Zealand Education System Research Articles

Basic Education in New Zealand and Its Enlightenment to Education in China

This paper mainly introduces the basic education in New Zealand and its enlightenment to the education in our country. The basic education in New Zealand is divided into primary and secondary school stages, and the types of schools include public, private, semi-public and semi-private, and special schools. Its subject education covers the cultivation of knowledge, skills and values, focusing on the personalized development and holistic education of students. The basic education of the Maori people has also achieved remarkable results. The New Zealand education system has the advantages of emphasizing individuality, equality and inclusiveness, the comprehensiveness of the curriculum, and the emphasis on the cultivation of practical abilities. The enlightenment to China includes attaching importance to personalized education, creating an equal and inclusive educational environment, setting up comprehensive courses, and strengthening the cultivation of practical abilities.

Teacher collaboration and innovative learning spaces in New Zealand

ABSTRACT The changing architectural design of the spaces where schooling occurs can impact on the types of pedagogical practices that were once solely viewed within the traditional single teacher classroom. Innovative learning environments are being built where there can be multiple teachers with larger cohorts of students. This may provide more opportunities for collaboration amongst teachers which may enhance learning opportunities. This New Zealand study looks at the views of ten primary school teachers in innovative learning environments and the results from a national survey in regard to primary teachers’ and principals’ perceptions on teacher collaboration and innovative learning environments. Specifically, we highlight the views of principals and teachers situated within the New Zealand education system and the range of views they bring to this change to the types of differing structural spaces of learning and teaching. The findings suggest that a continuing challenge for teachers is the level of noise and the wide range of distractions within innovative learning environment. The attitudes and adaptability of teachers to adjust to change, and their opportunities for professional development to prepare for this change are key influential factors.

Encountering the Face of Tū-mata-uenga: The Educational Experiences of Rangatahi Māori Apprehended for Offending

Marginalised and ousted from the New Zealand education system, 70% of youths apprehended for offending and appearing in a New Zealand Youth Court or Rangatahi Court experiencing complex needs are not engaged in education, employment, or training (Oranga Tamariki, Oranga Tamariki. (2020). Quarterly report—September 2020). This article reports findings from a broader PhD study investigating the educational experiences of 10 rangatahi Māori (Māori youth) aged 15–17 years apprehended for serious youth offending and excluded from mainstream education. Drawing on mātauranga Māori (Māori knowledge) and kaupapa Māori, notions of indigenous resilience are used to unpack the rangatahi Māori participants’ responses to negative educational experiences in the mainstream English medium secondary school education system. This article posits that resilience was evident when the rangatahi Māori exercised tino rangatiratanga (sovereignty) through boldness (a characteristic of Tū-mata-uenga the guardian of war), resistance and liminality to reject educational spaces where they perceived they were underserved, discriminated against, and marginalised. Changing the negative Māori student exclusion and disengagement statistics in mainstream education is critical. To address the exclusion statistics, classroom practitioners could be more responsive to rangatahi Māori experiencing complex needs by recognising their experiences and understanding their responses to those experiences. Understanding how resilience as resistance, liminality, and boldness is understood within te ao Māori (the Māori world) perspectives will enable a more culturally responsive approach to working with these rangatahi Māori in mainstream education.

HIGH-EDUCATED WORKFORCE MIGRATION: CASE STUDY OF NEW ZEALAND

Research and education opportunities in New Zealand are very high. The country has educational institutions of international popularity with a wide variety of world-class programs. The appeal of New Zealand's education system is further enhanced by scholarships and funding options for overseas students. Highly educated individuals seeking to advance their academic and professional goals are invited to the stimulating research environment created by collaborative research initiatives, alliances with industry, and access to cutting-edge facilities and resources. Because of these attractive factors, New Zealand has become a desirable destination for highly educated workers. First of all, the country's high quality of life and work-life balance is a major attraction for professionals. New Zealand offers a unique lifestyle due to its stunning natural scenery, energetic cities and strong focus on leisure activities. The aim of this study is to examine the phenomenon of highly educated workers migrating, sometimes called brain gain or brain drain, in relation to New Zealand. It examines the pull factors from their home country, the pull factors that attract highly educated people to New Zealand, and the effects of this migration on both their homeland and New Zealand. The research also looks at the idea of brain gain through return migration and how overseas students impact the local labour market. Government actions and initiatives aimed at retaining highly educated workers and maximizing the advantages of migration are also covered. By assessing these factors, the research provides insight into the dynamics of highly educated worker migration in New Zealand.

