Delta has had a lively history and is closely associated with the development of the former Massey Department of Education. Key people who have ensured its survival include Kathy Broadley, Don McAlpine, Brian Shaw, John Codd and Richard Bates. One of the most important features of the early Deltas was the great diversity of the contributors and their contributions. Students’ work sat alongside that of nationally and internationally known academics. Policy and theory work sat alongside articles on theory-practice. Early issues were a launching pad for further development of important articles, books and projects.

Since its relaunch, Delta has published work that can be broadly categorised as policy based – but its contents cover the spectrum of theorising and analysis of issues from across the entire education sector. In carrying on our early tradition of scholarship, Delta unashamedly remains a forum for critical analysis, controversial debate and radical ideas. In the political climate which has accompanied the last 15 years of reform, this has not gone unchallenged! Informed by the tradition of critical analysis it is not for the faint hearted. We publish scholarship of a consistently high academic standard while seeking to challenge what Habermas (1989) has called ‘the ideology of niceness’ that surrounds education. Delta authors seek to uncover, challenge and analyse the power relations and structures and the real effects on people of the politics in which our work is always immersed.

Tolerance, Free Speech and Critical Thought
Ivan Snook

Ethnic Ideologies in New Zealand Education: What’s Wrong With Kaupapa Maori?
Elizabeth Rata

School Zoning Since 1990: a Christchurch Study
Diane Pearce and Liz Gordon

Privatising Education and the Voucher as a Mechanism for Resourcing Schools: Implications for Teachers and Administrators
John Clark

Punishing the Discipline – the PBRF Regime: Evaluating the Position of Education – Where to From Here?
Richard Smith and Joce Jesson

Editorial introduction
Marian Court

Re-viewing feminist analyses for educational leadership in Aotearoa New Zealand, 1970-2000: A personal journey and critique
Marian Court

Working out of my comfort zone: Experiences of developing national women’s policy in Vanuatu
Jane Strachan

What about the parents? Principals’ perceptions and beliefs about parents in Victorian schools
John Collard

Revisiting the Foucauldian account of power: Constraints and opportunities in the leadership experience of Dominican teachers
Jenny Collins

“Eyes and teeth!” An exploration of emotion and rationality in the lives of English primary headteachers
Megan Crawford

Boards of Trustees’ selection of primary school principals in New Zealand
Keren Brooking

Unfinished business. An interview with Shane town: Gay teacher and academic
Anne-Marie O’Neill

How ‘difference’ of sexuality is positioned in teacher’s professional discourses in some New Zealand secondary schools
Cynthia Shaw with Marian Court

Opening pandora’s box: Working towards addressing intersections of gender/diversity and learning/teachers in the secondary school classroom
Kathleen Quinliven

Transforming gender patterns in an HIV/aids sexuality education class
Gillian Tasker

Editorial Introduction
John Clark

The New Right Revolution and How Parents Can Create Truly Democratic Schools
Michael Apple

The Role of Politics in Bringing About Change in Education
Laila Harre

Participation and Equity in Early Childhood Education
Helen May

GATS and Other New Threads to Public Education
Jane Kelsey

Beeby's Education Legacy
John Clark

Editorial introduction
John Clark

PIRLS: Explaining and closing the gaps in reading achievement
John Clark

What wisdom can we draw from PIRLS?
Warwick B. Elley

Searching for pearls of wisdom: A developmental perspective on the PIRLS results
Stuart McNaughton

The PIRLS survey 2001: What does it tell us as literacy educators in New Zealand
Libby Limbrick

What implications does the PIRLS study have for me?
John Smith

First to fourth to thirteenth and (in all probability), still dropping? New Zealand’s international literacy results: Some personal thoughts about the reasons for the gap
Keith Greaney

Literacy for some
Tom Nicholsom

Why the reading achievement gap in New Zealand won’t go away: Evidence from the PIRLS 2001 international study of reading achievement
Williams E. Tunmer and James W. Chapman

The association between social class and reading attainment: Is the most plausible explanation a ‘deficit theory’?
Roy Nash

