Research projects

Te Rito Toi

Te Rito Toi helps teachers work with children when they first return to school following major traumatic or life changing events. It does that by providing research informed practical classroom activities and lesson plans to help children better understand their changed world and to begin to see themselves as being part of the promise of new and better futures. Te Rito Toi seeks to imbue the return to school with the joy, possibility and beauty of the arts to re-engage students with the wonder of learning. Te Rito Toi is based on understanding that the arts are uniquely placed to lead a return to productive learning when schools reopen.

Learn more about Te Rito Toi here

Sir John Kirwan Foundation Project

In 2020 The University of Auckland and the Sir John Kirwan Foundation partnered to
develop Mitey - a whole school mental health education programme for New Zealand Primary schools. The project will continue despite the difficulties imposed by COVID-19.

Working with experts across the Faculty of Education and Social Work we are developing a unique model that connects Western and Maori epistemologies to understand mental health for tamariki.

Learn more about the Mitey Programme    

Creative Schools Initiative (CSI)  

The CSI mission is to make schools places where teachers and students can regularly experience the joy of the creative process by:

• Providing schools with robust reliable data that measures their overall creative
  environment.
• Providing schools with nuanced and detailed data to suggest ways in which classroom pedagogy might shift across eleven dimensions of creativity.
• Providing governments with an overall picture of the creative environment of schools.
• Providing advice to governments to understand and measure change caused by different initiatives on the creative environment.
  

Creative Thinking Project

The Creative Thinking Project provides information and ideas about the creative process and the benefits of creativity. Creative Fellows and other experts reflect on various aspects of creative thinking.

The patron of the Creative Thinking Project is Nobel Laureate Bob Dylan.

Learn more about the Creative Thinking Project here

Arts Beyond Borders

Arts Beyond Borders is a UNESCO-funded project, which aims to provide secondary school teachers with research-based classroom resources that promote the development of global citizenship through the arts.

A world beyond borders needs imagination to enlighten fairer and more sustainable futures. The arts provide opportunities for rangatahi to reframe their life stories and envisage new possibilities for social action. The team of Arts Beyond Borders have developed a set of teaching units with rich learning experiences that carefully guide educators in this exciting journey. The website also includes a section with advice for teachers and a research-based selection of picture books that addresses a broad range of global issues.

Learn more about Arts Beyond Borders here.

The Joy of Slow Wonder Book

Funded by the AGE Foundation Charitable Trust this book, published by Cambridge University Press, addresses the philosophy behind slow wonder and will answer these practical questions:

•  What does slowing down entail in a classroom and how might it be achieved?
• What does pondering and wondering entail as individual and social processes?
• What is gained through a slow and deliberate approach to detail?
• How do these processes create learning which is joy filled?

The book is now titled: Slow Wonder: Letters on the Imagination and Education.

Learn more about Slow Wonder: Letters on the Imagination and Education here

Te Ora Auaha, Creative Wellbeing Alliance

Te Ora Auaha is a national network for the arts, health and wellbeing, providing resources for professionals using creativity to enhance health and wellbeing.

Learn more about the Creative Wellbeing Alliance here.

Exploring gambling harm destigmatisation within Asian communities in Aotearoa NZ with Asian Family Services

In partnership with Asian Family Services, CAST is conducting a small pilot study crucial to the Gambling Harm De-stigmatisation Initiative. The initiative aims to understand how Asian Peoples conceptualise stigma in the context of gambling harms, to develop appropriate interventions for Asian communities. To this end, the study has the following objectives:

• To understand how stigma is conceptualised and discussed within Asian communities impacted by gambling harm.
• To explore how stigma (or alternative conceptualisations) affects  help-seeking behaviour among Asian people who gamble and/or experience  gambling harms.
• To discuss suggestions and recommendations on possible approaches to enhance the cultural and linguistic appropriateness of support accessibility, aiming to promote and encourage help-seeking for gambling harms.

This study is led by Dr Joanna Chu and Dr Ying Wang. 

Asian sexual violence survivors' experiences and expectations of support within schools in New Zealand

This study, led by Dr Ying Wang and funded by the Lottery Grants Board, hopes to canvas young Asian sexual violence survivors’ expectations and experiences of school support systems, and understand their challenges and barriers for accessing those support systems. Using arts-based methods, the research will include a range of perspectives on this topic including those of the young survivors and their caregivers, as well as representatives of the education system such as teachers and school counsellors. The findings from this research will help improve support  systems available to and cultivate resilience for the young Asian population in New Zealand.