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Māori engagement with early childhood education in a low-socioeconomic area
No full textThe early childhood education (ECE) options available to parents in New Zealand are many and varied. As a country New Zealand values ECE and has a high rate of engagement. However, despite a number of government initiatives targeting Māori and those from lower socio-economic areas Māori engagement remains low. This is widely acknowledged and the challenge is to not only find the reasons why but to also be responsive to the causes for low engagement.
Early learning services in New Zealand follow a curriculum that considers an holistic approach with the child at the centre of the learning. That curriculum is Te Whāriki: He whāriki mātauranga mō ngā mokopuna o Aotearoa. The curriculum recognises the potential of children and the importance of belonging in developing the whole child.
ECE in New Zealand is important for children who are aged zero to five. It is during these early years that children will begin to develop an understanding of the world around them. The environment that children live in is important to their development and it is generally considered that those from low socio-economic areas are less likely to succeed than those from higher socio-economic areas.
This thesis investigated Māori engagement in ECE from one low socio-economic area in New Zealand using an overarching Kaupapa Māori methodology. Semi-structured interviews were held with five participants from the low socio-economic area using a case study research design. My analysis found that there were many reasons behind the parents' decisions to send their children to ECE or not. It can be concluded that Māori engagement with ECE is dependent upon parents’ early life experiences and their cultural values
Temporary migration and wage inequality in Aotearoa New Zealand
No full textThis thesis seeks to explore the relationship between temporary migration and wage inequality in Aotearoa New Zealand. The transition in migration policy preferences in Aotearoa New Zealand, moving away from traditional source countries to a human capital regime, and subsequent changes in policies, particularly in the past two decades, have influenced the growth of temporary migrants and alterations in their nationality composition. Moreover, migration policies and regulations establish differentiated status among temporary migrants based on skills and visa status, incorporating limitations on changing employers, the type of employment opportunities available to migrants, and the duration of their visas. In this context, this thesis argues that the interplay between the stratified status of temporary migrants shaped by the migration system and their nationality composition, along with other attributes such as skills, occupations, and demographic composition, may impact wage inequality among this group.
The thesis includes three interconnected quantitative studies to offer a detailed exploration of the relationship between temporary migration and wage inequality in Aotearoa New Zealand, analysing different linked administrative data available in the Integrated Data Infrastructure of Statistics New Zealand. The first study focuses on the effects of high volume of international migration on income inequality in the labour market at the national level. The population sub-groups decomposition approach is employed to disentangle within-group and between-group contributions of different population sub-groups to overall income inequality. The study reveals that recent migrants, predominantly constituting temporary migrants, experience the highest level of income inequality compared to earlier immigrants and the New Zealand-born population. The second study investigates the role of multiple factors on wage inequality among temporary migrants, employing the Shapley-value regression-based decomposition approach. The study identifies two main factors that influence wage inequality in the context of temporary migration: the migration system, which imposes varying conditions for migrants based on skills and visa status, including restrictions on employer switching, types of employment, and visa duration; and the composition of migrants, emphasizing how shifts in the nationality composition can impact wage inequality due to racialized discrimination in the workforce. The third study investigates the wage gap between temporary migrants from UK, Ireland, North America, and South Africa (group A) and those from other nationalities (group B), given that migrants in group A are predominantly white while those in group B may be perceived as racialized minorities distinct from the native population of Aotearoa New Zealand. The study uses the unconditional quantile decomposition method to examine whether the wage gap results from nationality-specific differences in migrants' characteristics or variations in nationality-specific returns to these characteristics. The findings reveal that the structural effect is the primary factor explaining the wage gap across the entire wage distribution, possibly indicating nationality-based discrimination. The impact of this discrimination decreases at the bottom and middle quantiles over time but shows a slight decline at the top end of the wage distribution. The study highlights that the migration system, which establishes a stratified status among migrants based on skills and remuneration bands, coupled with the nationality composition of temporary migrants, may contribute to the decrease in the wage gap at the bottom and middle quantiles. The significance of these insights lies in the finding that, instead of serving as a neutral mechanism to address labour market gaps, the rules and regulations within temporary migration systems play a role in creating the wage inequality among temporary migrants.
