NZ Herald
  • Home
  • Latest news
  • Herald NOW
  • Video
  • New Zealand
  • Sport
  • World
  • Business
  • Entertainment
  • Podcasts
  • Quizzes
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Travel
  • Viva
  • Weather

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • New Zealand
    • All New Zealand
    • Crime
    • Politics
    • Education
    • Open Justice
    • Scam Update
  • Herald NOW
  • On The Up
  • World
    • All World
    • Australia
    • Asia
    • UK
    • United States
    • Middle East
    • Europe
    • Pacific
  • Business
    • All Business
    • MarketsSharesCurrencyCommoditiesStock TakesCrypto
    • Markets with Madison
    • Media Insider
    • Business analysis
    • Personal financeKiwiSaverInterest ratesTaxInvestment
    • EconomyInflationGDPOfficial cash rateEmployment
    • Small business
    • Business reportsMood of the BoardroomProject AucklandSustainable business and financeCapital markets reportAgribusiness reportInfrastructure reportDynamic business
    • Deloitte Top 200 Awards
    • CompaniesAged CareAgribusinessAirlinesBanking and financeConstructionEnergyFreight and logisticsHealthcareManufacturingMedia and MarketingRetailTelecommunicationsTourism
  • Opinion
    • All Opinion
    • Analysis
    • Editorials
    • Business analysis
    • Premium opinion
    • Letters to the editor
  • Politics
  • Sport
    • All Sport
    • OlympicsParalympics
    • RugbySuper RugbyNPCAll BlacksBlack FernsRugby sevensSchool rugby
    • CricketBlack CapsWhite Ferns
    • Racing
    • NetballSilver Ferns
    • LeagueWarriorsNRL
    • FootballWellington PhoenixAuckland FCAll WhitesFootball FernsEnglish Premier League
    • GolfNZ Open
    • MotorsportFormula 1
    • Boxing
    • UFC
    • BasketballNBABreakersTall BlacksTall Ferns
    • Tennis
    • Cycling
    • Athletics
    • SailingAmerica's CupSailGP
    • Rowing
  • Lifestyle
    • All Lifestyle
    • Viva - Food, fashion & beauty
    • Society Insider
    • Royals
    • Sex & relationships
    • Food & drinkRecipesRecipe collectionsRestaurant reviewsRestaurant bookings
    • Health & wellbeing
    • Fashion & beauty
    • Pets & animals
    • The Selection - Shop the trendsShop fashionShop beautyShop entertainmentShop giftsShop home & living
    • Milford's Investing Place
  • Entertainment
    • All Entertainment
    • TV
    • MoviesMovie reviews
    • MusicMusic reviews
    • BooksBook reviews
    • Culture
    • ReviewsBook reviewsMovie reviewsMusic reviewsRestaurant reviews
  • Travel
    • All Travel
    • News
    • New ZealandNorthlandAucklandWellingtonCanterburyOtago / QueenstownNelson-TasmanBest NZ beaches
    • International travelAustraliaPacific IslandsEuropeUKUSAAfricaAsia
    • Rail holidays
    • Cruise holidays
    • Ski holidays
    • Luxury travel
    • Adventure travel
  • Kāhu Māori news
  • Environment
    • All Environment
    • Our Green Future
  • Talanoa Pacific news
  • Property
    • All Property
    • Property Insider
    • Interest rates tracker
    • Residential property listings
    • Commercial property listings
  • Health
  • Technology
    • All Technology
    • AI
    • Social media
  • Rural
    • All Rural
    • Dairy farming
    • Sheep & beef farming
    • Horticulture
    • Animal health
    • Rural business
    • Rural life
    • Rural technology
    • Opinion
    • Audio & podcasts
  • Weather forecasts
    • All Weather forecasts
    • Kaitaia
    • Whangārei
    • Dargaville
    • Auckland
    • Thames
    • Tauranga
    • Hamilton
    • Whakatāne
    • Rotorua
    • Tokoroa
    • Te Kuiti
    • Taumaranui
    • Taupō
    • Gisborne
    • New Plymouth
    • Napier
    • Hastings
    • Dannevirke
    • Whanganui
    • Palmerston North
    • Levin
    • Paraparaumu
    • Masterton
    • Wellington
    • Motueka
    • Nelson
    • Blenheim
    • Westport
    • Reefton
    • Kaikōura
    • Greymouth
    • Hokitika
    • Christchurch
    • Ashburton
    • Timaru
    • Wānaka
    • Oamaru
    • Queenstown
    • Dunedin
    • Gore
    • Invercargill
  • Meet the journalists
  • Promotions & competitions
  • OneRoof property listings
  • Driven car news

