This thesis constructs and verifies a methodological practice of conversation groups and grounded theory for examining and changing the dominant discourse that situates Indigenous Australian tertiary students in mainstream education. Within this research, not only was a rich shared discourse development on a conceptual level valuable and necessary in the telling of our stories but it offered us as co-researchers—Indigenous students and a non-Indigenous researcher—a means of revealing and working through understandings and mis-understandings. Using such a methodological approach also suggested future possibilities for effective Indigenous/non-Indigenous stakeholders’ working relationships in research, and possibly policy-making in Australian institutions generally. As a methodological and communicative tool for opening up a dialogic space, the use of conversation groups for developing effective communicative relationships held promise for highlighting the experiences of Indigenous students who themselves, then negotiated the position for theoretically and pragmatically directing individual and collective decisions and actions. Inviting Indigenous students into this space provided an environment for the development of an Indigenous standpoint, which is not merely an Indigenous opinion but requires an engagement with the questions and issues affecting Indigenous students as interdependent individuals. Such a standpoint does not happen automatically and needs opportunities to grow and mature. I found that conversation groups involving the Indigenous students and me working together as co-researchers provided this opportunity. With Indigenous students’ narratives of success chosen as the research topic, productively communicating views became a verification of the research methodology used and an enactment of their right to be heard, both highlighting voice and representation issues. The research methodology we used and the ensuing discourse development became an entwined interplay, where each served to reinforce the other. The Indigenous students and I were practising the research approach of conversation groups while developing a conceptualised discourse on being successful. This transdisciplinary approach in co-research, encompassing Indigenous and Western research approaches, allowed for experiential and theoretical engagement with questions of cultural authority, representation, power and agency by Indigenous students and me as a non-Indigenous researcher. Central to the Indigenous students’ stories were notions of “place” as created, negotiated and manipulated by successful Indigenous students as they move between and within fluid subjectivities or stances in relationships, time and space. A broader view was taken of how intersections, layers and parallels are negotiated by the Indigenous students within and between multitudes of places in the blurring of living in two worlds: Black and White.

Abstract The role of collaborative classroom practices, and of technology, in students’ learning of mathematics, is now receiving increased attention in curriculum and policy documents in Australia and internationally. The implementation of pedagogical reforms associated with these areas, however, has been limited due to a range of theoretical and practical concerns. An issue which has emerged from separate interests in technology and collaborative practice is the role of digital tools in enhancing meaningful learning in both individual and collaborative group settings. While the corpus of research literature in the area of technology mediated learning in mathematics is now significant, much of the focus of studies in this area has been concerned with the effect of technology on individual learning outcomes within specific topic domains. Research is needed into the role of digital tools within collaborative classroom environments. This study investigated the various roles of technology in mediating students’ learning, from both individual and collective perspectives, within an authentic, senior secondary classroom setting and sought to identify patterns of student behaviour within this environment. The theoretical framework for the study drew on two bodies of educational research. Firstly, social theories of learning, including Vygotskian socio-cultural ideas, the field of learning discourses, and distributed cognition, were considered. Secondly, research literature associated with approaches to learning mathematics with the assistance of digital technologies, including ideas related to tool co-construction and instrumental genesis, are examined. Because the focus of this study is on authentic systems of activity rather than individual student outcomes, a naturalistic approach to data collection and analysis was employed. Research was conducted in two senior secondary classrooms over a two and a half year period (1997 – 1999). This involved a pilot study (1997 – 1998) and overlapping main study (1998 – 1999) which were conducted with two different cohorts of students. The investigation was carried out by a teacher-researcher with the support of a research assistant. Qualitative and quantitative data were collected using: student surveys; individual and whole class student interviews; stimulated recall procedures; videotaping of episodes of students working as individuals, in small groups and in whole class settings; and longitudinal participant observation. Data analysis techniques were chosen to match the form and nature of available data and were sensitive to the generation and confirmation of categories of emergent student behaviour. This process was iterative and included an additional phase devoted to category refinement and eventually to theory development. Patterns of behaviour for students working with digital technologies were identified and the metaphors of Master, Servant, Partner and Extension-of-self were chosen to describe the categories that emerged. These categories were further developed into a framework which describes students’ interaction with technology while learning mathematics in individual, small group and whole class settings. The theoretical and practical implications of this study include: the identification of the role of digital technologies in mediating the social practices within authentic mathematics classrooms; the potential of technology to empower students as individuals and as collectives of co-dependent learners; and the potential shift in power structures between teachers and students within mainstream classroom when students are so empowered.

