Creative practice student showcase
No full textNgā Ara Auaha simply translated means 'creative pathways' and comprises a collective exhibition featuring creative works from last year's undergraduate and postgraduate students across the University and working with creative practice research and outputs.
Ngā Ara Auaha is an annual student showcase, exhibiting the creative works of University of Waikato students (both undergraduate and postgraduate). The exhibition’s title refers to the ‘creative pathways’ taken by these students who have drawn on their own various creative practices, modes, and methods to think through their respective research journeys.
The call for submissions was open to students across all faculties and divisions of the University and as such the variety of works is vast. Multiple artistic mediums are featured in the same space, including photography and film, toi Māori, augmented media, fine art, design, and creative writing.
This exhibition showcases both the artistic skill of our students and the potential of creative methodologies in research. Expanding the rigid boundaries of the academy and blurring the lines between the ‘creative and critical’, with contributors adding to an established legacy of creative practice at the University of Waikato
Bridging manual labour and mechanisation: Enhancing blueberry harvesting efficiency for New Zealand’s fresh market
No full textThis thesis addresses the challenges of fresh market blueberry harvesting in New Zealand, where rising global demand and labour shortages put pressure on traditional handharvesting methods. Although hand-picking remains the industry norm, it is labourintensive and costly. With global blueberry consumption projected to grow, developing efficient and sustainable harvesting methods is critical, particularly for local growers.
The core objective of this research was to develop a human-assisted mechanical harvesting system tailored for tunnel-grown fresh market blueberries. This system utilises lightweight, battery-powered handheld reciprocating shakers and multi-level soft surface catchers designed to reduce harvest damage, minimise ground loss, and improve fruit quality and yield. Performance assessments compared this system to traditional hand harvesting regarding post-harvest quality and harvest rate in field trials across two seasons.
The field trials yielded valuable findings. In Field Trial 1.0, the Catcher V1.0 showed promising results, achieving a harvest efficiency of up to 83.7%, slightly less than the 89.3% efficiency of hand-harvesting into buckets. In Field Trial 2.0, the optimised Shaker V2.0 had a harvest rate of 81.3 berries/min, outperforming traditional hand-harvesting into a bucket (71.8 berries/min) and hand-harvesting into Catcher V3.0 (80.3 berries/min). Notably, Catcher V3.0 caused the least berry damage (0.9%), confirming the benefits of its soft surface design.
For the Masena cultivar, optimal shaker settings were identified at 899 RPM and a shaking duration of 1.08 seconds, achieving a projected harvest performance score of 81.76%, with detachment accuracy of 93.21% and detachment efficiency of 96.53%.
Future research should focus on larger-scale trials, long-term economic analysis, and developing methods to assess bloom retention. The integration of machine vision could further enhance this system, enabling fully automated harvesting, even during nighttime operations. These innovations have the potential to improve efficiency and sustainability for New Zealand’s blueberry industry
Correlation between engineering students’ perceptions of sustainability and their understanding of the threshold concepts in their disciplines
No full textCONTEXT
Sustainability is an important concept in engineering education. Although it is not a new idea in engineering education, its implementation presents a number of obstacles. To support curriculum development, we looked into the fundamental and transformative learning in sustainability, known as 'threshold concepts’. A series of concepts that has the ability to transform the way students perceive sustainability in their disciplines. In this study, we attempt to answer the question, how do engineering students perceive and understand sustainability within the context of their discipline's core concepts?
PURPOSE OR GOAL
Using threshold concept theory, we investigated how students in various engineering disciplines perceive sustainability and identified what they thought to be the crucial sustainability principle in their disciplines. We hoped to improve sustainability engineering education initiatives and promote the incorporation of sustainability concepts into various engineering disciplines' curricula by changing students' and educators' perceptions of sustainability.
APPROACH OR METHODOLOGY/METHODS
The study used a mixed-methods approach, which included both quantitative and qualitative data collection techniques. A structured survey was distributed to students from a variety of disciplines, including civil, software, electronics, mechanical, chemical, and material processing engineering. In addition to the survey, qualitative data were gathered through interviews with a subset of these students, allowing for a more in-depth exploration of individual perspectives. The analysis also included a review of first-year engineering students' reflective essays and reports, which provided additional qualitative insights into their perspectives on sustainability.
OUTCOMES
Our research found that the content of sustainability courses significantly shapes students' overall understanding of sustainability and its relevance to their specific discipline. A key hurdle in integrating sustainability into engineering education is its perceived irrelevance. Students favoured content that's tailored to their discipline, aligning with their existing discipline specific threshold concepts. For instance, software engineering students felt that general sustainability courses didn't apply to them, preferring courses that incorporate sustainability in a way that's directly relevant to them. They aimed to gain knowledge that would complement and expand upon their prior studies.
