Electronic theses of Faculty of Social Sciences students. http://hdl.handle.net/1893/56 2026-10-26T19:15:51Z 2026-10-26T19:15:51Z Bartle, Caroline http://hdl.handle.net/1893/38382 2026-10-12T08:26:47Z 2026-07-17T00:00:00Z

Title: Organisational learning in dementia practice Author(s): Bartle, Caroline Abstract: This thesis presents a sociomaterial perspective on how dementia care practices and the digital systems through which care is increasingly situated shape one another. Conducted across two residential aged care providers in Aotearoa New Zealand, the study suggests that training delivered to individuals cannot meet the complex realities of dementia care, and connects local practices. Learning in dementia care is situated, collective, ongoing, and materially mediated. Building on foundational dementia theories, the study extends that tradition through practice-based theory within a post-qualitative frame, positioning dementia learning as assemblages of human and non-human relations, and relationship-based care as enacted through co-constitutive relationships with the digital infrastructures around it. Following eight months of fieldwork across four sites, the findings suggest learning is often oriented around emergent challenges. Sociomaterial arrangements influence how problems show up, who and what gets enrolled, and how new ideas are mobilised. Within these arrangements, data performed in different ways, and what mattered was the material arrangement and how leadership supported sensemaking. The relational and psychosocial dimensions of care were not always visible within the digital arrangements in ways useful for organisational learning. Methodologically, the thesis contributes a post-qualitative, practice-based approach to researching learning in dementia care, one that follows practices and materials rather than measuring individual competence. Conceptually, it introduces digitally informed practice leadership, a capacity that supports emergent learning, working from within rather than above a network. It also introduces epistemic architecture, making recommendations on the sociomaterial arrangement of digital systems, working practices, and practice leadership through which organisational learning could emerge.

2026-07-17T00:00:00Z Gardiner, Amanda http://hdl.handle.net/1893/38352 2026-09-29T16:13:05Z 2026-02-01T00:00:00Z

Title: Transitional care for people living with dementia: perspectives of long-term care providers Author(s): Gardiner, Amanda Abstract: The purpose of this study is to examine transitional care of older adults living with dementia when transitioning from hospital or community settings into long-term care facilities. This study contributes to the current body of literature on transitional care by focusing on the experiences of long-term care providers and investigating how transitions occur, are negotiated, and stabilised through the service delivery system. This research not only provides a description of how transitional care occurs but also draws on interview data from long-term care providers and other professionals alongside documentary material, including policy documents, to understand the nature of transitional care. Using Situational Analysis (SA), supported by Actor-Network Theory (ANT) as a complementary theoretical lens, allows a dynamic view of transitional care as an interaction between humans and nonhumans. The participants in the study explained that transitional care is not a straightforward or logical process; instead, it is a complex and ongoing negotiation influenced by factors like time, paperwork, workplace culture, and scattered information. Formal systems were found to devalue the relational and experiential knowledge of long-term care providers while emphasising their accountability for high-quality care. Shortcomings were noted within the formal systems related to planning, assessment, and communication processes. Furthermore, the study found that meaningful improvements to transitional care for individuals living with dementia would require structural and cultural transformations that recognise relational labour and foster a more collaborative and cohesive approach to transitional care. Finally, the study demonstrated that emotional and relational labour played a significant role in stabilising transitions in the absence of systemic coherence.

2026-02-01T00:00:00Z Guion Akdag, Emma http://hdl.handle.net/1893/38283 2026-09-15T16:02:27Z 2026-05-01T00:00:00Z

Title: Power and internationalisation in Scottish higher education: A critical analysis drawing on Foucauldian and decolonial thought Author(s): Guion Akdag, Emma Abstract: Internationalisation in higher education is often presented as a neutral or technical process, but this study treats it as a contested field. It examines internationalisation across three Scottish higher education institutions, focusing on how it is formed, stabilised and negotiated across policy texts and staff interviews. Drawing on Foucauldian discourse analysis, alongside postcolonial and decolonial perspectives, it reads these materials together as a shared discursive field. The study examines how internationalisation is produced through relations between power, knowledge and discourse, with attention to regimes of truth and governmentality. This enables analysis of how internationalisation shapes what can be said, what counts as legitimate knowledge, and how subjects are positioned within the university. The findings show that internationalisation is organised through uneven processes of authority and positioning. Policy discourse constructs a coherent institutional voice, often through a collective ‘we’ that projects alignment and consensus, while interviews reveal a more fragmented field in which actors occupy differential positions in relation to authority, visibility and constraint. Internationalisation emerges as unstable and contested, articulated across economic, strategic and educational registers, yet consistently structured by measurement, growth and competition. These logics are reinforced through agricultural and building metaphors, which frame internationalisation as something to be constructed, cultivated, grown and expanded. At the same time, internationalisation remains entangled with epistemic hierarchy and coloniality, shaping how global citizenship, epistemic difference and transnational literacy are made thinkable within institutional discourse. Western knowledge systems continue to function as dominant reference points, while international students and Global South partners are unevenly recognised, at times through deficit or patronage, producing objectification and racism. These dynamics are not fully coherent, with moments of critique and discomfort revealing their instability. The study contributes a critical account of internationalisation as a productive field through which subjects are formed, conduct regulated, and institutional priorities normalised.

2026-05-01T00:00:00Z Ali, Saifullah http://hdl.handle.net/1893/38182 2026-07-14T10:14:54Z 2025-12-01T00:00:00Z

Title: English as a Foreign Language (EFL) Students’ Experience with English Language Programmes in Islamic Boarding School in Indonesia (An Ethnographic study) Author(s): Ali, Saifullah Abstract: This study explores English as Foreign Language (EFL) learning within the moral, social, and disciplinary culture of an Islamic boarding school (pesantren) in Indonesia. Centred on As-Tsani Islamic Boarding School in Aceh, the research examines how English education is organised, experienced, and understood by teachers and students, and how pedagogical practices are shaped by institutional discipline, communal life, and Islamic moral values. Drawing on an interpretive, ethnographic design, data were collected through both classroom and out-of-classroom observations and semi-structured interviews. The study was guided by two complementary theoretical perspectives: behaviourism, which highlights habit formation and reinforcement in language learning and Foucault’s concept of disciplinary power, which illuminates how structures of authority and surveillance produce self-regulating learners within an enclosed learning environment. Findings indicate that EFL learning in the pesantren is deeply intertwined with moral and spiritual discipline. Teachers employ memorisation, repetition, and reinforcement not only to develop linguistic competence but also to cultivate virtues such as patience, obedience, and perseverance. Institutional systems such as the Mahkamah Lughah (Language Court), peer monitoring, and English-only policies reinforce language use while nurturing collective responsibility. The nature of the environment of the institution allows students to build meaningful interaction among peers and maintain relationships through providing mutual supports that lead to creating supportive learning atmosphere. The study contributes to qualitative research on faith-based education by revealing the intersection between behaviourist pedagogy, disciplinary power, and Islamic educational values within pesantren life. It shows that discipline, when internalised as moral practice, can be both regulatory and transformative. The findings offer valuable implications for EFL teachers, curriculum designers, and institutional administrators seeking culturally and ethically grounded approaches to English education in Islamic contexts.

2025-12-01T00:00:00Z