About the Fellowship
The Fellowship is awarded annually to early childhood education practitioners in New Zealand, for up to $20,000.
It is for a travel period of up to three months but for not less than six weeks. The award is for up to $20,000 and is for travel and accommodation. The Fellowship is open to current practitioners in the broad field of early childhood education in New Zealand. Those eligible to apply are:
- Teachers, supervisors and workers from all sectors of early childhood education
- Lecturers in appropriate disciplines in tertiary institutions.
- Ministry of Education personnel and those in an education agency, working in early childhood education.
The travel study Fellowship is offered for the purposes of:
- Preserving the memory of Margaret May Blackwell as an early childhood educator of note.
- Promoting ongoing study and research of the development, practice, organisation, and philosophy of early childhood education.
- Providing opportunity to study in other countries, in areas of interest with relevance, national significance and benefit to New Zealand.
- Permitting people of calibre and expertise in the area of early childhood education to have the opportunity to travel and to study overseas.
The criteria for selection will include:
- Extent to which the area of interest is relevant to early childhood education in New Zealand. The applicant needs to provide a clear rationale for the choice of topic and country or countries.
- Extent to which the activities to be undertaken while overseas are worthwhile and relevant.
- Potential for benefit to the early childhood education sector in New Zealand, including quality of plans for dissemination.
- Applicant has relevant experience in the topic area and demonstrated ability to gain professional benefit from the Fellowship.
Please submit inquiries via email to: comms@nzcer.org.nz
Previous Margaret May Blackwell fellows
2019
The 2019 Fellowship was awarded to Janette Kelly-Ware, a Lecturer in Early Childhood Education (ECE) at The University of Waikato.
Janette's overseas study furthered her work in STEEAM, to deepen her uderstanding of what STEEAM could look like in ECE contexts in this country utilising the Te Whariki curriculum construct of ‘working theories’. The overall objective was to visit places and network with people whose ECE research projects, and/or teacher professional development courses, focus on integrating curriculum areas for example Science with the Arts. Janette has brought back ideas about innovative practice back to this country to share in order to enhance the pedagogical possibilities available to teachers, children and their families in this space.
Janette's report is called Beyond Aotearoa New Zealand: Exploring the creative and pedagogical possibilities of STEEAM through play-based learning, ‘working theories’, and the eyes of others.
Read Janette's report here.
2018
The 2018 Fellowship was awarded to Charlotte Robertson, a teacher with the Auckland Kindergarten Association.
The research built on Charlotte's ongoing work with New Zealand-based organisations that consider how early childhood teachers work with children affected by imprisonment. She explored international responses to how early childhood teachers best support children who have a parent in prison.
Charlotte’s focus was on practical and appropriate ways early childhood teachers can support affected children.
Read Charlotte's report here.
2017
The 2017 Fellowship was awarded to Roxy Burt, Head teacher at Arataki Kindergarten.
She is a passionate educator who used the grant to visit Vanuatu to explore her culture and learn about linguistic diversity, research methodologies that are particularly relevant to Ni-Vanuatu culture, and the ingredients for making Vanuatu the 4th happiest place on the planet.
Click here for the blog that Roxy created to record her trip.
2016
The 2016 Fellowship was awarded to Karine Te Kanawa (Ngati Maniapoto, Tainui).
Karine is an early childhood educator with a passion for Māori language revitalisation. She intended to use the fellowship to visit Hawaii to look at efforts across the education system to nurture the Hawaiian language. She planned to visit Hawaiian language preschools and hoped to gain insights into all aspects, including self-review processes, planning and learning, and how the curriculum fits into the day-to-day life of the centres.
2014
The 2014 Fellowship was awarded to Sarah Moore, Hospital Play Specialist at Starship Children's Hospital.
Sarah visited Snoezelen environments in Japan, Korea, Germany and Switzerland. Her main focus was to identify ways in which controlled multisensory sessions could support transitions that hospitalised children face, such as coming from home to hospital, and moving from one area of the hospital to another.