This paper discusses the use of an estuary monitoring toolkit "Nga Waihotanga Iho" as a central part of a Maori-centred education project undertaken by Kaipara hapu (sub-tribe), Te Uri O Hau, in Northland, New Zealand. The toolkit was designed by New Zealand's National Institute for Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA). In this project,…

Purakau, or Maori narratives, have shaped the historical accounts of Maori throughout the generations. Yet they have historically been misappropriated, misrepresented, and misinterpreted as "fables" or anecdotes" (Lee, 2008). This article argues that purakau remain critical to Maori, as they preserve the cultural repositories of…

Children and young people internationally have been demonstrating their concern about the inadequacy of adult responses to the climate crisis. These young people recognise that their wellbeing and that of the planet is imperilled by this inaction. Furthermore, schools should be taking the lead in educating and supporting children and young people…

While attempts to decolonise the school curriculum have been ongoing since the 1970s, the recent Black Lives Matter protests around the world have drawn urgent attention to the vast inequities faced by Black and First Nations peoples and people of colour. Decolonising education and other public institutions has become a front-line public concern…

Mainstream thought on Pacific education tends to highlight the relatively poor educational achievement and sub-optimal experiences of Pacific learners in Aotearoa New Zealand. This article explores further understandings of the links between Pacific learners, their environments, and relational learning experiences. The argument is supported by…

This article reports on what happened when a Rumaki putaiao kaiako (Science) teacher at a New Zealand high school trialled the use of creative narratives with her Year-10 students as a way of developing their understanding of the human digestive system. These students were members of the school's Maori immersion unit, and creative narratives were…

This article explores the potential of queering as a mode of critique by problematising the ways in which liberal politics of race shape normative understandings of health in a high school classroom. Drawing on findings from an Australian and New Zealand (NZ) research project designed to respond to religious and cultural difference in school-based…

State and Federal education departments have increasingly recognised the importance of community consultation in the development of school curricula, and the requirement for teachers to consult with Indigenous communities is explicit in many curriculum documents. This article reports the findings of research into how teachers of senior Aboriginal…

Cherbourg State School is approximately 300 km northwest of Brisbane. It is situated in an Aboriginal community at Cherbourg with approximately 250 students. At the Cherbourg State School, the aim was to generate good academic outcomes for all students from kindergarten to Year 7 and to nurture a strong and positive sense of what it means to be…

Narratives have always been integral to Indigenous knowledge transfer. In this autoethnography the author shares her border crossings between her Indigenous knowledge systems and the often dominant Western knowledge system. Pertinent to these experiences are the stark contrasts that exist between the two knowledge systems and their educational…

This yearlong ethnographic study of principals' leadership in Papua New Guinea high schools describes influences of imposing a bureaucratic school organization on principals' decision making in a communal society. Communal values of kinship relationships, "wantok" system, and "big men" leadership challenged principals'…