Building on Our Strengths : Improving Education in Aotearoa New Zealand

In the face of persistent challenges within Aotearoa New Zealand’s education system, Building on our Strengths offers a fresh perspective on ways of improving the system by focusing on what we are good at. With the OECD highlighting our system’s high quality but low equity, this book shifts from a narrow focus on problems to uncovering what we do well.

Drawing on extensive research and personal insights from the former Chief Education Scientific Advisor to the Ministry of Education, this book explores five key strengths that could serve as catalysts for transformation. From the power of being local, learning from children, and trying to be bicultural, to the rich traditions of partnerships, creativity, and innovation, Building on our Strengths identifies imperatives to enhance educational success.

In a time when education reform often focuses on deficiencies, this book champions the understanding that leveraging our strengths is crucial for creating a more equitable and higher quality education system.

Stuart McNaughton ONZM is Professor of Education at Waipapa Taumata Rau University of Auckland. He has published extensively on children’s development, the design of effective educational programmes for culturally and linguistically diverse populations, and cultural processes in development. He was the Founding Director of the Woolf Fisher Research Centre | Te Putahi, which pioneered research in design-based school change. His current research focuses on designing and testing digital tools to promote online resilience and social and cognitive skills.

He is a recipient of national and international research prizes, consults on curricula and educational interventions nationally and internationally, is a member of a number of academic bodies, and is a Senior Research Fellow at East China Normal University (Shanghai Municipal Institute for Lifelong Learning). In 2011 he was made an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit, and from 2014 until 2024 was Aotearoa New Zealand’s inaugural Chief Education Scientific Advisor.