The Scholarship covers the study and living costs at Cambridge University in the United Kingdom, and is valued at around $300,000. Three New Zealand recipients have been chosen based on their outstanding academic ability and leadership potential as well as their integrity, vision, and capacity for work. They must show how their research will benefit New Zealand.
Taylor, 27, has a Bachelor of Arts Honours and a Master of Arts in English from the University and is completing his Master of Education while teaching full-time at Hutt Valley High School. His PhD will explore current teacher policy in New Zealand, and he says it was inspired by his first placement through the Teach First NZ programme.
“I had arrived at my assigned school in South Auckland excited and ready to go. But I found out on arrival that I would not be teaching the subject I was trained in—English—but would be working in an ‘integrated studies programme’ teaching all five ‘core’ subjects, most of which I had no training in delivering,” says Taylor.
“I understood why the school had developed this programme, but also wondered if something was being lost in all of this. Was this kind of programme in line with the best available research? I want to investigate teacher policy in New Zealand, its origins, what impact is it having on the classroom, and whether it is line with international best practice.”
The balance of completing his Master’s and full-time work is tricky, says Taylor. “It’s helpful having such a flexible supervisor, Dr Mark Sheehan, who has been willing to adjust meeting dates and deadlines for me. But it’s basically just involved working quite hard and being careful how I manage my time. But I can’t see what I’m doing as any more difficult than people who work full-time and also have children.”
Taylor’s PhD research will focus on low-decile schools, inspired by an encounter he had in 2011 when he volunteered at the University’s homework club for refugee students. “One girl in particular helped me see the gap between the opportunities I had been given in life, and the opportunities given to others.”
The girl and her family had come to New Zealand as refugees from Somalia, only to find more challenges in the form of a lack of support at her low-decile school here in New Zealand.
“After coming all this way, the lack of English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) support, the lack of qualified maths teachers, and the absence of extra-curricular opportunities she told me about infuriated me. I had gone to a well-regarded school where I had received an excellent education. Why were students like this girl, who had already overcome far more barriers than I, not getting the support they needed to thrive?”
Taylor now plans to pursue a field of study that will enable him to contribute to improving the education of New Zealand’s most disadvantaged students.
Taylor’s time at the University now spans nearly 10 years. “I loved being taught by the amazing English department over many years—their scholarship and teaching is absolutely top notch. I also have valued the opportunities Victoria has offered me outside of the classroom. It has definitely played a key role in shaping who I am today.”
The other recipients of the Scholarship are Emma Walker and Thomas Archbold, both from the University of Waikato.
The Woolf Fisher Scholarship is administered by Universities New Zealand.