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This briefing paper focuses on the choices of instructional language in Pacific classrooms, as mandated by national or state policies, and discusses consequences of such choices on students' academic achievement and career preparation in the changing Pacific region. The paper first notes that in most South Pacific secondary schools, English is the language of the classroom, but for many upper grade students, English is their second language. The paper considers the misalignment of home and school languages, explaining that although the home languages of indigenous Pacific people are regarded by speakers and local authorities as an inherent part of indigenous culture and as the living language of the home, street, and community, they are rarely given a real role in academics. It then discusses some of the pros and cons of English as the language of instruction that Pacific educators must seriously consider. The paper goes on to discuss language and cognitive development and language policies across the curriculum, citing New Zealand as an example of a nation now using bilingual education in the development of ethnic preschools. (Contains 15 references.) (NKA)

This paper identifies some of the major obstacles to the integration of university qualifications into New Zealand's National Qualifications Framework. Currently, New Zealand's universities are under pressure to integrate their qualifications into the Framework which employs a method of unit design that is generally more suited to trade and technical training than the general and professional education programs typically offered at universities. The paper examines problems that would arise if the Framework method of defining unit standards were applied to the design of university programs and papers. Several pedagogical problems are identified along with philosophical differences between the New Zealand Qualifications Authority (NZQA) and the universities over matters such as the nature and structure of knowledge, credit transfer, the recognition of prior learning, the transfer of generic skills, and the primacy given by the NZQA to unit standards rather than to total qualification. Instead of universities following the unit standard model of development, an extended framework structure is suggested which emphasizes the total qualification. Such a structure is likely to allow for a more productive relationship to develop between the NZQA and universities. (Contains 21 references.) (JB)

The five main issues that are currently confronting vocational educators and policymakers in New Zealand are as follows: participation rates in vocational education and training, the changing role of vocational education and training in secondary schools, new initiatives in light of youth unemployment and transition difficulties, recognition of competence, and responsiveness of the system to the need for change. The labor and skill shortages that were endemic in New Zealand in the past provided even unskilled early school leavers with easy access to employment. Thus, dropout rates were traditionally high and participation rates in continuing education were low. As the country's employment picture changes, however, there is growing awareness of the need for initiatives in vocational education and training, both within the formal education system and at the point of transition from school to work. The country's new ACCESS program is a response to the transition problem. ACCESS is a new system of community-based transition education and training to provide for job seekers who do not choose the traditional options of apprenticeship, further study, or direct entry into the work force. (MN)

As a medium for delivering lifelong learning, the Internet makes it possible to customize education to individual needs, deliver education anywhere and anytime, and enable learners to interact with other learners and teachers collaboratively to solve problems and learn new skills. Nevertheless, as a medium for delivering lifelong learning, the Internet is still fraught with the following problems: (1) learning not tailored to meet individual learners' needs in a culturally specific manner may be ineffective; (2) because English is the predominant language of the Internet, many learners who are not native English speakers cannot make full use of the Internet; and (3) learning materials may need to be redesigned for the online environment. A group of New Zealand educators who have offered education via the Internet since 1995 and who now have major mirror sites in Belgium, Brazil, Finland, Canada, and South Africa, offer the following lessons to educators seeking to embrace lifelong learning on the Internet: (1) interaction is a key ingredient in the learning process; (2) providing feedback is an essential element of learning on the Internet; (3) offer courses in learners' native languages; (4) abandon the concepts of copyright and ownership; and (5) when designing courses, seek a balance between investment and change by designing courses for obsolescence. (Contains 37 references.) (MN)

Focusing on early childhood issues specific to New Zealand, this document is comprised of three papers exploring provision of culturally competent care in early childhood services. The first paper, "Considering Culture" (Lisa Terreni with Judi McCallum), addresses some current theories that attempt to understand "culture" and examines some of the concepts underlying theories of inter-cultural communication. Also examined is the implications of understanding ideas about culture and inter-cultural communication for early childhood practitioners from the dominant culture. The second paper, "Developing Dialogue" (Lisa Terreni), notes that dialogue enables practitioners to discover the beliefs and experiences that parents and children from different cultural backgrounds bring to early childhood programs, and examines ways in which teachers can engage and develop meaningful dialogue with these parents. The third paper, "Parents' Experiences of Different Early Childhood Pedagogies" (Lisa Terreni) recounts interviews with three parents from different cultural backgrounds whose children experienced early childhood services in their countries and also attended early childhood services in New Zealand. At the end of each interview, analysis is provided of points of difference that practitioners may want to consider as topics for discussion with parents. The countries of origin of the three parents were Jordan, India, and China. (HTH)

