Racial-ethnic identity is a fundamental aspect of an early adolescent’s identity. This article, based on data from Māori adolescents in Auckland, shows that racial-ethnic identity is important for Māori adolescents because it frames who they are, how they belong and their achievement aspirations. It concludes that, although negative stereotypes are ...

Addressing the achievement disparities that exist within New Zealand education for Māori is identified by the Ministry of Education as being a critical challenge for school leaders that requires committed and responsive leadership. The case study presented in this article describes the leadership practices of a primary school principal whose ...

Teachers, educators and leaders have privileged roles in responding to the educational aspirations of our Māori learners, whānau, hapū, iwi and communities. This article considers the responsibilities of this group, the amount of work they take on as individuals, and the need to work collectively and with a shared vision ...

Gifted education is an evolving kaupapa for Māori and Māori-medium settings. Māori perspectives of giftedness are not finite and static, but rather dynamic and evolving. This article tells a story about gifted education within a Māori-medium setting, and identifies factors that have enabled or hindered successful engagement with gifted education ...

Liz Patara, principal of Clyde Quay School, Wellington, responds to a question from Mark Bradley of Wellington College: "What advice would you give to someone who is new to teaching in Aotearoa New Zealand about how to go about integrating culturally responsive teaching and learning pedagogy in line with Ka ...

This Assessment News article discusses an important opportunity to develop and extend the Māori-medium knowledge base by helping teachers both to identify the oral Māori-language proficiency of students in their first years of Māori immersion education, and to connect the Māori-language progression of student outcomes with key curriculum documents.

The focus section of this issue of set is a collection of articles that discuss various aspects of key competency development in the early primary school years. These articles were selected from a wider collection first published in a special edition of Early Childhood Folio.  

A lot of emphasis is currently placed on the need for principals to be instructional leaders or leaders of learning. In the study of the instructional leadership of secondary principals reported in this article, the authors argue that instructional leadership can be both direct and indirect. Direct instructional leadership ...

A key way students develop their statistical understanding at primary school level is by undertaking data-rich investigations. This article suggests scaffolding students through a statistical enquiry cycle in which students define the problem, plan the investigation, collect and analyse the data, draw conclusions and communicate their findings. It gives examples ...

Ethics is a valuable way to approach science in primary school because grappling with ethical issues engages students. Focusing on ethics encourages students to extend their understanding of scientific concepts as it is essential to have a sound grasp of the science in order to meaningfully evaluate different positions. For ...