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In spite of debate, ambiguity, and tension around teacher dispositions, in the past over two decades, the place of dispositions in initial teacher education (ITE) has been widely supported among policy makers and researchers. Specifically, debate on whether dispositions are teachable has largely given way to action to foster dispositions. Adopting a two-cycle participatory action research design, this study explored ways to teach the first-year teacher candidates' dispositions in an early childhood ITE programme in New Zealand. The intervention included eight focus dispositions and corresponding strategies to teach each focus disposition. Data collection methods included student self-assessment surveys, individual and focus group interviews with students and teaching staff, team meetings, and a variety of pedagogical documentation. Ethnographic content analysis generated three themes: legitimacy of the intervention, experiential orientation of the intervention, and effect of the intervention. The study exemplifies how dispositions intervention can be incorporated in ITE programmes.

The concept "graduate capability" has been created to respond to the trend that tertiary education graduates routinely encounter uncertainty and complexity. Adopting a multiple-site action research design, this study explored ways to address graduate capability across five disciplines in a New Zealand vocational education institution. Participants were 215 students and 21 teaching staff. Data collection included interviews, team meetings, and a variety of pedagogical documentation. Ethnographic content analysis was used for data analysis which generated five discipline-specific approaches to graduate capability intervention. Each approach included five dimensions: selection of focus capability items (FCIs) for intervention, composition of FCIs, strategies to address FCIs, impact of the intervention, and relationship between the intervention and the academic programme. This study not only helps the sampled programmes address graduate capability in an intentional and systematic way, but also offers an operational framework for designing capability intervention programmes in similar settings.

Inclusive education has long been implemented in regular educational settings in many jurisdictions including New Zealand (NZ). Since many children with special educational needs (CSEN) are not identifiable in a family environment, to ensure all CSEN are supported in a timely manner, early identification should be an integral component of the inclusive curriculum. Adopting focused ethnography, this study investigated how CSEN were identified within the mandated national curriculum framework in a regular early childhood setting in NZ. The data analysis revealed: (1) A common belief about the importance of early identification was shared by the parents and teachers; (2) A three-step (noticing, assessing, referring, NAR) process of early identification was implemented; (3) The implementation of the NAR process was in compliance with the four principles of NZ's national curriculum framework. The implication of the early identification process was discussed.

Practicum is the cornerstone of teacher education. Triadic assessment of practicum is an established model in early childhood initial teacher education in New Zealand. Based on a phenomenographic study on assessment of practicum, this paper presents a new perspective on triadic assessment. Interview data are collected from 35 participants (20 associate teachers, 5 visiting lecturers, 10 student teachers) to obtain a specimen of collective conceptions of key stakeholders about triadic assessment. The analysis reveals three sets of logically related categories of conceptions (outcome spaces) that denote the tensions around the final judging role in assessment of practicum, in particular, visiting lecturers' scheduled observation. Based on the findings from this study, we contemplate some significant modifications to the triadic assessment model which calls in question visiting lecturers' final judging role in assessment of practicum.

This study compared 120 Chinese immigrant parents and 127 non-Chinese parents from New Zealand preschools on their level of involvement in preschool-based activities, as well as key predictors of parental involvement. Results showed that Chinese immigrant parents had a lower level of involvement than non-Chinese parents across three forms of involvement including communication with teachers, volunteering to help at the preschool, and participation in the preschool's decision making. For the entire sample, parental role construction and parenting self-efficacy were predictors of all three forms of involvement, and perceived opportunity for involvement was predictor of communication with teachers. For the Chinese immigrant sample, perceived opportunity for involvement predicted communication with teachers and participation in the preschool's decision making, and educational qualification predicted communication with teachers. The findings highlight the role of parents' motivational beliefs in parental involvement, in particular, the importance of teacher invitations for parental involvement among Chinese immigrant parents.

For over three decades, the discourse of quality has permeated the field of research, and there has been increasing policy interest for research assessment. In light of three conceptual perspectives and relying on a systematic literature review, this paper explores four non-traditional dimensions of criteria for assessing the quality of research on initial teacher education (ITE). The four dimensions are: innovative research questions; use for practice; research capacity building; and contribution to platforms and protocols. Covering empirical ITE research articles of Australia and New Zealand from January 2005 to October 2017, the review reveals that the majority of the articles meet most of the new criteria, which shows a different picture to that viewed through the traditional lens of research quality. The review is not intended to provide a ready-to-use framework for quality assessment of research on ITE but to exemplify the possibility that a long-contemplated, unconventional perspective on quality of research on ITE can be operationalised.

