Te Ao Hurihuri (The Changing World)
Barb Whyte & Simon Taylor
Te Ao Hurihuri (The Changing World) is an educational research project currently in a primary school in the Bay of Plenty region. The goal is for the school leadership, teachers and researchers, Barbara Whyte and Simon Taylor from the Division of Education, to share ideas and expertise to develop a future-focused, integrated curriculum to improve student engagement. The research critically examines teacher professional practice, using the Aotearoa New Zealand curriculum, through qualitative methodologies of teacher drawings, interviews and professional reflection episodes.The selected kaiako (teacher) drawing above depicts what learning looks like in the teaching hub from their perspective. The concept of whenua has significance; this is a term used for both placenta and the earth, symbolising a nurtured learning environment. The kaiako brings their passion and creativity to the learning through this. “For children’s growth (tupu), it’s a balanced, learning ecosystem which cycles through nurture and love of learning”.
© 2022 | Barb Whyte & Simon Taylor
The Story Behind the Stairs: Time Capsules of Curriculum Possibility
Emily Nelson & Bronwen Cowie
In our research, we employ the notion of a palimpsest to explore the curriculum potential of an outdoor space that has been developed as an outdoor learning centre but still retains elements of its past uses and 'wildness’. The past and present intermingle, refracted through the geography, geology, history, culture and politics of the site, taken up by all who encounter them. Primary students documented their responses and reactions to different elements in the space through photography as they visited the space multiple times over the course of a school year. We engaged in photo elicitation interviews with the students, exploring together their salient experiences and perspectives. What captured student attention varied widely. Some were captivated by stairs, sculptures, flowers and dead stumps, and others by ambiguous holes, algae and broken bricks. The palimpsestic nature of the space in connection with the students’ interests and imagination offer time capsules of curriculum possibility.
© 2022 | Emily Nelson & Bronwen Cowie
On2Science: Weaving a web of connections through online citizen science
Cathy Buntting
This three-year research project brings together an interdisciplinary team of education researchers, information systems researchers and teachers from three research organisations and eight schools to investigate how online citizen science projects can enhance school students’ science and digital technology learning. Together, we are exploring how our different areas of expertise weave together to enhance student learning outcomes. Our research is relevant for educators, curriculum developers, and developers of online citizen science projects. This Project is led by Cathy Buntting (science education, University of Waikato), and Cathal Doyle (information systems, Victoria University of Wellington), and includes Dayle Anderson, Matt Boucher, Carol Brieseman, Rose Campbell, Dianne Christenson, Ally Clark, Alana Cockburn, Melissa Coton, Ben Egerton, Brigitte Glasson, Rose Hipkins, Tanya Kotze, Jane Li, Markus Luczak-Roesch, Richie Miller, Azra Moeed, Cameron Pierson, and Stephen Ross. The project is funded by the Ministry of Education’s Teaching Learning Research Initiative.
© 2022 | Cathy Buntting
Developing a snorkelling methodology
Chris Eames & Claudio Aguayo
This image represents school students snorkelling at Te Hāwere-a-Maki/Goat Island Marine Reserve. The context was a Teaching and Learning Research Initiative project exploring the use of mobile technologies juxtaposed with outdoor experiences in order to develop students’ marine ecological literacy. As researchers, we captured this image using a GoPro whilst watching student behaviour and listening to student dialogue regarding the marine biodiversity at the Reserve. This ‘immersion’ research technique proved powerful in eliciting evidence of student learning, whilst at the same time posing challenges that were physical (needing to swim to keep up) and sensory (understanding words spoken through snorkels and seeing what they see underwater).
© 2022 | Chris Eames & Claudio Aguayo
Food for thought: Take all you can eat, but eat all you take
Deepa Goswami
One third of all the food produced worldwide is lost or wasted along the food supply chain. Food loss occurs from post-harvest up to the retail and consumer levels. Food waste at the consumer level is due to general apathy or lack of awareness about the scale and impact of food waste. Awareness about food waste at the consumer level can lead to changes in attitudes, values, and behaviour towards food waste. That is where the role of education is crucial as a tool to address this environmental and social issue. This calls for an education which develops action competence to be able to understand food waste problems and take action for a food secure future.
