An exploration of teacher engagement practices with families of primary aged students categorised as at risk of educational underachievement : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Sociology at Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand

Current education policy in Aotearoa New Zealand signals that parents of students who are ‘at risk’ of educational underachievement should be drawn into the educational field to assist those children to reach the outcomes specified by the normative National Standards framework. An ‘educationally powerful relationship’ is advanced as being the optimum way to link home and school. Framed in this way, the home/school relationship emerges as an instrument of governance. The re-calibration of education-as-governance represents an emergence of teacher/parent relations as a means to address at-risk sub populations. Caught up with the administration of ‘at-risk’ families, the work of the teacher reflects capital(ism) in its tendency towards a crisis in social reproduction more generally. Identified by Nancy Fraser, this crisis refers to both the undermining and the overuse of the capacity of actors to establish emotional bonds, and of the contradictions that consequently emerge. Similarly, in the field of education, the emotional capacities of teachers are put to work to meet bio-political ends of producing productive populations. This research asks teachers to talk about their experiences of engaging parents of ‘at risk’ children. Using an inductive methodology, underpinned by a Foucaultian theoretical framework, data was generated by conducting semi-structured open-ended interviews in the Marlborough region. Findings point to a series of further contradictions at the site of the school. The following contradictions speak of the discontinuities inherent in the work of the teacher. Constituted to provide universal education, schools have established corrective mechanisms with which to address student underachievement. Accommodating the effects of adverse home conditions, teachers predominantly rely on in-school learning. Teachers try to be approachable yet may find themselves acting in ways that are inconsistent with their knowledge of family systems because of administrative requirements associated with the operation of National Standards. School management systems may disrupt tentative relationships with parents amplifying the tendency for parental involvement to diminish as children advance through the school years. It transpires that institutional practices work against the establishment of an effective home/school relationship, thereby illustrating the contradictions within Fraser’s crisis of social reproduction

Ethnicity and Financial Exclusion: How Fringe Banking has taken hold in Ethnic and Immigrant Neighborhoods

The latest FDIC survey (2012) on Americans excluded from regular banking services reported that between 8% and 20% of American households have either little or no relationship with a bank, savings institution, credit union, or other mainstream financial service providers. The only option for these customers, many of whom are ethnic minorities and immigrant communities, is to turn to AFS - Alternative Financial Services-the official name of fringe banking. Fringe banks like Ace Cash Express, EZLoans, or Mr. Payroll deliberately target the low- to moderate-income inner-city residents, often because these neighborhoods have become deserted by regular banks, making it difficult for these groups to apply for loans, credit cards, and mortgages. The American banking industry has indeed become polarized between banks in the top tier of the system who cater to the wealthier and less risky customers located in the affluent suburbs, and a market of second and third tier outlets, ranging from pawnshops and payday lenders to check-cashing outlets and cash-and-carry agencies. These outlets practice usurious interest rates and are booming today in the wake of the recent financial meltdown

Kangaroo morphometrics: how Miocene kangaroos can inform us about palaeoenvironments and how giant Pleistocene kangaroos managed to locomote

Kangaroos are known today for their spectacular hopping locomotion, but kangaroo diversity in the past tells a different story. Some kinds of extinct kangaroos (sthenurines) grew so large that hopping would seem to be unlikely. Analysis of their bones shows that it is likely that they used walking on two legs as a means of getting around. The diversity of small kangaroos in the Miocene can inform us about palaeoenvironments, and how the higher levels of both temperature and atmospheric carbon dioxide in the middle Miocene affected the evolution of both fauna and flora.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tec

Mackey-complete spaces and power series -- A topological model of Differential Linear Logic

In this paper, we have described a denotational model of Intuitionist Linear Logic which is also a differential category. Formulas are interpreted as Mackey-complete topological vector space and linear proofs are interpreted by bounded linear functions. So as to interpret non-linear proofs of Linear Logic, we have used a notion of power series between Mackey-complete spaces, generalizing the notion of entire functions in C. Finally, we have obtained a quantitative model of Intuitionist Differential Linear Logic, where the syntactic differentiation correspond to the usual one and where the interpretations of proofs satisfy a Taylor expansion decomposition

Action diffusion and lifetimes of quasistationary states in the Hamiltonian Mean Field model

Out-of-equilibrium quasistationary states (QSSs) are one of the signatures of a broken ergodicity in long-range interacting systems. For the widely studied Hamiltonian Mean-Field model, the lifetime of some QSSs has been shown to diverge with the number N of degrees of freedom with a puzzling N^1.7 scaling law, contradicting the otherwise widespread N scaling law. It is shown here that this peculiar scaling arises from the locality properties of the dynamics captured through the computation of the diffusion coefficient in terms of the action variable. The use of a mean first passage time approach proves to be successful in explaining the non-trivial scaling at stake here, and sheds some light on another case, where lifetimes diverging as e^N above some critical energy have been reported

Effect of Verbal Directions on Grip Strength Evaluated Using the Handheld Dynamometer

Background: Grip strength measurement using the handheld dynamometer is a key aspect of the evaluation of an upper extremity injury. The handheld dynamometer manufacturer has established research-based guidelines outlining body positioning during grip strength measurement. However, verbal direction guidelines, while provided, have not yet been shown to be most effective through research. This study seeks to determine whether the use of one of two types of verbal directions, with and without encouragements, resulted in greater grip strength as measured by the handheld dynamometer. Method: The grip strength of healthy females (n = 60) was compared using two sets of prerecorded verbal directions administered in random order. All other procedures were constant and closely followed a standardized procedure. Results: A statistically significant difference in the right- and left-hand grip strength (mean difference: 5.55 and 5.74 lb, respectively) was found between the two sets of verbal directions with verbal encouragement eliciting higher strength (p \u3c 0.0001). Conclusions: Verbal directions significantly affect grip strength scores in healthy females when evaluated using the handheld dynamometer. Evaluators should use verbal directions with encouragements when seeking to elicit maximum grip strength

Recurrent Surface Homeomorphisms

An orientation-preserving recurrent homeomorphism of the two-sphere which is not the identity is shown to admit exactly two fixed points. A recurrent homeomorphism of a compact surface with negative Euler characteristic is periodic.Comment: 10 pages LaTeX; fixed some reference