To support the review of the National Curriculum, the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER) was commissioned by the Department for Education in the spring of 2011 to produce a report detailing curricular arrangements in a number of high-performing educational jurisdictions. The principal source of information for this report has been…

The development of early literacy knowledge is generally seen as an important aspect of early childhood education. The way early literacy learning is promoted, however, varies greatly in different national curriculum frameworks. This article compares the approach taken in the New Zealand early childhood curriculum ("Te Whariki") with the…

New Zealand has recently released a new national curriculum presented as the New Zealand Curriculum (NZC) (Ministry of Education, 2007). This document has significant implications for the future redevelopment of both the compulsory school curriculum and the non-compulsory senior secondary school curriculum. After a general introduction, this paper…

The revised New Zealand Curriculum became mandatory for use in New Zealand schools in February 2010. The ongoing reform agenda in education in New Zealand since 1989 and elsewhere internationally has had corrosive effects on teacher professionality. State-driven neo-liberal policy and education reforms are deeply damaging to the mental and moral…

Thematic analysis of a continuous video record of a day in the life of a New Zealand kindergarten teacher, and of a narrative reconstruction of the day during a follow-up interview, yielded a view of early childhood professional practice as focused on a "curriculum of open possibilities". This paper discusses elements of the teacher's…

Constructivism is a widely influential perspective in science education research. However, there have been strong criticisms of attempts to adopt constructivism as a principle underpinning official science curriculum policy (for example in New Zealand). Over the past decade recommendations for classroom pedagogy in extensive official guidance…

There is little doubt that the use of EFS curricula, resources, and programmes in publicly provided education has been controversial. This paper will examine the dilemmas, for educators involved in EFS, relating to the politics and conservative forces underpinning national curriculum development in a free market capitalist economy such as…

Literacy in Early Childhood and Primary Education provides a comprehensive introduction to literacy teaching and learning. The book explores the continuum of literacy learning and children's transitions from early childhood settings to junior primary classrooms and then to senior primary and beyond. Reader-friendly and accessible, this book equips…

The recent publication of "The New Zealand Curriculum" calls for students to become connected, creative, confident life-long learners. To realise this vision, fundamental change is required in the way teachers and students think about and participate in classroom-based teaching and learning. This paper discusses one aspect of an action…

How do Asia Pacific educators make sense of culture in the curriculum in terms appropriate to the twenty-first century? With the advance of globalization, is the idea of a culture (whether national, ethnic, or indigenous) as a way of life sustainable? In such a paradoxical setting where global forces appear to both affirm and undercut local…

In contrast to a focus on vertical learning experiences where the emphasis is on progression up a scale of complexity, this article explores the value of horizontal learning experiences. These aim to provide learners with a variety of opportunities and spaces to participate, thereby expanding the entry points for them into school science. The…

This article examines the importance of education for sustainability in New Zealand early years curriculum with particular reference to its inclusion in "Te Whariki," the national early childhood curriculum. Fieldwork was conducted across two New Zealand early childhood centres during a 12 month period. The major finding was that there…

Undertaken during a period when changes in the assessment of English in public examinations at 16+ were becoming embedded in classroom practice, this comparative research explores where poetry is located within the newly aligned examination assessment frameworks of New Zealand and England. It comments on how these frameworks are locally…

This workshop will model for classroom teachers, one way to plan, teach, resource and assess inquiry-based learning which encompasses the guiding principles of a newly gazetted curriculum. The vision of the New Zealand curriculum is to produce "...young people who will be confident, connected, actively involved lifelong learners" (p. 8).…

As a consequence of a substantially revised national curriculum in New Zealand, all schools are now required to provide opportunities for students in school Years 7 to 10 (age 11+ to 14+) to learn an additional language. There are, however, very few intermediate school (Years 7 and 8) teachers who are additional language 'subject specialists'.…