Schools with primarily indigenous and ethnic minorities in low socioeconomic areas have long been associated with low levels of achievement, particularly in literacy. This is true for New Zealand despite high levels of reading comprehension by international comparisons (e.g., PISA). Recent reviews of schooling improvement suggest small gains over…

Despite research linking dominant masculinities to the disengagement of some boys from schooling, men teachers appear to be either unaware of the related literature, or reluctant to engage in behaviours that have increased their vulnerability to accusations of sexual abuse or homosexuality. A small study of men teachers in England, Sweden and New…

Student teachers studying to become primary school teachers in New Zealand can spend up to 24 weeks on professional teaching practice in schools. This paper describes a model (based on the Conversational Framework by Laurillard), developed after conducting an action research study requiring critical reflection on the practice of giving feedback to…

This research draws on six interviews with mothers with dependent children who are studying to become primary school teachers in New Zealand. It investigates the motivating factors that encouraged them to undertake such tertiary studies and also introduces the implications for their families. For these six women, the role of mother seemed…

A teacher's identity is thought to evolve in a continuous, situated fashion, amidst dynamic interaction between cognitive, affective, social, cultural and political factors. However, the literature provides little insight into the impact on the ongoing identity construction of class teachers when they encounter a few students with English as an…

Bandura's concept of self-efficacy has been the focus of numerous research studies related to teacher self-efficacy. Most studies have investigated Bandura's first three sources of self-efficacy beliefs: mastery experiences, vicarious experiences, and social persuasion--with much less emphasis placed on Bandura's fourth source, the role of…

This article is part of a larger study that is the first to blend qualitative and quantitative methodologies in examining induction programmes in New Zealand primary schools in low-socioeconomic areas. New Zealand induction is nationally funded, but schools are self-managing, so schools create their own support programmes. This research interprets…

Many students in New Zealand are now of mature age, female, and mothers of dependent children (Allister et al. 2006). These students typically experience the challenge of sharing themselves between their children, partners, extended families and their fellow students, lecturers and studying. This research explored how a group of student-teachers…

This Teaching and Learning Initiative (TLRI) research project explored ways of teaching literature effectively in multicultural and multilingual classrooms. It involved primary and secondary school teacher-researchers working in partnership with university-based researchers over two years on a series of case studies, within an action research…

The introduction of technology education in primary and secondary schools during the past 10-15 years around the world has presented a number of difficulties for teachers, primarily related to their coming to understand the phenomenon of technology and to conceptualise the technology learning area in line with national frameworks. This paper…

This paper explores the implications of spirituality for teaching and learning in multicultural state schools through the examination of several teachers' personal and professional narratives. In attempting to capture the intangible, these narratives provide insights into the possibilities, both conscious and unconscious, of creating a climate…

This article describes a four-year project undertaken to develop a set of performance tasks that could be used for assessing hands-on science in Irish primary schools. It begins by considering some of the literature on performance assessment and concludes with a discussion on the potential of the tasks to support teaching and learning in science.…

An elementary school teacher in New Zealand describes the fruits of a nondirective learning environment in his classroom. (BB)

In recent years, there has been increasing academic debate concerning both the need for more male primary schoolteachers and the reasons for their minority status, numerically. Yet there has been relatively little heard from the men themselves. In this study the author used focus group discussions to investigate the views and experiences of…

This study investigated current classroom assessment practices by surveying teachers in New Zealand at years 5, 7, and 9 on the assessments they use in the areas of English and mathematics, the purposes of the assessment, and the assessments that provide the most useful information. A total of 676 questionnaires were returned from 311 full…