School of Social Sciences and Public Policy

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https://hdl.handle.net/10292/2105

There is a wide range of research activity in AUT's School of Social Sciences and Public Policy. The school has an active research community, with staff and postgraduate research in areas such as psychology, sociology and public policy.

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Now showing 1 - 20 of 91

A Critical Comparative Evaluation of English Course Books in EFL Context
(Macrothink Institute, Inc., 2014-02-14) Roshan, Saeed
Choosing an English course book which suits students in EFL/ESL settings is always a contentious issue for practitioners. This study is an investigation into the comparative critical evaluation of New Interchange Intro and New Headway Pre-intermediate series - two well-known series employed in EFL/EFL contexts - and some teaching challenges the teachers encounter during teaching these books in the context of Iran. The evaluation is done in terms of two assumptions; firstly, cultural and ideological assumptions, and secondly, assumptions about language, language learning and best practice. Findings reveal that both New Interchange and New Headway texts reflect ideological and cultural assumptions through their focus on the US and UK way of life respectively. The pictures and the material are found biased towards the culture of these countries in their depiction of local cities and lifestyles and in the inclusion of subjects. Regarding assumptions about language, language learning and best practice, the books focus on both form and meaning, and the grammar included is inductive and implicit. In the context of Iran, however, New Headway seems to be better for school students while New Interchange would be suitable for students and persons who aim to migrate or travel overseas. The study gives some suggestions for improving the usability of these books in the context of Iran.
A Critical Review of the Revised IELTS Speaking Test
(Macrothink Institute, 2013-12-26) Roshan, Saeed
The International English Language Test System (IELTS) is currently one of the English tests of repute, which is employed to assess the language proficiency of candidates planning to study or work in contexts where English is employed as the language of communication. This study is a critical review of the Revised IELTS Speaking Test (RIST) in order to highlight the strengths and weaknesses of the revised version. The findings indicate that the reduction from 5 phases to 3 phases in the structure, the introduction of an Interlocutor Frame (IF), the change of the rating system from holistic to analytic, and validity are the strong points of RIST. The weaknesses in the RIST could be subjectivity of the test, deviation from IF, and potential cultural bias. The study provides some recommendations for improvement of the Revised IELTS Speaking Test.
A Necromantic Hauntology of the Void in the Canary Islands: In/Re-Surrection
(Addleton Academic Publishers, 2024)
My wrestling with (not) belonging, which started almost a decade ago with my arrival to Aotearoa/New Zealand, was prevalent during my re-turn (Barad, 2014) to my birthplace, the Canary Islands, seeking to revive my connections to the land, its histories and its/my Indigeneity. My engagement with te ao Māori (‘the Māori world’) was essential to (re)connect with the whenua (‘land’) in a way I had never done before, as an ancestor, cradling (non-)descendants of the Indigenous Canarians (see Ramirez & Pasley, 2022; Ramirez, 2024). The im/possibilities of the in/determinacy of Canarian Indigeneity’s nothingness/openness (Barad, 2012) require an engagement with our Indigenous Canarian inheritance beyond Western thinking. While questions that emerged during my re-turn produced more questions, my travels also offered strategies to move forward. Developing a Canarian onto-epistemology is imperative not only to decolonise the Canary Islands but also to save what is left (cultural and (hi)storical preservation) and save the whenua (from unstainable tourism). This begins with initiating necromantic hauntological practices of the void to ‘heal’ wounds left in the Canary Islands by colonisation and subsequent colonialities. The pasados que (nunca) fueron y futuros que (nunca) pueden ser (‘pasts that were (not), futures that can (never) be’) that materialise in the current culture, language, peoples and institutions (legal and educational), revive and reconfigure my relationship to the land, its histories and its/my Indigeneity. A process of in/re-surrection started. It is now that I am un/becoming Indigenous.
