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Education within Aotearoa has not effectively engaged Pasifika students (Ministry of Education, 2023a), and has led to Pasifika students being less likely to continue to tertiary level education (Ministry of Education, 2023b). This review focuses on the published literature about factors that improve the conditions of schooling in Aotearoa to facilitate higher levels of engagement in Pasifika students. For this paper, 20 studies that were carried out in Aotearoa secondary schools with Pasifika students were collected. These studies were then analysed to understand what factors increased their engagement in secondary school. The findings suggest that student-teacher relationships, teachers' perceptions of Pasifika students, and effective implementation of culturally responsive pedagogies have the greatest impact on Pasifika student engagement in their secondary school career.

Increasing diversity in engineering, which is a goal of the profession, education and government, starts with increasing the diversity of those choosing to study the discipline. This paper focuses on girls' engagement in engineering. Data is from a survey of girls attending a university open day and interviews with practising female engineers. The notion of "possible selves" is used to explain patterns in their responses. Both prospective and participant groups indicated that family, friends, teachers and societal messages informed and influenced their view of what engineering involved and who could be an engineer. Practising female engineers identified the impact of school subject choices, 'hands-on' and practical home experiences and the nature of the lecturer and peer support. This paper contributes to discussions of when and how to encourage girls into engineering, offering evidence that a comprehensive approach is needed that includes the community, schools and tertiary institutions as well as the profession.

This paper uses an arts-based learning encounter at a marae-based wananga as a starting point for exploring the potential of aesthetic inquiry to support dynamic and always evolving relationality between people and place. The work of two researchers, Maori writer and scholar Cassandra Barnett and Irish inter-cultural researcher Sharon Todd, is discussed as examples of critical aesthetic inquiries that open new possibilities for relationality between people and place through encounters with artworks. Maxine Greene's definition of aesthetic inquiry, as distinct from an "arts as connoisseurship" approach, is utilised to encourage a greater awareness among arts educators of the limitations and potential risks of liberal multicultural approaches in arts education. With increasing pressures to fast track the decolonising and indigenising of curriculum in New Zealand education, I discuss the importance of mitigating the risks of uncritically transferring indigenous Maori concepts and material into mainstream classrooms. New insights are offered into how aesthetic inquiry in arts based pedagogy and curriculum can support learners to sit with the complexities that come with a settler-indigenous history.

In this paper we consider how recent taonga puoro noho marae wananga, in the Far North district of Aotearoa New Zealand, have much to offer the growth and development of bicultural relational engagement in arts education. The nga toi Maori authors highlight their aspirations, as leaders of recent hui wananga initiatives in Te Hiku o Te Ika (the region of the "tail of the fish" at the top of the North Island). This includes aspirations to recognise noho marae wananga as important self-determining spaces that support the evolution of indigenous paradigms and the growth of music education from a distinctly Maori ontological foundation. Together we advocate for what Moana Jackson calls an "ethic of restoration" and argue that when priority is given to the recognition and support of Maori led educational initiatives, such as noho marae wananga, generative and mutually beneficial bicultural relationships are better enabled. The authors revisit Te Mauri Pakeaka, an arts education marae wananga initiative which ran through the 1980s, and consider hui wananga for their potential to support new forms of bicultural relational engagement in arts education in the future.

In 2021 Professor Papaarangi Reidi, at The University of Melbourne, shared the ancient proverb "I nga ra o mua", translated to mean "before we know where we are going, we must know where we have come from". This proverb sets the tone for discussing the Arts in the New Zealand curriculum, as during radical upheaval and social change as being experienced in the pandemic, we are forced to examine activities to reflect and discover anew the road ahead (Lindley, et al., 2021; Wood, et al., 2021). This is a critical inflection point for redefining the future of New Zealand Arts Education, as it coincides with the current New Zealand Curriculum (Ministry of Education [MoE], 2007) refresh (MoE, 2021). This research informed paper advocates for matauranga Maori and te ao Maori in the Arts curriculum to ensure distinctive, bold transformational learning opportunities are experienced by learners within the education system. This article suggests the values of interconnectedness, intergenerational purpose and improvisation can dismantle disciplinary boundaries and offer a critical frame to reconsider a forward-focused Arts curriculum.

