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This paper reports the findings of a research project that sought to understand how a group of 19 graduating physical education teacher education (PETE) students' biographies served to mediate their understanding of the messages of their PETE programme, which was underpinned by a critical pedagogy philosophy. We use the Bourdieuian concepts of habitus, field, pedagogical action and pedagogical work to represent the similarities and variation in the student's reading of the PETE programme and its intension to foreground critical pedagogy. The five themes produced through an analysis of individual and focus group interview data informed by Bourdieu's theory of practice are; 'Individual programme readings', 'Pedagogical work (that matters)', 'Pedagogical work beyond the pedagogic actions of the teacher educators'; 'No certainty of a critical perspective' 'Kicking at one's habitus: Kicked, shaken and unstirred'. The findings demonstrate that students biographies have influenced and been reaffirmed or disrupted by both the formal PETE programme coursework and practicum experiences and as a result, the PETE programme impacts differently on different students. The authors are guardedly buoyed by the possibility that the structuring structure of habitus will have been sufficiently shaken by the PETE programme to allow for new possibilities yet we recognise that there will be no encounter that can claim pedagogical work on the habitus of all students. Our hope is that this critical pedagogy in PETE has given these participants the 'tools', that is, the insight, and perspective, needed to kick at their own habitus as they graduate and move beyond the intervention of PETE.

The academic study of Education (as a social, historical, and theoretical phenomenon) is complicated by the fact of our immersion in it. This paper combines Said's idea of "contrapuntal reading" with Bourdieu's notion of reflexivity to explore what happens when students on an Education course directly confront the fact of their everyday involvement in their object of study, Education. How do the questions raised by post-colonial and other critical social writers "appear" from such a position? How does the fact of our involvement complicate our theoretical or scientific knowledge of these? By means of an episodic, narrative form of writing, this paper describes a life history pedagogy for teaching a compulsory "social issues" course online to New Zealand pre-service teacher education students. As data I draw on online conversations with and between students as they engage in the production of contextualized life history interview narratives. (Contains 5 notes.)

In order to enhance understandings of the international mobility of researchers and the implications of their mobility for knowledge production and circulation, we need to develop more sophisticated conceptual resources. Here we draw on and seek to develop ideas generated from literary theory and geography in order to highlight the links between internationally mobile researchers, knowledge, geography and power. In particular, we develop three interrelated concepts: "geographies of power/knowledge", "empires of knowledge", and "edges of empires". We also turn to Edward Said's notion of the "exilic intellectual" because it speaks to the manner in which some mobile individuals navigate this terrain, as well as to issues of their links to place, positionality and the academy. The paper puts these concepts to work as we ask "What do they look like through the lens of an individual's intellectual biography?" and "How can a biography add nuance to the concepts?" Overall we adopt what Said calls a "worldly" perspective that involves considering the time and place of ideas. (Contains 13 notes.)

Reviews "Sylvia? The Biography of Sylvia Ashton-Warner," by L. Hood. Uses a feminist approach to examine the life of the New Zealand teacher whose teaching methods with Maori children led to international acclaim and imitation. Discusses the dynamics between pedagogy and personality. Contains 40 references. (Author/SV)

This paper reviews the utility of the framework offered by Giddens' 1991 work Modernity and Self Identity: Self and Society in a Late Modern Age , for the analysis of longitudinal qualitative studies. Working from two different longitudinal qualitative data sets, the authors explore the extent to which the notion of the 'reflexive project of self' and associated concepts might be operationalized to assist with the analysis and interpretation of empirical data. We first explore the notion of 'fateful moments' in a longitudinal qualitative interview-based study of young people's biographies. We then explore the importance of mechanisms of 'shame' as accompaniment to dramatic life transition, using data taken from a 3-year study of female sex workers in New Zealand. The paper concludes by arguing that although Giddens' work provides us with an interesting starting point and some useful operational tools, in practice the data outgrow the theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This introduction to the special issue on biography and geography in New Zealand reviews some of the existing biographical and autobiographical writing relating to the university discipline of geography in New Zealand. It then frames the five papers in this issue within the boundaries of haphazard events, mistakes and accidents, definitions of geographers and definitions of geography. While arguing for further research into disciplinary history in New Zealand, it is asserted that these endeavours are of value for the future of the discipline and not only a matter of concern for those interested in the past. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: In this paper we consider the potential of autobiographical narratives for accessing ‘storied knowledge’ in research around geographies of health voluntarism. We firstly consider what is meant by elicited autobiography and how the narrative approach has been used in research more broadly. Drawing on fieldwork undertaken in Manchester, UK and Auckland, New Zealand we then demonstrate how this approach has helped us to map out and unpack the career journeys of mental health activists working within and across the voluntary and statutory sectors. Through our autobiographical narratives we illustrate how this approach has enabled us to elicit important insights into the triggers and trajectories underpinning mental health activism and how events and moments in time have provided critical junctures in these trajectories. We consider places as sites of significance in activist career paths; and as central to the researcher-participant gestalt within which the autobiography is elicited and recounted. The autobiographical process, we suggest, offers reflective insights into mental health activism that might not otherwise be gained using more conventional methodologies. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This article uses biographical narrative interviews with 22 New Zealand mountaineers to examine their relationship with safety and danger. Interpretation of the empirical material draws on theories about the social and cultural construction of risk to illuminate the complex processes by which the mountaineers make sense of the dangers they encounter in the mountains. The findings challenge existing theories that view risk taking as a defining characteristic of mountaineering and contribute towards a more in-depth understanding of the construction of meaning around safety, danger, and risk in these types of leisure experiences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article describes the collection of Charles Armitage Brown's books at Puke Ariki - the Libraries, Museum, and Heritage Collections at New Plymouth, New Zealand. The provenance of the collection is described in brief, as are the books held there - principally Brown's collection of Theatre volumes, and others of significance, including a volume of Fairfax's Tasso. A handwritten biography of Brown is also detailed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]