The role of local Chinese media has become more important as the size of the Chinese community in New Zealand has increased rapidly in recent years. The function of local Chinese media could be like a bridge connecting the Chinese community and the mainstream society. This was an exploratory study which examined the current situation of local Chinese media to determine such issues as to whether they are the main source of information for the Chinese community, what if any difficulties they are facing and how they may develop in the future. A general research was conducted for the local Chinese media in Auckland, which covers brief introductions for some local Chinese newspapers, radio, websites, and the sole Chinese television company-World TV. Meanwhile, the researcher collected 102 questionnaires and conducted 10 in-depth interviews from the local Chinese residents and the staff working in local Chinese media companies. The findings of research suggest that most local Chinese residents utilize Chinese language media as a tool to collect daily information either from local society or their original countries. The local Chinese media not only provides information for the local community, but also has social value as a means for self-representation of the Chinese community in New Zealand and better adaptation to the mainstream society. On the other hand, the funding shortage as well as the tough competition became the obstacles for the future development for the local Chinese media. The results of this research may point to what the government’s role should be.

Outdoor and experimental education as a means to supplement or complement traditional learning has existed throughout most of the twentieth century. However, there is limited published research concerning Extended Stay Outdoor Education School Programs (ESOESP) and the processes that exist within these programs that lead to a particular outcome. This is a case study approach which seeks to uncover and examine the perceptions of stakeholders within an ESOESP, in order to understand and highlight the process leading to an outcome. A grounded theory and hermeneutic/dialectic approach was used to collect and analyse the data. Interviews, surveys, observations, and participation complemented the process of data collection. The analysis of the data, employing a grounded theory approach, resulted in five categories that are essential components to the process leading to an outcome at a particular ESOESP. The five categories are: Student role; Teacher role; School climate; Interpersonal/Personal skill development; and, Learning process. Based on these five categories and their related sub-categories, a process model was developed. The relationship of the categories to the experiential learning process. The results of this study provide a starting point for further research in this area. / Master of Education (Hons)

Changing characteristics of work and careers have resulted in a shift in perceptions of the potential value of entrepreneurial activity. In parallel there has emerged an appreciation of the non-economic impact of entrepreneurship on those who enact it. However, there still remains a limited understanding of the consequences of choosing to be an entrepreneur, and what that choice means in terms of that individual’s life and work. The potential for the young as a group to engage with entrepreneurship as a ‘career option’ is high, therefore the central research objective of this study was to learn what meaning young New Zealand entrepreneurs attach to ‘being in business’. The study was grounded in an inductive, interpretive research design, underpinned by the tenets of constructivism. Phenomenologically focussed, in-depth interviews were used to gather data from ten young New Zealand entrepreneurs. These interviews were semi-structured and emphasised language, meaning, and narrative. The resulting data were analysed using elements of a constructivist grounded theory approach. A key finding was that the nature of the relationship between the entrepreneurs and their firms was a strong attachment grounded in emotion. The intertwining of the life of the business with the life of the young entrepreneur was viewed positively, and frequently involved personal transformation. Businesses were more than mechanisms for achieving monetary wealth. The relationship between the young entrepreneurs and their work was also intense. Balance of work and life was not an issue, nor did they seek to differentiate between the two spheres. They were content to have the two blended in a manner of their choosing. Consistent with this was their drive for personal authenticity and adherence to strong ethical imperatives. Being an entrepreneur was less about career (and even less about a job) and more about fulfilling needs of a higher order. Almost all the participants strongly identified as entrepreneurs. They felt it was the identity most consistent with their values, attitudes, and aspirations. They accepted that in some instances the label small-firm owner manager was accurate in terms of the scale of their operations, but rejected its appropriateness on any other grounds.

