School of Education - Te Kura Mātauranga
Permanent link for this collectionhttps://hdl.handle.net/10292/3300
Research within the School of Education - Te Kura Mātauranga is driven by students working towards postgraduate qualifications, staff pursuing their own research interests, and contracts for funding agencies such as the Ministry of Education and other partners. Research interests in the School of Education include; Learning and teaching, theory and practice, Curriculum and development, Teacher education, Early childhood education, Adult and tertiary education and development, Schools, E-learning, Educational administration, and Professional inquiry and practice.
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Item Big Changes to NCEA and Polytechs Must Deliver the Skills NZ Urgently Needs(The Conversation, 2025-08-07) Maurice-Takerei, LisaItem NCEA Reform: How Will Schools Decide Who Takes an Academic or Vocational Path?(The Conversation, 2025-08-27) Maurice-Takerei, LisaItem Planting the Seed: Early Encounters With Art and Materials for Infants and Toddlers(The University of Auckland, 2025-11-24) Probine, Sarah; Denee, RachelThis article reports findings from a qualitative case study exploring visual arts pedagogy for infants and toddlers in four early childhood education settings in Aotearoa New Zealand. Drawing on interviews, observations, and document analysis, the research examined how kaiako (teachers) designed and facilitated culturally responsive, intentional visual arts experiences. Findings highlight the importance of relational pedagogy, sustained engagement with rich materials, and teachers’ views of infants and toddlers as capable, agentic learners. Teachers described their practice as a dynamic “dance” of stepping back to honour children’s exploration and stepping forward to sensitively guide and extend. Organisational conditions, including leadership support and collaborative inquiry, were essential for embedding visual arts as a valued part of the curriculum. The study underscores the transformative potential of early visual arts experiences for fostering identity, wellbeing, and dispositions for learning and calls for strengthened guidance and professional development in this area.Item Kia Tōtika te Haere: Exploring Unhurried Pedagogies Through Child Led Inquiry Learning With Infants and Toddlers(The University of Auckland, 2025-11-24) Probine, Sarah; Heta-Lensen, Yo; Burke, Rachael; Perry, Jo; Alderson, JoanneThis paper explores how inquiry with infants and toddlers can be meaningfully enacted through slow, relational pedagogies that foreground deep listening, documentation, and sustained engagement with people, place, and materials. Drawing on narrative inquiry from two early childhood centres in Aotearoa New Zealand, we examine how kaiako create time and space for infants’ and toddlers’ working theories to unfold through embodied, sensory-rich experiences. We highlight three key strategies: relational practice, pedagogical documentation, and attuned listening, as foundational to inquiry with the very youngest learners. Framed through the concept of Āta (Pohatu, 2013), we consider how these strategies align with Māori values of respect, reflection, and reciprocity, offering a culturally grounded lens for unhurried pedagogy. We argue that in the current political climate, inquiry with infants and toddlers is both a pedagogical and political stance, affirming infants’ and toddlers’ rights to agency, participation, and meaningful learning from birth.Item Change and Persistence. The Legacies for VET in Aotearoa, New Zealand(Osnabrueck University, 2025-10-02) Maurice-Takerei, LisaThis paper provides a background to vocational education and training in Aotearoa New Zealand with a focus on the legacies that continue to impact the environment and conditions for a stable and viable VET system. Despite ongoing measures to reform and organise VET through legislative shifts and changes in administration and organisation, the sector continues to be unsettled and in flux. There are several embedded attitudes associated with vocational, trade and technical education that have thwarted efforts to develop a strong vocational and technical education system in Aotearoa, New Zealand over time and these have had an impact on efforts at reform. This paper examines some of the historical conditions that have led to the environment for VET as we now find it – underdeveloped, underfunded and in a constant state of reform.Item Feasibility and Potential Efficacy of Movement-Active-Physical-Play (M.A.P.P) Physical Activity Program in New Zealand’s Early Childhood Education Centres: A Pilot Cluster-randomised Controlled Trial(Elsevier, 2025-11-14) Pirie, Wendy; Duncan, Scott; Gibbons, Andrew; Jones, Rachel; Stewart, Tom; Harris, NigelObjective: To determine feasibility and potential efficacy of the M.A.P.P physical activity program in early childhood education (ECE) centres. Method: Four ECE centres were randomised to