The PIRLS 2001 study: What does it say about gender, learner literacy attitudes and behaviour in New Zealand?
Jane E. Prochnow

Is New Zealand’s reading cup half full, or half empty? A final comment on the papers offered for the NZARE literacy symposium, 2003
Roger Openshaw

Editorial Introduction
John O'Neill

Undamaging "Damaged" Teachers
John Smyth

Challenging Teachers to Teach Maori Education
Trish Johnston

Why Economists Don't Understand Education (but still try to run It)
Brian Easton

Position Papers

• Joce Jesson
• Alan Scott
• Margaret Ledgerton
• Judie Alison
• Amanda Coulston
• Jill Ovens
• Ruth Mansell
  

Essay Reviews

• Joce Jesson
• Ivan Snook

Editorial Introduction
Judith Loveridge

"Blue Skies" Talk in the "Playground"
Helen May

The Impact of New Public Management on Early Childhood in New Zealand: Where To From Here?
Judy Hamer

Redefining Leadership for Early Childhood Services
Cushla Scrivens

Revisiting the Early Childhood-Health Dyad: Implications for Policy and Practice of Health Promotion in Early Childhood Settings
Jacqueline Hayden

Applying a Commitment to Bicultural Development within Early Childhood Teacher Education: A Discussion
Jenny Ritchie

Early Childhood Curriculum in Theory, Ideology and Practice: Using Te Whariki
Joce Nuttall

Sociocultural Theory: Rebuilding the Theoretical Foundations of Early Childhood Education
Marilyn Fleer

Embedded and Disembedded Learning in Early Childhood: Moving Towards Socioculturally Situated Scientific Activity
Marilyn Fleer

Discourse, Policy and Practice: An inclusive Approach to Early Intervention
Joy Cullen

Discourse in Family Day Care
Debbie Waayer

Working with Young Children and their Families in Early Education Settings: The Importance of Dialogue and Shared Understandings
Judith Loveridge

Editorial Introduction
Roger Openshaw and Yoshiko Nozaki

Changing Attitudes Towards Curriculum: 1900-1940
Judith McGee

Little Ground for Criticism? Educational Bureaucracy and Social Studies Controversy
Roger Openshaw

Weak, Indecisive and Ineffectual? Towards a National Dialogue in Values Education Through Social Studies
Paul Keown

Compulsory Citizenship Education in England: Problems and Prospects
Alison Kirton and Harry Brighthouse

Teaching Civic Efficacy To Young Children Using The Storypath Approach
Margit McGuire

Democracy, Technology and Curriculum: Lessons From Korean High School Teachers' Practice
Youl-Kwan Sung and Michael, W. Apple

Advance Australia Fair: Lessons For Citizenship Education in New Zealand?
Alison Sewell

The Admixture of Indigenous and Asian Australians: Funds of Community Knowledge, Social Studies Education and the Dissolution of White Australia Politics
Michael Singh

Ethnic Minority Students and Social Studies Education: Learning from the Resident Korean Education in Japan
Yoshiko Nozaki and Horomitsu Inokuchi

Social Studies Education in New Zealand: A Cross Cultural Perspective
Cameron White

Editorial Introduction
John O'Neill

The Nation-Building Role of Education
Jane Kelsey

Can State Schools Teach Values? End-Games In Public Education
Brian, C.Hill

The Ethics and Politics of Values Education
Ivan Snook

More Than Talk This Time? Values Education In a New Millennium
Colin McGeorge

Values Education in New Zealand: Past, Present and Future
John Clark

Sexuality Education: Who does the Teaching?
Kama Weir and Judy McIntyre

Inequality in Educational Attainment Has Multiple Causes: How to Judge Their Relative Importance
Roy Nash

Assessment for Accountability, Reporting and Improving Learning: Have We got the Balance Right?
Nicky Knight

Assessment Reforms and the Politics of History in the New Zealand Curriculum Framework
Myra Kunowski

From University to Diversity: A Preview of Public Higher Education c2020
Nick Zepke