New Zealand Curriculum Refresh: Progressions Approach

There is considerable international debate about how best to reshape national curricula in the face of rapid societal and environmental changes. The OECD is actively exploring this question through its Future of Education and Skills 2030 initiative. Their aim is to ‘help education systems determine the knowledge, skills, attitudes, and values students needed to thrive in and shape their future.’

Here in New Zealand, our government recently announced a refresh of The New Zealand Curriculum in response to gathering pressures to be more deliberate in how we educate our young people for the complex and uncertain futures that await us all. It is in this context that the Ministry of Education asked the authors to outline a progression approach to curriculum design, within a bicultural curriculum.