A Necromantic Hauntology of the Void: Pasados que (Nunca) Fueron y Futuros que (Nunca) Pueden Ser in the Canary Islands
(Addleton Academic Publishers, 2024) Ramirez, Elba
This article is the continuation of a personal journey, wrestling with (not) belonging, which started almost a decade ago with my arrival in Aotearoa/New Zealand. It was not until I was invited to share my ‘whakapapa’ (genealogy), merely reduced to ‘Spanish’ at that point, that I started to reflect on my own identity as a Canary Islander. Through my engagement with te ao Māori (the Māori world), I started to understand and know myself in relation to the Indigenous peoples of the Canary Islands, as it allowed me to reflect on ‘(not) belonging’ and un/becoming Indigenous (see Ramirez & Pasley, 2022). Learning about the Indigenous histories of the Islands and exploring my relationships with the Canary Islands and their Indigenous histories brought up more questions than answers. The process of decolonising the Canary Islands requires reconstituting onto-epistemological understandings and engagement with the Indigenous and colonial histories of the islands, decentring these from a Eurocentric/Western narrative/lens and establishing a Canarian onto-epistemology. To do so, I diffract Barad’s (2017) void of im/possibility with Derrida’s (1995) hauntology to develop the concept of a necromantic hauntology of the void. This allows me to tend to the wound that has been left behind in the Canary Islands and engage with the im/possibilities of the in/determinacy of Canarian Indigeneity’s nothingness/ openness. This is part of my reconnection with the Indigenous Canarian inheritance (outside Western thinking) and the possibilities that pasados que (nunca) fueron y futuros que (nunca) pueden ser (pasts that were [not], futures than can [never] be) offer to revive my connections to the land, its histories and its/my Indigeneity.
A Year of Pandemic: Levels, Changes and Validity of Well-being Data from Twitter. Evidence From Ten Countries
(Public Library of Science (PLoS), ) Sarracino, Francesco; Greyling, Talita; Peroni, Chiara; O'Connor, Kelsey; Rossouw, Stephanie
We use daily happiness scores (Gross National Happiness (GNH)) to illustrate how happiness changed throughout 2020 in ten countries across Europe and the Southern hemisphere. More frequently and regularly available than survey data, the GNH reveals how happiness sharply declined at the onset of the pandemic and lockdown, quickly recovered, and then trended downward throughout much of the year in Europe. GNH is derived by applying sentiment and emotion analysis–based on Natural Language Processing using machine learning algorithms–to Twitter posts (tweets). Using a similar approach, we generate another 11 variables: eight emotions and three new context-specific variables, in particular: trust in national institutions, sadness in relation to loneliness, and fear concerning the economy. Given the novelty of the dataset, we use multiple methods to assess validity. We also assess the correlates of GNH. The results indicate that GNH is negatively correlated with new COVID-19 cases, containment policies, and disgust and positively correlated with staying at home, surprise, and generalised trust. Altogether the analyses indicate tools based on Big Data, such as the GNH, offer relevant data that often fill information gaps and can valuably supplement traditional tools. In this case, the GNH results suggest that both the severity of the pandemic and containment policies negatively correlated with happiness.
Adaptation Finance: Risks and Opportunities for Aotearoa New Zealand
(Mōhio Research and AUT, 2022-11-28) Hall, D
Methodology: This report was developed through the co-design process of Mōhio’s Climate Innovation Lab, a fixed-term initiative which works with stakeholders to envision financial instruments to mobilise capital for climate-aligned projects and activities. A working paper was prepared through international market scanning and a review of primary and secondary literature on climate adaptation. This working paper became the basis for a workshop with local experts and stakeholders to test the viability of potential instruments in light of Aotearoa New Zealand’s unique cultural, biophysical and regulatory context. The workshop included participants from finance services, insurance, institutional investment, academia and local and central government observers. These insights were reincorporated into this final concept paper. Mōhio would like to thank the workshop participants for their time and expertise.