intervention (n=2) or control (n=2). Participants included 46 children (3.9 ± 0.5 years, M = 22, F = 24), 8 female leaders, and 20 female teachers. The 10-week online M.A.P.P. intervention aimed to improve physical activity (PA) levels and the quality of movement environments. Potential efficacy was assessed using accelerometry; feasibility was explored via observations and interviews. Results: Programme adherence was high (80%). Teachers, leaders and children reported M.A.P.P as enjoyable. No significant intervention effects were found for sedentary behaviour (β = 1.14, 95% confidence interval (CI): [-7.00, 9.27], p=0.244), light PA (β = 11.5, 95% CI: [-0.97, 23.9], p=0.367), moderate PA (β = -10.8, 95% CI: [-22.1, 0.49], p=0.685), vigorous PA (β = -1.98, 95% CI: [-6.48, 2.51], p=0.458), moderate-to-vigorous intensity PA (β = -13.5, 95% CI: [-27.1, 0.125], p=0.849). Conclusions: M.A.P.P. is feasible in ECE centres but its effects on PA require further investigation. Implications for public health: Supporting ECE teachers to promote PA may provide public health benefits in early childhood.Item Doing Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) in Applied Linguistics Research: A Field-Specific Guide(Elsevier, 2025-11-03) Willis, Rohan; Harvey, SharonAs applied linguistics increasingly embraces qualitative and socially situated methodologies, it has drawn on approaches from other disciplines. This paper extends that trajectory by exploring interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA), a qualitative methodology originating in psychology and grounded in phenomenology, hermeneutics, and idiography. IPA offers a valuable framework for research focused on the lived experiences of language users, learners, and educators. The paper argues for a critical repositioning of IPA within applied linguistics, highlighting its capacity to examine how individuals make meaning of complex linguistic, cultural, and educational phenomena. Using data from interviews and focus groups, the IPA demonstrated here enables detailed, contextualized analysis of additional language (AL) learning and teaching practices. It attends to both individual cases and cross-case thematic patterns. By providing a methodological guide featuring a worked example from a doctoral study with New Zealand-based ESOL teachers, the analysis examines how teachers’ experiences of AL learning inform their TESOL knowledge and practices and how they view their professional positioning in the TESOL sector. The paper offers strategies for rigor, transparency, and ethical reflexivity in IPA research. It concludes with a critical reflection on the strengths and limitations of IPA for researching language teacher knowledge and practice.Item Challenging and Expanding the Concept of ‘Readiness to Teach’ in Neoliberal Times: Insights From New Materialist and Posthumanism Theories(New Zealand Tertiary College (NZTC), 2024-10) Tulloch, LynleyTeacher education degree programmes have a range of imperatives when preparing students for the multifaceted and complex role of becoming a teacher. In the field of Early Childhood Education (ECE) in Aotearoa, readiness to teach is one such pressing driver. It is important to prepare student teachers to develop a range of theoretical and practical competencies that will support them in being ready to teach. Yet teaching is so much more than a technical practice – it’s a political act that occurs in a localised time/space. In this article, I rethink the concept of ‘teacher readiness’ in neo-liberal contexts in Aotearoa. This article uses new materialist and posthumanist theories to challenge the neoliberal notion of teacher readiness as an outcome based on predetermined attributes and standards. Instead, I focus on how the concept of (un)readiness might challenge dominant Western Euro-centric and neo-liberal ways of knowing and being. It is argued that refractive thinking allows a nuanced and fluid approach to aspects of teacher readiness such as teacher positionality, identity, and pedagogy. Embracing (un)readiness opens spaces for imaginative, creative and deeply thoughtful practice with children. It also offers possibilities for a deepening resistance to the neoliberal discourses within ECE in Aotearoa.Item The Three Strands of Teamwork: Learning, Dialogue and Trust(Private Entity "Center of Excellence", 2025-04-07) Youngs, HowardTeamwork requires intentional effort on a daily basis. It may flourish when school leaders, team leaders and teachers intentionally position themselves as learners so team learning may occur. One approach to enhancing teamwork in teacher teams is through collaborative inquiry, provided the three strands of teamwork mutually support each other through day-to-day practice. These strands are learning, dialogue and trust. Работа в команде требует ежедневных целенаправленных усилий. Она может быть успешной, когда руководители школ, лидеры групп и учителя намеренно позиционируют себя как обучающихся, что