Engaging with the modern birth story in pregnancy : everydayness, absorption and the 'idle talk' of birth

Background: This study considered how women came to understand birth in the milieu of other women’s stories; it grew from a sense that the way we talk about and portray birth might be significant. Purpose/Objective: To consider how engaging with stories of birth influenced expectations and experiences of childbirth for two generations. Birth stories encompassed personal oral stories as well as media and other representations of contemporary childbirth. Method: A hermeneutic phenomenological approach was taken; participants were purposively selected and recruited. In phase one 10 primigravid women were interviewed raising questions about whether information gleaned from media/virtual birth story mediums creates meaningful knowledge. In phase two interviews with 10 women pregnant in the 1970s – 1980s were conducted to determine whether women from a different era were more able to translate knowledge into meaning based on the belief that stories were mediated by personal contact and not though virtual technologies. Key Findings: 1. Stories had a role to play in women's understandings; 'norms' perpetuated the ' drama of birth'. 2. The 'modern birth story' created and perpetuated fear of childbirth. 3. Women were overloaded with information amassed in an attempt to manage anxiety, fit the role of informed patient and demonstrate competency as mothers. 4. The cultural and spiritual significance of birth was missing. 5. Many felt secure in the 'system' of birth as constructed, portrayed and sustained in stories. Discussion: The birth story was constructed through ‘idle talk’ (the taken for granted assumptions of how things are which come into being through language) and took place across a variety of media, as well as through personal stories (Heidegger, 2012). The lifeworld of birth being sustained was one of product and process, with the birth of a healthy baby as the only significant outcome. This thesis revealed that information gleaned from birth stories did not create meaningful knowledge and understanding about birth. References: Heidegger, M. (2012). Being and time (J. McQuarrie, E. Robinson Trans.). Oxford: Basil Blackwell

Birth in the twilight of certainty

Background: This poster considers one of three overriding themes from my PhD. The study considered how women engage with the 'modern birth story' and grew from a sense that the way we talk about birth must surely impact on our expectation and experience of birth. Purpose/Objective: To consider how engaging with stories of birth influenced expectations and experiences of childbirth for two generations. Birth stories encompassed personal oral stories as well as media representations of contemporary childbirth. Method: A hermeneutic phenomenological approach was taken; participants were purposively selected and recruited. In phase one 10 primigravid women were interviewed raising questions about whether information gleaned from media/virtual birth story mediums creates meaningful knowledge. In phase two interviews with 10 women pregnant in the 1970s – 1980s were conducted to determine whether women from a different era were more able to translate knowledge into meaning when stories were mediated by personal contact and not though virtual technologies. Key Findings: Emergent meanings and understandings were unconcealed in three alethia chapters (Heidegger, 1962). 1. 'Stories are difficult like that' 2. 'It's a generational thing' 3. 'Birth in the twilight of certainty' Discussion: ‘Birth in the Twilight of Certainty’ explored women’s experience of being in ‘ the system’ of birth and on the ‘conveyor belt of care’. In this space birth was understood as a ‘technological feat’, a process imbued with potentially disastrous consequences for women and birth. In a risk averse, safety and consumer orientated, and technological 'world of birth', women reported feeling an onus to be seen as both ‘ good patients’ and ‘good parents’; relentlessly seeking out information to manage their anxieties and demonstrate competency. Despite the information and stories at their disposal women were lacking in birthing ‘know how’; having little understanding of physiological birth and lacking belief in their bodies to birth. References: Heidegger, M. (2012). Being and time (J. McQuarrie, E. Robinson Trans.). Oxford: Basil Blackwell

Kia whakatōmuri te haere whakamua: ‘I walk backwards into the future with my eyes fixed on my past’

This whakataukī or ‘proverb’ speaks to Māori perspectives of time, where the past, the present and the future are viewed as intertwined, and life as a continuous cosmic process. Within this continuous cosmic movement, time has no restrictions – it is both past and present. The past is central to and shapes both present and future identity. From this perspective, the individual carries their past into the future. The strength of carrying one’s past into the future is that ancestors are ever present, existing both within the spiritual realm and in the physical, alongside the living as well as within the living. This article explores Māori perspectives of the past and the models and inspiration they offer. In this way, it provides a critique of the practices in early childhood education, highlighting the importance of cultural concepts and practices, and discusses implications for both teaching and academic practice

