This thesis reports on a small scale qualitative research project located in Aotearoa/New Zealand. The objective of the research was to understand how lesbian teachers disrupt heteronormativity in early childhood settings. The literature was reviewed nationally and internationally. It argues that heteronormativity is the main barrier preventing teachers speaking about lesbian and gay issues. Heteronormativity is a discourse that works to maintain heterosexual hegemony. As a result of this dominance, acceptance of lesbian and gay issues is still a contentious issue within Aotearoa/New Zealand early childhood settings. This study provided an opportunity for heteronormativity to be viewed solely from a lesbian teacher’s paradigm. My intention was to also examine the strategies that participants used to challenge heteronormative dominance. Participants negotiated risks to ensure that both children and adults were aware of the hegemonic view point enforced by heteronormativity. A feminist post-structuralist and queer theory paradigm was used to frame the analytical approach.

Le théâtre māori est abordé en tant que forme artistique qui permet d’affirmer des identités dans un contexte de revendications culturelles et politiques ainsi que d’établir un dialogue entre les créateurs, les acteurs et le public. Ce dialogue est vu comme ayant une incidence sur les relations sociales au quotidien. Cette thèse présente les résultats tirés de recherches ethnographiques auprès d’une troupe de théâtre māori basée à Wellington, Aotearoa Nouvelle-Zélande. Après un aperçu du contexte du théâtre et des arts performatifs māori, elle s’attarde à décrire les particularités du processus créatif préconisé par cette troupe pour la production d’une œuvre théâtrale en langue māori. Sont également explorées les modalités selon lesquelles les mises en scène de certains traits identitaires et culturels entraînent des processus de réflexion collective et individuelle, l’acte performatif étant considéré ici comme vecteur de changement social.

Le théâtre māori est abordé en tant que forme artistique qui permet d’affirmer des identités dans un contexte de revendications culturelles et politiques ainsi que d’établir un dialogue entre les créateurs, les acteurs et le public. Ce dialogue est vu comme ayant une incidence sur les relations sociales au quotidien. Cette thèse présente les résultats tirés de recherches ethnographiques auprès d’une troupe de théâtre māori basée à Wellington, Aotearoa Nouvelle-Zélande. Après un aperçu du contexte du théâtre et des arts performatifs māori, elle s’attarde à décrire les particularités du processus créatif préconisé par cette troupe pour la production d’une œuvre théâtrale en langue māori. Sont également explorées les modalités selon lesquelles les mises en scène de certains traits identitaires et culturels entraînent des processus de réflexion collective et individuelle, l’acte performatif étant considéré ici comme vecteur de changement social.

The eight short stories in Shorty examine themes including racism, oppression, conflict, social perception, miscommunication, struggles over meaning, truth and ethnic identity. New Zealand is a country reinventing itself from its colonial past (Wyn 2004 p. 277); identity-making in this country is a ‘dynamic process’ (Liu et al. 2005 p.11) which generates new cultural forms and practices. The concept of culture and subculture links the aforementioned themes in Shorty.

The eight short stories in Shorty examine themes including racism, oppression, conflict, social perception, miscommunication, struggles over meaning, truth and ethnic identity. New Zealand is a country reinventing itself from its colonial past (Wyn 2004 p. 277); identity-making in this country is a ‘dynamic process’ (Liu et al. 2005 p.11) which generates new cultural forms and practices. The concept of culture and subculture links the aforementioned themes in Shorty.

Le théâtre māori est abordé en tant que forme artistique qui permet d’affirmer des identités dans un contexte de revendications culturelles et politiques ainsi que d’établir un dialogue entre les créateurs, les acteurs et le public. Ce dialogue est vu comme ayant une incidence sur les relations sociales au quotidien. Cette thèse présente les résultats tirés de recherches ethnographiques auprès d’une troupe de théâtre māori basée à Wellington, Aotearoa Nouvelle-Zélande. Après un aperçu du contexte du théâtre et des arts performatifs māori, elle s’attarde à décrire les particularités du processus créatif préconisé par cette troupe pour la production d’une œuvre théâtrale en langue māori. Sont également explorées les modalités selon lesquelles les mises en scène de certains traits identitaires et culturels entraînent des processus de réflexion collective et individuelle, l’acte performatif étant considéré ici comme vecteur de changement social.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Canterbury, 2006. / Typescript (photocopy). Includes bibliographical references (leaves 311-330). Also available via the World Wide Web.