New Zealand relies on overseas teachers to fill approximately 30% of annual vacancies (Ministry of Education, 2006). 41% of these cohort were teaching in Auckland when this study was conducted (Ministry of Education, 2001, 2003). As only 7% were new to teaching, it is likely that they bring a wealth of teaching experience to New Zealand classrooms. In 2002 New Zealand introduced a new school-leaving qualification, the National Certificate of Educational Achievement (NCEA), which includes a literacy strand in all subjects (Taylor, 2001). This thesis aims to investigate the needs, perceptions and insights of overseas teachers in Auckland regarding the literacy requirements of the New Zealand secondary curriculum. In this qualitative study, interviews were carried out with ten teachers who had been teaching in Auckland between one and six years and who had all previously taught overseas. Interviews were also carried out with two literacy leaders as part of the research. Key challenges that emerged were the incorporation of the NCEA literacy requirements in discipline areas; catering for the needs of students who speak English as a second language; dealing with the challenges of teaching literacy across the curriculum and subject specific language; finding and developing relevant resources and sourcing professional development relating to literacy teaching. Findings revealed there were two categories of teachers – teachers who were very aware of the literacy needs of their students and those who were less aware. Teachers from England and South Africa were very aware of the varied literacy needs of New Zealand students and had received professional development in this area. Other teachers seemed less aware of the literacy demands of their students, the curriculum or their own professional development needs. This study also reveals that recognition and provision for the professional needs of newly arrived teachers from overseas seems to vary. There is very little research on the experiences of immigrant teachers in New Zealand; this study helps to clarify the issues which these teachers face, particularly with regard to the dual challenges of teaching students with ESL and the expectations that all teachers will include literacy in their approach to teaching, which is part of the NCEA curriculum.

This critical hermeneutic study explored what it is like to re-enter the workforce following long-term forensic hospitalisation. An in-depth analysis of the phenomenon was completed, with the aim of evoking insights and developing understandings about the lived return-to-work experience. As this research was situated within the critical paradigm, the process of seeking, securing and sustaining employment was viewed in terms of power relationships, and through the multiple positionings of psychiatric disability, employment status and social capital.An unstructured interview process was used to explore the return-to-work experiences of eight purposefully selected informants with a history of mental illness and prior illness-related offending. They were living in the community and had returned to part or full-time employment, which they had sustained for at least six months. The gathered data was interpreted using hermeneutic analysis. This process revealed a number of themes, which were clustered into related groups, under eleven essential overarching themes. Freire's (1972) critical social theory was used to add critical depth to the findings.The findings reveal that returning to work exposes people who are affected by mental illness to an array of challenges and personal opportunities. People who have a forensic psychiatric history can encounter complex employment barriers related to stigma and misunderstanding. Therefore, the selected critical hermeneutic design provided a congruent framework with which to view the informants' quest to seek, secure and sustain employment. Despite significant obstacles, securing employment provides opportunities for individuals to test their skills while engaged in meaningful work activity. The acquisition of work skills can result in individuals' experiencing a strong sense of self-satisfaction. The experience of being bolstered by personal accomplishment often co-exists with, but is not necessarily negated by, difficulties that arise on-the-job.As there is scant reference to forensic rehabilitation within the mental health vocational literature, this study may be a timely contribution. It may also be used to add depth to the knowledge base within the field of mental health rehabilitation, in particular the specialised areas of forensic rehabilitation and vocational practise. Therefore, it may be a positive precursor to further discussion and analysis regarding work and education outcomes from the unique forensic psychiatric perspective.

Teaching journalism in tertiary institutions presents challenges, including how students learn to work in teams under the sort of pressure that characterizes workplace journalism. This thesis is a case study of how a group of students at AUT University, in Auckland, experienced taking responsibility for producing four editions of a student newspaper as part of their journalism training. Based on a series of individual student interviews, before, during and after their experience, this research suggests that the key factor in their learning was their being allowed, to a large extent, the power to make their own decisions about the appearance and content of their product, while still being charged with the responsibility of ensuring it reached a highly professional standard. The realities of life as a journalist, including recognizing the frequent need to prune, tighten or re-angle stories - even to reject them - and the vital role of co-operative teamwork, unparalleled in their other journalism studies, were driven home.The two tutors, interviewed after the last edition, put some of the student observations into context and provided insights into the discipline involved, as teachers, in maintaining training as a priority, while ensuring production to deadline of a series of reputable and legally safe newspapers.This case study suggests that while there are contrived aspects that cannot replicate a "real" newsroom - such as the students' assignment to editorial roles without the status of real editors or chief reporters - the learning experience resulted not only in advances in the students' technological skills but significant development in their critical thinking about the profession they were due to enter.