Building relationships in the world of online groups is a recent, exciting and challenging area for the field of group facilitation. Evidence has shown that online groups with strong relationship links are more effective and more resilient than those with without them. Yet, the processes and techniques to effectively facilitate the building of these online relationships are not yet understood and there is scant empirical knowledge to assist practicing group facilitators in this important task. Challenges arise when many of the embodied aspects of inter-personal communication, such as body language, tone of voice, emotions, energy levels and context are not easily readable by group members and facilitators. Many of the well established group processes and interventions that facilitators rely upon in face-to-face situations do not translate effectively or are simply not available in an online group situation. Storytelling, however, presented one approach from the domain of face-to-face group facilitation that might translate well online. Storytelling is well known as an enabler for people to connect at a deeper and an embodied level. It can be highly effective at building strong social ties and group resilience – right across a wide range of settings. This thesis inquired into storytelling’s potential for online facilitation practice with the question of how is storytelling beneficial in building relationships in a facilitated online group? Starting with the premise that storytelling will be an effective approach, eighteen facilitators from the International Association of Facilitators (IAF) came together to collectively research the area using a participative approach. The intent of the approach was to involve online facilitation practitioners in the research so that their motivations, ways of looking at things, and questions could have value and that their experiences would be at the heart of the data generated. A variety of online software tools were used including: email, Skype™ conferencing, telephone conferencing, video and web conferencing, Internet Relay Chat (IRC), blogging, online surveys and within the 3-D interactive world of Second Life™. The study affirmed that storytelling assisted relationship development across a range of online settings. As anticipated, storytelling aided identity creation; scenario description; describing conflict and to articulate learning edges. The availability of an extra text channel during a primarily oral communication is seen as a potentially valuable contribution to the art of storytelling. In addition, the study offers a challenge to the storytelling field in proposing that direct contact between teller and listener is not always a priori requirement. The blending of roles raises some ethical challenges for online facilitation practice. The also inquiry confirmed that software tool selection was critical for ensuring full participation and buy-in to online group decisions. The 3-D, avatar-based medium of Second Life™ assisted with emotional connections. A range of new opportunities emerged through co-researchers engaging with the research process that inform the practice of group facilitation. They expand the role and horizons of the online facilitator in relation to the wider profession of group facilitation. Reflections are made about the International Association of Facilitators Statement of Values and Code of Ethics for Group Facilitators and IAF Core Competencies and some guidelines for the practice of online facilitation are offered.

This thesis constructs and verifies a methodological practice of conversation groups and grounded theory for examining and changing the dominant discourse that situates Indigenous Australian tertiary students in mainstream education. Within this research, not only was a rich shared discourse development on a conceptual level valuable and necessary in the telling of our stories but it offered us as co-researchers—Indigenous students and a non-Indigenous researcher—a means of revealing and working through understandings and mis-understandings. Using such a methodological approach also suggested future possibilities for effective Indigenous/non-Indigenous stakeholders’ working relationships in research, and possibly policy-making in Australian institutions generally. As a methodological and communicative tool for opening up a dialogic space, the use of conversation groups for developing effective communicative relationships held promise for highlighting the experiences of Indigenous students who themselves, then negotiated the position for theoretically and pragmatically directing individual and collective decisions and actions. Inviting Indigenous students into this space provided an environment for the development of an Indigenous standpoint, which is not merely an Indigenous opinion but requires an engagement with the questions and issues affecting Indigenous students as interdependent individuals. Such a standpoint does not happen automatically and needs opportunities to grow and mature. I found that conversation groups involving the Indigenous students and me working together as co-researchers provided this opportunity. With Indigenous students’ narratives of success chosen as the research topic, productively communicating views became a verification of the research methodology used and an enactment of their right to be heard, both highlighting voice and representation issues. The research methodology we used and the ensuing discourse development became an entwined interplay, where each served to reinforce the other. The Indigenous students and I were practising the research approach of conversation groups while developing a conceptualised discourse on being successful. This transdisciplinary approach in co-research, encompassing Indigenous and Western research approaches, allowed for experiential and theoretical engagement with questions of cultural authority, representation, power and agency by Indigenous students and me as a non-Indigenous researcher. Central to the Indigenous students’ stories were notions of “place” as created, negotiated and manipulated by successful Indigenous students as they move between and within fluid subjectivities or stances in relationships, time and space. A broader view was taken of how intersections, layers and parallels are negotiated by the Indigenous students within and between multitudes of places in the blurring of living in two worlds: Black and White.

