Research Bank
Welcome to Research Bank, our open research repository that includes research produced by students and staff while affiliated with Unitec, Eastern Institute of Technology (EIT), Otago Polytechnic, Toi Ohomai and Southern Institute of Technology (SIT). It is intended to facilitate scholarly communication and shared access to our research outputs
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Item type:Item, Second Nature(2025)This project unpacks what it means to me to practice photography not as a form of capture, but as a dialogue with the world. Within the darkroom and out in the field, I’ve worked to shift the emphasis from taking images to receiving them. Through slowness and attentiveness, the resulting photographs are not treated as fixed records but as traces that emerge through encounter and the material processes that shape them. My work brings theory and practice into conversation, along with personal stories from the time of exposure, darkroom rituals, and the atmospheric qualities of the landscapes I’ve spent time with. Throughout, I draw on the ideas of Diarmuid Costello, Kaja Silverman, and others. As well as Māori concepts of time and mauri. These frameworks come to form through slow photographic processes such as long exposures, large format cameras, and cameraless techniques that require repetition, waiting and attention. The exhibition includes a combination of new works and selected images made over the course of this research. Prints vary from gelatin silver to pigment and C-type, often made in response to specific encounters. Whether a pinhole exposure of Piopiotahi, a ginkgo grown from a Hiroshima survivor seed or a prolonged exposure of a gorse bush in fog. Together, the works reflect an interest in time as layered and fluid and in photography as a way of forming ethical and poetic relationships with the world.Item type:Item, How are Early Childhood Education students being prepared to confidently and competently transition from initial teacher education to qualified and registered employment?(2025)As Early Childhood Education (ECE) students transition from initial teacher education (ITE) into a qualified position, they often face a "theory-to-practice gap" influenced by an ever-changing environment and evolving societal expectations. This research utilises a pragmatic methodology combining document analysis of academic and government literature, alongside Media documentation with an autoethnographic account of the author’s own professional experiences as a student, teacher, mentor, and lecturer. The findings identify critical knowledge gaps in Te Tiriti-based practices, inclusive pedagogy, and the development of teacher identity. The study argues that professional preparedness is an ongoing process of identity formation supported by relational trust and a culture of continuous learning rather than a final academic outcome. To address these gaps, the research provides practical outputs, including a reflective framework for lecturers and focused questioning strategies for students, aimed at fostering a more resilient and responsive ECE workforce.Item type:Item, 'We do Stuff!' Understanding the experience of developing a professional identity among early-career social workers(2025)This research explores the development of professional identity in social work within the distinctive bicultural context of Aotearoa New Zealand. While social work professionalisation, including mandatory registration and formalised education pathways, was intended to strengthen the profession, it has not resolved ongoing ambiguity surrounding what it means to be a professional social worker. Instead, professionalisation has added further complexity to a profession operating within the obligations of Te Tiriti o Waitangi and under the increasing influence of neoliberal political structures. Questions surrounding professionalism, identity, and the purpose of social work remain contested, contributing to continuing scrutiny of the profession. This study positions ambiguity not solely as a limitation, but also as a dynamic force that allows social work to remain adaptable and responsive to diverse communities and changing social contexts. However, the absence of a coherent professional identity risks weakening the profession’s ability to advocate for social justice and sustain emancipatory practice. Despite more than two decades of professionalisation, social work continues to struggle to articulate a unified professional identity. The intersection of ethics, values, professionalism, and identity emerged as a central site of tension and uncertainty. The research aimed to understand how professional identity develops from student social worker to early-career practitioner and to contribute to discussions regarding the sustainability of the profession. Four guiding questions framed the study: What is social work professionalism? What is social work professional identity? What is social work in Aotearoa New Zealand? And how will social work be sustained? The study employed a qualitative methodology grounded in autoethnography, interpretative phenomenological analysis, constructivism, and feminist perspectives. Autoethnography functioned both as a reflective practice and analytical lens, enabling the researcher’s own experiences as a qualified social worker and educator to inform interpretation. