All Articles
Enabling positive change
This winter 2019 issue of Ako focusses on community and the different ways it is evidenced within education.
Working together effectively and consistently
Children do not exist in isolation; their lives are embedded in families, communities and societies. Nested within these communities are the schools and early childhood education (ECE) services children attend.
Fostering a sense of home in a new environment
When my mother and I first arrived in New Zealand, she was 22 and I was four. We didn’t know anyone or anything. We had to learn how to use public transport, ATMs, how to buy groceries and clothes, pay bills – all while learning a whole new language. This was very overwhelming and isolating.
Reconciliation in education
Australia is home to more than 250 distinct Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Nations – diverse geo-cultural communities, each with their own traditional languages, customs and connections to Country/place.
Engaging parents, whānau and hapori
It is widely acknowledged that engaging whānau and community in educational activities that support the learning of their children is mutually beneficial. It is also acknowledged that this is not always straightforward.
Summer 2019: Children’s book reviews
Reviews of four new fantastic children's books.
Students owning success
Student agency is changing the way children learn – enhancing local curricula and parent and student voice. It has particular relevance to individualising learning for children with additional needs.
Fully integrated
One of the most important things for children with additional needs to be able to access the curricula and to thrive at school is having huge support behind them. That includes from the school and whānau communities and from school leaders, support staff, teachers and itinerant staff.
Let the uniqueness of the child guide us in our mahi
Kura in the Manawatū and Horowhenua are shining examples of inclusivity, in a context of some hope that more resources are coming to support culturally competent practices everywhere.
Education for all
Robert Martin has become the public face of why a human rights take on inclusive education is needed. Born with a brain injury that made his early life difficult, he now travels the world asking hard questions of governments about their efforts to comply with the United Nations Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities.
Seeing the difference
Inclusivity in ECE is increasingly seen as an opportunity to improve teaching practices and engage children’s learning.
He waka eke noa – we are all in this together
When researching a good kura for our older son, we sought a school with genuine commitment to biculturalism and the environment, a diverse roll with ngā ākonga from a variety of backgrounds, and modern systems for encouraging positive behaviour.
Now is the time for human rights-based education
The trouble with “inclusive education” is that it can become a slogan, a mantra, a label for government policy, that imposes extra burdens on teaching professionals.
Thinking about what is normal has changed over time and place
When we think about diversity, and who we mean when we talk about diverse people, depends a lot on who and what we think of as normal.We are responsible for making education inclusive for all
This edition of Ako begins our year with a focus on inclusion and what this really means for our tamariki and the adults who work alongside them.
The Map of Meaningful Work
A review of The Map of Meaningful Work by Marjolein Lips-Wiersma and Lani Morris
Our year of educational waiting
For those concerned about the future of education in New Zealand, this has often been a strange year of waiting for the outcomes of multiple reviews.
Portraits of Tupuna
Schools are finding new ways to integrate arts and science into the curricula, like this Kawerau school and its student-led photography project.
Understanding, recognising and knowing
Across the country, teachers report that there are more children with high learning needs and the resources and funding to help these children are over-stretched. Education professionals talk here about how they deliver the curriculum to children with learning needs.
We are all in this waka together
Janice Jones, deputy principal at Karori West Normal School, says the most important thing about being a truly inclusive school, in which every child thrives, is that the whole school is in the waka together.
Stunning results from culturally responsive maths
Developing Mathematical Inquiry Communities (DMIC) aims to build a sense of safety in both cultural identity and group problem solving. It is showing extraordinary progress in students.Liberating creative practice
We focus on the curricula in this first issue of our new professional journal.
Photo project embodies ako
Schools are finding new ways to integrate arts and science into the curricula, like this Kawerau school and its student-led photography project.