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Since 2015 many postgraduate dance students from the Beijing Dance Academy China, have completed a one-year Masters in Community Dance at the University of Auckland, New Zealand. This paper reflects on eight student's experience of their year of international study. Data gathered through semi structured interviews were examined through the threshold concept theory and we found that these students were challenged by teacher/learner relationships, academic research in dance studies, and classroom communications. The article makes recommendations to both the Beijing Dance Academy and the University of Auckland as this academic partnership matures. While this study is specific only to the two institutions involved in the research, it may provide insights that are common across other tertiary dance programmes for international dance students.

As arts educators, we are concerned that the teaching and learning of the arts is remaining static within New Zealand primary school classrooms. Despite acceptance of research promoting the importance of arts education for students; a clear and valued arts curriculum in New Zealand since 2000; and, UNESCO policy strongly advocating for the role of arts education, there remains a relatively minimal implementation of arts education in New Zealand primary classrooms. Our research examines a proposition that in order to provide the benefits of an arts education to children in what is a crowded curriculum, generalist teachers may need to focus on teaching the arts across the curriculum. Informing this proposal is the ongoing government policy focus on literacy and numeracy. This article documents a research project that examined how the arts were and were not being taught across the curriculum by one teacher in one primary school in New Zealand.

This article speaks to classroom reality issues that may supersede any ideals, funding and expectations. We document a journey regarding the implementation of arts integration for six teachers in a small rural school in New Zealand. Arts Integration is a pedagogical approach to teaching and learning that employs arts activities to teach concepts in other subject areas where the focus is on the arts learning processes that are transferable across different disciplines and less so on the artistic product. Our definition aligns with that of the John F. Kennedy Center 'Arts Integration is an approach to teaching in which students construct and demonstrate understanding through an art form'. Arts Integration can be a difficult concept to understand and for teachers who have possibly avoided teaching any arts subjects in the past, it is a whole new pedagogical approach to teaching. All is laid bare as we document our research in an attempt to understand and share the reality of the difficulties that are involved in such an undertaking. We identify some of the issues that 'bit' us as we pursued a research project rich in pedagogical potential and full of threats concerning issues around change in the classroom.

Examining practice, within education, is complex and never straightforward. It is not a surprise that when we conduct research, we discover new and contrary meanings. For the last 16 months we have been examining different means for supporting teaching and learning of the arts in primary schools. Our aim was to better understand how to teach the arts across the curriculum. We made a plan, we gained ethical approval, found several schools to work with, and interviewed teachers and principals. Our research has a specific interest in documenting and understanding how the arts are taught across the curriculum. We were most interested in working with teachers, principals and children who were implementing an "arts across the curriculum programme". In short, what we found was that teachers, principals, curriculum and us, all had different meanings of what was meant by teaching the arts across the curriculum.

To mark the fiftieth anniversary of NZJES ["New Zealand Journal of Educational Studies"], this invited paper examines possible education policy and policy scholarship futures. It is argued that in order to predict the future, one needs to appreciate how socio-historical struggles of the past have contributed to present education policy settings, and to identify the continuities and discontinuities between the past, the present and possible policy futures. Public policy in New Zealand in the twentieth century was dominated by struggles between social democratic and neoliberal conceptions of the good society. At the beginning of the twenty-first century, neoliberalism remains in the ascendancy. However, the major social, economic and environmental challenges of the future will include climate change and sustainability; technology and work; and population growth, inequality and living harmoniously. The paper considers the role of public education policy in assisting society to frame and address these equitably.

New Zealand primary school teachers have access to a comprehensive arts curriculum that includes dance, drama, music, and visual arts. This research focused on several teachers' reality of implementing the dance curriculum in New Zealand primary schools, drawing on Snook's (2012) study in this field. Our research valued the voices of teachers, principals, and parents. We found that the primary school teachers in this study lacked experience in teaching dance, manifesting as a lack of confidence to teach dance in their classrooms. The teachers spoke to the practice of bringing in dance experts to kick start, support, develop, and mentor dance programs in their schools. A surprising, yet clear finding from our study was that a teacher's preexisting lack of confidence in teaching dance might be compounded by the visit of an expert. This statement raises several issues regarding artists in schools programs in New Zealand that are examined in this article.

This paper reflects upon international arts education action and relative local in-action. The first half of the paper provides a brief narrative of the World Alliance for Arts Education's advocacy work and the development of the UNESCO Seoul Agenda: Goals for the development of arts education. The second half of the paper highlights a dance education research project in New Zealand that relates to strategies and actions noted within the Seoul Agenda. This dance education research reveals both the power and impotence of policies and events such as the Seoul Agenda and International Arts Education Week. The research reveals that when you step off the global stage and turn to your own backyard, reality strikes hard. Arts education is valued, yet relatively few teachers, fewer schools and even fewer governments are actually willing to fully realise the potential of arts education. Arts education for all the rhetoric lacks commitment and investment. Using dance education as a lens, this research examines what teachers in New Zealand are doing in their classrooms and what this means for local communities, teachers, schools, teacher education institutions, advocacy and support organisations, then provides suggestions so that dance and other arts can fulfil their potential.

