ABSTRACT

This chapter explores the historical, cultural and political context of the New Zealand education jurisdiction. It describes the jurisdiction as culturally diverse with varying degrees of classroom achievement in writing according to student age, gender and ethnic background. It also describes some key approaches to writing pedagogy in New Zealand primary classrooms (classrooms in which 5 to 13-year-old students are taught). It notes that teachers regard writing primarily as a socio-cultural activity with a strong communicative intent. They mainly use a workshop approach to teaching writing. It contains a summary of writing-focussed research from New Zealand 2000–2018, which has mainly been designed to help teachers address issues of disparity in classroom achievement. This has led to a recognition that teachers of writing are most likely to be effective if they know their students well, select topics and tasks that are purposeful, involve their students in key writing decisions, employ direct and explicit instruction, differentiate in terms of student needs and give their students opportunities to develop independence and self-regulation. It also indicates what these research findings ‘look like’ in an authentic set of classroom writing sessions.