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Critical thinking (CT) is increasingly included within education curriculum policy development to support students' intellectual progress. Teachers who embed CT learning and are cognisant of students cultural identity increase their ability and aptitude to think critically. This paper reports results from an anonymous survey administered to 490 teacher participants, designed to investigate teacher beliefs regarding the impact of students cultural identity on their ability to think critically. The results of the study found a diversity of teacher opinion, including negative attitudes (53%) regarding students' abilities and the requirement for a culturally responsive teaching approach. The study highlights the complexities of implementing CT, and the need for policy makers to consider the impact of teachers' beliefs about student cultural identity before effective delivery of CT in secondary schools is likely to occur.

Effective implementation of entrepreneurship education requires more than government policy to enable teachers and leaders to implement the content and pedagogy required for successful and innovative programmes to occur in schools. This paper provides an up-to-date literature review of research into the characteristics of teachers and school leaders who have intentionally implemented entrepreneurship education. This review was conducted in order to gain insight into the attitudes and values of teachers, the role of leadership and the enablers and barriers to success. This systematic review of the literature found 61 studies relating to the approach teachers and leaders took when implementing entrepreneurship education and factors that enabled successful implementation. Six enablers, which support effective implementation of entrepreneurship education were identified: consensus between teachers on methods, support from leadership, an entrepreneurial school culture, prioritisation, professional development, and teacher networking. Implications of the review included the need for research into how to support leaders to seek professional development in entrepreneurship education and strategies to implement the approach. A comparison of the effectiveness of different pedagogical methods provides an opportunity to measure the relevance of the approach, which the authors argue begins to address social and employment-related issues arising from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Society requires education to prepare students with the tools and ability to navigate and find success for unknown futures. Entrepreneurship education has the potential to deliver the relevant curriculum and competencies to support young people to develop resilience, independence, innovation and ability to recognise opportunities to live productive and rewarding lives in this new post COVID-19 environment. Entrepreneurship has been encouraged by government initiatives to address rapidly evolving challenges due to economic disruption. The purpose of this study was to conduct a literature review of entrepreneurship education pedagogy in order to understand the growing evidence of the effectiveness of programmes that support students to act on opportunities that address social, economic, and environmental issues that have arisen in their communities. An analysis of 45 studies across nine countries suggests that although these types of learning opportunities are written into curricula, students rarely experience this type of learning in their schooling. Sustained interest in entrepreneurship through effective methods such as assistance from external trainers and value creation throughout schooling develops students' intent for continued study of entrepreneurship at university. Teachers need opportunities to build confidence, knowledge and capacity to develop effective entrepreneurship education learning experiences that are relevant to today's students' future life challenges.

This paper describes findings related to the effectiveness of secondary school middle leaders as a contributor to within-school variation in academic results for students at department level in urban high schools. The 'high-stakes' academic assessment results for students in 10 urban high schools in New Zealand in English, mathematics and science were collated over three years. The analyses revealed variable subject department performance by 16- to 18-year-old students in the national qualification within these schools. The extent of the effectiveness of the middle leadership practices in these departments was investigated using individual questionnaires for each middle leader and the teachers who reported to them. This paper reports the results of the statistical analyses of the questionnaire compared with the aggregated academic results for students by department and finds specific middle leadership practices that were strongly associated with improved academic results. In schools where students were socially disadvantaged, the statistical significance of the results was greater. This study contributes to the previous schooling improvement literature on department effectiveness by enhancing our understanding of why students in departments in the same high school perform differently and how effective middle leaders can impact positively the student academic outcomes.

This paper describes the background, methods and key findings from a research project conducted in one Kahui Ako (Community of Learning) in a city in New Zealand. All 12 schools had significant numbers of Indigenous Maori students whose iwi (tribal) ancestry connected to the region over centuries. Using a mixed methods approach, the study investigated the specific 'across and within' school interventions that positively impacted Maori student engagement in learning. Evidence was collected by seeking the views and opinions of students, teachers and whanau (family). Interventions and strategies included collaboration between Maori teachers and across-school leaders, positive school culture focused on the health and well-being of students, localised curricula, and substantial use of te reo Maori and tikanga in most schools. School principals reported limited collaboration with each other due to perceived competition between schools for student enrollments, which is counter to the policy drivers for the Kahui Ako initiative. Results indicated that culturally inclusive leaders and teachers must deliberately focus on motivating students for their positive futures. This is key to improving the academic and social outcomes for Maori students.

Effective implementation of entrepreneurship education requires more than government policy to enable teachers and leaders to implement the content and pedagogy required for successful and innovative programmes to occur in schools. This paper provides an up-to-date literature review of research into the characteristics of teachers and school leaders who have intentionally implemented entrepreneurship education. This review was conducted in order to gain insight into the attitudes and values of teachers, the role of leadership and the enablers and barriers to success. This systematic review of the literature found 61 studies relating to the approach teachers and leaders took when implementing entrepreneurship education and factors that enabled successful implementation. Six enablers, which support effective implementation of entrepreneurship education were identified: consensus between teachers on methods, support from leadership, an entrepreneurial school culture, prioritisation, professional development, and teacher networking. Implications of the review included the need for research into how to support leaders to seek professional development in entrepreneurship education and strategies to implement the approach. A comparison of the effectiveness of different pedagogical methods provides an opportunity to measure the relevance of the approach, which the authors argue begins to address social and employment-related issues arising from the COVID-19 pandemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It has been reported in the literature that the disparities of student achievement within schools are often larger than the disparity across schools. In the secondary school context, analysing student achievement data at department level enables a fine-grained approach to identifying particular departments and teachers within them that are enabling students to achieve. This paper describes the steps taken to compare the student assessment results of 41 New Zealand secondary school English, maths and science departments with each other. In some schools results across departments show considerable variation by subject and in other schools results across departments are similar. (Contains 1 table, 6 figures, and 4 notes.)