Learning about probability can pose difficulties for students at all levels. Performing probability experiments using games can encourage students to develop understandings of probability grounded in real events. In this reflective paper, we explore the thinking of a group of students and teachers as they reasoned about experimental and theoretical probabilities in a game context. We designed a probability lesson based on the game LuLu (McCoy et al., 2007). In this article we share the activity and describe the kinds of explorations that can be facilitated in any secondary school mathematics classroom. We were particularly interested in investigating whether students could construct a bidirectional link between experimental probability and theoretical probability. Overall, the lesson enabled students to gain hands-on experience in data collection and analysis and better comprehend affordances of culturally diverse games.

By engaging students in everyday issues and events, STEM education can contribute to the development of citizens who are equipped to make the world a better place. However, students' STEM learning with this focus requires teachers to identify age and context appropriate issues. Student investigation of local issues and events can be motivating for students. Their learning can benefit from involvement with community members who input their knowledge and ideas. Students can contribute ideas and actions to the community, especially when there is a two-way exchange of information from the community to students and students to the community. In this paper we illustrate these ideas with examples from Australian and New Zealand classrooms.

This opinion piece aims to grow awareness of a range of technological initiatives that are supporting Maori language regeneration. These initiatives have been chosen because they have communities of users. This piece could be useful to educators who want to learn about the options that are available in this area, or students of Maori language for similar reasons.

Personalised learning is generally understood to be of benefit to students' learning. In addition, the flexible nature of mobile technologies (MTs) and the variety of available apps are seen to respond to the needs of individual students, and hence have the potential to support personalised learning. This paper reports on an aspect of a larger research project that investigated the use of mobile technologies in primary mathematics classrooms. Personalised learning was determined as one theme that emanated from the teachers' and students' use of MTs, and this paper aims to investigate how personalised learning was evidenced within the practice of three teachers. Video data of classroom practice were used to analyse the use of MTs within the theme of personalised learning. Four pathways to personalised learning emerged, enabling a more practical understanding of different types of personalisation afforded by MTs.

The practice of students bringing their own mobile devices (BYOD) to school is increasingly being used to leverage digital learning opportunities in New Zealand schools. This paper presents a summary of the findings from a case study that explored the experiences of three primary school teachers as they introduced BYOD into their classrooms for the first time. The aim of the study was to understand the impact BYOD had upon their pedagogical practices and to identify factors that influenced these practices. The paper includes recommendations for schools and teachers who may be considering implementing BYOD in the future.

O'Neill argues that the standard social democratic narrative of state schooling as a consensual, whole-of-society commitment to reduce educational inequalities across the system as a whole, for the collective well being of all, has been displaced by marketplace or commodity progressivism. He takes the position that reducing educational inequalities and "fixing up" the state schooling system is now being sold to citizens as the socially responsible, social investment or venture philanthropy work of civic-minded corporates, business-like charitable trusts, and charismatic individual edu-preneurs. He explains that marketplace or commodity progressivism in schooling is appealing on one level, saying that undoubtedly, philanthropic investment in schooling has some potential to provide "proof of concept." Yet it has demonstrated no apparent interest or commitment to provide the funding necessary to seed genuine innovation in schooling. O'Neill advances the point that the successes, for all the satisfaction they bring to participating students and local communities, are short-lived and inadequate over the long term. O'Neill concludes that while marketplace progressivism attracts attention, admiration, and approval in the short term, it does nothing to address the long-term structural educational economic and social inequalities that only a progressive, integrated, multi-agency, system-wide approach to state schooling can hope to mediate.

The Aotearoa New Zealand early childhood education (ECE) landscape is becoming increasingly multicultural, in particular with a significant number of migrant Indian teachers working in the field. This paper explores the potential role of environmental identity as migrant Indian ECE teachers navigate between the Indian and New Zealand cultures, wherein the environment may hold different meanings and place in these two cultural systems. The natural environment holds a special place in Aotearoa New Zealand's cultural systems and is an integral part of the national identity. It can be argued that early childhood environmental education is important, and is already playing a part, in developing children's environmental identity across the country. In facilitating this, teachers' environmental identities can be equally important, especially in the case of migrant teachers, whose identities are influenced by different cultural systems. Our interest is in the environmental identities of migrant Indian teachers' given their growing numbers in Aotearoa New Zealand ECE.