There is an inconsistency between the importance of professional dispositions for teaching perceived by practitioners and other stakeholders in literature and the omission of dispositions in professional standards in New Zealand. Taking passion and enthusiasm as an example, this study explores the reasons for the inconsistency. Within the context of New Zealand early childhood education (ECE), interview data were collected from 21 practitioners and parents from seven ECE services and 15 teacher educators from eight universities and institutes of technology. Contextual, conceptual, and role-related factors are found to determine the teacher educators' perceptions of the omission of passion and enthusiasm in the standards documents. "Conditional inclusion" and "contextual mediation" are proposed to negotiate a place in the government-imposed standards for passion and enthusiasm.

Although both love and care, as teacher quality and teaching practice, are a common relational dimension of early childhood teaching, the two terms have different denotations in the professionalism discourse. Adopting a two-phase design, data collection of this study includes thematic synthesis of systematically selected literature and expert interviews with 15 early childhood teacher education experts from five universities and three institutes of technology across New Zealand. Analyzed through the lenses of reality and rationality, the two sources of data converge and reveal: (1) Different to love, care is an integral part of teacher professionalism; (2) Compared to care, love is more linked to potentially negative effects on both children and teachers, and the professionalism status of love should be determined according to diverse contexts. The implications of the study on teacher education are discussed and future research directions outlined.

A sociocultural approach to emergent literacy and growing concerns over the de-emphasis on literacy of the New Zealand early childhood education curriculum "Te Whariki" call for locally situated emergent literacy programmes co-constructed by teachers, parents and children. While teachers' approach to emergent literacy takes centre stage in research, little is known about approach of parents and whether and to what extent it is in tune with the national curriculum framework. Adopting deductive qualitative analysis, this study examines beliefs and practice about their child's emergent literacy of 25 parents from New Zealand public kindergartens against the learning outcomes of emergent literacy proclaimed in "Te Whariki." The findings confirm general compatibility between parents' approach to emergent literacy and that of "Te Whariki." Parents in this study recognize and respond to the importance of the preliteracy skills (e.g. name writing) for school readiness, which concretizes, operationalizes and localizes the generally, loosely and vaguely defined "Te Whariki" learning outcomes. The findings support the practicality of the co-construction of local emergent literacy programmes by teachers and parents in chartered early childhood education services in New Zealand.

This study compares the stances of practitioners, parents and the quality assurance authority on the assessment of learning in New Zealand (NZ) early childhood education (ECE). The phenomenographic interview participants include practitioners (24) and parents (11) from 11 ECE settings. The reports issued by the Education Review Office (ERO) on all the sampled ECE settings are also analysed. The study shows that: (1) The practitioners and parents emphasize the importance of "teacher-parent communication," "listening to the child," "progression" and "team assessment" for assessment of learning in general, while the ERO attaches the importance of the same categories specifically to learning stories; (2) Irrespective of the strengths and limitations of learning stories, the practitioners and parents affirm that learning stories are not the only approach to assessment of learning, which is in contrast with the ERO's implied position that learning stories are the only and best approach to the assessment of learning. The findings call for research that explores the implementation of a comprehensive approach to the assessment of learning in ECE in NZ.

Wellbeing of international students is an extensively explored topic in international education discourses. A plethora of research has been devoted to general wellbeing of international students. Nevertheless, little is known about international students' spiritual wellbeing which can be pivotal to their adaptation to the new environment. In the context of New Zealand higher education, utilizing an intrinsic single case study design, this study examined spiritual wellbeing experienced by Indian international students. Phenomenographic interviews were conducted with 13 Indian students who were studying management courses at postgraduate level in an institute of technology in a North Island city of New Zealand. Data analysis generated three dimensions (spiritual cognition, spiritual practice, spiritual efficacy) of spiritual wellbeing which were influenced by four strategies of adaptation (connection, isolation, accommodation, integration). This study provided new insights into the experiences of international students which may influence international education in the long run. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Inclusive education has long been implemented in regular educational settings in many jurisdictions including New Zealand (NZ). Since many children with special educational needs (CSEN) are not identifiable in a family environment, to ensure all CSEN are supported in a timely manner, early identification should be an integral component of the inclusive curriculum. Adopting focused ethnography, this study investigated how CSEN were identified within the mandated national curriculum framework in a regular early childhood setting in NZ. The data analysis revealed: (1) A common belief about the importance of early identification was shared by the parents and teachers; (2) A three-step (noticing, assessing, referring, NAR) process of early identification was implemented; (3) The implementation of the NAR process was in compliance with the four principles of NZ's national curriculum framework. The implication of the early identification process was discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]