Straddling conventional education system boundaries between adult learners and children, and between employment-related and social benefits, family literacy programmes are not well recognised or supported in New Zealand's policy and funding environment. In this article, I reflect on my personal experience of redesigning the Whanau Ara Mua…

This article describes and discusses a self-inquiry into curriculum practice on the part of a New Zealand-based social studies educator. The approach used was adapted from Barber's Gestalt approach to holistic inquiry. It is a qualitative approach in which the self-aware practitioner-researcher and his (or her) interactions with others is at the…

New Zealand tertiary classrooms are a mix of New Zealand's ethnically diverse domestic students and predominantly Asian international students. This multicultural diversity, while having potential to enhance educational experience, brings challenges for teachers in the use of cooperative learning. A major challenge is status inequality in diverse…

Choirs have been stereotypically gendered feminine in many national contexts. When gender-role conformity has been expected in such settings, male choral participation and performance has often been rendered gender incongruent and consequently threatening. Gender stereotype threat was explored as a factor which might instigate a potentially…

This paper argues that the historic mode of expression for Indigenous knowledge has been essentially visionary and mythic, often grounded in oral traditions of great antiquity. Essentially, communication of this knowledge has had a poetic "supernormal" character, employing imagery that can be interpreted on many levels. The danger of…

The focus of this article is on the findings emerging from a cross-cultural research project exploring children's working theories about identity, language, and culture in two diverse early childhood education centres in Christchurch: one Samoan immersion, and the other English-medium. The project team believes that by nurturing children's…

Pasifika learners comprise a significant number of students in the New Zealand education system. In terms of educational performance, Pasifika learners generally have lower success rates and academic achievements than other student groups at both secondary and tertiary levels. The aim of this paper was to review current governance, investigate…

The present study investigates the connections between macro-language policies, access to resources, classroom micro-policies, and teacher identities of three Pakeha ('New Zealand European') primary school teachers at three New Zealand schools. As New Zealand educators are increasingly expected to incorporate te reo into the classroom, this…

This article has arisen from a study involving teachers in an early childhood centre and their responses to being introduced to schema learning theory. As a former practitioner in early childhood education and in my current role in initial teacher education, I have an interest in cognitive constructivist learning theories from both developmental…

Using the Pacific metaphor of the vaka, va'a, waka [canoe] this review considers the journey of Pasifika early childhood education (ECE) in Aotearoa New Zealand over the past decade. The discussion covers three major areas within the Pasifika sector: the need to celebrate the strong heritage and resilience of Pacific early childhood educators and…

For Indigenous students in minority education contexts, it is important that teachers have strategies to combine both cultural knowledge and mathematical knowledge in appropriate ways. This paper presents the results from analysing preservice teachers' statistical enquiry assignment linked to a cultural context, in a Maori-medium teacher education…

In 1957, Ans Westra immigrated, as a young adult, from her native Holland to Aotearoa-New Zealand, where she eventually became one of the nation's foremost photographers, and perhaps the pre-eminent photographer of Maori people and events. Early in her career, before she became a famous photographer, Westra worked on contract developing classroom…

In young children's worlds, gender and sexualities are constantly policed. Who children play with, where they play and how they play are often subject to regulation by others to perpetuate 'normativity'. This colloquium draws on 'telling examples' from an in-progress study in an early childhood education setting in Aotearoa New Zealand. Examples…

Myths about "the Chinese learner" developed from an outsider perspective abound in the Western world. The focus of this article, however, is how discourses of Chineseness were used by the Chinese international students themselves who, as undergraduate students in a New Zealand university, were the subjects of my doctoral research. It…

Over a period of 4 years (2012-15) the kaupapa Maori research project Ka Whanau mai te Reo focused on how whanau reo Maori development is, or could, be supported as whanau move into, within, and beyond the compulsory education sector. Transition practices that prioritise te reo Maori would be a positive step forward in schools' support for reo…