Effective teaching for Pasifika learners – know me, teach me!

Some Pacific learners are achieving very well in both primary and secondary schooling, but the system is failing many Pacific learners. An area that requires further development, therefore, within the New Zealand education system is for education to be more responsive to the diversity of its learners. That said, for teaching to be effective, teacher practice and pedagogy must be responsive to all learners. This article serves to explore what effective teaching for Pasifika learners looks like using three policy documents to analyse the journey. Employing discourse analysis, I examine the complexities of the policy documents and its nuances regarding Pasifika learners.

The equity I see is different for you and me

In our positions as Māori and Pasifika wāhine educators, Matalena Tuiloma (Samoan, Tuvaluan) and Kay-Lee Jones (Te Whānau a Kai, Te Aitanga a Māhaki, Ngāti Porou), we have a range of roles in supporting our families and communities, as well as our work within the education system. These roles can seem, at times, all consuming, yet our sense of purpose towards betterment for our peoples is at the heart of what we do. Pūrākau (storytelling) and talanoa (conversation, sharing of ideas) were the methods used to express our journeys as Māori and Pasifika wāhine navigating the Aotearoa New Zealand education system. We are mothers, teachers and past students. We advocate for equitable outcomes for our ākonga (students) and their families, which often entails being the Māori or Pasifika representative in a range of spheres. What we prioritise and deem important as Māori or Pasifika female educators is often quite different to many of our non-Māori or non-Pasifika counterparts.

The realization of Pasifika success when schools de-silo Pacific students’ lives: “Pasifika mo Pasifika”

Despite the Ministry of Education Statement of Intent 2021–2026 to focus on improving equity for Māori and Pacific learners and ensure education opportunities and outcomes are within reach for every learner, these groups remain a concern in the New Zealand education system. Inequity still exists for Māori and Pacific learners. This article explores one school’s journey towards a culturally sustaining pedagogy, the de-siloing of the lives of their Pasifika students, and a re-indigenisation of the curriculum to better reflect the preexisting ways of knowing of tangata moana in order to truly achieve equitable outcomes.

Evaluating the effectiveness of technological pedagogical content knowledge-based training program in enhancing pre-service teachers’ perceptions of technological pedagogical content knowledge

In this study, we sought to investigate the effect of a 2-week Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK)-based training program on how the pre-service teachers’ TPACK was perceived. To achieve the goal, we used four TPACK activities; Explore-Engage-Reflection-Transformation. The study employed mixed methods with a TPACK questionnaire and open questions. Increased self-efficacy perceptions of TPACK was evaluated using a one-group pre-post-post research design. The sample was 30 pre-service teachers (5 male; 25 female) at a public university in Indonesia. Paired t-test was used to examine the significant difference between pretest and posttest scores and Cohen’s d was calculated to check the strength of the effect size. As a result, the paired t-test showed that the posttest scores were significantly higher than the pretest scores for all TPACK dimensions with large effect sizes. In addition, qualitative data from students’ reflections were analyzed. It found that pre-service teachers understand the role of technology integration in the TPACK framework for creating meaningful learning experiences. Participants reflected on the role as assessment for, and as learning. Professional learning from the New Zealand education system was introduced within a holistic framework to stimulate students to be creative future-directed teachers and agents of change. This indicates that the present training program increased the pre-service teachers’ perceptions of TPACK at the end of the training. We suggest that TPACK training programs that facilitate how pre-service teachers integrate technology, content, and pedagogy to create effective technology-enriched learning environments in their subjects should be included in teacher education programs.

Entropy of Co-Enrolment Networks Reveal Disparities in High School STEM Participation.

