Doctoral Researchers

Xingmin Zhong is a PhD Candidate in the School of Curriculum and Pedagogy at the Faculty of Arts and Education. She holds an MA in Early Childhood Education from Beijing Normal University and brings eight years of interdisciplinary experience in academic research, policy engagement, and grassroots practice. Her professional journey includes roles at the China National Institute of Education Sciences and a publicly listed company, alongside volunteer teaching in rural preschools. These experiences have deepened her understanding of developmental nuances in children aged 0–6 and fuelled her commitment to amplifying child-centered perspectives. Her current research focuses on children’s humor, creativity, and motivation, particularly how these traits emerge and function in sociocultural contexts.

Currently, her doctoral research is focused on the phenomenon of children’s humor. Humor is a complex and dynamic phenomenon that plays a crucial role in children’s cognitive, social, and emotional development. However, most existing research adopts an adult-centric perspective, focusing on observable behaviors (e.g., stimulus-driven reactions) or quantitative associations (e.g., temperament, parental humor styles) while neglecting children’s perspectives and lived experiences. To bridge this gap, this study employs phenomenography, a qualitative approach that examines the diverse ways individuals perceive and engage with a phenomenon, alongside the Phronetic Iterative Approach (Tracy, 2018) to investigate how Chinese preschoolers (aged 4–6) experience humor. Through naturalistic observations, interviews, and child-led narratives (storytelling, drawing, and photography), this research seeks to construct a framework for understanding children’s humor’s dynamic, socially co-constructed nature. This approach aims to reveal humor as it emerges in authentic interactions by enabling iterative adjustments between data collection and analysis. The findings may inform early childhood education by highlighting humor to enhance engagement and socio-emotional learning.

Mengdie Wang is currently a doctoral student. She earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in early childhood education in China, with 7 years of experience in the field. She has completed several internships in kindergartens in cities such as Hangzhou and Shanghai in China, where she gained practical experience in kindergarten settings. During these internships, she worked closely with young children, early childhood teachers, and families, establishing strong partnerships with them. These experiences deepened her understanding of practical situations in Chinese kindergartens and inspired her to contribute to a high-quality early childhood education in China.

Now her primary areas of interest are exploring a child-centered dialogue between children, early childhood teachers, and families in Chinese kindergartens. She is passionate about facilitating a child-centered dialogue among children, early childhood teachers, and families in Chinese kindergartens, enabling them to recognize and respect every child’s uniqueness and intrinsic value. Under her supervisor’s guidance, she is currently developing her research proposal.

Erickson M. Maclid is a PhD student from the Philippines. He is a faculty member from the Department of Family Life and Child Development, College of Home Economics, University of the Philippines Diliman. This is where he taught various courses in Child Development, Child Development Programs, and Pre-Service Teaching for Early Childhood Development. He has also handled preschool classes for 2-5-year-old children at U.P. Child Development Center. His PhD work focuses on young children’s early STEM learning at home with their parents and families. Erickson wants to learn more about the knowledge and practices of Filipino children and families in learning. Since he is also a preschool teacher, he draws on his personal experiences on the importance of active engagement of families in the holistic development of children. To further explore this, he is working on a topic that probes into a pedagogical approach for early STEM learning and the meaningful parent-child interaction at home. Erickson aims to use concepts and principles from early childhood development, science and mathematics education, family studies, educational psychology, and literacy. Through this project, findings from this study could potentially offer innovative strategies that could foster equitable and accessible early STEM development while also emphasizing the importance of young children and families’ innate knowledge and ways. 

