New Zealand (NZ) Europeans show a unique implicit bicultural effect, with research using the Implicit Association Test consistently showing that they associate Maori (the Indigenous peoples) and their own (dominant/advantaged majority) group as equally representative of the nation. We replicated and extended this NZ = bicultural effect in a small…

This article analyses key events in the history of adult and community education in Aotearoa New Zealand. It draws on historical sources to examine the role of grassroots community activism and local and national networking in upholding a broad vision of adult and community-based education, in the face of a hostile policy climate. The authors…

The paper is based on a comparative and qualitative case study of "friluftsliv" in Denmark and outdoor education in New Zealand. Cultural analysis with a comparative cultural perspective informed the research approach. Configurational analysis was used as an important supplement to focus on cultural patterns linked to bodily movement. It…

This study investigates the relative roles of home and school variables in accounting for achievement gaps between Indigenous and non-Indigenous students in Australia and New Zealand. Using data from the Programme for International Student Assessment [PISA] 2009, our findings show that achievement gaps between Indigenous and non-Indigenous…

The authors open this article by noting that there is substantial research evidence showing that ethnic culture affects how disability is perceived and managed, and that taking a person's culture into account maximizes the effectiveness of the person's education. Jill Bevan-Brown and Taingunguru Walker, address this gap in knowledge by describing…

A nation's culture, competitiveness and economic performance explain academic performance. Partial Least Squares (PLS) testing of 2252 students shows culture affects competitiveness and academic performance. Culture and economic performance each explain 32%; competitiveness 36%. The model predicts academic performance when culture, competitiveness…

New Zealand schools increasingly use inquiry to understand and address complex and persistent issues. This requires schools to have committed Lead Teachers with deep knowledge about inquiry. The collection of studies in this book have been compiled by the research team at the Woolf Fisher Research Centre, University of Auckland, to illustrate the…

This article is a position paper, based on, and supported by, the extensive literature on the topic of Maori underachievement in education in Aotearoa/New Zealand. It places emphasis on what underachieving Maori students need to reach their full potential and ways in which educationalists can assist. I am of mixed heritage raised amongst three…

This paper investigates Mexican and New Zealand children's conception of the environment and their understandings of environmental issues, focusing on how personal experiences, culture and school-based environmental education (EE) programmes influence their perspectives. Sixty Year 5 children (age 9-11) from three schools in Dunedin (New Zealand)…

For many years computing in New Zealand schools was focused on teaching students how to use computers, and there was little opportunity for students to learn about programming and computer science as formal subjects. In this article we review a series of initiatives that occurred from 2007 to 2009 that led to programming and computer science being…

Data from two qualitative research projects indicated a relationship between the type of early childhood setting and children's independent collaborative play. The first research project involved 22 three and four-year-old children in a daylong setting and 47 children four-year-old children in a sessional kindergarten. The second project involved…

The Auckland City Council arts team has managed several successful youth arts projects across the city of Auckland. The council aims to establish a best-practice standard for community artists in line with international standards of community cultural development. This reflective paper explores the processes, impacts and outcomes of some of the…

Many career development theories recognise that the relationship between people and their environment constantly changes through historical and socio-political influences. Such theories emphasise the importance of systematic interpretations and general cultural influences on meaning-making. While such a view of meaning-making is important, we…

This paper reports on a comprehensive corpus-based study of regional and stylistic variation in the distribution of the English present perfect. The data represents ten English varieties of both the Inner Circle and Outer Circle, covering four major text types: conversation, news reportage, academic and fictional writing. The results are discussed…

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…