Bronwen Cowie

When education draws on student and community funds of knowledge to enhance collective wellbeing, young people experience learning that matters , applying knowledge and skills to contribute to social good. This case examines the implementation of Akomanga Kaihanga at Tāmaki College (years 9–13) in New Zealand, the focus of a long-term research–practice partnership. Students collaborated with community partners to co-design actions addressing issues such as food insecurity, road safety and youth wellbeing. Findings highlight the importance of (a) a strengths-based view of students, (b) co-design responsive to local contexts and (c) systems supports. Early evidence shows that students gained confidence, collaboration and communication skills and achieved tangible impacts. Implications for sustainability and future research are discussed.

This paper investigated Omani international students’ perceptions of peer interaction in multicultural group work during their undergraduate studies at a university in New Zealand. To gather data, a sample of twelve Omani international students were invited to participate in semi-structured interviews using open-ended questions. Data were analysed using thematic analysis. Findings suggest that students were generally satisfied with their experiences in multicultural group work, viewing it as an opportunity to interact with classmates, collaborating with peers from diverse backgrounds, and offering ways to expand interaction outside the classroom. However, limited interaction in group work was associated with issues that led to dissatisfaction. These issues included disappointment due to the language barrier, differences in students’ different academic levels and commitments, and difficulty in maintaining friendships after completing group tasks. The findings advance our knowledge of the dynamics of multicultural group work and have implications for international students, pedagogy and educators within tertiary education.

We, the researchers, committed to this research project because we wanted to understand our graduates’ early career teaching experiences, to ensure our programmes are fit for purpose in preparing t...

Plants mediate the supply of energy and matter for all animals, including human beings yet we are faced with “plant blindness” whereby we pay limited attention to and accord little value to plants. Plant blindness is evident in school curricula whereby students have limited opportunities to learn about plants. This paper proposes and illustrates how students' understanding and awareness of plants might be enhanced by building connections with the native kōwhai trees in their school grounds as epistemic objects and epistemic tools. Kōwhai are endemic to Aotearoa New Zealand and play a significant role in Māori cultural knowledge and the local environment. In our study, we examined how a primary school teacher created opportunities for a class of 22 Year 5–6 students (age 8–10 years) to enhance their plant awareness. Through audio‐recording, field notes, photographs and student work, and interviews with the teacher, we report our findings as vignettes that reconstruct key aspects of the 1‐week teaching and learning sequence. Tasked with creating infographics about the kōwhai for school visitors, students engaged in various observation activities by iteratively visiting the kōwhai trees in situ and specimens from them in the classroom. We argue that the features and location of the trees on the school grounds, along with the learning community the teacher created, transformed the kōwhai trees and the infographic design into objects of inquiry (epistemic objects) and tools for knowledge construction (epistemic tools) which supported an increase in student plant awareness.