Jacinta Loto (Samoa: Lelepa, Fusi-Safotulafai, Faleatiu) is a doctoral candidate whose research is critically focused on educational equity within the Aotearoa/New Zealand context. Her study investigates how specialist educators navigate cultural relevance, effective pedagogy, and current policy for one of the nation’s key learner groups.
With extensive practical experience as a Resource Teacher of Literacy (RT: Lit), and prior roles in classroom teaching, literacy support, and family-liaison coordination, Jacinta brings real-world depth to her inquiry. Her research centres on culturally sustaining pedagogies and effective literacy practices for Pacific learners receiving intensive Tier 2 and/or Tier 3 support within the schooling system.
The study aims to uncover how Literacy Support Teachers (LSTs) perceive the literacy strengths and needs of Pacific learners, what informs their support practices, and how these practices align with or conflict with the learners’ cultural and linguistic knowledge systems. Crucially, the research examines the tensions between LSTs’ professional practice and broader national literacy policies or frameworks.
This is a necessary study for Aotearoa/New Zealand, advocating for LSTs to be equipped to implement culturally responsive and sustaining pedagogies. The findings will offer significant implications for schools, professional learning for specialist educators, and policy settings to achieve greater equity and tangible literacy outcomes for Pacific learners

 

Ella is a New Zealand-born Tongan who was raised and educated in South Auckland. She is a secondary school-trained teacher specialising mainly in Business Studies. Ellais passionate about Pasifika education and employs a student-centred focus. Ella’s doctoral work focuses on her interest in understanding the Tongan concept of loto(heart and mind; desires) as a phenomenon and how this concept, alongside entrepreneurial thinking or capabilities, could alleviate the tensions between students’ and families’ desires in Business education and that of the education system.

The Tongan motto “Mo’unga ki he loto,” which translates to “the strength of a Tongan lies within one’s heart,” resonates not only with Tongans in Tonga but among Tongans worldwide, including those in Aotearoa New Zealand (ANZ). This study will explore loto (desires, hearts, and minds) and entrepreneurial capabilities of Aotearoa New Zealand-born (ANZ-born) Tongan students in secondary school Business Studies. ANZ’s steadily increasing Tongan population has led to evolving identities and cultural practices. These changes impact young ANZ-born Tongans in the classroom as they grapple with their identities, choices, engagement, and success. To effectively pursue this exploration, an understanding of the Kingdom of Tonga’s context and the utilisation of Tongan knowledge, including kinship ties, the four golden pillars of Tongan culture, and concepts like māfana (fervent, enthusiastic, heartfelt) and mālie (pleasant, enjoyable, interesting), are essential. Although focused on Tongan individuals, the study is embedded within the broader context of Pasifika peoples in ANZ, Pasifika education, and Pasifika research. I will use a qualitative case study approach with interpretive and decolonising paradigms. Talanoa with ANZ-born Tongan students and families, semi-structured interviews, and focus groups with teachers will be conducted to explore the Tongan concept of loto and the Tongan notion of entrepreneurial capabilities. The study’s findings will critique the current Curriculum Refresh and NCEA Change Programme for Business Studies regarding who these educational changes genuinely serve. Additionally, the study will offer insights for Business Studies teachers regarding Tongan students’ loto (desires, hearts and minds), entrepreneurial capabilities, and the koloa (wealth) they bring to the classroom. 

Helena McAlister (Ngāti Tūwharetoa, Ngāti Awa, Ngāi Tai, Ngāti Hāmoa) is a doctoral candidate. She currently resides in Christchurch and currently works full-time as a Primary Tutor for the New Zealand Graduate School of Education. Helena’s background in teaching spans across English-medium and Māori-medium school settings. Her research interests include acquisition and use of te reo Māori in Primary Māori-medium and English-medium classrooms and exploration into the potential impact that teachers’ personal narratives  have on teaching of te reo Māori in the classroom.

Researchers have been sought to resolve misinterpretations stemming from Te Tiriti o Waitangi for decades with attempts to embody and foster a bicultural education system since the conception of The New Zealand Curriculum in 2007. Socio-cultural theories and socio-linguistic approaches to language learning have led to the emergence of curriculum initiatives in the hope of increasing te reo Māori presence in NZ schools. However, insights into how individual kaiako/teachers connect with te reo Māori on a personal level is space that remains unexplored. This study seeks to explore connections made between teachers’ personal narratives and language use in the classroom, investigating through reflective practices how narratives have aided or hindered regular use of te reo Māori words and phrases in everyday learning contexts.

