This thesis examines how, in a rural New Zealand ‘area school’, successful democratic parental and community voice was able to bring about the creation of an education alternative. While the parental initiative was in line with the rhetoric of Tomorrow' s Schools (1988) the contention in this thesis is that initiatives such as this were not intended by the legislation. Despite the fact that the initiative was stimulated by and explicitly invoked the rhetoric, the spirit of the legislation was philosophically opposed to this particular kind of innovation. The ‘Kiwi’ initiative emerged in 1993, five years after the legislation. The initiative centred around a request for an alternative education programme to be set up within ‘Takiwa School’. This alternative was modelled on Playcentre, a New Zealand Early Childhood Education model, which encompasses aspects of progressivism. Kiwi parents and Takiwa School personnel achieved a ‘school within the school’ for a segment of Takiwa community. Parents became fully involved in all aspects of their children's curriculum, from planning, through to delivery and assessment. This thesis examines the politics of the change process within Takiwa School. Three questions are central to this case study examination of change. These are: What were the parents asking for? How were the parents able to achieve what they were asking for? and What were the effects of the process on what it was that the initiative ultimately became? These three questions are examined in a sociological manner, from a critical realist approach. A range of theoretical tools are utilised; the central theoretical windows are a combination of Exit, Voice and Loyalty-which is provided by Hirschman (1970)-and the theories which are encompassed in the New Institutionalist approach. The central argument of the thesis is that it was a particular combination of conditions and motivations which made the Kiwi innovation possible. The possible replicability of the initiative is discussed. A key concern of the thesis as a whole is whether the set of circumstances in which the innovation transpired was unique. / Subscription resource available via Digital Dissertations only.

This thesis examines how, in a rural New Zealand ‘area school’, successful democratic parental and community voice was able to bring about the creation of an education alternative. While the parental initiative was in line with the rhetoric of Tomorrow' s Schools (1988) the contention in this thesis is that initiatives such as this were not intended by the legislation. Despite the fact that the initiative was stimulated by and explicitly invoked the rhetoric, the spirit of the legislation was philosophically opposed to this particular kind of innovation. The ‘Kiwi’ initiative emerged in 1993, five years after the legislation. The initiative centred around a request for an alternative education programme to be set up within ‘Takiwa School’. This alternative was modelled on Playcentre, a New Zealand Early Childhood Education model, which encompasses aspects of progressivism. Kiwi parents and Takiwa School personnel achieved a ‘school within the school’ for a segment of Takiwa community. Parents became fully involved in all aspects of their children's curriculum, from planning, through to delivery and assessment. This thesis examines the politics of the change process within Takiwa School. Three questions are central to this case study examination of change. These are: What were the parents asking for? How were the parents able to achieve what they were asking for? and What were the effects of the process on what it was that the initiative ultimately became? These three questions are examined in a sociological manner, from a critical realist approach. A range of theoretical tools are utilised; the central theoretical windows are a combination of Exit, Voice and Loyalty-which is provided by Hirschman (1970)-and the theories which are encompassed in the New Institutionalist approach. The central argument of the thesis is that it was a particular combination of conditions and motivations which made the Kiwi innovation possible. The possible replicability of the initiative is discussed. A key concern of the thesis as a whole is whether the set of circumstances in which the innovation transpired was unique. / Subscription resource available via Digital Dissertations only.

This thesis examines how, in a rural New Zealand ‘area school’, successful democratic parental and community voice was able to bring about the creation of an education alternative. While the parental initiative was in line with the rhetoric of Tomorrow' s Schools (1988) the contention in this thesis is that initiatives such as this were not intended by the legislation. Despite the fact that the initiative was stimulated by and explicitly invoked the rhetoric, the spirit of the legislation was philosophically opposed to this particular kind of innovation. The ‘Kiwi’ initiative emerged in 1993, five years after the legislation. The initiative centred around a request for an alternative education programme to be set up within ‘Takiwa School’. This alternative was modelled on Playcentre, a New Zealand Early Childhood Education model, which encompasses aspects of progressivism. Kiwi parents and Takiwa School personnel achieved a ‘school within the school’ for a segment of Takiwa community. Parents became fully involved in all aspects of their children's curriculum, from planning, through to delivery and assessment. This thesis examines the politics of the change process within Takiwa School. Three questions are central to this case study examination of change. These are: What were the parents asking for? How were the parents able to achieve what they were asking for? and What were the effects of the process on what it was that the initiative ultimately became? These three questions are examined in a sociological manner, from a critical realist approach. A range of theoretical tools are utilised; the central theoretical windows are a combination of Exit, Voice and Loyalty-which is provided by Hirschman (1970)-and the theories which are encompassed in the New Institutionalist approach. The central argument of the thesis is that it was a particular combination of conditions and motivations which made the Kiwi innovation possible. The possible replicability of the initiative is discussed. A key concern of the thesis as a whole is whether the set of circumstances in which the innovation transpired was unique. / Subscription resource available via Digital Dissertations only.

