This article reports on a study which examined how science teachers in Aotearoa New Zealand schools include mātauranga Māori (Māori knowledge and ways of knowing) in their junior secondary science classes. The incorporation of mātauranga Māori offers a diverse perspective of knowledge which may help to improve the retention of students who currently find themselves marginalised and who feel that the science classroom is a foreign place. An interpretive, phenomenographic study involved semi-structured interviews with six teachers, who were all teaching in North Island schools. Data were gathered about teachers’ understanding of te ao Māori (Māori worldviews), inclusion of mātauranga Māori in the junior secondary science classroom, and how teachers’ own cultural awareness impacted their practice. The findings indicate that teachers often faced challenges when including mātauranga Māori in their science classrooms. These challenges were overcome when participants gained knowledge of Māori language, embraced Māori tikanga (customs) alongside scientific methods, and grew their confidence through professional development. The school community was also a factor, as well as teachers’ personal philosophies about the nature of knowledge. Integrating diverse knowledge systems into science holds promise to enhance inclusion and foster understanding in Aotearoa New Zealand.

While the socio-ecological challenges of the Anthropocene are complex and interdisciplinary in nature, contemporary science is profoundly implicated in understanding and responding to them. The latest Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) Programme for International Student Development (PISA) 2025 Science Framework has responded by expanding the scope of science education to prepare students for the decision-making and action-taking required of all citizens in the face of these contemporary challenges. Yet, mainstream science education has historically been dominated by a program of introducing students to the conceptual products and associated practices of science. In this manuscript we briefly trace the history of science-society-environment advocacy in science education to argue that the dimensions needed for this revitalisation are in many senses a natural extension of historical movements, but that some dimensions, particularly the need to develop decision-making skills and action focusing on developing student agency and calls for consideration of diverse ways of knowing and social justice framings, require a substantive extension of traditional practice. We explore the history of how agency has been framed in science education research, and apply theory and practice developed within the field of environmental education to explore ways forward for engaging students in the substantial agentic practices implied by the PISA Science Framework. In particular, we examine the construct of agency as a useful extension to earlier constructs attempting to capture critical action-oriented educational purposes. We draw on existing practices in both the science and environmental/climate change education literature to suggest classroom practices that represent this expanded vision of science education.

There are multiple intersecting crises afflicting society, from environmental devastation to the collapse of democracy, from economic exploitation to gratuitous violence, in the so-called “metacrisis.” Universities have both contributed to these crises in various ways, but have also tried to prevent them In this paper, we consider our responses to the metacrisis from our various disciplinary perspectives as four university educators from different scholarly traditions in one institution in Aotearoa New Zealand, We draw from our teaching experiences and our theoretical perspectives to engage in a reflective conversation with each other about how we may address the challenges of the metacrisis. Our conversation illustrates the potential benefits that such reflections, amongst colleagues who are intimately connected to a range of crises, may have to elucidate knowledge, power and performativity, and considers how humility, in a variety of forms, may be important to navigate the metacrisis.

This paper aims to enhance our understanding of the challenges teachers engaged in Education for Sustainability (EfS) in New Zealand face when using social media for professional learning. An online questionnaire, including open-ended questions, was distributed to Enviroschools lead teachers nationwide to investigate these challenges. The study identifies key barriers, including time constraints, information overload, concerns about privacy and trust, and the perceived misalignment between the hands-on nature of EfS and the virtual nature of social media. Participants expressed a strong preference for face-to-face learning, emphasising its value for meaningful collaboration and practical engagement. The study highlights the need for systemic support to address these barriers. It suggests that integrating teacher professional learning through social media into teachers’ working hours could significantly enhance their engagement in professional learning for EfS.

Collective action is essential to address planetary health as current and future environmental challenges are socioecological and require coordinated, informed, and sustained action from all societal sectors. Education that engages intergenerational communities is a crucial means of building collective action as it provides opportunities to develop an informed citizenry capable of making the necessary decisions to work towards planetary health. Schools are valuable sites of community learning and action, and will benefit from a new orientation towards and commitment to educator training, curriculum development, and youth agency. This orientation is supported by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development's Programme for International Student Assessment's (PISA) 2025 Science Framework, which measures the competence (skills and knowledge) of 15-year-old students. This Personal View describes a new concept, Agency in the Anthropocene, a contributing element of the 2025 Science Framework that defines the way science education could develop agency and hope in this era of socioecological challenges that are impacting planetary health.

This commentary article considers the current contentious debates over the national school science curriculum in Aoteaora New Zealand. The co-authors of this commentary are members of a group of science teacher educators and science education researchers who met recently to discuss concerns over aspects of these debates in the context of a wider political contest over the control and direction of education policy.

This personal reflection explores the strong thread of justice which coursed through Martin Thrupp and found expression through his connection to the environment and his local community. I relate how this expression touched not only his activism and advocacy, but also his academic work.

Aotearoa New Zealand is an island nation in the South Pacific with an ethnically-diverse human population, a high proportion of endemic plants and animals, many of which are under threat from habitat loss and introduced pests, and amongst the highest per capita contributions to greenhouse gas emissions in the world. The country is governed by a democratically-elected sovereign parliament, in the historical context of Te Tiriti o Waitangi | the Treaty of Waitangi, signed in 1840 between the British Crown and Māori (the country's original inhabitants). Although Aotearoa New Zealand has some sophisticated policy, strategy and outcome-oriented sustainability educational-frameworks in operation, this chapter emphasises our need for organised and committed leadership towards environmental and sustainability education, research and evaluation of educational change and impact, and educational commitment to all 17 Sustainable Development Goals.

In this paper, we employ Deleuzian philosophy to explore the complex challenges confronting teachers and education systems posed by the climate emergency and the implications of the resulting posthumanist turn. Self-identified climate-activist teachers working in schools in Aotearoa New Zealand were asked to draw Deleuzian assemblages of their educational realities and of themselves while contemplating the climate emergency. Their thought-provoking drawings were used as semiotic artefacts during unstructured Zoom interviews, leading to rich conversations. Through this process, the drawings channel affect within the research assemblage, entangling the reader actively into the research process. Insights gained from the participants problematise the perspectives of teachers in response to the climate emergency and lead us to conceptualise the potential of teachers as Deleuze's nomadic change makers toward posthuman futures.

This article addresses the pressing issue of food waste by focusing on the development of young adolescents’ food waste literacy. The concept of food waste literacy (FWL), defined as the literacy for the judicious use of food, encompasses knowledge, attitudes, values, and behaviours related to food waste. The article presents a study that aimed to enhance FWL among young adolescents in a New Zealand school through a teacher-directed guided inquiry intervention. A mixed-methods approach, including a survey and interviews, explored students’ food waste knowledge, attitudes, values, and behaviours. The findings underscore the potential of appropriate units of learning and curriculum design for developing FWL. Promoting food citizenship in students is central to addressing food waste issues through educational initiatives.

Mixed reality (XR) environments combining real-to-virtual immersive experiences provide unprecedented potential for reframing educational pedagogy and practice. XR environments provide scaffolded learning points accommodating individual needs, while enhancing sensorial and embodied experiences. XR environments can facilitate self-determined (heutagogical) experience-based learning and esthetic visualization of wicked problems, making complex knowledge more accessible. Here we report on a study exploring the design of mobile learning with education outside the classroom (EOTC), heutagogy, and free-choice learning to enhance marine ecological literacy, based on a bring your own device (BYOD) XR intervention at a marine educational center in Aotearoa New Zealand. Findings indicate that XR affordances can enhance the understanding of complex marine conservation science, facilitating ecological literacy knowledge, attitudes and behavior change. Implications include pedagogical rethinking of EOTC with self-determined mobile learning; haptic, sensorial and embodied XR design considerations for environmental education; and epistemological speculation on learning phenomena in real-to-virtual immersive environments.

