title: Funds of knowledge: Developing a Diploma in Teaching in Early Childhood Education in the Solomon Islands.

authors: Kelly, Janette

subjects: early childhood education

abstract: This article discusses how three early childhood teacher educators, from the Solomon Islands College of Higher Education School of Education and the University of Waikato Faculty of Education, worked in partnership together and with others to develop a new Diploma in Teaching Early Childhood Education (ECE) for the Solomon Islands. We argue that the knowledge and understandings that we shared about New Zealand early childhood education and its bicultural curriculum Te Whāriki made our task easier from the outset. So too did our shared "funds of knowledge" and expertise, particularly the Solomon Islands women's indigenous knowledge and abilities to reflect on teaching and learning in their nation and New Zealand, two contexts they understood well. As we worked through a range of issues related to the development and delivery of courses, the primacy of relationships and historical, cultural and social contexts for learning were reinforced. Broad understandings of relevant education pedagogy for adults and young children were incorporated through the diploma development process. The result was a new Diploma in Teaching Early Childhood Education and new ways of teaching and learning embedded in Solomon Islands contexts, blending the best of local and imported knowledge. This article adds to a small body of literature related to ECE in the Solomon Islands and the Pacific region.

text: Funds of knowledge: Developing a Diploma in Teaching in Early Childhood Education in the Solomon Islands. This article discusses how three early childhood teacher educators, from the Solomon Islands College of Higher Education School of Education and the University of Waikato Faculty of Education, worked in partnership together and with others to develop a new Diploma in Teaching Early Childhood Education (ECE) for the Solomon Islands. We argue that the knowledge and understandings that we shared about New Zealand early childhood education and its bicultural curriculum Te Whāriki made our task easier from the outset. So too did our shared "funds of knowledge" and expertise, particularly the Solomon Islands women's indigenous knowledge and abilities to reflect on teaching and learning in their nation and New Zealand, two contexts they understood well. As we worked through a range of issues related to the development and delivery of courses, the primacy of relationships and historical, cultural and social contexts for learning were reinforced. Broad understandings of relevant education pedagogy for adults and young children were incorporated through the diploma development process. The result was a new Diploma in Teaching Early Childhood Education and new ways of teaching and learning embedded in Solomon Islands contexts, blending the best of local and imported knowledge. This article adds to a small body of literature related to ECE in the Solomon Islands and the Pacific region.

year: 2011

title: Developments in technology education in New Zealand 1993-1995: an analysis of the reflections of key participants

authors: Compton, Vicki

abstract: As of February the 15ᵗʰ 1999, Technology Education came into New Zealand’s education system as a legal requirement for students from years 1 to 10. All schools under the New Zealand Ministry of Education’s jurisdiction were required to implement technology into their school curriculum for these year levels in order to meet this requirement. Schools and teachers were supported in doing this by a national curriculum statement in technology that had been released in 1995. Developments that occurred during the 1993 to 1995 time period leading up to the release of the technology curriculum statement were critical both to the curriculum development and subsequent developments in the field of technology education in New Zealand. 

Technology’s entry into New Zealand education as a learning area in its own right reflects a worldwide trend whereby technological literacy has been identified as a worthwhile goal for formal schooling. Alongside the arguments for economic growth and the future wellbeing of societies, educationalists have supported this entry by way of educative arguments based on technology providing a site for the synthesis of theory and practice. New Zealand’s movement into technology education reflects all the international rationales, but contains another dimension that sets it apart. That is, an emphasis on the sociological aspects of technological developments and practice. It is this aspect of technology education that provides the potential for technology education in New Zealand to support student empowerment through the development of a liberatory technological literacy. 
Working from a conflation of interpretivist, praxis-oriented and postmodernist methodological discourses, this thesis provides an explanation of the developments between 1993 and 1995 in terms of the interactions of people involved, rather than the outcomes alone. Such an explanation can also provide opportunities for the future developments in field of technology education as people from both within and outside the developments come to better understand the complex interactions that determined the nature of technology education’s past. 

An analytical framework reflecting sociocultural theories was developed to fulfil this intent. This framework specifically uses components of practice theory developed by Bourdieu, and notions of learning through participation in communities of practice as developed by Lave and Wenger. It provides a framework by which the reflections and perceptions of individuals involved in key groups within the developments can be brought together to provide an interpretive account of the groups themselves as a collective. Research data was therefore gathered from participants involved in two key groups in the development of the technology education in New Zealand. These being the Curriculum Development Group and the 1995 Facilitator Training Group. From such an analysis the explanatory account developed would be more robust in that it would be developed from multiple, and often contradictory, perspectives. 

