From Cultural to Economic Capital: Community Employment Creation in Otara

This paper stresses the need for community responses to the ethnic unemployment problem in New Zealand. It aims to show the potential for direct employment creation on the basis of a community entrepreneurship model as well as a widened definition of human capital, using case study of the labour market disadvantaged community of Otara, in South Auckland. Projects harnessing cultural and ethnic riches to create Otara as an attractive visitor destination undertaken by Enterprise Otara (EO) are examined. A participatory research methodology, chiefly formative evaluation is used. ·This paper seeks to break down a prevalent view that grassroots responses to unemployment are necessarily small-scale ventures and to get away from the 'small is beautiful' mind-set when Local Employment Initiatives (ILEs) are involved. Additionally, the collaborative role of 'outsiders ' in the 'bottom-up' approach to employment creation is shown to be important in 'getting things moving ' at the community level. Constraints faced by community organisations are highlighted. The importance of ILEs and the partnership concept in the mitigation of high unemployment in disadvantaged communities, is affirmed

Unveiling Exclusion: A Conceptual Exploration of Parent Pedagogicalisation

CONTEXT The study investigates the concept of parent pedagogicalisation, with the aim to explore, as well as articulate, its analytical content. The notion of parent pedagogicalisation involves normalising forces governing parents to take responsibility for children’s educational achievement, especially targeting the child who differs from the norm and whose achievement is at risk. Set against the background of current global educational tendencies aiming at standardisation and marketisation, understandings of ‘normal’ become increasingly narrower, excluding an increasing number of children. The narrowing perceptions of what is considered ‘normal’ induce a fear of exclusion from educational opportunities and subsequent, future citizenship. In this climate, parents are ascribed a significant role in the child’s education. Within this context, and especially in cases involving children considered ‘outside of normalcy’, pedagogicalisation of the parent entails educating parents about how to support their child’s educational achievement.METHODS Through empirical exploration of parents’ narratives, this study investigates the content of the concept of parent pedagogicalisation with the purpose to provide a theoretical lens that may support the identification of pedagogicalizing forces and possible implications for parents and children. The data consists of parents’ narratives on their experiences with educational follow-up after their child’s cochlear implantation. This empirical sample has been strategically chosen, consisting of a specific group of parents, who, in an educational context, are expected to be exposed to pedagogicalisation. The data contains 27 written narrative responses to an online, qualitative questionnaire with open-ended questions, and 14 follow-up interviews. FINDINGS Data analysis identified three key dimensions central to the content of the concept of parent pedagogicalisation, 1) Parents’ perceived need for knowledge, 2) An instrumental perspective on supporting the child’s learning, and 3) No respite. KEY MESSAGE Our proposition is that these dimensions make up the conceptual construct of parent pedagogicalisation. The three interwoven dimensions demonstrate a complexity and width that indicate implications for the parents and children involved. Potential implications are discussed in relation to a) Parents caught in the nexus between empowerment and disempowerment, and b) The pedagogicalisation of parents - a counterproductive paradox. The significance of parental involvement for children’s educational achievement notwithstanding, the analysis shows that parent pedagogicalisation and its inherent normalising practices may be detrimental to the parents and children involved, acting oppressive and exclusionary. Awareness of the mechanisms involved in parent pedagogicalisation may contribute to the identification and reduction of the associated exclusionary forces, thus encouraging a more inclusionary discourse

The Partnership Approach to Local Employment Generation: Selected Urban Initiatives in New Zealand

Local initiatives for employment creation are vital to the mitigation of high unemployment levels of Maori and Pacific Group people in New Zealand. In order that local communities be empowered to determine their own outcomes, however; government, both local and central, private business and community partnerships working to common agendas, are increasingly being seen as a step in the right direction. This paper examines the extent to which the partnership approach to employment creation operates in some labour market disadvantaged urban communities. It details some of the current projects in operation and comments on their progress. It asks if there are common elements which assist the success of such initiatives

