Education Papers

Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://researchcommons.waikato.ac.nz/handle/10289/27

This community houses research from the Te Kura Toi Tangata Division of Education at the University of Waikato.

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Navigating researcher positionality in comparative and international education research: Perspectives from emerging researchers
(University of Sydney, 2022-11-17) Chin, Mellisa; Beckwith, Victoria; Levy, Benjamin ; Gulati, Swati ; Macam, Alea Ann F.; Saxena, Tanya; Suwarningsih, Dwi Purwestri Sri
Articulating one’s positionality as a researcher is crucial to social research. This is particularly important in comparative and international education research where context, culture and notions of power underpin much of the work. However, researcher positionality has multiple meanings, making it challenging for emerging researchers to navigate its muddied, cluttered and unfamiliar terrain. In this article, seven emerging researchers examine their own researcher positionality within the context of their postgraduate research. Through a series of short vignettes, they draw attention to the different conceptualisations of researcher positionality and uncover the challenges and dilemmas.
Through the lens of disabled students: How we access and engage with higher education in Aotearoa New Zealand
(University of Newcastle, 2025) Blickem, Chelsea J.; Anderson, Jessica; van Dijk, Nikita; Herb, Annika; Lloyd, Clare; Richardson, Anthony; Corino, Maria-Teresa
This chapter presents findings from an accessibility audit undertaken by disabled students on a university campus in Aotearoa New Zealand. The audit captured disabled students’ experiences as they engaged with learning, teaching and social campus spaces. Despite government and institutional policy, commitments, and discourse, the authors highlight the everyday barriers that may be overlooked and explore their experiences of access and mobility, as well as inconsistent accommodations that can lead to stigma, social exclusion, and concern for safety. Importantly, the chapter situates findings within Te Tiriti o Waitangi obligations and Māori perspectives on disability, acknowledging the need for culturally responsive solutions. This chapter illuminates the complex accessibility challenges faced by disabled students but also serves as a powerful tool for advocacy and change. By centring disabled students’ voices and experiences, this work contributes to calls for change in how educational institutions conceptualise and implement accessibility measures, moving beyond compliance-based approaches toward more comprehensive understanding of accessibility as a human right.
Scholarly responses to ‘students’ experiences of open distance learning: A Samoan case study
(University of Sydney, 2023) Chan, Philip Wing Keung; Baice, Tim; Fonua, Sonia M.; Diamond, Zane; Ji, Grace; Levy, Benjamin; Zeng, Shaoru Annie
This is foundational to the collective success of educational facilitators and learners in knowledge ecologies that are grounded in relationality. In summary, ODL can be an important tool to increase access and the number of teachers, but it needs to be contextually adapted, not just by the learners but also by curricular designers.
Managing digital citizens: Online safety and the rise of private actors in New Zealand schools
(Taylor & Francis, 2026) Doyle, Andrew; Estellés, Marta; Forbes, Dianne Leslie
Online safety has increasingly become an issue in schools worldwide. For both teachers and students, online safety problems, from sleep deprivation through to sextortion, present unprecedented challenges beyond the control of school management. The pressing nature of online safety issues combined with other material conditions, such as underfunded public systems and neoliberal administration models, has presented a breeding ground for private organisations to flourish in this field. In this study, we examine how schools enact online safety, the educational approaches underpinning these efforts and the conditions favouring the privatisation of online safety services. The context of the research is New Zealand – a country whose education system has experienced a sharp rise in privatisation over the last few decades. The study draws on ethnographic data with four high schools, involving school leaders, teachers, students and private organisations – for profit and non-profit – providing services to these schools. Our findings point at the unrealistic expectation of demanding schools guarantee young people’s safety online and the problems associated with the increasing privatisation of the field, including the lack of critical approaches to digital citizenship education. The article concludes with recommendations for policy makers, including legislative measures to hold online platforms accountable for online harm.
