Mana Wahine and Washday at the Pā

Abstract

Washday at the Pā (‘pā’ is used colloquially by Pākehā to refer to a Māori settlement) is the title of an old schoolbook, a picture reading book for younger schoolchildren, which was produced in 1964 by the state education system in Aotearoa-New Zealand in 1964, written and photographed by Ans Westra, who later became one of the most famous photographers in the country. Washday at the Pā provoked a national debate when the Minister of Education acceded to protests by the Māori Womens Welfare League against its use in classrooms by withdrawing it completely, and the story of this controversy has remained alive in national consciousness ever since. This research brings Māori feminist philosophy to the Washday debate: I take up Mana Wahine theory as a useful lens on the controversy, understood as an event about, with and for women, in the history of Māori education. The purpose of this article is to reread, using Mana Wahine theory, existing arguments about the book’s withdrawal, and to propose an original resolution of the question at the centre of debate: should the book have been withdrawn from schools, or not?     

The effect of beetroot juice supplementation on repeat-sprint performance in hypoxia

This investigation assessed the effect of dietary nitrate (NO₃^?) supplementation, in the form of beetroot juice (BR), on repeat-sprint performance in normoxia and normobaric hypoxia. 12 male team-sport athletes (age 22.3 ± 2.6 y, VO_2peak 53.1 ± 8.7 mL.kg^?1.min^?1) completed three exercise trials involving a 10 min submaximal warm-up and 4 sets of cycling repeat-sprint efforts (RSE; 9 × 4 s) at sea level (CON), or at 3000 m simulated altitude following acute supplementation (140 mL) with BR (HYP_BR; 13 mmol NO₃^?) or NO₃^–depleted BR placebo (HYP_PLA). Peak (PPO) and mean (MPO) power output, plus work decrement were recorded during the RSE task, while oxygen consumption (VO₂) was measured during the warm-up. There were no significant differences observed between HYP_BR and HYP_PLA for PPO or MPO; however, work decrement was reduced in the first RSE set in HYP_BR compared with HYP_PLA. There was a moderate effect for VO₂ to be lower following BR at the end of the 10 min warm-up (ES = 0.50 ± 0.51). Dietary NO₃^? may not improve repeat-sprint performance in hypoxia but may reduce VO₂ during submaximal exercise. Therefore, BR supplementation may be more effective for performance improvement during predominantly aerobic exercise.     

Can behavioural interventions increase citizens' use of e-government? Evidence from a quasi-experimental trial

Low uptake is one of the largest risks facing government agencies that seek to increase efficiency and reduce costs by providing services online. To date, very few studies have tested interventions to increase citizens' use of e-government services. Instead, almost all existing research has focused on identifying correlates of adoption. In the current study, we developed an intervention to increase citizens' use of an e-government service and tested it using a quasi-experiment. The intervention used several techniques informed by research from the applied behavioural sciences to encourage usage, including: altering defaults (customers who visited a customer service centre were invited to complete a form online rather than joining a queue), providing facilitating conditions (customer support was made available), and promoting the benefits and ease of the online service (a customer service representative and in-store written materials emphasised these points). Results indicated that the intervention significantly increased customers' use of the online service by 14.1 percentage points, 95% CI [9.1, 19.2]. Additionally, a survey of customers who experienced the intervention showed they were highly satisfied and appreciated the time-saving benefits, ease of use, and customer support provided. This study is among the first to provide a rigorous test of an intervention to encourage citizens to use e-government services, and can be used to inform practical efforts to increase e-government uptake.     

Re-Discovering a Roman Wall Painting at Harvard: New Research on a Fragment from the Villa at Boscotrecase

ABSTRACT

This article presents historical and scientific analysis, as well as the conservation treatment of a newly rediscovered Roman wall painting fragment, now in the collection of the Harvard Art Museums. Although the piece has not previously been published, it was among a group of fragments removed from a Roman villa near Boscotrecase in southern Italy, an area that has been key to the study of Roman wall painting and other decoration. Technical imaging confirms the use of painting techniques consistent with other high-quality paintings in the area. Materials analysis revealed a palette consistent with published findings of Roman wall paintings, including abundant use of Egyptian blue and green earth. Of interest was the use of Egyptian blue as an optical brightener in select white passages. Despite the high quality of the painting, no cinnabar was present, and all red passages were achieved using hematite. Multiple different white minerals were identified including calcite, aragonite, and gypsum. The widespread presence of gypsum is unusual and may point to alteration.     

Can students with dyslexia be effectively supported in the diversity of an international school setting?

In the diversity of an international school, many children for whom dyslexia is a barrier to literacy skill development may not have formally been identified as dyslexic; however, it does not mean that their needs do not require to be met. This paper considers the elements necessary to support the learners with dyslexia. Teaching Reading Through Spelling, which is a synthetic phonics-based APSL (alphabetic, phonic, syllabic, linguistic) programme, was used, 3 × 45 minutes a week, in an international school setting. The students (N = 12) made 2.0 years spelling, and 2.8 years reading improvement in one year. In addition to selecting an appropriate teaching programme, successful additional elements were found to be careful planning for both short and long term, effective communication and involvement of all participants.     

TIJAH: Embracing IR Methods in XML Databases

This paper discusses our participation in INEX (the Initiative for the Evaluation of XML Retrieval) using the TIJAH XML-IR system. TIJAHs system design follows a standard layered database architecture, carefully separating the conceptual, logical and physical levels. At the conceptual level, we classify the INEX XPath-based query expressions into three different query patterns. For each pattern, we present its mapping into a query execution strategy. The logical layer exploits score region algebra (SRA) as the basis for query processing. We discuss the region operators used to select and manipulate XML document components. The logical algebra expressions are mapped into efficient relational algebra expressions over a physical representation of the XML document collection using the pre-post numbering scheme. The paper concludes with an analysis of experiments performed with the INEX test collection.     

Reviewing and Ethics in the Online Academy

This commentary paper reflects on what I have recently learned from being involved in the Editorial Development Group established by the journal EPAT (Educational Philosophy and Theory) and its owners, the learned society of PESA (the Philosophy of Education Society of Australasia). Besides disseminating the experience of this group, the paper suggests there is a link between the ideas of ‘netiquette’, the online academy, and the ethics of reviewing.     

Source-code plagiarism in universities: a comparative study of student perspectives in China and the UK

There has been much research and discussion relating to variations in plagiaristic activity observed in students from different demographic backgrounds. Differences in behaviour have been noted in many studies, although the underlying reasons are still a matter of debate. Existing work focuses mainly on textual plagiarism, and most often derives results by studying (small) groups of overseas students studying in a Western context. This study investigates understanding of source-code plagiarism (i.e. plagiarism of computer programmes) amongst university students in China. The survey instrument was a Chinese translation of a survey previously administered in English in the UK. This paper reports the results of the exploratory survey conducted in China, and compares these results to those from a parallel survey conducted in the UK. The results show that there is a significant difference in understanding between the respondents from the two surveys, and suggest topics which a future and more comprehensive study may focus on.