There has been a great deal written recently about children starting school, particularly primary school. All of the stakeholders in these transitions to school have been considered, along with matters of readiness -for child, family, educators, schools, and communities; adjustment and adaptation; continuity and change in curricula and learning; and the opportunities, aspirations, expectations and entitlements encompassed in the transformation of roles involved. As the children move from their prior-to-school experiences -preschool, child care, home, other out-of-home care -to school, they experience many changes. One of these is often a change from a primarily play-based pedagogical approach in the prior-to-school setting to perhaps a more structured, even formal pedagogy in school. But what about the pedagogies of the transitions themselves? Children do not stop learning and teachers do not stop teaching as children are in the process of transition to school. There are pedagogies of transition employed. This book explores these pedagogies through the work of an international alliance of transitions to school researchers from five countries -Iceland, Scotland and Sweden (European) and Australia and New Zealand (Antipodean). This alliance is named POET -Pedagogies of Educational Transitions.

It includes articles about curriculum issues, research in the area of curriculum and informed curriculum practice. Reviews of curriculum related books may also be included. The Opinion item is contributed by a leading New Zealand educationalist.

In February 2018, a full-time provider of gifted education opened in New Zealand with its initial cohort of children. This provider catered for learners from ages 1-15 years who did not ‘fit’ in mainstream education settings. This paper reports on a research project that focused on the effectiveness of the learning approach at this school in its inaugural year. Two sources of data informed this research, including semi-structured interviews with parents and learning and support staff, and an analysis of documents related to the philosophy, curriculum, and learning approach. This paper reports on benefits and limitations of the learning approach identified by the parent participants in the study.

The occurrence of research collaboration among multiple researchers is becoming more widespread within the academic research community. Research collaboration endeavours offer many benefits yet are not without challenges. This think piece draws on our lived experiences as educators and university researchers to evaluate a research collaboration journey. The process prompted us to deeply question and critically reflect on what enables and supports research collaboration in academic research partnerships. We undertook a critical reflective-in-action study collecting and analysing data for a period of 15 months. We uncovered three elements we propose are integral to supporting effective research collaboration practice and outcomes in academia. These are Acknowledging the Affective, Becoming Bolder, and Cultivating Creativity in what we term, the ‘ABCs of collaboration in academia.

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