This paper presents various issues surrounding the education of immigrant students from the tropical islands north of Aotearoa-New Zealand, particularly the Kingdom of Tonga. It argues that technocratic approaches to practice in an urban, English-speaking, coeducational secondary school requires transformation into much more inclusive programs that consider historical, social, economic, and political contexts if students are to actively understand and be involved in their education, school, and society. The paper stresses the importance of valuing students' language and culture by focusing on the partnership between a "discourse of technocratic pedagogy" and indigenous ways of thinking about the world (that is, learning and teaching as a partnership in which the teacher and students are critically aware and proud of their language, beliefs, traditions, values, and priorities, thus creating a richer pedagogical context). The perspective is that critical awareness is part of a process by which they can come to understand more deeply possible connections between technocratic pedagogy and political, social, and economic forces and how their own culture can be accented or marginalized by the mass media, economic institutions, and educational institutions within the dominant New Zealand European/Palangi society. (Contains 17 references.) (SM)

The 1970 International Educational Achievement (IEA) survey had placed New Zealand's nine- and fourteen-year-olds first in reading achievement in comparison with all other participating countries. By the time the 1990 IEA survey took place, however, mean achievement levels had slipped somewhat, and by the mid-1990s New Zealand's reputation was becoming tattered. Subsequent analyses of the 1990 survey indicated that while the country had high means and very high achievement, it also had the greatest difference between high achievers and low achievers. This paper considers what has happened in New Zealand to bring about these changes. The paper discusses demographic changes, political changes, teacher shortages, the plethora of educational publishers aiming for a global market, the public's response, and the government's response. It also considers what is happening now, a year after the Taskforce Report. It states that the government set a goal of enhanced reading and writing achievement of children in the first four years of schooling. Noting that the next international comparison is imminent, the paper concludes that: literacy educators must be able to articulate their clear understanding of the constituents of effective practice; literacy teaching must be based on the perceptive assessment of children's strengths and needs, informed by current and relevant research; literacy teaching must use implicit and explicit approaches that are balanced to the needs of children and avoid single "silver bullet" solutions; and strong community and family links are essential for acknowledging and building on the increasing diversity in the schools. Contains 11 references. (NKA)

In the 1980s, the government of New Zealand came under the influence of a new right-wing economic ideology whose political agenda evolved to include the review and reform of education. The reforms were to take two paths: administrative and curricular. This paper focuses on the curricular reforms and the development of two key national curriculum statements: (1) the curriculum policy statement for K-12, the 1993 "New Zealand Curriculum Framework, Te Anga Marautanga o Aotearoa"; and (2) the early childhood curriculum "Te Whariki" (1996). The curriculum for years 1-13 (K-12) became centrally controlled, subject-based, and achievement oriented, while the early childhood document outlined a child-centered, thematic, and experiential curriculum. This paper explores how such divergence arose out of the same sociopolitical context. The development process and the content of the documents are analyzed using theoretical models and concepts from both traditional and contemporary curriculum theory. This paper elaborates on certain assumptions concerning curriculum in New Zealand and then outlines the curriculum history relevant to the study. The conclusion reached is that the two curricula were so different because there were differing ideological factions at work vying for control over their construction. (Contains 57 references.) (DFR)

Structural reforms in New Zealand attempted to remove teacher unions from any policy role, and these reforms sought to remove the unions from any involvement in education policy. Ten years later, in spite of a highly charged media campaign and the active anti-unionism of the industrial legislation, teachers still have an important voice in education through their union. The unions accomplished a difficult strategy moving between various definitions of being a union and a profession, between accommodation and resistance, and between militancy and compliance. This paper focuses on the teacher unions active in the state schools sector--the New Zealand Education Institute and the Post Primary Teachers Association. Various state policy initiatives, such as the push for a professional body, the New Zealand Teacher Registration Board, and the search for a teaching code of ethics, pointed up the continuing reliance of the State on teacher involvement. This paper reports Phase One of the historical development of the unions' positions, discusses some of the interview data, and suggests the possible future conflicts that the education unions may face in their dealings with the new government. (Contains 27 references.) (DFR)

