title: The development of technology education internationally

authors: Jones, Alister

abstract: The development of technology education within countries and regions is set within the historical, cultural, and political environment. Curriculum, teacher education, and in fact educational research do not sit in isolation from these. Each of the chapters in this section sets out the context for technology education in its respective country and provides a historical and political analysis of the development of technology education as a field of development. The history of technology education is a long one if we consider its development back to the days of craft, and in this section many of the chapters trace the journey from craft through to much broader notions of technology and technological literacy.

text: The development of technology education internationally The development of technology education within countries and regions is set within the historical, cultural, and political environment. Curriculum, teacher education, and in fact educational research do not sit in isolation from these. Each of the chapters in this section sets out the context for technology education in its respective country and provides a historical and political analysis of the development of technology education as a field of development. The history of technology education is a long one if we consider its development back to the days of craft, and in this section many of the chapters trace the journey from craft through to much broader notions of technology and technological literacy.

year: 2009

title: Kids Greening Taupō: Conservation Education Based on a Collaborative Community Model

authors: DePetris, Thea

subjects: environmental education

abstract: Ecological degradation threatens the life-giving capacity of Earth. Literature identifies education and collaboration across all sectors of society as being critically important to reversing the trend of degradation. Aligning with these proposed solutions is a 21st Century approach to education, which calls for new partnerships and relationships to be formed between educational organisations and the wider community. Based on these principles, Kids Greening Taupō (KGT) represents an innovative conservation education programme. 
This study examined the progression of an 18-month pilot project through which KGT was conceived and implemented in Taupō, a provincial town located in the central North Island of New Zealand. This study provides an example of a process used to develop a conservation education programme through a partnership model between five educational organisations and four community organisations. The purpose of the investigation was to develop an understanding, based on the researcher’s and stakeholders’ perspectives, about the structures formed and processes undertaken to design and implement KGT, as well as the formative outcomes observed through the development of the programme. 
An evaluation of the pilot project was conducted using an interpretive study based on an ethnographic approach. Data were collected through participant observation, semi-structured interviews and documentation analysis, and then was thematically analysed. The research process included several factors to enhance the trustworthiness of the findings, including credibility, dependability and confirmability. 
The findings of this study identify four stages of KGT programme development through which a number of structures, processes and outcomes evolved. Although an initial strategic planning process established a shared vision among the stakeholders and environmental projects for each participating educational organisation, a lack of consensus about other important strategic components led to some developmental challenges. Additionally, two sets of structures and processes emerged through the analysis of the data that were categorised as being enablers, barriers or a combination of both in relation to planning, implementing and maintaining KGT. The outcomes observed were related predominantly to the themes of educational, ecological, social and professional aspects.
Collectively, the experiences of the KGT pilot in conjunction with educational theory based on a 21st Century approach and environmental and sustainability education has led to the development of a collaborative community education model. This model, together with the findings about the KGT structures and processes, may inform the development of other similar programmes utilising a collaborative community approach. Strategic and operational recommendations are provided about possible ways to modify KGT in order to realise the potential of the programme in the Taupō context.

text: Kids Greening Taupō: Conservation Education Based on a Collaborative Community Model Ecological degradation threatens the life-giving capacity of Earth. Literature identifies education and collaboration across all sectors of society as being critically important to reversing the trend of degradation. Aligning with these proposed solutions is a 21st Century approach to education, which calls for new partnerships and relationships to be formed between educational organisations and the wider community. Based on these principles, Kids Greening Taupō (KGT) represents an innovative conservation education programme. 
This study examined the progression of an 18-month pilot project through which KGT was conceived and implemented in Taupō, a provincial town located in the central North Island of New Zealand. This study provides an example of a process used to develop a conservation education programme through a partnership model between five educational organisations and four community organisations. The purpose of the investigation was to develop an understanding, based on the researcher’s and stakeholders’ perspectives, about the structures formed and processes undertaken to design and implement KGT, as well as the formative outcomes observed through the development of the programme. 
An evaluation of the pilot project was conducted using an interpretive study based on an ethnographic approach. Data were collected through participant observation, semi-structured interviews and documentation analysis, and then was thematically analysed. The research process included several factors to enhance the trustworthiness of the findings, including credibility, dependability and confirmability. 
The findings of this study identify four stages of KGT programme development through which a number of structures, processes and outcomes evolved. Although an initial strategic planning process established a shared vision among the stakeholders and environmental projects for each participating educational organisation, a lack of consensus about other important strategic components led to some developmental challenges. Additionally, two sets of structures and processes emerged through the analysis of the data that were categorised as being enablers, barriers or a combination of both in relation to planning, implementing and maintaining KGT. The outcomes observed were related predominantly to the themes of educational, ecological, social and professional aspects.
Collectively, the experiences of the KGT pilot in conjunction with educational theory based on a 21st Century approach and environmental and sustainability education has led to the development of a collaborative community education model. This model, together with the findings about the KGT structures and processes, may inform the development of other similar programmes utilising a collaborative community approach. Strategic and operational recommendations are provided about possible ways to modify KGT in order to realise the potential of the programme in the Taupō context.

year: 2016

title: Colouring in the White Spaces: Reclaiming Cultural Identity in Whitestream Schools

authors: Milne, Beverley Ann

subjects: Maori education

abstract: If we look at a child’s colouring book, before it has any colour added to it, we think of the page as blank.  It’s actually not blank, it’s white.  That white background is just “there” and we don’t think much about it.  Not only is the background uniformly white, the lines are already in place and they dictate where the colour is allowed to go.  When children are young, they don’t care where they put the colours, but as they get older they colour in more and more cautiously. They learn about the place of colour and the importance of staying within the pre-determined boundaries and expectations. 