Overall, the thesis provides both a detailed examination of inequality as it pertains to temporary migrants as well as providing key insights into the immigration dynamics associated with employment, migration policy, nationality and income. This dual emphasis on both inequality and immigration enriches the research, making noteworthy contributions to the literature on temporary migration, discussions surrounding social and economic inequality, and inquiries into social inclusion within Aotearoa New Zealand
A supercapacitor assisted technique for reducing losses in the input loop of an inverter system for solar PV applications
No full textThis paper presents a method of using supercapacitor modules in the input loop, to reduce the input losses of a typical inverter system used in solar applications. It is an extension of the supercapacitor-assisted loss management principle (SCALoM), where supercapacitors act as lossless droppers and energy buffers at the input end with a very low frequency switching scheme with reduced dynamic losses in switches compared to switched capacitor-inverter systems. The technique uses a set of micro-inverters, with the same total power capability as a single inverter, combined with a set of supercapacitor banks switching at a low frequency to reduce the voltage stress and rms current through the H-bridge input stages of the inverters, enhancing the end-to-end efficiency of the overall system. The proposed technique does not require a re-design of the commercially available inverters and adds DC-UPS capability to the system. Preliminary experimental results of the SCA(super capacitor assisted) two-inverter arrangement show stable transient and steady state operations, and the system is up to 2.2% efficient compared to a single central inverter arrangement. With the proposed SCA four-inverter configuration, inverter's overall power load can be further partitioned, and according to the analytical study further improvements in the overall efficiency can be achieved over the SCA two-inverter arrangement
Capability reconceptualized: Towards a landscape of practice approach in graduate employability
No full textTo understand graduate employability, this paper uses a landscape of practice (LofP) lens, and methods including
narrative frames, observations, and interviews to interpret capability development and identity construction of
learners in a work-based learning masters program. It argues that learners enhance employability, capabilities,
and knowledge through mutual engagement in practices of their communities of practice (CofP). Furthermore, it showcases that this process is enacted through learners’ membership and negotiating boundaries of their community as they move from one community to another within their LofP. It then re-examines the definition of capability and argues that capability should be understood as a social construct through which individuals participate in the practices of their CofP and express knowledgeability of community norms and practices. It concludes that individuals build capabilities through a process involving problem solving, negotiation and learning, resilience, and reflection on their own and other members’ actions as they engage in interactions
Understanding re-victimisation through an intersectional lens
No full textPolicy efforts based on evidence about risk for re-victimisation both protect some of the most vulnerable people in society and have a good chance of reducing crime levels overall (Farrell and Pease, 1993; Grove et al., 2012; Pease et al., 2018). While research has established that the phenomenon of re-victimisation is ubiquitous, less is known about what makes some people more vulnerable to re-victimisation than others (Hamilton and Browne, 1998; Nazaretian and Fitch, 2021). Enhanced understanding of who these people are is thus crucial for developing contemporary victim-centred crime prevention policy.
Victimology theories suggest that people at high risk of victimisation are typified by multiple overlapping and intersecting personal characteristics (e.g., gender, age, race/ethnicity, class, disability status, sexual identity), rather than forming homogeneous higher-order groups (e.g., delineated by a single personal characteristic; Shoham et al, 2010; Walklate, 2012). Accordingly, in this study we examined socio-demographic characteristics (e.g., gender, age, ethnicity, disability status, sexual identity) of people who were re-victimised, with an emphasis on intersectionality. That is, we focused on identifying where the co-occurrence of socio-demographic characteristics intensified risk of re-victimisation.
We use re-victimisation as an umbrella term to cover:
• Poly-victimisation (i.e., >1 victimisation for different types of crime), and
• Repeat-victimisation (i.e., >1 victimisation for different types of crime) for 11 different crime types.
We therefore analysed 12 different types of re-victimisation over five waves of the New Zealand Crime and Victims Survey (NZCVS) in the privacy- and security-protected environment of Statistics New Zealand’s Integrated Data Infrastructure (IDI) with Conjunctive Analysis of Case Configurations. This method enabled us to position groups (i.e., combinations of characteristics) as the unit of analysis and identify where intersecting characteristics were associated with high rates of re-victimisation and isolate when particular individual characteristics were especially noteworthy.
