This research critically engages with the history and practice of Maatua Whangai within Aotearoa/New Zealand. Specifically it focusses on Maatua Whangai O Otepoti, examining the discourses of care-givers within this context. Further, this research is constructed within a Maori world view of both traditional fostercare practices and State interpretations of those practices. Case studies of the discourses of caregivers within the Maatua Whangai Programme are described and articulated in terms of kaupapa Maori research methods. The data generated identifies the discourses of the caregivers and their desire to have their voices heard. In contrast, the discourse of the state is examined in the light of reports such as Puao-Te-Ata-Tu (1986), and the work of Bradley (1994) and Ruwhiu (1995). It is argued that any shift in the current dominance of power relationships surrounding the Maatua Whangai Programme and fostercare practices in relation to Maori would entail a strengthening of ties between service providers, Iwi and the Crown. This would go some way towards redressing Crown dominance of Maori fostercare practices. Keywords: Maatua Whangai, Fostercare, Tamaiti Whangai, Maori, Iwi, Power, Dominance.

There is no abstract available for this thesis.

The Canadian Incidence Study on Reported Child Abuse and Neglect (Trocme, 2001) found that structural factors such as poverty, poor housing and substance misuse contribute to the over-representation of First Nations children in child welfare care and yet there is very little information on the experiences of First Nations and Non-Aboriginal children after they are placed in care. The When Everything Matters study tracks First Nations and Non-Aboriginal chlidren removed from their families between 2003-2005 in Nova Scotia to the time of reunification or to the time of data collection if the child remained in care. The characteristics of children and their families are compared to the primary aims of child welfare services provided to children and their families. Results indicate that poor families living in poor housing are graphically over-represented among all families who have their children removed. Poverty-related services were not provided to families in proportion to its occurrence. Caregiver incapacity related to substance misuse was most often cited as the primary reason for removal and although substance misuse services were provided there is a need for further child welfare training, policy and services in this area given the scope of the problem presenting in both First Nations and Non-Aboriginal families. Study findings are nested in a new bi-cultural theoretical framework founded in First Nations ontology and physic's theory of everything called the breath of life theory. Implications for theoretical development as well as child welfare research, policy and practice are discussed.

This qualitative study examines collective responsibility for the well-being of maltreated children who remain at home. Based on accounts of mothers, teachers and child welfare workers, and policy officials, the study uses institutional ethnography to examine how schools and child welfare authorities work together and with families. Contributing to the socio-legal literature, it explores understandings of responsibility in formal law and in practice. The policy response to these children’s needs raises significant theoretical and political issues because they are on the borderlands of public and private responsibility. Child welfare involvement signals public intervention is required to ensure protection and well-being. Strong, proactive, and coordinated support by public authorities should follow. However, data suggest three pervasive theoretical or political accounts legitimize very limited support. (1) The notion of home and school as separate spheres. Participants understand and in theory support the highly prescriptive regulation governing reporting and contact between schools and CAS. But in practice participants pointed to limits on responsibility for knowledge or communication across the boundaries. Participants acknowledged limited knowledge or communication despite a regulatory regime that promotes and assumes it. (2) Comprehensive family responsibility. Deeply-rooted notions of family responsibility and autonomy render public support for struggling families and children relatively discretionary. A policy and practice scan shows child welfare provides less educational support to children living in the community relative to those in foster care, and minimal individual or systemic accountability for services to these children. (3) Persistent heroic narratives of the teacher who ‘makes a difference’ through exceptional commitment to struggling students. To relegate caring work to realm of personal commitment privatizes responsibility for an important aspect of effective teaching. Though cited as exemplary, the exercise of these responsibilities is not supported, not demanded, and not planned for, which is problematic for interagency co-operation and teacher burnout. These political and institutional narratives limit the system’s response to the needs of these vulnerable children to discretion and chance. Meeting their needs requires not only a focus on coordination across bureaucratic boundaries, but also strengthening the visibility of, and accountability for, issues of well-being within education and child welfare.

This paper focuses on the use of mediation within Ontario’s child protection system. Applying the process pluralism framework advocated by Carrie Menkel-Meadow, the systemic resistance to child protection mediation [CPM] in Ontario is explained. To address this resistance, a particular approach of structuring conflict resolution is evaluated through the lens of process pluralism. It is concluded that increasing the use of CPM at the dispositional stage of a child protection proceeding will improve results for children and their families.

This paper focuses on the use of mediation within Ontario’s child protection system. Applying the process pluralism framework advocated by Carrie Menkel-Meadow, the systemic resistance to child protection mediation [CPM] in Ontario is explained. To address this resistance, a particular approach of structuring conflict resolution is evaluated through the lens of process pluralism. It is concluded that increasing the use of CPM at the dispositional stage of a child protection proceeding will improve results for children and their families.

