2024 Recipient Of Margaret May Blackwell Travel Fellowship Announced

NZCER, on behalf of Remuera Rotary, is pleased to announce Sue Hone as the recipient of the 2024 Margaret May Blackwell Fellowship.

The fellowship, established in 1988, supports those working in or around early childhood education to study overseas to gain further experience and subsequently to disseminate that information for the benefit of early childhood education in New Zealand.

Sue, a Curriculum Adviser at the Ministry of Education, will travel and research trauma-informed approaches to early childhood education to support neurodiverse ākonga in ECE settings. Her research will take her to Finland, Denmark, England and Canada, encompassing neuroscience courses, meeting leading researchers, and investigating approaches that can be utilised in the Aotearoa context. 

“Neurodiverse ākonga - including those with ADHD, ASD, and dyslexia – face huge barriers in traditional educational settings,” Sue notes.

“While we’ve made some good progress here in Aotearoa, I hope that this Fellowship will help me understand, investigate and bring back crucial insights or approaches that can continue supporting these children in ECE settings.”

About the Fellowship

The Margaret May Blackwell Fellowship is awarded annually to early childhood education practitioners or workers in New Zealand, for up to $20,000. It is administered by the NZ Council for Educational Research, on behalf of the Remuera Rotary Trust.

It is for a travel period of up to three months but for not less than six weeks. The award can support:

• Teachers, supervisors and workers from all sectors of early childhood education
• Lecturers in appropriate disciplines in tertiary institutions.
• Ministry of Education personnel and those in an education agency, working in early childhood education.

The travel study Fellowship is offered for the purposes of:

• Preserving the memory of Margaret May Blackwell as an early childhood educator of note.
• Promoting ongoing study and research of the development, practice, organisation, and philosophy of early childhood education.
• Providing opportunity to study in other countries, in areas of interest with relevance, national significance and benefit to New Zealand.
• Permitting people of calibre and expertise in the area of early childhood education to have the opportunity to travel and to study overseas.

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