The aim of this study was to identify how Information and Communication Technology (ICT) affects business processes and service delivery within hotels and how ICT interacts with strategic issues confronting hotel managers. The areas of exploration were: 1) the business context of ICT; 2) the main role of ICT in day to day business; 3) ICT's impact on service delivery to hotel guests; and 4) the role of ICT in the future.As the study was exploring the General Managers' (GMs) perceptions, interviewing was selected as the most appropriate data gathering method. The sample covered a range of Auckland hotels which differed according to location, size and quality. Semi-structured interviews were used to facilitate the comparison of data between interviewees. Common themes and concepts were identified which were compared to the demographic characteristics of the hotels as well as previous research detailed in the literature.The contextual issues identified were staff availability and retention, competition (particularly price wars resulting from discounting), and location and infrastructure issues. Only half the GMs interviewed identified benefits from ICT in the day to day operation of their business. All of them described challenges or disadvantages posed by ICT. The impact on service delivery to guests was viewed more positively but there were still misgivings about the potential barriers which ICT created. There was a strong view that staff were of overwhelming importance to service delivery. Finally, envisioning the future, ICT was perceived as having the ability to make a strong contribution to business development but this ability would be constrained by staffing problems. Analyses of the findings suggest that ICT has a dual role of gathering management data and providing guest services, and GMs appear unaware of how this dual role contributes to the challenges posed by ICT. Similarly, there was limited awareness of the interaction between human agents in a business, the organisational structures, and ICT.The business implications of these findings suggest that GMs would benefit from being aware of the roles of ICT and addressing the needs of staff for a clearer understanding of how their role, and the ICT that supports it, fits into their broader operation of the business.This study is the one of first to examine the impact of ICT in New Zealand hotels, and, in particular, how this interacts with the broader social issues, and offers insights into the areas of potential conflict and ways to manage the impacts of ICT in hotels.

Master of Philosophy (Medicine) / Health care evaluation serves the purpose of monitoring the quality of health care provided by Health Care Providers (HCP), so that health care services can be provided most effectively and efficiently. Patient satisfaction studies are widely used to assess the quality of outpatient care. A client satisfaction study was conducted at an HIV health care facility in Sydney, Australia during 2007-2008. There were three objectives: 1.) To validate a questionnaire for future determination of client satisfaction in HIV health care facilities. 2.) To identify the levels of satisfaction of clients, and investigate any dissatisfaction and unmet needs towards HIV health care. 3.) To provide recommendations for improving client satisfaction levels in HIV health care. This research used a mixed method approach and consisted of two phases. The first phase was a quantitative survey conducted with 166 clients (both HIV positive and negative) at Albion Street Centre (ASC) using a newly-devised questionnaire. Clients were asked to answer demographic questions, rate their levels of satisfaction with each aspect and each HCP category, and provide suggestions for improvement. Quantitative statistical analysis was conducted to obtain a general view of client satisfaction levels. Dissatisfaction and unmet needs of clients were then investigated in-depth in the second phase of the research through qualitative face-to-face semi-structured interviews. Twenty-two clients (both HIV positive and negative) at ASC were interviewed individually and asked about their attitudes, perceptions, and experiences towards their HCP and the HIV health care services received. Thematic analysis was used to categorise and interpret the qualitative data. More than 90% of the clients were satisfied with most of the aspects covered in the survey, with a mean overall satisfaction score of 84 out of 100. Clients were most iii satisfied with the “technical quality” and “interpersonal manner” of the HCP, and were least satisfied with “waiting time” and “availability of HCP”. The HCP category with which the clients has the highest level of satisfaction was “nurses” (86%), followed by “psychologists” (84%), then “doctors” (83%). Clients who were HIV negative, had a full time job, visited ASC less frequently, or did not possess any type of Health Care Card were more satisfied with the services overall. No common dissatisfaction or unmet needs towards HIV health care service were identified. “Technical quality of HCP” and “the relationship with HCP” were the two most important determinants of client satisfaction, which outweighed the inconvenience contributed by the poor availability of HCP and the location of ASC. The maintenance of “confidentiality/privacy” was shown to be fundamental in HIV health care facilities. The multi-disciplinary nature of ASC increased the degree of convenience and satisfaction level among clients. Suggestions for improvement in client satisfaction levels include increasing the attractiveness of the physical environment and the variety of educational reading materials in the waiting area; introducing beverages, and encouraging clients to be involved in their treatment decisions. Health care administrative staff in particular are reminded not to neglect the importance of the availability of HCP, accessibility, and physical environment when establishing a new HIV health care facility. The mixed method approach (quantitative survey and qualitative interviews) proved beneficial. It increased the validity of the findings by assessing client satisfaction levels using more than one method. This enabled clarification of ambiguities noted in the initial survey through probes used in the interviews, and also allowed investigation of the determinants of client satisfaction through understanding their experiences in HIV health care. Future client satisfaction studies would benefit from using this approach.

