A teacher’s voice: Embracing change to make a difference

The challenge to understand the impact and demands of new forms of literacy for teachers with considerable expertise is intensified when making sense of multiple forms of texts. This paper examines how an experienced teacher made changes to her literacy pedagogy when faced with a class problem for which she felt unprepared. The story is told predominantly through the voice of the teacher using her reflective journal. An example of Web 2.0 technology, specifically the construction of a wiki, is planned and implemented to reflect the teacher’s changing views of literacy. The key focus is how this teacher will transition her practice to meet the new demands of literacy teaching, what critical moves are required of her in order to do this and how does she shift from the traditional role of facilitator to designer of online learning. Through such analysis it is proposed that it is possible for an experienced teacher to theorise, implement and adopt a stance that encompasses a broader view of literacy and literacy instruction

Grappling with the complexity of the New Zealand Curriculum: Next steps in exploring the NZC in initial teacher education.

Teacher educators in New Zealand are charged with supporting student teachers' understandings of the New Zealand Curriculum document (Ministry of Education, 2007). Integral to this challenge is the need to provide relevant knowledge and understandings that are contextually and pedagogically appropriate (Fullan, 2007; Jasman, 2003). Aspects of the "front end" of the New Zealand Curriculum document such as the vision, principles, values and key competencies along with the learning area statements need to be understood by newly graduated teachers who will be applying this curriculum in their own classrooms. This paper reports on ongoing research investigating and reflecting on student-teacher understandings of these components of the New Zealand curriculum, on completion of three different compulsory papers within the Bachelor of Teaching degree and Graduate Diploma of Teaching (Primary). Implications for pre-service teacher education and for supporters of provisionally registered teachers are considered

Exploring the front end of New Zealand curriculum in student teacher education: an example from language and mathematics education.

This paper reports on two components of a collaborative project conducted by members of the language and literacy education, mathematics education and social studies teaching teams at the Faculty of Education, The University of Waikato. The teams decided to research the implications of the front end of The New Zealand Curriculum document [NZC] (Ministry of Education, 2007). The front end of the document includes key competencies and a statement describing each learning area. The language and literacy team chose to explore student teacher understandings of the English essence statement and the way in which that learning area is structured. The mathematics education team explored student teacher understandings of and implications for the "thinking" key competency for the teaching and learning of mathematics. Data were collected through in-class observations and tasks, and the analysis of aspects of student assessment work. The findings highlighted the value of an explicit focus on a particular facet of the NZC along with the challenges student teachers experience in envisaging how this might play out in practice

Reading Recovery and parent participation

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Reading Recovery and parent participation

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University and school: Collaborative research as culturally responsive methodology

The purpose of this article is to explore our experiences as university-researchers working with two teacher-researchers in a project examining the use of picture books in culturally and linguistically diverse classrooms. Specifically, we reflect upon the collaborative and participatory characteristics of our approach that can be seen through the lens of culturally responsive research methodology (Berryman, SooHoo, & Nevin, 2013). We reflect upon our research processes in terms of five culturally responsive research principles by which we, the authors, believe a relational and dialogic space was created in which to learn from and with each other, and for the mutual benefit of all.Â

Grappling with the complexity of the New Zealand Curriculum: Next steps in exploring the NZC in initial teacher education

Teacher educators in New Zealand are charged with supporting student teachers' understandings of the New Zealand Curriculum document (Ministry of Education, 2007). Integral to this challenge is the need to provide relevant knowledge and understandings that are contextually and pedagogically appropriate (Fullan, 2007; Jasman, 2003). Aspects of the 'front end' of the New Zealand Curriculum document such as the vision, principles, values and key competencies along with the learning area statements need to be understood by newly graduated teachers who will be applying this curriculum in their own classrooms. This paper reports on ongoing research investigating and reflecting on student-teacher understandings of these components of the New Zealand curriculum, on completion of three different compulsory papers within the Bachelor of Teaching degree and Graduate Diploma of Teaching (Primary). Implications for pre-service teacher education and for supporters of provisionally registered teachers are considered

Exploring the front end of New Zealand curriculum in student teacher education: An example from language and mathematics education

This paper reports on two components of a collaborative project conducted by members of the language and literacy education, mathematics education and social studies teaching teams at the Faculty of Education, The University of Waikato. The teams decided to research the implications of the front end of The New Zealand Curriculum document [NZC] (Ministry of Education, 2007). The front end of the document includes key competencies and a statement describing each learning area. The language and literacy team chose to explore student teacher understandings of the English essence statement and the way in which that learning area is structured. The mathematics education team explored student teacher understandings of and implications for the 'thinking' key competency for the teaching and learning of mathematics. Data were collected through in-class observations and tasks, and the analysis of aspects of student assessment work. The findings highlighted the value of an explicit focus on a particular facet of the NZC along with the challenges student teachers experience in envisaging how this might play out in practice.Â