The Government says it wants to "restore balance" to the history curriculum being taught in schools. Here is what that syllabus currently looks like.
Ever since the Labour government introduced the Aotearoa New Zealand's Histories curriculum in schools, National and ACT have been vocal with objections to it.
The two parties have since pledged to "restore balance" to that curriculum in their coalition agreement and recommitted to that promise following an Education Review Office (ERO) report into how the new curriculum is going.
So, what exactly is the history curriculum the Government wants to "restore balance" to?
What is the Aotearoa New Zealand's Histories curriculum?
The Prime Minister was at Auckland’s Sylvia Park School on Thursday to launch the new-look programme. (Source: 1News)
The curriculum was implemented at the beginning of the 2023 school year. The syllabus is compulsory for all schools and kura from years 1 to 10.
When announcing the new curriculum in 2019, then-Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said previous rules had left too much to chance when it came to teaching New Zealand's history in schools.
"The curriculum changes we are making will reset a national framework so all learners and ākonga are aware of key aspects of New Zealand history and how they have influenced and shaped the nation," she said.
What does the current curriculum include?
The Aotearoa New Zealand's Histories curriculum is structured across three parts — understanding the big ideas about New Zealand's histories, knowing their contexts, and doing inquiry practices.
The big ideas in the curriculum are:
- Māori history is the foundational and continuous history of Aotearoa New Zealand
- Colonisation and settlement have been central to Aotearoa New Zealand's histories for the past 200 years
- The course of Aotearoa New Zealand's histories has been shaped by the use of power
- Relationships and connections between people and across boundaries have shaped the course of Aotearoa New Zealand's histories.
Schools are also required to teach the following contexts to students:
- Culture and identity – how the past shapes who we are today
- Government and organisation – the history of authority and control, with the Treaty of Waitangi at the heart of this
- Place and environment – the relationships people have with the land and resources, and the historical contests over them
- Economic activity – the choices people have made to meet their needs and wants.
The curriculum also needs to include local historical contexts, as defined by iwi and hapū in each area.
Meanwhile, the curriculum's inquiry practices include:
- Identifying and exploring historical relationships
- Identifying sources and perspectives, with attention to mātauranga Māori approaches, and consideration of voices that might be missing from those sources
- Interpreting past experiences, decisions, and actions.
What do National and ACT make of the curriculum?
ACT has been critical of the Aotearoa New Zealand's Histories curriculum since its inception.
The party's education policy promised to change it.
"The history curriculum divides history into villains and victims, contains significant gaps, and pushes a narrow set of highly political stories from our past," it said.
"Inherently diverse topics such as history will not have government-imposed value judgements attached to the curriculum."
ACT leader David Seymour doubled down on that sentiment during a state of the nation speech in January.
"We'll restore balance to the New Zealand history curriculum, moving away from the idea that colonisation is to blame for all our problems."
ACT's submission to a select committee about the curriculum included concerns over gaps in its content, "including growing civil rights and liberties, business, technology, and our citizens’ participation in two World Wars".
National also expressed concerns about elements of the new curriculum when it was revealed.
The party's education spokesperson at the time, Paul Goldsmith, said the curriculum "[risked] rendering our history as a simple division between oppressors and victims".
Goldsmith's select committee submission said the old way of teaching risked students having little grasp of New Zealand's history but the new curriculum risked "narrowing our children’s view of the world".
His submission recommended an expectation that other countries' histories be included in the curriculum alongside New Zealand history.
How is the new curriculum going?
This week's ERO report found that while all schools are teaching the new syllabus, not all of the required content is being taught.
It found many schools were prioritising local histories over national events and that schools were also teaching less about how New Zealand's histories link with global contexts.
It said teachers were often interpreting the curriculum as the history of their immediate area, and Māori history.
"This has led to a lack of focus on the histories of Aotearoa New Zealand more broadly, and the histories of all people who call it home," it said.
"It is important that histories are linked to global contexts and ERO found that students are more than twice as likely to enjoy ANZ Histories when they are learning about New Zealand's place in the world."
The report found two-thirds of parents saw learning New Zealand's histories as useful for their children, while two-thirds of teachers reported positive impacts on student participation.
However, ERO said some teachers were overwhelmed by the scale of change needed in teaching the new curriculum.
PPTA president Chris Abercrombie said the curriculum was very new and that schools needed a lot of support "to make this curriculum as fantastic as it can be for all students".
"This new curriculum is a huge improvement on what we were teaching previously. Clearly, there is a need for more support for teachers to ensure that the curriculum content is covered in full. These are momentous changes, and they will take time to tweak and improve," he said.
What does the Government think about the curriculum now?
ACT said it was concerned the ERO report suggested a focus on local histories had detracted from national and global issues.
Education Minister Erica Stanford also highlighted the schools' struggle with coming up with a localised history curriculum.
"We need to move away from a postcode lottery where what you learn at school depends on where you live and who your teachers are," she said.
"It is through a nationally developed curriculum that we can ensure all students develop the knowledge and skills they need to successfully gain secondary school qualifications, which lead to better employment and tertiary study options."
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