This thesis examines how, in a rural New Zealand ‘area school’, successful democratic parental and community voice was able to bring about the creation of an education alternative. While the parental initiative was in line with the rhetoric of Tomorrow' s Schools (1988) the contention in this thesis is that initiatives such as this were not intended by the legislation. Despite the fact that the initiative was stimulated by and explicitly invoked the rhetoric, the spirit of the legislation was philosophically opposed to this particular kind of innovation. The ‘Kiwi’ initiative emerged in 1993, five years after the legislation. The initiative centred around a request for an alternative education programme to be set up within ‘Takiwa School’. This alternative was modelled on Playcentre, a New Zealand Early Childhood Education model, which encompasses aspects of progressivism. Kiwi parents and Takiwa School personnel achieved a ‘school within the school’ for a segment of Takiwa community. Parents became fully involved in all aspects of their children's curriculum, from planning, through to delivery and assessment. This thesis examines the politics of the change process within Takiwa School. Three questions are central to this case study examination of change. These are: What were the parents asking for? How were the parents able to achieve what they were asking for? and What were the effects of the process on what it was that the initiative ultimately became? These three questions are examined in a sociological manner, from a critical realist approach. A range of theoretical tools are utilised; the central theoretical windows are a combination of Exit, Voice and Loyalty-which is provided by Hirschman (1970)-and the theories which are encompassed in the New Institutionalist approach. The central argument of the thesis is that it was a particular combination of conditions and motivations which made the Kiwi innovation possible. The possible replicability of the initiative is discussed. A key concern of the thesis as a whole is whether the set of circumstances in which the innovation transpired was unique. / Subscription resource available via Digital Dissertations only.

This thesis examines how, in a rural New Zealand ‘area school’, successful democratic parental and community voice was able to bring about the creation of an education alternative. While the parental initiative was in line with the rhetoric of Tomorrow' s Schools (1988) the contention in this thesis is that initiatives such as this were not intended by the legislation. Despite the fact that the initiative was stimulated by and explicitly invoked the rhetoric, the spirit of the legislation was philosophically opposed to this particular kind of innovation. The ‘Kiwi’ initiative emerged in 1993, five years after the legislation. The initiative centred around a request for an alternative education programme to be set up within ‘Takiwa School’. This alternative was modelled on Playcentre, a New Zealand Early Childhood Education model, which encompasses aspects of progressivism. Kiwi parents and Takiwa School personnel achieved a ‘school within the school’ for a segment of Takiwa community. Parents became fully involved in all aspects of their children's curriculum, from planning, through to delivery and assessment. This thesis examines the politics of the change process within Takiwa School. Three questions are central to this case study examination of change. These are: What were the parents asking for? How were the parents able to achieve what they were asking for? and What were the effects of the process on what it was that the initiative ultimately became? These three questions are examined in a sociological manner, from a critical realist approach. A range of theoretical tools are utilised; the central theoretical windows are a combination of Exit, Voice and Loyalty-which is provided by Hirschman (1970)-and the theories which are encompassed in the New Institutionalist approach. The central argument of the thesis is that it was a particular combination of conditions and motivations which made the Kiwi innovation possible. The possible replicability of the initiative is discussed. A key concern of the thesis as a whole is whether the set of circumstances in which the innovation transpired was unique. / Subscription resource available via Digital Dissertations only.

Doctor of Philosophy / Department of Educational Leadership / W. Franklin Spikes / The purpose of this study was to further develop an understanding of the nature of the adaptation process of adult first generation students to the undergraduate college experience. This study utilized the Student Adaptation to College Questionnaire (SACQ) in conjunction with personal interviews to explore whether first generation adult college students adapt differently to college than do their continuing generation peers and if there is a commonality of experience, across demographic differences, for first generation, adult college students. Fifty-five adult college freshmen were surveyed using the SACQ. From this sample, sixteen first generation volunteers were interviewed regarding their college experience. T-test analysis of the SACQ scores showed that the first generation students were not adjusting to college as well as their continuing generation peers on the overall measure to adjustment and on three of the four subscales. The personal interviews indicated that while there was variation in the first generation students’ adaptation with seven of the sixteen volunteers classified as adjusting poorly to college, three with mixed adjustment, and five with good adjustment, there were also commonalities in the students’ experience, regardless how well they were adjusting to college. Eleven meta themes emerged from the interview data, and these themes correlated with characteristics of nonpersisters as compiled by Kasworm, Polson, and Fishback (2002). This research indicated that further investigation into adult first generation college students is appropriate especially with regard to how these adults view themselves as role models. In addition, this study indicates a need for future research into the links between adult students’ first generation status and persistence problems in their college experience.

