Introduction to special edition.

This special issue of the Waikato Journal of Education arose from a symposium held at The University of Waikato in June, 2009. The symposium, Initial Teacher Education and the New Zealand Curriculum–Te Marautanga o Aotearoa Symposium, was attended by delegates from all major initial teacher education (ITE) providers in New Zealand. ITE refers to pre-service teacher education, that is, programmes that prepare student teachers to become beginning teachers. Curriculum includes the school and the ITE curriculum

Passionate and proactive: the role of the secondary principal in leading curriculum change.

It is widely recognised that the leadership of school principals is a crucial factor in school-based curriculum change. With the recent introduction of a new national curriculum in New Zealand, schools will need to develop strategies to incorporate this new curriculum into their programmes. This paper outlines evidence from international literature about how the leadership of principals is linked to change. It also examines evidence from case studies of early adopter schools. A major finding is that there appear to be common factors at work across effective secondary school principals, in particular an enthusiasm for proactive leadership of changes in school culture involving fundamental shifts in thinking and behaviour

Human ethics guidelines for schools

The article depicts the development, the process and the composition human ethics guidelines for schools in New Zealand. It states that the guidelines must be provided at schools for guiding school-based student research that requires human beings as participants in the research. The guidelines is also necessary in helping student and teacher researchers to plan their investigations with foresight and to alert school management to their responsibilities and possible issues and risks

Initial teacher education and the New Zealand curriculum.

New Zealand teacher educators are faced with the challenge of how to prepare their student teachers to become beginning teachers who are able to base their teaching upon the national curriculum. To meet this challenge, designers of initial teacher education (ITE) programmes need to consider the interface between ITE curriculum and the legislated curriculum for schools. This paper looks at some of the historical influences upon the curriculum in both initial teacher education and schools by examining wider contextual influences. We point out that in ITE there has been an ongoing search for the most appropriate knowledge base for teaching, a search that is made problematic due to differing views of knowledge, teaching and learning We argue that in spite of these differences, there is benefit in an ITE curriculum that has a close relationship with the school curriculum in terms of what is learned and the teaching and learning approaches. New Zealand has a revised national curriculum for schools (Ministry of Education, 2007) that schools are expected to implement from 2010. In preparing student teachers to become beginning teachers, ITE providers are in a phase of designing learning experiences that link ITE curriculum and school curriculum. This process is problematic, for there are various internal and external pressures that lead to a crowded ITE curriculum and challenge ITE autonomy and innovation in curriculum decision-making

Connecting teachers and students with science and scientists: The science learning hub

National and international data is raising concerns about levels of student interest and engagement in science in school and student retention into tertiary study. For today’s students the Internet plays an important role as a source of information and means for communication with peers. This paper reports on a Ministry of Research Technology and Science funded initiative, managed through The University of Waikato, that aims to make New Zealand science research more accessible to New Zealand teachers and students. The New Zealand Science Learning Hub [SLH] illustrates how effective collaboration between research organisations, industries, science educators and teachers has enabled the development of a resource which is dynamic, up-to-date and relevant and that can be used to inform the teaching of science in New Zealand schools. The Science Learning Hub provides teachers with information about current research, which is related to concepts currently taught in year 5-10 classes (8-14 year olds). The site has content arranged in contexts for example, Icy ecosystems, Hidden taonga, Nanoscience, You me and UV, Future fuels, and The see through body. Each context includes text and images describing NZ research, video material such as interviews with scientists and sequences depicting scientists at work, teaching and learning materials, and links to science education literature. A feature is a “connections tool” which allows teachers and students to trace their journey through each context. Initial research indicates that teachers appreciate that this range of information is accessible in one place and has been quality assured. Students are keen to engage with an actively explore the range of media within the SLH contexts

Teacher-researcher relationships and collaborations in research.