The New Zealand Curriculum Framework identifies seven Essential Learning Areas, namely, Languages, Mathematics, Science, Social Science, Technology, Health and Physical Education, and the Arts. These have been in the process of development since 1993, with the Arts section written in draft form in 1998 and released for consultation in 1999. Being positioned last in curriculum development implies that the Arts are at the bottom of a preferred hierarchy of knowledge promoted by the state. This has been further reinforced by the increased drive to promote literacy, numeracy, and information technology in schooling. The "knowledge economy" catch-cry in New Zealand totally ignores the notion of a "creative knowledge." In an effort to increase the perceived value of the arts, the writers of the draft "Arts Curriculum" embraced the concept of multiple literacies, which seeks to broaden the understanding of literacy in teaching and learning and to acknowledge a multiplicity of discourses within the school curriculum. Literacy should imply a mode of meaning other than the purely linguistic, it needs to incorporate visual, aural, gestural, spatial, and multimodal meanings (The New London Group, 1996). Literacies in the arts are developed as students learn in, through, and about different arts forms within the arts disciplines and use its languages to communicate and interpret meaning. This paper details the development of "The Arts in the New Zealand Curriculum" and the acknowledgment within the curriculum of the notion of literacy in the arts. It takes the view that the concept of multiliteracies might be a direction for the arts to take in order to counter the pro-literacy canon embraced by the state. The paper discusses the potential of such a concept in preventing further marginalization of the arts in New Zealand schools. (Contains 22 references.) (Author/RS)

This paper contends that the conventional ways in which art is accounted for exclude all but the interests of the dominant social group and effectively defeat many of the initiatives that have been taken in the field over the last three decades to account for the values, aspirations, and beliefs of minority groups. The paper attempts to show how this has been the product of a misclassification of the concept of "art" and of a naive view of multiculturalism as social practice. The paper explores the idea of art as a social institution and discusses the concepts of culture, multiculture, and bi-culture. It concludes with a discussion of the implications for art education arising from the use of these concepts. (Contains 12 references.) (BT)

There are currently no significant policies or programs to address the underrepresentation of males in the early childhood and primary education teaching profession in New Zealand. This paper examines the reasons for male underrepresentation and presents arguments for and against the employment of male teachers in these fields. Reasons cited for the dearth of male teachers include the media spotlight on allegations of sexual abuse of children; the stereotype of child care as women's work and labeling of men caregivers as homosexual or not "real men"; and the low wages, low social status, and small career structure within the field. Arguments in favor of increasing the number of male teachers in early childhood education relate to the impact of male teachers on children's activities, interactions, and learning; and men's need to be allowed to take responsibility for children and to be seen to be involved in children's care. Arguments against the employment of male teachers in early childhood relate to the possibility of child abuse, the ability of women to show masculine traits, and the tendency of male teachers to be principals-in-training. The paper concludes that the dearth of male teachers is a problems and that it should be addressed. Vigorous debate on the problem, facilitated by the media, is needed to challenge social views on the appropriateness of men as teachers of young children. Employers and training providers must join with policy makers and administrators to develop a nationally coordinated approach to obtaining and retaining male teachers. Contains 31 references. (KB)

This paper argues that issues of peace and war and related environmental and social questions ought to form part of the curriculum of a truly democratic education system. The aim of these studies is not to indoctrinate young people into predetermined positions with respect to controversial questions, but, quite the opposite, to help them develop into independently thinking and questioning adults. An emphasis is placed on the skills students should develop in peace education, such as the principles of presenting a well-considered argument, concern for evidence and logic, and an awareness of bias. One model put forward is Paolo Freire's education for critical consciousness through the study of generative themes. Controversial issues such as those dealt with in peace education should not be limited to older students. Even quite complex issues, such as nuclear weapons, are of concern to young children and should be dealt with at a level appropriate to their development. This is true even in early childhood education, where the desire of some children to play war games could be the basis for political and social education. The second part of the paper looked at curriculum developments in New Zealand education, in which, even though there is no official support for peace education, there is scope within the new curriculum for concerned teachers to deal with peace issues. Learning peace, however, is more than just curriculum development; it is concerned with the process of education as much as with content. Contains 26 references. (DK)

