Curriculum Matters 8: 2012

Educational change in New Zealand has been a hot topic in 2012. We have faced cutbacks, closures, charter schools and league tables, not to mention the ‘rejuvenation and consolidation’ of Christchurch schools following the 2010/2011 earthquakes. A common reaction has been resistance—from teachers, principals, teacher unions, academics and, in the cases of class sizes and the Christchurch closures and amalgamations, also from parents and boards of trustees.

In… Read more

This article examines the different outcomes that have emerged in the framing of knowledge for senior secondary school subjects through the process of aligning curriculum and assessment. By tracing paths of development in the Alignment of Standards Project for history, art history, classical studies and social studies it can be seen that differing approaches to the nature and inclusion of knowledge have created distinctions between those subjects that enable a high degree of teacher autonomy… Read more

This article questions whether the increased involvement of private enterprise in the ECEC sector in recent years has unintentionally reinforced a simplistic understanding of disability. Reliance on such understandings will restrict access to meaningful, respectful curriculum in the sector for children with disabilities. Given that Aotearoa/New Zealand’s ECEC curriculum document specifically describes curriculum as being all of the ECEC experiences, activities and events that a child engages… Read more

This article describes my research project which sought to discover generalist primary teachers’ perspectives on including visual arts in their classroom programme, and the factors that supported or limited them in this. A picture of the everyday classroom and its complex demands emerged from the quantitative and qualitative data gathered in three primary schools. The participants’ experiences were consistent with those reported in the research literature and confirmed the marginal status of… Read more

Pasifika learners. NCEA, as the nationally endorsed means of measuring achievement, exerts considerable power over what educators teach Pasifika young people is important and of intrinsic value for them as they prepare to take their places in society. This article argues that the NCEA drama texts are culturally charged with stereotypical character and theme types that promote negative constructions of identity in young Pasifika people. These texts also promote misunderstandings about what it… Read more

Current notions of “good” citizenship have become closely related to the pursuit of good health and wellbeing. This, alongside popular claims that physical education can be associated with the promotion of particular morals, values and attitudes, suggests that the subject may be viewed as cultivating a specific type of person or “body”. A number of ideological and political tensions associated with the development of the personally responsible citizen in physical education are… Read more

Three years ago Ruth Round began teaching her Year 4, mixed-ability class in ways that made music central to her teaching while at the same time integrating The New Zealand Curriculum focusing in particular on language learning, poetry and art. Through a theoretical frame based on the ideas of Vygotsky, Ruth’s programme is underpinned by her belief that music is an art, a discipline, a language and a vehicle of instruction. This paper examines Ruth’s expansive learning… Read more

The teaching and learning of languages additional to English (L2) in English-dominant societies has reached a crisis point, with teachers often facing considerable challenges with recruiting, and then retaining, students. This article presents findings from a study in New Zealand, where the introduction of a revised curriculum has provided the opportunity for L2 teachers to reflect on current and future teaching practices. Data from interviews with teachers and curriculum support workers (… Read more

Despite statistical literacy being relatively new in statistics education research, it needs special attention as attempts are being made to enhance the teaching, learning and assessing of this strand. It is important that teachers are aware of the challenges of teaching and assessing of literacy. The growing importance of statistics in today’s information world and conceptions of statistical literacy are outlined and models for developing statistical literacy from research literature are… Read more

What happens if the local context where a higher education curriculum is being delivered shifts in a dramatic and undeniable way? Would or could the curriculum and pedagogy be adapted to address that shift? If so, how and for what purpose? These questions are addressed through a brief review of relevant literature on responsive curriculum and a case study of a service-learning that was developed at the University of Canterbury (UC) in response to the 2010 and 2011 earthquakes in Christchurch… Read more