Nina Hood

Nina Hood is a New Zealand educator, academic, business woman, and policy adviser. She is the founder of The Education Hub, co-founder and academic director of The Teachers’ Institute and has worked in curriculum development, charter school policy, and teacher education strategy for the New Zealand Ministry of Education.

Hood attended St Cuthbert's College, Auckland, where she was the director for the student company Zenith. The company won the 2001 Young Enterprise Scheme Supreme Award as they invented, manufactured, marketed, and sold a word game similar to Scrabble called Take Two.^[1]

She completed a bachelor’s degree in art history, criticism and conservation at the Courtauld Institute of Art (2004–2007), followed by a master’s in art history from New York University (2007–2009). She received a graduate diploma in secondary teaching from the University of Auckland (2009).^[2]

Hood later completed a master of science in education (Learning and Technology, 2011–2012) and a doctor of philosophy (DPhil) in education (2012–2015) at the University of Oxford.^[2]

Hood began her career in 2011 at Mount Roskill Grammar School, where she taught classics and social studies for a year.^[3]

From 2015 to 2023, Hood was a senior lecturer in the Faculty of Education and Social Work at the University of Auckland.^[4] Her research focuses on knowledge mobilisation, evidence-informed teaching, and the science of learning.

In 2017, she founded The Education Hub, a non-profit that connects educators with accessible, research-based resources.^[5] Later in 2025, she also co-founded The Teachers’ Institute, a school-based teacher education program, where she has been serving as an academic director since^[6]

Between 2020 and 2021, she served as editor of ACCESS: Contemporary Issues in Education, overseeing its re-launch.^[7][8]

Hood has worked with the Ministry of Education (New Zealand) on curriculum reform, teacher education, and the design and oversight of charter schools (Kura Hourua).^[9]

Since 2024, Hood has been a research fellow at Koi Tū: The Centre for Informed Futures.^[3]

Hood is also a media commentator on education in New Zealand, especially on literacy policy, NCEA standards and reforms, and curriculum design. She has appeared on platforms such as RNZ, The Platform, and Newstalk ZB.^[10][11][12]

In 2025, Hood was appointed to the International Ministerial Advisory Panel on Curriculum and Assessment by the Department of Education in Northern Ireland.^[13] She delivered the keynote Sustaining Continual Educational Improvement at the TransformED School Leaders’ Conference.^[14]

From 2015 to 2021, Hood served on the Board of Trustees of St Cuthbert's College, Auckland.^[9] Since the early 2020s, she has been a parent representative on the Board of Trustees at Kadimah School, a Jewish state-integrated primary school in Auckland.^[15]

• Littlejohn, Allison & Hood, Nina. *Reconceptualising Learning in the Digital Age: The [Un]democratising Potential of MOOCs*. SpringerBriefs in Education, 2018.^[16]

• Hood, Nina & Littlejohn, Allison. “MOOC Quality: The Need for New Measures.”^[17]
• Hood, Nina & Tesar, Marek. “Constructed Patriotism: Shifting (Re)Presentations and Performances of Patriotism Through Curriculum Materials.” *Occasional Paper Series*, 2018.^[18]

Her full research record is listed on Google Scholar.

Nina Hood is the daughter of Dr Ann Hood and Sir John Hood, a New Zealand businessman and former Vice-Chancellor of both the University of Auckland and the University of Oxford. She is also the granddaughter of Dorothy Winstone, who was a New Zealand educator and women's rights advocate.^[19][20]

Her sister, Dr Anna Hood, is a human rights lawyer and associate professor of law at the University of Auckland.^[21]

She is partnered with Marek Tesar, dean of the Faculty of Education at the University of Melbourne. They have two sons, William James and George Alexander.^[22]

In 2025, Hood was appointed a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit (MNZM) for services to education.^[23]

In the same year, Hood was selected in the Humanitarian category of the University of Auckland's "40 Under 40" awards.^[24]

• Education in New Zealand
• Knowledge mobilisation
• Literacy in Aotearoa