This paper focuses on the professional journeys of 14 mid- and late-career teacher educators in seven countries in the subject area of physical education. Data was gathered through two rounds of semi-structured interviews and revealed a strong emphasis on the professional relationships impacting upon participants' entry to and development within…

While there has been considerable research on doctoral examination there is little that examines the various roles of the oral component and what issues one might consider if introducing or revising that aspect of the thesis examination process. This matter is of particular importance in Australia where it is not usual to have an oral component as…

Most New Zealand primary teachers are well aware of the National Standards assessment system that has followed during the last three terms of government in New Zealand and the controversies surrounding it. Teachers draw on a range of quantitative and qualitative evidence to make "Overall Teacher Judgements" (OTJs) about primary school…

Purpose: This paper highlights important lessons for co-innovation drawn from three ex-post case study innovation projects implemented within three sub-sectors of the primary industry sector in New Zealand. Design/methodology/approach: The characteristics that fostered co-innovation in each innovation project case study were identified from…

This paper provides an overview of recent research on the factors that drive the performance of registered training organisations (RTOs), with a view to identifying areas for future research. Initially it explores the drivers of RTO performance; then discusses findings from available literature from Australia and from overseas, and discusses some…

Facilitators and barriers to recess physical activity are not well understood. To date, research on recess physical activity has predominantly focused on quantitative measures typically focusing on a narrow set of predefined factors, often constructed by adults. To really understand the factors affecting recess physical activity it is crucial to…

Over the last decade, the New Zealand Ministry of Education (2000, 2012) has continued to identify young people from low socioeconomic backgrounds as one of six groups who are consistently underrepresented in gifted and talented programmes in New Zealand schools. This paper reports on a research project that explored the lived experiences of 101…

This exploratory study determined PhD completions at a research-intensive university in New Zealand and considered factors affecting PhD completions. Completion data were calculated for PhD cohorts at the University of Otago from 2000 to 2012 (n = 2770) and survival models determined whether gender, enrolment status, age at admission, citizenship,…

We propose the use of an ontological perspective to shift current thinking about the phenomenon of home/school partnerships, particularly through an examination of school leaders (leadership team)--community relationships that seek to better serve Indigenous students and their communities. We reanalysed focus group interviews of indigenous Maori…

There is developing interest in how professional identity can support educational leaders' management of change. This article explores the conceptualisation and interplay of identity formation with adaptive and contingent forms of educational leadership. The article draws on qualitative data obtained from two New Zealand school principals and…

Our research aim was to determine what enables engagement with graduate outcomes in tertiary institutions in Aotearoa/New Zealand. We used a mixed methods approach comprising a survey sent to all tertiary institutions, follow-up interviews with 10 academic leaders and eight case studies of good practice of programmes engaged with graduate outcomes…

Innovation is a key goal of many tertiary education and distance learning providers. This research explores how teachers and educational designers across three New Zealand tertiary institutions worked to innovatively achieve teaching goals. A longitudinal design using the Cultural Historical Activity Theory (CHAT) framework explored the influence…

Over the last decade and a half, physical education curricula in New Zealand and Australia have had a strong socio-cultural-critical orientation, providing in depth opportunities for critical inquiry. This article suggests that trying to achieve a criticality maybe impeded and or constrained by present graduating teacher standards. In the…

This article draws on the findings from a mixed-methods New Zealand study of the experience of service use of 605 vulnerable young people (aged 13-17 years). Drawing on the survey data, it focuses on the factors that assisted young people to stay on-track with their education. Key findings include: being able to stay at mainstream school was the…

"Risky" play is an important component of play, which positively affects the cognitive, social and emotional development of children. However, a growing culture of "risk aversion" may be limiting the degree of risk that children are allowed to encounter. We undertook qualitative interviews with eight schools to examine the…