For Jean Herbison, learning in her early 20th century childhood world was relatively uncomplicated and predictable. Life was shaped by unambiguous family, faith and settler colonial prescriptions about how children "should" behave and what they should become. Approaching the centenary of her birth, children today must navigate a very…

This paper considers the distinctive and peculiar place that Presbyterianism and Presbyterian Church schools occupy in New Zealand's education sector. It offers a critical evaluation of the relationship between the church schools and their Presbyterian heritage and the values to which they refer as they seek to define their special character. It…

This article seeks to explain how Aotearoa New Zealand moved from a consensus that the New Zealand Curriculum (NZC) should grant a high degree of autonomy to teachers, to an emerging view that it ought to be more prescriptive about content. To do this, it takes an assemblage approach to policy analysis, understanding policies as constantly…

The history of educational policy-making in Aotearoa New Zealand is also a history in myth-making. Myths about Maori in education are deeply embedded in educational and social thought, because they have their origins in the first political interactions between Maori and Pakeha. These interactions were motivated by contradicting forces--Maori…

In 2020, the New Zealand Ministry of Education updated "Relationships and sexuality education: A guide for teachers, leaders and Boards of Trustees." Rejecting reductive 'sex education' (which is limited to biology), sexuality education also attends to children's changing sociocultural contexts. The "Guidelines" include a…

From the outset, the Labour-led Coalition Government of 2017 was intent on 'transformation'. For the education sector, this was signalled immediately with the announcement of an extensive programme of review and reform initiated in their first 100 days of power. Yet, what is at the heart of the proposed changes and what were they trying to…

The idea that the New Zealand education system will cater to all students, regardless of ability, and support them in developing their full potential to the best of their abilities, is enshrined in the famous 1939 Beeby/Fraser statement. Equality of access policy discourse has shifted to emphasise equitable outcomes, focussed increasingly on…

Since its inception in 1907 New Zealand's "School Journal" has provided primary schools with free good quality material to be used for a variety of purposes in the classroom. At the same time, in reflecting curriculum reforms and changing perceptions of literacy learning, it has reproduced often conflicting ideologies. This article…

Throughout its long life, New Zealand's "School Journal" has reflected and informed its social contexts. Not only has it charted shifting perceptions of childhood, but also the often conflicting ideologies of educational philosophy, pedagogy and practice. This article examines two periods of immense social and political change in New…

This presentation retraces some of the often forgotten history, dating back to 1860s, of Aotearoa/New Zealand that formed aspects of our education structures. Of particular interest is the relationship between educational innovation and change that came about through the active involvement of teachers as policy champions as they pursued their goal…

To mark the fiftieth anniversary of NZJES ["New Zealand Journal of Educational Studies"], this invited paper examines possible education policy and policy scholarship futures. It is argued that in order to predict the future, one needs to appreciate how socio-historical struggles of the past have contributed to present education policy…

The growing recognition of Maori education approaches and ways of knowing can be seen both as a response to the erosion and loss of traditional knowledge philosophies through the processes of colonialism and internationalism, and as a means of reclaiming and revaluing Maori language, identity and culture. Improving the educational success of Maori…

This year the education research community in New Zealand is celebrating fifty years of the publication of the New Zealand Journal of Educational Studies. In this article, it is argued that the half century has been bifurcated by the shift from social democratic discourses of equality for all, to a market choice model of schooling after 1989. This…