New Zealand Journal of Teachers' Work
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Twenty years of resistance
Full text linkA personal reflection of 20 years of policy and practice regarding teachers' work in Aotearoa New Zealand
Learner Agency, Dispositionality and the New Zealand Curriculum Key Competencies.
Full text linkAs more than just knowledge and skills, The New Zealand Curriculum (Ministry of Education, 2007) key competencies encompass dispositions for lifelong learning (OECD, 2005). A range of studies associate learner agency within the dispositions that are embedded in these key competencies (Carr, 2004; Hipkins, 2010; Hipkins & Boyd, 2011). Drawn from self-determination theory (OECD, 2009; Ryan & Deci, 2000), the competencies are strongly anchored in an essentialist frame-work. Interpreted this way, competencies can be likened to a virtual backpack that students carry about and draw from at will. A discursively constituted view of identity would suggest that this is not the case. Employing Davies’ (2010) conception of a subject-of-thought, where the subject is under erasure, the paper explores what agency as dispositionality can look like when it is performatively constituted in a competence-oriented curriculum (Ministry of Education, 2007). Rather being attributed static, essentialised identities, students are co-constituted in classroom discourses. The research has implications for how educators recognise moments when students agentically mobilise personal, social and discursive resources (Davies, 1990) in the classroom. This article presents an argument for a dynamic theory of agency that incorporates a rhizomatic view of learner participation and interrupts essentialist interpretations of dispositionality. It opens up possibilities for new conceptions of key competencies as performative discursive practices
Perspectives of Lecturers on Emergency Remote Teaching during the COVID-19 Pandemic in Tertiary Education Institutions in New Zealand
Full text linkThis descriptive qualitative study explores lecturers’ perspectives on Emergency Remote Teaching (ERT) in New Zealand Tertiary Education Institutions (TEIs) during the COVID-19 pandemic crisis. Through in-depth semi-structured interviews with the five purposively selected lecturers from four TEIs, this article investigates the challenges and opportunities lecturers experienced in teaching during the pandemic. While the findings showed some opportunities that include enhanced flexibility, teacher creativity, and saving commute time to the workplace, they also demonstrate that the pandemic created three significant challenges of (i) socio-psychological, (ii) technological, and (iii) pedagogical nature. This study recommends that TEIs need to develop a crisis management action plan to mitigate teaching-learning difficulties in a similar kind of situation in the future. Additionally, TEIs could benefit by upskilling their lecturers and students to use digital literacy and virtual teaching and learning
Why Did Kath, Mary and Kim Get So Little Education (and Is There Hope for Their Children)?
Full text linkThis paper seeks to understand the reasons why there is such a strong relationship between poverty and poor child educational outcomes. It reports preliminary findings of in-depth interviews with three women who have spent most of the past five years on the DPB and live in the poorest part of Christchurch. The focus of this paper is on these women’s own education and the education of their children. All three left school before or at the minimum leaving age with no qualifications. With a range of unresolved familial issues, these young women were clearly at risk of negative life outcomes, but they reported no intervention to keep them in education. All had children at a comparatively young age. All have aspirations for their children beyond their own achievements, and see education as the key to this. However, they have few family resources to assist in the achievement of these goals. In particular, the women have quite low self-esteem which is a barrier to their aspirations. The conclusion raises some possibilities about how practitioners might intervene to prevent the children suffering the same fate as their parents
Biculturalism in Education: Haere Whakamua, Hoki Whakamuri/Going Forward, Thinking Back
Full text linkWhile references to the Treaty of Waitangi and/or biculturalism are an accepted part of the New Zealand education policy landscape, there is often a lack of consensus around the meaning, and therefore the practice implications, of the term ‘biculturalism’. This difficulty can be explained by viewing biculturalism as a discourse that has continued to change since its emergence in the 1980s. In policy texts older understandings of the term are overlaid with more recent understandings and this can contribute to uncertainty about what the term means to teachers in 2016. This is particularly challenging for teachers and school leaders as they attempt to negotiate the requirements of the Practising Teacher Criteria. Therefore, there is a need to continue engaging in discussion about the meaning of biculturalism in education in the present, looking forward, but informed by the past
Reclaiming the Ontological Over the Epistemological: A Case Study Into a New Zealand Primary School Disclosing an Embodied Culture of Teacher Inquiry
Full text linkThis article presents case study research into a New Zealand primary school enacting a very sophisticated whole school inquiry approach to enhance teacher classroom professionalism and practice. A culture of inquiry manifests as an ontological ‘way of being’ in this school community, in the daily professional interactions between the teachers and leaders. This ‘way of being’ is evident in the way teachers and leaders work together in espousing professional expertise, trust, care and support to enable teacher inquiry for improved classroom practice to flourish. In this article we present evidence in relation to three questions: (1) What does inquiry look like within this school community? (2) How was collaboration and support implicated in teacher inquiry? (3) How was teacher and leader engagement in inquiry related to meaningful shifts in teachers’ practice and learning? The research contributes to new understandings about the ontological nature of teacher inquiry by uncovering important links between school culture, teacher and leader inquiry, and embodied professional learning and practice
What is Happening to Schools and Teachers in New Zealand?
Full text linkJudged by recent media coverage, schools and teachers in New Zealand are copping a fair lashing
Anthropocentrism and Microorganisms: Implications for Biosecurity
Full text linkThe world is changing: both a conventional and a vaccine passport are now needed to travel internationally. Mask mandates, and social distancing are the new norm in a rapidly changing society. These measures were put in place to control the spread of the highly infectious and often fatal Covid-19, caused by a viral agent, a microorganism, a zoonosis, and the cause of death for over 6 million people around the world. Considering this, maintaining biosecurity is important around the world to ensure public health. Biosecurity in New Zealand supposes that people including young people understand different pests and diseases that can harm public health. This qualitative study was conducted to gauge the biosecurity knowledge of 171 young people (14–15-year-olds). Young people were tested on their knowledge about biosecurity related plants, animals, and microorganisms. This paper reports specifically on the results of knowledge of microorganisms of young people. Results show that negative anthropocentric views dominate adolescents understanding of microorganisms and anthropomorphism is widely used to explain microorganism activity. An educational programme, targeted at developing a conceptual understanding about microorganisms starting at primary education may help develop a more educated global citizen, one versed in understanding the biology of microorganisms
Whāia te iti kahurangi: A journey of pursuing aspirations for bilingual tamariki
Full text linkMy husband and I are parents of four beautiful bilingual tamariki. When our children started primary school, we chose the local school, which is very good but, at the time, the provision of te reo Māori and tikanga Māori was lacking. I am also a kaiako and academic within the realms of te reo Māori and tikanga Māori, particularly in the contexts of whānau and education. Informed by my dual role as parent and educator, this reflection shares some of our experiences throughout our children’s primary school years. I also highlight the challenges we faced in the pursuit of our aspirations. Utilising the Tātaiako: Cultural Competencies for Teachers of Māori Learners framework, I discuss the progress and shifts in attitudes regarding bicultural and bilingual teaching and learning (Education Council Aotearoa New Zealand & Ministry of Education, 2011). I conclude by sharing my vision for my future mokopuna