Last week, the research team presented a symposium at the annual NZARE conference. Hosted at Waipapa Taumata Rau, the University of Auckland, the conference brought together educational researchers, practitioners, and policy makers to discuss the theme Place in Education: Connections, Responsibilities, and Futures, captured by the saying: Toitū te whenua, toitū te tangata – If the land is well, the people are well.
Our symposium, titled Hāpaitia te ngākau aroha: Exploring the use of virtual reality in teacher Professional Learning and Development (PLD) to elevate empathy, was comprised of three papers. The first described the need for the project, detailing the history of systemic racism in Aotearoa. The second presentation described the development of the PLD: writing the script for the virtual reality (VR), working with a Māori-run company to film the scenarios using a 360-degree camera, and integrating the VR into a multi-session PLD. The third presentation described preliminary findings on whether the PLD reduces the bias experienced by Māori students. Chaired by Dr Jo Smith, different members of the research team presented the different papers, reflecting the multi-faceted nature of the Elevate Empathy project.
We received fantastic feedback from the audience which we are working to integrate into our 2026 intervention design. We also received a ‘shoutout’ from Professor Mere Berryman (Te Whare Wānanga O Waikato, the University of Waikato). See here for her Linkedin post! The extended abstract for the symposium can be found on our Project Outputs page.
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