John L. McKenzie is now a Principal Lecturer at Christchurch College of Education, responsible for the development, certification and delivery of the Certificate in Children's Literature and the Diploma of Children's Literature.
He developed this qualification in response to the need for the academic study of children's literature in New Zealand, ensuring that it met the requirements of the New Zealand Qualifications Authority (NZQA).
He has written over twenty-six study guides, in distance education format, for this qualification ranging from picture books, children's poetry, myth, legend and folktale, the Victorian period, the use of children's literature in the curriculum, book selection and performance.
He is supported in this endeavour by a team of part-time and contract course writers, directors and tutors.
He is a founding member of the Australasian Children's Literature Association for Research (ACLAR), having represented New Zealand on the governing Board.
In 2001 he hosted the fifth biennial ACLAR conference and with the able help of his colleagues, Drs. Doreen Darnell and Anna Smith, published the proceedings entitled Cinderella Transformed: Multiple voices and diverse dialogues in children's literature (2003).
His current PhD research interest is the representation of suicide in teenage fiction.
His experience as a primary school teacher, parent and lecturer at a variety of Colleges of Education in the fields of language education, communications skills and children's literature have combined to create this passion for the book. |
