Alternative education in Aotearoa New Zealand: The politics and poetics of authorisation

Secondary students who become disenfranchised from mainstream schools are directed to attend Alternative Education (AE) centres. AE was a grassroots’ initiative in the 1990s led by youth organisations, iwi, community social service agencies and churches to meet the education and pastoral needs of rangatahi. Due to the tenuous links held between AE and the mainstream system and with no government policy work occurring within the sector for the decade prior to 2009, the sector struggled for adequate resourcing and professional recognition. Through a poetic inquiry approach this paper explores three key AE government policy directions over a ten-year period, from 2009 to 2019. Unbuckling prose found within official documents, concrete (visual) poems were created to perform a critical reading of policy. The policy poems form a narrative arc that show the discrediting of AE providers and demonising of students in AE has recently given way to more hopeful directions in policy. &nbsp

Imagining social pedagogy in/for New Zealand

On the face of it, social pedagogy has no recognised presence in New Zealand. The education workforce, and society, are generally unfamiliar with the term ‘pedagogue’ and what that role entails. Despite this, a range of vocations in New Zealand reflect social pedagogical practices. In this article I explore one of those vocations: tutors who work in alternative education centres. Charged with caring for and educating students who become disenfranchised from conventional secondary schools, these tutors draw from their life experiences, cultural knowledges, sporting and arts skills and vocational skills to provide a holistic education. Based on the findings of a poetic inquiry in which I re/presented the experiences of tutors through creating found poetry, I present 21 attributes of tutors’ identity. In describing tutor character, tutor pedagogy and tutor achievement, I imagine these tutors as social pedagogues in New Zealand. I conclude by suggesting that these tutors play a vital role in helping students to navigate through education and life. In addition, tutors in New Zealand contribute to our global understanding of social pedagogical practice

Returning to the heart of teaching: Social pedagogy as phenomenological pedagogy

In many alternative education centres in New Zealand tutors are charged with educating students disenfranchised from their mainstream secondary schools. However, these tutors do not hold teaching qualifications. Rather, they draw their pedagogical approaches from life experiences, cultural knowledge, vocational and relational skills, and passion to work with young people. Tutors’ heartfelt ways of engaging with young people has a transformative impact on many of the students’ life-courses. This article poetically represents key approaches central to tutor practice. From observations and research interview transcripts, found poems were created from the everyday language of eight tutors. The poems represent phenomenological insights into tutors’ lived experiences, and reveal that tutors intentionally place students at the centre of their practice. The article positions tutor pedagogy within a social pedagogical field, while also considering social pedagogy as a phenomenological pedagogy that brings us to the very heart of teaching

The Debate on Whether Life Sentences Should Be Considered: Will Missouri\u27s Proportionality Review Remain Meaningful

This Law Summary will address the Supreme Court of Missouri\u27s proportionality review jurisprudence, the rationales of two opinions in Deck, and the relationship of the Deck opinions to precedent and public policy. Additionally, this Summary will address the court\u27s subsequent application of and debate about proportionality review as well as the legislative response. Finally, this Summary will conclude that for proportionality review to serve a meaningful function, the court must consider all affirmed, factually similar capital cases that resulted in either life imprisonment or a death sentence because only considering factually similar cases which resulted in the death penalty essentially guarantees a finding of proportionality.

Sexistentie. Een existentieel perspectief op seksuele vorming.

Deze thesis heeft als focus om te onderzoeken hoe de uitgangspunten van seksuele vorming vanuit existentieel perspectief zich verhouden tot de kenmerken van onderwijs in seksuele vorming zoals beschreven in beleid en recente onderzoeken. Het landschap waarbinnen seksuele vorming wordt gegeven op middelbare scholen is onderzocht middels een documentanalyse van beleidstukken en recente onderzoeken betreffende de beleefde ervaring van seksualiteit, romantische relaties en seksuele en relationele vorming door jongeren. Daarnaast is het existentieel perspectief op onderwijs en seksualiteit onderzocht middels een theoretisch onderzoek. Hieruit kwam naar voren dat de uitgangspunten van existentieel onderwijs, met name het werk van Biesta en Noddings, een bijdrage kunnen leveren. Hetzelfde geldt voor de basisaannames en terugkerende thema’s vanuit existentieel therapeutisch perspectief. Ervaringen van seksualiteit en relaties kunnen dan ook worden geplaatst binnen een groter existentieel kader zoals de ultimate concerns en existentiële thema's als 1) relationaliteit, 2) in-de-wereld-zijnde en 3) identiteit en keuzevrijheid. De keuze voor een existentieel perspectief in onderwijs bevordert een authentieke identiteitsvorming, inclusief een authentieke relationele en seksuele vorming, die zowel respectvol gedrag naar anderen als weerbaarheid aanmoedigt. Op die manier draagt het onderwijs concreet bij aan een sociaal klimaat waarbinnen diversiteit de normaalste zaak van de wereld is

Properties of the Brunel Operator

For T:X->X a Cesàro bounded linear operator on a Banach space X and for ψ the function on the closed unit disk given by ψ(z)=(1-sqrt(1-z))/z, we show that the Brunel operator A(T)=ψ(T) is power-bounded and satisfies the Ritt condition ||A^(n+1)(T)-A^n(T)||=O(1/n). We prove that when X is reflexive and T is mean ergodic, the invariant subspaces and coboundaries of T and A(T) coincide, as well as that the powers of the Brunel operator converge in the strong operator topology to the same T-invariant limit as the Cesàro averages of T. We show that when T is positive, the norm (resp. pointwise) convergence of the Cesàro averages of T is equivalent to the norm (resp. pointwise) convergence of the powers of A(T); in particular, this reduces the study of the pointwise convergence of the Cesàro averages of positive Cesàro bounded operators to the study of the pointwise convergence of the powers of positive Ritt operators. Alongside these results, we give an analogue of the spectral mapping theorem for the Brunel operator, and derive several asymptotic estimates for the series coefficients of the resolvent of A(T). Finally, we conclude by analyzing the iterates A(T), A(A(T)), ..., and give sufficient conditions for the limit of this iteration process to have the same invariant subspace and coboundary as T.Bachelor of Scienc