These thoughts are mine and do not represent my employer or place of work.
Recently, I presented at some conferences about curriculum change. As it turned out, I couldn’t present on the changes, because they hadn’t been released yet. So I instead thought about some recent parent teacher interviews I had been in – and how over 90% of the parents first questions weren’t about the kids grades, they were asking if they tried hard. Did the work. Were respectful. Got along with their peers. Thinking about this, and thinking about what I value as a parent – I care that my Mr 12 is working hard and being kind.
Now maths and english have been released, and the rest of the learning areas are due next week. And I’m not sure there is a place to even ask about working hard and being kind…..
When I planned the presentations, I went back to the front end of the NZC from 2007 and started with this image. Which is often easy to forget about when you are bogged down into the ins and outs of which reagents are which as you prepare for a chemistry exam. It is a good reminder that in the 2007 curric, learning areas really only made up 1/3 of the curriculum doc, the so called ‘front end’ forming 2/3.
That isn’t to say these values are perfect – and in some cases they do seem to be contradictory. But they were something to aim for. Every school I have ever been in has a noticeable values poster/badge/TV screens/report comments or tick boxes about students embodying the schools values, and most unit planning templates I have seen have at least made a token effort to include key competencies. Occasionally school values manifest in interesting ways in ‘hidden curriculums’ – such as the win at all costs of a sporting event or ‘pathways’ different students are encouraged towards.
And going back to the 2007 NZC, there was this graphic showing how all the curriculum topics feed into a bigger whole – I often relate to the Science one that students should know stuff about Science so that they can participate in a society in which Science plays a significant role…
For the orginal refresh docs released around 2022, I feel most of the values doc (2 above) was wrapped up in Te Mātaiaho (which is beautifully unpacked in this video – https://vimeo.com/757359115 )
which then got ‘updated’ in a release last year to…..
And so who knows what it will be next week…..
I have lots of ‘ponderings’ about the more recent version of Te Mātaiaho…. mostly the change from Mātaiaho being interpreted as ‘weaving learning withing and across learning areas’ to now being just ‘learning areas’. The original intent being skewed. But I don’t really have the words to talk about that, or even all the information to make an informed opinion on why and how these things have happened. I am not happy that they have…. it makes me heart sore.
In trying to find a way forward for myself, I have gone down a little deeper pondering about the importance of school values. And how do I as a teacher explicitly teach values in my class. As mentioned, every school I’ve even been in (and in my previous role I visited over 100 schools, mostly in the south of NZ) has explicit links to the values in the NZC. Values have an important place in schooling…
Or at least they did
And instead we have a list of requirements….
and tiny little snippets…
It is a difficult thing – and a fine line. I shouldn’t be (and do my best not to) do things like comment on religious or political ideas. I do my best to treat students equitably, regardless of ethnicity, ability or orientation. Occasionally I do make mistake, and model trying to be better each time, but as a human person mistakes will happen.
I also try to be an excellent teacher as often as I can. Some of being an excellent teacher are the little things… Things like being on time. Dressing appropriately (the kids are in suits after all, I should dress up a bit… but also, needs to be practical being in a lab…) getting work back, giving timely feedback and doing my duty. What values does an excellent teacher have? I’d say they vary from lesson to lesson and kid to kid. Is it all on content knowledge? I’ve meet and had some teacher who knew a whole heap about a lot of things, but couldn’t teach to save themselves (or me…)
So, where do values sit? Who’s values are important? At the moment this sits with the NZC, and then the board of trustees I guess? Will values still have a place? And will that place be explicit? Implicit? Or hidden away….
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