scholarly journals Addressing graduate capability through action research: a cross-disciplinary perspective in a New Zealand context

Author(s):  
Qilong Zhang

Abstract The concept “graduate capability” has been created to respond to the trend that tertiary education graduates routinely encounter uncertainty and complexity. Adopting a multiple-site action research design, this study explored ways to address graduate capability across five disciplines in a New Zealand vocational education institution. Participants were 215 students and 21 teaching staff. Data collection included interviews, team meetings, and a variety of pedagogical documentation. Ethnographic content analysis was used for data analysis which generated five discipline-specific approaches to graduate capability intervention. Each approach included five dimensions: selection of focus capability items (FCIs) for intervention, composition of FCIs, strategies to address FCIs, impact of the intervention, and relationship between the intervention and the academic programme. This study not only helps the sampled programmes address graduate capability in an intentional and systematic way, but also offers an operational framework for designing capability intervention programmes in similar settings.

Author(s):  
Maryam Moridnejad ◽  
Josy Cooper ◽  
Wendy H Fox-Turnbull ◽  
Sarla Kumari

Females are underrepresented in engineering cohorts in New Zealand. The lack of female participation in engineering fields at the tertiary education level has been a barrier for diversity and equality in both the industry and academic professions. A recent study by Docherty et al. [11] noted girls coming to engineering at Canterbury University, New Zealand are more likely to be from a single sex school and this phenomenon can be due to cultural reasons. They identified that future work is needed to look at the cultural changes in New Zealand which could potentially mitigate the gender bias.However, we first need to identify a range of contributing factors (including cultural issues) for the lack of diversity in engineering schools in New Zealand. By identifying these factors, we can then propose and implement necessary remediation actions to address the lack of female participation in engineering. Common influencing factors for female participation in STEM and selection of engineering pathways were found during a review of literature and included parental and teacher influences, self-efficacy, perception and attitude, gender stereotypes, and peer and media influences. We believe that New Zealand context in terms of how it influences female study and career pathway to engineering has not been well studied and documented to date. The objective of this research is to identify the main factors and cultural issues that contribute to low female participation in engineering studies in New Zealand.  We carried out individual and focus group interviews on both domestic and international female students at Wintec enrolled in the Diploma, Bachelor of Engineering Technology and Graduate Diploma programmes in Civil Engineering. The interviews helped us to understand our students’ perspectives around the factors that influenced their study decisions. We used the collected data to identify patterns and generate themes.  n the New Zealand context, we found, barriers to selection of engineering pathway for females include the school system; lack of career and subject choice guidance available to students at school, lack of promotion of the profession, and society’s perception of engineers as being masculine - “a tradie working in a workshop”. For our international students’ participants, it appears that the school system in their country directed them (regardless of gender) to maths and engineering study pathways if they showed talent in these areas and engineering is a highly regarded profession. 


2017 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 21-34
Author(s):  
G.A. Mkrtychyan ◽  
O.M. Isaeva

In work the possibility of an assessment of organizational culture of enterprise university by the model "A cube double C" of R. Goffi and G. Jones's is investigated. Selection of respondents consisted of 50 teaching staff of faculties of management and economy of the Nizhny Novgorod campus of Higher School of Economics: 31 women and 19 men; 5 professors, 27 associate professors and 18 senior teachers. Diagnostics like organizational culture was carried out by means of R. Goffi and G. Jones's questionnaire, studying of resistance to the changes which are carried out in higher education institution — by means of an author's questionnaire. In a research it is revealed that the Nizhny Novgorod campus of Higher School of Economics has communal type of culture that conforms to requirements of enterprise university; one of the psychological reasons of resistance of teachers to the changes which are carried out to the organizations is their discrepancy to the academic values; the weak organizational culture of a campus causes resistance to the carried-out organizational changes. The research has shown that the model of organizational culture "A cube double C" is the adequate tool of an assessment of culture of enterprise university.


Author(s):  
B.R. Watkin

AN Aberystwyth selection of tall fescue (Festuca arundinacea Schreb.), known as S170, was sown with certified New Zealand white clover (Trifolium repens) and re' clover (T. pratense) and compared under sheep grazing with other grass/clover pastures at the Grasslands Division Regional Station at Lincoln (Watkin, 1975) .