The Behaviour of Residential Rental Property Investors in New Zealand: A Bounded Rationality Framework

Abstract This paper attempts to explain the motivations of residential rental property investors in New Zealand in terms of the behavioural assumption of bounded rationality. Investment in residential rental property holds prime place in the portfolio of many New Zealanders. This paper attempts to explain why this is so. Commencing with a rejection of the more standard neo-classical economics view of rationality to explain the behaviour of these investors, the paper sets out the bounded rationality notion. It seeks to both examine the extent to which this notion applies to the behaviour encountered and to elaborate on that behaviour. An intuitive bounded rationality framework is then set out and suggested as useful for examining individual behaviour in the area of residential rental property investment. The discussion is underpinned by the findings of a postal survey of a large nationwide sample of private residential rental property owners, but is more directly based on a study of a smaller sample of investors using in-depth interview techniques. Data collected has been analysed using the SPSS statistical programme and qualitative analysis of the interview data has been overlaid to more thoroughly explore the framework of constraints within which individual investors operate. This also provides an interesting opportunity for anecdotal evidence to be added

Fostering Creative Ecologies in Australasian Secondary Schools

This study investigates and compares elements of creativity in secondary schools and classrooms in Australia and Singapore. Statistical analysis and qualitative investigation of teacher, student and leadership perceptions of the emergence, fostering and absence of creativity in school learning environments is explored. This large-scale international study (n=717) reveals the impact of teacher behaviours, teaching environments and school leadership approaches that promote and impede the enhancement of creative, critical, and innovative thinking, organisation, and curriculum structures. Implications for Australian schools and teaching urge for secondary education to challenge current, practices, pedagogies and environments, arguing for school-based strategies and considerations that enhance creativity and critical thinking and the fostering of creative ecologies within Australian schools

The Role of Community Employment Creation: Lessons and Challenges for a New Era

This paper takes as its starting point the need for community level action as an immediate step toward 'Closing the Gaps'. The focus is on local employment initiatives underpinned by a broader approach to community development. New Zealand case studies are used to illustrate. The paper examines the development and refinement of an alternative framework - positive spirals of ‘societal capital’. This is differentiated from the concept of social capital. The role of the Community Advisor is also discussed. Lessons are drawn for the future

Regional Labour Market Dynamics and Economics Participation: The Mediation Role of Education and Training Institutions

Since the late 1970s in New Zealand, education and training have been essential elements as governments have grappled with maintaining and increasing the employability of the labour force. This paper reports on one phase of the Labour Market Dynamics and Economic Participation research programme which addresses the role that education and training institutions play in mediating labour supply and demand and promoting economic participation within various New Zealand regional labour markets. The paper refines and extends some of the key concepts of the Department of Labour's Human Capability Framework to explore the effectiveness of regional education and training institutions, and other intersecting regional and national organisations, in mediating regional labour market supply and demand

From Cultural to Economic Capital: Community Employment Creation in Otara

This paper stresses the need for community responses to the ethnic unemployment problem in New Zealand. It aims to show the potential for direct employment creation on the basis of a community entrepreneurship model as well as a widened definition of human capital, using case study of the labour market disadvantaged community of Otara, in South Auckland. Projects harnessing cultural and ethnic riches to create Otara as an attractive visitor destination undertaken by Enterprise Otara (EO) are examined. A participatory research methodology, chiefly formative evaluation is used. ·This paper seeks to break down a prevalent view that grassroots responses to unemployment are necessarily small-scale ventures and to get away from the 'small is beautiful' mind-set when Local Employment Initiatives (ILEs) are involved. Additionally, the collaborative role of 'outsiders ' in the 'bottom-up' approach to employment creation is shown to be important in 'getting things moving ' at the community level. Constraints faced by community organisations are highlighted. The importance of ILEs and the partnership concept in the mitigation of high unemployment in disadvantaged communities, is affirmed