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As the psychological impact of childhood exposure to domestic abuse gains more traction, referring to children as 'the hidden victims of domestic abuse' is becoming increasingly inaccurate and reductionist. Representing children as mere witnesses of domestic abuse also poses wider implications from the view of law and policy. Jurisdictions which recognise children as direct victims rather than hidden witnesses of domestic abuse, for example, send a clear message that the psychological harm of experiencing domestic abuse merits robust intervention (e.g. additional funding for child-specific support and services). Using a comparative approach, this study analyses the legal recognition of children who experience domestic abuse for the purposes of exploring how the child should be conceptualised in laws regulating childhood exposure to domestic abuse. For this comparative review, the jurisdictions of England and Wales, New Zealand and the United States (specifically the State of Washington) were selected, on the basis that they all respond to child experiences of domestic abuse in distinct ways that raise pertinent points of contrast. Whilst the State of Washington relies primarily on perpetrator-centric, criminal law responses to child experiences of domestic abuse, England and Wales and New Zealand resort to family law mechanisms that focus more on the child and the parent–child relationship. All in all, these points of contrast are pertinent because they provide an exploratory view of how the child should be conceptualised in law and policy. As this paper submits, conceptualising the child as a direct victim of domestic abuse––as reflected in England and Wales and New Zealand's legislative efforts––works to send a powerful message about the severity of harm that children suffer when they experience domestic abuse. The State of Washington, on the other hand, has much to learn from England and Wales and New Zealand's conceptualisation of the child, as its current legislative efforts appear to be rooted in an outdated understanding of the child as a mere collateral witness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper, a critical examination of educational concepts, policies and practices, presents findings from research into the impact of accountability agendas on teacher professionalism and pedagogic practices. The study, theoretically framed through Halstead's notions of contractual and responsive accountability, and Gramsci's hegemonic practices, examined secondary arts teachers' pedagogical autonomy and professionalism in England and New Zealand. We provide an overview of current education policy contexts in both countries, and their impact upon secondary school arts education (years 11–16). Drawing from interview data from 15 England and New Zealand teachers, we offer a critique and innovative counter-narrative for the accountability measures currently dominating English schooling. Drawing together perspectives from both jurisdictions, we suggest more inclusive, democratic and responsive assessment and performative measures for the English context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Children can sometimes find it difficult to articulate their experiences if they have to rely solely on words. Giving children the opportunity to use arts-based research approaches can support their participation in research and create a bridge that enables them to express their perspectives and feelings. This paper focuses on the ethical and practical considerations when using photo elicitation interviews (PEI) in research with children. The discussion and examples provided are drawn from an international study that used auto-driven PEI, where photographs are taken by children themselves, to explore children’s experiences of living with a chronic condition and the impact condition management may have on their everyday lives. In this paper we critically explore the issues arising from our use of PEI including children’s participation and engagement, balancing power and control, and keeping children safe. The main areas of focus for the paper are how PEI provided a means of shifting control; how setting photographic boundaries influenced our PEI study with children; and how we addressed risks associated with the method. Our experience shows that PEI is an engaging and valuable research method, providing a powerful medium for obtaining rich data with children. However, PEI is challenging and it requires researchers to conscientiously address ethical and practical aspects that extend beyond those inherent to standard (words-alone) interviews. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Despite numerous reviews, reports and commissions of inquiry, the investigation and prosecution of rape cases remains fraught. Victims are still ambivalent about reporting incidents of sexual violence, while those who do often struggle to be believed and have their cases progress through justice systems. This paper explores some of the reasons why promised reforms materialise so rarely into tangible benefits for the majority of rape complainants, and focuses on six areas: reporting, attrition, adversarial justice systems, victim support, specialisation and attitudes. These are canvassed with particular reference to examples from England and New Zealand demonstrating the barriers to substantive reform and the ways in which gender inequalities and patriarchal beliefs continue to impact upon both the prevalence of sexual violence as well as state responses to its occurrence. The paper contains a cautionary message regarding the potential dangers involved in accepting the rhetoric of reform while the underlying realities remain little changed. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper explores the impact of changing higher education policies and funding on university adult and continuing education in England and Aotearoa New Zealand. It discusses some of the contextual factors contributing to sustaining continuing education in New Zealand, against the tide of developments elsewhere, and in spite of its subjection to the influence of neoliberal policies since the 1980s: an ethos of public knowledge dissemination, acknowledgement of the universities' role as 'critic and conscience' of society, a broad commitment to educational equality and a strategic as well as pragmatic approach. The paper describes developments in one New Zealand continuing education department as it experiences institutional and political change. The author concludes that, in spite of demonstrating considerable resilience, the structures and activities of continuing education departments in New Zealand are as fragile as they have been in England. 