The study explores the motivational role of the personal constructions of Italian identity (Italianità) of five learners of Italian descent studying their heritage language by means of traditional foreign language courses in Wellington, New Zealand. By adopting a social constructivist perspective on both language learning and the motivational processes underlying it, and by applying such concepts as investment (Norton, 2000), ideal L2 self (Dörnyei, 2009) and language learning as identity reconstruction (Pavlenko & Lantolf, 2000), the study aims to further our understanding of heritage language learning motivation as a socially mediated process (Ushioda, 2003). Qualitative data was collected through waves of semi-structured interviews from five case-study participants over the course of several months of learning. Responses were used to map the influence that the participants’ constructions of their own Italianità exerted on three aspects of their language learning motivation: their reasons for learning the language, the decision to embark on the study of it, and the maintenance of their interest and learning efforts throughout the learning process. Detailed observations of learning sites, classes and materials, and interviews with teachers provided rich contextual data concerning key episodes identified by the students as relating to different aspects of motivation. The findings suggest that Italianità is heavily implicated in the initial stages of motivation, but that its influence is mediated by the learners’ personal constructions of a multitude of internal and external factors, through which they come to personalise and prioritise their own objectives and identity ambitions in ways that guide their motivational arousal, their decision to pursue the language and their creation and visualisation of learning goals. Italianità is also found to have an influence on the maintenance and shifts in the participants’ motivational states throughout their learning, supporting a socially mediated view of L2 motivation in which motivational fluctuations are explained as the result of the learners’ own processing of and reaction to elements of their context, including critical events inside and outside the classroom, exchanges with teachers, peers and speakers of Italian, and ongoing developments of opportunities and challenges for the achievement of the personal goals and identity ambitions driving their learning.

The implicit position of writing during Research Higher Degree (RHD) candidature shapes how students in science approach the task of writing their theses. The dedication of universities to the principles of research has pushed writing to the fringes of the research higher degree. When writing is pushed to the fringes, it is rarely taught explicitly as an integral part of the postgraduate program. This research has found that students who are concerned with writing a thesis often require writing to be discussed explicitly during their education. In response to the absence of explicit instruction on writing, students turn to the principles of research to discover how to write their theses. However, students find that writing belongs to a different epistemological tradition than scientific research. This investigation found that as students realise that research is different from writing, they often write their theses by mimicking the work of other published authors in the same field. These findings emerge from eight semi–structured interviews with linguistically homologous students from a science faculty at a research-intensive university in Australia. These interviews show that students are initiating their own writing groups to learn more about writing. This research presents a case study which culminates in recommendations about how to re-position writing as an explicit discourse requiring attention during the research higher degree. These writing recommendations are developed in this research by analysing the principles of writing programs, examining the literature on writing groups, and reflecting the experience of students during the research higher degree.

This thesis investigates the iwi (Māori tribal) organisations established in New Zealand in the 1980s and 1990s to manage resources being transferred as a result of Treaty of Waitangi settlements and the devolution of government services. The research has two objectives. Firstly, it aims to document iwi organisations’ establishment and operation from the viewpoint of those working inside the organisations. Secondly, it compares insider perspectives with economic theories concerning the causes, consequences and development of economic institutions. To address the first objective, the research gathers qualitative data for three iwi organisations and uses these to construct case reports. An inductive comparison across cases finds that while the underlying motivation for creating the iwi organisations is a desire to live as Māori, the immediate stimuli are opportunities negotiated with government. Iwi are chosen, in preference to other Māori groups, because of their size and traditional status and organisational success is dependent on meeting the requirements of both members and external parties. To address the second objective, the research examines a number of theories from new institutional economics which assist understanding of the empirical findings. To adequately explain iwi organisations as a whole, however, and to assess the relative explanatory power of the theories, they must be connected into a single explanatory framework. The research constructs a framework using the concept of social capital, understood as the combination of all the socio-economic institutions operating to make collective action possible. The framework proposes that socio-economic institutions can have an influence and value independent of other forms of capital. Viewing new iwi organisations through the constructed theoretical framework casts them as intermediaries, managing relational contracts between tribal members and external parties. The relational contracts with members constitute bonding social capital and are characterised by informal institutions of high intrinsic value, considerable relationship-specific social capital, transferability across tasks but not persons, and a preference for voice over exit. Relational contracts with external parties are primarily instrumental in value and formal institutions play a significant role; they show variability in the importance of informal institutions, relationship-specific social capital, transferability and preference for exit over voice. The thesis presents an insider’s view of new iwi organisations and then translates this view into the concepts of new institutional economics. In doing so, it contributes to two discussions: first, on the appropriate way to understand new iwi organisations; second, on the appropriate way for new institutional economics to understand society’s economic institutions.