The Protection of Children Involved in Prostitution (PCHIP) Act, which was passed in Alberta in 1999 and subject to immediate constitutional challenge, demonstrates the relationships between the fields of politics and law, and between youth criminal justice and child welfare legislation. The Act allowed authorities to apprehend and detain a youth engaged, or at risk of becoming engaged in prostitution for five to forty-seven days in a protective safe house. Though the PCHIP Act was passed as child welfare legislation, the punitive nature of the detainment led some to argue that the PCHIP Act was actually youth criminal justice legislation. This blurry boundary between child welfare and youth justice has negative consequences for particular groups of youth. In this case, Aboriginal female youth are disproportionately detained at protective safe houses. This research applies concepts from Pierre Bourdieu and other theorists to critically analyze the PCHIP Act as a case study. By drawing on various types of data, including the PCHIP Act, legislative debates, court transcripts, newspaper articles, government reports, and academic literature, two areas of inquiry are addressed. The first issue is the relationships and boundaries between the fields of politics and law, and between child welfare and youth criminal justice legislation. Secondly, this thesis attempts to explain why Aboriginal females are disproportionately confined by the PCHIP Act. This research concludes that the fields of politics and law constantly interact with each other, and the boundaries between child welfare and youth criminal justice are vulnerable to the outcomes of these conflict-ridden exchanges. These struggles, compounded by historical factors, have negative consequences for female Aboriginal youth in particular.

This qualitative study examines collective responsibility for the well-being of maltreated children who remain at home. Based on accounts of mothers, teachers and child welfare workers, and policy officials, the study uses institutional ethnography to examine how schools and child welfare authorities work together and with families. Contributing to the socio-legal literature, it explores understandings of responsibility in formal law and in practice. The policy response to these children’s needs raises significant theoretical and political issues because they are on the borderlands of public and private responsibility. Child welfare involvement signals public intervention is required to ensure protection and well-being. Strong, proactive, and coordinated support by public authorities should follow. However, data suggest three pervasive theoretical or political accounts legitimize very limited support. (1) The notion of home and school as separate spheres. Participants understand and in theory support the highly prescriptive regulation governing reporting and contact between schools and CAS. But in practice participants pointed to limits on responsibility for knowledge or communication across the boundaries. Participants acknowledged limited knowledge or communication despite a regulatory regime that promotes and assumes it. (2) Comprehensive family responsibility. Deeply-rooted notions of family responsibility and autonomy render public support for struggling families and children relatively discretionary. A policy and practice scan shows child welfare provides less educational support to children living in the community relative to those in foster care, and minimal individual or systemic accountability for services to these children. (3) Persistent heroic narratives of the teacher who ‘makes a difference’ through exceptional commitment to struggling students. To relegate caring work to realm of personal commitment privatizes responsibility for an important aspect of effective teaching. Though cited as exemplary, the exercise of these responsibilities is not supported, not demanded, and not planned for, which is problematic for interagency co-operation and teacher burnout. These political and institutional narratives limit the system’s response to the needs of these vulnerable children to discretion and chance. Meeting their needs requires not only a focus on coordination across bureaucratic boundaries, but also strengthening the visibility of, and accountability for, issues of well-being within education and child welfare.

The Canadian Incidence Study on Reported Child Abuse and Neglect (Trocme, 2001) found that structural factors such as poverty, poor housing and substance misuse contribute to the over-representation of First Nations children in child welfare care and yet there is very little information on the experiences of First Nations and Non-Aboriginal children after they are placed in care. The When Everything Matters study tracks First Nations and Non-Aboriginal chlidren removed from their families between 2003-2005 in Nova Scotia to the time of reunification or to the time of data collection if the child remained in care. The characteristics of children and their families are compared to the primary aims of child welfare services provided to children and their families. Results indicate that poor families living in poor housing are graphically over-represented among all families who have their children removed. Poverty-related services were not provided to families in proportion to its occurrence. Caregiver incapacity related to substance misuse was most often cited as the primary reason for removal and although substance misuse services were provided there is a need for further child welfare training, policy and services in this area given the scope of the problem presenting in both First Nations and Non-Aboriginal families. Study findings are nested in a new bi-cultural theoretical framework founded in First Nations ontology and physic's theory of everything called the breath of life theory. Implications for theoretical development as well as child welfare research, policy and practice are discussed.

This dissertation examines the development of poor relief and child welfare policy in Jamaica during the interwar years. It establishes the paradigms for accessing relief and how this influenced broader discussions of poverty, class and citizenship in society. As such it shows how these concerns about poverty, in the public sphere, influenced state policy as it related to tackling juvenile delinquency and destitution in society. Currently, the historiography of the 1930s emphasizes the role of labor unrest as a propelling force to political change in the Caribbean. My thesis, while accepting this premise, uses the poor relief administration to elaborate upon the response of colonial administrators to pauperism in Jamaica. Financial difficulties restricted the amount of assistance provided to the aged and infirm, single mothers, orphans and juvenile delinquents. Inevitability, access to assistance became tinged with tensions of race, class and gender in the island. I conclude, therefore, that colonial administrators used the poor relief administration to intervene in the dialectic of poverty, class, citizenship and gender especially in the rehabilitation of destitute, displaced and delinquent children.