© 2022 | Deepa Goswami
Where do you come from: A sense of place and identity
Devika Rathore
The Lake Palace is a white marble palace built in the 1740s situated in the midst of Lake Pichola, an artificial lake built in the year 1362. The Aravalli Hills form the backdrop for this rich historical and environmental context of my city. The picturesque mix of the natural and the man-made presents a portrait of harmonious co-existence and sustenance. The flourishing natural and cultural milieu of where I come from provides me with a strong sense of place and identity in relation to the natural environment. My research explores parallel notions with migrant Indian teachers from diverse geographical and sub-cultural backgrounds in Aotearoa Early Childhood Education. It is an attempt to unearth similar metaphorical images representing the teacher participants. These metaphorical images represent their interpretations of their transitioning cultural and environmental identities and the influence of these identities on their teaching practices in Aotearoa.
© 2022 | Devika Rathore
Where are their voices? Shifting Older Adults from Vulnerable to Valuable in Media Portrayals
Diana Amundsen
Ageism affects everyone, everywhere, across the life course. My research is about changing how we think, feel, and act around older adults to foster healthy ageing for everyone in Aotearoa New Zealand. Ageism is in our beliefs, relationships, our education systems, and across every aspect of society. It has so many layers—no one person can tackle it all! To make a difference, we can begin by teaching our teachers how to see and understand ageism in order to help future generations combat ageism. This research aims to work with the news media outlets in Aotearoa New Zealand to understand how media can contribute to changing narratives of old age from “vulnerable” to “valuable”. Through interviews with editors, freelance journalists, art-directors, photographers and columnists, my research aims to produce media-informed guidance and resources on writing about ageing, including empowering older adult voices.
© 2022 | Diana Amundsen
What lies beneath big data?
Don Klinger
As a quantitative researcher, I often say “get a picture of your data.” Admittedly, this triple image suite is not what I meant but I also use images to illustrate statistical concepts. Underwater photography is challenging. It is difficult to get sharp images and the deeper one goes the less available light. Similarly, statistical analyses with large datasets often sacrifice specificity and depth for breadth, leading to less detail of what we are analysing. This image collage simultaneously captures my early university work in marine biology (and my desire to see the Great Barrier Reef) and my statistical research with large datasets. While snorkelling off Lady Elliot Island, I observed an entire coral shelf surrounded by small fish, creating a living wall. As I dove into and through the “fish wall” it parted, revealing a large wrasse near the bottom, equally surrounded by the living wall, albeit keeping a distance. And this is what happens when we work with big datasets. We examine population data in an attempt to find “hidden secrets or patterns” that are only found once we start moving through the data in front of us.
© 2022 | Don Klinger
‘Plotting a Course – Families Navigating to School’
Developing a collaborative transition to school using social media
Hazel Woodhouse
The transition to school is a process which a family experiences together as their child moves from ECE to primary school. In this research, a digitally facilitated transition process was co-constructed by the contributions of two Facebook groups: families and their teachers. The Facebook groups supported the development of tools and information which enabled a family to navigate their own route to school. Each family’s journey to school is unique. While all families travel to the same destination, it is not for all of them a familiar route. For some, it is as direct as a motorway, whereas others experience travel delays and need further information and support to arrive at their destination. Some families travel together, navigating the road with each other's support and advice. Offering families agency in their own transitions and help when they need it ensures they will experience a smoother journey to school.
© 2022 | Hazel Woodhouse
Where are their voices? Shifting Older Adults from Vulnerable to Valuable in Media Portrayals
Jessica Cira Rubin
My research followed a programme for US teachers who travelled to India to learn about ahimsa (nonviolence) and other Jain principles. We visited several Jain institutions, including this all-girls school in central Delhi. Postcolonial theories, including Bhabha’s ideas about liminal spaces, contributed to a comprehensive analysis of the programme, and this image of an encounter in a materially liminal space highlights the potential of metaphysical liminality as well. In this moment, we are both in the heart of a frenetic city and apart from it; teachers visit informally with the students, vibrant young women who were also confident teachers. Formal interactions were occurring within classrooms and in the courtyard below, but in this liminal space, the connections were authentic, reciprocal and joyful. One participant (far right) alluded repeatedly to the affective impact of this day on her learning about ahimsa, teaching, and India.