The current study uses a network analysis approach to explore the STEM pathways that students take through their final year of high school in Aotearoa New Zealand. By accessing individual-level microdata from New Zealand’s Integrated Data Infrastructure, we are able to create a co-enrolment network comprised of all STEM assessment standards taken by students in New Zealand between 2010 and 2016. We explore the structure of this co-enrolment network though use of community detection and a novel measure of entropy. We then investigate how network structure differs across sub-populations based on students’ sex, ethnicity, and the socio-economic-status (SES) of the high school they attended. Results show the structure of the STEM co-enrolment network differs across these sub-populations, and also changes over time. We find that, while female students were more likely to have been enrolled in life science standards, they were less well represented in physics, calculus, and vocational (e.g., agriculture, practical technology) standards. Our results also show that the enrollment patterns of Asian students had lower entropy, an observation that may be explained by increased enrolments in key science and mathematics standards. Through further investigation of differences in entropy across ethnic group and high school SES, we find that ethnic group differences in entropy are moderated by high school SES, such that sub-populations at higher SES schools had lower entropy. We also discuss these findings in the context of the New Zealand education system and policy changes that occurred between 2010 and 2016.

Improving educational inclusion for refugee-background learners through appreciation of diversity

ABSTRACT A refugee crisis is taking place as an unprecedented number of people, half of whom are under the age of 18, become displaced following conflict and persecution in their home countries. In the Aotearoa 1 New Zealand context refugees will continue to be welcomed, so it is important for schools and the wider education system to support inclusion of refugee-background learners. Enabling them the opportunity to participate meaningfully with education, and experience academic and social success, will support positive future outcomes and minimise marginalisation. In this research, a mixed-methods design explored the factors influencing inclusion of a small cohort of refugee-background learners in the Aotearoa New Zealand education system. Sixteen secondary school participants completed an online survey, with three engaging further in semi-structured interviews allowing them the opportunity to voice their experiences in their own words. Recognition and valuing of diversity were identified as key features positively contributing to inclusion and a sense of belonging for these learners. They reported experiencing greater feelings of inclusion when the school environment acknowledged their diverse backgrounds and their ability to navigate multiple cultures. The findings from this study enhance our understanding of the factors that impact the participation, belonging and learning of refugee-background learners in the Aotearoa New Zealand education system and will be useful for both practitioners and policy makers.

A Māori concept in a Pākehā world: biculturalism in health and physical education in the New Zealand curriculum

ABSTRACT This paper provides insights into political battles associated with the attempted introduction of a postcolonial bicultural dimension to the ‘Health Physical Education in the New Zealand Curriculum' (NZHPE). Limited attention has been given to the gestation period of four years between the submission, release of the draft and the final publication of the NZHPE (Ministry of Education, 1999). This paper offers an analysis of the process of producing the curriculum from a postcolonial bicultural perspective. It brings to light the impact of neoliberal forces on the NZHPE and thus, on critical elements within the New Zealand (NZ) education system. Furthermore, it investigates the extent to which Māori (indigenous people in NZ) knowledge is accepted within a NZ neoliberal context. The paper concludes that through the introduction of the Māori concept Hauora into the NZHPE, Māori culture has gotten ‘caught in the crossfire’ between numerous scholars and advocates of neoliberalism. This has entailed the risk of reducing Māori culture to a means to an end – i.e. it being appropriated by Pākehā (people of European descent) for political and ideological interests. This could eventually cause considerable damage to the culture and thus, the relationship between Māori and Pākehā.

