Decolonizing the Archives: The Work of New Zealand's Waitangi Tribunal

If history is to be decolonized, then the archives it is made from must be too. This article uses the work of the Waitangi Tribunal in Aotearoa New Zealand to explore how this might be possible. The tribunal is a permanent commission of inquiry that investigates contemporary and historical breaches of the 1840 Treaty of Waitangi. Tribunal hearings are rich sites of public history-making. A hearing involves the research and production of ‘traditional’ and ‘historical’ tribal narratives as well as the performance of dozens of individual testimonies from Maori. By collecting and archiving the family and tribal histories that Maori claimants have chosen to speak, write or sing before it, the tribunal has made the private public. In the process, the colonial archive has been expanded, democratised and decolonised. This article argues that while the work of the tribunal is necessarily constrained by its brief to investigate post-contact grievances, the voluminous and precious archive generated by inquiries and by the settlement process that sometimes follows, provide the seeds for other more satisfying and challenging stories about New Zealand’s past and present. It reads the archives generated by the Taranaki inquiry to demonstrate how a significant feature of claimant testimony is the challenge it poses to conceptions of time that are central to academic history-making. The subaltern histories shared at tribunal hearings collapse the distinctions between past and present, placing ‘historical actors’ and ‘historical events’ on the same stage as present ones. Tribunal archives, then, are a new and overlooked collection of documentary evidence that refuses to locate colonisation in the past. The tribunal archives challenge historians to rethink ‘history’ and ‘the colonial archive’. If colonisation is something that is not over yet then the colonial archive is still being created (by bodies like the tribunal). It is a collection of documents that can be viewed as both historical and contemporary

The Dementia Wing of History

In this article the author draws on her family history to explore notions of Maori and Pakeha identity in New Zealand, in the context of forgetting and remembering

Orimupiko 22 and the Haze of History

Certain types of chaotic events lure historians and readers. While giving birth is a chaotic, exceptional, creative event it is also a private, universal and prosaic one. While not all women will give birth, all men and women have been born. Wars and natural disasters, however, present a different order of chaos. They are destructive, exceptional and public. Wars and disasters rupture time. What once existed is no more. People die. Mountains collapse. Homes burn. Ships shatter. Villages empty. Residents flee. Roads split. Swamps rise. Forests fall. Some of these events are over in a flash. A dormant fault-line shudders, the earth shakes, buildings crack and crumble and collapse, people are crushed. Others, like wars, go on and on, spreading and intensifying the chaos, knifing time and splitting it apart

Exploring the moral imagination through relational pedagogies in pre-service teacher ethics

Whilst there is significant research examining the pedagogical development of pre-service teachers’ knowledge and skills after their internship experience, there has been little examination of their experience of ethical tension and little investigation into ways to further enhance pre-service teachers’ ethical reasoning. This paper documents some of the ways that pre-service teachers reason about ethically charged situations. It aims to extend conceptions of the moral imagination and its place in the teaching of ethics to pre-service teachers by discussing findings from a teaching project pilot study designed to investigate the ways in which pre-service teachers experience and respond to ethical tensions. Whilst recognising common difficulties in responding to ethically charged situations, our analysis utilises pre-service teacher dialogue in the form of an assessment strategy based on a ‘community of inquiry’ model and examines the ways in which pre-service teachers utilise the moral imagination to reason through ethical issues. This paper indicates some ways professional development could provide opportunities more aligned with pre-service teachers’ learning needs in the development of their ethical reasoning, and argues that the moral imagination is a fundamental feature of ethical practice and decision-making

Orimupiko 22 and the Haze of History

Certain types of chaotic events lure historians and readers. While giving birth is a chaotic, exceptional, creative event it is also a private, universal and prosaic one. While not all women will give birth, all men and women have been born. Wars and natural disasters, however, present a different order of chaos. They are destructive, exceptional and public. Wars and disasters rupture time. What once existed is no more. People die. Mountains collapse. Homes burn. Ships shatter. Villages empty. Residents flee. Roads split. Swamps rise. Forests fall. Some of these events are over in a flash. A dormant fault-line shudders, the earth shakes, buildings crack and crumble and collapse, people are crushed. Others, like wars, go on and on, spreading and intensifying the chaos, knifing time and splitting it apart

‘Follow’ Me: Networked Professional Learning for Teachers

Effective professional learning for teachers is fundamental for any school system aiming to make transformative and sustainable change to teacher practice. This paper investigates the efficacy of Twitter as a medium for teachers to participate in professional learning by analysing the tweets of 30 influential users of the popular medium . We find that Twitter primarily acts as a valuable conduit for accessing new and relevant educational resources on the internet and also as a viable means of social support for like minded educators. The cost effective nature of the microblogging platform ensures that it can act as a medium for sustained professional development, while leaving the individual participants to control and take ownership of the learning. These features align with the current literature associated with the characteristics of effective professional learning

Biodegradable scaffolds

In some embodiments, the present invention provides compositions that comprise: (1) a biodegradable polymer matrix; and (2) at least one biodegradable reinforcing particle that is dispersed in the matrix. In some embodiments, the biodegradable reinforcing particle is selected from the group consisting of porous oxide particles and porous semiconductor particles. In additional embodiments, the compositions of the present invention further comprise a (3) porogen particle that is also dispersed in the matrix. In further embodiments, the compositions of the present invention are also associated with one or more active agents. In various embodiments, the active agents are associated with the biodegradable polymer matrix, the biodegradable reinforcing particle, and/or the porogen particle. In various embodiments, the compositions of the present invention may be utilized as scaffolds, such as scaffolds for treating bone defects. Further embodiments of the present invention pertain to methods of making the compositions of the present invention.Board of Regents, University of Texas Syste