This thesis examines the construction of ?Chineseness? by Australian-born Chinese through their interactions with mainstream ?white? society and Chinese diasporic communities in Australia. It represents an interdisciplinary study based on qualitative research and critical analysis of forty-three in-depth interviews with Australian-born Chinese whose families have resided in Australia for three generations or more. Diasporic narratives, fraught with contentions over belonging and difference, often lead to ambiguous ramifications of identity formation. While the notion of hybridity problematises the unsettling boundaries of identities, there is still a continuing perception that ethnic identification decreases over successive generations, resulting in assimilation. However, contrary to this assumption, this study shows that subsequent generations also encounter complicated experiences involving both feelings of cultural ambivalence and enrichment. While the rewriting of identity takes place against the varying circumstances of resettlement, the experiences and transitions across the respondents? life course concurrently inscribes Chineseness onto their lives in diverse ways. Furthermore, Chineseness is continually (re)constructed through decentered connections with an imaginary homeland. Consequently, despite generational longevity, strong affinities with Australian society and longstanding national identities grounded in Australian culture, Chineseness is still a significant part of their identity, whether they willingly choose to associate with it or not. The focus on revaluating the concept of Chineseness and elucidating the sense of identity of sequential generations has important ramifications for the development of a more informed theoretical model for understanding the long-term effects of migration, especially on the process of identity formation and feelings of home and belonging.

This research was designed to examine two broad issues in relation to the investigative interviewing of children (aged 9 to 13 years) with mild and moderate intellectual disabilities. First, how do children with intellectual disabilities perform (relative to children matched for chronological and mental age) when recalling an event in response to various questions? Second, what question types and interview strategies do police officers and caregivers use to elicit accurate and detailed accounts about an event from children with intellectual disabilities? The rationale for exploring each of these issues was to determine possible ways of improving the elicitation of evidence from children with intellectual disabilities. While children with intellectual disabilities constitute a high proportion of all child victims of abuse (Conway, 1994; Goldman, 1994; Morse, et ah, 1970), they rarely provide formal reports of abuse and of those incidents that are reported, few cases progress to court (Henry & Gudjonsson, 1999). Study 1 used a standard interview protocol containing a variety of questions and an interview structure commonly used in investigative interviews. Specifically, the memory and suggestibility of eighty children with either a mild and moderate intellectual disability (M age = 10.85 years) was examined when recalling an innocuous event that was staged at their school. The children's performance was compared with that of two control groups; a group of mainstream children matched for mental age and a group of mainstream children matched for chronological age. Overall, this study showed that children with both mild and moderate intellectual disabilities can provide accurate and highly specific event-related information hi response to questions recommended in best-practice guidelines. However, their recall was less complete and less clear in response to free-narrative prompts and less accurate in response to specific questions when compared to both mainstream age-matched groups. Study 2 provided an in-depth analysis of the types of questions and strategies used by twenty-eight police officers and caregivers when interviewing children with either mild or moderate intellectual disabilities (M age = 11.13 years) about a repeated event that was staged at their school. The results revealed that while the approach used by the police officers was generally consistent with best-practice recommendations (i.e., their interviews contained few leading, coercive or negative strategies), there were many ways in which their approach could be improved. This study also showed that the caregivers used a high proportion of direct and negative strategies to elicit information from their children. Even when caregivers used open-ended questions, their children provided less event-related information than they did to police interviewers. The results of both studies were discussed in relation to current 'best-practice' guidelines for interviewing children and recommendations were offered for improving the quality of field interviews with children who have intellectual disabilities.