Helen has been an EFL teacher for eight years and a public speaking coach for five years. She is captivated by various forms of communication, including painting, poetry, plays, musicals, and stand-up comedy. Her deep passion for intercultural communication stems from her own experiences as an EFL learner. At 19, during her first study abroad experience, she noticed significant challenges in communicating with people from different cultural backgrounds despite her proficiency in English. This experience ignited her commitment to intercultural teaching in EFL classes, leading her to pursue a PhD on enhancing EFL learners’ intercultural communicative competence. Helen believes intercultural communication is a dynamic and lifelong process where individuals learn and grow from collisions with different cultures, which is the new future for humanity.

After World War II and the Cold War, communication needs brought together English as a Foreign Language (EFL) and culture. However, the goal of becoming a native English speaker is unreasonable for EFL learners since native and non-native speakers acquire their language within different cultural contexts. A practical outcome of EFL learning is the development of intercultural communicative competence (ICC). ICC allows learners to understand and navigate the relationships between their cultural values, behaviours, and meanings, and those of their interlocutors. However, theoretical adaptations and practical interventions of ICC for primary EFL learners are still underdeveloped. Intercultural awareness, one of the four goals of EFL teaching in the latest National English Curriculum Standards in China, draws increasing attention. Within this context, this study proposes to design a virtual reality serious game to improve primary EFL learners’ ICC in China. 

Children are natural-born storytellers. Inside each child are many stories waiting to be told. Personal stories allow young children to have opportunities to construct and reconstruct themselves in different contexts. Little research has been done in multi-cultural contexts that has captured children’s spontaneous stories in diverse situations (i.e. self-talk, conversations in families and kindergartens). In this doctoral thesis, a multiple case-study design will be used to investigate 4-5-year-old-Vietnamese children’s identities construction through their storytelling processes in Vietnam and New Zealand. The research is driven by socio-cultural perspectives, developed by Bruner, Engel, and Vygotsky. The most crucial thing in research involving children is the lens by which the researcher positions children in project. In this study, a naturalist approach will be used to embark on a holistic adventure to listen to children’s voices in natural environments, capture the beauty of their personal stories, and understand the nature of their identities construction. Observation, informal conversations with young children, and interviews with parents and teachers will be used to gather data. The impact of contexts (i.e., cultural values, families, and early childhood education settings) on Vietnamese children’s identities construction will be explored. Miles, Huberman, and Saldana’s (2014) qualitative-data analysis will be used to analyse data. Findings are anticipated to enrich understanding of Vietnamese children’s identities and their narratives in two countri

Writing, a powerful way for children to express their diverse voices, remains under-researched in literacy education. Children’s development of revision competencies in writing is crucial for two reasons. First, revision enables children to develop the metacognitive ability to understand tasks, evaluate discrepancies between intended and actual text, and engage in strategic decision making. Second, revision provides opportunities for children to establish authorship and to become writers.

Empirical studies have shown that beginning writers are not inclined to make revisions, and revisions they do make are mechanical changes (e.g., spelling and grammar). In the context of the New Zealand curriculum, students’ ability to revise is recurrently highlighted across all levels. According to the curriculum on revision, writers are expected to “add or delete details and comments, showing some selectivity in the process” (Ministry of Education, 2007, p.8) by level 2 (Year 3 to Year 4).

The goal of this study is to explore 7- and 8-year-old children’s (Year 3 and 4) revision development with an ethnographic approach to observe, document, and engage as an “adult friend” (Dyson & Genishi, 2005) with four individual children on their composition in an Auckland primary school for three terms. The study draws on multiple sources of data, including inclassroom observations of participating children; interviews with participating children, teachers and parents; and analysis of children’s writing drafts and texts over time.

The aim of Amanda’s doctoral research is to explore the multimodal nature of story interactions between toddlers and their families, teachers and peers in a culturally and linguistically diverse community of Aotearoa-New Zealand. This research draws on sociocultural and social semiotic theoretical perspectives and employs a qualitative case-study research design.

This research is critical because adult-child interactions are known to be critical to early communication and language development. Sociocultural theories place emphasis on the importance of responsive, nurturing relationships between children and their adult caregivers for children’s learning and well-being, and the central role that cultural and historical resources play in mediating interpersonal relationships. Relatively little local research, however, has explored the nature of early adult-child interactions within cultural and social contexts of Aotearoa-New Zealand.

