During the 1980s major changes occurred in the field of educational administration. Three antecedents for change were the restructuring of education administration by governments across the world as a function of the economic management of state, the general availability of powerful information technology to meet the processing and communication…

The focus of this paper is the politics and practicalities of using, training, and paying young people as peer researchers in their schools. It begins by presenting a five-point rationale for involving peer researchers in research about young people. The paper also discusses the ethics and politics of negotiating peer research in four New Zealand…

This review of guidance and counseling research includes reports of hypothesis testing based on hard data and behavioral analysis designs, reports of surveys and evaluations, and comments and recommenda- tions from reflections on experience and survey findings. The materials, originating from New Zealand between 1970 and 1979, are classified on…

This paper reports a series of studies of environmental cognition. Conducted among American preschoolers, Navajo and Puerto Rican school children, and American, Mexican and Maori adults, all of the studies employ techniques of environmental modelling that permit objects such as buildings, trees and vehicles. A pilot test of the environmental…

A brief historical account of developments in early childhood education in New Zealand is presented as background for a discussion of current research in this area. Five main sources of research in New Zealand, each with a special research style and field of interest are cited: (1) the universities, (2) the Department of Education, (3) women's…

New Zealand's 1989 Education Act has resulted in a range of educational reforms. These reforms have offered the Maori opportunities to bring about positive educational developments for their people. Devolution of educational responsibility from a regional to a local level provided some of the space quickly utilized by the Maori. The requirement…

This paper examines literature relating to research into educational technology in New Zealand published since 1996. The literature ranged from conference presentations to journal articles, both printed and online, and from collaborative international research to the reporting of teaching experience. The study looks at the relationship between the…

This article describes the methodology of a four-study research program designed to develop a grounded theory of pupil learning in elementary classrooms. Findings illustrate the relationship of instructional contexts, content variables, and pupil behavior and utterances to short-term and long-term learning. (Author/IAH)

Working out assessment philosophy and practices takes time, as the team members working on the "Competent Children" research project in New Zealand have found out during the first 18 months of the project. It is imperative that those with expertise in early childhood care and education insist on developmentally appropriate assessment…

Maori and other indigenous peoples are concerned about the power and control that non-indigenous people hold over research. Research issues such as initiation, benefits, representation, legitimation, and accountability have usually been determined by the researcher's interests and agenda. One means of addressing indigenous peoples' desire for…

Policymaking is a subjective, cultural, and intellectually complex activity in a democracy and should be researched with the multidisciplinary approach. This paper focuses on theoretical implications of the multidisciplinary approach and on its opposing position, the structural-functional approach, in educational policy research. The paper briefly…

The Learning in Science Project identified the learner as the key perspective for in-depth study into problems and difficulties in the teaching and learning of science at the 10- to 14-year-old level. Two complementary research foci were established to explore this viewpoint: (1) interviewing children using strategies designed to establish various…

The nearly 40 research studies carried out in New Zealand during the last decade have resulted in some very important ideas. In the area of children and texts, research focused on how children learn from texts, and the resulting data suggest that children can and do teach themselves to read, learning from their mistakes. The complexity of the…

This review of research literature written from 1971 to 1979 on Maori education integrates and highlights findings in the following areas: historical studies, language studies, scholastic achievement studies, methodological issues, and general issues. Historical studies suggest that there is no comprehensive social history of the relationships…

As exemplified by New Zealand, the nature of educational policy research is shaped by political and social factors that impinge upon the research environment. Following a description of the educational system and research funding methods, this paper analyzes three areas that affect policy research in New Zealand and addresses relevant social…