Health(y) education: A critical analysis of the role of public health regulation in and on tertiary education in Aotearoa New Zealand

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 ◽  
pp. 135910532110299
Author(s):  
Terise Broodryk ◽  
Kealagh Robinson

Although anxiety and worry can motivate engagement with COVID-19 preventative behaviours, people may cognitively reframe these unpleasant emotions, restoring wellbeing at the cost of public health behaviours. New Zealand young adults ( n = 278) experiencing nationwide COVID-19 lockdown reported their worry, anxiety, reappraisal and lockdown compliance. Despite high knowledge of lockdown policies, 92.5% of participants reported one or more policy breaches ( M  = 2.74, SD = 1.86). Counter to predictions, no relationships were found between anxiety or worry with reappraisal or lockdown breaches. Findings highlight the importance of targeting young adults in promoting lockdown compliance and offer further insight into the role of emotion during a pandemic.


Te Kaharoa ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Tania Smith

The Tertiary Education Strategy 2010 – 2015 in Aotearoa/New Zealand states that the Government aims to ‘increase the number of Māori students achieving at the higher level’ (Tertiary Education Commission 2010, p10). For this to be achieved universities need to play their part in assisting Māori students to progress beyond the undergraduate degree and into postgraduate study. Universities take their origins from western European values, ideals and world view which are reflected in the curriculum, management systems and processes.  It is predicated that by 2020 over half the tertiary student population will be Māori due to a youthful Māori population (Department of Labour, 2008). This will be a challenge for universities.  Therefore, the role of a Māori administrator within the university system becomes critical in being able to provide useful insight to the university on how to retain Māori students in this changing environment. This paper draws on my Master of Philosophy research.  It will critically examine the role Māori administrator’s play in the recruitment and retention of Māori students in universities in Aotearoa/New Zealand including culturally specific pastoral care, accurate course advice, information on degree requirements, appropriate learning pathways for students and supporting academic staff to track student progress through to completion. These additional responsibilities, often unrecognised by the university, demonstrates the important role a Māori administrator can make in retaining Māori students in the academy. 


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

2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 452
Author(s):  
Tahera Afrin

The original research project of this study was aimed to find out the components of culture and their impacts on ako (teaching-learning) within the early childhood teacher education programmes. Ethics Approval was obtained from AUT Ethics Committee. Under a socio-cultural theoretical framework, twelve lecturers from three Tertiary Education Organisations (TEOs) were interviewed. Three cohorts of student teachers from the same TEOs participated in focus groups. Using manual thematic coding, nine broad areas of cultural components were identified. These were bicultural contexts of Aotearoa, ethnicities and multi-culturalism, individual identities, cross-cultural interactions, comfort zone, female majority, socio-economic struggles, spirituality and technology. A recently developed framework for cultural sustainability (Soini and Dessein, 2016) were applied to these areas. Some of these components were identified as more inert and less dynamic, while the rest were recognised at the other end of the framework.The data and the principle findings were contextual to Aotearoa New Zealand. However, the discussion considered the overall global trends in relation to education.Keywords: Cultural diversity, cultural sustainability,


Author(s):  
Hazel Owen ◽  
Nicola Dunham

In the context of ongoing global adoption of all forms of technology eLearning has continued to evolve, informed by a growing body of research. Many schools, tertiary institutions, and other organisations, are implementing a variety of eLearning initiatives, although, frequently it appears the investment does not always equate to more engaged, knowledgeable, skilled learners. Tertiary education in Aotearoa, New Zealand covers all post-secondary education and is analogous to the term Higher Education in other countries. This chapter draws on the implementation of a large-scale blended, flipped learning project at a tertiary institution in Aotearoa, New Zealand. The project (within the Health Science faculty) was driven by a desire to improve student learning experiences, and develop a common semester with a suite of interdisciplinary postgraduate qualifications. The discussion is based on personal reflections, which provide different perspectives of the initial phases, from three participants in the associated study (two of whom are also the authors of this chapter). During the project two key prevalences were observed. The first was an ingrained set of beliefs, often unquestioned, that shaped overall expectations of what an eLearning experience might comprise. Interpretations and implications are discussed using the lens of mindsets to illustrate how beliefs of ‘self' fundamentally influence a person's ability to embrace - and thrive in - a period of change. The second prevalence was a familiarity with large-scale, ‘monolithic' eLearning developments, which translated into discomfort with an agile approach. The overall aim of this chapter is to provide sufficient detail to draw educators and administrators together to apply the recommendations offered, while providing support for 'change agents' - as well as those ambivalent about reform. The authors are keen to highlight how ultimately rewarding, but also emotionally and physically demanding, the implementation of reform can be for those educators on 'the front lines'.


2020 ◽  
Vol 18 (6) ◽  
pp. 739-756
Author(s):  
Maggie Haggerty ◽  
Judith Loveridge ◽  
Sophie Alcock

Recent policy developments in the early childhood (EC) care and education sector in Aotearoa-New Zealand have seen a shift in focus from children and play to learners and learning. While few would argue against learning as priority this article raises pressing questions about the ‘intended’ and ‘(un)intended’ consequences of this turn. We analyse national education policy reforms that have served to promote the construction of child-as-learner-subject, alongside moves internationally toward the learnerfication of EC services (Biesta, 2010). As a particular focus, we examine the legacy EC curriculum policy has drawn on from indigenous Māori discourses, as a complex entanglement of both possibility and risk. We focus also on how, in this policy context, an intermix of ‘old’ and ‘new’ curriculum priorities was playing out in one EC setting and how teachers sought to navigate the complex entanglement this effected in practice. On the basis of our analyses, we argue that the problem is not with learning as priority, but with the (school-referenced) narrowing of curriculum, the prioritising of homogenised predetermined outcomes and the ways in which children (parents and teachers) are being positioned in these particular constructions of learners and learning.


2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jemma L. Geoghegan ◽  
Xiaoyun Ren ◽  
Matthew Storey ◽  
James Hadfield ◽  
Lauren Jelley ◽  
...  

AbstractNew Zealand, a geographically remote Pacific island with easily sealable borders, implemented a nationwide ‘lockdown’ of all non-essential services to curb the spread of COVID-19. Here, we generate 649 SARS-CoV-2 genome sequences from infected patients in New Zealand with samples collected during the ‘first wave’, representing 56% of all confirmed cases in this time period. Despite its remoteness, the viruses imported into New Zealand represented nearly all of the genomic diversity sequenced from the global virus population. These data helped to quantify the effectiveness of public health interventions. For example, the effective reproductive number, Re of New Zealand’s largest cluster decreased from 7 to 0.2 within the first week of lockdown. Similarly, only 19% of virus introductions into New Zealand resulted in ongoing transmission of more than one additional case. Overall, these results demonstrate the utility of genomic pathogen surveillance to inform public health and disease mitigation.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document