Maori and Pacific learners in Aotearoa New Zealand have been identified as 'priority learners' by the Ministry of Education. The 'Pacific picturebook project' is ongoing research focussed on picturebooks selected to support the languages, cultures, and identities of Pacific learners in keeping with our government, Teaching Council and Ministry of…

This paper reports on two projects which investigated graded readers (GRs) as meaningful input for learners of Japanese as a foreign language (JFL). Project One examined the intentions of six writers of Japanese GRs. A focus group interview demonstrated that the writers had a genuine communicative intent in the writing process. Project Two…

As an approach to literary study, critical literacy is not a widespread practice in New Zealand secondary schools. This article draws on a major project on teaching literature in the multicultural classroom that take place over two years in 2008-2009. In it we report on a case study where a Year 13 English teacher designed and tested a novel…

This article explores the emergence of multimodality as intrinsic to the learning, teaching and assessment of English in the Twenty-First Century. With subject traditions tied to the study of language, literature and media, multimodal texts and new technologies are now accorded overdue recognition in English curriculum documents in several…

The ideas, practices, and day-to-day impact of parent education should be critically examined, and Michel Foucault's conception of discourse provides a useful model for doing so. Contemporary discourses about becoming a parent achieve their authority in different ways. In contrast to the child care literature by so-called experts earlier in this…

Describes a program that sends books home for parents to read to children in New Zealand. Reports on a study of classroom teachers and parents in 19 primary schools. Finds that, nearly all parents report participating, but there lacked a systematic communication between parents and teachers about instructional practices. (CFR)

This volume presents the 53rd Yearbook of the National Reading Conference (NRC). The papers in this Yearbook reflect NRC's practice of pursuing not only traditionally important topics in literacy but also many issues that may not be deemed worthy of funding and government attention. Rather than a narrowing of the field, the submitted manuscripts,…