Using assessment to inform teaching and to measure learning outcomes is of critical importance in higher education. However, many tertiary educators are not sufficiently knowledgeable or prepared to do this confidently. This paper suggests that tertiary educators could be given tools and encouraged to exert agency in their own assessment literacy development. It examines the application of one potential tool, the SALRubric (Edwards, 2017), which describes stages of development in ten dimensions of summative assessment literacy. The tool's structure and intent make it possible for the rubric to be modified to incorporate other content and context-dependent dimensions of assessment within a tertiary setting. A process through which appropriate dimensions could be identified is described so that the resulting co-constructed rubric could be used for both peer assessment and self-assessment by tertiary educators. Initial work using the SALRubric indicates that this has the potential to lead tertiary educators to an increased awareness of dimensions of assessment literacy and more active engagement in their teaching, thereby enhancing learning for their students.

Since the evolution of the internet in 1969 and the inception of the personal computer in the early 1970s, a significant body of research has emerged that highlights the impacts of digital technology on education, health and human development. This paper reviews research in this area and examines the physical, mental, and social health effects on children and adolescents (10- to 19-year-olds), as well as the impacts of digital technology on educational achievements. The aim of this literature review, to examine the psychological impact of digital technology, was prompted in part by the widespread use of digital technologies in schools including Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) policies. BYOD asks students to bring personal laptop or iPad/tablet computers to school. Outcomes of this study may be surprising in the quantity of research available that provides red flag alerts. This fact alone will be of interest to school leaders as policy makers. There is a need for trustworthy information on which to base reviews and revisions of school policy to reduce the risks from the use of digital technology.

Digital technology has become more ubiquitous in classrooms across the western world. Literacy learning is topical in New Zealand education under the umbrella of the current National Standards policy, a policy introduced on the basis of rhetoric around improving achievement for priority learners. The study presented in this paper would then appear to be timely in a number of ways. The paper outlines the historical context and relevancy of the study. The paper discusses the teaching and learning environment in which the research was conducted. Data were gathered through the medium of semi-structured interview and was analysed and a number of themes emerged. Findings indicate that working with digital video as a learning medium can have positive effects on children's writing. These effects related to increased levels of motivation and confidence. Participants were able to focus on literacy tasks for prolonged periods and that working with digital video in this way had positive effects on the participants' vocabulary. Confidence was exhibited through feelings of pride and a strengthened personal and cultural voice.

Seven years ago The New Zealand Curriculum (NZC) was launched with its emphasis on key competencies as "the capabilities that young people need for growing, working, and participating in their communities" ("Ministry of Education," 2007, p. 38). This raises the question of what dispositions are required for students to strengthen these capabilities? Curriculum commentators advocate that teachers should monitor how students take risks so that their capabilities are stretched as they perform real tasks in real contexts. The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the ongoing conversation on what key competencies can look like in New Zealand classrooms. Specifically, it focuses on learner agency as an important and undertheorised dispositional element of the key competencies. The paper reports on a discourse analysis that explores how students can act agentically in a secondary classroom. By providing a rich example of learners taking risks in their learning as they enact key competencies, this paper reveals that agency can be both dynamic and unexpected.

Teacher educators in tertiary education environments face similar challenges to teachers in other sectors when responding to the rapid pace of change across New Zealand educational contexts. "What is really important?" and "how to fit it all in?" are questions frequently asked about content. Using enduring understandings as a way of addressing these questions by identifying "big ideas" appeared to offer considerable benefits for one initial teacher education programme. This paper draws on a survey of teacher educators' experiences in using enduring understandings in the programme's compulsory professional studies papers to evaluate the effectiveness of this innovative approach. These teacher educators expressed approval of the implementation of enduring understandings and identified a variety of benefits. The study found that the development and use of enduring understandings enabled content revision and development to occur within existing policy guidelines. Furthermore there was increased teacher educator and student teacher talk around "big ideas."