Puzzles & Quizzes

  • Puzzles
    • All Puzzles
    • Sudoku
    • Code Cracker
    • Crosswords
    • Cryptic crossword
    • Wordsearch
  • Quizzes
    • All Quizzes
    • Morning quiz
    • Afternoon quiz
    • Sports quiz

Regions

  • Northland
    • All Northland
    • Far North
    • Kaitaia
    • Kerikeri
    • Kaikohe
    • Bay of Islands
    • Whangarei
    • Dargaville
    • Kaipara
    • Mangawhai
  • Auckland
  • Waikato
    • All Waikato
    • Hamilton
    • Coromandel & Hauraki
    • Matamata & Piako
    • Cambridge
    • Te Awamutu
    • Tokoroa & South Waikato
    • Taupō & Tūrangi
  • Bay of Plenty
    • All Bay of Plenty
    • Katikati
    • Tauranga
    • Mount Maunganui
    • Pāpāmoa
    • Te Puke
    • Whakatāne
  • Rotorua
  • Hawke's Bay
    • All Hawke's Bay
    • Napier
    • Hastings
    • Havelock North
    • Central Hawke's Bay
    • Wairoa
  • Taranaki
    • All Taranaki
    • Stratford
    • New Plymouth
    • Hāwera
  • Manawatū - Whanganui
    • All Manawatū - Whanganui
    • Whanganui
    • Palmerston North
    • Manawatū
    • Tararua
    • Horowhenua
  • Wellington
    • All Wellington
    • Kapiti
    • Wairarapa
    • Upper Hutt
    • Lower Hutt
  • Nelson & Tasman
    • All Nelson & Tasman
    • Motueka
    • Nelson
    • Tasman
  • Marlborough
  • West Coast
  • Canterbury
    • All Canterbury
    • Kaikōura
    • Christchurch
    • Ashburton
    • Timaru
  • Otago
    • All Otago
    • Oamaru
    • Dunedin
    • Balclutha
    • Alexandra
    • Queenstown
    • Wanaka
  • Southland
    • All Southland
    • Invercargill
    • Gore
    • Stewart Island
  • Gisborne

Media

  • Video
    • All Video
    • NZ news video
    • Herald NOW
    • Business news video
    • Politics news video
    • Sport video
    • World news video
    • Lifestyle video
    • Entertainment video
    • Travel video
    • Markets with Madison
    • Kea Kids news
  • Podcasts
    • All Podcasts
    • The Front Page
    • On the Tiles
    • Ask me Anything
    • The Little Things
  • Cartoons
  • Photo galleries
  • Today's Paper - E-editions
  • Photo sales
  • Classifieds

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Home / Kahu

Politics in Education: Teachers fear debates over curriculum rewrites on key topics

RNZ
13 Dec, 2024 01:30 AM5 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  Sign in here

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save

    Share this article

Teachers' professional judgment on text choices and study direction are important for students' learning, teachers' groups say. Photo / RNZ / Richard Tindiller

Teachers' professional judgment on text choices and study direction are important for students' learning, teachers' groups say. Photo / RNZ / Richard Tindiller

  • Teachers fear curriculum rewrites will spark debates over topics like Shakespeare, transgender identity, and mātauranga Māori.
  • PPTA President Chris Abercrombie warns political involvement in curriculum development could lead to culture war issues.
  • Concerns include the secretive process and potential for small groups to influence teaching content.

By RNZ

Teachers fear a series of curriculum rewrites will erupt into fierce debates over topics including Shakespeare, transgender identity and traditional Māori knowledge.

A months-late advance draft of the secondary school English curriculum is only now circulating among select teachers after what they say was a cloak-and-dagger writing process. In November, the group rewriting the science curriculum was suddenly paused.

Meanwhile, rewrites of the Aotearoa New Zealand histories curriculum and health and physical education, which included relationships and sexuality curriculums, lay ahead.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

PPTA president Chris Abercrombie said curriculum rewrites were usually controversial only among teachers, but increasingly they were attracting public debate and some teachers were worried.

“In certain subjects there’s quite a lot of anxiety. I know particularly in English we saw recent issues, the sort of secret writing group and how much they were involved.

“The ministry to my understanding has really listened to the feedback on that issue and we haven’t seen that in other writing groups at this point.”

Abercrombie said there were potential flashpoints in several rewrites including English, science, Aotearoa New Zealand histories, and relationships and sexuality.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Abercrombie said the Ministry of Education had to listen to the associations that represented teachers of each subject.

National’s coalition agreements with NZ First and Act included commitments to can the relationships and sexuality guidelines and review the Aotearoa New Zealand histories curriculum.

