National President, New Zealand Principals’ Federation
Since I have been elected NZPF President, I have frequently what makes New Zealand strong. We have frequently been found myself applauding our New Zealand Curriculum (NZC), held up as world leaders in educational innovation and change. as the crowning jewel of our modern education system. I have We developed a comprehensive programme for children with never thought that placing the NZC centre stage was a mistake reading difficulties (reading recovery), which quickly gained and I know many of you attribute our internationally high traction throughout the world. We invented self-managed charter achievement rankings to the richness of our curriculum and schools for our public schooling system, a first in the world. We our delivery of it. allow children to start school on their fifth birthday, irrespective As professionals, we know that readiness to learn comes well of when in the year that occurs, rather than have to fit into an before any learning takes place. The way we prepare children arbitrary cohort system like every other country in the world. for learning is to first make them feel comfortable in the school As New Zealanders, we value the right to dare to be different. environment then we motivate them by giving them a reason to We do not unify with clones. want to learn. We do this through a variety of channels, and the Many of our colleagues are thus uneasy about the set of reforms most important of all is our broad curriculum. Some kids arrive that have been introduced since 2008. This is not surprising, since at school feeling quite at home in their new school environment. most of the reforms require ‘uniformity’ or ‘standardisation’ and School is a good match with their pre-school expectations and central control, the most efficient extinguishers of innovation, they are already motivated to learn. Others don’t. That’s where daring and change. For example, with their narrow focus on alternative pathways come in. We use culture, the arts, sports, just three subjects, the National Standards regime threatens to science, gardening, social science, and many other topic areas to weaken the power of our star curriculum. Just recently, an ERO get children stimulated and motivated about learning. Overall, study found that science is already suffering as schools buckle we succeed very well with this approach. under the demands of implementing the National Standards, Our broad curriculum, coupled with the passion and and we can predict there will be further casualties. enthusiasm of our dedicated and well-qualified teachers, strong With issues like performance pay now looming, we must community relationships, our boards of trustees governance concern ourselves with very successful pedagogical approaches model and our ability as self-managing schools to respond like team teaching. This approach is highly conducive to the quickly, gives us an edge that most of our overseas colleagues Modern Learning Environment such as we celebrate in this envy. There is no doubt these factors in tandem are critical to our high international levels of success. Many of our colleagues are thus uneasy We succeed despite our country investing much less in education than most of our OECD counterpart countries. about the set of reforms that have There is every reason for parents to have high trust and been introduced since 2008. This is not confidence in us and they do. We know this from the results of independently conducted surveys. surprising, since most of the reforms Parents know that whether their children are highly gifted or struggling to learn, teachers will be on to require ‘uniformity’ or ‘standardisation’ their case. We have an outstanding world-recognised and central control, the most efficient reputation in producing programmes in response to individual children’s needs. We lead in encouraging extinguishers of innovation, daring and innovation in our pedagogical approaches and both our content and context for learning reflects the values change. of our local communities. We are proud of the fact that every school is different. We celebrate the diversity of learning issue (pp. 18–21). As Lesley Murrihy, principal of Amesbury approaches in our schools. We guard them like the taonga that School in Wellington, says, any performance pay would have to they are, because they have not been developed in isolation but be shared across her entire staff. It would be impossible at her in collaboration with our communities. They are precious and school to calculate the contribution of any one teacher to any one unique to us. student’s progress. Amesbury School was deliberately designed Embracing difference and different ways of doing things is with large, shared, flexible learning spaces to accommodate what makes our New Zealand education system strong. It is the team-teaching style because that is what the community
and teaching staff wanted. In my experience team teaching is not exclusive to Amesbury School. It is commonplace practice throughout New Zealand schools because it allows children to draw on the strengths of all teachers and to experience a variety of approaches which enhances their learning. Further on the horizon is the threat of reforming our governance structure and self-managed schools model. What is disturbing about this reform is that it is the self-managed, local, community-controlled schooling system that has allowed schools in New Zealand to be so innovative and quick to respond to children’s needs over the past 25 years. It has allowed schools, their local boards and their communities to make autonomous and immediate decisions, without the cumbersome delays that hampered progress under the old centrally controlled system and their regional education boards.
If we examine this set of reforms as a whole, it becomes clear that each one of them will contribute to weakening those attributes which have made our current education system strong and world leading. Standardisation will smother our diversity. Weakening innovation will reduce children’s learning opportunities and their achievement potential. Diminishing school autonomy will decrease the response rate to children’s needs. Using inappropriate incentivisation systems such as performance pay will risk inappropriate responses from teachers. Narrowing our curriculum will limit access to learning for the very children who need it the most. In my view it is time to take a deep breath and reflect before we make irreversible changes we might regret. The risk is that we could be directing children towards a 19th century classroom rather than a 21st century one.
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