Academic misconduct among undergraduates across Aotearoa: Insights and implications for policy and practice
(Springer, 2024-03-26) Stephens, Jason M.; Absolum, Kate; Adam, Lee A.; Blickem, Chelsea J.; Gilliver-Brown, Katherine E.; Hart, Deirdre E.; Kelly, John; Olsen, Wendy; Ulrich, Neil
As elsewhere in the world, academic misconduct is a serious problem in Aotearoa. Yet, beyond the occasional newspaper headline, we know relatively little about the extent of the problem here or the factors associated with it. Consequently, our educational leaders and practitioners are left under-informed as they seek to address the problem and promote academic integrity. To help provide the knowledge and insights needed to craft good policy and best practice, the Research on Academic Integrity in New Zealand (RAINZ) Project—a research collaboration involving eight tertiary institutions—was founded in 2021. In the second semester of 2022, the RAINZ Project launched the first-ever nationwide survey of undergraduate students’ perceptions, attitudes, and behaviours related to academic integrity. Results from this survey, which was completed by undergraduates (N = 4493), indicate that most students (approximately two-thirds) reported engaging in at least one form of academic misconduct in the past year. As hypothesised, students’ perceptions (of the institutional climate and peer norms) and moral attitudes (related to cheating) were significantly associated with their engagement in academic misconduct. Details of these results as well as their implications for policy and practice are discussed.
Who teaches digital citizenship? Private actors, educational resources and individualising discourses
(MDPI, 2026) Estellés, Marta; Doyle, Andrew; Fraser, Zara
Over the last few decades, private organisations involved in the development of educational resources for digital citizenship have proliferated: from Google to Disney, from MediaSmarts to Common Sense. There has been, however, little interrogation (and therefore, investigation) of the underlying discourses of digital citizenship education that these organisations seek to transmit. In this article, we analyse the discourses of digital citizenship education from teaching resources developed by multiple global actors, including Big Tech, philanthropies, international organisations and professional’ associations. The analysis draws on our previous analytical framework of digital citizenship education that distinguishes between safeguarding, equipping, empowering and resisting educational approaches. The study shows the dominance of equipping approaches that emphasise the role of individual behaviour in the development of safer and more democratic online spaces and have little discussion or criticality with the role of governments and Big Tech in the promotion of such spaces. This approach is partially explained by the key role played by Big Tech in the funding and/or design of these resources. The article concludes with a call for critical teachers and educational scholars to challenge these discourses and to take inspiration from the few resources found that embrace empowering and resisting approaches.
Athlete endorsement and nationality: Is there a world cup effect?
(European Advertising Academy (EAA), 2023) Desmarais, Fabrice; Calderwood, Richard; Mukherjee, Abhishek
This research considers whether attributes such as the nationality of athlete endorsers and their physical and emotional characteristics have an impact on how appealing, credible, and relevant an advertising message is to a country’s national audience. Using rugby athletes, the study assesses the impact of these attributes on respondents’ ad preference and purchasing intention across two distinct periods: during and after the rugby world cup. The results indicate that congruence of national identity between audience and endorser leads to a more positive assessment of the endorsement and a high intention to purchase by the audience across both time periods but that both ad preference and purchase intentions are higher during a mega event period.
Social work education under pressure: Access, workforce sustainability and the limits of acceleration
(University of Otago Library, 2026) Marlowe, Jay; Keddell, Emily; O'Donoghue, Kieran; Glubb-Smith, Kelly J. ; Crichton-Hill, Yvonne
Recent revisions to the Social Workers Registration Board (SWRB) Education Standards 2026 mark a significant shift in social work education in Aotearoa New Zealand, removing time-based requirements and enabling shortened qualifying pathways, including the potential compression of postgraduate routes to registration. Drawing on the SWRB’s Official Information Act response and sector scholarship, this paper examines the implications of this shift for professional preparation, equity, and workforce sustainability. While the SWRB frames flexibility and compressed timeframes as a response to student financial hardship, declining enrolments and, most notably, workforce shortages, we argue that accelerated qualification pathways risk misdiagnosing the workforce crisis and positioning educational design as the primary lever for resolving what are fundamentally structural and political challenges. In doing so, costs and risks are displaced across the profession and sector, signalling concerns for workforce capability, organisational capacity, student learning and progression, and public safety. The paper contends that equity is not served if shortened pathways become diminished pathways and calls for coordinated system-level responses that preserve rigorous and coherent professional education.
Experiences of curriculum integration: The challenges in practice between learner relationships, agency, and knowledge
(Taylor & Francis, 2026-07-09) Taylor, Simon
This paper reports on the multiple ways teachers interpreted and implemented curriculum integration (CI) and considers the factors which contributed to the nature and degree of integration success in programmes in a number of case study secondary schools. This qualitative study examines the experiences of teachers in Aotearoa New Zealand who have implemented Curriculum Integration (CI) programmes for students aged 13–14. The shift away from single-subject specialisations prompts a reconfiguration of how teachers integrate, align, and engage with the curriculum. By examining the complex factors affecting CI in a range of school contexts, where teachers contribute to sustained collaborations, we identify examples from the research that illustrate teaching realities, and frame possibilities of future action. Some teachers utilised thematic contexts, others favoured student led, and co-construction processes. All, however, agreed that a balance was needed between supporting learner relationships and student agency and ensuring that students developed important knowledge. The paper offers a narrative of ways the integrated programmes have been developed, implemented and reflected upon within a secondary curriculum context.