This monograph on international disability issues offers three main papers giving English, Australian, and New Zealand viewpoints. The first paper is by Len Barton from England and is titled "Disability and the Necessity for a Socio-Political Perspective." Barton attacks the medical model of disability and argues that people with disabilities ought to change the political discourse about disability to one involving rights and choices tied to political action. He urges them to develop a political and social movement to further their ends. Keith Ballard comments on Barton's paper in "A Socio-Political Perspective on Disability: A Comment from the New Zealand Context" and relates it to the mainstreaming debate in education. He compares the stigmatization of children with disabilities to that of the Maori minority in New Zealand and calls for a public discourse that includes the voices of all oppressed groups. In "Pigs' Tails and Peer Workers, the View from Victoria, Australia," Gillian Fulcher critically discusses the "economic rationalist" discourse of the Australian welfare state and cautions that the formal rationality of political rights may not result in effective change. Commentaries from U.S. individuals are then presented by Joseph Stubbins, Margaret A. Nosek, Frank Bowe, Mary Ann Carroll, James Charlton, David Pfeiffer, and Hugh Gregory Gallagher. A final rejoinder by Barton completes the monograph. Each paper contains references. (DB)

This paper considers the place of one-to-one teacher/student oral reading interactions in reading instruction. Maintaining that there is an important function for such interactions in learning to read, the paper analyzes one learning process in these interactions--attention to errors--and argues that in oral reading instruction, attention to errors will function along with attention to appropriate reading responses. An analysis of error attention in terms of direct and indirect influences is then presented, with specific emphasis on the timing of attention, a strong determinant of self-behavior and accuracy. The paper concludes with the comment that it not only matters that early and remedial readers have one-to-one interactions, but it also matters how these interactions are conducted. (FL)

This paper explores the standard traditional summer vacation model; this includes the accompanying food insecurity, loss of nutrition and the lost knowledge that must be re-taught at the beginning of each new academic year. It compares the number of academic days attended in various Industrialized Nations compared to the United States. Also, discussed is a more year-round approach called the "Tract" method; there are both "single" and "multi" track models. The "single" track model has the student entire student body attends classes for 45 days then has a 15 day break, this could also be 60 educational days with a 20 day break. The "multi" track model breaks the student body into equal part. With a student body of 1500 there would be 3 equal tracks of 500. At any given time two of the tracks would be attending class and the third would be on break. This method allows for the increasing student bodies to utilize a facility that was built to accommodate the smaller student bodies of the past.

This paper discusses the significance of digital publication of official government information, focusing on New Zealand. The concepts of the national state and official information are described. E-government is addressed, including benefits and risks of online publication. Three case studies are presented: (1) publication of the New Zealand First 1996 party manifesto only on the World Wide Web; (2) publication of the 1999 "New Zealand Official Yearbook" only on the Web; and (3) the recent use of the published records of 19th century colonial governments as an example of historical official publication for modern accountability. It is concluded that there is a risk that our successors will not be able to develop a sense of what early 21st century nations were like, due to a vanishing record resulting from too extreme a shift to digital publication of the official records of government. (Contains 14 references.) (MES)

This paper will explore aspects of past practice and belief and how relevant these are to the future. New Zealand Curriculum guidelines for English will be examined in relation to best practice. Oral and visual texts will be discussed, as will the blurring of the boundaries between written and visual text with examples from picture books and graphic novels. Issues of cultural inclusion, authenticity, censorship and intertextuality will be related to selected texts and to popular culture. (Contains 19 references.) (Author/RS)

Web-based learning environments are strongly driven by the information revolution and the Internet, but they have a number of common deficiencies, such as slow access, no adaptivity to the individual student, limitation by bandwidth, and more. This paper outlines the benefits of mobile agents technology, and describes its application in Web-based learning environments to improve the learning process. The TILE (Technology Integrated Learning Environment) project aims to provide an integrated system for the management, authoring, delivery, and monitoring of education at a distance. Mobile agents technology is being used in the implementation of the TILE adaptation mechanism. (Author/AEF)

