In national contexts where curriculum policies explicitly advocate for the development of students’ higher order thinking capabilities, evidence suggests that achieving this goal can be quite elusive. In this article we explore this challenge by drawing on senior secondary school examples from two national contexts (New Zealand and Israel) that ...

Multiple international studies have confirmed the positive impact of library services and teacher–librarian partnerships on delivering curriculum outcomes and quality student learning in secondary schools. Despite this, there are indications internationally that school libraries are in decline. This article uses qualitative data from a national survey of teachers and librarians ...

The school curriculum and teacher professional standards in Aotearoa New Zealand emphasise culturally responsive pedagogies for Māori learners. However, there is a gap between rhetoric and practice. Drawing on expert-interview methodology, and based on an interview with Tamsin Hanly about complex curriculum issues, this interview article seeks to stimulate deep ...

Grounded in a research project relating to the use of academic reading to support learning for TESSOL (Teaching English to Speakers in Schools of Other Languages) teachers, this article focuses on the experiences of Mei in a specialised professional learning and development (PLD) programme. Mei’s case illustrates how TESSOL teachers’ ...

As the commemorations of the 100th anniversary of World War 1 draw to a close, it is timely to reflect on what we have learnt about that time in our history. This study used the New Zealand School Journal as a data source to investigate what school children were learning ...

This article draws primarily on a policy discussion hosted by the New Zealand Association of Research in Education’s (NZARE) Science Special Interest Group at the 2016 national conference, arguing that an ecosystem view of science education is a useful metaphor when considering both what is being done to implement the ...

This article explores the effect of high-stakes assessment on the representation of epistemic knowledge in the enacted curriculum—that is, the curriculum experienced by students in the classroom. Epistemic knowledge concerns the processes for constructing and evaluating theories that explain phenomena in the natural and social worlds. Knowledge-building disciplines such as ...

Learning about controversial historical issues is an essential feature of citizenship education in democratic societies, but in New Zealand, the high-autonomy national curriculum leaves it up to teachers to choose whether they engage their students with difficult questions about the past. This can place teachers in an awkward position. They ...

Mathematics curriculum documentation currently presents important information and messages for New Zealand teachers. Mathematical processes are not explicitly set out but embedded in different locations and there are multiple sources of proxy official curriculum information for the primary school. This article identifies and discusses examples of curriculum tensions for teachers ...