The authors of this article explore one child’s connections between the dispositional learning outcomes recognised during the child’s time at kindergarten, and those of the key competencies of the school curriculum. The kindergarten teachers who worked with the child came to think of these learning dispositions as part of the contents of the ...

This article considers ways in which early childhood educators in Aotearoa New Zealand might draw upon te ao Māori conceptualisations in delivering pedagogies that foster and enhance dispositions of empathy, compassion, and caring, thereby strengthening children’s emotional and social competence as well as their self-control. It first outlines some theoretical considerations from both ...

Relationships lie at the heart of early childhood education principles, curriculum, and pedagogy. Building strong relationships is taken for granted as a capacity all teachers possess; yet this might be an area of practice in which teachers need support and professional guidance. In this article, we examine and discuss what teachers do to ...

Imagine you are an immigrant early childhood teacher ... This article tells your story of transition and diversity. It interweaves tensions and complex realities, and explores issues and concerns for immigrant teachers in the cultural places and relational spaces of early childhood settings. Using teacher narratives and a post-structural discourse analysis, this article ...

This article presents findings from a qualitative document analysis of selected resources for and about social justice in senior social studies, and argues that effective resources can facilitate transformative social-justice learning. During the study, analytic criteria were formed to examine purposively selected resources. This framework emerged from the work of multicultural education scholar James Banks ...

Participation in community arts projects has the potential to enrich and regenerate communities, and to support teaching and learning. This article draws upon data from six New Zealand case studies, made up of six different community arts projects, and examines the dynamic relationship between community arts projects and participating schools and youth centres. Qualitative data ...

It has been 21 years since a literature review by Helen Shaw established the conceptual foundations for the development of health education as part of the curriculum for New Zealand schools. Using the lens provided by the schooling improvement literature, this article reflects on the development of health education in New Zealand schools to ...

The New Zealand Government’s National Science Challenges have recently generated renewed activity on how education, science and the public can better engage with each other, for the benefit of Aotearoa New Zealand society now and in the future. This work resulted in a key document: A Nation of Curious Minds—He Whenua Hihiri i te ...

This article begins by making the case that the New Zealand curriculum component known as the Nature of Science (NOS) has generally not, thus far, achieved its stated intent of helping students think differently about science and its relevance to their lives. We argue that NOS components in curricula have tended to become positioned ...

The recent revision of a national writing assessment tool, e-asTTle: Writing, is viewed from theoretical, design and implementation, and practice perspectives, and considered in relation to the original assessment concept and design. Aspects of the revision are questioned. These include a reduction in the scope and complexity of writing, with fewer functions or communicative ...