Diversity students – Teaching & Learning Research Initiative

Strengthening belonging and identity of refugee and immigrant children through early childhood education

Introduction This project explored the role of early childhood education (ECE) and pedagogical strategies in supporting a sense of belonging and identity for refugee and immigrant children and families in Aotearoa New Zealand. We used a design-based research methodology in four culturally diverse ECE settings to develop and trial theories and strategies about how ECE can deliberately encourage refugee and immigrant children to connect with their home countries, sustain their cultural identity, and simultaneously live within and contribute to Aotearoa New Zealand. We analysed the affordances of drawing, storytelling and play, and of teacher engagement with children, parents, and whānau, for constructing pathways to belonging in Aotearoa New Zealand. The research

Using a wellbeing framework to recognise, value and enhance the broad range of outcomes for learners in adult literacy and numeracy programmes

Aotearoa New Zealand’s attention to adult literacy and numeracy (L+N) education arose from the results of the OECD / Statistics Canada International Literacy surveys begun in the mid-1990s, when, as a nation, we achieved unexpectedly low results for L+N proficiency. The Government responded with an adult L+N strategy (Ministry of Education, 2001) that spellt out initiatives in building professional capability for delivery, improving the quality of the system, and ensuring that larger numbers of learners could access L+N learning. Over the next 10 years, further measures were included, such as credentialising tutors, expanded funding for educational provision, a national literacy centre housed in the University of Waikato, a national set of

Generating positive outcomes by Year 5 to 8 priority learners in writing: An inquiry into effective teacher practice

1. Writing: The issue to be addressed Writing is a demanding, multidimensional process that is, cognitively and socially, highly complex. Success in writing is vital to success in education and in the workforce (Graham, Capizzi, Harris, Hebert, & Morphy, 2014). Writing is increasingly used to demonstrate learning through schooling and has the potential to contribute toward understanding and learning in the content areas (Bangert-Drowns, Hurley, & Wilkinson, 2004). Beyond school, it is an integral part of students’ everyday lives as they participate in the world of texting, blogging, and social networking. In the workplace, it is a threshold skill for hiring and promotion amongst many workers. New Zealand-based data on success

Children’s working theories about identity, language, and culture –
O faugamanatu a fanau e sa’ili ai o latou fa’asinomaga, gagana ma aganu’u

Introduction Ma’au i lou ofaga, maua’a i lou faasinomaga. Keep your identity alive to thrive. This 2-year collaborative research project focused on young children’s working theories about identity, language, and culture, how early childhood teachers can nurture and encourage this learning, and how this in turn impacts on children’s participation in early childhood education (ECE) communities. The project builds on a previous Teaching and Learning Research Initiative (TLRI) project that explored children’s working theories in action in five Playcentres in Canterbury (Davis & Peters, 2011). That project showed ways children express and develop working theories, how practitioners understand these, and how best to respond to this learning (Davis & Peters, 2011).

Shifting conceptualisations of knowledge and learning in the integration of the New Zealand Curriculum in teacher education: A meta-ethnography

Introduction The Teaching and Learning Research Initiative (TLRI) project Shifting Conceptualisations of Knowledge and Learning in the Integration of the New Zealand Curriculum (NZC) in Teacher Education comprises a collection of case studies and a meta-analysis across the contributing case studies. The case studies describe individual teacher educators’ personal journeys as they engaged with ideas relating to epistemological understandings and the NZC and their reports on pedagogical initiatives and associated practitioner research that they undertook in the context of their work in initial teacher education (ITE) and teacher professional learning (TPL). These case studies are reported separately as part of the project research portfolio. The meta-analysis across these case studies is

Investigating responses to diversity in a secondary environment

Aims, objectives and research questions Introduction Linwood College is an urban, co-educational, decile 2 school with a roll of 880 students from Years 9–13. Its student population is diverse in many ways: culture, race, academic ability, attitude to schooling, home socioeconomic status, personality and personal interests, and ability to cope with instructional English. In terms of ethnicity, the students are predominantly European New Zealanders, Mäori, and Pasifika. The school also has international students from Asia, South and North America, Africa, and Europe. The college delivers a broad curriculum, inline with national requirements, and caters for students across the academic and social spectra. In its strategic vision and its policy statements the

Strengthening belonging and identity of refugee and immigrant children through early childhood education

Using a wellbeing framework to recognise, value and enhance the broad range of outcomes for learners in adult literacy and numeracy programmes

Generating positive outcomes by Year 5 to 8 priority learners in writing: An inquiry into effective teacher practice

Children’s working theories about identity, language, and culture – O faugamanatu a fanau e sa’ili ai o latou fa’asinomaga, gagana ma aganu’u

Shifting conceptualisations of knowledge and learning in the integration of the New Zealand Curriculum in teacher education: A meta-ethnography

Investigating responses to diversity in a secondary environment

Children’s working theories about identity, language, and culture –
O faugamanatu a fanau e sa’ili ai o latou fa’asinomaga, gagana ma aganu’u