2021 ◽  
pp. 1-26
Author(s):  
Vivienne Anderson ◽  
Sayedali Mostolizadeh ◽  
Jo Oranje ◽  
Amber Fraser-Smith ◽  
Emma Crampton

2021 ◽  
pp. 147821032199501
Author(s):  
Susan Shaw ◽  
Keith Tudor

This article offers a critical analysis of the role of public health regulation on tertiary education in Aotearoa New Zealand and, specifically, the requirements and processes of Responsible Authorities under the Health Practitioners Competence Assurance Act for the accreditation and monitoring of educational institutions and their curricula (degrees, courses of studies, or programmes). It identifies and discusses a number of issues concerned with the requirements of such accreditation and monitoring, including, administrative requirements and costs, structural requirements, and the implications for educational design. Concerns with the processes of these procedures, namely the lack of educational expertise on the part of the Responsible Authorities, and certain manifested power dynamics are also highlighted. Finally, the article draws conclusions for changing policy and practice.


2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
R. Tri Priyono Budi Santoso ◽  
I. Wayan Ruspendi Junaedi ◽  
Sony Heru Priyanto ◽  
Donald Samuel Slamet Santoso

AbstractThe novelty of this research is in applying the construction of the Shane Theory and Entrepeneurial Learning Model in applying Entrepreneurship Education at a higher education institution. This study used action research by utilizing a narrative method. The business field which matched with the academic discipline as well as business interest and hobby was more successful than that which had a different prospect as a startup. Leadership, entrepreneurship, and managerial ability are the determining factors in the success of a startup company. It can delve more into the entrepreneurship process of startups to recognize opportunities to create ideas, start businesses, and develop businesses.


2015 ◽  
Vol 28 (2) ◽  
pp. 297-306
Author(s):  
Denise Hollanda Iunes ◽  
Melissa Louyse Duarte ◽  
Leticia do Vale Pereira ◽  
Murilo César do Nascimento ◽  
Valdeci Carlos Dionisio

Introduction Work-related musculoskeletal disorders (WMSDs) represent a significant object of study for the field of occupational health, as they can lead to absenteeism, compensation costs and different levels of functional disability. Nonetheless, there are few studies assessing WMSDs in public higher education institutions. Objective The present study aimed to investigate, describe and correlate musculoskeletal symptoms and work ability of staff members of the Federal University of Alfenas (Unifal-MG), in the state of Minas Gerais, Brazil. Materials and methods A descriptive and correlational study was conducted with 213 professors, 188 administrative technicians and 124 outsourced staff members using two self-administered questionnaires: the Work Ability Index (WAI) and the Nordic Musculoskeletal Questionnaire (NMQ). Results Most of the teaching staff presented good work ability 47.9% (n = 102). Among administrative technicians and outsourced staff, on the other hand, excellent work ability predominated, with 43.6% (n = 82 technicians) and 51.61% (n = 68 outsourced). The most affected region among professors and administrative staff was the neck/cervical area 36.15% (n = 77 professors); and 28.19% (n = 53 technicians). Among outsourced staff, the lower back was reported as the main source of pain, with 23.28% (n = 29). Conclusions The presence of pain interfered in the work ability of workers regardless of the affected region. Having another occupation outside the institution did not influence pain of self-assessed staff members. The work ability of Unifal-MG staff was classified as good or excellent; thus, we recommend preventive work for this population, directed at the physical and mental aspects of work activities in order to maintain or improve such rates.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Alice Scahill

<p>Emotion is an integral aspect of organisational life and this thesis examines the emotional demands that academics experience in their workplace and the consequences this has for them. At a more specific level, the thesis examines the strategies that academics use to cope with these emotional demands, and how these strategies develop and change over the duration of their career. Using data collected from interviews with academics from business schools across the New Zealand tertiary education sector, findings are presented which demonstrate how academics develop coping strategies and how the organisation provides support. The implications from these findings could have significant effects for organisational practice. Firstly, these findings illustrate that academics experiences emotion in relation to personal, interpersonal, and systemic factors. Secondly, academics adopt a wide array of coping strategies, which have been personally developed by each individual over time. They are not given any organisational training or support for their development of these strategies. In addition, academics use coping strategies both in the workplace and at home in order to attempt to mitigate the negative impacts of the emotional demands of their roles. Finally, academics in their early career lack adequate coping strategies, and appear to have the lowest levels of organisational commitment.</p>


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