© 2022 | Jessica Cira Rubin
Beekeeping as a practice tradition and implications for vocational education and training
John P. Howse
My research aims to understand how everyday vocational practices such as beekeeping unfold and transform the world around us and how vocational education and training is expected to adequately respond to global issues of social inequality, climatic and ecological crises, and the increasing influence of technology in our lives. Tracing the historical formation yet emergent nature of our practices requires scrutiny if we are to avoid reproducing those practices that have adverse effects. In this photo, a beekeeper checks the health and condition of a hive. The white strip on the frame is a chemical treatment that targets the globally distributed Varroa destructor mite that is a significant cause of colony collapse. Overtime and without complex forms of treatment, apis mellifera or the “western honey bee” is unable to survive on its own. This presents an example of the irreversible impact yet necessary interventions of human practices in the world.
© 2022 | John P. Howse
A juxtaposition of “traditional” and “modern” learning environments
Julie Hest
All state-owned New Zealand schools must modify their learning environments. The design of this image makes visible the stark contrast between "traditional" and "modern" learning environments. It demonstrates and symbolises how architecture, technologies, and teaching and learning practices can differ between environments. The inspiration for this image is my PhD research, which collected the voices of principal, teacher and student participants involved in the daily operation of modified learning environments in four New Zealand secondary schools. One key finding my research revealed was that without guidance on how to operate within modified learning environments, participants sought guidance from their previous experiences in traditional classrooms; these practices were not always appropriate for the modified space and led to tension with colleagues hence the rip through the middle of the image.
© 2022 | Julie Hest
On ontologies of language
Laura Gurney (in collaboration with Eugenia Demuro)
The question of what language is persists within language studies. Ontologies of language traverse language as code, practice, assemblage and more. How do we claim that the language we investigate is indeed language, and on what basis do we do this? Which coordinates – physical, temporal, and so on – of language practice need to be acknowledged? Who or what are the actants involved, and would they also claim to be practicing language? Is it possible to imagine a time and situation in which language doesn’t exist? Well, that depends on your definition.
© 2022 | Laura Gurney
Who’s the real star of the show?
Marg Cosgriff
Beaches are an indelible part of the land and lifescape of Aotearoa. Vibrant and ever changing, the seas and sands of our coastal rim support and sustain our lives in a myriad of essential ways. My doctoral research examines the everyday beach relations of twelve young people living in proximity to the coast in Tauranga Moana and includes the sharing and exploration of photographs that the participants have taken. A key focus is considering how the ‘more-than-human’ and material realities of local beaches, including sand, seas, waves, dunes, fish, islands, shells, and coastal plants, infuse participants’ photo-stories, and with what (e)affects on wellbeing. This photograph was taken on one of my own daily beach walks. It invites you to notice how beaches teem with interconnected life, acknowledge the often overlooked more-than-human ‘stars’ of human-beach relations, and reflect on our responsibilities in increasingly precarious times.
© 2022 | Marg Cosgriff
Same school, different space: Parents’ mental maps of their child’s school
Megan Smith
We all create maps in our minds. Our experiences, worldview, and cultural capital inform the cognitive maps of our spaces. For my research on parental engagement in primary education, I used a mental mapping method to help parent participants display their cognitive map of Korimako School (not its actual name) where their child(ren) attend. Each map is unique and illustrates the diversity of parental experience of, and within, the school. The maps are representational and processual as they contain information about what we see (e.g., buildings, landmarks), how we move (e.g., timing, shortcuts), and how we feel (e.g., nervous, confident, rushed) and are constantly evolving. The maps demonstrate the need for schools to consider the built space and its varied impact on parents. They also show how individual parent backgrounds permeate every aspect of their interactions with schools—starting at the school gate.