This paper challenges the emphasis on counting in New Zealand's Numeracy Development Project (NDP), arguing that subitizing provides an alternative pathway to quantification. Longitudinal data is presented showing that children's subitizing skills at the age of five years were a strong predictor of their later success in mathematics at the age of nine years. Sophian's work of comparison of continuous quantities is explored. Data from students whose teachers participated in NDP professional development programmes are compared with the expectations documented in the Mathematics Standards. The analysis shows that the percentages of students who reach the expected level for their year group is well short of the Standards. It is suggested that the large number of micro-stages at the lower end of the Number Framework together with the positioning of part-whole strategies as the fifth stage on the framework may give the impression that teachers should not focus on the relationship between a whole and its parts until students are able to count on (stage 4). The paper concludes by suggesting that a dual focus on subitizing and counting right from the beginning might help students to develop a deeper understanding of cardinality and of the relationship between a whole and its parts, resulting in them reaching expected levels earlier.

This paper looks at the issue of mathematics learning from a developmental perspective. It begins by focusing on the importance for teachers of understanding how mathematical thinking develops. The New Zealand Number Framework is used as an example of a developmental progression that is of particular relevance to the teaching of mathematics. The paper examines data from the Numeracy Development Project gathered by teachers using the diagnostic interview--the Numeracy Project Assessment (NumPA). The data comes from almost a quarter of a million students whose teachers have participated in the Numeracy Development Project over the past three years. Two major developmental progressions are explored in the paper- the transition from counting to part-whole strategies, and the move from additive to multiplicative part-whole thinking. The final section of the paper looks at some practical ways of fostering multiplicative thinking using structured materials.

This paper reports on findings from a research project concerned with how electronic networking tools (e-networked tools), such as the Internet, online forums, and mobile technologies, can support authentic science inquiry in junior secondary classrooms. It focuses on three qualitative case studies involving science teachers from two high schools together with their Year 9 and Year 10 classes. The ways teachers and students view and take up the affordances of mobile phones to support authentic science inquiry are of interest. Data were collected from teacher reflections, student interviews, a student survey, classroom observations and student work. The findings highlight three key themes that illustrate the advantage of using mobile phones as part of the classroom culture to video record group practical investigations, support students' developing abilities to think like a scientist, and enable the sharing of learning beyond the classroom. The findings have implications for practice and can contribute to a better understanding of the ways mobile devices can support and extend science inquiry in New Zealand secondary classrooms.

Embarking on and sustaining professional change is often a challenging process for educators. This is particularly so within a broader context of rapid (r)evolution in curriculum, pedagogical and assessment-related developments in the compulsory school sector in Aotearoa New Zealand over the past decade. Teachers' and school leaders' accounts of professional learning and change in recent issues of this journal have suggested it can be both risky and rewarding, with a range of impacts and outcomes for all involved. In this paper I pick up on the notion of the possible rewards of professional change, drawing on the experiences of two generalist primary school teachers engaging in curriculum and pedagogical change in outdoor education within the Health and Physical Education learning area. Specifically, the contributions of outdoor-based learning in a local bush reserve to teachers' own sense of personal wellbeing and rejuvenated sense of professional identity are explored. Here I speculate about the potentially renewing components of professional change in outdoor education in HPE for teachers themselves.

One issue in mathematics initial teacher education (ITE) is how to best support students to use digital technologies (DTs) to enhance their teaching of mathematics. While most ITE students are probably using DTs on a daily basis for personal use, they are often unfamiliar with using them for educative purposes in New Zealand primary school settings. Our mathematics education programme is finding ways to address this issue, beginning with a small research project. The study's aim is to support ITE students to develop critical thinking, confidence, knowledge and skill using DTs in teaching and learning. This paper arises from the larger action research study that sought 40 Year two ITE students' perceptions about the mathematical content of particular Digital Learning Objects (DLOs) promoted by the Ministry of Education, and how these might be used with learners in the classroom. Key research methods were survey instruments, field notes and classroom observations. Findings from two questions in student perception surveys (centred on any mathematics concepts and skills they thought the relevant DLOs would support children's learning, plus how these same DLOs could be used in primary classrooms) suggest that they would mainly use the DLOs to consolidate ideas already taught

Teaching can be viewed as a cultural practice in which teaching is embedded in the culture of the teacher and informed by the culture of the students (Bell, 2011). In this paper, a narrative is presented detailing an authentic example of teaching in New Zealand in which culture is prioritised. It describes the challenges faced by a young female teacher as she worked in a low decile secondary school with male students, the majority of whom were involved in the Mongrel Mobi gang. Her approach and responses were centred in her belief in culturally responsive teaching. The deliberate actions of the teacher led to a turning point for the students, allowing their mana to remain intact as she acknowledged their identity, language and culture. This teacher's experience provides an example of how a teacher can enable learners in diverse classrooms to succeed in their learning.

