The New Zealand curriculum: May the spirit of a draft always be with us

Abstract

The New Zealand Curriculum: Draft for Consultation (Ministry of Education, 2006) aims to first “set the direction for learning for all students while at school and will ensure that when they leave, they are equipped for lifelong learning and for living in a world where continual change is the norm” (p. 7), and second, to enable teachers to engage in what they consider to be best practice in teaching and as teachers.

This paper considers some issues with this draft concerning school-based curriculum development, enhancing opportunities for an emancipatory curriculum, the place of tikanga Mäori and te ao Mäori, specified competencies and competences, the meaning of managing self, effective pedagogy, values and what we value, and the notion of a curriculum which serves the whole person. Some cautionary notes are also sounded. Any curriculum must be necessarily tentative and flexible enough to accommodate change. The present document,