Indigenous entrepreneurs in Australia and New Zealand : a test of social marginality theory

Focusing on the original inhabits of Australia and New Zealand, we examine the basic precept of social marginality theory, namely whether socially marginalised and disadvantaged entrepreneurs might actually be more likely to start a new venture. Using survey data and in-depth interviews, we find mixed results. For Mäori, their position of disadvantage coupled with a history and cultural attitudes favouring enterprise has led to one of the world’s highest rates of entrepreneurial activity. However, for Indigenous Australians, their disadvantage and marginal status within Australian society, compounded by a continued legacy of inequity and by internal factors, has not encouraged an enterprising culture.

A typical meteorological year for energy simulations in Hamilton, New Zealand

Typical Meteorological Year (TMY) data is used extensively in building energy simulations and solar energy analysis. TMY data for New Zealand, however, is relatively limited and no such data existed for Hamilton. Ten years of hourly meteorological data was analysed, and a TMY was developed. Simulations using the TMY data were conducted to determine the performance of a solar pool-heating system. It was found that the TMY was able to predict the annual performance of this system to within 2% of the long-term mean. It is intended that this TMY could be used to perform simulations on building energy use and solar heating systems in Hamilton.

The feasibility of a sustainable energy, driver-only electric commuter vehicle for New Zealand

This paper investigates whether low technology driver-only, battery electric commuter vehicles are feasible for New Zealand. Personal passenger transport faces several challenges in the coming decades: depletion of cheap oil reserves, increasing congestion, localised pollution, the need for reduced carbon emissions and the long term goal of sustainability. One way of solving some of these problems could be to introduce low cost, comfortable, energy efficient, driver-only electric vehicles. These would still give the driver a weatherproof, safe and comfortable means of commuting, but at a fraction of the energy and running costs of conventional petrol/diesel cars. To help assess their viability, the performance and energy use of the E-POD electric commuter vehicle is used as a benchmark. The work shows that such a vehicle could be made cheaply, using readily available technology with a range of 180km and a top speed of over 90km/h. The chassis could be made from natural fibre composite materials that might reduce significantly the embedded energy required for its manufacture. The electricity taken from the grid to charge the batteries could be replaced by electricity generated from grid connected photovoltaic panels mounted on the garage roof of the vehicle owner.

Principalship and policy in small New Zealand primary schools

This research investigates the relationship between principalship and policy in small New Zealand primary schools. A distinctive feature of small primary schools is that their principals typically have to teach as well as manage. Overseas research indicates that in times of educational reform, teaching principals face particular difficulty and may need special support. Following the watershed educational reforms of 1989 and a decade of ‘hands-off’ policy in education (1989-1999), central policy towards school support in New Zealand is now more ‘hands-on’. The impact of this policy change on small schools has not been researched hi New Zealand, where such schools make up over fifty percent of all primary schools. The aims of this study are to analyse the impact of current support policy in New Zealand on small primary school principalship, and to evaluate the extent to which policy adjustment might be needed in the future. Using multiple methods and a case study approach to gather data, the study focuses on small school principalship in one New Zealand region - the Central Districts region. It also considers the recent policy initiatives, their rationale and the extent to which they appear to be meeting the support needs reported by the principals whose work has been researched in the study. Broadly, the study has found that within small schools, the role-balance within a teaching principal’s work is a critical factor, as the ratio within the principal’s role-balance between the teaching role and the management role creates variation in work-demands, work-strategies and types of support needed. Teaching principals in New Zealand generally feel better supported now than they did in the 1990s and the study identifies factors associated with this change. However the analysis in this study suggests that the current policy aim to both rationalise and strengthen the small school network as a whole is rather problematic. Without better targeted support policy in this area, old style parochial and competitive attitudes between schools are unlikely to change in the future.

