This storied paper reflects my awakening to the notion of interbeing, a core concept of Engaged Buddhism posed by the Vietnamese Zen Buddhist Thich Nhat Hanh. My awareness was heightened in writing about a young Vietnamese child, Dylan, with whom I engaged in an early childhood study in Aotearoa New Zealand. Underpinned by Chen's "Asia as…

Maori aspirations in education have not been served by past national policies. It is hard to extinguish the influence of monoculturalism, whereby schools were used to colonise Maori by enforcing linguistic and cultural assimilation. The history of debate on Innovative Learning Environments (ILE) and Flexible Learning Spaces (FLS) demonstrates the…

This paper is the fourth in a series exploring the issue of curriculum coherence in the development and implementation of the three iterations of Maori-medium Technology curriculum from the 1990s to the present. For Indigenous schools, curriculum coherence is not just a structural design issue but also involves the place of their Indigenous…

Five early childhood teacher educators in Aotearoa New Zealand explored a range of literature to respond to the question: What does literature tell us about Maori leadership and how are our findings relevant to leadership in early childhood education (ECE) in Aotearoa? The process of finding and reviewing literature sources about Maori leadership…

In this paper, we provide a reflection upon the influence of the Swanwick-Tillman (ST) model (1986) from the perspectives of music research in Aotearoa New Zealand. In this paper we take stock of where music education in New Zealand currently sits in relation to the Swanwick Tillman theory of musical development. We examine the strengths and the…

Technology is ubiquitous and culturally situated, influencing and impacting lives every second of every day. As humanity emerged, so did technological development. Diverse cultural groups developed technologies, related knowledge, and processes, to meet emerging needs or realise opportunities--such as trade. There is little doubt that some…

A primary task for refugee families and children who are resettling in a new country is to develop a sense of belonging in that place, time and context. This article theorises the "powhiri," the traditional Maori ceremony of welcome or ritual of encounter, as a metaphor for refugee families and children coming to belong in Aotearoa New…

This article stems from participation in a TLRI research study, Renewing Participatory Democracy: Walking with Young Children to Story and Read the Land. It presents an account of the growing awareness of the place-based environmental and cultural relationship between Maunganui Kindergarten and Mauao.

Critical thinking (CT) is increasingly included within education curriculum policy development to support students' intellectual progress. Teachers who embed CT learning and are cognisant of students cultural identity increase their ability and aptitude to think critically. This paper reports results from an anonymous survey administered to 490…

The role of digital technologies in outdoor and environmental education is contested and therefore educators should carefully consider their inclusion or exclusion of networked spaces. In addition, educators are asked to make their pedagogical intentions visible to students. We ask 'How might we include our students in decisions about…

Curriculum policy and enactment in early childhood education is a political phenomenon that plays out in particular cultural contexts. Comparative lenses to curriculum articulate locally constructed and implicit knowledge to external audiences. In doing so, global commonalities and tensions may become explicit. This paper interrogates curricular…

In recent years, there has been increasing interest in examining values in relation to mathematics education research. Our exploratory study examines the mathematics education values of culturally diverse middle school students in New Zealand. We investigated how student values differed across demographic variables including school, ethnicity,…

Using a qualitative descriptive design, researchers describe and identify similarities and differences in the professional preparation of infant-toddler care and education (ITCE) teachers at university based teacher education programmes in Hong Kong China, Aotearoa New Zealand, and the USA. Researchers overview the ITCE landscape, describe…

New Zealand is known as a nation of immigrants with increasing cultural diversity. Currently, in Auckland, almost a quarter of residents identify with an Asian ethnicity, the largest subgroup of which is Chinese. In the field of gifted and talented education, providing access to a culturally diverse environment is an important aspect of meeting…

Educational leaders are called to action by the very nature of their jobs, to address issues of social inequity and injustice. Their leadership is key to revealing, disrupting and subverting institutional arrangements which marginalize individuals, reorienting educational engagement towards inclusion, transformation and equity. This chapter…