Educational activity preceded official British presence in New Zealand. The development of the New Zealand state from crown colony, to a system of relatively autonomous provincial councils, to a centralized administration took place within a period of four decades. Co-terminous with and essential to the state's progressive securing of its authority was the institutionalization of separate national systems of education for Maori and Pakeha. Whilst the ascendancy of the state and the securing of education as a central state concern proceeded ultimately with the sanction of the state and in accordance with its objectives it was not a straight forward process in a young nation which was born democratic, but was struggling to consolidate political and cultural unity. The various stages and the ultimate form that education in New Zealand took were closely linked to shifts in the nature and role of the state in its formative years, in the nature of its relationship with civil society, and in its official relationship with Maori. This provided the context and dynamic of the shift to state control as public schooling came to dominate over private or voluntary efforts, and as the particularism of isolated provincial settlements was replaced by a system designed to serve the nation as a whole. Positing conceptual links between the development of national education and the processes of state formation and nation building in a colonizing context, this thesis argues that the institutionally differentiated form that universal education took in New Zealand produced a site through which socially, culturally and ideologically determined conceptions of “normality” would be legitimated and become hegemonic. By nationalizing education to legitimate a culture of uniformity based on a specific set of norms, individual New Zealanders were differentially created according to class, gender and ethnicity, and to physical, intellectual, behavioural and sensory functioning.

Educational activity preceded official British presence in New Zealand. The development of the New Zealand state from crown colony, to a system of relatively autonomous provincial councils, to a centralized administration took place within a period of four decades. Co-terminous with and essential to the state's progressive securing of its authority was the institutionalization of separate national systems of education for Maori and Pakeha. Whilst the ascendancy of the state and the securing of education as a central state concern proceeded ultimately with the sanction of the state and in accordance with its objectives it was not a straight forward process in a young nation which was born democratic, but was struggling to consolidate political and cultural unity. The various stages and the ultimate form that education in New Zealand took were closely linked to shifts in the nature and role of the state in its formative years, in the nature of its relationship with civil society, and in its official relationship with Maori. This provided the context and dynamic of the shift to state control as public schooling came to dominate over private or voluntary efforts, and as the particularism of isolated provincial settlements was replaced by a system designed to serve the nation as a whole. Positing conceptual links between the development of national education and the processes of state formation and nation building in a colonizing context, this thesis argues that the institutionally differentiated form that universal education took in New Zealand produced a site through which socially, culturally and ideologically determined conceptions of “normality” would be legitimated and become hegemonic. By nationalizing education to legitimate a culture of uniformity based on a specific set of norms, individual New Zealanders were differentially created according to class, gender and ethnicity, and to physical, intellectual, behavioural and sensory functioning.

Educational activity preceded official British presence in New Zealand. The development of the New Zealand state from crown colony, to a system of relatively autonomous provincial councils, to a centralized administration took place within a period of four decades. Co-terminous with and essential to the state's progressive securing of its authority was the institutionalization of separate national systems of education for Maori and Pakeha. Whilst the ascendancy of the state and the securing of education as a central state concern proceeded ultimately with the sanction of the state and in accordance with its objectives it was not a straight forward process in a young nation which was born democratic, but was struggling to consolidate political and cultural unity. The various stages and the ultimate form that education in New Zealand took were closely linked to shifts in the nature and role of the state in its formative years, in the nature of its relationship with civil society, and in its official relationship with Maori. This provided the context and dynamic of the shift to state control as public schooling came to dominate over private or voluntary efforts, and as the particularism of isolated provincial settlements was replaced by a system designed to serve the nation as a whole. Positing conceptual links between the development of national education and the processes of state formation and nation building in a colonizing context, this thesis argues that the institutionally differentiated form that universal education took in New Zealand produced a site through which socially, culturally and ideologically determined conceptions of “normality” would be legitimated and become hegemonic. By nationalizing education to legitimate a culture of uniformity based on a specific set of norms, individual New Zealanders were differentially created according to class, gender and ethnicity, and to physical, intellectual, behavioural and sensory functioning.

Educational activity preceded official British presence in New Zealand. The development of the New Zealand state from crown colony, to a system of relatively autonomous provincial councils, to a centralized administration took place within a period of four decades. Co-terminous with and essential to the state's progressive securing of its authority was the institutionalization of separate national systems of education for Maori and Pakeha. Whilst the ascendancy of the state and the securing of education as a central state concern proceeded ultimately with the sanction of the state and in accordance with its objectives it was not a straight forward process in a young nation which was born democratic, but was struggling to consolidate political and cultural unity. The various stages and the ultimate form that education in New Zealand took were closely linked to shifts in the nature and role of the state in its formative years, in the nature of its relationship with civil society, and in its official relationship with Maori. This provided the context and dynamic of the shift to state control as public schooling came to dominate over private or voluntary efforts, and as the particularism of isolated provincial settlements was replaced by a system designed to serve the nation as a whole. Positing conceptual links between the development of national education and the processes of state formation and nation building in a colonizing context, this thesis argues that the institutionally differentiated form that universal education took in New Zealand produced a site through which socially, culturally and ideologically determined conceptions of “normality” would be legitimated and become hegemonic. By nationalizing education to legitimate a culture of uniformity based on a specific set of norms, individual New Zealanders were differentially created according to class, gender and ethnicity, and to physical, intellectual, behavioural and sensory functioning.