Doctoral supervision is a complex set of intersecting relations, personal and familial, social and institutional. History figures there: wanted or not, ghosts from the past come back to haunt supervisor, student and thesis. This article explores a particular configuration that can occur in Aotearoa/New Zealand when Pakeha academics supervise Maori…

Geographically isolated in the south-west Pacific but intellectually and culturally connected to Western Europe, Aotearoa New Zealand's early childhood education sector is a unique mix of influences. The imprint of progressive education is evident in a legacy of "free play" programmes, yet its national curriculum is built on the…

This study explores cultural factors affecting international team dynamics and the implications for industry practice and higher education. Despite decades of studying and experience with cultural diversity, international work groups continue to be challenged by ethnocentrism and prejudices. Central to the context is that cultural differences in…

Gard [(2008). "When a Boy's Gotta Dance: New Masculinities, Old Pleasures." "Sport, Education and Society," 13(2), 181-193], Booth [(2009). "Politics and Pleasure: The Philosophy of Physical Education Revisited." "Quest," 61(2), 133-153] and Pringle [(2010). "Finding Pleasure in Physical Education: A…

Sexuality and humour share a fraught relationship at school, so that how humour might be productively employed in sexuality education constitutes a "risky" consideration. This paper explores the role of humour in sexuality education as observed in a Year 9 New Zealand health class. Adding to existing literature emphasising students' use…

International research suggests that government policy, institutional culture and learner characteristics influence the attrition rate of first-year tertiary education students. These variables were investigated in relation to a cohort of 21 New Zealand students who failed a core literacy paper. The research utilised questionnaires, interviews…

The authors open this article by noting that there is substantial research evidence showing that ethnic culture affects how disability is perceived and managed, and that taking a person's culture into account maximizes the effectiveness of the person's education. Jill Bevan-Brown and Taingunguru Walker, address this gap in knowledge by describing…

This paper investigates Mexican and New Zealand children's conception of the environment and their understandings of environmental issues, focusing on how personal experiences, culture and school-based environmental education (EE) programmes influence their perspectives. Sixty Year 5 children (age 9-11) from three schools in Dunedin (New Zealand)…

Many career development theories recognise that the relationship between people and their environment constantly changes through historical and socio-political influences. Such theories emphasise the importance of systematic interpretations and general cultural influences on meaning-making. While such a view of meaning-making is important, we…

Literature on Maori pedagogy up until now has been disparate, some dealing with methodological issues, some with learning theory, some with environment and so forth. This article seeks to build one comprehensive picture of Maori pedagogy by weaving the myriad disparate themes in the literature into one unifying model. It is based on an EdD study…

A growing number of Chinese-born international students are seeking permanent residency and paid employment in New Zealand after graduation. As yet, little is known about their post-study transitions to permanent residency and paid employment. This article reports on research investigating the transition experiences of 10 Chinese-born…

Career education occupies a pivotal position, relating school to the wider social, political and economic world. Yet it remains an under-researched curriculum area, with little attention given to issues of social justice. In this article I discuss the findings from a small-scale qualitative study, which consisted of an hour-long semi-structured…

This study, conducted in 2005 in a New Zealand tertiary institution, examines Asian students' perceptions of the much-promulgated cooperative learning concepts in the form of group work and group assignments. Twenty-two Asian students participated in one-hour individual face-to-face semi-structured interviews. The study found that Asian students…

These longitudinal studies investigated the cultural mediation of children's thinking about the Earth using an interview technique designed to elicit responses from children from all "levels" of their conceptual organization (intuitive, cultural, and scientific). Close scrutiny of the research literature in this field reveals that some…

Background: The aim of this study was to determine (1) the prevalence of behavioral problems among two-year-old Pacific children living in New Zealand, (2) ethnic differences in behavioral problems, and (3) relationships between maternal and socio-demographic variables and problem child behavior. Methods: Data were gathered from the Pacific…