Editorial
Tēnā koutou kātoa. Tēnei te mihi ki ngā kaituhituhi, ngā kaiwhakawā, me ngā kaipānui o tēnei hautaka. Looking forward to a productive and purposeful 2025, we are considering moving from a three-issue to a two-issue per year format. Subscribers will still receive the same amount of content annually in hard copy and can access articles as they are released on Set Online First.
This issue of Set highlights the importance of collaboration between researchers, teachers, and whānau in building understanding and practice in teaching and learning. New student-led projects, school-wide initiatives, and classroom pedagogical strategies have come to life and are now shared with Set readers in the hope that other schools can adapt them to their own contexts. Teacher participation in data analysis and reflective critique, as shown in these articles, underscores applied social science’s vital contribution to a quality educational system.
Enabled by the Marsden Fund (prior to the cessation of its social science and humanities research grants), Melina Amos critiques online mathematics learning in te reo Māori. In He Whakaaro Anō, Melina and her co-authors acknowledge how the digital resource Matific helps revitalise te reo Māori but suggest it could do more to uplift other concepts and practices integral to kaupapa Māori education. This article exemplifies how kaiako can critically review, select, and develop resources to integrate digital technology into kura kaupapa Māori, kura ā-iwi, and Māori-medium education.
Many other articles in this issue stem from the Teaching and Learning Research Initiative (TLRI). The TLRI is a government-funded program supporting collaborative research in early childhood, school, and tertiary education, including a kaupapa Māori pathway, Whatua Tū Aka. It aims to build research capability and improve teaching and learning in New Zealand, focusing on issues that schools believe are important.
Janet Hawkins, Rebecca Jesson, and Janet Gaffney explore the role of self-monitoring in the early development of reading and writing. Their TLRI participatory action research project emphasises the connection between talk, reading, and writing, and the balance between guided and independent learning. Lots of real-life examples are codified by the researchers so that readers can appreciate the nuance and power of teaching for self-monitoring.
Frances Edward and Bronwyn Cowie worked with seven primary and intermediate schools over 3 years to collaboratively inquire into data literacy for teaching. Teacher data literacy also helps to support students to make judgements about their learning needs. Teachers developed two new approaches to help identify students who might struggle with a topic before it was introduced to the full class. Students proactively engaged in “front footing” and “fresh choice” learning opportunities, building expertise and agency in parallel.
The next two articles attend to diverse school communities. Hiroko Nakamura and Shona McRae examine a “Kō Wai Au?” video project led by students aiming to cultivate cross-cultural dialogue and respect in response to acts of racism elsewhere. The researchers share insights from a survey of the school community and interviews with students directly involved. Cherie Chu-Fuluifaga and Martyn Reynolds explore a cross-school Pacific role models initiative developed as part of a TLRI project. Kāhui ako clusters across Aotearoa are working with the researchers to embed Pacific values and practices in educational settings. Both articles stress the importance of a critical, consultative approach when developing cultural initiatives, ensuring genuine relationships and representation over stereotyping and tokenism.
In Assessment News, Charles Darr and Rose Hipkins discuss the implications of incorporating the key competencies into the refreshed curriculum. These competencies are viewed as embedded within the understand, know, and do dimensions of each learning area. Darr and Hipkins argue that assessment of the key competencies should focus on aspects that can be learnt, practiced, demonstrated, and valued as part of a knowledge-rich curriculum. They also argue that assessment should focus on an overaching or umbrella competency, rather than being separated out, and this is where the concept of self-awareness could come to the fore.
Best wishes for the unfolding of 2025. I hope that the value of research partnerships in teaching and learning continues to be appreciated, with developments in practice grounded in the real contexts of your students and schools.
Ngā mihi maioha,
Josie Roberts, General Editor