Teacher wellbeing has gained increasing attention in recent decades, intricately related to the problems of teacher retention, attrition and shortages. In some respects, the emerging debates have been fundamentally disconnected from the everyday lives of teachers, schools and school communities. Teacher wellbeing is repeatedly foregrounded as a…

It is assumed that digital tools with ubiquitous classroom use have affordances for student agency and a range of social skills. However, few studies have explored the generalised impact of everyday digital classrooms on self-regulation and empathy, perspective taking and prosocial skills. Ten and 11 year old students' (n = 115) ratings of…

'Trauma-informed' is fast becoming a buzzword, a term being used widely across health, education, and other sectors. Online technologies are enabling an increasing number of schools to have instant access to 'expert' trauma-informed approaches, practices and research, however, the ways in which this information is being used varies greatly. This…

This paper describes findings related to the effectiveness of secondary school middle leaders as a contributor to within-school variation in academic results for students at department level in urban high schools. The 'high-stakes' academic assessment results for students in 10 urban high schools in New Zealand in English, mathematics and science…

As part of the National Survey of Schools project, part of NZCER's Te Pae Tawhiti programme of research, we collaborated with the New Zealand Area Schools Association (NZASA) to survey area school teachers between 15 June and 21 July 2023. A total of 652 area teachers across 64 area schools completed the survey, with questions focusing on: (1)…

In this paper, we report on data gathered through Talanoa on how Pasifika students can be supported to learn mathematics. The perspectives of five teachers were analysed, highlighting three themes. Firstly, the importance for Pasifika students to feel a sense of belonging at school. Secondly, how the core cultural values of Pasifika students can…

This paper traverses changes in perceptions of the school principal's role, from sole to distributed leadership practices. A brief commentary on selected New Zealand literature is followed by a case study of a secondary co-principalship that identifies adaptive strategies and success factors in this joint role. The potentiality of the national…

More needs to be known about the benefits and risks to the development of interpersonal and intrapersonal skills in ubiquitous digital environments at school and at home. Nine to 12-year-old students (n = 186) in a 1:1 digital programme serving low SES and culturally diverse communities rated their self-regulation and social skills for both…

As in many countries, for decades in Aotearoa (New Zealand), we have heard the story of the Pacific and Maori achievement gap in mathematics. This has become a widely accepted part of beliefs constructed across multiple communities about students and schools and who can do and learn mathematics successfully. A common response by policy makers and…

This paper is concerned with how teachers manage homophobia at school. It examines how they deal with homophobia directed at students, "and" instances when teachers become the recipients of homophobia themselves. This dual focus, on teachers as both the perpetrators and recipients of homophobia, adds complexity to existing studies…

Participation structures are important in relation to who gets equitable access to mathematics within classrooms premised on co-construction of mathematical reasoning. This paper takes a strength-based focus to explore how two teachers extended their Pasifika students' known repertoires of practice to encompass others, which supported them to…

The aim of this study was to understand why some students avoid seeking help when they find classwork difficult. We employed a qualitative methodology to discover the theories in use that described and explained what high school students did and did not do when they did not understand in math classes. After 5 classroom observations of students'…

Teacher efficacy influences what and how they teach. This may be particularly important to consider in Aotearoa New Zealand contexts where primary classroom teachers teach health and physical education and use physical activity breaks with little training. It remains unclear how classroom teachers perceive this role and how to better support them.…

Research in both the New Zealand and international contexts identifies the need for New Zealand classrooms to foster culturally responsive and mathematical practices that align with Påsifika students' cultural values, backgrounds, interests and experiences. The aim of this study was to investigate how the use of culturally responsive tasks along…

This article explores the characteristics of a successful transition of a school from traditional classrooms to an innovative learning environment. Many schools today are converting traditional classrooms into spaces which are flexible, supporting a wide array of teaching and learning possibilities (i.e. an 'innovative learning environment').…