Donna O’Donnell (New Zealand School of Tourism), Mark Orams and Heike Schänzel (Auckland University of Technology) Have you ever thought about organising an international study tour? Ever wondered what was involved? A study trip can be very exciting for all those involved, but it can also be challenging, particularly for the teachers who organises the trip. In Aotearoa New Zealand teachers are encouraged to be creative and explore educational experiences outside the classroom, including taking students overseas. While many studies focus on the benefits of travelling overseas to ignite student ..read more

Zhenlin Wang, Massey University In an early childhood classroom, the teacher is playing a number game with the kids. “I’ll hold up a card with a number on it, whoever can tell me what number it is gets a prize,” the teacher tells the class. She asks one of the kids, Andy, to be her “helper” handing out the prizes. There is one tiny problem though: Andy does not know numbers. He gives a prize to whoever shouts out a number first. The teacher reminds Andy that he should only give the prizes to those who get the number correctly. Andy responds: “It doesn’t matter. They know the answer.” Young chi ..read more

Kate Rhodes and Dr. Dianne Forbes, University of Waikato In our efforts to prioritise literacy and numeracy skills and eliminate distractions through banning cell phones, we must ensure that we’re not neglecting the development of essential digital fluency skills among students. In today’s society, proficiency in digital technology is crucial for success in many jobs and for navigating the complexities of the digital world responsibly and with a critical lens. As teacher educators, we have observed a concerning lack of digital fluency among students, despite the assumption that young people ar ..read more

Katrina McChesney (Te Whare Wānanga o Waikato / The University of Waikato) and Kirsten Locke (Waipapa Taumata Rau / The University of Auckland) With any new government come new priorities and a series of trade-offs: some things are stopped or let go of to allow focus and resourcing to fall in other areas. Aotearoa New Zealand’s tertiary education sector, however, has additional internal pressures forcing trade-offs and tensions that are further compounded by governmental shifts. Speaking recently to the Education and Workforce Select Committee, Tertiary Education Commission (TEC) CEO Tim Fowle ..read more

Tracy Giacon (Matua Kindergarten). Kaiako are a crucial part of the ECE environment.  It is our responsibility to be knowledgeable about the identity, learning and development of tamariki through thoughtful and intentional practice. We plan and conceptualise a curriculum that grows cultural competency and diversity, giving agency to tamariki and enhancing their mana. Applying the lens of He Awa Whiria has helped the kaiako at Matua Kindergarten to braid Māori and Western knowledge in their practice. From Hikairo Schema to He Awa Whiria In 2021, our kaiako of Matua Kindergarten attend ..read more

Lindsay Fish (Bethlehem Tertiary Institute), Jae Major (University of Canterbury) & Whetuu Nathan (Ako Mātātupu – Teach First NZ) Providing high quality educative mentoring for pre-service and newly qualified teachers is an entrenched challenge in the education sector. Mentoring is a foundational component in teacher education; however, we know that not all pre-service teachers experience the kind of rich, supportive mentoring that creates a firm foundation for professional learning and growth. Teacher mentoring has been written about repeatedly here in Aotearoa New Zealand (including on t ..read more

Dr Mengnan Li and Dr Mohamed Alansari, New Zealand Council for Educational Research Moving from traditional single-cell classrooms to innovative learning environment (ILEs) can be exciting but also challenging. In Aotearoa New Zealand, there’s been some recent explorations into how professional learning and development (PLD) supports teachers in ILEs. But here’s the thing: not many studies have delved into how teachers’ own perspectives on their teaching and the support they receive impact their experiences in those spaces. What’s more, we’re missing out on understanding how school ..read more

Thank you for being part of our community as you read the Ipu Kererū blog posts during 2023. Our top 10 blog posts of 2023 were written by teachers, post-graduate education students, academics in education and educational researchers. These posts reflect the diverse readership of Ipu Kererū and the membership of NZARE. If you would like to know more about NZARE, our educational research blog, or our name, Ipu Kererū, keep reading to the bottom. But before you do, spend some time reading the 10 most-read blog posts of 2023. These blog posts touch on many aspects of the compulsary educ ..read more

Daniel Couch, The University of Sydney New Zealand Journal of Educational Studies Associate and Book Review Editor As has become a summer tradition, this blog revisits the book reviews published in the New Zealand Journal of Educational Studies (NZARE’s official journal, published by Springer Education) during 2023. Below, this blog adapts short sections of each published review and links to both the full reviews themselves as well as distributors for these titles. Book reviews are a highly important part of academic engagement. Reviews of new books are published in each issue of NZJES. The re ..read more

Elizabeth Polley, Open Polytechnic / Te Pūkenga For a long time, I have been interested in the power relations that might occur in student and lecturer mentoring relationships. As a lecturer of Open Polytechnic / Te Pūkenga, mentoring students during their Initial Teacher Education (ITE) programme for early childhood education (ECE) is part of my role. The role involves supporting students throughout the three-year ECE degree, including practicum visits. I felt bothered by what I considered to be power disparities in the relationships between myself and the students when attending student teac ..read more