Early childhood institutions underwent a dramatic transformation in the twentieth century, with the perceptions of children not attending preschool reflecting shifts in political, educational, and social opinions regarding the best place for the rearing and education of young children. This lecture presents some historical "maps" of early childhood institutions with particular reference to New Zealand. The landscapes for the "maps" is multi-layered--a backdrop of the colonial values held by Europeans toward Maori people, the global connections of New Zealand, and the personal perspective of the author. The "maps" portray: (1) some views of Europeans toward the Maori; (2) constructions of childhood, constructed differently for the indigenous "minority" Maori child and the colonial"majority" Pakeha child; (3) political, pedagogical, and economic frames that have shaped the gaze of the state concerning early childhood institutions; (4) the interplay between dreams for social change by early childhood advocates, rationales for social order underlying political patronage, and occasional windows where change is possible; and (5) reflections on the contradictory dynamics of the politics of early childhood policy during the last decade. The paper concludes by asserting that unless early childhood advocates are active in the construction of the current "map" for early childhood, there is danger of early childhood becoming the site of experimentation with someone else's blueprint. Contains 21 references. (KB)

An educational researcher describes and reflects on a qualitative research project she conducted, focusing on her positioning, neutrality, and objectivity throughout the research process and during subsequent data analysis. The research took place in a K-12 school in a remote rural New Zealand community inhabited by Maori, 1970s "hippies," and more recent arrivals seeking an "alternative" lifestyle away from urban areas. The research focused on the politics of the development of a progressivist, alternative learning unit within the school, promoted primarily by newcomer parents. The researcher had been a teacher and associate principal in the school for 4 years, then went to a university and was immersed in the discipline of educational sociology for 4 years; thus she came to the project with both insider and outsider status and perspective. This paper discusses the project's interpretivist methodology, the researcher's commitment to community empowerment through participative problem solving, research ethics, the assets and liabilities of the insider perspective, and whether objectivity is possible in research. The conclusion contends that although this research has validity, the researcher's positioning and resources make it impossible for the thesis to be fully objective or fully neutral. It is suggested that other educational researchers, despite claims to the contrary, are also neither fully objective nor fully neutral in their research practices. (Contains 31 references.) (SV)

This paper examines the history of environmental education in New Zealand over the last fifteen years, reviewing that history in the context of concurrent changes in the school curriculum and wider society. Preliminary conclusions concerning the potential role of environmental education as a socially transformative agent are developed as a lens through which to examine ourselves as educators. It concludes that belief in a future constructed around social and environmental justice and the common good requires us to expand our role beyond the educational into the arena of politics in order to counter political intrusion into education. (Contains 31 references.) (Author/YDS)

This paper examines the relationship between culture and curriculum, combining academic discourse relating to the construction of identity, policy, and curriculum and conversations with 42 members of a New Zealand intermediate school community about the nature of culture. Interviewers' comments and stories illuminate their views of Maori and White culture, cultural differences and interrelationships, intergroup relations in school and community, and cross-cultural communication and learning. The study suggests that while an initial premise of fluidity and complexity in understandings of culture is present in academic and community sources, so too are principles of constancy that emphasize relatedness. In order that these principles may promote understandings of culture in the teaching of culture, a revisionary perspective is needed towards the canon (particularly the sources of knowledge to be regarded as authoritative) and towards the research, interpretation, and representation of understandings of culture. The development of a "language for being related" is suggested as one way in which teacher and researcher understandings of culture might embrace diversity and equity issues in curriculum. This language would include the following principles: adopting a global perspective of culture that honors the particularities of local context; incorporating many ways of knowing culture and expressing that knowing; seeking non-oppositional ways of interpreting cultural difference; upholding the view that the teaching of culture is a collaborative holistic project where learning takes place in many ways with many teachers; affirming the coexistence of change and constancy in understandings of culture; and making explicit the teacher's curricular contribution to understandings of culture. Contains 47 references and a glossary. (TD)

This paper deals with the future directions of early childhood education in New Zealand, and what the Early Childhood Education Project has done to enhance the structures and funding required to support high quality education. The objectives of this project are to provide a rigorous and coherent review of the current situation and access of early education in Aotearoa, New Zealand; to contribute towards a comprehensive policy for Maori education; and to recognize the diversity of organizations, cultures, and communities. The report provides background information on the development of the Early Childhood Education Project since April 1995, and introduces the organizations represented on the project team. The key issues that are discussed include managing the funding and administration of services, meeting the costs of provision on the present level of funding, providing access to all sectors of the community, and obtaining necessary support from government agencies. (MOK)