Dedication to social justice unites Royal Society Fellows

A shared commitment to social justice unites an international educator and world-leading dance scholar at the University of Auckland, who have both been named Ngā Ahurei a Te Apārangi Fellows by the Royal Society Te Apārangi.

Professor Stuart McNaughton ONZM is an international leader on learning and development who has advised the government on education policy for more than a decade as Chief Education Scientific Adviser, the first person to take up the role.

An expert on the ways children develop literacy and language skills, he’s particularly committed to educational equity for young learners from different cultural and linguistic backgrounds.

McNaughton is known, alongside colleagues, for creating The Learning Schools Model which supports schools to improve students’ cognitive and social skills, an approach that has been successfully adopted beyond New Zealand, in Australia and the Pacific.

Most recently, his interest has been in how digital technology affects learning and development in schools.

He says he feels honoured, but also humble, to have been given this acknowledgement.

“It reflects what I have learned from, and been able to achieve, with mentors, colleagues and students, as well as the support of whānau. I’m also thrilled with how the honour is a recognition of the contribution of educational sciences.”

McNaughton gained a Personal Chair in Education at the University in 2000 and was the director of the University of Auckland at Manukau Programme.

He is the founding director of Te Pūtahi Woolf Fisher Research Centre, which now sits in the University’s Faculty of Arts and Education, and has an honorary position as Senior Research Fellow at East China Normal University (Shanghai).

Professor Nicholas Rowe has the honour of being among the first Fellows from dance studies elected by any Royal Society.

His research focuses on social inclusion through dance and dance films, which show how dance can have impact in a variety of contexts, including in politically volatile places like Palestine, where he lived for eight years in the Occupied Territories, working in refugee camps on dance projects with local artists. 

He is the UNESCO Chair in Dance and Social Inclusion, and the project lead for INTRACOMP, a Horizon Europe project focused on cultural democracy and climate displacement, and he continues to be an active community dance practitioner and advocate internationally.

He says he’s very grateful for the courage of the Royal Society Te Apārangi in electing a dance scholar, and its valuing of the diverse ways knowledge can be constructed. 

“This comes at a critical moment for intellectual collaboration. As news from around the world reminds us of the fragility of human bodies, and of democracy, now more than ever, we need to elevate our minds by moving creatively."

Rowe is a graduate of the Australian Ballet School, holds a PhD from the London Contemporary Dance School and University of Kent at Canterbury, and has previously choreographed and performed with national ballet companies in Australia and Finland, as well as for the Sydney Dance Company and the Royal New Zealand Ballet.