Browsing by Author "Weatherley, Guenevere E. W."

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    Conflict and culture : a discourse analysis of public texts on an indigenous New Zealand tertiary institution : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Philosophy in Psychology, Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2009) Weatherley, Guenevere E. W.
    This current project begins with a brief history of Maori education since colonisation, and creates a picture of TWOA and its students and the struggle they undertook to develop into a first class education institution. Then, using Laclau and Mouffe’s discourse theory, I offer some deconstructive possibilities which provide alternative interpretations of the media discourse that ignited the public’s vilification of the institute. I describe what transpired over the time of 2005-2006 and critically examine and analyse the language used to express the two-party attack on TWOA and its Tumuaki, Rongo Wetere. I find that the language used by politicians and media commentators positioned TWOA as an inefficient and corrupt Maori institution in need of Pakeha (NZ European) governance and management. Through an investigation of the selection and promulgation of particular tropes, the interests of the political elite are shown as serving to marginalise the institution, limit its growth and channel its students into Pakeha educational institutions. The Wananga brought tertiary education to those New Zealanders who had hitherto been excluded or who had failed in mainstream education. Its astonishing success caused its decline.
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    Precarious feminine identities : a thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in The Department of Psychology at Massey University, Manawatu, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2021) Weatherley, Guenevere E. W.
    This thesis explores, from a DeleuzoGuattarian perspective, the motivations that women find for, and the actions they undertake in leaving intimate partner relationships under which they have suffered emotional and physical derogation at the hands of their abusive other. It seeks to investigate and describe their "minoritarian" actions in the context of a DeleuzoGuattarian stylistic and strategic approach towards departing intimate partner violence (IPV). In this, as well as considering particular aspects of Deleuze and Guattari's conceptual apparatus, the study pursues the differences opened up by affirmative engagement with the hopefulness of virtualities, and the "lines of flight" these offer for creative possibilities, enduring connections, and novel - if precarious - identities. The extremes to which the women in this study were pushed reveal the stresses and conflicts in the bid for autonomy and equality inherent in unhappy intimate partner relationships without the frequent rhetoric that masks the difficulties of domestic life. Compounding these women's problems is the fact that there are few obvious avenues for escape for those trapped in abusive situations, limited support for independence, or programmatic advice on the broad social mandate they must negotiate. The women's stories reveal deep fissures in the structures of conventional New Zealand families by showing that the latter cannot accommodate or validate relationships that privilege outmoded gender practices over care, commitment, and opportunity for growth. Their stories articulate social and cultural uncertainties about the unstable positions of women in unequal relationships, that privilege outmoded gender practices over care, commitment, and opportunity for growth. Their stories articulate social and cultural uncertainties about the unstable positions of women in unequal relationships, the physically and emotionally draining demands to which they are subjected, and the struggle to find acceptance in their relationships, which are too often structured not by good will, affection and effort, but by traditional roles and economic hierarchies. The narratives contribute to the conversation on persecuted women's courage and determination to endure and resist, to develop lines of flight and to expand their lives despite intolerable pressures, as well as offering a DeleuzoGuattarian conceptual pragmatic underpinning of action. It shows that assertive independent action engenders empowering becoming, and it suggests that where women initiate schizonanalytic breaks, where they embrace precarity, they can discover creative and fulfilling lives.