This research makes four important contributions to the evidence base on victimisation. First, while re-victimisation experiences have been studied for a range of crime types internationally (see Farrell et al., 2005), this is the first research to do so for Aotearoa New Zealand. Second, it adds to the scant evidence base on poly-victimisation. Third, it corroborates the empirical findings from other countries that risk of re-victimisation increases cumulatively (Johnson et al., 1997), hence the need for policies and practices that get upstream of the problem and prevent re-victimisation at the earliest opportunity. Fourth, this research advances knowledge on how socio-demographic characteristics intersect to elevate risk of re-victimisation. The findings are relevant for policymakers developing victimisation prevention programmes across various organisations in Aotearoa New Zealand
Acceptance culture theory: A constructivist grounded theory on bullying of junior doctors in the New Zealand healthcare system
No full textWorkplace bullying has been a serious workplace concern for centuries, with individuals confronting various forms of abuse, mistreatment and bullying at work. Historical accounts indicate that the powerful Egyptian pharaohs strategically lured tribal people to work at their construction sites, which led to submission, slavery and bullying. Regardless of the era, the enduring nature of bullying issues illustrates that individuals can misuse their power by using bullying to establish control and authority over other individuals. In contemporary environments such as New Zealand (NZ) healthcare organisations, workplace bullying remains a significant threat that exposes healthcare workers, including junior doctors, to health and safety issues.
Despite literature documenting the prevalence and harmful impacts of bullying on NZ junior doctors, there is a lack of theoretical explanations behind bullying in this context. This notable gap in understanding the explanations of bullying impedes effective prevention and management of workplace bullying among NZ junior doctors. The research aimed to explain the bullying process among NZ junior doctors with the objective of facilitating prevention and management.
Twenty doctors (n=20) from various specialities in medicine and surgery participated in in-depth interviews. Data collection and analysis were guided by the Constructivist Grounded Theory (CGT) approach. Seven core categories resulted from the data analysis. Six provided explanations of bullying, highlighting the complex interplay of many factors, including social and individual characteristics of the bullies and victims, team dynamics, hierarchy, organisational culture, systemic factors, and acceptance culture. The seventh core category described the prevention and management of bullying.
CGT analysis of the data led to the development of Acceptance Culture Theory (ACT), which is the contribution of this study. ACT outlines the social process of acceptance of bullying at multiple levels of individuals’ ecological systems. An acceptance of bullying at the micro level caused individuals to endure and accept bullying, with effects seen at multiple levels (micro, meso, exo and macro) that perpetuated an acceptance culture of bullying in the individuals’ work environments, keeping them trapped in a cycle of bullying.
Effective prevention and management are possible by breaking the acceptance culture using comprehensive approaches encompassing macro, meso, exo, and micro levels. Alleviating hierarchal structures, frequent changes in leadership, organisational support, changes in policies and procedures, and a robust reporting system are critical for the effective prevention and management of bullying. By addressing the root causes of workplace bullying, a safe and healthy workplace can be offered for NZ junior doctors
Optimisation of eDNA replication and detection distance in Aotearoa New Zealand lotic systems
No full textThe use of environmental DNA (eDNA) is a relatively new tool in New Zealand, and its increased use worldwide in the last decade has seen a surge in its utility and application. The information gaps in its use and effectiveness in the field of environmental science are fast being explored and answered. However, many questions remain unanswered, particularly in an Aotearoa New Zealand context. The aim of this thesis is to extend the knowledge needed for effective and efficient use of this new and exciting tool in lotic Aotearoa New Zealand conditions.
National standardisation of ecological sampling protocols between different agencies in Aotearoa New Zealand has historically been difficult to attain, creating challenges for combining datasets for national scale analyses. The introduction of new methods for biological monitoring, such as environmental DNA (eDNA), presents an opportunity to standardise aquatic sampling protocols prior to widespread adoption. The objective of this study (chapter two) was to optimise eDNA sample replication for the consistent characterisation of freshwater fish and macroinvertebrate communities in flowing waters, and ultimately, to inform the development of robust national monitoring standards. A comparison of field replication and extraction methods (pooling of preservation buffer) was also trialled as part of this high replication (n=16) eDNA study to assess any potential benefits in measuring species richness and reducing processing costs alongside replication optimisation. This involved two ‘syringe’ sampling methods (‘standard’ and ‘boosted’, eight each) conducted across 54 riverine sites throughout the country. No significant difference was found for species richness between the standardised (eight replicates) or boosted (16 replicates composited to eight) eDNA methods for fish and macroinvertebrates. Results indicated that six replicates were needed to consistently detect 89.5% of fish species likely to be present using field-based syringe eDNA sampling and preservation. However, an altitudinal species richness effect was observed for fish. For macroinvertebrates, six replicates were required to identify 86% of taxa identified to the NEMS (National Environmental Monitoring Standards) level used for the Macroinvertebrate Community Index (MCI: usually genera) while eight replicates were required to detect 89% of NEMS taxa. For fish and macroinvertebrate biodiversity, this study suggests that six replicates are a reasonable trade-off between effective community characterisation and cost in Aotearoa New Zealand lotic systems.