This study investigated the impact on Year 10 students' attitudes towards mathematics when learning mathematics in a sporting context. A closed ended, self-reported questionnaire with Likert type statements was used to collect data. Individual statements were analysed by comparing the percentage of students agreeing or disagreeing pre-teaching and post-teaching. In this study, students' attitude comprised of their confidence, awareness of mathematics and engagement. This study suggests that when students learn in a sporting context, their confidence, seeing the importance of mathematics and engagement increases. The paper also considers implications for teachers, teacher educators and for scholars who are interested in further research.

In this paper, I discuss the concepts of neoliberalism and audit culture, and how they affect teaching culture. Moreover, I propose a form of goal setting that, if used properly, will hopefully work to combat some of the more onerous aspects of neoliberalism and audit clture in education.

This paper highlights the use of a drama convention--"Role on the Wall"--to teach the Nature of Science (NOS) in a Year 7/8 classroom. Students were positioned as "expert" scientists re-investigating the science behind the sinking of the Wahine in a Mantle of the Expert unit. Students drew a "Role on the Wall" of a scientist. The inner body portion outlined characteristics they thought scientists have and in the outer portion they listed the tasks scientists do. This approach can support the teaching of NOS, as it provides opportunities for students to collaboratively construct understandings about scientists and their activities. Differences were noted between the visual language and the oral language used to describe scientists. Shifts in student understanding about scientists were also examined in relation to student comment from classroom discussion and student interviews.

This paper describes a period of substantial changes in the mathematics curriculum of one primary school in Christchurch. Using retrospective analysis, we identified two important conceptual themes: equity of mathematical learning and opportunities for all students to learn to be a mathematician. Access to research about these themes prompted two organisational actions, the elimination of between class streaming and a concentrated professional learning focus on mathematics, that acted as catalysts for major changes. In the first year of these changes, there were significant gains in student assessment data, providing early and encouraging feedback for teachers. During subsequent years, further changes were implemented that illustrated how equity and opportunities to be a mathematician were enduring themes for resourcing and sustaining teachers' practices.

This paper introduces sigmoid or s-curve as a metaphor for describing the dynamics of change. We first encountered the s-curve as a description of a possible growth trajectory whereby populations become established, begin to flourish and the numbers increase rapidly until they reach some limit. At this point, the growth rate slows rapidly then stops and the size of the population is either maintained, something happens to stimulate a further upsurge in growth, or there is a dramatic decline. This basic biological metaphor has been picked up by social science researchers, particularly those who are interested in the complex dynamics of change and adaptation over time. The s-curve metaphor is now applied beyond population growth to describe change dynamics in social systems. We have noted this situation of rapid change followed by stability, further growth or subsequent decline in a number of projects we have worked on. The contributors to this special section discuss examples of this change pattern across a range of contexts.

In this paper we suggest that official curriculum statements provide a relatively modest influence on the emergence of Health and Physical Education (HPE) in school settings and that not enough attention is paid to the other factors that influence curriculum practice in schools. We argue that while the perspectives of teachers may reflect the conceptions and philosophies of particular national curriculum documents, there are a variety of agents and discursive elements operating at the level of curriculum practice that influence how teachers in secondary school situations perform in the subject area of Physical Education. The metaphor of music is used as the basis for conceptualising curriculum as a complex emergent practice resulting from the interplay of many different elements operating at multiple levels of the education system. In particular, we identify four "rhythms", that of health, criticality, biculturalism, and technology, that contribute to giving New Zealand Physical Education and performance of HPE in schools a unique style and character.

This paper examines how mathematical understandings might be facilitated through student-centred inquiry. Data is drawn from a research project on student-centred inquiry learning that situated mathematics within authentic problem-solving contexts and involved students in a collaboratively constructed curriculum. A contemporary interpretive frame was utilised and mixed methods were used to collect data. The project took place with a Year 10 class in a purpose-built New Zealand secondary school. The findings indicated that mathematics centred on real-life learning was highly engaging, with student choice and the co-construction of their research questions central to that engagement.