'Radical hope' is advocated as the university-based adult educator's response in difficult times. It involves challenging the assumptions of neoliberalism, and reaffirming the political nature of adult education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A lot of clay has fl owed through the kilns since the 1989 Newcastle earthquake. Several signifi cant changes have occurred to make masonry veneer construction safer and stronger over this period, both in the methods of construction of the veneer and the understanding of the behaviour of the veneer panels. These changes have lead to the conclusion that masonry veneer construction can be reliably considered to provide some bracing resistance to a light timber-framed structure, even if only to resist its own inertial loads. Recent research undertaken at BRANZ has investigated the behaviour of full-scale brick veneer single- and two-storey buildings under slow static and dynamic cyclic loading. This paper describes the developments that have occurred since 1989 and this recent research that has provided the new confi dence in the seismic performance of clay brick veneer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on support issues relating to students on international degree programmes, and draws on the findings of a qualitative research project involving students enrolled on a joint degree course in English and education studies delivered at two higher education institutions in England and the Netherlands. Students on the programme were recruited from both these countries, as well as a number of other states in Europe, Africa and Asia. The paper examines the differing support priorities of international students and the ways in which these needs might be classified. In the process, associations between student characteristics (including age, ethnicity, nationality and aspects of personality) and perceived support requirements are explored. Particular attention is paid to an analysis of international students' understandings of support, and the ways in which these understandings may be socially constructed at different levels, with regard to the wider ideological influences of the students' educational backgrounds, and the more context specific social dynamics of 'being on the course'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Published in London between 1839 and 1852 and aligned with the commercial objectives of the New Zealand Company, the New Zealand Journal included letters from emigrants. This paper studies letters written by a small cohort of rural labourers who emigrated from Ham House in Surrey to Wellington in 1841. Following Dorothy Smith, I read them as ethnographic data, interrogating them in relation to ruling-class texts including Company records, newspaper reports and correspondence between capitalists, professionals and politicians. The labourers' letters depict capital-labour (class) and colonial (race) relations in embodied form. The everyday actualities of their activities were co-ordinated by extra-local social relations of colonialism and flows of capital and labour. Their schooling in England had been designed to 'keep them in their place'. With reference to the sparse archival resources remaining from the first years of commercially-driven settlement, before there was an apparatus of state, I consider how changing material conditions in the settlement enabled and constrained learning opportunities for these labourers' children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article enquires about why some countries have specialised their further education provision more than others, focusing on three types of specialisation: by subject, by geographical area and by age group. The article proposes an analytical framework to understand the drivers for further education provider specialisation, based on four variables: inputs to the further education system, regulatory framework, demand and supporting clusters. It then applies this framework to review the experience of Germany, New Zealand and the Netherlands in recent years. Drawing on this review, the last section of the paper provides some lessons for England and issues for further debate. It is concluded that the model proposed helps to explain the evolution of provider specialisation in the countries covered and that the UK's current specialisation profile suggests that greater efforts should be made to increase geographical specialisation, whereas action in stimulating further specialisation by subject and age group should be subject to caveats. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper contributes to research on the lived dimensions of transnational mobility through an engagement with recent work on affect. Drawing on interviews with New Zealand skilled migrants, we argue that the attractions and experience of relocation to London are significantly connected to the affective possibilities it offers. As a diverse and enlivening set of ecologies of place, London appears to facilitate a certain feeling of being in the heart of things, an embodied state that is both valued and closely linked to New Zealand's former status as a British colony. We argue that considering the affective possibilities of cities - and the diverse ways in which transnational migrants perceive and appropriate these possibilities - offers valuable insights into the dynamics of subjectivity in a mobile world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we consider whether London functions as an ‘escalator region’ for international migrants in the same way that has been suggested for domestic migrants. Our case study focuses on New Zealand tertiary educated migrants who move to London for a period of work and travel. We propose a four-fold typology of these movers, seeking to tease out the different motivations and aspirations behind their global mobility, and the different ways in which they make use of London's opportunities. Our findings have broader ramifications for studies of skilled migrants between global cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]