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with five registered social workers employed in statutory settings in Aotearoa New Zealand. Braun and Clarke’s reflexive thematic analysis informed data interpretation, resulting in two overarching themes and six subthemes. Findings revealed that ambiguity permeates social work education, practice, and professional identity development. While participants consistently identified social work values and ethics as central to practice, the interpretation and enactment of these values varied significantly across contexts. Education contributed positively to participants’ self-awareness, confidence, and understanding of bicultural and ethical practice. However, participants felt less prepared for the ongoing uncertainty, relational complexities, and workplace challenges encountered in early practice. Relationships with colleagues and other professionals, alongside experiences of validation and stigma, had the greatest influence on professional identity formation. In contrast, formal mechanisms of professionalisation, including regulatory bodies and continuing professional development requirements, were perceived as less influential and insufficiently supportive of practitioners’ strengths and realities. The research concludes that professional identity development in social work is shaped more profoundly by relationships and contextual experiences than by formal professional structures. Although ambiguity continues to challenge the profession, the findings also highlight the potential for transformation through education, reflective practice, and stronger professional development frameworks. Greater engagement with lifelong learning, research, and deliberate professional formation may strengthen confidence, adaptability, and sustainability within the social work profession in Aotearoa New Zealand.Item type:Item, Translating the Real [Curatorial exercise](2025-05-06)Every photograph is a translation from the real. In this process the real becomes an artifact, one that’s been mediated by the choices of the photographer to a greater or lesser extent. Artists working with archives and the photographic document have long recognised the tension between the subjective way memory is socially constructed while attempting to stay true to the world around them. This exhibition looks at artists working across the archive, the document and the subjective. ... collaboration between the four-person collective, Local Time, and Ngāpuhi photographer John Miller. This resulted in presenting a selection of Miller’s photographs on Te Tii Marae at Waitangi in 2017. Local Time have long worked towards ways of reconciling the political, aesthetic and cultural dimensions of living in Aotearoa from a post-colonial perspective. Taking Miller’s work, representing fifty-plus years of documenting Māori land protest, onto this site for Waitangi Day, was a moment loaded with possibility. ... VENUE AND TIMES: Toi o Wairaka, Unitec, Building 108, Carrington Road, Mount Albert, Auckland. 6 May - 5 June, 2025 ROLES: Allan McDonald (Curator), Frankie Ayers, Ziggy Bond, Caryline Boreham, Wendy Bornholdt, David Cowlard, Karlene Groves, John Miller, Local Time Collective, Izzy O’Hagan, Anna Suante, Sam Waddell (All artists)Item type:Item, Conservation status of indigenous vascular plants in Taitokerau / Northland 2026 = Te tūnga whāomoomo o ngā momo tupu tariwai/tarikai taketake i Taitokerau(Northland Regional Council (N.Z.), 2026)The conservation status of 878 vascular plant taxa in Taitokerau / Northland was assessed using a modified version of Rolfe et al. (2022), New Zealand Threat Classification System (NZTCS) set to account for threat on a regional rather than national basis. This is the first time Northland Regional Council has facilitated this assessment. Of these, 128 taxa were assessed as Regionally Threatened, including 77 as Regionally Critical, 29 as Regionally Endangered, and 22 as Regionally Vulnerable. Additionally, 292 taxa were assessed as At Risk, including 60 as Regionally Declining, five as Regionally Relict, eight as Regional Colonisers, one as a Regional Vagrant and 218 as Naturally Uncommon. Finally, 341 taxa were assessed as Regionally Not Threatened and 83 as Regionally Data Deficient. The percentage of indigenous vascular plant taxa in Taitokerau / Northland that are Regionally Threatened is 14.6%, Regionally At Risk is 33.3%, and Regionally Data Deficient is 9.5%. An additional 34 taxa were identified as extirpated, meaning they are no longer present in the region but persist elsewhere, or are believed to have formerly occurred in Taitokerau / Northland and have since been lost. Moreover, a further five indigenous vascular plant taxa were assessed that are not in the national assessment but were considered to be legitimate. This document also provides the regional wetland indicator status of native plants in Taitokerau / Northland, based on Manaaki Whenua – Landcare Research (2021), with updated status assigned to taxa by the panel that were previously unassessed. This regional assessment of wetland indicator status will inform the next national ranking.
Institutions in Research Bank
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