Experts or expertise? A response to Otte, Yearby and Myszka (2024)
(Department of Psychology at Michigan State University, 2026) Grootenboer, Peter; Petrie, Kirsten; Scott, Emily
In 2024 Otte, Yearby, and Myszka published an article arguing for Skill Acquisition Specialists to be incorporated into high-performance sport, and they then responded further in 2026 (Myszka et al.) to Fransen who questioned their position. In this brief commentary we discuss the position presented by Otte et al., not so much to argue against it, but rather to extend their view and consider it from another perspective— practice theory. In this, we argue that what is needed is not ‘skill acquisition’ experts per se, but ‘skill acquisition’ expertise.
The secret life of stars: Astrophysics for everyone
(University of Waikato, 2026-06-29) Taylor, Simon; Jenkins, Rachel
Public lecture at The University of Waikato, Tauranga campus
Building Futures: Engaging Students with Dioramas in STEAM Education
(Springer Nature, 2026-06-18) Taylor, Simon
This study examined the perspectives and experiences of teachers and students in constructing dioramas. It was conducted in a small rural secondary school in Aotearoa, New Zealand. The three-dimensional models acted as tools for helping students visualise and represent ideas, supporting the development of environmental and sustainability concepts. The study involved four teachers collaboratively teaching a combined Year 9 and 10 class within an integrated STEAM (Science, Technology, Environment, Arts, Mathematics) programme, where students were challenged to design and construct imaginary habitats of future homes and local environments as dioramas, merging scientific knowledge with creative expression. The purpose of using dioramas extended beyond artistic representation; they provided a tangible way for students to engage with climate science by modelling ecosystems, illustrating interdependencies, and simulating the impact of human actions on environments. Through this process, students explored cause-and-effect relationships, considered adaptation and mitigation strategies, and envisioned sustainable futures. Dioramas acted as cognitive bridges, supporting learners to develop understanding of abstract climate science concepts into concrete, visual narratives that encouraged role play and dialogue. Themes emerging from the study included how the students identified and expressed their understandings of possible futures through diorama models, how they incorporated climate-change actions and solutions into their designs, and how the construction process prompted reasoning and discussion. The strengths of diorama construction lie in its ability to tell a story, make a claim, activate dialogue, and, importantly, help young people imagine and articulate sustainable futures.
Transformative leadership, regional solidarity, and the role of universities in a changing world
(University of Canterbury, 2026) Radclyffe, Charles JT; Vakaoti, Patrick; Rakuita, Tui; Levy, Benjamin; Nanau, Gordon Leau; Kalavite, Telesia; Faatoese, Allamanda; Schaaf, Michelle; Cornejo, Moira Fortin
At the University of Otago’s Annual Pacific Lecture for 2025, Solomon Islands National University Vice Chancellor, Professor Transform Aqorau, delivered a bold address about the importance of regional solidarity and cooperation, leadership centred on service and dignity, sustainable development for and by Pacific peoples, and recognising the vital role universities play in shaping these. These themes were then deliberated during a subsequent Public Panel. Here, we collate and present individual responses from the panellists. This is followed by a reflective discussion about the growing number of national universities and the changing socio-economic and political landscape of tertiary education in Oceania. Echoing Aqorau’s message of self-belief and finding strength in regional solidarity, we encourage Pacific university leaders and educators to strive for excellence by benchmarking first from within, and to work together to meet the growing educational and increasingly complex developmental needs of the Blue Pacific Continent.
Regenerative internationalization: Designing learning for a thriving future
(Nova Science Publishers, Inc., 2026) O'Brien, Ray; Levy, Benjamin; Cliff, Craig; Byker, Erik Jon; Medina, Adriana L.
While internationalization of higher education can help develop global competencies, there are significant risks that increased international mobility will undermine the credibility of universities to address wicked problems like climate change. The social license for institutional strategies that emphasize the growth of internationalization, is now under scrutiny. In this chapter, the design of internationalized learning experiences for inbound international students are viewed through the lens of regenerative practice. This chapter proposes a transition towards regenerative internationalization. A set of reflective questions have been developed to allow those designing the next generation of international learning experiences to fully consider the extent to which the experiences will have regenerative impacts so that Universities realize the significant benefits of internationalization in a manner that will withstand their own critique. In doing so, this framework positions the designers of these experiences as leaders of change, actively contributing to a thriving future of internationalization.