Professional treatment, mainly medical and psychological, dominates research and clinical practice concerning women and their recovery from depression. This thesis challenges the assumption that women cannot be 'experts' actively involved in their own recovery. This study explored the narratives of eighteen women in Aotearoa New Zealand whose lives had been seriously disrupted by depression. They had found ways other than, or in addition to, professional solutions that helped them to live undisrupted meaningful lives. The research used a narrative inquiry approach informed by authors from across the social sciences including Arthur Frank, Jerome Bruner and Rivka Tuval-Mashiach. The underpinning social constructionist understanding of depression is informed by the work of Jane Ussher and Janet Stoppard. The women whose individual narratives provide the core data for the study ranged in age from 32 to 70 years at the time they told their stories. Their lives had been disrupted by depression at different times during the last 50 years of the twentieth century. Five of the women met as a group with the researcher as the analysis began, and their ideas informed significant aspects of the conclusions. The women had all experienced major depressive disorder, although this was not always formally diagnosed. Their recovery had involved a range of responses from outside the professional mainstream including physical, mental, social and spiritual aspects. Each woman had sought and found a 'formula' that was 'right' for her. The narratives showed all the women talked of their experience with depression and recovery in an holistic and contextualised way. They all talked about 'chocolate' solutions which provided symptom relief, and 'deeper' and often more complex sets of solutions which enabled them to discover or re-discover meaningful ways to live. Meaning-making often involved growing spiritual or transpersonal awareness in the broadest sense. A surprising finding was that the patterns of recovery were not related to the severity of the depression at the worst time. Rather, it emerged that the ways the women talked about their recovery journeys mirrored their stories of the 'jolly good reasons' why they were depressed; the more complex and lengthy the story leading up to the worst times, the more complex the formulae required for recovery. The implications of the research for clinical practice and for policy makers are that depression and recovery need to be seen as gendered, contextualised, and holistic. Women need opportunities to discover and take advantage of a range of 'things' so that they can find their own 'right formula' for recovery. This formula may involve professional treatment including anti-depressant medication and psychological therapy, but it is likely to involve many other things as well. This study challenges the notion that recovery needs to be guided by a professional expert, and creates hope for women being able to learn from each other's experiences.

Building relationships in the world of online groups is a recent, exciting and challenging area for the field of group facilitation. Evidence has shown that online groups with strong relationship links are more effective and more resilient than those with without them. Yet, the processes and techniques to effectively facilitate the building of these online relationships are not yet understood and there is scant empirical knowledge to assist practicing group facilitators in this important task. Challenges arise when many of the embodied aspects of inter-personal communication, such as body language, tone of voice, emotions, energy levels and context are not easily readable by group members and facilitators. Many of the well established group processes and interventions that facilitators rely upon in face-to-face situations do not translate effectively or are simply not available in an online group situation. Storytelling, however, presented one approach from the domain of face-to-face group facilitation that might translate well online. Storytelling is well known as an enabler for people to connect at a deeper and an embodied level. It can be highly effective at building strong social ties and group resilience – right across a wide range of settings. This thesis inquired into storytelling’s potential for online facilitation practice with the question of how is storytelling beneficial in building relationships in a facilitated online group? Starting with the premise that storytelling will be an effective approach, eighteen facilitators from the International Association of Facilitators (IAF) came together to collectively research the area using a participative approach. The intent of the approach was to involve online facilitation practitioners in the research so that their motivations, ways of looking at things, and questions could have value and that their experiences would be at the heart of the data generated. A variety of online software tools were used including: email, Skype™ conferencing, telephone conferencing, video and web conferencing, Internet Relay Chat (IRC), blogging, online surveys and within the 3-D interactive world of Second Life™. The study affirmed that storytelling assisted relationship development across a range of online settings. As anticipated, storytelling aided identity creation; scenario description; describing conflict and to articulate learning edges. The availability of an extra text channel during a primarily oral communication is seen as a potentially valuable contribution to the art of storytelling. In addition, the study offers a challenge to the storytelling field in proposing that direct contact between teller and listener is not always a priori requirement. The blending of roles raises some ethical challenges for online facilitation practice. The also inquiry confirmed that software tool selection was critical for ensuring full participation and buy-in to online group decisions. The 3-D, avatar-based medium of Second Life™ assisted with emotional connections. A range of new opportunities emerged through co-researchers engaging with the research process that inform the practice of group facilitation. They expand the role and horizons of the online facilitator in relation to the wider profession of group facilitation. Reflections are made about the International Association of Facilitators Statement of Values and Code of Ethics for Group Facilitators and IAF Core Competencies and some guidelines for the practice of online facilitation are offered.

Thesis (LL. M.)--Judge Advocate General's School, 1961. / "May 1961." Typescript. Includes bibliographical references. Also issued in microfiche.

Thesis (LL. M.)--Judge Advocate General's School, United States Army, 1987. / "April 1987." Typescript. Includes bibliographical references. Also issued in microfiche.

Thesis (LL. M.)--Judge Advocate General's School, U.S. Army, 1972. / "March 1972." Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 77-81). Also issued in microfiche.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ohio State University, 2008. / Title from first page of PDF file. Includes bibliographical references (p. 160-163).