This article draws on the concept of the Production of Space (Lefebvre, 1991) to interpret the silence of one female international student from Japan in two semesters of study in a New Zealand Tertiary institution. Data from an English for Academic Purposes course and mainstream courses, and from various sources including video/audio recordings of…

This strengths-based paper draws on the qualitative and quantitative survey results from whanau (family members) of "tamariki" (children) attending 12 schools in an urban area in New Zealand with a high proportion of Maori people. The paper describes the positive impact of effective family engagement on tamariki, from the perspectives of…

This paper reports on the preliminary findings of a study carried out in two English-medium primary (elementary) schools (years 1-6) located in the Otago-Southland regions between 2014 and 2015. The purpose of the study aimed to explore the educational aspirations whanau Maori (i.e., Maori family) want for their children, and to build better…

This article attends to the affective-political dimensions of doctoral aspiration. It considers why doctoral students continue to hope for an 'academic good life' in spite of the depressed and precarious features of the academic present. The article emerges from 2013 research with ten doctoral students in the Arts and Social Sciences, at a…

Access to tertiary education is a challenge for many people from refugee-backgrounds. In Aotearoa New Zealand (NZ), resettled refugees are entitled to access education alongside other New Zealanders, and NZ's resettlement policy material recognises education as a key pillar of resettlement. However, refugee-background students are not recognised…

This article describes a study that captured the voices of six Niuean boys and their views on senior secondary schooling and the pursuit of higher education in New Zealand. Their tutala give insight into their relationships, identity, career goals, family support, and church life. With growing emphasis on culturally responsive pedagogy, this study…

Culturally responsive teaching is an essential component of reframing educator preparation for equity and has particular resonance when working in partnership with indigenous communities. As teacher educators in Aotearoa New Zealand, we continually seek to enhance our practices to ensure that Maori cultural values, pedagogies, and epistemologies…

There is a growing recognition that parents play an important role in the academic achievement of their children. This role includes both the interactions they have with their children and the management of resources that can contribute to their children's achievement. To better understand parents' roles, it is important to understand their…

There is an Indigenous resurgence in education occurring globally. For more than a century Euro-western approaches have controlled the provision and quality of education to, and for Indigenous peoples. The World Indigenous Research Alliance (WIRA) established in 2012, is a grass-roots movement of Indigenous scholars passionate about making a…

By giving early adolescents in their last 2 years of primary/elementary schooling opportunities to voice their ideas, teacher educators, school leaders, and teachers gain insight into how children view their mathematics learning. This article explores the views and aspirations of 34 11- to 13-year-old students from a range of socioeconomic schools…

Maximising educational attainment is important for both individuals and societies. However, understanding of why some students achieve better than others is far from complete. Motivation and achievement data from a sample of 782 secondary-school students in New Zealand reveal that two specific types of outcome goals, namely "maximal levels of…

The General Regulatory Focus Measure has been used extensively in psychological research to gauge promotion and prevention orientations. Findings of this research show that for New Zealand secondary school students, the General Regulatory Focus Measure does not measure promotion and prevention as theoretically independent constructs.

There has been concern around the lack of postgraduate qualified scientists and engineers (e.g., Gago et al., 2004; Koslow, 2005; Lovitts & Nelson, 2000). However, to be effective in increasing the number of science postgraduates, a greater understanding of why students go on to do graduate studies must be developed. Presented here is a study…

Corporatisation of universities has drawn parallels between contemporary universities and business corporations, and extended analysis of corporate social responsibility to universities. This article reports on a case study of university-community engagement with schools and school communities through youth engagement programmes to enhance…

There is disagreement in the literature regarding the influence of social and cultural factors on the propensity for young people to undertake higher education. This study draws upon a national data set of over 45,000 young people to assesses their propensity to progress to bachelor level study, while controlling for their ethnic backgrounds,…