Understanding the spatial limits and the way in which eDNA behaves in lotic systems is important to understand when designing eDNA sampling programmes and interpreting results. Questions around biodiversity detection at spatiotemporal scales in relation to stream order and the influence of tributaries remain. We sought to extend our knowledge of longitudinal eDNA dispersal and detectability in wadable lotic systems by using live caged fish and a naturally occurring habitat specific fish species. An additional unexpected external molecular source was also included in the analysis. An eDNA collection method comparison between active and passive sampling techniques was also trialled alongside caged experiments in the second half of this study. A correlation between stream discharge and the distance in which eDNA travels downstream is reported. An initial drop in eDNA concentration from caged fish over the first kilometre downstream is followed by a peak 4 km downstream, is suggested to be reflective of plume dynamics. Tributary-specific fish species at low biomass and their associated eDNA signal is largely diluted and not detectable directly downstream of confluences, though there was some evidence that if sampled further downstream in the mainstem, tributary signals may be detected. The caged fish trials showed how far an eDNA signal can travel, while results from naturally occurring longitudinal signals confirm that eDNA metabarcoding can measure biodiversity at spatiotemporal scales. Active sampling in general outperformed passive sampling. Issues around field contamination and sampling strategies based on results from this study are also discussed.
Overall, this thesis provides insights and potential guidance in the use of eDNA in lotic Aotearoa New Zealand systems. It highlights the importance of eDNA field replication in the measurement of biodiversity for fish and macroinvertebrates and some terrestrial species. It helps interpret the ecology of eDNA in distance and structure. This information may assist in future eDNA sampling strategies and monitoring
Engaging environmental education through PISA: leveraging curriculum as a political process
No full textThe Organisation for Economic and Cultural Development (OECD) works with countries worldwide to implement testing in the areas of science, mathematics and reading through the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) every three years, and this process is recognised to influence education systems through areas such as curriculum. Over the past decade, the OECD increasingly has acknowledged the need to include a greater emphasis on environmental issues, including developing student competencies specifically in this area. For the 2025 PISA round, we were invited as environmental science education experts to contribute to the Science Framework, which underpins the science assessment. This paper explains how we responded to that invitation, including foregrounding the urgent need to understand the competencies of 15 year-olds to address critical socio-ecological challenges such as climate change. We argue that this provides environmental education practitioners and scholars with a powerful opportunity to gain world-scale data for research and advocacy, which could enhance the visibility and leverage for our field in curriculum, whilst also recognising the political process within which we were engaged
Cultivating microbial dark matter - A combination of traditional and molecular techniques
No full textThe services bacteria offer the world are immense and impact people's lives daily. They were first described by Antoni van Leeuwenhoek in 1676, but bacteria have been utilised in the medical, agricultural, and food and beverage industries even before they were formally identified. Microbes’ roles in the environment for cycling of nutrients, climate regulation and pollution are becoming more well understood, and they are also utilised to answer a wide variety of research questions in disparate fields. Traditional cultivation techniques were initially developed to study bacteria and understand their functions as isolates. Such cultivation techniques have become rarer as new molecular and bioinformatic tools have been developed. These cultivation- independent techniques have allowed the study of microbial life genetic data which led to the finding that 99% of all microbial species were yet to be cultured and studied in a laboratory. The applications of these unstudied organisms could be unprecedented, though their cultivation remains challenging due to the requirement of specific nutrients that are hard to identify, very slow growth rates, environmental conditions that are difficult to replicate in a laboratory setting, live in symbiosis with other organisms, or live in extreme climates. Therefore, much of the information may be overlooked and hidden in this microbial dark matter. Methods such as metagenomics, metagenome-assembled genomes (MAGs), and single amplified genomes (SAGs) have provided us with genomic data for previously uncharacterised microbes from diverse environments. However, such data is still limited. Omics tools can provide insights into what is living there and what it can potentially do. However, this data is regularly incomplete due to the processes involved in sequencing, and conclusions are often drawn from associations relating to cultured organisms. This can lead to potentially spurious conclusions as a gene may behave differently in different species, and the absence of genes may depend on how the data was analysed. Therefore, cultured isolates of the organism are vital. To combat this issue of an uncultivated majority, it is important to have a targeted approach to culture, what is wanted, not just what is easy.
This thesis aimed to provide an easy-to-follow, straightforward workflow to cultivate target environmental organisms using standard molecular tools and methods readily accessible in any standard microbiological laboratory. The idea is to isolate and culture what is specifically wanted or needed, not just what is easy. Specifically, it combined classical cultivation and molecular techniques to target a sulphur-reducing, obligate anaerobe from an environmental sample— namely a Desulfurella sp. from a geothermal pool in Rotorua, New Zealand.