An approach to teaching the writing of literature reviews [Online]
(Zeitschrift Schreiben, 2008) Turner, E; Bitchener, J
Students face difficulties in writing literature reviews that relate in particular to limited knowledge of the genre (Bruce, 1992; E. Turner, 2005). While there has been valuable research relating to genre and discourse analysis of the literature review (such as Bunton, 2002; Kwan, 2006; O’Connell and Jin, 2001), there is a lack of research into the effectiveness of published writing support programmes. Furthermore, with exceptions such as Ridley (2000) and Swales and Lindemann (2002), there is little explicit advice on how to approach the teaching of the literature review. This paper reports on one of two studies described at the 4th International EATAW conference 2007. It describes an evaluation of the effectiveness of an approach at a New Zealand university to teaching the writing of literature reviews. It focuses on a 15-hour unit of teaching as part of a six-day EAL graduate writing course. The study found clear evidence of improvement in all areas that were targeted.
Analysing Social Structures
(InTech, 2012) Crothers, CH
No abstract.
Antarctica: environment, justice, sustainability & development
(United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR), 2014-10-31) Verbitsky, JE
This paper focuses on Antarctica and its status as a commons area with potential to facilitate both the human rights objectives and development agendas of global south states. It suggests that, using a combined and complementary environmental justice, just sustainability and cosmopolitan democracy (EJJSCD) framework, global south states can advance a human rights-based approach to development using monies generated from resource extraction in Antarctic waters. In this framework, environmental justice, just sustainability, and cosmopolitan democracy serve as new or emerging paradigms that offer previously untried ways of addressing issues of inter and intra-generational equity, democracy beyond borders, marginalization of global south states in environmental governance regimes, and lack of ongoing capital funding for development projects (both large and small scale) in the global south. The paper argues that the uncertain legal status of Antarctica, the presence of two separate, overlapping legal regimes in the area south of 60º South (the Antarctic Treaty System and the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS)), and rapid technological advances have permitted resource extraction in the form of bio-prospecting to occur without appropriate environmental governance oversight or regulation. This opens up opportunities for global south states, building both upon the concept of sustainable development embedded in the Brundtland Commission report and their common rights and development objectives, to collectively press for regulation of the industry and equitable benefit-sharing from resource extraction utilizing the EJJSCD framework in order to achieve the vital outcomes outlined in the UN Millennium Development Goals.
Appendix: the New Zealand literature on social class/inequality
(New Zealand Sociology, 2013) Crothers, CH
No abstract.
Bangladesh: an umpired democracy
(International Foundation for Research and Development (IFRD), 2012) Crothers, CH; Azad, A
This paper reveals that there has been a continuous political confrontation between two archrival political forces in Bangladesh since independence in 1971. In the course of the confrontation, the country has seemingly been divided into two forces: BAL forces and anti-BAL forces. The democratic development in this country since 1991 is a by-product of this confrontation. In 1991, because of the continued mistrust between the two confronting forces, a unique system of interim government (non-party caretaker government) was produced that kept working as a catalyst of power transfer in a democratic way from one government to another till 2008 election from 1991.
Beyond Catastrophic Forgetting in Continual Learning: An Attempt with SVM
(The International Conference on Machine Learning (ICML), 2020-07-18) Benavides Prado, D
A big challenge in continual learning is avoiding catastrophically forgetting previously learned tasks. The possibility of improving existing knowledge whilst integrating new information has been much less explored. In this paper we describe a method that aims to improve the performance of previously learned tasks by refining their knowledge while new tasks are observed. Our method is an example of this ability in the context of Support Vector Machines for binary classification tasks, which encourages retention of existing knowledge whilst refining. Experiments with synthetic and real-world datasets show that the performance of these tasks can be continually improved by transferring selected knowledge, leading to the improvement on the performance of the learning system as a whole.
Biodiversity Instruments
(New Zealand's BioHeritage National Science Challenge, 2021-03-29) Hall, D; Lindsay, S
No abstract.
