āwhina: a programme for Māori and Pacific tertiary science graduate and postgraduate success

In New Zealand, Māori (indigenous New Zealanders) and Pacific students tend not to attain the same levels of educational success as Pākehā (New Zealanders of European descent). Addressing this problem is a particular challenge in the sciences. The kaupapa (values-base) of Te Rōpū Āwhina (Āwhina) is to produce Māori and Pacific professionals to contribute to Māori and Pacific development and leadership through the creation of an inclusive off- and on-campus whānau (extended family) environment where high expectations, aspirations and achievement, collective success, and reciprocity are normalised. This paper reviews theories and practices of recruitment and retention relevant to Māori and Pacific students at tertiary level, presents the rationale for Āwhina in the Faculties of Science and Architecture and Design at Victoria University of Wellington, and assesses the impact of the whānau. Based on analyses of quantitative measures of student achievement, and biennial surveys of student responses from the first 6 years of Āwhina, it is suggested that the results are consistent with improving Māori and Pacific graduate and postgraduate achievement and retention. Potential implications for efforts to reduce disparities in tertiary education in New Zealand and elsewhere are summarised.     

Career development influences of international students who pursue permanent immigration to Canada

This research focused on the career decision and planning needs of a unique group of migrants: international students who are completing their studies as temporary immigrants and who are embarking on the career journey of employment and permanent immigration. A semi-structured interview employing a Critical Incident Technique was used to assess the career influences of 19 undergraduate and graduate international students at a Canadian university. Data were analyzed using a constant comparison method and critical incident protocol. Students were motivated to remain in Canada due to enhanced job opportunities and high standard of living. Barriers to migration included the fear of not securing employment and cultural and linguistic barriers. International students would like to see campus and career services specified to the needs of international and graduate students to help them realize their goal of pursuing employment as the key to permanent immigration.     

The role of athlete narcissism in moderating the relationship between coaches' transformational leader behaviors and athlete motivation

Leadership research that examines follower characteristics as a potential moderator of leadership effectiveness is lacking. Within Bass's (1985) transformational leadership framework, we examined follower narcissism as a moderator of the coach behavior-coach effectiveness relationship. Youth athletes (male = 103, female = 106) from the Singapore Sports Academy (mean age = 14.28, SD = 1.40 years) completed the Differentiated Transformational Leadership Inventory (Callow, Smith, Hardy, Arthur, & Hardy, 2009), the Narcissistic Personality Inventory (Raskin & Terry, 1988), and indices of follower effort. Multilevel analyses revealed that athlete narcissism moderated the relationship between fostering acceptance of group goals and athlete effort and between high performance expectations and athlete effort. All the other transformational leader behaviors demonstrated main effects on follower effort, except for inspirational motivation.     

Editorial for EAIT issue 4, 2022

Education and Information Technologies -