This study of the governance of theological education examines significant policy and management decisions within Presbyterian ministry training in New Zealand between 1961 and 1997 in the light of Edward Farley�s integrated goal for theological education, theologia. Edward Farley�s argument that theologia, integration of theology (scientia) and theology (habitus), was fragmented from the first use of modern research university education as professional education for ordained ministry in the 1880s, provides a theoretical framework for analysing the influence of governance on theologia, through its effect on institutional organisation, structure and curricula. International unease about theological education is reflected in New Zealand Presbyterian ministry formation, though little sustained critical analysis is yet published in New Zealand. The period under study begins in 1961 when the Special Committee on Theological Training called for a Chair in Pastoral Theology to 1997 when the Presbyterian Church of Aotearoa New Zealand opened its Centre for Advanced Ministry Studies, later renamed the School of Ministry. Criteria signifying recovery and/or fragmentation of theologia drawn from Farley�s arguments are searched for in the beginning of University theology at Berlin and the beginning of ministry formation in Dunedin, New Zealand. The intervening time till 1960 is similarly analysed. Governance decisions about Pastoral Theology in the first case study and governance decisions about University, church and theology in the second, are then assessed. Constant rearranging of pastoral theology programmes symptomises increasing fragmentation of theologia as does the creation of a Pastoral Chair. Pastoral theology is left with the integrative responsibility, rendering other disciplines more scientific as feared by some Theological Hall teachers. Outside the University from 1876-1946, New Zealand Presbyterian ministry formation was still influenced by University expectations from Scotland and Berlin. After 1946, teaching within the University of Otago Faculty of Theology, Presbyterian teachers enjoyed considerable opportunities for integrated teaching. Fragmentation of theologia was therefore delayed and to some extent retarded. Increased University influence from 1992 meant these opportunities were lost. Finally, around the 1996 withdrawal of direct University engagement with Presbyterian ministry formation, formational goals were set for the Church�s new Centre of Advanced Ministry Studies. These aimed to integrate theology (scientia) and theology (habitus) retrospectively for ordinands after foundational theological education elsewhere. Earlier 1990s governance decisions affected achievement of these goals. This work argues that between 1961 and 1997 most governance decisions in New Zealand Presbyterian ministry formation exacerbated existing structural fragmentation of theologia. Differing arrangements to alleviate this were attempted, and integration of (scientia) and (habitus) occurred for some students and at different periods. Structurally, however, the University-approved four-fold programme continued, making pastoral theology�s role remained ambiguous and theologia�s fragmentation inevitable. While the New Zealand Presbyterian Church set its own ministry formation goals from 1961-1997, finance, prestige and educational philosophy prevented development of its own programme. Time and money were put into supporting University theology instead, and the University used to produce an educated ministry. It is now inevitable that the Church has to integrate theology (scientia) and theology (habitus) retrospectively for its students after theological education elsewhere.

Maori and Pacific Island youth are the 'it kids' of Aotearoa New Zealand television today, as the exceptional success of the television series bro'Town attests. Corporate sponsors clamour to associate their brands with the hit programme, from international heavyweights including Coke and Vodafone to local players such as G-Force. Likewise, celebrities from at home and abroad proclaim their support for bro'Town in guest appearances on the show. But, what is at stake when the visibility of Polynesian youth in the media is so inextricably intertwined with the commercial imperatives of major corporations and pop-culture celebrities? This paper attends to an absence of critical response regarding the role of commercial influences in the representation of Polynesian youth identity in bro'Town. In striving to be popular, contemporary television in Aotearoa New Zealand often addresses the preconceptions of its target audience. The commodification of Polynesian youth identity in bro'Town, therefore, may be interpreted as a marketing strategy to tap into a popular ideological shift towards multiculturalism in Aotearoa New Zealand without disrupting the dominant ideology of white, middle-class masculinity from which capitalism derives. Although bro'Town offers specific challenges to popular stereotypes of Polynesian youth culture, the discursive construction of Maori and Pacific youth identities in the show is still circumscribed by a consumerist ethos that demands adherence to Western capitalist culture in Aotearoa New Zealand. Bro'Town operates in complicity with pre-existing binaries between masculinity/femininity and heterosexual/homosexual and thus implicitly reinscribes the status quo for youth in Aotearoa New Zealand today. Moreover, bro'Town's multicultural ethic is largely contrary because the series fails to contest popular stereotypes about other ethnic minorities. In Brand New Zealanders, it is argued that the corporate co-option of Polynesian youth culture in bro'Town ultimately does less to pry open new discursive spaces for the development of youth identity than to operate as a vehicle for the deliberate shrinking of consumer choice.

This thesis documents a qualitative research study of twenty postmodern therapy practitioners in Aotearoa New Zealand, focusing on their experiences in the wider field of therapy. The participants were aligned in their subscribing to postmodern critiques of therapy as a instrument of power, and in their interest in, and use of, therapy techniques and approaches that have grown out of those critiques – including narrative therapy, critical psychology, “Just Therapy”, and feminist poststructuralist therapy approaches. I argue that these practitioners represent a social movement within the field of therapy. The thesis examines the nature of the wider therapy field in Aotearoa New Zealand, analysing the perspectives of the participants. I demonstrate how this field has become increasingly dominated by the twin forces of neoliberalism and bio-science, making postmodern therapy work difficult, particularly within public sector services. In the final substantive part of the thesis, I critically examine and appraise the strategies used by participants to negotiate and resist these forces. This discussion is divided into two main chapters, dealing first with the participants who have difficulty in engaging in official politics and who consequently attempt to operate “under the radar” of management surveillance: these participants are characterised as “battlers”, “burn-outs” and “blow-outs”. Then, I turn my attention to the second group of participants – “infiltrators”, “outsiders” and “accepters” – who strategically utilise symbolic capital to pose resistance, or simply leave the public system. I also consider the professed abilities of this second group to cultivate a postmodern sensibility and to tolerate contradiction and compromise. I conclude this investigation of the possibilites for resistance to neoliberal and bio-scientific discourses by recommending greater strengthening of this local postmodern therapy movement.