Whole document restricted, see Access Instructions file below for details of how to access the print copy. / The texts of Maori oral tradition preserve special information for communication within Maori society. The forms in which that information is communicated are varied and in named types. Whakataukii are one of those types and they are one means of making public and preserving knowledge about Maori society. The knowledge which is contained in whakataukii, or referred to by them, ranges from simple observations of daily life, to philosophical concepts and records of history. This thesis proposes that whakataukii are a genre of Maori oral tradition. By examination and interpretation of a selection of sayings arranged in two categories, one which relates to Maori society as a whole and the other which relates to individual tribes, it considers the role of these texts in transmitting cultural information. Oral texts are often represented as unsophisticated forms of language, dependant for sophistication on a development to writing. Sayings are generally studied as colloquial texts and are seldom the subject of the serious interpretative study given to written literature. In this thesis the sayings of Maori oral tradition, with their culturally distinct but highly developed use of language, are regarded as comparable in their own sphere to compositions of written literature.

This thesis is a case study that examines the educative activities of two Church Missionary Society (CMS) women, Marianne Coldham Williams and her sister-in-law Jane Nelson Williams, during the period 1823-1835. This study examines the role and status of these two missionary women in the early CMS mission station at Paihia in northern New Zealand. Marianne and Jane Williams were missionary educators whose primary task was to establish schools for local Maori pupils and resident missionary pupils. These first mission schools were established according to a perceived hierarchy of "need." Consequently, the first schools, established in 1823 were for Nga Puhi women and girls followed by a school for the missionary daughters in 1826. A school for Nga Puhi men and boys was not established until 1827 and a school for the missionary sons was delayed until 1828. Through the re-formation of Maori women as Christian women, Maori society was to replicate the "pleasantries" of (Pakeha) "Christian society." The schoolroom, not the pulpit became the central site to instigate changes in Maori society and the CMS initially charged Marianne and Jane Williams with the responsibility for this task. One of the strategies developed by Marianne and Jane Williams to survive in a frontier society was to form a network based on their sister-hood. Through the exchanging of letters between the two women in New Zealand and their "sisters" in England, a reciprocal friendship was created that provided Marianne and Jane with the support they sought. These letters and diaries provide valuable autobiographical accounts of the daily lives and missionary activities of Marianne and Jane. This study, therefore, presents a challenge to prevailing historical narratives that position men at the centre of missionary activities. Missionary policy documents and manuscript material written by early nineteenth century missionary women and men reveal that in New Zealand women played a critical role in the "Christianising" and "civilising" policies and practices. In placing women at the centre of historical inquiry and as historical agents, this study re-presents the historical narrative in a different voice.

This thesis examines modern iwi governance systems and their effect on whakapapa as an organisational framework in Māori societies. The main question addressed was; can whakapapa survive as an organisational process, or will it be stifled, as Māori societies struggle to establish a strong identity in contemporary New Zealand. As an organisational framework for Māori societies, whakapapa works through a series of principles that function through relationships between people, and between people and other elements that make up the world. Contemporary Māori groups continue to claim that they are whakapapa-based societies. This thesis examines that claim by investigating to what extent of "being Māori" today is about adherence to those principles and to whakapapa-based processes and relationships, and how much is it about being shaped by non-Māori constructs that have been formed by state-intervention and legislated changes to Māori social organisation. If being Maori today has as much or more to do with the latter, what place does whakapapa have in contemporary Māori society, and to what level and to what extent can the principles of whakapapa be upheld as the basis for contemporary Māori societies. A series of stories and case studies were used to answer the questions posed in the thesis. The case studies demonstrated the ways in which whakapapa worked in everyday situations, and how the people who take part in whakapapa-based relationships understood them to work. They also demonstrated how state intervention through legislation has challenged the way Māori groups structure themselves when new circumstances have required compromise and change. The institutionalised evolution of Māori societies is examined in more detail using one example of a modern tribal structure, Te Rūnanga o Ngāi Tahu. The Ngāi Tahu example typifies the implications for Māori if they choose to move from a whakapapa-based organisational model of governance to a centralised legalbureaucratic model of governance. The adoption of the new centralised governance structures, such as Te Rūnanga o Ngāi Tahu, will mean that Māori hapū and iwi societies are in danger of disappearing to be replaced by a generic group,shaped by legislation and integrated into the wider nation-state of New Zealand. Whakapapa can only remain at the core of Māori societies, if Māori allow it to, but when Māori adopt centralised "generic" system of governance, hapū and iwi societies, become censored versions of their former selves. / Items in ResearchSpace are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.