Bruce Haynes ponders why "a self-appointed steering committee ..." produced a draft constitution for adoption at the first meeting in 1970. The author suspects that it had to do not only with the ideas of the people so appointed, but with the fact that Richard Peters spent several months at ANU in 1969 and, the author presumes, was invited to visit other centres in Australia where there were a number of philosophers of education who called the first meeting to discuss the setting up of Philosophy of Education Society of Australasia (PESA). This article presents the author's reflections on PESA during the period 1969-2009.

In 1987, major reform of New Zealand education at all levels was initiated. Several major reports have analyzed the need for change suggesting more dramatic changes are inevitable but are more likely to come from future economic and social changes than from government initiative. (MSE)

INTRODUCTION: Although vasectomy rates in New Zealand have been reported as among the highest worldwide, there is limited information about who is receiving these services and how they are being accessed. This information is needed to develop equitable access to vasectomy services. AIM: To describe the ethnicity and socioeconomic status of men accessing District Health Board-funded and self-funded vasectomies in Counties Manukau. METHODS: A retrospective cohort analysis of provider data linked to ethnicity and area deprivation as an indicator of socioeconomic status. RESULTS: Of 332 vasectomies, 66% were for New Zealand European men. Socioeconomic status was not associated with the number of procedures for New Zealand European men, but of the Maori and Pacific men who underwent vasectomies, most lived in the greatest areas of deprivation; 58% (18/31) and 50% (12/24), respectively. When vasectomies were funded, the number of procedures doubled for men from areas of high deprivation. The number of procedures was low for men of other ethnicities. DISCUSSION: Our findings indicate differential access to vasectomies by ethnicity and socioeconomic status. Funding vasectomies may provide community benefits in terms of improving equity in access and alleviating a financial burden for many families living in areas of high deprivation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research describes a community dance project for people affected by cancer, which was led by a trained community dancer over 10 movement workshops and three performances. Using a qualitative descriptive approach, the research explored the experiences of a convenience sample of 8 participants out of the original group of 17 individuals who took part in the community dance. The research was participatory and the researchers were involved in workshops and performances as members of the group who also had family members with cancer. The findings indicate the motivation of the dancers to continue in spite of hardship, their sense of pride in being part of something that was larger than themselves, the way the dance permitted them to embody a sense of courage, and finally, in performing, how they managed to share something that genuinely moved an audience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a commentary about the contribution of the late Professor John Codd to New Zealand education. One author cites that the master's thesis of Codd consisted of a philosophical critique of the theory of moral development by Lawrence Kohlberg. Another focuses on Codd's work on education policy studies. Another author states that Codd's contribution to sociology of education policy was his analysis of neo-liberal education reforms and their impact on social justice in New Zealand.

INTRODUCTION: In 2009, a high-deprivation district health board in New Zealand set up a community- based abortion clinic in order to provide a local service and to avoid out-of-region referrals. The service offers medical abortions for women with pregnancies of up to 63 days' gestation, and surgical abortion with local anaesthetic for women with pregnancies of up to 14 weeks' gestation. AIM: To describe the services developed and assess safety and timeliness for the first year of community-based services. METHODS: An audit of clinical records for patients seen in 2010 was performed in order to obtain data on location of services, timeliness, safety and complications. RESULTS: Eighty-two percent of locally provided abortions in 2010 were medical abortions, completed on average less than two days after referral to the service. One percent of patients experienced haemorrhaging post abortion, and 4% had retained products. These rates are within accepted standards for an abortion service. DISCUSSION: This report illustrates that a community-based model of care can be both clinically and culturally safe, while providing a much-needed service to a high-needs population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: General practitioners (GPs) have the potential to promote alcohol harm minimisation via discussion of alcohol use with patients, but knowledge of GPs' current practice and attitudes on this matter is limited. Our aim was to assess GPs' current practice and attitudes towards discussing alcohol use with their patients., Methods: This qualitative study involved semi-structured, face-to-face interviews with 19 GPs by a group of medical students in primary care practices in Wellington, New Zealand., Findings: Despite agreement amongst GPs about the importance of their role in alcohol harm minimisation, alcohol was not often raised in patient consultations. GPs' usual practice included referral to drug and alcohol services and advice. GPs were also aware of national drinking guidelines and alcohol screening tools, but in practice these were rarely utilised. Key barriers to discussing alcohol use included its societal 'taboo' nature, time constraints, and perceptions of patient dishonesty., Conclusion: In this study there is a fundamental mismatch between the health community's expectations of GPs to discuss alcohol with patients and the reality. Potential solutions to the most commonly identified barriers include screening outside the GP consultation, incorporating screening tools into existing software used by GPs, exploring with GPs the social stigma associated with alcohol misuse, and framing alcohol misuse as a health issue. As it is unclear if these approaches will change GP practice, there remains scope for the development and pilot testing of potential solutions identified in this research, together with an assessment of their efficacy in reducing hazardous alcohol consumption.