NEW ZEALAND JOURNAL OF EDUCATIONAL STUDIES最新文献

Universities in Aotearoa New Zealand are increasingly espousing a democratic ideology that has much in common with some social justice elements of the internationally agreed Sustainable Development Goals. This trend, however, also relates to the more international ‘universal’ characterisation proposed by Trow in 1973 in the context of university massification, that emphasised universities’ role in helping societies to adapt to social and technological change, and their development from elite institutions. In exploring our democratic turn this article suggests that remnants of elite characteristics persist in our universities in the projected identity of our academics, and in our limited willingness to adapt our teaching to our changing roles. The article argues that such elitism may limit the role of university teaching in achieving social justice, and goes on to explore if future democratisation depends on the professionalisation of university teaching.

Strong teacher-family partnerships are vital for children’s educational success. Educational policies influence how teachers perceive and engage in these significant relationships. Critical policy analysis focuses on the language, and underlying meanings and beliefs that reify certain understandings and positions in policy. We trace changes in positioning teacher-family relationships in three versions of policy, illustrating the prioritisation of dominant non-Pacific cultures over Pacific languages, cultures, and identities. We propose embracing Samoan concepts like va tapuia (sacred relationships) and teu le va (looking after relationships) as ethical imperatives for teachers to value and nurture respectful relationships with Pacific peoples. We recommend an open-minded approach, including strengths-based visits to Pacific children’s family homes. Drawing from successful projects in Aotearoa New Zealand, we urge policymakers and educational leaders to ensure teachers have the time and resources for the dialogue and reflective activities before and following visits that are needed to transform practice.

This article reports on students’ accounts of te Tiriti o Waitangi as a flawed agreement that was a cause of subsequent conflict. We examine how the notion of a “flawed treaty” is developed in history and educational texts. We argue that when the cause of conflict is attributed to the failures of those engaged in the historical production of the treaty documents, Māori perspectives on the sacred significance of the treaty are obscured, as is the contemporary relevance of the agreement. As much as possible, throughout this article, the capitalised phrase te Tiriti o Waitangi (or te Tiriti) is used to refer especially to the te reo Māori text and the Treaty of Waitangi (or the Treaty) to the English language text of the treaty. ‘The treaty’ (in lower case) refers to an agreement to an ongoing relationship, and where a specific text is not defined.

Streaming is a divisive pedagogy in New Zealand due to the varied definitions of streaming, the ways streaming is perceived to influence the educational experience of young people, and the complexity of teaching students at a range of achievement levels. This article aims to gain an understanding of secondary school mathematicsteachers? perspectives on streaming. Fifty-four secondary school mathematics teachers from across New Zealand were surveyed. The participants described a range of implications of streaming on their own practice, and a wide range of academic, affective and social implications of streaming on students, which showed that there is division amongst teachers around streaming. These implications often implied that teachers have narrow and homogeneous expectations of students in a streamed class. Further research could focus specifically on the homogeneous expectations of teachers in streamed classes.

Māori aspirations in education have not been served by past national policies. It is hard to extinguish the influence of monoculturalism, whereby schools were used to colonise Māori by enforcing linguistic and cultural assimilation. The history of debate on Innovative Learning Environments (ILE) and Flexible Learning Spaces (FLS) demonstrates the ongoing dominance of this Eurocentric, monocultural approach. Official New Zealand education policy and practice follows international trends in school design, moving away from traditional single-cell classrooms towards more open and inter-connected spaces, despite no real evidence concerning the relative effects on learning of each classroom type. Meanwhile, school marae have been around for several decades, but largely ignored in national ILE and FLS policy and research literature. Our experiences lead us to suggest that Māori identity must be ‘built in’ not ‘added on’ to monocultural ILE frameworks, and for this reason, spatiality is crucial in Māori teaching and learning spaces. This article explores the notion of ‘Māori learning spaces.’