This study investigates the nature of the relationship that the state in New Zealand, the Crown, has established with Māori as a tribally-based people. Despite the efforts of recent New Zealand Governments to address the history of Crown injustice to Māori, the relationship of the Crown with Iwi Māori continues to be fraught with contradictions and tension. It is the argument of the thesis that the tension exists because the Crown has imposed a social, political, and economic order that is inherently contradictory to the social, political, and economic order of the Māori tribal world. Overriding an order where relationships are negotiated and alliances built between autonomous groups, the Crown constituted itself as a government with single, undivided sovereignty, used its unilateral power to introduce policy and legislation that facilitated the dispossession of whānau and hapū of their resources and their authority in the land, and enshrined its own authority and capitalist social relations instead. The thesis is built round a critical reading of five Waitangi Tribunal reports, namely the Muriwhenua Fishing Report, Mangonui Sewerage Report, The Te Roroa Report, Muriwhenua Land Report, and Te Whanau o Waipareira Report.

This thesis has two foci: how Cambodians with a refugee background manage their new life in Aotearoa/New Zealand, and how an identity as a Khmer Kiwi transnational community has developed. Analytic concepts— such as forced migration, cultural bereavement, adaptation, integration, diaspora, transnationalism, identification, and community of practice— are used to trace the trajectory of the contemporary way of life of Cambodians, their community development, and their cultural identity. The data gathered from mixedmethod research reveal the various opinions, strategies, coping mechanisms, and paths that Cambodian participants have adopted in order to adapt to life in New Zealand and still maintain their Khmer heritage. The majority of participants were proud of their personal achievements, and now have found normalcy in their new life. Individual struggles to engage and integrate with multicultural New Zealand society have required negotiation and protection of group interests, and inevitably some of these have resulted in conflicts and fragmentation within the Khmer community. Religious practice, organisation, and leadership became the main driving forces for asserting Khmer community identity. Collective memory was harnessed to deal with shared cultural bereavement, and the quest for belonging lent momentum to the community’s development and management of its identity. Khmer Theravada Buddhism has emerged as a means by which the majority of Cambodians can achieve their spiritual wellbeing, and has become a platform for various community identity developments within the New Zealand social and legal contexts. Gender roles and structures are a significant part of community development and of my analysis. This development of Khmer identity in New Zealand is a new strand of Khmer identity: Khmer heritage, transnational experience, and ‘Kiwi-ism’. Such transformation of identity reflects geo-political influences on integration in the form of belonging to and identifying with two or more groups. For example, the majority of participants proudly identified themselves as Khmer Kiwis. Their transnational lives have been enriched by their country of origin (Cambodia) and their country of residence (Aotearoa/New Zealand). Key words: Cambodian refugees, forced migration, adaptation, integration, transnationalism, Buddhism, Khmer identity, community development, and community of practice.

