There is much international evidence that parental involvement in children's learning can positively influence achievement. New Zealand policy expects schools to nurture such involvement, particularly in relation to Máori and Pasifika learners. Despite policy imperatives and valuable professional development projects, such involvement has proved…

Special Education 2000 (SE2000), New Zealand's first official special education policy, declared the aim of achieving a "world class inclusive education system". It would seem that, by implication at least, the intention of the policy was to achieve full inclusion of all disabled children in mainstream educational settings and thus,…

In this paper we explore the experiences of mothers of young adults with Down syndrome as their daughters and sons transition from schooling to adult life. These transitions occurred in a society shaped by neo-liberal political reform that commenced in the mid-1980s. The hallmarks of education are now expressed in terms of national achievement…

This monograph aims to provide a brief but critical history of adult and community education in Aotearoa over the past fifty years. It draws on primary and secondary sources as well as a substantial body of previous research much of which has yet to be published. The focus of this work is on changing policy environments and their impact on adult…

While studies have shown that mentoring is central to new teacher development, few investigations have examined what mentors learn about themselves as mentors. The purpose of the study was to illuminate mentor learning. The article reports on two case studies that investigated the development of mentoring expertise over a two-year period. During…

This article argues that a focus on human capability and its development can be used to rethink the high skills policy visions favoured over recent decades. The article briefly summarises the increasing concerns with government policy formulas which have adopted a narrow focus such that skill and its accreditation is regarded as the outcome rather…

This article argues that the progressive education policies introduced into New Zealand special education (SE) services during the late 1980s were sabotaged by neoliberal policies. The vision of inclusive education for students with special educational needs (SEN) and disabilities was swept up in a wave of successive ideological policies and…

New Zealand Council for Educational Research's (NZCER's) research project "Educational policy and practice for a changing climate" explores what kinds of changes or adaptations the education systems may need to make in the immediate and short-to-medium-term future in response to climate change. This report outlines findings from one…

Changes in tertiary education policy in Aotearoa New Zealand in the last decade have impacted on adult and community education (ACE). Marginalized and understood as non-formal education at the turn of the century, ACE is now part of the "tertiary landscape". It is explicitly steered by education policy, its role severely narrowed, its…

Numerous countries are introducing National Qualifications Frameworks (NQFs), or preparing to introduce them, despite the limited empirical evidence for their effectiveness. This paper takes advantage of recent additions to the evidence base on NQFs in order to assess their impacts, focusing on comprehensive frameworks. It also presents analytical…

Over the last decade and a half, physical education curricula in New Zealand and Australia have had a strong socio-cultural-critical orientation, providing in depth opportunities for critical inquiry. This article suggests that trying to achieve a criticality maybe impeded and or constrained by present graduating teacher standards. In the…

Recently published research suggested that university academics have qualitatively disparate views on some key aspects of teaching research integrity within the broader construct of academic integrity and surprisingly ambiguous views on others. In the light of this variation, we have reviewed the research and academic integrity policies of our…

This article draws from experiences in an ongoing study of children's narrative competence in the early years across early childhood education and school settings. Focusing on the research as it is being conducted in the early childhood context (a kindergarten), the paper inquires into what it means to do research in education settings where…

This paper discusses the issue of tertiary education for adults with intellectual disabilities. It argues there is a dearth of such opportunities, particularly within the mainstream tertiary education system and this limits employment opportunities and social inclusion for adults with intellectual disabilities. This is not consistent with the…

Mary O'Sullivan writes that she spent part of her sabbatical leave interviewing teacher educators from nine countries across three continents exploring teacher education contexts both nationally and locally, and the nature of the 'teacher educators' work in these contexts. Three issues struck her: (1) The intensification of regulation and policy…