The teaching practice (practicum) experience is a pivotal component of teacher education programs globally, providing student teachers with opportunities to apply theoretical knowledge in real classroom settings. In Fiji, one of the many countries in the South Pacific, student teachers engage in practicum experiences, in schools, under the mentorship of associate teachers (ATs). This research paper explores the challenges encountered by student teachers during their practicum placements with a focus on the role of ATs in Suva, Fiji. The study involved 25 of the 40 final-year student teachers placed in urban schools for a duration of 14 weeks of practicum. The student teachers took the role of ethnographic field workers to produce data. The study investigates the experiences of student teachers and the dynamics of their interactions with ATs. Findings reveal a range of challenges faced by the students, including issues related to professional nurturing, and consistent, precise, and prompt feedback on their teaching skills. It further discloses the relationship between ATs and student teachers as not so dependable, and the communication barriers that hindered learning. The study also identifies factors contributing to effective practicum experiences and proposes recommendations for enhancing the support provided by ATs to students. Understanding the challenges encountered by the students during teaching practice is essential for improving teacher education programs and ensuring the professional development of future educators in Fiji.

Teachers hold many beliefs, shaped by their educational knowledge, experiences, and cultural, social, historical, and political environments. These teacher beliefs, together with teacher characteristics and school context factors can influence cognitive processes, expectations, instructional decisions, and practices which could affect learning experiences, student engagement, and achievement. Numerous studies have explored these factors, however, often separately or with only one or two others. This paper explores primary school teachers’ self-reported perceptions on the relationships between teacher beliefs (including teacher class level expectations, self-efficacy, motivation, goal orientation, work engagement, passion for teaching, relatedness to students), teacher characteristics (including gender, ethnicity, teacher experience), and school context factors (including decile and year level taught), and the impact of these on student achievement and teachers’ instructional practices.

Associations were found between teaching self-efficacy and all the other factors explored; work engagement and teachers’ years of teaching experience, gender, and school decile; and years of teaching experience and student achievement. Further, relatedness to students, passion for teaching, and teaching self-efficacy was found to be associated with teachers’ instructional practices.

Educational psychology remains constricted by Westernised science’s universalising views. The teaching about emotions and their expression is a critical element at the core of educational psychology, but the underpinning ontology and theories appear to be largely unexamined. The importance of educational psychology was highlighted by the Covid-19 pandemic, and with wellbeing initiatives accumulating, now, more than ever before, educational psychology research and practice in Aotearoa New Zealand must be called to account. Most existing programmes derive from anthropological, psychological and observation-based approaches, unquestioningly proposing that we all feel emotions because of, or in response to, certain occurrences in our lives. Dare we question this ‘given’ through a decolonising or cross-cultural lens? Māori values, holistic concepts and the diverse ways of knowing and being with emotion need to be considered as Aotearoa New Zealand looks beyond the dominant discourse of current SEL. In classrooms every day, practitioners discern how to discuss and respond to emotions, their own and those of the students in their care. This article invites educators to critique their own understandings of emotions and considers ways to challenge educational psychology and the practice of teaching about emotions to acknowledge the culturally diverse classroom contexts of Aotearoa New Zealand.

Schools are important in nurturing social skills and behaviours. Research consistently demonstrates that movement into/out of school (transience/mobility) disrupts positive social skill development, especially for students who frequently move. The impact of attending a highly transient school on non-mobile students is not as well-known. The current study explored the impact of values and life skill-based programme, Kiwi Can, on social development and the classroom climate for non-mobile children. Researchers administered surveys to students attending 15 intervention (i.e. Kiwi Can programme; n = 763) and 9 control (n = 456) schools in Aotearoa New Zealand. We examined the impact of programme participation by school transience level (high, middle, low) and length of school participation (new, experienced). The results indicate that students attending highly transient schools struggled to build social relationships, feel connected, demonstrate care and compassion to others, and behave in prosocial ways. They also felt less safe at their schools. Students participating in Kiwi Can for more than two years (experienced schools) showed fewer negative effects of transience on social development than less experienced schools. This research highlights the plight of students who are ‘left behind.’