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.
Open the link to view the: 2019 Margaret May Blackwell Travel Fellowship report
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.
Open the link to view Charlotte's: 2018 Margaret May Blackwell Travel Fellowship report
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.
Open the link to view the: 2017 Margaret May Blackwell Travel Fellowship 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.