Abercrombie said that was unusual and a potential problem.

“Traditionally politicians have stayed out of curriculum development,” he said.

“It can, if you look at overseas jurisdictions and America, [lead to] banning books and you have to have the 10 commandments up on the classroom and that’s not great for education ... Once you open that door it’s very hard to close it.”

Abercrombie said it could lead to curriculums becoming about culture war issues rather than about what was best to teach.

“That’s a big concern for us and we saw that in the ERO report about the relationships and sexuality education curriculum and guidelines. Some community groups being really concerned, some parents being really concerned but often based on misinformation or a misunderstanding of what’s occurring. So we don’t want our education system to go pillar to post and that’s what we’re seeing at the moment, these big changes, big shifts,” he said.

He said there was always a risk that small, vocal groups would exercise outsized control of what was taught.

PPTA president Chris Abercrombie. Photo / RNZ / Angus Dreaver
PPTA president Chris Abercrombie. Photo / RNZ / Angus Dreaver

The Government wanted more prescriptive curriculums but it needed to value teachers’ professional judgment, he said.

“Teachers are highly qualified, highly experienced professionals who know that text A might be better than text B in this situation because of the students we have in front of us and not ‘the Government said I have to teach this text, I have to use this resource’.”

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Some teachers’ fears had already played out with the secondary school English curriculum.

Pip Tinning from the Association for Teachers of English said that rewrite was put in the hands of a select group in an unprecedented “cloak and dagger” process.

“This one’s been very, very cloak and dagger, really under wraps, really hard to get comms out of anyone. We have never [sent an Official Information Act request to] the ministry about what’s happening before but that was literally the only way we could get information around what was occurring.”

Tinning said details of the likely content, shared with RNZ by a member of the writing group earlier this year, deepened teachers’ fears about what would be in it.

“Texts that actually were out of touch. There wasn’t a lot of modern texts in there. The cursory nod to Aotearoa New Zealand literature, to Māori writers, it was cursory. That was a major, major concern for us.”

Tinning could not discuss what was in the advance draft she had received, but the ministry said a draft would be available for consultation from January 27.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

The science curriculum also ran into problems recently, with the ministry suddenly halting the rewrite after a single meeting.

The ministry said it was now asking science subject associations to nominate people to join the contributing group.

Associate Professor Chris Eames from the University of Waikato’s School of Education, said it was not clear what caused the sudden pause.

Among science educators, there was some disagreement about the future direction of the subject, he said.

Basically, some wanted science lessons that taught facts and prepared young people for a career in science, while others wanted more emphasis on ensuring all young people could understand science issues.

Eames said the extent to which mātauranga Māori was included in the curriculum could also be a sticking point for some, though most teachers appeared happy to include it in some form.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

The health and physical education curriculum was also up for review in 2025.

It included relationships and sexuality, recently the subject of an Education Review Office report that warned public consultation on the content of lessons exposed school staff to threats and bigotry.

Leigh Morgan from the Health Education Association said there was not a lot of disagreement among teachers about what should be in the curriculum.

A more prescriptive curriculum might help reduce controversy by removing the need for each school to consult its community about what it would teach, she said.

Save

    Share this article

Latest from Kahu

Kahu

'Exemplar for the country': Historic iwi agreement reshapes water use

09 Jul 09:14 PM
New Zealand

'Dying needlessly': Iwi monitors call for action on low cancer screening rates

09 Jul 09:08 PM
Kahu

Wellington Opera brings historic tale of Rotorua soldier to life

08 Jul 09:46 PM

From early mornings to easy living

sponsored
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from Kahu

'Exemplar for the country': Historic iwi agreement reshapes water use

'Exemplar for the country': Historic iwi agreement reshapes water use

09 Jul 09:14 PM

The partnership secures 60% of Rotorua's drinking water and returns ancestral land.

'Dying needlessly': Iwi monitors call for action on low cancer screening rates

'Dying needlessly': Iwi monitors call for action on low cancer screening rates

09 Jul 09:08 PM
Wellington Opera brings historic tale of Rotorua soldier to life

Wellington Opera brings historic tale of Rotorua soldier to life

08 Jul 09:46 PM
Council reviewing court ruling on Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei dominance at Westhaven

Council reviewing court ruling on Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei dominance at Westhaven

07 Jul 11:22 PM
Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky
sponsored

Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky

NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • NZ Herald e-editions
  • Daily puzzles & quizzes
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Subscribe to the NZ Herald newspaper
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • The Northern Advocate
  • Waikato Herald
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Book your classified ad
  • Photo sales
  • NZME Events
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP