Diane McCarthy - Last updated: 07/09/2008

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Christchurch

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My life is strongly shaped by growing up as a returned service man's eldest daughter and a community orientated mother in Walter Nash's state house area of Naenae, in the 1950s, and attending Waiwhetu Girls, and Victoria University during the 1960s and early 1970s, a period of huge personal growth of trying to understand the rights and needs of women and Maori tangata whenua which has never left me.

My background in education began in 1970s, and I taught in high schools in Wellington, Christchurch and Whangarei. I have always been motivated by my concern for social justice. I worked as a PPTA field officer during the turmoil of the education reforms of the 1980s and 1990s. To me, the effects are still inscribed in education across all sectors, from early childhood to continuing education.

I look for ways to integrate technology and image and text into my teaching and learning settings, both face to face and online, to create learning communities with a strong cognitive, student and teacher presence. I am motivated by being student centred and by sustainability. I cannot possibly teach without access to the Internet. I push each technology and IT artifact as much as possible, and still use a physical white board and marker pen.

As a researcher, I am a poststructuralist TechnoFeminist who is committed to transformative change for and through women as professionals in the IT sector. My project is entitled Engendering ICT. I have reached Masters level thesis by working with the supportive staff at the College of Education at the University of Otago. I was honoured to receive a BRCSS grant for that purpose, and have put it towards travel to the Grace Hopper Celebration in Colorado and the 9th Advanced Methods Conference in Alberta in October 2008.

I enjoy keeping in touch with family and friends, and the love and support of my husband and adult daughter.

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