Aotearoa New Zealand is a super diverse nation in terms of the ethnicities of its people and languages spoken. With an increased rate of immigration from various parts of the world, the presence of multiple languages in many domains of social life is a reality. Consequently, classrooms are now places where learners have different linguistic and…

Learning about probability can pose difficulties for students at all levels. Performing probability experiments using games can encourage students to develop understandings of probability grounded in real events. In this reflective paper, we explore the thinking of a group of students and teachers as they reasoned about experimental and…

This book offers new ideas for thinking about how more equitable outcomes might be achieved in New Zealand so that all students are well-equipped to live and work in contemporary society. It addresses a social justice concern about access to the unique affordances of subject knowledge which comprises two forms of knowledge - propositional…

This paper explores three multilingual students' (9 to 11-years-old) conceptual understanding of three-dimensional (3D) shapes as displayed through peer and classroom interactions in two New Zealand primary classes. Bakhtin's dialogic theory and Garfinkel's ethnomethodology inform the theoretical framework. The paper presents two excerpts from…

Aotearoa New Zealand is a diverse multicultural nation, with a vibrant indigenous culture and language. However, levels of bilingualism are relatively low, with less than 20% of the population using more than one language. English is the dominant language, and monolingualism in English the taken for granted norm. In the New Zealand Curriculum…

Though the concept "global learner" has become a buzzword in education, few have critically analysed it. This article examines three types of "unlikely global learners" who are not usually considered global learners even though they could be, according to a current definition: Maori- English bilingual students in Aotearoa/New…

This article draws on an action research process carried out by professional learning and development (PLD) facilitators supporting teachers in New Zealand secondary schools. Questions about students' developing knowledge of academic vocabulary, especially for English-language learners, were explored as part of responsive PLD inquiries within…

New Zealand's increasingly heterogeneous population places manifold demands on the education sector to integrate children who do not speak English as a first language. Limited research exists on how minority language children acquire English within early childhood education settings and how teachers support this development. This article reports…

This article is written for school teachers in Aotearoa New Zealand schools who teach science to Year 7-10 students or as part of a primary classroom programme under The New Zealand Curriculum. What can teachers do about inequity in science education for Maori students? Clear understanding of this complex issue is required, so this article offers…

In this report the authors signal the plurilingual nature of children's and teachers' learning and teaching experiences. Plurilingualism introduces a dynamic view of bilingualism in educational settings and refers to an individual's ability to draw upon her/his total language resources for learning and teaching (Cummins & Early, 2011; Garcia…

In an educational system based on equity, ensuring the achievement of Pasifika students in secondary education is seen as a key focus of the Government approach to education (Ministry of Education, 2013b) and a major step in addressing the social and economic inequities experienced by Pasifika peoples in New Zealand. While there has been a…

Maori are the indigenous people of New Zealand. Since British colonial settlement in the early 1800s, Maori children have been predominantly educated in an English-speaking system dominated by colonial governance. In this institution, Maori children have been constructed as deficient learners, primarily in relation to a colonial curriculum taught…

There may be an implicit assumption amongst some New Zealand educators that minority cultures should assimilate wholly into the New Zealand way of life, shedding aspects of their own culture that conflict with the mainstream. Some others assert that encouraging minority students to maintain their culture, including language and traditions, results…

This article analyzes how minority-language students responded to what they felt to be disrespectful behavior of a mainstream teacher towards their language from a case at an Aotearoa/New Zealand school in 1997-1998. Even when minority language is recognized officially and institutionally, as in Aotearoa/New Zealand, some minority-language…

This paper examines language development of Samoan students in bilingual contexts in Aotearoa, New Zealand. In the absence of valid and standardized assessments tools in Samoan, one was designed to test reading comprehension and oral language development for Samoan students using common narratives as a base. For reading comprehension, the tool…