© 2022 | Megan Smith
Turn Stories into Conversations and Watch Children’s Language Grow
Melissa Derby
This image was taken while I was completing my doctoral study on literacy development in bilingual (English and Te Reo Māori) preschool children. The study, which was part of A Better Start National Science Challenge, sought to determine the efficacy of Māori oral traditions and pedagogical approaches in enhancing children’s early literacy skills. Māori preschool children (N=8) and their whānau completed an intervention over a 12-week period. The intervention included practices associated with Māori oral traditions, such as storytelling, songs, and reminiscing about the past, as methods for strengthening key cognitive skills associated with early literacy development, specifically phonological awareness, vocabulary knowledge, and story comprehension and retell skills. These skills, in both English and Te Reo Māori, were assessed for change in response to the intervention. Additionally, the home literacy environment and whānau literacy practices were examined in order to determine the effect of the intervention on these phenomena.
© 2022 | Melissa Derby
Who Cares for the Carers?
Nadine Ballam, Katrina McChesney, Melissa Derby & Diana Amundsen
This longitudinal research (2019–) investigates the wellbeing and resilience experiences of those preparing for, and transitioning into, two key caring professions in Aotearoa New Zealand: teaching and social work. This image depicts the study’s foundations, design, and theoretical underpinnings. Pre-service teaching and social work students are interviewed annually throughout their degree and for two years beyond as they transition into their chosen profession following graduation. Every two years, surveys also track related experiences and perceptions of a wider group of preservice participants. Caring professions of teaching and social work have known challenges of underpayment, overwork, emotional burden, burnout, and attrition, all of which may threaten caring professionals’ wellbeing and resilience. The study is expected to offer new insights in relation to supporting wellbeing and resilience (caring for the carers) among those preparing for and entering caring professions.
© 2022 | Nadine Ballam, Katrina McChesney, Melissa Derby & Diana Amundsen
Bilingual picturebooks create language awareness
Nicola Daly
My research explores the linguistic landscape of picturebooks using more than one language to create possibilities for readers to see their own linguistic identity and draw on their linguistic resources; it also provides opportunities to see and explore unfamiliar language(s). Together with my colleagues at the University of Arizona (Professor Kathy Short and Dr. Dorea Kleker), we ran a 6 week after-school picturebook club for children (8-10 years), and a 6 week picture book club for university students. Across the 6 weeks we explored picturebooks featuring a range of languages alongside English from familiar (Spanish) to unfamiliar (Te Reo Māori and Indigenous US languages). The children explored working theories about what a language is and how they differ; the tertiary students became critically aware of the availability of these resources and how their format reflects and sometimes disrupts existing language hierarchies.
© 2022 | Nicola Daly
Redefining Literacy Competencies: An Iceberg
Nicolina Newcombe
Many adults with learning disabilities are far more literate than standard testing, the Literacy and Numeracy Adult Assessment Tool (LNAAT), gives them credit for. My Ph.D. research takes a fresh look at what constitutes literacy, drawing on perspectives and examples of literacies from participants with learning disabilities. This is an image of an iceberg. At the hummock are written questions from the LNAAT Starting Points, an assessment option commonly accessed by adults with learning disabilities (New Zealand Council for Educational Research, 2019). These questions represent privileged ways of being literate. At the bummock are examples of literacies shown by participants at group workshop sessions. These examples are a poster, a SMS text, photography, a magazine, tuhinga, and a Dungeons and Dragons map. My research aims to redefine literacy competencies to make the unseen seen.
© 2022 | Nicolina Newcombe
Leading the Learning
Nigel Calder
This image captures two Year 6 students explaining to the rest of the class, including the teacher and researchers, how they developed some coding script in Scratch to generate a particular geometric design. They then explained and demonstrated how small changes in the coding affected the design and positioning of it on the screen. Importantly, their demonstration and explanations initiated another iteration of engagement and learning in the class. This was part of a two-year project in four Tauranga schools. Students also used unplugged activities to enact various processes and algorithms. These helped them to envisage the movements that their coding would generate and consolidate their understanding and expertise with on-line coding..