позволяет им учиться в команде. Одним из подходов к улучшению командной работы в учительском коллективе является совместное исследование при условии, что три составляющие командной работы взаимно дополняют друг друга в повседневной практике. Этими составляющими являются обучение, диалог и доверие. Командалық жұмыс күнделікті жоспарланған іс-әрекеттерді қажет етеді. Ол мектеп басшылары, топ көшбасшылары және мұғалімдер командалық оқытуды қамтамасыз ету үшін білім алушы ретінде әрекет еткен кезде табысты болады. Мұғалімдер ұжымындағы командалық жұмысты жетілдіру тәсілдерінің бірі – командалық жұмыстың үш құрамдас бөлігі күнделікті тәжірибеде бірін-бірі толықтыруын қамтамасыз ете отырып бірлескен зерттеу жүргізу. Командалық жұмыстың құрамдас бөліктері – оқу, диалог және сенім.Item Editorial: Teachers’ Work in Aotearoa New Zealand’s Changing Policyscape(Faculty of Education, University of Canterbury, 2025-06-30) Cook, Helena; Teschers, Christoph; Devine, Nesta; Couch, Daniel; Jones, Kay-LeeIt is not easy to be an educator in 2025 in Aotearoa New Zealand. Amidst a variety of pressures, many educators continue to see their role as not merely a job but rather a privilege to guide, support, and empower future generations. However, while teaching is never ‘easy’, it seems that attacks on education, educators, and widely shared values in education such as equity, fairness, and a commitment to Te Tiriti o Waitangi have been relentless in the policyscape over the last 12-18 months. Looking back at the past two editorials in Teachers’ Work, we critiqued the progressing privatisation and commercialisation of education (Couch et al., 2024), and the ongoing attempts of the current government to undermine Te Tiriti o Waitangi as a foundational document of our government and society (Jones et al., 2024). As Alwyn Poole opines in The Post (Poole, 2025), our education system appears to be in decline on multiple levels and none of the recent successive governments have made any substantial inroads that would address key issues, such as “an overworked and under-appreciated teaching profession; a general over-reliance on market-driven policy; a culture of testing, measurement and accountability; ongoing equity and access issues; and a lack of urgency in preparing students for the 21st century” (Baker, 2023, p. 14). Although one can argue that much has changed in recent years, these issues remain or indeed are being exacerbated.Item Reweaving Practice: The Challenges and Opportunities for Overseas-trained Teachers in Aotearoa(Massey University: Institute of Education and the Early Years Research Lab, 2025-07-16) Ong, PatriciaThis opinion piece explores the complex journey of overseas-trained teachers (OTTs) entering New Zealand's early childhood education (ECE) sector. While these educators bring diverse professional experience and cultural capital, they face significant challenges aligning their practices with Te Whāriki and bicultural commitments grounded in Te Tiriti o Waitangi. This piece critiques current induction systems, highlighting gaps in cultural mentoring and relational support. It calls for a reimagined induction process that emphasises culturally sustaining pedagogies, iwi partnerships, and reflective practice. The paper advocates for reweaving rather than merely integrating OTTs’ knowledge into Aotearoa’s unique educational fabric, emphasising the transformative potential of well-supported international educators in strengthening culturally inclusive learning environments.Item The Price of Milk: Dairy Farming as Colonialism in Aotearoa New Zealand(University of Wollongong Library, 2025-07-02) Tulloch, LynleyThis paper critically analyses the history and culture of dairy production in Aotearoa New Zealand through a historical-materialist approach. It is argued that the violence of settler colonisation in Aotearoa New Zealand is pervasive and multifaceted. In historicizing the production and ideological maintenance of pastoralism and dairy farming in Aotearoa New Zealand, I argue that this has resulted in ongoing interspecies violence. A decolonial perspective is adopted, focusing on how pastoralism was the bedrock for animal agriculture and the alienation of Māori from their land and ways of being. The first part of this paper explores the development and growth of dairying in Aotearoa New Zealand, arguing that this was enabled in large part due to the confiscation of Māori land by the British colonial government. Following this, insights from postcolonial theory and critical animal studies are applied to examine the ongoing effects of capitalist colonisation and dairy expansion on the environment, the cows themselves, and Māori. Critical discourse analysis is then employed to explore dominant colonial ideologies of dairy farming that have persisted into the present day.Item Mapping Affect in Critical Moments of Schooling for Disenfranchised Students(Informa UK Limited, 2025-07-13) Bruce, Judy; Schoone, Adrian; Turner-Adams, Hana; Piggot-Irvine, EileenStudents