Te Ira Atua: The spiritual spark of the child

“E ai ki tā te Māori he atua tonu kei roto i te mokopuna ina whānau mai ana ia ki tēnei ao” (Ministry of Education, 1996, p. 35). This quote is from the New Zealand Ministry of Education’s early childhood curriculum policy statement, Te Whāriki: He Whāriki Matauranga mo ngā Mokopuna o Aotearoa/Early Childhood Curriculum (Ministry of Education, 1996). It speaks of the godliness or spiritual essence each child inherits from their ancestors when they are born (Early Childhood Development, 1999; Reedy, 2003). From a traditional Māori perspective, not only is the child endowed with spiritual potential or a divine spirit, but the world the child is born into is also endowed with spiritual influences

Te Whatu Kakahu: Assessment in Kaupapa Maori Early Childhood Practice

Through the exploration of Kaupapa Māori assessment approaches, I examine the reclaiming and reframing of Māori ways of knowing and being within early childhood practice. Assessment is the vehicle for reclaiming and reframing while Kaupapa Māori theory is the fuel that ignites and drives the vehicle. The effects of successive education policies remain today with Māori children, and their families continuing to disengage from education and consistently receiving disproportionately lower outcomes, opportunities and benefits. Reclaiming and reframing Māori ways of knowing and being within early childhood assessment thinking and practice is a means of addressing the cultural and educational disparities faced by Māori children within an education system that upholds western cultural and educational superiority, privilege and truths. Key questions in this process of reclaiming and reframing are: Who has the power to define? Whose truths are being reflected and how are these truths constructed? The metaphor of whatu kākahu or weaving of clothing has been used to frame this thesis. The process has involved weaving the Kaupapa Māori theory elements of conscientisation, resistance, transformative praxis and Māori ways of knowing and being, across and within historical, cultural and educational paradigms and understandings, to fashion assessment kākahu that afford comfort, warmth and flexibility in a contemporary early childhood context. This research case studies the progress of three Māori early childhood services and kōhanga reo towards the development of Kaupapa Māori early childhood assessment understandings and framings (kākahu), that reflect their particular ways of knowing and being, context and aspirations for children. This thesis has been about their assessment journeys. These journeys are a work in progress and that work continues. A qualitative, Kaupapa Māori research methodology was used to gather, collate and analyse data in this research. In accordance with Kaupapa Māori research aspirations and expectations, this research focuses on areas of importance and concern for Māori, and involved retrieving space for Māori voices to be heard. This research can be seen as a means of privileging Māori approaches, perspectives and ways of knowing and being in early childhood assessment practice. Kaupapa Māori assessment is an important agenda for early childhood. It builds upon Māori philosophical and epistemological understandings that express Māori ways of knowing and being. Kaupapa Māori assessment is able to contribute significantly to children’s learning and potential growth and is an important tool in constructing educational outcomes for Māori children. It is therefore an important agenda for early childhood

Simulated X-ray Cluster Temperature Maps

Temperature maps are presented of the 9 largest clusters in the mock catalogues of Muanwong et al. for both the Preheating and Radiative models. The maps show that clusters are not smooth, featureless systems, but contain a variety of substructure which should be observable. The surface brightness contours are generally elliptical and features that are seen include cold clumps, hot spiral features, and cold fronts. Profiles of emission-weighted temperature, surface brightness and emission-weighted pressure across the surface brightness discontinuities seen in one of the bimodal clusters are consistent with the cold front in Abell 2142 observed by Markevitch et al.Comment: Submitted to Monthly Notices Royal Astronomical Societ

Some thoughts about the value of an OECD international assessment framework for early childhood services in Aotearoa New Zealand

We were alerted to this warning from James Gee because it is from a chapter that reflects on assessment from a sociocultural-situated perspective. The New Zealand early childhood education curriculum, Te Whāriki, also takes this perspective and, in this short article, we argue that the use of Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) standardized tests to evaluate our early childhood education sector, while it may be perfectly ‘scientific’, could be disastrous for Te Whāriki