To understand the complexity of the classroom in ways that might inform teaching research in needed that explains both why and how something works. Teacher-researcher collaboration is essential if this is to happen. Collaborative work can ensure that research builds on from what teachers know and can do. Researchers working with teachers to address their current concerns are more likely to generate insights into what teachers might do and where they might go next. Collaboration can contribute a warrant for relevance for research findings. At the same teachers deepen and enhance their own practice through engaging in the research process. This paper describes and discusses some approaches to collaboration that have enables researchers and teachers to access a diversity of ideas and expertise to their mutual benefit

Introduction to the Special Issue: How to educate a nation’s teachers. Debating quality initial teacher education for today and for the future

The Teacher Education Forum Aotearoa New Zealand (TEFANZ) was officially launched on 12 July 1999—17 years ago—as the national voice for teacher education in Aotearoa New Zealand. TEFANZ members represent New Zealand Initial Teacher Education (ITE) providers who offer programmes at degree or graduate level. Members span the University, Polytechnic, Wānanga, and private sector across ECE, primary, and secondary. This broad constituency provides a rich picture of ITE in Aotearoa New Zealand

Righting and Re-Writing The Blueprint: The creation of an Afrofuturistic television series and a self-sustaining television network to disrupt the misrepresentation of the Caribbean Family in British Television Drama

This autoethnographic practice-based thesis maps the diminishing representation of the British Caribbean Family in British Television Drama, particularly the absence of the One African Family framework and the overall invisibility of the Black presence in British History. This thesis further addresses specific economic, historical, and social factors that mainstream television utilises, through drama, to control the narrative of the British Caribbean Family’s loss of identity, resources and wealth, the emasculation of the Black Male, the destructive trauma of Fictive Kin, and the impact on future generations. The role of the predominately Black television Gatekeepers globally still confines Black television production to the stereotypical narrative originating from Hollywood media oligarchy misinformation. This reinforces White Privilege, theoretically referred to as the Fish-in-Water culture, and stifles significant advancement under the guise of Integration, Individualism, and Assimilation. This thesis has three unique artefacts bringing original contributions to knowledge: InVisible, an Afrofuturistic British Caribbean Family Drama Series; Onyx, a Blueprint to create an independent disruptive television platform showcasing original television programmes including InVisible; Butterfly, a supporting weekly digital Television and Film Magazine introducing the groundbreaking work of Black Creatives to a global audience. Together, these artefacts have implications for future generations as they challenge the political, educational, financial, and social discourse of British Television Drama. Through InVisible, Onyx, and Butterfly, this thesis has developed original and innovative methods of engaging with and acquiring knowledge through the autoethnographic eyes of previously ignored audiences. By exploring the challenges facing the British Caribbean Family and Black British television producers, this thesis concludes that a self-sustaining, vertically integrated television network, not reliant on mainstream technology, money, or resources, would provide the autonomy required to give the British Caribbean and the Black Diaspora the freedom of expression to correct information and the potential to create sustained Black Wealth

The challenges of teacher education-exploiting synergies to meet multiple demands

Internationally questions about the nature of effective teacher education have come to the fore as a consequence of the demands to produce equitable outcomes from a more diverse range of learners working with ever more challenging curriculum. This expansion has arisen in part from a realisation that mastery of formal conceptual or propositional knowledge alone is no longer a sufficient basis for active participation in today’s knowledge society. In conjunction with these expectations and understandings, policy makers have introduced a range of mechanisms to hold teachers, schools, and teacher educators to account for student learning and achievement. These mechanisms include the specification of standards for either or both of student learning and teacher performance, along with a requirement to provide evidence of impact. University-based teacher educators are in unique positions of being accountable to students, teachers and teacher accreditation agencies or teacher learning and development that impacts positively for students in the classroom, and being accountable to their university in terms of research productivity. They also need to ensure student teacher graduates develop the attributes specified in their university graduate profile. In this paper, we use New Zealand as a case study to explore some of the convergences that teacher educators might usefully consider across school curriculum goals, university graduate attributes, and teacher performance standards for preservice and practicing teachers, where these have the potential to shape and inform their practice and learning. We begin by elaborating on the landscape of change and then provide two examples of convergence from our own work and that of our colleagues. We describe how projects we have conducted assist in meeting multiple goals. Firstly we illustrate how the need to develop numerate citizens can be imbedded in a teacher education program and secondly illustrate how the need to develop the capacity for learning lifelong can be developed through researched program innovations based on a combination of a design research approach and a design-based intervention research approach. Drawing on our analysis, we scope some of the possibilities for exploiting synergies these shifts can have for initial teacher education and teacher educators