In New Zealand there is currently no one definition of what it means for a child to be categorised as “gifted and talented”. The very notion of “giftedness” is in itself unclear, with teachers holding varying levels of understanding. This is problematic, making identification complex and pedagogical decision-making ad hoc ...

The multicultural nature of early childhood services in New Zealand is highlighted by the statistical reality that 22 percent of children are Māori, 7 percent are Pasifika, and 11 percent are Asian and other non-European/Pākehā ethnicities. Multicultural early childhood education has become a vital practice underpinning educational reforms. This is ...

Children are constantly trying to make sense of their world. Working theories—one of the key learning outcomes of Te Whāriki—are constructed, adapted, and enriched in children’s lives as children experience the world around them and interact with others. This article presents findings from a study that investigated teacher strategies that were used ...

This article discusses aspects of the journeys and emergent thinking of teachers/kaiako in the three Māori immersion/bilingual early childhood services that participated in the Whatu Kākahu—Assessment in Kaupapa (Philosophy) Māori Early Childhood Practice study. Through the exploration of kaupapa Māori assessment approaches, the services worked to reclaim and reframe Māori ways of knowing and being ...

Parent–teacher partnerships are critical to enacting the principles of Te Whāriki: relationships, family and community, empowerment, and holistic development. Our project used “funds of knowledge” as a theoretical, methodological, and pedagogical tool to explore partnership connections for children between the contexts of home and centre. This article discusses teachers’ experiences of visiting children’s ...

Lesson observations are used in educational environments worldwide to support professional development and to measure content and quality of curriculum delivery. Within a neoliberal context, lesson observations can arguably be seen as symbolic of the embodied tensions between educational policies that emphasise accountability and the creative, hidden nature of teaching ...

The metaphor of a feedback loop underpinned a significant curriculum change in a first year teacher-education unit. Assessment for Learning (AfL) practices such as discussing examples of previous student work and giving peer feedback were embedded within the curriculum design. The metaphor of a feedback loop connected these AfL practices ...

“Students as co-researchers” is a mode of engagement between students and teachers in school systems that has been likened to a bridge. This article explores the bridge metaphor with reference to one school’s experience of a students as co-researchers project involving students and teachers in the school and a university ...