In order to provide the desired targeted approach, specific primers needed to be designed and assessed to first find the right sampling site for the initial inoculum and second to ensure the target is not lost throughout the culturing process. I designed and evaluated primers for targeting specific taxa at different stringency levels. Initially, I tested published primers (EPS_F/EPS_R, Gittel et al., 2012) aimed at Epsilonproteobacteria, which were reclassified into the Campylobacterota phylum (including Desulfurella sp.). These primers did not target Desulfurella sp., so I modified them (EPS_FM/EPS_RL) to produce a longer amplicon for broader Campylobacterota detection. However, these also amplified non-target species (e.g., Desulfobacterota). Finally, I designed a third set of primers (DS_F/DS_R) specific to Desulfurella sp., confirmed by in silico testing. These primers allow assessment of Desulfurella sp. and broader Campylobacterota before sequencing.
The second experimental chapter focuses on enriching the target using the previously described primers, classical cultivation techniques, and molecular tools. Site selection was based on the 1000 Springs Project (Power et al., 2018). Culturing was performed originally with DSMZ Desulfurella medium and later modified, investigating pH (4 and 6) and temperature (50°C and 30°C) variations and adapting it for solid media by replacing elemental sulphur with sodium polysulfide. I used a vacuum food sealer to cultivate anaerobes, an accessible and portable alternative to expensive anaerobic chambers. Automated Ribosomal Intergenic Spacer Analysis (ARISA) was used to assess axenicity before sending samples for 16S rRNA gene and whole genome sequencing. Desulfurella was detected in each culture using species-specific primers (DS_F/DS_R), enabling its phylogenetic placement. However, despite Desulfurella presence in the 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing, a metagenome-assembled genome (MAG) could not be produced. This thesis discusses lessons learned and suggests improvements for future studies
Assessment of cognitive ageing: Applying generalisability theory, Rasch and network analyses to establish reliability and validity of measures
Get PDFAccurate assessment of cognitive ageing is critical to improve healthcare for older adults with cognitive decline. While bio-physiological assessments, such as laboratory, physical, and neurological examinations, offer high precision and interval-level scaling, they are limited by not reflecting perceptual experiences of individuals. In other words, it is impossible to find out what an individual is experiencing without asking questions, which requires psychometric measures, often using ordinal level scales. Psychometric measures are widely used to assess, diagnose, and research cognitive ageing but their reliability and validity may bias the results. Firstly, differentiating between enduring and dynamic patterns captured by a measure helps to distinguish an enduring condition while monitoring changes over time. This type of differentiation is also important to determine the reliability and validity of ordinal scales focused on enduring or dynamic patterns. Secondly, all measures should be ideally at least interval-level to meet the basic assumptions of parametric statistics for comparative analyses with interval level variables such as neuroimaging data. Thirdly, the cognitive components assessed using psychometric measures of cognitive ageing interact with each other, and this may impact on the validity of the outcomes measured at the same time, as well as the ability to predict the future outcomes of cognitive ageing. Together, these issues challenge the reliability and validity of the current psychometric measures of cognitive ageing. The present thesis addresses these reliability and validity issues by using three modern theories of measurement, namely, Generalisability theory (G-Theory), Rasch analysis, and Network analysis.
The first part of this thesis focuses on the application of G-Theory to examine dynamic and enduring aspects of cognitive ageing as measured by the Memory Assessment Clinic Questionnaire (MAC-Q), the 16-item Informant Questionnaire on Cognitive Decline in the Elderly (IQCODE-16), the Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE), and the Modified Telephone Interview for Cognitive Status (TICS-M). The findings of these studies highlighted the importance of differentiating between dynamic and enduring aspects of cognition and revealed the specific benefits of each measure in assessing cognitive ageing. The second part of the thesis included three studies that applied Rasch methodology to the IQCODE-16 and the TICS-M. These studies generated algorithms that allow the transformation of ordinal scales scores into interval-level data, which improved the precision of the measures. The final two studies used network analysis to evaluate the validity of the cognitive domains of TICS-M and MMSE in relation to neuropsychological test performance, advancing the understanding of global network mechanisms involved in assessments of cognitive ageing and relations between cognitive functions. Overall, this thesis involved analyses of three longitudinal datasets, totalling 2705 participants. The reported findings enhanced reliability and validity of widely used assessment tools for older adults and contributed to better understanding of cognitive ageing processes