Prejudice, Pathways and Pavlova: A Paradox of Success

This paper is based on a keynote address presented at the 2017 annual Maori Research Colloquium at the University of Canterbury. The paper provides a snapshot of the history of education in New Zealand, and presents a story of success in the face of enormous social and psychological challenges brought about by historical events and government policies, over time. It is written from an insider’s perspective, and is peppered with personal reflections from its author, one of New Zealand’s pre-eminent educationalists, Sir Toby Curtis, who achieved at the highest levels of education in New Zealand and abroad, and was knighted for his services to Maori education. Sir Toby reflects on the apportioning of power between Maori and non-Maori within the education system, and seeks to determine how an imbalance may have contributed to inequitable educational outcomes for Maori in the last 180 years. The following questions emerge from these ruminations: 1. In what ways has power imbalance within the New Zealand education system impacted on educational experiences and outcomes for Maori?2. How have these educational experiences manifested within (and beyond) the system?3. What meanings and aspirations can be taken from the whakatauk ‘He moana pukekepuke, e ekengia/A choppy sea can be navigated’?In essence, this paper seeks to dig beneath the surface of past occurrences in order to shed some light on the questions posed above. Sir Toby commences by sifting through the history of colonial influences on education in this country, and sprinkles this with his own experiences going to school, many of which were plagued by challenges of various forms. Sir Toby makes bold and often astute observations about the impact of colonial policy on Maori (and how it affected him personally), and redirects the emphasis by proposing a pathway forward for the future of Maori education. At its core, this paper tells a personal storywithin a larger story of a determination to triumph over notions of inferiority and oppression - it is a story of resiliency and a story of hope.

Teacher questioning in a Chinese context: Implications for New Zealand classrooms

Teacher questioning is a very important aspect of teacher-student interaction in classrooms around the world. However, expectations of the purposes and types of these interactions can be variable, particularly across cultural contexts. This qualitative study considers the way teacher questioning is used in a mathematics class in a Chinese primary classroom. The types of questions, expectations for answers and teacher behaviours are described through the use of a short-structured observation. Questions were found to be restricted to a rapid-fire format and only a minority of students were called upon to answer questions. This is contrasted with the expectations of the use of questioning in Western contexts, and highlights the challenges for both Chinese teachers and students when they move into the New Zealand education system.

Exploring the creation of a new initial teacher education (ITE) programme underpinned by inclusion

ABSTRACTThis paper seeks to investigate constraints and opportunities underlying the development of a new initial teacher education (ITE) programme with the goal of reconceptualising what inclusive education might mean in the Aotearoa New Zealand (NZ) education system. The opportunity to develop this new ITE programme emerged from a request of the Ministry of Education [MoE. 2013. Request for Application for Provision of Exemplary Post Graduate Initial Teacher Education (ITE) Programmes. Welington: Author] to ITE providers to develop a Masters’ level programme directed at intervening in the persistent disparity in educational outcomes for students identified as ‘priority learners’. How teaching practitioners are ‘working the space’ in the creation and implementation of a new ITE programme committed to improving the learning outcomes of all students in Aotearoa NZ is of interest to this paper. We draw on critical discourse analysis (CDA) to investigate the ways inclusion is constructed and practised in past and current educational approaches in Aotearoa NZ. We argue that a broader analysis of the shifting nature and complex social, cultural, historical, political and institutional contexts in which students are situated is required in reforms and initiatives that aim to raise the learning outcomes of all students in the education system.

Flexible Learning Spaces: Inclusive by Design?

The idea that the New Zealand education system will cater to all students, regardless of ability, and support them in developing their full potential to the best of their abilities, is enshrined in the famous 1939 Beeby/Fraser statement. Equality of access policy discourse has shifted to emphasise equitable outcomes, focussed increasingly on preparing students for success in the globalised, 21st century knowledge economy. In this context, the design and development of innovative new school buildings and refurbishments of existing facilities have been promoted as a policy that will enable, even bring about, modern pedagogical practices that, in turn, will achieve the stated aim of preparing students for the 21st century global economy. Arguments against retaining traditional single-cell classrooms include their perpetuation of traditional, mainstream (‘one-size-fits-all’) approaches to teaching and learning, while new, radical building designs hold the promise of enabling the desired ‘new’ pedagogies. Flexible learning environments encourage and enable teachers to exchange ‘front-of-the-room’, single teacher presentational approaches for collaborative, dispersed and facilitative styles, often in teams, working with multiple students in shared, common learning spaces. The New Zealand Curriculum has ensured inclusion as an educational principle, and current Ministry of Education policy discourse reminds schools of their commitment to this principle, and specifically links building design and design processes to ensuring inclusivity. So it should be asked whether non-traditional, flexible learning spaces can be inclusive. This article places this question in the context of the historically evolving approach to inclusion in the New Zealand context, and with reference to the ‘spatial turn’ in recent New Zealand education policy. This turn to enhanced flexibility and innovation has implications for inclusivity, reflected in both Ministry of Education policy discourse and critiques suggesting the exclusionary effects of flexibility. It is argued with reference to Lefebvre that notions of inclusion and exclusion are inherent in social practices that are both superimposed upon material space as much as they are influenced by the design features of that space.