An integrated computational-experimental approach for the in situ estimation of valve interstitial cell biomechanical state

Mechanical forces are known to regulate aortic valve interstitial cell (AVIC) functional state by modulating their biosynthetic activity, translating to differences in tissue composition and structure and, potentially, leading to aortic valve (AV) dysfunction. While advances have been made toward the understanding of AVIC behavior ex-situ, the AVIC biomechanical state in its native extracellular matrix (ECM) remains largely unknown. Consequently, changes in AVIC behaviors, such as stiffness and contractility, resulting from pathological cues in-situ remain unidentified. We hypothesize that improved descriptions of AVIC biomechanical state in-situ, obtained using an inverse modeling approach, will provide deeper insight into AVIC interactions with the surrounding ECM, revealing important changes resulting from pathological state, and possibly informing pharmaceutical therapies. To achieve this, a novel integrated numerical-experimental framework to estimate AVIC mechanobiological state in-situ was developed. Flexural deformation of intact AV leaflets was used to quantify the effects of AVIC stiffness and contraction at the tissue level. In addition to being a relevant deformation mode of the cardiac cycle, flexure is highly sensitive to layer-specific changes in AVIC biomechanics. As a first step, a tissue-level bilayer model that accurately captures the bidirectional flexural response of AV intact layers in a passive state was developed. Next, tissue micromorphology was incorporated in a macro-micro scale framework to simulate layer-specific AVIC-ECM interactions. The macro-micro AV model enables the estimation of changes in effective AVIC stiffness and contraction in-situ that are otherwise grossly inaccessible through experimental approaches alone. Finally, microindentation studies examining AVIC activation were run in parallel with in-situ studies to emphasize the necessity of an in-situ approach, and the advantage it affords over existing ex-situ methodology. In conclusion, the developed numerical-experimental methodology can be used to obtain AVIC properties in-situ. Most importantly, it can lead to further understanding of AVIC-ECM mechanical coupling under various pathophysiological conditions and the investigation of possible treatment strategies targeting the myofibroblast phenotype characteristic of early signs of sclerotic valvular disease.Biomedical Engineerin

AMERICAN JOURNALISM AND THE DEVIANT VOTER: ANALYZING AND IMPROVING COVERAGE OF THE ELECTORATE IN THE TRUMP ERA

This study examined media coverage of the 2016 presidential election to identify whether Trump voters were framed as deviant as defined by Daniel Hallin’s Sphere Theory (1986). In a content analysis of 384 reports produced in the last six weeks of the election by national and local outlets, this study found that journalists framed Trump voters as outside the political norm through the use of delegitimizing cues. Previous scholarship (Luther and Miller 2005; Robinson et. al. 2008; Taylor 2014; Billard 2016) has defined delegitimizing cues as frames that signal negativity to the news consumer. Using a coding system and a qualitative examination of the media reports, this study operationalized deviance through the identification of six delegitimizing cues applied to the Trump voter. The conclusion was that the media framed Trump voters using delegitimizing cues that differed from the coverage of Clinton voters and signaled deviance to the news consumer.Hallin defined three spheres of normative practice for journalists: consensus, legitimate controversy and deviance. Each sphere has different normative practices and goals. According to Hallin’s theory, most political coverage falls into the sphere of legitimate controversy. This study suggests that when journalists were confronted with voters considered a threat to democracy, normative practices shifted and coverage of the Trump voter moved into the sphere of deviance. This framing then contributed to a misunderstanding of the electorate by the media. An examination of differences in national and locally-based reporting in this study found that local media framed voters in a more nuanced manner. In addition, local media reports included details suggesting that political polls were an inaccurate descriptors of local voters. Also included in this dissertation is a summary of the media debate that followed the 2016 election and suggests political reporters were unaware of the shifting roles and practices during the campaign. Finally, this study suggests that framing voters as deviant contributes to the polarization of the U.S. political system. It aims to analyze the media coverage of the 2016 voter with the goal of illuminating current practices and suggesting improvements in the relationship of the media and the voters

Pathways from acculturation stress to negative friends and substance use among Latino adolescents

This dissertation is comprised of three separate studies that examine acculturation processes and their effects on negative friend associations and substance use among Latino adolescents. The purpose of the first study was to review methods used to measure acculturation and to examine the validity of a multidimensional acculturation scale – the Bicultural Involvement Questionnaire (BIQ). The second study examined how acculturation stress, family relationships, and adolescent mental health problems contribute to the development of negative friend associations for Latino adolescents. Finally, the third study examined the link between acculturation stress and substance use for Latino adolescents, taking into consideration the adolescent’s mental health problems, family, and friend relationships. Data from the Latino Acculturation and Health Project, a longitudinal study of the acculturation experiences of Latino families in North Carolina and Arizona, were used in all three studies. Study one analyses were conducted using Mplus 4.2, while Amos 7.0 was used for analyses in studies two and three. Results from study one indicate that the BIQ needs slight modification before being used with Latino adolescents and more extensive modification for use with Latino adults. Following modification, the scale was found to be an effective measure of acculturation for both populations. For studies two and three, family relationships and adolescent mental health problems were significant mediators between acculturation stress and the outcome variables of negative friend associations and substance use. The acculturation process and its relationship with adolescent outcomes is complex. Further exploration into acculturation measurement is needed in order to improve our understanding of this multifaceted construct. When considering the effects of acculturation for Latino adolescents, special attention must be paid to the roles of family relationships and mental health outcomes. Implications for practice and future research are discussed. Funding for this dissertation was provided by the Jessie Ball DuPont Dissertation Completion Fellowship