CONCLUSIONS/RECOMMENDATIONS/SUMMARY
Our study revealed that sustainability-related threshold concepts are distinct for each discipline, highlighting the need for customised approaches to foster engagement and understanding. These insights can help educators craft teaching strategies that enhance students' grasp of these concepts and promote the application of sustainable practices within their disciplines. A major difficulty in integrating sustainability into engineering education was the lack of discipline-specific content, leading many students to overlook sustainability concepts that didn't directly relate to their studies
Step up: Using social prompts to reduce lift usage in a university context
No full textAbstract: This study, aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of a pro-social message, incorporating the concept of "watching eyes," to encourage stair use over lift usage in a university setting. Physical inactivity is a significant global health issue, and promoting simple physical activities like stair climbing can contribute to better health and environmental sustainability
Migrant remittances, Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 7 and energy poverty in Sri Lanka
No full textModern, clean energy is seen as the golden thread that connects economic growth, human development, and environmental sustainability. However, almost 2.4 billion people worldwide still use solid fuels for cooking, exacerbating energy poverty and endangering human health and the environment. Therefore, this thesis investigated the non-price determinants of cooking fuel choice, including the causal relationship between migrant remittances and both cooking fuel choice and energy poverty. Sri Lanka was used as a case study, using more than 78,000 households from four waves of the Household Income and Expenditure survey from 2009 – 2019. Specifically, this thesis includes three empirical studies and one policy paper related to remittances and energy consumption.
The first study found that household income, household wealth, household head’s characteristics (age, marital status and education), education of spouse, household characteristics (household size and number of children under 5), housing characteristics (number of bedrooms, drinking water source, and housing material), and residential sector (urban vs rural) were significant for selecting clean fuel for cooking, using multinomial logistic analysis. Moreover, the Advanced sustainability analysis showed a strong synergy between SDG 7 (clean energy), SDG 6 (Clean water), and SDG 4 (quality education).
The second study investigated the relationship between migrant remittances and cooking fuel choice by taking household wealth as a mediating variable. Using the propensity score matching method the study found that migrants used about 5.7% more clean fuels for cooking than non-migrant households. Furthermore, the control function approach found that a 1% increase in remittances increased clean cooking fuel use by 0.034 units, and instrumental variable (IV) mediation analysis indicated that household wealth significantly mediated this relationship.
The third study further explored the link between migrant remittances and energy poverty, using income inequality as the mediating variable. Two-Stage-Least-Squares (2SLS) regression results showed that a 10% increase in remittances decreased energy poverty by 0.042 units, while IV mediation analysis indicated that income inequality significantly mediated this relationship.
The final study examined the causes and economic implications of Sri Lanka's current energy crisis, its effect on energy poverty and the attainment of SDG 7. Specifically, the findings of the second and third studies were used to forecast the impact of a decline in migrant remittances of 40% due to the crisis on clean cooking fuel use and energy poverty. A 40% drop in remittances could reduce clean cooking fuel consumption by 0.16 units and increase energy poverty by 0.0016 units. The study concluded that Sri Lanka should encourage migrant remittances to enhance the use of clean cooking fuels and minimize energy poverty in light of the current energy crisis
Te pā harakeke: Educational success and kōhanga reo
Get PDFExploring the meaning of educational success in an indigenous context is a challenging task. Success has come to be promoted as narrow forms of academic success. However, “academic success” does not adequately take into account the knowledge, values, and beliefs of Indigenous peoples that stem from their unique ways of living and being in the world. Indigenous language immersion settings, such as kōhanga reo (Māori immersion “language nests” for children from birth to six years old in Aotearoa New Zealand), have emerged in response to the desires of Indigenous peoples to retain their knowledge, language, and culture.
This study contributes to the debate about the nature of educational success by examining multi-generational whānau (family) views of educational success in kōhanga reo. It also explores the contributions of kōhanga reo to the educational success of whānau. The study explored the lived experiences and views of educational success across five whānau spanning three generations: kaumātua (the grandparent generation who helped to set up kōhanga reo), mātua (the parent generation and first graduates of kōhanga reo), and mokopuna (children of the mātua and grandchildren of the kaumātua generations). Data for the kaumātua and mātua generations was collected through the Māori cultural practice of wānanga, and the Mosaic approach was used with mokopuna to provide a number of tools for them to express their views of educational success. The data gathered was then represented as multi-generational pūrākau (a Māori form of storying) to ensure the narratives relating to educational success remained intact and culturally valid.
The findings of this research show the meaning of educational success for the three generations in kōhanga reo was associated with Mana Reo (the power of language), Mana Tangata (the power of people), and Mana Whenua (the power of the land). In addition, kōhanga reo has championed the educational success of the multi-generational whānau by providing strong support for the Māori language, whānau transformations, and wellbeing. The influence of kōhanga reo has led to many outcomes showcasing the educational success of mokopuna and whānau who are learning, using, sharing, and protecting te reo Māori. All three generations value whanaungatanga and manaakitanga, and actively look for opportunities that lead to positive outcomes in their homes, schools, and wider communities.
There are many implications for whānau, kōhanga reo, Te Kōhanga Reo National Trust, the education sector, and policy makers. Foremost is reaffirming the message that identity, language, and culture matters in discussions relating to educational success. With each generation, whānau are unlocking new dimensions of, and pathways to, educational success linked to Mana Reo, Mana Tangata, and Mana Whenua. The kōhanga reo model, as a unique indigenous model, plays an important role in unlocking pathways to educational success now and in the future through its unwavering commitment to the cultural socialisation of whānau