Journal Articles

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Editorial: Wellbeing and work-integrated learning
(Work-Integrated Learning New Zealand, 2025-02-28) Hay K; Fleming J; Fleming J; Hay K
Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) have important responsibilities for the duty of care of their students, and to ensure the wellbeing of students is kept front and center of curriculum and institutional developments. While the focus has primarily been on physical campuses, it is critical that these responsibilities extend to off campus activities, such as work-integrated learning (WIL). This special issue includes 11 articles focusing on the wellbeing of WIL students, with many authors drawing on empirical research. Key themes include students’ understanding of WIL wellbeing; students’ experiences of WIL and wellbeing; strategies for preparing WIL students to support wellbeing; understanding the wellbeing needs of diverse WIL students; and the important role of workplace supervisors in supporting WIL wellbeing. Several authors amplify the voices of students and all share thought-provoking teaching and curriculum strategies. All WIL stakeholders have a responsibility to support the learning success and wellbeing of students.
The Impact of Innovative Learning Environments on Sensory Processing Difficulties: Students’ Perspectives.
(Pennsylvania State University, 2021-10-01) Busch R; Dharan V
New Zealand’s education policy and practice is fast moving towards innovative and collaborative approaches to learning, to improve outcomes for all students. One of the ways to achieve this has been creating learning environments that foster acceptance of diversity, build relationships, and enable the active participation of students through Innovative or Flexible learning environments. Current literature, however, suggests that the move to collaborative learning spaces and the introduction of Innovative Learning Environments (ILEs) has been inconsistent, with a lack of understanding of the pedagogical nuances to fully realise their inclusive capacity. This article draws from a study that examined students' participatory rights under the United Nations Convention for the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) with a focus on Article 23.1 in enabling students with Sensory Processing Difficulties (SPD) to actively participate in their learning. Using a qualitative design, the study explored the perspectives and experiences of 10 secondary school students with SPD in an ILE setting. The findings highlighted the positive impact of ILE and the social benefits of schooling. The students showed a strong preference for ILE over traditional classrooms, as it created a learning environment that afforded more opportunities to work with their peers. These social affordances were at times constrained in ways the physical spaces were utilised, without due consideration to their acoustic sensitivities. One of the key implications of this study was the need for a more sophisticated pedagogy that would maximise the benefits that ILEs offer, to enhance the participation of students with SPD. The study demonstrated a high level of perceptiveness and insightfulness of the students that must be heard and acted upon as a matter of their rights to actively participate in their learning communities.
Children’s rights and their evidence as a force for inclusion in uncertain times
(Frontiers Media S.A., 2023-11-03) Bourke R; Norwich B
Although education is a basic child’s right, and in many countries is protected through legislation, children with disabilities or support needs are not always afforded their right to experience an education at their local school alongside their peers. There is even less evidence that their ‘voices’ are sought or heard when decisions are made for them. This silencing of children in education results in their views being invisible in practice. When making decisions about children’s education and opportunities, an evidence-based model could feasibly address this, if the child’s right to have a say was afforded the same weighting as that of the input from practitioners, and research findings. Evidence-based practice in education typically relies on three forms of evidence: (i) systematic research that has been published or disseminated, (ii) specific practitioner knowledge and experience of children and their needs, and (iii) the children’s and their family’s experience of their own lived lives and capabilities. Combined, these forms of evidence can illuminate the decisions made for an individual child, and forge the pathway for interventions, actions, and solutions that are most likely to ‘work’ for the child, their culture, and their context, all things considered. However, there remains a tension when weighing up the relative status of these forms of evidence, where ‘research’ or ‘expert opinion’ is given more credence than the child’s capabilities: that is, less weighting is given to an individual child’s expression of their circumstance, their context, their ethnicity, and the opportunities afforded to them. The recent global pandemic became a catalyst for listening to children about their learning and education, in part because the ‘shut down periods’ meant classrooms and schools were closed for periods of time. Children had views on what this meant for them and their learning, and for the first time, practitioners did not really know what was in the best interest of the child. A case study is presented to foreground their views and goals for learning during this time. This means that while practitioners’ expertise be afforded a place in decision-making around inclusion or educational options for the child, the child’s own experiences must be included if evidence-based practice is realised. Placed against rights-based practice, it becomes even more critical to give every child their ‘voice’, and to act on their views, as the children are the key informant for their own solutions, and of their own interpretation and expression of the ‘problem’.

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