© 2022 | Nigel Calder
Collaborating to develop accessible sexuality resources: A Participatory Action Research Group approach
Patsie Frawley
This project used participatory action research to co-develop resources to support people with intellectual disabilities to talk about relationships and sexuality in education and counselling. It brought together a group of researchers including people with intellectual disabilities, academic researchers and people who work in sexual health and counselling. We called ourselves the PARG (Participatory Action Research Group). All of the work of the PARG happened via Zoom, across three states in Australia and over almost two years. Four stories co-written with people with intellectual disabilities using a narrative research approach, to tell ‘their stories their way’, were at the centre of the PARG’s work. The resources the PARG co-developed are now being trialled in education and counselling with people with intellectual disabilities in Australia. This research has been all about collaboration. This image was another result of this group’s collaborative work. Research group: Patsie Frawley (University of Waikato), Monica Wellington, Amie O’Shea & Angela Dew (Deakin University) and Linda Stokoe, Jill S Purling, Ee-Lin Chang, Tess Moodie, Rosina Davidson-Tuck, Nathan Despott, Cherie Brandon & Donna Markwick.
© 2022 | Patsie Frawley
Transitions research: Liminal spaces and new possibilities
Sally Peters
This image reflects an idea at the core of my transitions research. At the threshold of a transition, there may be glimpses of the new role or context, but understanding could be limited (through this hole we can only see a partial view of what is beyond). As the transition begins, attention moves from the present (the foreground is blurring), and glimpses of the future (distance) come into sharper focus. At the heart of the transition, there may be a liminal space (traversing the hole in the image, one leaves behind the familiar but is not yet incorporated into the new). Temporal and other aspects of liminality vary from person to person due to a complex range of factors. My research seeks to explore the experience of transition and ways to support people to address challenges, so that the new possibilities transitions afford can be embraced.
© 2022 | Sally Peters
Exploring the phenomenon of global citizenship as experienced by children in Aotearoa New Zealand
Vicky Beckwith
Childhood is fleeting, and children’s ideas can be elusive. The running child, barefoot in a Kiwi garden surrounded by flax, native and introduced fauna and flora, tui, kererū, pīwakawaka, korimako and ruru, trails a woven blanket from the land of his ancestors, crafted by his parent’s cousin. Northern and Southern hemispheres merge, and cultures and intergenerational narratives blend, planting seeds for the child to nurture on their journey of exploration and understanding. Children’s experiences and perceptions of global citizenship offer an interesting perspective of this contested notion. The running child represents childhood, its elusiveness and agility, the blanket is made of single threads, interwoven to provide strength, colour, warmth, and protection, representative of global citizens, narratives, and our interconnectedness, combined with fluidity, movement, texture, and non-conformity within conformity.
© 2022 | Vicky Beckwith
“A picture is a thousand words”
Supporting effective transition back to school for children with cancer: A student and professional perspective
Wendy Hallett
My Masters Dissertation study used photo voice to research how to support effective. Transition back to school for children who had, or were having, treatment for cancer. The children shared images from their experiences that had meaning for them. Using a narrative approach, the children co-wrote their stories with me to tell “their stories their way”. This image of the Beads of Courage encapsulates the journey they are on, honouring their strength, courage and resilience. Children with cancer see themselves differently and are affected by how others see them, especially their friends, peers and teachers. They are suffering from treatment and trying to find a new normal. It can be multifaceted and complex for them to return to school life. Supporting them to be present and engaged is essential. They are on a journey and deserve to live the life of their peers. The Beads of Courage exemplify this sentiment.
© 2022 | Wendy Hallett
Mislearning as a barrier to academic acculturation
Yu Yuan
My research aims to unveil how Chinese students adapt to the New Zealand academic environment. In my research, I proposed that academic acculturation is a learning process. I adopted the Comprehensive Learning Theory to interpret academic acculturation. The picture related to one of the findings in my research, which shows that Chinese students respect their teachers and obey what the teachers instruct. When adapting to the New Zealand academic environment, students also think that they should follow the teacher’s ideas to show respect. The students’ thoughts represented a process of mislearning. If what a student learned was incorrect, the learning result could lead to another incorrect result and, hence, the misunderstanding will naturally become more pervasive. In academic adaptation, students adapted to the new environment based on their previous experiences. If their previous experiences were constructed by mislearning, the experiences would further cause misunderstandings. Mislearning could prevent students from adapting to new environments.
© 2022 | Yu Yuan