As part of a multiyear research project investigating the affordances of online citizen science (OCS) projects for enhancing school students’ learning in relation to science and digital technology, teacher–researchers have designed and implemented classroom interventions incorporating one or more OCS projects. The project is situated in New Zealand, and each ...

During the COVID-19 pandemic, calls to protect children and young people have proliferated in educational contexts, consolidating safety as a core principle guiding an increasing number of decisions at schools. Recently, however, more and more scholars have begun to question the ambiguous nature of “safety”, analysing the tensions between this ...

The New Zealand early childhood curriculum, Te Whāriki, encourages teachers to intentionally implement learning experiences so children learn about and through the visual arts. Acknowledging the tensions between intentional teaching and play-based learning, teachers are urged to be neither hands-off nor very structured in designing visual arts learning experiences. In ...

Teacher expectations influence how children fare in education. However, we know little about how 4- and 5-year-old children in Aotearoa New Zealand perceive their curriculum experiences. This qualitative study utilised interviews to explore the perceptions of 12 children (attending kindergarten and school) regarding their teachers’ expectations of ability/mixed ability grouping ...

This article shares insights from a survey of primary school teachers across the Manawatū–Whanganui region about history teaching at Years 1 to 6. By focusing on the voices of primary teachers, the article aims to fill a gap in public debates about the new Aotearoa New Zealand’s histories curriculum so ...

Since its emergence as a distinct subject area in the nineteenth century, English has been an important, but contested, subject. Competing discourses, resulting in different models of English, have vied for prominence, each with ideologies about the purposes of education and the needs of students and the state. However, while ...

The New Zealand Curriculum expresses a vision for young people who are contributing and participating members of society. While this social vision is supported by the inclusion of key competencies, the curriculum document says little about content and its role in developing this participatory agency. This article uses interview data ...

Teachers’ educational philosophies regulate their curriculum-design orientations, shaping their teaching decisions and practices. However, theoretical assumptions in this relationship were not tested empirically in different contexts. To this end, this cross-sectional survey design study aimed to examine the relationships between teachers’ educational philosophies and their curriculum-design orientations using data from ...

Little effort has been made to understand the changes and issues faced by Korean teachers at the Innovation School, a type of public school with a progressive agenda. This qualitative research focuses on Korean teachers’ lived experiences at their Innovation School sites. Narrative interviews were conducted with eight elementary school ...