An E-Talanoa of the comparative and international education research field: Relational Vā–decoloniality in Oceania
(Emerald, 2026) Wright, Tepora; Fa'avae, David Taufui Mikato; Levy, Benjamin; Packham, Emma; Virtue, Katie ; Watkins-Matavalea, Dassia
We align with Tuhiwai Smith’s (2012) critique of research as “one of the ways in which the underlying code of imperialism and colonialism is both regulated and realized” (p. 8). As emerging comparative and international education (CIE) researchers within Oceania, we recognize “the critical role that uneven power plays in the constitution of comparative knowledge” (Takayama et al., 2017, p. s3). In deliberately disrupting conventional academic formats, we adopted a dialogic and relational talanoa structure that foregrounds Indigenous Moana Oceania epistemologies and ontologies. This choice unsettles Western-centric norms of linearity, objectivity, and authorial detachment typically valorized in scholarly writing (Mignolo & Walsh, 2018; Smith, 2012). Rather than presenting knowledge as static and decontextualized, we adopt a flowing, reflexive structure that is responsive to contexts and centered around vā – the relational space – as an epistemic principle and a decolonial imperative (Johansson-Fua, 2016; Suaalii-Sauni et al., forthcoming). This format resists the dominance and privileging of Western academic structures and unfolds through sequences of e-talanoa, grounded in our distinct positionalities and experiences across Moana Oceania.
La educación en un mundo globalizado y postdigital: Debates, tendencias y giros inesperados
(2026) Estellés, Marta
Desde las reformas educativas neoliberales de los 80 en el mundo anglosajón, la mayoría de países han seguido, en grados y formas variables, politícas educativas caracterizadas por una creciente privatización de los sistemas educativos públicos, estandarización de los procesos educativos y la introducción de mecanismos de rendición de cuentas, promovidos, en buena medida, por organismos internationales como la OECD y el Banco Mundial. Los efectos más visibles de estas políticas sobre la desigualdad y el aprendizaje han estado bien documentados en la literatura de las últimas décadas y debatidos en múltiples foros. Las formas más recientes de responder a estos y otros desafíos (la pandemia, la IA, etc.) han dado lugar a una serie de respuestas que, sin alterar el sustrato neoliberal esencial de estas reformas, están reformulando los términos y preocupaciones centrales sobre los que gira el debate educativo. En este seminario, discutiremos tres de estos giros. El primero está relacionado con la reacción conservadora frente a, por un lado, el auge de pedagogías ‘blandas’ centradas en el niño que han florecido al calor de discursos neoliberales sobre la flexibilidad, la autonomía y el aprendizaje individualizado y, por otro, las políticas identitarias emergidas en el contexto de lo que Nancy Fraser denomina ‘neoliberalismo progresista’. En numerosos países anglosajones, esta reacción conservadora se está traduciendo en políticas curriculares que apoyan el retorno a las disciplinas tradicionales y métodos de enseñanza centrados en el docente. El segundo giro concierne al proceso que he denominado la ‘safetyficación’ de la educación y que se refiere a la reciente centralidad adquirida por la noción de seguridad, en su vertiente afectiva y emocional, en debates educativos. Esta preocupación sobre la seguridad, entendida como una condición indispensable para el aprendizaje, ha llevado a numerosos países a aprobar políticas relacionadas con la medición de la salud mental, el aprendizaje socioemocional, las pedagogías culturalmente sensibles y el uso generalizado de estrategias psicoterapéuticas para mejorar el rendimiento académico de los estudiantes. El tercer giro concierne al cuestionamiento emergente de la digitalización como piedra angular de la reforma educativa. Preocupaciones crecientes sobre los efectos de las pantallas en las habilidades cognitivas y el bienestar emocional de los estudiantes han llevado a países como Australia, Nueva Zelanda o Suecia a introducir restricciones en el uso de redes sociales, teléfonos móviles y softwares educativos respectivamente. Una ‘reacción digital’ que a menudo convive con procesos de progresiva dataficación y digitalización de la educación. Como veremos, estos tres giros, íntimamente relacionados y llenos de contradicciones, están marcando las nuevas direcciones en política educativa a nivel mundial, ofreciendo nuevas respuestas a la cuestión del rol de la educación en un mundo global y postdigital.
