This literature review provides an overview of the various modern approaches in talent programs for the context of schools and sports reported in scientific journals (2009-2019) and presents their similarities and differences and options for cross-pollination between contexts. This is a first attempt to overarch contexts regarding talent…

Little is known about the way that teachers cope with the formalisation of professional inquiry in New Zealand. Despite its systemic implementation as an accountability-driven initiative to improve the quality of education, there are varied interpretations and enactments of professional inquiry. In this article, we will explore one teacher's…

Aotearoa New Zealand has a significant population of Pacific students in the higher education sector although proportionally Pacific academic staff numbers are negligible. In social work programs students undertaking work-integrated learning (WIL) generally work with non-Pacific academic staff and are matched with agencies seen to be appropriate…

Variability in education systems is a given. Variability has at once positive and negative implications for the main goal of education which is accelerating learning across diverse contexts and for all learners. In this article, we explain and employ a tight-loose framing to understand the scope for variability within an education system. A…

This paper, a critical examination of educational concepts, policies and practices, presents findings from research into the impact of accountability agendas on teacher professionalism and pedagogic practices. The study, theoretically framed through Halstead's notions of contractual and responsive accountability, and Gramsci's hegemonic practices,…

It was fundamental to Martin Thrupp's politics that he would work with teacher unions and assist them in their struggles against government policies that were anti-teacher and educationally unsound. I made contact with Martin even before he had arrived back in New Zealand to ask him to do a piece of work for PPTA and NZEI on standards for…

The intensification of data collection practices in schooling -- often due to state accountability requirements -- has resulted in the widespread adoption of commercial student management systems (SMS) in schools. Drawing on a qualitative case study of a New Zealand primary school, this paper investigates its adoption of a commercial SMS, and the…

Increasingly, competing discourses shape tensions between the role of the contemporary university and the global markets in which universities must exist. This paper draws on the examination of interviews with nine education academics in Australia to illuminate the construction of 'global' in the production of the global graduate (GG). Discourse…

Secondary schools in New Zealand use assessment data for school self-evaluation, but little research has explored exactly how schools are using these data. This case study of selected high schools explored the perspectives of teachers and school leaders whose schools had recently implemented a student assessment tracking and monitoring…

Despite attempts to define quality in initial teacher education (ITE), consensus remains elusive. Harvey highlights how, in higher education, there is confusion between quality, standards and quality assurance. Examination of the quality indicators in ITE reveals an over-emphasis on standards rather than its transformative potential. Original…

A considerable scholarship now describes the increasing neoliberalization of universities and the accompanying impacts on academic research and researchers. However, less attention has been devoted to issues of research project leadership, especially for academics with feminist commitments. This article reports results of a qualitative study of 12…

Achievement data from New Zealand secondary schools suggest that students from lower socio-economic communities have fewer opportunities to engage with complex content in subject English. This article examines this phenomenon by drawing on Foucault's notion of governmentality and considers how a context of simultaneously increased autonomy and…

This paper explores perceptions of work intensification around the world. Underpinning this analysis is C. Wright Mills' (1959) argument that many personal troubles are public issues, and the notion that a significant dimension of the privatisation of public education, a concern of public education advocates worldwide, is the ways in which school…

Higher education (HE) is usually seen as serving the public good, especially when funded directly by the state, and because of potential social effects such as a reduction in inequality and an increase in social mobility. Public support for higher education is conditional; however, on its capacity, capability and willingness to educate citizens,…

New Zealand has its educational roots in 19th and 20th century British educational systems with close similarities between English and New Zealand secondary school education structures. In the last two decades, however, secondary school education in both countries has experienced multiple and sometimes radical reforms. Educational policy has…