This paper reports on a collaborative action research project that directed attention to the opportunities Physical Education presents to develop learning associated with three of the key competencies detailed in the New Zealand Curriculum; thinking; managing self; and relating to others. Three teachers in one secondary school explored the meanings each of these key competencies could take on in physical education and, specifically, ways in which adjustments to learning intentions, content, pedagogy and assessment variously helped them bring key competency learning to the fore. Attention is drawn to the benefits teachers saw arising from an enhanced focus on learning, shifts to more student-centred pedagogy, and questions that the research generated for the department's curriculum planning. Discussion also highlights the value of research approaches that emphasise collaboration and support professional learning.

This paper shares research from a pilot study in which young children were introduced to multiplication and division problems in their first year of school. The focus was on building children's conceptual understanding of the idea of "repeated groups" as a fundamental aspect of multiplication and its relation to division. The particular mathematics lessons in this study began with simple word problems involving groups of two, using familiar contexts such as pairs of shoes and socks and progressed to groups of five. Children worked with materials to solve problems, often using addition (and subtraction) as they solved multiplication (and division) problems.

The principles set out in the New Zealand Curriculum (NZC) "embody beliefs about what is important and desirable in school curriculum--nationally and locally. They should underpin all school decision-making" (Ministry of Education, 2007). An understanding of these principles is essential for all teachers who are involved in education in the compulsory sector in New Zealand, including beginning teachers. This paper reports on a study which investigated the developing understandings of the place and use of the principles in the NZC by student teachers over a year-long Graduate Diploma (Primary) programme and as they moved into their first teaching positions. Student teachers were able to identify examples of their own practice that reflected specific principles. In particular the principles they highlighted were ones that aligned with their personal beliefs. Other principles that lay outside their personal beliefs proved more difficult for them, but their understanding of the principles as they related to curriculum decision-making developed over the duration of the programme.

Concerns about a decline in literacy and numeracy standards in New Zealand are longstanding. Such concerns have again come to the fore with the introduction of the Education (National Standards) Amendment Act 2008. In this paper we track the debates leading up to the new legislation, focusing on the political struggles and the way in which games of truth, power and knowledge are played out in a bid to reconstruct thinking and action about literacy and numeracy. Such truth games have resonances within all educational enterprises, influencing the way we think about the key skills deemed appropriate for dealing with everyday civic life.

This paper focuses on history in the New Zealand curriculum in light of its seemingly confused curriculum identity despite revision processes of the New Zealand Curriculum (NZC; New Zealand Ministry of Education, 2007). Some thinking about curriculum as a socially constructed political process that teachers can actively engage with sets the scene for unpacking ways the NZC policy conceptualises history. The notion of discourse is introduced, and competing discourses in the national curriculum are identified in relation to ways they play out in history pedagogy. The NZC key competencies are reflected as a policy space for rethinking history's curriculum purpose and pedagogy.

Many contemporary international physical education curriculum documents have a socio-cultural and critical orientation, which promotes the implementation of a critical pedagogy. Aotearoa New Zealand is no exception. This paper reflects our ongoing efforts to address, from a practical pedagogic perspective, the implementation of a socio-critical curriculum and articulation of critical pedagogy in senior secondary school physical education. We draw attention to the challenging nature of articulating critical pedagogical theory in school practice. We identify the understanding and interrelationship of social construction, multiple perspectives, and hegemony as key aspects in the teaching and learning process that support the development of student teachers' criticality and in turn their ability to critically analyse. We present these concepts as part of a Critical Analysis Process, a model that is designed to facilitate questioning by student teachers of their own status quo beliefs and practices. It is a model that is a work in progress.

The introduction of computers, the Internet, and other Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) into the school context has proved challenging for many schools and teachers. In meeting these challenges, professional development for teachers has been seen traditionally as a formal process conducted by an expert from outside the school. Situated and sociocultural views of teacher learning challenge the efficacy of this model and, recently, the notion of professional learning communities has gained traction. Such an approach emphasises collegiality and collaboration both within and across schools. This paper examines the nature of professional learning opportunities experienced by New Zealand teachers following their receipt of government subsidised laptops for their personal use. It also discusses the challenges to teachers and school communities in fostering and supporting teachers learning more about ICT use.

