This article describes and discusses a unit of work taught by Maria Iki, a Social Sciences teacher at James Cook High School in South Auckland. The unit was taught as part of the TLRI project Tuhia ki Te Ao—Write to the Natural World. The project is concerned to develop students’ ...

In a time of environmental crisis we need a language to speak for nature. In our TLRI project Tuhia ki Te Ao—Write to the Natural World, we have been working with teachers to develop “3D literacy” practices responsive to both culture and environment and located in a rich language and ...

New Zealand has faced an unprecedented series of disaster events in recent years. The Canterbury earthquakes provided an opportunity to document the role that schools played in supporting their communities to respond to and recover from such events. It is important that we capture what we have learnt from these ...

This article stems from a 2016 research project that examined the leadership experiences of 20 primary principals in greater Christchurch. The study was based on the belief that the nature of successful leadership needs to change in a post-disaster setting. The article focuses on what principals learned about leadership from ...

Parent-led boards of trustees have been a feature of the New Zealand education system for almost 30 years. Over that time there have been consistent reports of difficulties in getting parents to participate on the boards of low-decile schools. However, there appears to be little research on what influences parent ...

All teachers require professional learning throughout their careers to ensure they are effective practitioners. This article reports on outcomes from a doctoral study that explored the impact of teachers transitioning between primary school year levels. The findings suggest that transition can have a significant impact on teachers’ professional learning and ...

The term constructivism is used very widely and somewhat loosely in education. In this article I aim to clarify the term, which can be used in relation to two quite different theories: one related to how we learn and the other related to what we learn. Being clear about the ...

Intercultural education is often a contested area. This is true of Pasifika education, the education in Aotearoa New Zealand of students with links to Pacific Island nations. Despite shifts of framing, one area identified as significant in Pasifika education is student–teacher relationships. This article describes two phases of research which ...

There is a strong case for building inclusive relationships with families in order to support academic success for Pacific secondary students. In this article, I review literature which considers the perspectives of Pacific students, their families, and teachers. An important conclusion is that listening is a key ingredient for teachers ...