disenfranchised from school have something important to teach us about how the education system might be shaped more equitably. Currently, meta-narratives of student failures and pathologies prevail and are reinforced by dominant behaviourist teaching practices. In this action research project, we sought to understand how teachers might inquire with students about critical moments from their past schooling experiences. Working within Alternative Education settings, students and teachers inquired together using a variety of mediated arts-based methods. In our analysis, I-poems illuminated the power of affective spaces to shape student identities. We identified that affect and disenfranchisement were connected through lived schooling experiences of shame, exclusion and racism. In addition to critical moments, we identified there were microaggressions in the everyday of schooling experiences, and we explored the healing power of microaffirmations in student–teacher relationships through the practices of emergent listening and relational pedagogy. Students’ affective storytelling and the analysis from this research invites us to suspend our attachment to dominant behaviourist approaches and modern, industrial concepts of schooling and consider alternatives. We invite educators to consider alternative approaches to student–teacher relationships by leaning into lessons taught from students in this research.Item The Witches’ Road: Representations of Queer Spirituality in Agatha All Along(Popular Culture Association, 16/04/2025) Cameron, YaelIn this paper I encounter Agatha and her coven in, Agatha All Along, through a critical lens that has religious mythologies and queer/lesbian spirituality in focus. Here we navigate the queer feminist representations of characters in Agatha all Along as these interweave with neopagan spiritualities and at the same time resist patriarchal ideologies regarding gender and sexuality that have been shaped by forces within Christianity (such as those surfacing in contemporary evangelical Christian politics). The Witches’ Road is thus imagined here as a counter-story—a rereading of Eve in the Garden of Eden, where she, this time, makes a series of ritual escapes from the heteronormative and oppressive legislature of Christo-patriarchy. Brought along in the telling is the historic denigration of the Witch in Christianity, in relation to current denigrations of powerful women and the queer community in politics. In this kind of re-inscription—as—resistance we draw inspiration from Hélène Cixous’s “Laugh of the Medusa,” and Illa, that offers a feminist method of rereading and reinscribing narratives that have oppressed and caricatured women. What is offered in place, is the possibility of tracing the shadow-woman that lies beneath the religious text, that surfaces tangibly in the mythology of Agatha All Along. I journey with Cixous towards the possibility of a rewriting/rereading the narrative of this woman, tracing Eve and Agatha’s escape from patriarchal dystopias of past and present.Item The Space Between Us: Developing an Ethics of Care in Duoethnography(SAGE Publications, 2024-05-21) Hunting, Amabel; Hammond, KayDuoethnography involves engaging in a personal critical dialogue between two people about a shared experience for the purpose of personal and social transformation. Research involving people usually requires prior formal ethical approval; however, in duoethnography where the researchers are also the participants, many have chosen not to do so due to the situated and ongoing nature of the ethical relationship. Instead, they report generally on the ethical principles enacted in their method. Embarking on our first duoethnography, we experienced conflicting perspectives between applying for formal ethical approval to guide us and autonomously negotiating our own ethics of care. By sharing our divergent experiences of obtaining formal ethical approval, we offer our stories as a springboard for provocations and guidance on the unique ethical considerations for future duoethnographers. Ethical principles include understanding the relationship dynamics, commitment to the project, vulnerabilities, consent and confidentiality, and working with differences.Item Decolonizing the Colonizer: The Role of the Non-indigenous Educator Teaching in Hawai’i and Aotearoa(Auckland University of Technology (AUT) Library, 2025-03-26) Worchel, JessicaThis research study set out to identify how Teacher Education Programs in Hawai’i and Aotearoa can support processes to decolonize and indigenize mainstream education, and what roles non-Indigenous kumu/kaiako (educators) might play in supporting Indigenous resurgence. The research weaves together Indigenous and Western theories and methodologies to demonstrate a culturally pluralistic approach with the intent of honouring and upholding the mana of the people and places where the research was conducted, meet the guidelines of academic study, and