New Zealand Journal of Teachers' Work
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How can digitally mediated teaching listen and care?
Full text linkLaura D'Olimpio reflects on her teaching experiences during the pandemic in a university environment in the UK, emphasising the importance of care for students in this challenging situation
School bonding, attachment, and engagement through remote learning: Fostering school connectedness
Full text linkOver 2020 and 2021 we have seen significant disruption to schooling across the world as COVID-19 forces school closures. Education sectors migrated to distance learning arrangements and teachers and students primarily communicated through digital means. Under challenging conditions, school leaders and teachers made rapid changes to pedagogy and curriculum to accommodate their students’ diverse range of learning needs. We present an interview drawn from a qualitative study undertaken in Australia to illustrate (from a teacher’s perspective) how a school response to COVID-19 integrates elements of school connectedness during the shift to distance learning. School connectedness is an umbrella term that has been theorised in many different ways. In this article, we illustrate school bonding, attachment, and engagement as three interrelated aspects of school connectedness that came to the fore during lockdown measures associated with COVID-19. Leaders, teachers, students, and school communities benefit from school connectedness. When adversity is experienced, school connectedness can be seen in the relationships between teachers, the commitment to students, and the all-important pastoral support from school leaders. Strong and supportive relationships develop through practices that support school bonding, school attachment, and school engagement
The importance of people and place: Reimagining school curriculum in Aotearoa New Zealand
Full text linkThis ecofeminist-inspired research study, influenced by an ethic of care, engaged the participants in photo-elicitation and interviews. Ecofeminism originated as a theory and movement related to women and the environment (Estévez-Saá & Lorenzo-Modia, 2018), while an ethic of care stems from relational ethics that assumes human connectedness in context (Clement, 1996; Noddings, 2013). Thematic and visual narrative analysis of collected data supported the establishment of findings. The study aimed to contribute to the idea that a place-based approach can be taken to developing a holistic, meaningful and balanced local curriculum – one that privileges a ‘sense of place’ and the relationship between humans and their environments as co-habitors
Proposing a Holistic Inclusive Education Model for Policy, Curriculum and Classroom Development
Full text linkThe notions of inclusion and diversity have seen an increased used in a wide variety of areas in public debate and policy, and are widely used in educational documents in New Zealand and international since the UNESCO Salamanca Statement in 1994. What is meant by inclusion and diversity in many of these context is often rather unclear, however. The discourse of inclusion could be described as having become the standard for political correctness in official language, without always consequently reflecting on and applying the implications that the use of inclusive language implies. This includes educational settings such as schools and centres, but also government policies that use inclusive language and promote inclusion. It seems, however, that many centres and policies still operate under a mainstreaming/integration discourse mind-set. In educational philosophy and theory, the notion of inclusion and inclusive education has been discussed widely and many aspects relevant to inclusive practices have been discussed in depth. What seems in need of further attention are broader models and frameworks that capture the range of aspects involved and the complexity of inclusive education in theory and practice. One such model that focuses on five aspects of inclusive education will be introduced in this article and discussed how this model could support policy, curriculum and classroom decision making
Intercultural practicum: Perceptual learning through video in the pandemic context
Full text linkIn our work with Australian initial teacher education (ITE) students our emphasis is on encouraging students to understand different cultural practices. Drawing on narrative reflection, we discuss intercultural and pedagogical concerns in which ITE students undertake international practicums. We recognise these students have a predominantly Western lens when undertaking practicums in Asian countries. To address this issue a video A Day in the Life… of Tamil School Children (https://youtu.be/vPdiogRR-Ig) in India was produced to change, improve and help students learn about the social and cultural environment of the ‘international student’. Students who took part in previous international practicums agreed that the video was an effective tool for cultural familiarisation. During this time of COVID-19 with travel restrictions abroad, the video resource serves as an effective visual pedagogy to build cultural understanding, embrace diversity, enable perceptual learning and empowering students to cultivate intercultural understandings of ‘the other’
Dialogic reflection for social justice - He Anga Huritao: Titiro whakamuri, kokiri whakamua. Look back and reflect so we can move forward.
No full textCritical reflection is the cornerstone of teacher education and professional learning and there are countless models to support and refine the practice of critical reflection. This paper forms a narrative critique of the authors’ bespoke framework for critical reflection-on action, created to support the gradual transformation of trainee and beginning teachers working in New Zealand communities that are characterised by rich diversity. Entitled ‘He Anga Huritao’ (a framework for reflection), the framework draws from literature pertaining to both critical reflection and education for social justice, placing emphasis on tuakana-teina (or mentor/mentee) relationships. This framework was created following the analysis of how critical reflection was experienced by beginning secondary trainee teachers in employment-based Initial Teacher Education. Following investigation of the application of this framework with individual considerations at each stage, this paper concludes with recommendations for practitioners interested in applying He Anga Huritao to their practice or setting. This paper is to the interest of New Zealand teachers and school leaders, involved in using critical reflection as a tool for social justice to support the transformation of teaching practice. In reading this paper educators will develop a sense of the particular need for critical reflection to transform teaching practice towards social justice and be provided with a tool with which to do so
Responsive Teaching in Primary Mathematics: Linking current theory to practice and planning
Full text linkAbstract:
Facilitating a more responsive style of teaching in primary mathematics has implications for not only teaching practice, but also for how we plan for our learners. Grouping decisions, task selection and teacher confidence in mathematical content are important considerations when developing inquiring mathematical communities. This article introduces some core elements of current theory for primary teachers who want to include inquiry principles in their mathematics program and increase their confidence levels when teaching primary mathematics. Teaching practices that promote learner agency are identified, followed by a planning process that allows for the flexibility required for responsive teaching and also encourages teachers to critically engage in mathematical content as they plan for their learners.
Key Points:
Responsive teaching in mathematics requires teachers to be more flexible with their teaching in primary mathematics than ever before.
Current theory on how children best learn mathematics – learner agency, grouping, task selection and implications on planning
Planning maths content collaboratively can help teachers grow confidence to choose rich tasks for their own learner
Socially relevant curriculum: Cultural otherness, racism and religion
Full text linkSocially relevant curriculum and the importance of opening up spaces for negotiation and meaning making to occur are increasingly common ideas in my academic writing. This article reports on student teachers making meaning in an online discussion forum in the aftermath of the terrorist massacre at Christchurch mosques in Aotearoa New Zealand last year. Dominant discourses and critical questions are highlighted for teachers in early childhood and tertiary education settings about religion, racism and cultural otherness. The central argument is that these issues are highly pertinent to us all: they speak to the things that matter in all of our lives at this time, and in this space and place. Cultural otherness, anti-racism, spirituality and religion are fundamental to contemporary socially relevant curriculum. Courageous teachers committed to a more socially just world need to facilitate learning about these issues in ‘age-appropriate’ ways.
 
Teaching together: Reflections on developing a collaborative approach to pedagogy within a tertiary teaching team
Full text linkIn this reflection, we discuss our experience of engaging in collaborative teaching underpinned by principles of democratic pedagogy in a new bachelor degree aimed at leadership for social action. By collectively developing a common pedagogical framework for a select group of core courses within the degree, our intent was to provide a consistent and coherent approach to teaching and learning. Here, we share some of the opportunities and challenges that we experienced on our journey of teaching together, including questions regarding our responsibilities to one another as educators, and the complexities of practicing democratic pedagogy.