Artefacts, stories & photographs : do they work as a tool for cultural understanding & humanitarian learning? : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Education in Adult Education at Massey University

This thesis is a qualitative, ethnographic study, which examines the assumption that at the heart of worthwhile teaching and learning is our shared humanity. Artefacts, stories and photographs are explored as vehicles through which learners critically examine and share their cultural learning and perceptions of what is significant and valuable. In this way artefacts, stories and photographs provide a conduit for learning between and among people of diverse cultures. I believe such learning celebrates our shared humanity, which is deliberately defined in positive terms as "the best that encompasses the collective quality and characteristics of all people including kindness, compassion, empathy, humility, caring and thoughtfulness" Learning that celebrates our humanity may be considered a positive force and humanitarian in nature. In the context of this thesis I speak of and describe humanitarian learning as "the development of understanding of self and others through the sharing of personal, cultural and social experiences that exemplify the attitudes and values needed for responsible citizenship and dignified relationships. Rich sources of ideas, expertise and perceptions about relevant experience have been drawn from various authors and educators. Key documentation from the International Baccalaureate Organisation, (IBO), including "A Continuum of International Education"(2002) and the work of the former Director General of the IBO. Professor George Walker also provided useful resource material. The data was generated through questionnaires and photographs focussing on cultural artefacts with personal meaning, documenting the voices, reflections, interactions, and perceptions of the participants about the significance of cultural diversity in their lives and education. The data is presented in a series of charts and graphic organisers linked with the IBO expected teaching practices. These are analysed in the context of intercultural understanding and humanitarian learning, a notion developed and examined in this thesis with a view to how it may be supported. In analysing the data, the following key points emerged. • Personal multicultural experiences, a sense of global awareness and a thorough appreciation of people from differing backgrounds are considered highly significant in humanitarian learning • Stories, artefacts and photographs create an accessible, versatile and effective human connecting instrument enabling humanitarian learning • Stories, artefacts and photographs can illuminate cultural conflict, tension and misunderstanding. Suggestions and recommendations for ways that humanitarian learning can be fostered in a climate defined by tolerance, respect and responsibility include: • The need to make more explicit the obligations of learners to develop perspectives, intuition and empathy so they know themselves and others and are able to view cultural difference as enriching • The notion of learning as humanitarian is worthy of greater emphasis and implementation in educational organisations • The recognition that areas of tension between people have great potential for meaningful growth of understanding across cultures. This thesis provides a springboard for more serious consideration and action towards initiating learning that purposefully fosters people knowing each other in a spirit of global responsibility

The Maximal Entropy Measure of Fatou Boundaries

We look at the maximal entropy (MME) measure of the boundaries of connected components of the Fatou set of a rational map of degree greater than or equal to 2. We show that if there are infinitely many Fatou components, and if either the Julia set is disconnected or the map is hyperbolic, then there can be at most one Fatou component whose boundary has positive MME measure. We also replace hyperbolicity by the more general hypothesis of geometric finiteness

Students’ Perspective on Intrinsic Motivation to Learn: A Model to Guide Educators

The purpose of this qualitative study was to understand the collective perspective of what motivates students to exert effort and energy towards learning tasks in a classroom setting. To reach this goal, the researcher utilized a qualitative methodology, the Insider Perspective Approach, to take a deep look inside the classroom experience and examine the broad view of the students’ collective perspective. A model for situational motivation is presented suggesting factors that educators can manipulate to enhance students’ intrinsic motivation to learn: control, competence, active involvement, variety, curiosity, challenge, a sense of belonging, and honored voices. When teachers integrate these constructs as they plan activities and assignments, students’ intrinsic motivation to learn will be enhanced