Whole document restricted, see Access Instructions file below for details of how to access the print copy. / Torrent of Portyngale is a late medieval romance, preserved in a single manuscript, MS Chetham’s 8009. It is a complex mix of romance themes: adventure, loss and restoration, family and social status, piety and hypocrisy, woven around the love between Torrent, the orphaned son of a Portuguese earl, and Desonell, heir to the throne of Portugal. Cohesion to so wide a range of thematic material comes from the author’s careful elucidation of the religious and moral significance of the text’s events. While popular literature with a didactic purpose is not uncommon in medieval literature and elsewhere in romance (cf. Sir Amadace), modern criticism has failed to fully appreciate the purposeful combination of the two in Torrent of Portyngale. Torrent is perhaps the most critically neglected member of the Middle English verse romances. This is, in part, due to the state of the text, which suffers from extensive scribal corruption. The first modern edition, by James Halliwell (1842), was also careless and did little to create a good impression. The poem’s most recent editor, Eric Adam (1887), appreciated the shortcomings of Halliwell’s work and sought to restore Torrent. He incorporated evidence from fragmentary early prints of the text and drew on the fruits of nineteenth–century romance scholarship. Despite his good editorial intentions, however, it is now clear that he also made errors and editorial decisions that have coloured the way in which Torrent has been viewed since. The substantial body of twentieth and twenty–first century scholarship on Middle English romance and medieval studies in general has diminished the value of Adam’s edition to the point where it may be regarded as obsolete and a new edition long overdue. This fresh edition of Torrent has been prepared from microfilm of the manuscript. It re–examines the text’s phonology, morphology, syntax, dialect and vocabulary, to indentify and evaluate overlooked clues to help answer such fundamental questions as its date (scholars have dated it from the mid– fourteenth century to the first half of the fifteenth century) and provenance (it has been mapped from East Anglia to South Lancashire). Both the unflattering reputation that Torrent of Portyngale has gathered in modern times and the long–held notion that it is lacking in originality are challenged by the thorough re–examination of the state of the text, its scribes and their practices and evaluating them against prior and current romance scholarship. This new analysis provides a window through which Torrent can be viewed and valued as a product of its time, allowing it to be judged more accurately against its contemporaries and offering many new insights into a text that was clearly once popular.

Abstract/ Whakarāpoto Take The specific aim of this study is to identify critical features of wānanga or the traditional Māori learning institution and how these might inform Māori education today in a University setting. It also examines the responsiveness of the tertiary institution in creating an indigenous infrastructure aimed at Māori educational participation. A number of ‘critical events’ relating to Māori educational development interventions in the 1980’s will be considered with the expectation that they will serve to inform the development of better educational outcomes for access, participation, recruitment, retention and the advancement of Māori in the conventional University setting. For the purpose of this study contemporary Māori academic sites, which include state funded wānanga, as well as other indigenous academic sites will be discussed, including the First Nations House of Learning at the University of British Columbia1. There is thus an international perspective in this study. Whare wānanga were a key institution in traditional Māori society and represented in all regions of Aotearoa/ New Zealand. The ability to travel and share each other’s knowledge attested or benchmarked by others was a key part of the maintenance of the tribal lore. Tōhunga were central to the entire process of controlling the knowledge and selecting to whom it was to be imparted. This raises a question of what a contemporary wānanga, as an intervention and an academic entity would look like at the University of Auckland and would it withstand international scrutiny? As a kaupapa Māori educational intervention, it is a theoretical test in the configurations of conscientization, resistance and transformative praxis. The inclusive approach in using existing material and people resources to maximize the impact of the intervention is to be discussed in this thesis. Specific case studies provide a means for checking the evidence for the processes and the predicted outcomes for kaupapa Māori theory. The recalling of events is central to both case studies. An event such as the rugby match that took place between both countries in 1927, discussed later in this thesis, combined with similar initiatives embarked upon by indigenous leaders from both tertiary communities to create a physical presence for First Nations and Māori, are identities at the core of the case studies. Cultural connection, and a style of operation that is inclusive, enact in part the values raised by Madeleine McIvor: respect, reciprocity, relevance and responsibility. The factors all converge to build this thesis into a series of conversations. The collaboration undertaken over long distances and periods of time has motivated the creation of this record of the stories of both institutions, that can be added to by others in the future. The markers of success for the University of Auckland include the arresting of the decline of Māori student enrolments alongside the growth of Māori participating in post-graduate study and research, therefore providing opportunity to contribute to the bank of knowledge in New Zealand society. While the regeneration of the language in New Zealand has been the driving force behind the wānanga development at the University of Auckland building further on the foundations of kohanga reo, kura kaupapa Māori, whare kura and wānanga, the development of Māori as with First Nations initiatives has been in the area of education. Tertiary institutions offer a context in which kaupapa Māori theory brings together common threads of communication for people. Whether this is through elements of struggle within societies or just survival, the main thing is that people need each other to develop and progress.