represent this researcher’s positionality and passions. The Indigenous Empowerment Theory (IET) developed by Keaomālamalama (Kawaiʻaeʻa et al., 2018) was used to guide the literature review and provide a framework for the historical analysis of education systems in Hawai’i and Aotearoa with a focus on colonization, decolonization, indigenization, and allyship. Interviews were conducted with 21 Indigenous education leaders from Hawai’i and Aotearoa to gather responses to the research questions from a Hawaiian and Māori perspective. Through the analysis of the interviews, it was found that the introductions were so rich in context that they were used to offer an oral literature review, or first-hand narratives, to enhance the literature review. The interview analysis also revealed the metaphor of a three-whiri wahakura (three-braid harakeke bassinet) to serve as the methodological framework and metaphor for the findings. This presentation will provide a high-level overview of the research process that led to the creation of the wahakura methodology, present the findings of the study via a framework to decolonize and indigenize mainstream teacher education in Hawai’i and Aotearoa, and discuss the concept of transformational allyship, which starts with turning the gaze inward and asking, “Who am I in this place?”Item Hopepunk(RCUB, 2025-06-17) Pascoe, JoannaItem Cracks in the Trophy Cabinet: Confronting Inequity in a Historically Segregated School(SAGE Publications, 2025-05-24) Drake, MelanieThis case explores the leadership journey of a new principal, Miss Joel, in a historically segregated South African primary school. Navigating systemic inequities and diverse stakeholder expectations, Miss Joel leverages community engagement and crisis response to drive transformation. The case highlights tensions between tradition and inclusion, the challenges of confronting long-standing biases, and the opportunities for growth through transformative leadership. This case invites global educational leaders to explore equity, inclusion, and adaptive leadership strategies within complex historical legacies.Item Wobble Moments: Dialoguing With Ethical Ambiguity in Social Networks(Addleton Academic Publishers, 2025-05-01) Westbrook, FionaSocial networks offer researchers unique access to communities and topics of interest, but they also present complex ethical dilemmas that can unsettle traditional research paradigms. While there have been guidelines specifically developed to ethically assist researcher considerations on these platforms, the plethora of ambiguous complexities in online encounters is difficult to attend to. These uncertainties, which expand beyond the parameters of existing guidelines, can evoke the researcher ‘wobble moments.’ A suspending of certainty, prompted by events not easily thought of in advance that cause hesitancy and unease. Employing ‘wobble moments’ as a framework, this paper shares a series of ethical tensions the author encountered when researching in social networks. By thinking, reflecting and responding to these wobbles, the equilibrium of ‘appropriate’ ethical conduct is unsettled. When dialogued, these moments signal significant occurrences that are filled with uncertainty and simultaneous possibilities. The paper contends these moments can refine and rethink what constitutes ‘good’ ethical practices, evoking (re)newed pathways and nuanced considerations when ethically researching in social networks. Embracing the wobbly complexities in place of hierarchical and colonial steeped values, researchers can develop more collaborative and responsive ethical practices, better serving the communities they engage with.Item Teaching Practices, Self-Efficacy and the Physical Activity Environment in Aotearoa, New Zealand Early Childhood Education Centres(SAGE Publications, 2025-06-09) Pirie, Wendy; Gibbons, Andrew; Duncan, Scott; Jones, Rachel; Bruijns, Brianne; Tucker, Patricia; Harris, NigelEarly Childhood Education (ECE) has potential to influence physical activity levels and participation among children. Factors include early childhood educator’s teaching practices, self-efficacy and quality of the movement environment. A cross-sectional study of early childhood teachers’ self-reported, self-efficacy using online Early Childhood Educator Confidence in Outdoor Movement, Physical Activity, Sedentary and Screen Behaviours (ECE-COMPASS) Questionnaire and ECE movement environment from Movement Environment Rating Scale (MOVERS) was assessed. Descriptive statistics were conducted to analyse data. Early childhood teachers (n = 42) rated (means [SD]) for task (7.2 ± 2.3) and barrier (7.0 ± 2.5) self-efficacy (out of 10). ECE (n = 6) movement environment quality (out of 7); 1 (4.0 ± 1.1), 2 (4.0 ± 0.4), 3 (3.8 ± 0.6), 4 (4.0 ± 0.6) and overall total score (4.0 ± 0.3). Early childhood teachers rate themselves as self-efficacious in delivering physical activity; however, quality of the movement environment was adequate.