Today’s youth will be severely impacted by climate change and many are feeling anxious, hopeless and helpless. More than knowledge is needed to help them be citizens who can make informed decisions to mitigate its effects. Hope and agency have been identified as significant qualities that can overcome pessimism and hence the partners in this project co-designed a climate-change education programme to nurture students’ hope and agency, creating opportunities for them to take action individually and collectively.

The climate strikes of 2019 motivated millions worldwide onto the street and provided a platform for youth voices that demanded global climate action. This article explores the experiences of climate strike leaders in Aotearoa New Zealand questioning the motivational factors behind the youth action. In-depth interviews with 15 climate strike leaders identified emotions that influenced engagement and could motivate action. Climate strike leaders reported experiencing a series of turbulent emotional stages from apathy to action. Their experiences suggest that anxiety and anger are important stages in the emotional journey towards action. Using Boler's Pedagogy of Discomfort, this paper examines these emotional stages that can disable or enable action. Considering youth perspectives increases our understanding of a suitable climate change educational framework that potentially supports both educators and students on this challenging journey.

The government of Aotearoa New Zealand has recognised the gravity of climate change by adopting a Climate Emergency declaration, passing the Zero Carbon Act (2019), and asking the Climate Change Commission to chart a pathway towards a carbon-zero future. The climate emergency necessitates transformation of the practices and visions of individuals and society towards a sustainable future. We argue that education must be recognised as a key enabler for this transformational process. In this article, we draw on our recommendations to the Climate Change Commission (2021a) for structural changes in our education system to build capacity for the implementation of climate-change education for a sustainable future. Our focus is on building capacity in school leaders and teachers through development of knowledge and skills, provision of time and space, and cultural embedding of education on sustainable living and climate change into the ways we all teach and learn. Our intention is to provide a “think piece” to be considered and discussed by school educators and leaders across Aotearoa New Zealand.

The climate strikes of 2019, an extraordinary worldwide phenomenon, swiftly and succinctly showed the world the collective concern of youth. What insights might curriculum planning for climate-change education and classroom pedagogy gain from these climate strikes? Preliminary findings from this study identified four significant considerations in regard to climate-change education. First, the soaring level of climate anxiety among youth. Secondly, political literacy is as important as climate-change literacy for action. Thirdly, social justice is the key to engaging students in climate-change education. Fourthly, an inquiry-based pedagogy that considers the academic (head), emotional (heart), and practical (hands) is appropriate for climate-change education.

This article provides a critical commentary on the recently released learning programme, Climate Change: Prepare Today, Live Well Tomorrow (Climate Change programme). The Climate Change programme is sorely needed in this time of climate emergency and we believe it to be a great start in guiding teachers in this important work. Here we comment on its science focus and its attention to wellbeing and participation, and we make some recommendations for how teacher practice can build on what the Climate Change programme has begun for climate-change education.

In this article, we present a theoretical framework for mixed reality (MR/XR) self-determined learning to enhance ecological literacy in free-choice educational settings. The framework emerged from a research study in New Zealand which aimed to explore how learning experiences which incorporate mobile technologies within free-choice learning settings can be designed to enhance learner development of marine ecological literacy. An understanding of how mobile technology can be integrated into the teaching and learning of sustainability education that incorporates free-choice learning contexts, such as visitor centres, is of strategic importance to both education outside the classroom and adult learning. Following a design-based research methodology, the framework is presented in the form of a set of design principles and guidelines, informed by key theories in ecological literacy and free-choice learning, heutagogy, bring your own device and self-determined learning. We briefly describe how the framework provided the foundation for an educational intervention. This paper aims to assist researchers and developers of MR/XR immersive learning environments to consider design principles and processes that can enhance learning outcomes within free-choice settings, such as museums and visitor centres.