This thesis argues that this is the setting for our mainstream, or what I have called, whitestream New Zealand schools — that white background is the norm.   When we talk about multiculturalism and diversity what we are really referring to is the colour of the children, or their difference from that white norm, and how they don’t fit perfectly inside our lines.  If the colour of the space doesn’t change schools are still in the business of assimilation, relegating non-white children to the margins, no matter how many school reform initiatives, new curricula, strategic plans, or mandated standards we implement.  What the schools in this study have tried to do is change the colour of the space – so that the space fits the children and they don’t have to constantly adjust to fit in.  

New Zealand’s education system has been largely silent on the topic of whiteness and the Eurocentric nature of our schooling policy and practice. However, when I talk to senior Māori and Pasifika ‘warrior-scholars” in Te Whānau o Tupuranga and Clover Park Middle School about “white spaces” they have encountered in their schooling experience they can identify them all too easily.  “White spaces,” they explain, are anything you accept as “normal” for Māori – when it’s really not,  any situation that prevents, or works against you “being Māori” or who you are, and that requires you to “be” someone else and leave your beliefs behind. White spaces are spaces that allow you to require less of yourself and that reinforce stereotypes and negative ideas about Māori.  Most telling of all was the comment from a Māori student that goes straight to the root of the problem, “White spaces are everywhere,” she said, “even in your head.”

This thesis describes the 25 year journey of two schools and their community’s determination to resist and reject alienating school environments in favour of a relevant culturally-located, bilingual learning model based in a secure cultural identity, stable positive relationships, and aroha (authentic caring and love).  While the research design is a case study, in terms of western, “white space” academic tradition, it is also a story in terms of kaupapa Māori and critical race methodology. More importantly, it is a counter-story that chronicles the efforts of these two schools to step outside education’s “white spaces” to create new space.  This counter-story is juxtaposed against pervasive, deficit-driven whitestream explanations of “achievement gaps” and the “long tail” of Māori and Pasifika “under-achievement” in New Zealand schools.  In the process of this research the focus shifted from how could Māori and Pasifika learners develop secure cultural identities in mainstream schools, to examining what barriers exist in schools that prevent this from happening already?  As these issues became clear the language of the thesis shifted accordingly; “developing” a cultural identity was reframed as a reclamation of educational sovereignty — the absolute right to “be Māori” or “be Pasifika” in school — and “mainstream” schooling became better understood as the “whitestream.” 

The study hopes to contribute to the journey other schools might take to identify and name their own white spaces, and to make learning equitable for indigenous and minoritised learners.

text: Colouring in the White Spaces: Reclaiming Cultural Identity in Whitestream Schools If we look at a child’s colouring book, before it has any colour added to it, we think of the page as blank.  It’s actually not blank, it’s white.  That white background is just “there” and we don’t think much about it.  Not only is the background uniformly white, the lines are already in place and they dictate where the colour is allowed to go.  When children are young, they don’t care where they put the colours, but as they get older they colour in more and more cautiously. They learn about the place of colour and the importance of staying within the pre-determined boundaries and expectations. 

This thesis argues that this is the setting for our mainstream, or what I have called, whitestream New Zealand schools — that white background is the norm.   When we talk about multiculturalism and diversity what we are really referring to is the colour of the children, or their difference from that white norm, and how they don’t fit perfectly inside our lines.  If the colour of the space doesn’t change schools are still in the business of assimilation, relegating non-white children to the margins, no matter how many school reform initiatives, new curricula, strategic plans, or mandated standards we implement.  What the schools in this study have tried to do is change the colour of the space – so that the space fits the children and they don’t have to constantly adjust to fit in.  

New Zealand’s education system has been largely silent on the topic of whiteness and the Eurocentric nature of our schooling policy and practice. However, when I talk to senior Māori and Pasifika ‘warrior-scholars” in Te Whānau o Tupuranga and Clover Park Middle School about “white spaces” they have encountered in their schooling experience they can identify them all too easily.  “White spaces,” they explain, are anything you accept as “normal” for Māori – when it’s really not,  any situation that prevents, or works against you “being Māori” or who you are, and that requires you to “be” someone else and leave your beliefs behind. White spaces are spaces that allow you to require less of yourself and that reinforce stereotypes and negative ideas about Māori.  Most telling of all was the comment from a Māori student that goes straight to the root of the problem, “White spaces are everywhere,” she said, “even in your head.”

This thesis describes the 25 year journey of two schools and their community’s determination to resist and reject alienating school environments in favour of a relevant culturally-located, bilingual learning model based in a secure cultural identity, stable positive relationships, and aroha (authentic caring and love).  While the research design is a case study, in terms of western, “white space” academic tradition, it is also a story in terms of kaupapa Māori and critical race methodology. More importantly, it is a counter-story that chronicles the efforts of these two schools to step outside education’s “white spaces” to create new space.  This counter-story is juxtaposed against pervasive, deficit-driven whitestream explanations of “achievement gaps” and the “long tail” of Māori and Pasifika “under-achievement” in New Zealand schools.  In the process of this research the focus shifted from how could Māori and Pasifika learners develop secure cultural identities in mainstream schools, to examining what barriers exist in schools that prevent this from happening already?  As these issues became clear the language of the thesis shifted accordingly; “developing” a cultural identity was reframed as a reclamation of educational sovereignty — the absolute right to “be Māori” or “be Pasifika” in school — and “mainstream” schooling became better understood as the “whitestream.” 

The study hopes to contribute to the journey other schools might take to identify and name their own white spaces, and to make learning equitable for indigenous and minoritised learners.

year: 2013