The findings of this study will make an original contribution to our understanding of how parents and teachers interact with their toddlers in diverse communities. In addition, it will shed light on ways to encourage partnership and dialogue around ways to nurture early communication development within everyday contexts involving shared story interactions

Children’s storying is a phenomenon of their day-to-day experiences in living and imaginary worlds. Children are storying their relational worlds when they speak, act, encounter, fantasise, and create. Through storying, children shape and reshape themselves, connect with others, and create their multifarious worlds. Children of all abilities, languages, cultures, gender identities, and socioeconomic statuses are the protagonists of their everday stories. Everyday stories might not have clearly sequenced start-middle-end structures, elegant expressions, or dramatic plots, but they are authentic, important and evolving. Everyday stories are “told” not only verbally but also multimodally through facial expressions, gestures and movements in intra-actions with people and things.

In this study, I explore the phenomenon of storying to address the overarching research question: What is the nature of children’s everyday storying in inclusive ECE? The nature of storying was examined through the natural intra-actions of people and environments in their day-to-day play, conversations, and visual and embodied creations. Post-intentional phenomenology was adopted as a philosophical perspective and methodological approach. Everyday storying experiences of 64 children aged 4–5 in four inclusive early childhood environments in the contexts of Aotearoa New Zealand and Hong Kong were explored. The two geographical contexts are where my sense of belonging as a practitioner, inquirer, and learner of early childhood education are grounded. Children’s everyday stories (N=297)—the happenings relative to their doing, saying, experiencing, imagining, and creating in their daily lives—were identified from multiple sources. Observations, video recordings, and playful interactions were the major sources, supplemented with photographs of storying artefacts and environments. Thirteen teachers and 15 parents shared their views on storying in informal conversations. These multiple sources served as phenomenology materials.

I used a post-intentional phenomenological approach with posthuman theory to playfully engage with messy and complicated matters that emerged (e.g., family knowledges, silences, and conflicts) and explore the possibilities in children’s intertwined intra-actions with people and things (e.g., cultural sustainability, affects, and relationships). Three waves of analysis were conducted. Five storying genres were identified in the first wave of analysis of all stories. The second wave gave an account of overall contextualised storying experiences in Aotearoa New Zealand and Hong Kong. The third wave of analysis focused on intentionalities, which convey inextricable connectedness in the space between children and their storying environments. Storying creates in-between spaces in which children and things belong in connected relationships and shape themselves as unique beings. Storying as an inquiry approach serves as an opening for educators and researchers to enter children’s worlds and co-create boundless possibilities that enrich their wellbeing, celebrate their ways of being, and strengthen their pathways of becoming.

Since the 1980s, the sociology of childhood has been interested in investigating children as social actors and the concept of agency. Agency, generally understood as children’s capacity to act on their own, is a dominant concept in many early childhood education (ECE) curricula, including Te Whāriki, the ECE curriculum in Aotearoa, New Zealand. This concept plays a vital role to understand children’s worlds. Although a wide array of empirical studies has focused on the use of agency in their co-construciton of lives, an emphasis on the role of agency in children’s learning is limited. Since the early years lay a foundaiton for lifetime learning, making sense of how children act as agents for understanding the world around them is significant.

This interpretivist, qualitative study draws on an ethnographic approach to invecstigate how children exercise agency-for-learning in ECE settings and how teachers perceive their role in agency-for-learning. Data are generated from video recordings, informal conversations with children, photographs, interviews with parents and teachers, and document in a kindergaren and an education and care setting over 10 weeks period.

The findings of the study contribute to understand three primary forms of agency-for-learning, which are distinctive, multimodal and benefit learning. The thesis argue partnership between teachers and children is critical to exercise agency-for-learning and benefit children’s understanding of the world within in a free play context. Thsi thesis opens innovative insights and understandings into the notion of agency-for-learning and associated pedagogical approaches that hold important implications both for teachers and for futher research that could tranform children’s agency.