On 4 September, Professor Terry Locke wrote this:
What is needed urgently is a concerted campaign to restore the time-honoured and practically tested wisdom represented by the body of scholars and practitioners, whose work over the last few years to bring about an authentic and widely-supported curriculum refresh is in danger of counting for nought.
New Zealand has a rich history of pedagogical and curriculum know-how. Te Mātaiaho, as it was, looked to be a document that built on that rich history and brought it into the now and what-might-be. In listing all the people and organisations that had been involved in the refresh programme to date, this is a point the Ministry of Education tried to make to the Minister in the briefing paper dated 4 December.
But all that wisdom has been thrown out. What we have now is not, as the draft curriculum claims, a curriculum that has been “developed by successive governments, demonstrating a commitment to longevity, stability, and enduring support for a world-leading New Zealand curriculum” (Te Mātaiaho, draft August 2024, p. 3). This draft curriculum is a new start that disregards that history and commitment. It is a rewrite, and its claim to succession is another form of rupture—it denies the wisdom and history of those who were involved in the curriculum’s refresh but have been excluded from its development since the takeover by the MAG, and that list is long, diverse, and broad.
I have had an increasing number of you get in touch with me over the last week. Some have offered to add their voice, others notes of thanks or small pieces of advice or insight. I have found much comfort in those messages, not because they make me feel good but because they are indications that the rupture we have experienced will not endure.
This week I was sent the September 2023 version of Te Mātaiaho, which includes the English curriculum. One small thing you can do is restore it in your mind as a reminder of the change that was almost made real. You can download and read it below. The contrast to the draft NZ Institute curriculum is, I think, stark.
To restore our rich history we need to bring all our diverse wisdom together. The outcomes for our tamariki will be better if we do.
You can email me at bevanholloway@proton.me
In case you missed it.
I was on a podcast!
Democracy Begins In The Classroom 