Browsing by Author "Napan K"

Now showing 1 - 7 of 7
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    Difference and Diversity as a Resource for Learning: Teaching Transcultural Social Practice
    (Common Ground Publishing, 13/05/2014) Napan K; Connor H
    Abstract: This article explores how difference and diversity are valued and recognized as resources for learning within a multicultural classroom while teaching a course on Transcultural Social Practice within the Master of Social Practice Programme at Unitec Institute of Technology, Aotearoa/New Zealand. The course is taught as an elective and attracts practitioners from a range of professional and cultural backgrounds, affinities, personalities and motivations for enrolling. The differences and diversity within the class cohort are utilised as a main asset of the course content and process. Students are invited to collaborate and co-create the course by utilising their unique abilities, sharing their experiences, knowledge, cultural insights and perspectives in order to develop transcultural approaches to social practice. The course focusses on an exploration of the concepts of transcultural social practice, multiplicities of cultural identities and development of cultural awareness and respectfulness within the bicultural context of Aotearoa/New Zealand. Tensions between Aotearoa/New Zealand’s commitment to biculturalism and students’ assumptions about multiculturalism are examined, presented and opened for discussion and dialogue within a framework that posits an exploration of the meaning of transcultural practice.
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    Horses and worthwhile causes: Exploring equine-assisted learning at Dune Lakes Horse Inspired Learning Centre in Aotearoa New Zealand
    (Aotearoa New Zealand Association of Social Workers, 16/12/2020) Napan K; Lietz R
    INTRODUCTION: Equine-assisted therapies and trauma-informed interventions have become increasingly popular with a growing literature suggesting that people can deeply relate to experiential work with horses, where silence, emotional growth, reflection and acceptance are prioritised over talking about problems. APPROACH: This research, undertaken at a rural learning and retreat centre near Auckland in Aotearoa New Zealand, examines how practitioners tailor equine-assisted interventions (EAI) and sheds light into values, theories and frameworks that underpin their work. The study is based on personal and professional experiences of four practitioners who engage in equineassisted learning. FINDINGS AND APPLICATION: Findings are drawn from the thematic analysis of the transcripts of four semi-structured interviews, highlighting the process of facilitating posttraumatic growth in a professional, supportive and client-centred environment involving a facilitator, a horse, and a person keen to improve the quality of their life. Application of this modality, particularly when working with clients with complex trauma, is explored with a special emphasis on the relevance of involvement of animals in social work practice.
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    Inquiring into the spirit of social work
    (Interuniversity Centre Dubrovnik, 11/07/2016) Napan K; Oak, E.; Flaker, V; Mali, J
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    Positive Women: A Community Development Response to Supporting Women and Families Living with HIV/AIDS in Aotearoa New Zealand
    (E-Press Unitec, 2016-10) Connor H; Bruning J; Napan K; Rennie, G
    This paper reflects on Positive Women’s twenty five years as a successful community development response to supporting women and families living with HIV or AIDS. The paper focuses on the community development philosophical underpinning of Positive Women that have driven the organisation since its inception in 1991. Positive Women has actively advocated for social justice, human rights, collective responsibility and respect for diversities, all central to community development.
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    Practicing Democracy from Childhood: Democratic Praxis in Te Ao Māori
    (Berghahn Books, 1/12/2021) Smyth K; Napan K; Perkins R; Hunter R
    Democracy manifests itself in a range of ways and is an imperfect, dynamic struggle for collective decision-making. This article discusses the multifaceted processes of deliberative democratic praxis found in traditional Māori society. Central to decision-making in te ao Māori, hui provide formal and informal structures for deliberative democracy, precedent setting, learning, and transformation through consensus making, inclusive debate, and discussion across all levels of society. Rather than coercion and voting, rangatira relied on a complex mix of customary values and accomplished oratory skills to explore issues in family and community meetings and in public assemblies. Decisions made through inclusive deliberative processes practiced in hui established evident reasoning and responsibility for all community members to uphold the reached consensus. This article claims that practicing deliberative democracy as a fundamental way of life, learned through ongoing active and meaningful participation throughout childhood, improves the integrity of democratic decision-making.
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    Shifting paradigms- decolonising minds, bodies, souls and hearts
    Napan K
    This engaging presentation will focus on exploration of the myths that still guide human thinking and consequently impact our actions with devastating effect for the planet and its inhabitants. Upon challenging current paradigms, this online presentation aims to offer practical solutions with the purpose of expanding our minds, envisioning and potentially co-creating a socially just, sustainable and culturally respectful community involvement that may become a catalyst for a refreshed way of social working and being. This presentation will also offer an opportunity to engage in a simple embodiment practice to enable connections between personal, cultural, political, spiritual and personal to emerge allowing a brief exploration of our personal indigenous and how it manifests in our social work practice.
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    Transforming teaching through cooperative inquiry: meaningful research for university teachers
    (Taylor and Francis Group on behalf of Educational Action Research, 2024-07-08) Green JK; Napan K; Jülich S; Stent WJ; Thomas JA; Lee DJ; Green MD
    In this article, seven participants from nursing, social work, accounting, fine arts, bioscience, and learning support disciplines share insights gained through participation in a transdisciplinary cooperative inquiry research group aimed at developing excellence in teaching. This Cooperative Inquiry for Reflection and Collaboration on Learning Effectiveness (CIRCLE) group promoted transformation of individual participants’ teaching as well as development of interdepartmental collaboration and camaraderie within the context of contemporary, performance-based academic environments. Collaborative, pedagogical, action research was undertaken through cooperative inquiry (CI) to explore transformative learning activities that increased teachers’ and students’ engagement while covering prescribed learning outcomes using creative approaches. The results are presented in a reflexive, collaborative autoethnography through seven authentic teacher stories. Reflections on the process and the impact of being in the research group provide evidence of the potential transdisciplinary, CI research groups offer to enhance research and teaching outcomes in higher education. These findings are significant internationally in light of the necessity to meet the increasing expectations of all stakeholders in the global tertiary education sector.