Teacher collaboration – Teaching & Learning Research Initiative

Contributing to change? Responding to future-focused issues through education outside the classroom

Introduction How can educational experiences in public spaces such as museums, libraries, and eco-sanctuaries support learners to address pressing social, cultural, and ecological issues? Working with four primary teachers and two secondary teachers, their ākonga (Years 3–10), and educators from 10 providers of learning experiences outside the classroom in the Wellington region, this project investigated how the cross-curricular themes of “future-focused issues” (Ministry of Education, 2007, p. 9) and active citizenship are conceptualised and enacted through education outside the classroom. It explored how ākonga relationships with people and places beyond the school environment can stimulate their engagement with wider societal concerns. The challenges ahead for our young people and Aotearoa as

Learning journeys from early childhood into school

Introduction This project focused on the transition between early childhood and school and explored ways to understand and enhance children’s learning journeys as they move between the two sectors. Transitions can be seen as an intrinsic component of life, with individuals in any society experiencing a series of passages “from one age to another and from one occupation to another” (van Gennep 1977, p. 3). Each transition point can be thought of as crossing a threshold, leaving behind the known to enter a new role, context, status, or position (Fabian, 2002). Transitions can offer both crisis and opportunity (Hörschelmann, 2011, p. 379) and the threshold phase is often a time of