This thesis concludes that the nature and direction of the field of technology education in New Zealand has been determined by a very small number of individuals within the development. This aspect of its developmental history has resulted in barriers to technology education’s potential for educational reform. However, this thesis also concludes that these barriers are not insurmountable and potential does still exist for technology education in New Zealand to provide opportunities for students to develop liberatory technological literacy. 

The literature review, data analysis and resultant explanation provided in the form of this thesis should go some way towards addressing teachers’ and teacher educators’ feelings of confusion and alienation that have arisen from the centre-peripheral nature of curriculum development adopted and the lack information and consultation identified during the 1993 to 1995 time period. The resolution of such feelings will remove one of the identified barriers to reform.

text: Developments in technology education in New Zealand 1993-1995: an analysis of the reflections of key participants As of February the 15ᵗʰ 1999, Technology Education came into New Zealand’s education system as a legal requirement for students from years 1 to 10. All schools under the New Zealand Ministry of Education’s jurisdiction were required to implement technology into their school curriculum for these year levels in order to meet this requirement. Schools and teachers were supported in doing this by a national curriculum statement in technology that had been released in 1995. Developments that occurred during the 1993 to 1995 time period leading up to the release of the technology curriculum statement were critical both to the curriculum development and subsequent developments in the field of technology education in New Zealand. 

Technology’s entry into New Zealand education as a learning area in its own right reflects a worldwide trend whereby technological literacy has been identified as a worthwhile goal for formal schooling. Alongside the arguments for economic growth and the future wellbeing of societies, educationalists have supported this entry by way of educative arguments based on technology providing a site for the synthesis of theory and practice. New Zealand’s movement into technology education reflects all the international rationales, but contains another dimension that sets it apart. That is, an emphasis on the sociological aspects of technological developments and practice. It is this aspect of technology education that provides the potential for technology education in New Zealand to support student empowerment through the development of a liberatory technological literacy. 
Working from a conflation of interpretivist, praxis-oriented and postmodernist methodological discourses, this thesis provides an explanation of the developments between 1993 and 1995 in terms of the interactions of people involved, rather than the outcomes alone. Such an explanation can also provide opportunities for the future developments in field of technology education as people from both within and outside the developments come to better understand the complex interactions that determined the nature of technology education’s past. 

An analytical framework reflecting sociocultural theories was developed to fulfil this intent. This framework specifically uses components of practice theory developed by Bourdieu, and notions of learning through participation in communities of practice as developed by Lave and Wenger. It provides a framework by which the reflections and perceptions of individuals involved in key groups within the developments can be brought together to provide an interpretive account of the groups themselves as a collective. Research data was therefore gathered from participants involved in two key groups in the development of the technology education in New Zealand. These being the Curriculum Development Group and the 1995 Facilitator Training Group. From such an analysis the explanatory account developed would be more robust in that it would be developed from multiple, and often contradictory, perspectives. 

This thesis concludes that the nature and direction of the field of technology education in New Zealand has been determined by a very small number of individuals within the development. This aspect of its developmental history has resulted in barriers to technology education’s potential for educational reform. However, this thesis also concludes that these barriers are not insurmountable and potential does still exist for technology education in New Zealand to provide opportunities for students to develop liberatory technological literacy. 

The literature review, data analysis and resultant explanation provided in the form of this thesis should go some way towards addressing teachers’ and teacher educators’ feelings of confusion and alienation that have arisen from the centre-peripheral nature of curriculum development adopted and the lack information and consultation identified during the 1993 to 1995 time period. The resolution of such feelings will remove one of the identified barriers to reform.

year: 2001

title: Maori syllabus and the curriculum documents: A critical analysis. Part 1: Tihe Mauri Ora

authors: Crombie, Winifred

subjects: Te reo Māori

abstract: This paper presents, within the context of ongoing debates on syllabus design, a critical analysis of Tihē Mauri Ora, a syllabus document produced by the New Zealand Ministry of Education to support the teaching and learning of the Māori language in schools in New Zealand. It includes a number of suggestions in relation to any future documents prepared with similar intent.

text: Maori syllabus and the curriculum documents: A critical analysis. Part 1: Tihe Mauri Ora This paper presents, within the context of ongoing debates on syllabus design, a critical analysis of Tihē Mauri Ora, a syllabus document produced by the New Zealand Ministry of Education to support the teaching and learning of the Māori language in schools in New Zealand. It includes a number of suggestions in relation to any future documents prepared with similar intent.

year: 2001