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This paper explores the construction and practice of the purposes of teacher education in Aotearoa New Zealand (NZ) and Taiwan. The paper begins with a brief overview of contemporary issues underlying the education system in both countries. It then investigates the underlying assumption of student achievement before moving on to reconceptualise the purposes of education, and consequently, teacher education with the aims of remedying existing social and cultural gaps in both societies, as well as laying the path for a more diverse society for all. Underpinned within a social constructivist paradigm, the qualitative study explores how teacher education can, and needs to be, more equitable and responsive to the learning outcomes of students – in terms of diversity and difference – in Aotearoa NZ and Taiwan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The use of information technology during the COVID-19 pandemic raises significant questions around the protection of personal data in a disaster. This paper considers how the clear benefits of using and sharing such data in disaster scenarios can be achieved while recognising an individual's right to privacy through examining the experiences of Taiwan and New Zealand. These states represent two successful COVID-19 response strategies which utilised different approaches to the use of technology. In Taiwan, the response made significant use of personal data and information technology. New Zealand, by contrast, has relied upon stringent lockdowns and extreme limits upon personal freedoms. The paper considers the different approaches to data and privacy that underpinned these responses and considers whether New Zealand can learn from the Taiwanese experience in future disaster planning. In doing so, the paper concludes by examining the wider question of when and if the community's expectation of a safe environment should trump the rights of individuals to retain personal data both in the context of pandemics and in other emergency or disaster scenarios. It also raises deeper questions, exposed by the COVID-19 response, about whether our current approach to privacy is sustainable in the digital age. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Every woman experiences the menopause transition period in a very individual way. Menopause symptoms and management are greatly influenced by socioeconomic status in addition to genetic background and medical history. Because of their very unique cultural heritage and often holistic view of health and well-being, menopause symptoms and management might differ greatly in aboriginals compared to non-aboriginals. Our aim was to investigate the extent and scope of the current literature in describing the menopause experience of aboriginal women. Our systematic literature review included nine health-related databases using the keywords ‘menopause’ and ‘climacteric symptoms’ in combination with various keywords describing aboriginal populations. Data were collected from selected articles and descriptive analysis was applied. Twenty-eight relevant articles were included in our analysis. These articles represent data from 12 countries and aboriginal groups from at least eight distinctive geographical regions. Knowledge of menopause and symptom experience vary greatly among study groups. The average age of menopause onset appears earlier in most aboriginal groups, often attributed to malnutrition and a harsher lifestyle. This literature review highlights a need for further research of the menopause transition period among aboriginal women to fully explore understanding and treatment of menopause symptoms and ultimately advance an important dialogue about women’s health care. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

To answer the question of who wants to work for the government, scholars have relied on a few approaches, including sector preference, sector-based comparison of work motives, and sector-switching patterns of job mobility. The present study offers a related but distinct approach: perceived sector mismatch. The attractiveness of public sector jobs differs greatly across countries; thus, in order to present a more comprehensive study, we examine data from the U.S., New Zealand, and Taiwan, where attitudes towards public sector jobs differ significantly as a result of different public service laws and traditions. Across all three samples, we find that, among private sector employees, the preference for a public service job is related to socio-economic disadvantage. Among public sector workers, reasons for perceived sector mismatch vary, but often suggesting job dissatisfaction in current public sector jobs, rather than perceived advantages of the private sector (including compensation). These findings are followed by theoretical and practical implications from this comparative study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Narratives are a pervasive form of discourse and a rich source for exploring a range of language and cognitive skills. The limited research base to date suggests that narratives generated using aided communication may be structurally simple, and that features of cohesion and reference may be lacking. This study reports on the analysis of narratives generated in interactions involving aided communication in response to short, silent, video vignettes depicting events with unintended or unexpected consequences. Two measures were applied to the data: the Narrative Scoring Scheme and the Narrative Analysis Profile. A total of 15 participants who used aided communication interacted with three different communication partners (peers, parents, professionals) relaying narratives about three video events. Their narratives were evaluated with reference to narratives of 15 peers with typical development in response to the same short videos and to the narratives that were interpreted by their communication partners. Overall, the narratives generated using aided communication were shorter and less complete than those of the speaking peers, but they incorporated many similar elements. Topic maintenance and inclusion of scene-setting elements were consistent strengths. Communication partners offered rich interpretations of aided narratives. Relative to the aided narratives, these interpreted narratives were typically structurally more complete and cohesive and many incorporated more elaborated semantic content. The data reinforce the robust value of narratives in interaction and their potential for showcasing language and communication achievements in aided communication. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Vocabulary learning reflects the language experiences of the child, both in typical and atypical development, although the vocabulary development of children who use aided communication may differ from children who use natural speech. This study compared the performance of children using aided communication with that of peers using natural speech on two measures of vocabulary knowledge: comprehension of graphic symbols and labeling of common objects. There were 92 participants not considered intellectually disabled in the aided group. The reference group consisted of 60 participants without known disorders. The comprehension task consisted of 63 items presented individually in each participant’s graphic system, together with four colored line drawings. Participants were required to indicate which drawing corresponded to the symbol. In the expressive labelling task, 20 common objects presented in drawings had to be named. Both groups indicated the correct drawing for most of the items in the comprehension tasks, with a small advantage for the reference group. The reference group named most objects quickly and accurately, demonstrating that the objects were common and easily named. The aided language group named the majority correctly and in addition used a variety of naming strategies; they required more time than the reference group. The results give insights into lexical processing in aided communication and may have implications for aided language intervention. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]