Set 2025: no. 2

This article explores how a collaborative approach to garden-based education can support knowledge transfer that extends beyond the immediate participants. Despite the recognised benefits of school gardens, teachers often lack the community networks required to make them successful educational spaces. Through partnerships between universities, schools, community gardens, and other organisations, we demonstrate how these community networks can not only support teachers in using gardens… Read more

Euro-Western schooling systems often sideline play, or when learning through play is valued, it is rarely recognised as a Maaori way of knowing. In te ao Maaori, however, play is woven through identity, wairua, and whakapapa. Drawing on my puuraakau and the koorero of my tumuaki, Te Haumoana Biddle, this article re-centres play as a mana-enhancing, culturally sustaining practice for primary classrooms. By weaving lived experiences with te ao Maaori and play, it argues that play must be… Read more

This article shares findings from an 18-month research project at Te Whai Hiringa, a primary school in Hawke’s Bay, where over 90% of learners identify as Māori, or Pacific peoples. The project explored how play-based learning and culturally sustaining pedagogy can be integrated into a single, purposeful approach. Drawing on the Play-Based Learning Observation Tool as an initial framework, the study focused on the creation of an indigenised play teacher practice framework with cultural… Read more

As the Aotearoa New Zealand Government reforms increasingly challenge the place of play in primary education, this study offers timely insights into the experiences, perceptions, and practices of four new entrant teachers who are successfully implementing play-based learning in four Auckland schools. This small, qualitative study highlights that play-based learning can be effectively integrated into early years classrooms in diverse ways that support children’s learning and wellbeing. Key… Read more

Released in 2024, the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) report on creative thinking, Creative Minds, Creative Schools, ranked New Zealand 5th out of a total of 81 participating countries. This inaugural PISA study of creative thinking reflects a growing global interest in creativity as an essential competency. Creativity is vital for economic, social, and individual wellbeing but also a competency that remains marginalised and misunderstood. This article provides an… Read more

Rosemary Hipkins talks with Julie Roberts about the role of rich tasks in the refreshed mathematics curriculum, and opportunities for teachers to enhance this aspect of their professional practice. Julie also introduces readers to a set of Rich Tasks Planning Cards available from NZCER.