NZCER has run a National Survey of Primary Schools regularly since 1989, with the last survey of primary school teachers taking place in 2019. This enables us to monitor trends over time and assess teacher sentiment about key issues facing the sector. 

This report presents findings from a survey of 639 teachers from 148 schools. The responses are nationally representative by School Equity Index groups and broadly representative by area ...

KiVa is a research-based, whole-school programme developed in Finland that addresses bullying through three integrated strands: prevention (regular, age-targeted lessons, and school-wide culture building to shift norms), intervention (clear, consistent procedures led by a trained staff team), and monitoring (ongoing feedback—typically via student surveys—to inform practice and celebrate progress) (Herkama et al., 2017; KiVa Program, n.d.). 

Because bullying dynamics can extend beyond individual classrooms and even beyond single schools—into ...

New curriculum content for teaching Aotearoa New Zealand’s histories (ANZH) and Te Takanga o te Wā (TToTW) was gazetted in 2022, for schools and kura to begin using in 2023. The release of this curriculum content followed prolonged campaigning and advocacy from historians, ākonga, learners, kaiako, teachers, and members of the public who had called for better and more consistent teaching of our local and national histories.

This qualitative research ...

This evaluation report is intended to support Ministry of Education’s decision making about the future of the NEX initiative. The evaluation findings also provide useful insights that contribute to Teacher Development Aotearoa's review of their leadership of the initiative and will be of interest to current and future NEX leaders. Three overarching questions framed the evaluation:

1. To what extent is the NEX initiative achieving desired outcomes and having an ...

In this study, NZCER provides a snapshot of how generative artificial intelligence (AI) is emerging in teaching and learning within Aotearoa New Zealand’s primary classrooms (Years 5–8).  

This report contains survey responses from a cohort of 266 primary school teachers who were disproportionately interested in generative AI; and from a second cohort of 147 students spread across four case study schools.  

He kitenga | Findings

Taken together, the ...

This study, conducted in partnership with Hutt City Kindergartens, explores story sharing - a critical aspect of early literacy development. We studied the naturalistic story interactions of tamariki aged 2–5 years, kaiako, and whānau within six equity-funded kindergarten settings and family homes. Key themes evident in our findings were:

• that stories are diverse and multimodal;  
• story sharing is embedded in cultural contexts;  
• and story sharing takes place ...

For the English version of this report, click here.

Ko tā te pūrongo nei he arotake i te mana tautika e ai ki te tirohanga o te kura mana motuhake, ā, ki Te Kura Māori o Ngā Tapuwae (“Ngā Tapuwae”). E ai ki a Fortune mā (2024), ko te whakapuakanga tika mō te mana tautika e ai ki te tirohanga Māori, ko te mana motuhake, ko te ...

For the reo Māori version of this report, click here.

This report analyses equity, as viewed through the lens of Te Kura Māori o Ngā Tapuwae (hereafter “Ngā Tapuwae”), a kura mana motuhake. According to Fortune et al. (2024), the more appropriate terms for equity from a Māori perspective are mana motuhake or tino rangatiratanga (self-determination). 

Ngā Tapuwae is one of many kura mana motuhake that have high ...

This report presents the findings of a research project carried out for the School Library Association of New Zealand Aotearoa Te Puna Whare Mātauranga a Kura (SLANZA) and the National Library of New Zealand Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa (the National Library) in 2024. 

School libraries are not mandatory in Aotearoa New Zealand schools. Consequently, investment in library spaces, collections, and staffing is discretionary and variable between schools. Research about ...

The 2024 Uiuinga ā-Motu o ngā Kura | National Survey of Primary Schools is a pair of reports on principal and teacher perspectives regarding their school and the wider education sector.  

This report, focused on principal perspectives, is based on a nationally representative sample of 187 principals from English-medium full primary, contributing and intermediate schools across Aotearoa New Zealand. The report covers all the questions asked of principals, including ...