Education policy-to-practice success factors in New Zealand

New Zealand education system’s leaders have learned to dialogue with the people to get things done. This policy-to-practice success factor has contributed to improved local governance and management, a world-class curriculum and a strong commitment to appreciating identity and dual heritage through the Treaty of Waitangi. Now New Zealand leaders are in dialogue with the people to re-imagine success in education. A new policy called Communities-of-Learning – Kāhui Ako – is an avenue to activate the new success. The New Zealand presentation at Workshop 2 will reveal some of the early collaborative successes, such as the value of community-designed learning frameworks, collective advantage across schools and tracking learning trends.

Āta: An Indigenous Knowledge Based Pedagogical Approach to Teaching

Western education theory and philosophy as the domain of the dominant pedagogy forms the basis of the New Zealand education system. Although the current form of education is reflective of the dominant cultures ideologies and philosophies it does not always serve the interests of all students. The philosophy of Āta offers an indigenous knowledge based pedagogical approach to teaching that has the potential to not only transform the learning experience of all students, but also provide teachers with a theory of best practice that is holistic and relational.

Ethnic Group Labelling and the Reporting of National Educational Outcomes in New Zealand

The New Zealand education system is culturally diverse and is guided by the principles of the Treaty of Waitangi to produce equitable outcomes for Māori students. The reporting of national educational outcomes is broken down by ethnicity to monitor educational performance of different ethnic groups and to identify ethnic disparities. The Ministry of Education and the New Zealand Qualification Authority use a system of ethnic priority ranking to expedite the statistical analysis of educational outcomes for students who identify themselves as belonging to more than one ethnic group. This approach may inadvertently distort reported ethnic disparities in key outcomes of our education system. The study investigates the impact of the method of ethnic labelling on reported national outcomes of the education system and recommends an alternative weighted ethnicity approach. Questions are raised about the appropriateness of the current ethnic classifications.

Intervention and Outcomes for Pasifika Students: A New Zealand Private Tertiary Education Provider (PTE) Case Study

Pasifika learners comprise a significant number of students in the New Zealand education system. In terms of educational performance, Pasifika learners generally have lower success rates and academic achievements than other student groups at both secondary and tertiary levels. The aim of this paper was to review current governance, investigate student support and evaluate outcomes at a New Zealand tertiary institution. Data collection occurred in three phases. The first stage of the research saw 37 student questionnaires completed between May and June 2014, phase two consisted of semi-structured interviews with graduate students between September and October 2015. Phase three in March 2016 entailed the analysis of learner achievement records. The results of the research illustrated that Pasifika students’ experience was improved through a variety of learning support systems being available to them. Participants identified that the most valuable student support systems were study skills support and study buddies. Pasifika students also recognised that having a supportive environment that respected Pasifika cultural values and building trust in relationships with staff enhanced their learning experience. In conclusion, a variety of appropriate support systems and a culturally sensitive environment are needed to enrich Pasifika students’ tertiary learning experience and achieving positive graduate outcomes. The insights provided by this paper will help develop student support systems that improve graduate outcomes of Pasifika learners, forming a template that can be implemented at tertiary institutions in New Zealand.

Political influences on teacher education in New Zealand

Over the last decade the New Zealand education system has undergone dramatic administrative and curricular reforms. The last serious scrutiny of teacher education was in 1985, but the current focus on reform in the tertiary sector, combined with a crisis in teacher supply, has brought renewed attention to the issue. The government's current Green Paper 'Quality Teachers for Quality Learning' is provoking widespread debate about the principles and practices of teacher education. This paper outlines and critically discusses key elements of the government's proposals for reform, and highlights some future policy issues for teacher education.