New teachers, professional knowledge and educational reform in New Zealand

This thesis examines the professional knowledge of new secondary school teachers in New Zealand, their negotiation of multiple discourses encountered in policy and practice, and their processes of professional identity formation. It is also a study of policy reform. In New Zealand, as elsewhere, recent educational and social reforms have brought about major changes to the way education is managed and implemented. These reforms emphasise market ideologies promoting consumer choice and responsibility, while measuring and monitoring quality and effectiveness. At the same time, the reforms attempt to alleviate social inequality. Teachers' negotiation of an accountability culture and the dominant equity policies is a major focus of this study. The study draws upon group interviews held with nine new teachers during the first two years of their teaching careers. The group interviews were designed to elicit extended narratives from individual teachers, as well as promote more interactive dialogue and reflections within the groups. Because the interviews were conducted at different points in their early careers, the study also has a longitudinal element, allowing insight into how teachers' views are formed or changed during an intense period of professional learning. Analysis of the teachers' narratives is informed by poststructural and feminist understandings of identity and knowledge and by a methodological orientation to writing as a method of enquiry. The thesis develops three main types of discussion and sets of arguments. The first examines new teachers' negotiation of the 'macro' context of teacher knowledge formation that is, their negotiation of an educational policy environment that juxtaposes an equity agenda with accountability controls. In order to historically situate these dilemmas, the particular political, social and educational context of New Zealand is examined. It is argued that teachers negotiate competing political and conceptual debates about social justice, equity and difference, and that this negotiation is central to the formation of professional knowledge. The analysis illustrates ways in which teachers make sense of equity discourses in educational policy and practice, and the apparent contradictions that arise from placing tight accountability standards on schools and teachers to achieve associated equity goals. The second type of discussion focuses on teachers' negotiation of the 'micro' dimension of professional knowledge, looking closely at the processes and practices that form professional identity. Against stage or developmental models of teacher identity, it is argued that professional identity is formed in an ongoing, uneven and fluid manner and is socially and discursively situated/embedded. It is further argued that professional knowledge and identity are entwined and that this relationship is most usefully understood through analysis of the discursive practices that frame teachers' working lives and through which teachers work out who they are or should become and what and how they (should) think. This analysis contributes new perspectives to debates in teacher education about teacher preparation and the knowledge required of teachers in current 'new times'. The final cluster of arguments brings together these macro and micro aspects of professional knowledge and identity with a case study of how new teachers negotiated a recent educational reform of senior secondary school qualifications in New Zealand. This reform has had a significant impact on secondary schools and on the way teachers, and New Zealanders in general, think about education, achievement and success. It was found that this reform significantly challenged new teachers to question their beliefs about assessment and justice in education, and what counts as success. This case study draws attention to the tensions between equity, academic excellence and standards-based assessment, and contributes to understanding how teacher professional knowledge forms both in the context of a specific educational policy reform and in relation to educational reform in general. This study contributes new knowledge to the formation of teacher professional knowledge and identity in an educational climate of change in New Zealand. The findings offer new insights for teacher educators, policymakers and schools into how teachers build, shape and sustain professional knowledge; how they juggle contradictions between a desire for justice, policy imperatives and teacher education rhetoric; the self-constructed, but contingent nature of professional knowledge and identity; and the urgency to address identity formation as part of teacher education and to take account of the dynamic ways in which identities form. These matters need to be articulated in teacher education both pre-service and in-service in order to address teacher retention and satisfaction, and teachers' commitment to equity reform in education.

Curriculum for entrepreneurial creativity and resourcefulness in New Zealand

This thesis asks: ‘How can tertiary education nurture entrepreneurial creativity?’ Entrepreneurship is considered to be a vital determinant of economic growth and the entrepreneur is understood as someone who innovates and commercialises their own innovation. The setting is New Zealand which is struggling to make the shift from relying on primary production to becoming a ‘creative economy.’ The creative individual has been identified as a new mainstream but it is argued that in New Zealand, education provision is inadequate for supporting the development of the practice of entrepreneurship. The problem is not unique. Various writers are critical of business education generally, and of the mismatch between the passion and chaos in entrepreneurs’ lives and the way education programs are typically organised as a linear sequence of discipline-based courses with prescribed content, activities and outcomes. Rich data were gathered from in-depth interviews with twelve nascent, new or experienced entrepreneurs and two associates (one a marketer, the other a scientist). Each participant was drawn from a different area of economic endeavour. They were asked to share their stories and views about creativity, the connections between creativity and entrepreneurship, business success, formal and informal education, and ways to improve tertiary education programs. The research found that a suitable environment for nurturing creativity will most likely have structure but will also enable chaos. It will present opportunities for experiencing diversity, and will stimulate unconscious and conscious mental processes. It will provide scope for hard work that is fun and involves authentic risk-taking, and will enable both individual and purposeful teamwork. The study also found that business success is not based on knowledge but is rather about being resourceful. The becoming of the creative entrepreneur thus includes developing capability to network with peers and mentors and communicate with customers and staff, and developing passion for and resilience in the pursuit of a dream. The findings suggest that in an age of uncertainty, nurturing entrepreneurial creativity and resourcefulness requires learning to be viewed as a practice-based community process where knowing and doing are interwoven with being. It is argued that this needs to align with Ronald Barnett and Kelly Coate’s (2005) notion of ‘a curriculum for engagement.’ It is suggested that an entire program might simply invite students to work collaboratively to identify and exploit an entrepreneurial opportunity by producing and commercialising an appropriate product/service innovation; to undertake this work as two separate projects – one within an existing organisation, and the other as a new venture; and to theorise their work. It is proposed that a suitable framework lies in William Doll’s (2002) advocacy for a curriculum based on a matrix of five Cs: ‘currere,’ complexity, cosmology, conversation, and community. To these, creativity is added as a sixth C.