Celebrating 30 years: Highlights & history

Maire K. C. Smith

The 1970s

set started in 1974 as a kit—looseleaf pages and little booklets with articles, reviews, and even stories. set generally came out twice yearly—free for the first few issues, funded by the Department of Education, then on a subscription basis. It covered education from preschool to tertiary level.

Articles were almost as likely to be one-off pieces by subject-specialist university lecturers— like David Keen (history), Peter Hawkins (linguistics), and Megan Clark (mathematics)—as research articles by educationalists.

Contributors included Warwick Elley, Neil Reid, Geraldine McDonald, Richard Benton, Tom Nicholson, Viviane Robinson, Ted Glynn, Stuart McNaughton, and Marianne Quinn. There was usually at least one article per issue by Cedric Croft or Colin Cowie, often explaining assessment resources. The repercussions of new media were being felt, with articles on the educational television show The Electric Company and the relationship between television and violence.

There were a number of original illustrations in most issues. Several of the artists are now well known, such as Dick Frizzell, Te Maari Gardiner, Murray Grimsdale, and Ans Westra.

The 1980s

In 1980 set became international, published by NZCER in partnership with the Australian Council for Educational Research. With the start of the Early Childhood Folio in 1983, set no longer covered such a wide age-range, concentrating on primary and secondary schooling.

Discipline was a major issue in the 80s. Social mores were changing, and corporal punishment was no longer taken for granted. How did you maintain discipline without the threat of violence? A related topic was peace education, with articles on nuclear war, the future, and peace. Articles also appeared on smoking, sex education, and health education (including guidelines for dealing with solvent abuse that were marked “must not be used as handout material for children”). The importance of non-offensive language was discussed in 1988’s “Mind Your Language”.

In 1980 the first articles on computers in education were printed. The other new medium for this period was video, with articles on using video taping to improve teaching practice and using commercial videos constructively in education.

The first collections of themed articles came out in 1983: collections of articles on computers and on reading. Best of set collections then came out nearly every year from 1985 till 1994, with subjects including reading, assessment, mathematics, discipline, writing, junior classes, and families and school.

Writers who contributed in the 80s included Anne Meade, Adrienne Alton-Lee, Tom Nicholson, Warwick Elley, Penny Jamieson, Richard Benton, Neil Reid, Cedric Croft, Libby Limbrick, and Margery Renwick. In 1988 Prime Minister David Lange, as Minister of Education, wrote an article explaining Tomorrow’s Schools.

The 1990s

The first article about the Internet was published in the early 90s. Articles appeared on school management and teaching careers as a result of the changes instituted with Tomorrow’s Schools. Writing about health issues in the 1990s covered anorexia, chronic fatigue syndrome, and the links between activity, fitness, mood, and mental health.

In 1996 Best of set was renamed set Special, with folders appearing on students at risk, language and literacy, technology, mathematics, and special education.

Among the writers who contributed were Adrienne Alton-Lee, Gill Thomas, Warwick Elley, Val Podmore, Geraldine McDonald, John Hattie, Marie Cameron, Derek Holton, Jenny Young-Loveridge, Cathy Wylie, Mere Berryman, Ted Glynn, Tom Nicholson, Marie M. Clay, Anne Meade, Alister Jones, Gwenneth Phillips, and Stuart McNaughton.

2000 and beyond

In 2000 the format of set changed radically. No more easily-lost looseleaf pages—set changed to magazine format. At the same time, it became a New Zealand publication again, published by NZCER only. It is now published three times a year, with each issue containing a feature section of four or five articles on a particular topic.

Topics current today include environmental education, technology education, and curriculum integration. Addressing inequalities in education for particular groups is important, with articles on education for boys, Pasifika and Māori students, students with learning disabilities, and students from lower socioeconomic groups. Literacy and numeracy are still important, and assessment has been going strong as a topic for set articles since 1974.