This report explores the support that early career teachers | kaiako (ECT|K) in English-medium early childhood education, primary, and secondary centres need. It includes an examination of aspects of the mentoring process that are working well for both ECT|K and their mentors and suggests ways this support could be improved. Additionally, the…

Many studies claim the importance of goal-setting for school improvement but few outline specific practices. This study highlights specific goal-setting practices associated with successful school improvement efforts. It reports on a 2-year collaborative research project, which closely examined three principals' goal-setting practices in the…

Purpose: This article investigates goal pursuit practices in a sample of 31 New Zealand high schools. It examines goal knowledge of middle and senior leaders, the alignment of this knowledge and factors related to improvement. Design/methodology/approach: Goals from schools' annual improvement plans were identified and counted at the beginning of…

In Aotearoa/New Zealand, sexuality education is one of seven key areas of learning in the Health and Physical Education (HPE) subject area within The New Zealand Curriculum. Since 2015, sexual diversity (lesbian, gay, bisexual identities and perspectives) and gender diversity (transgender; non-binary gender) have been explicitly included in the…

This article describes a study that captured the voices of six Niuean boys and their views on senior secondary schooling and the pursuit of higher education in New Zealand. Their tutala give insight into their relationships, identity, career goals, family support, and church life. With growing emphasis on culturally responsive pedagogy, this study…

2019 was the third year that the Teaching, School, and Principal Leadership Practices Survey (TSP) was available for free use by schools. The questions in this survey draw on a strong body of evidence about effective practices. The TSP asks teachers and principals to rate how often a practice occurs or how well the practice is done. This 2019…

Despite clear messages from current physical education (PE) curricula about the importance of adopting socially critical perspectives, dominant discourses of gender relating to physical activity, bodies and health are being reproduced within this school subject. By drawing on interview data from a larger ethnographic account of boys' PE, this…

The nature of sex/ualities, genders and schooling has changed considerably over the last 20 years, with global political, social and cultural shifts bringing the lives of queer youth to the fore. Trans youth are now more visible and various kinds of support groups in schools (such as diversity support groups, queer groups and gay-straight…

Young people may face conflicting and confusing messages about what it means to respond well in relation to homophobia and transphobia. Consequently, we ask--What might it mean to respond well to homophobia and transphobia? This strategy, inspired by Anika Thiem and Judith Butler, is recognition of the ambivalent conditions which structure…

A literature search reveals minimal New Zealand and international research during the past 20 years with a specific focus on young bisexual women at school. This study addresses this paucity through acknowledgement of young bisexual women aged between 16 and 24 years and their experiences of being bisexual at secondary school in New Zealand. The…

Drawing on data from an Aotearoa/New Zealand study of more than 230 secondary students, this article evaluates the potential of a 60-min gender diversity workshop to address bullying and promote positive environments for learning. Students completed pre- and postworkshop questionnaires. The authors used descriptive statistics to summarize results…

This article is concerned with interrogating what has evolved as "normal" representations of the schooling experiences of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) students in literature concerned with social/sexual justice. It argues that these representations necessitate understanding LGBT within a binary of either…

Maximising educational attainment is important for both individuals and societies. However, understanding of why some students achieve better than others is far from complete. Motivation and achievement data from a sample of 782 secondary-school students in New Zealand reveal that two specific types of outcome goals, namely "maximal levels of…

Purpose: Previous research examining the experiences of lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and queer (LGBTQ) youth in schools suggests that schools are not inclusive places for non-heterosexual students. Some scholars, however, suggest that a continued focus on how these young people are marginalised is itself a problem, and that research should also…

Background: There is substantial evidence indicating that various psychological processes are affected by cultural context, but such research is comparatively nascent within New Zealand. As there are four large cultural groups in New Zealand, representing an intersection of individualist, collectivist, indigenous, colonial, and immigrant cultures,…