Intersecting knowledge worlds: Describing the cultural interfaces within a socioscientific issue
(Springer, 2026) Wagner, Brent; France, Bev; McKinley, Elizabeth
Increasing numbers of science teachers in Aotearoa New Zealand are exploring ways to incorporate indigenous mātauranga Māori (Māori knowledge and ways of knowing) into their science programmes. This article presents findings from a study that examined how senior biology students in two English-medium secondary schools incorporated mātauranga Māori alongside biological science knowledge in their discussions about the use of 1080 poison to control mammalian predators. From a social constructivist ontology and interpretivist mode of inquiry using qualitative methodology, a triadic epistemic agency conceptual framework was developed inductively and used to analyse students’ written scripts for their national school leaving qualification (NCEA), and transcriptions of individual interviews. The study took place prior to the introduction of equal status to mātauranga Māori within the New Zealand Curriculum. Deductive analysis using the Triadic identified a group of ten students who drew from both knowledge systems, with varying degrees of knowledge integration. In addition to detailed representations of the theoretical space of the locale of the learner, the findings also identified three distinctive cultural interfaces occupied by the students: conflicted, parallel, and, connected. The findings underscore the importance of enabling diverse knowledge systems in biology classes to converge. Specifically, the incorporation of mātauranga Māori alongside biological science knowledge encourages a critical stance towards knowledge claims, supports pluralist knowledge use among culturally and linguistically diverse learners and promotes critical engagement with socioscientific issues (SSI) in senior secondary school biology.
Improving the uptake of cervical screening among sexual minority women
(The Royal New Zealand College of General Practitioners (RNZCGP), 2025-08) Ellis, Sonja J.
Current public health guidance recommends that everyone who has a cervix, is aged 25–69 and is sexually active undergo cervical screening. International research consistently indicates that the uptake of cervical screening among sexual minority women (e.g. lesbians, wahine takatāpui, bisexual women) is considerably lower than for heterosexual women. While many sexual minority women do regularly engage in cervical screening, a sizeable minority have either never been for a cervical smear, or if they have been in the past, they have not routinely participated. In a recently published research article (Ellis, 2024) fewer than half of the 206 sexual minority women who participated had regularly engaged in cervical screening. This is comparable to the reported participation rate of Māori and Pasifika women, indicating that sexual minority women may potentially be an ‘at risk’ group for cervical cancer.
A pedagogical framework for embedding computational thinking in authentic technology practice
(Japan Society of Technology Education (JSTE), 2025) Fox-Turnbull, Wendy; Wu, Shaoqun
Computational thinking is an aspect of digital technologies in the New Zealand Curriculum that teaches children to approach problems systematically, using logical and analytical reasoning. This paper presents a study undertaken in a small-town primary school in New Zealand with a high population of Māori students. The study drew on four aspects from Kotsopoulos et al.’s framework of pedagogical experiences: unplugged, tinkering, making, remixing to investigate pedagogical strategies that facilitate the successful embedding of computational thinking within authentic technological practice. The research aimed to identify learning pedagogies that support young learners in their understanding of computational thinking through designing and developing digital technologies. The qualitative methodologies were informed by the three pedagogical principles from Bishop and Berryman to guide the research design and frame learning support for students. Key themes that emerged from the data included the values of local context, self-autonomy, classroom organisation, use of physical and digital manipulatives. Finally, the paper presents a model for the pedagogical delivery of computational thinking when embedded in technological practice in primary schools, drawing from and adding to Kotsopoulos and colleague’s pedagogical framework. The most significant modification situates the existing model within authentic technology practice, providing context for learning. The model shows an adjustment from ‘Making’ to ‘Designing and Making’, thus strengthening the position of digital technologies within the Technology learning area. The model also signals that authentic technological within a primary classroom practice is heavily impacted by ‘the pragmatics of delivery’ through a range of pedagogical and organisational strategies developed to ensure the needs of all students are met and to support them through their learning journey in computational thinking. The last significant modification of Kotsopoulos and colleagues’ model is the removal of ‘remixing’ because the primary aged students in this study did not reach the level of sophistication required for remixing. The aim of the framework is to assist teachers and teacher educators to design and develop successful teaching and learning strategies for implementing computational thinking into authentic technology practice in primary schools.
Assessment practices in work-integrated learning
(2024) Zegwaard, Karsten E.
The purpose of this webinar is to discuss the purpose of assessment in work-integrated learning (WIL), what authentic assessments means and explore examples of high quality assessment in different modalities of WIL.

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