School Lines Take Courage Localise! It’s your curriculum! Lester Flockton
lester.flockton@gmail.com
Many years ago, when teaching in Kent (England), I often passed a billboard urging viewers to ‘Take Courage’. (For more than 2 centuries, Courage was among the best-known names in British brewing.) I’ve often thought that this, metaphorically speaking, is exactly something NZPF should be promoting at every opportunity. Moreover, I’m sure that many would enjoy regular samples of the non-metaphoric stuff. David Lange’s Tomorrow’s Schools reforms were essentially about localising decision making, or devolution. Consistent with this, the design and direction of The New Zealand Curriculum (2007) was always intended to be substantially about localisation. Its driving underpinnings included rationalisation of learning outcomes – how many, how much, and which ones. The expectation was that schools would interpret the national curriculum in ways that addressed the needs, interests and learning priorities of their students while ensuring that local curricular goals were suitably aligned and consistent with the intent of broadly stated national goals. Interestingly, many education systems are coming to believe that this is a direction that should be followed as opposed to a system of centralised dictates and a one-size-fits-all mentality. Soon after the launch of the 2007 national curriculum a few of us set about helping schools to design, develop and localise their curriculum, with strong emphases on ownership and a sensible, workable framework that did not include the ill-conceived and ill-defined achievement objectives. These AOs, derived from the previous curriculum designed according to Education Minister Lockwood Smith’s ‘Achievement Initiative,’ could never be defended as a sound or sensible part of that localisation, despite yearnings from some ill-equipped assessment people. National standards, which were commanded at a time when The New Zealand Curriculum was just getting off the ground, completely overshadowed the realisation of the richness, forward thinking and direction of the NZC. Equally, national standards overrode progress towards developing the precepts of curricular localisation. The Ministry of Education, the Education Review Office and their various affiliates took giant backward steps and buried their heads in an all-consuming preoccupation with the 3Rs and associated data manufacture – all of which proved to be an abysmal failure and led to needless heartache for far too many schools. While all is not forgiven now that National Standards have been assigned to the annuls of dark history, the Ministry of Education has now lifted its head and taken to seeing the light within the NZC. Lo and behold, over a decade after its official implementation it is starting to discover and advocate for what it is all about, including localisation! Unlike the prescriptive national standards curriculum, it is now officially declared that
the NZC should be interpreted so that it becomes yours. It is your school and it’s your curriculum. Your local curriculum should be unique and responsive to the priorities, preferences, and issues of your community and your people. What is important is that all elements of The New Zealand Curriculum are used as the framework in designing your local curriculum. This ensures you’re supporting the strengths of all your learners. Ministry of Education, Curriculum Online. October 2019 Great stuff! The Ministry now quite correctly recognises and acknowledges that the NZC is a framework rather than a detailed plan and that schools have flexibility in deciding how, how much, and what they formally assess. This means that every school curriculum must be aligned with the intent of the New Zealand curriculum, schools have considerable flexibility when determining the detail of teaching, learning and assessment in their context. In doing this, they can draw on a wide range of ideas, resources and models. Ministry of Education, Assessment Online. October 2019 But its understanding and acknowledgement of the limitations and highly problematic nature of the achievement objectives across all learning areas reveals an unfortunate deficiency in the Ministry’s thinking and advice. For teachers in years 1 to 8, measuring progress across the curriculum is more problematic than in literacy and numeracy. Some learning areas are well supported by learning progressions, others less so. For some learning areas school will have to make decisions based on achievement objectives and available resources, and develop assessments accordingly. Ministry of Education, Assessment Online. October 2019 Schools would do well to ignore this, especially if they are to adopt a sound and workable model of curricular localisation. And the Ministry would do well to seek some objective expert advice to help it better understand such issues. While any curriculum should be able to be reviewed and refined in light of new insights and circumstances, changes come from all sorts of motives. They also come at a considerable cost to everyone. Of late, the NZC has been given the DTs (Digital Technologies). Pandora’s box is to be opened with the addition of Government mandated instruction on New Zealand’s history (warts and all?). The Minister’s and Ministry’s curriculum, progress and achievement advisory committee is convinced that
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AOs be replaced with POs (Progress Outcomes) according to LPFs (Learning Progression Frameworks). That same committee is also behind what has been called a ‘curriculum shake-up’ A curriculum shake up is on the cards for New Zealand’s classrooms, paving a new way for how pupils are taught in schools. Education Minister Chris Hipkins announced the refresh of New Zealand’s national curriculum and Te Marautanga o Aotearoa on Friday morning which he said would keep studies agile and have a stronger focus on wellbeing, identity, language and culture. STUFF Jessica Long, Sep 20 2019 So at a national level the bureaucrats with their advisory consultants are well and truly in business again, now that they no longer have national standards to occupy their offices. But at a local level countless schools are still coming to grips with the opportunity for localising their curriculum. That rightful focus shouldn’t be distracted or threatened by all of the hubbub going on in offices that are not theirs. Let’s never forget that the ‘co-constructed’ NZC was the outcome of unprecedented professional and wider community input and engagement in its development – apart from the ‘back end.’ Let’s also understand and accept that a school cannot expect, or be expected, to cover everything it includes and do it well if their students are to have meaningful, authentic, deep learning. We need to be wary, therefore, of curricular expansionism – puffing it out with botoxification and jellied implants that could end up giving it the wobbles. Localising the curriculum in the face of new edicts will require schools to take courage. Be ambitious but stay grounded. Think children. Think local. And think for yourselves.
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