Exploring the lived experiences of young people who are gifted and who come from financially challenging backgrounds may provide insights that lead to effective interventions which enable the potential of this group of individuals to be fully realised. This paper describes the author's personal experience as a child identified as gifted at school and growing up in a low-income family. It illustrates the impact of a specific and damaging mindset on achievement, attitudes, and actions. Aspects of risk and resilience are explored briefly. Finally, three significant implications for educators and other professionals are identified.

This paper traces the development over several years of an initiative, involving student journals, that was introduced into a tertiary science education course for pre-service teachers in order to improve communication between the lecturer and students. The narrative recounts how the nature and uses of the journals evolve subsequently as a result of reflective practice by the course lecturer and students. This introduction of intentional reflection by the course lecturer, informed by ongoing action research, is providing valuable insights into the nature and extent of student learning and the actions required to improve outcomes for students.

There is little doubt that the use of EFS curricula, resources, and programmes in publicly provided education has been controversial. This paper will examine the dilemmas, for educators involved in EFS, relating to the politics and conservative forces underpinning national curriculum development in a free market capitalist economy such as Aotearoa/New Zealand. Concerns have been expressed both within and beyond the developing field of EFS that it has the potential to be narrowly utilitarian and indoctrinatory. A useful response to this critique is to advocate for critical reflection around the ways in which language in the developing field of EFS is, and has been, constructed. It is argued that taking the meanings that are implicit in the terminology used in EFS to be self-evident will endanger its potential to be truly empowering. One consequence might be that the field becomes indoctrinatory and uncritically transmissive. The area of pre-service teacher education is explored as one that can model environmental education and EFS usefully as educative.

"The New Zealand Curriculum: Draft for Consultation" (Ministry of Education, 2006) aims to first "set the direction for learning for all students while at school and will ensure that when they leave, they are equipped for lifelong learning and for living in a world where continual change is the norm" (p. 7), and second, to enable teachers to engage in what they consider to be best practice in teaching and as teachers. This paper considers some issues with this draft concerning school-based curriculum development, enhancing opportunities for an emancipatory curriculum, the place of tikanga Mäori and te ao Mäori, specified competencies and competences, the meaning of managing self, effective pedagogy, values and what we value, and the notion of a curriculum which serves the whole person. Some cautionary notes are also sounded. Any curriculum must be necessarily tentative and flexible enough to accommodate change. The present document, as a draft, ought to be no exception.

This paper compares information obtained from two surveys of school students. The national Youth2000 survey and the local Whatuora investigation contribute complementary quantitative data on the characteristics and behaviour of young people in New Zealand. As well, there are particular insights about students who are at risk and questions are raised relating to the delivery of human service interventions and regarding further research.

One of the main objectives in health education in the New Zealand national curriculum is that students should be helped to take responsibility for their own health. However, most decisions about health programmes in primary schools are made by adults. This paper reports findings from a study which sought the views of primary children about their knowledge of health and their preferences for health education content. Children knew more that adults probably realised, but had little say in what they studied. Older primary children knew about controversial topics like drugs and sexuality. However, there were many gaps in their knowledge and they wanted to cover these in health lessons. There are, therefore, implications for school health programmes.

When children start school it is not just a transition to a new physical context, but also an entry point to a new "culture" where aspects of teaching, learning and assessment are different, and hence what it means to be a learner is constructed differently. In recent years, there has been increasing interest in making links between school/earning and prior to school learning, but considerable debate about how this can be achieved, given the systemic differences between the two sectors. This paper explores some of the issues for teachers and considers the potential of the current curriculum developments to enhance these links.

The risk and resilience framework (Stanley, 2003) views developmental outcomes as the consequences of young people's responses to the risk and protective factors that are operating in their social settings. Students in the School of Education at The University of Waikato at Tauranga can have the opportunity to apply the framework to models and situations of their own choice. The present paper describes the first author's work, a risk and resilience analysis of traditional English fairy tales. The point is made that fairy tales are themselves a protective factor and they are typically communicated to children in circumstances that are conducive to the development of resilience.