Farmers, farm workers and work-related stress

This research explores the ways in which stress affects farming communities, how this has changed in recent years, and the degree to which work-related aspects of stress may be assuaged by support interventions. A qualitative case study research approach was employed to address these issues, involving 60 interviews in five locations across England and Wales.In examining farming stress, a distinction is made between its intrinsic, extrinsic and workrelated dimensions. Whileinterviewees tended to associate day-to-day worries and acute stress with farming’s intrinsic demands (such as disease and adverse weather conditions), external causes of tension (such as competition and regulation), together with worries about finances and family, were associated with more sustained anxieties. By contrast, work-related aspects of farming stress, such as workload issues and farming practices, involved a combination of physical and mental health effects.Notably, work-related and extrinsic dimensions of stress have increased in recent years in relation to organisational and policy shifts, price fluctuations, mounting paperwork demands, workload intensification, and changes in agricultural regulation. These have prompted an escalation in the aspects of their work that farming communities feel powerless to control, and represent a major area for policy intervention. Principal farmers displayed the most visible manifestations of stress, linked at once to the intrinsic, extrinsic and workrelated dimensions of their work. By contrast, family farm workers and labourers often lacked autonomy over the way they worked, and work-related aspects of stress concerning workload and organisation made up a greater part of their experience. Increased paperwork demands emerged as a major cause of stress among interviewees, particularly forfarmers and their wives, who struggled to balance these with traditional farming priorities. Differences between farmswere also influential in explaining stress. Livestock farming embodied intrinsic pressures relating to stock crises and the unpredictability of animals, but more recently has come under intense economic pressure, prompting a rationalisation of working practices. Arable farmers found the organisation of activities, such as harvesting and planting, in a context of reduced and increasingly contractual workforces particularly challenging. Mixed farmers faced the dual stresses of balancing work activities with conflicting timetables, and the paperwork demands of a complex portfolio of farming. Smaller farms were struggled with intensified workloads, while larger enterprises had to comply with the demands of more inspection regimes.Support agencies need to overcome the stigma attached to asking for help among farming communities and offer a rangeof responsive and proactive services. Locally based support was more likely to be used and trusted, although concernsabout client confidentiality might deter those most in need from seeking help. Where existing local networks wereestablished, there was a strong argument for providers to plug into these and work towards publicising their efforts to ensure that support is provided most effectively. Critically, support must be multidimensional, reflecting the wide range of stressors and their impacts among farming communities

Making a Difference?: The Effects of Teach for America in High School

Uses longitudinal data from North Carolina to estimate the effectiveness, in terms of gains in student test scores, of TFA teachers relative to traditional teachers. Focuses on math and science teachers in the first study of TFA effects in high schools

Researching Hard-to Reach Populations: Privileged Access Interviewers and Drug Using Parents

Accessing drug using populations is notoriously fraught with difficulties for researchers (Gurdin & Patterson, 1987; Griffiths, Gosspo & Strang, 1993; Renzetti & Lee, 1993; Spreen & Zwaagstra, 1994; Goode, 2000; Elliott et al., 2002). These difficulties are the result of a number of reasons. The main one being that drug use is often illicit and/or illegal which often leads to the stigmatization of drug users within the media and elsewhere and this may ultimately lead to their lives being 'concealed by a veil of ignorance' (Elliott et al., 2002: 172). When one adds to this the fact that the population in question may have even more reason to remain hidden, for example, that they are drug using parents who may wish to conceal their identity as either parent or as drug user, accessing them may be even more complicated for researchers, service providers and policy makers alike.Privileged Access Interviewers, Drug Using Parents

Changing Priorites, Transformed Opportunities?

In addressing why some people work after state pension aage, this paper draws upon recent qualitative research to argue tht work decisions reflect long-standing dispositions and priorities, and are critically informed by opportunity structures. drawing upon a typolgy distinguishing between 'workers' and 'professionals' and creatives', and within these subgroups pf 'entrepeneurs' and 'portfolio workers', which relfect particular patterns of self-employment tha paper illustrates that qualitatively different meanings are associated with work, nd agrues tht class distinctions form the basis of particular sets of priorites and practices. Work orientations are considered against the context of opportunity structures, including work intensification, restructuring nd the decline of traditional industries, and shifts in health nd care responsibilities, which may revise people's options at state pension age. Revisiting the traditional relationshop between class and work, examining both cultural and economic factors, new conceptual insight may be gained into the reproduction nd persistence of social inequalities over the life course.