The Christchurch Principles
(The Helen Clark Foundation and Auckland University of Technology, 2019-11) Hall, D
November 2019: We believe that the public sphere should be a place of equal participation. As the internet, and social media especially, becomes an increasingly influential public space, these digital media have greater implications for political equality, both online and offline. In some regards, the rise of social media has created new ways for people to participate in public life, to overcome long-standing disadvantages. In other regards, however, it may pose threats, especially through the flourishing of harmful online content. The report presents 10 Principles, which seek to build on the Christchurch Call and the compassion that characterised the response to the March 15 attacks. The project was presented as part of the Paris Peace Forum, with support from Dr David Hall from The Policy Observatory and from Wellington based ‘think and do’ tank the Workshop. https://www.theworkshop.org.nz/
Climate Finance Landscape for Aotearoa New Zealand: A Preliminary Survey
(Mōhio and Auckland University of Technology, 2018-04) Hall, D; Lindsay, S
This report, prepared by consultancy Mōhio, examines climate finance in New Zealand. It includes a snapshot of key existing climate finance flows and a look at the instruments available to the Government and private sector such as grants, debt and bonds. The report also outlines the enabling environment required to better facilitate the flows of finance toward low emissions and climate-resilient outcomes. This includes considerations such as information flows, tracking, regulations, organisational forms, and wider alignment across innovation, research and development and other environmental and social outcomes.
Disrupting Racism - Young Ethnic Queers in White Queer Aotearoa New Zealand
(Informa UK Limited, 2023-08-21) Nakhid, C; Abu Ali, Z; Fu, M; Vano, L; Yachinta, C; Tuwe, M
Queer ethnic young people in Aotearoa New Zealand are a multi-marginalized group, many of whom are met with racism and exclusion from a predominantly white queer community. Very little is known about how young ethnic queers in Aotearoa navigate a community that inheres the ideals and structures of racism. This in-depth qualitative study of 43 queer ethnic young people living in two of the largest metropolitan cities in Aotearoa investigates their experiences and relationships with the white queer community through Persadie and Narain’s mash-up analytical process. For these young ethnic queers, disrupting the racist behaviors and practices within queer spaces and of white queers were crucial in helping them challenge, resist, speak up to and reflect on their experiences with white saviourism, objectification, patronization, and rejection.
Editorial 4(1)
(School of Social Sciences and Public Policy, Auckland University of Technology, 2022-02-23) Tauri, Juan; Deckert, Antje
Editorial: social class and inequality in New Zealand and Overseas: introduction to special issue
(New Zealand Sociology, 2013) Crothers, CH
No abstract.
Embracing the Muddle: Learning From the Experiences From Interdisciplinary Teaching and Learning Collaboration
(School of Education, Auckland University of Technology, 2017-12-15) Neill, C; Corder, D; Wikitera, K-A; Cox, S
Interdisciplinary, collaborative teaching and learning is recognised as important for twenty-first century tertiary education that seeks to build students’ critical thinking, cultural competence and global understanding. The core elements needed for truly successful collaboration are, however, little understood. This article presents a critical case study of a teaching team’s reflections on experiences in collaborating over two years to deliver a new interdisciplinary undergraduate course focused on culture and society. The findings highlight the importance of building a robust team culture built upon shared leadership, mutual trust and commitment, grounded by strong institutional support, to give any collaboration integrity and sustainability.
ePortfolios in cooperative education: do they work?
(Australian Collaborative Education Network, 2010) McDermott, K; Gallagher, S; Campbell, M
This paper documents the process of integrating eportfolios from the multidisciplinary perspectives of the Schools of Languages, Social Sciences and Education. The experiences of Coordinators, Flexible Learning Advisors, Academic Supervisors and students, the stakeholders in Cooperative Education, will be considered. Significant issues will be analysed regarding the use of eportfolios such as cost, time, adequacy of training, software challenges, technical support, availability of computer laboratories, implications for moderation and marking as well as the effectiveness of the communication amongst all involved. Finally, the evolution of the project will be evaluated and future developments identified.

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