Noughties draw to a close

Phew, it's been a while but the festive season approaches and so much to do..

A time to reflect on the first decade of the 21st century perhaps...but do these images do it justice?

Had to LOL (I sent my first and only text in this decade) at sustainability sharing the same page as Google, iPod, Flat screen TVs et al

No Gaul, Ref!

While WASSAs vocal cords are still a bit strained after the glorious qualification of the All Whites, it is the more recent qualifier between France and Ireland that has caught our eye.

For the France vs Ireland game has become overshadowed by a blatant bit of cheating that has provoked discussion that brings the 'beautiful game' and the human condition a bit closer than is normally the case.

The incident in a flash:

The perpetrator: French Captain and superstar Thierry Henry controls the ball twice with his hand ("Oui, I did it, but not on purpose") to set up a goal for team mate
The injured party: Republic of Ireland denied opportunity of qualifying for the World Cup

One commentator has reflected on this defining moment as being an opportunity to take one of two paths while an Ex French player Football reckons football has "the power to lead by example and shape values in society.".

Football and the human condition are not the strangest bed-fellows as these philosophical soundbites (apparently non less than Jean-Paul Sartre played in goal!) demonstrate. However, some of these the French and Irish would agree to disagree over!


"To give and to take, to accept success modestly and defeat bravely, to fight against odds, to stick to one's point, to give credit to your enemy and value your friend - these are some of the lessons which football should impart." Arthur Conan Doyle (Founder of Portmouth FC, and also played in goal)

In football we win if we obey the rules. In politics we win if we have the audacity to change the rules." Slavoj Zizek

"Football has nothing to do with fair play. It is bound up with hatred, jealousy, boastfulness, disegard of all rules and sadistic pleasure in witnessing violence: in other words it is war minus the shooting.”George Orwell

Black gold on tap?

Reports of huge reserves of oil are being made, which sounds great for a NZ economy in dire straights. But if the rush for black gold becomes too intensive what are the potential impacts on the environment? Apparantly there are 10 potential zones stretching the length of the country. New Zaaland moving towards a carbon light future? Not just yet....

SocCon11 Cafe Evening

Victoria and Massey Universities, together with their local social sciences subject associations and teaching communities have offered to host SocCon11, to be held at Te Papa, Wellington, 18-20 July, 2011. Social Sciences Conference 2011 is a biennial conference for teachers of Social Studies, Geography, History and Economics. We would like your input about the shape and direction of this conference (including a conference theme and ideas for keynotes) . And we'd love to offer you an opportunity to meet with other social sciences teachers for a bit of an end of year catch-up. Beyond your input at this get-together there is no pressure to become further involved!

Date and time: Monday 23 November, 5-7pm
Venue: Global Focus Aotearoa Meeting Room, Level 2, James Smiths Building, 55 Cuba Street, Wellington.
Who: Everyone in the Wellington and Manawatu social sciences community is welcome. Please feel free to extend this invitation to those who might be interested.
Format: A very brief introduction followed by cafe-style discussions on a range of topics. Wine and nibbles will be served. And for those who are interested in continuing the conversations, we will repair to a local eatery.

"If they do nothing other than teach our children read and write and do maths and be good socialised NZ people then they've done a really good job"

So said the Minister of Education of New Zealand's primary school teachers, shortly before extra Professional Development support was ring-fenced to help support schools implement the National Standards. Further, the Minister says there will be no extra support for teaching arts, science and physical education in primary schools.

Yay! That means the other 'core' primary curriculum area of social studies must be getting a shed load of extra PD developement. No, really! That's why Social Studies wasn't mentioned, right? As well as reading and writing the aspiration is for "good socialised New Zealand people" (not to be confused with good socialist NZ people).

By that, I assume the Minister is very aware of the need for values education, children being able to make informed social decisions, thinking critically about sources of information and participating in their communities.

The Minister would not wish for the North Carolinan experience in which primary teachers "emphatically noted how the culture of the elemenatry school campus has shifted from a greenhouse that nurtures lifelong learning and facilitates growth and exploration in a myriad of subjects, including social studies, science, and fine arts, to a sterile envrironment...[for] implementing a limited curriculum in hopes pf achieving "success" as measured by NCLB" Burroughs, Groce & Webeck (2005). Social Studies Education in the Age of Testing and Accountability.

While standards are clearly not testing, the NZ approach would be dangerous if the end result was the same here as widely reported across the U.S. This leaves the way open for further social studies professional development support. I look forward to the forthcoming announcement.

UPDATE: Read longtime Social Studies advocate Kelvin Smyth's commentary on the open letter to the Minister regarding standards from some well respected NZ academics

MMP Referendum announced

15 years after the introduction of the MMP electoral voting system, it seems NZ will be given the chance to reflect on whether it is doing the job it is meant to be doing. It certainly doesn't seem to be a call to return to the First Past the Post system of yesteryear (unless suspicion of a National Party 'secret agenda' proves to be founded), although the sticky question at this point is what are the alternatives on offer? Awareness of FPP (not representative?), MMP (minor party 'kingmakers'?) and STV (complicated?) vary across the populace. Exploring what the alternatives include, seems a pre-requisite before asking the question 'Should we retain/dump MMP'? For this reason the information campaign will be an extensive one and staged over two terms of government.

To get a head start you might want to view the Ministry of Justice's (allegedly) go to website for information on a dozen electoral systems.

Schools are a doddle for Google

Some might say that the corporatisation of schools has been around for a long time (this blogger remembers in the distant past Gillette giving 'free' razors to boys in his school aged 15! I wonder how many of us are now on Mach Turbo 6.75?). And I am sure there are many, many more examples. So it might seem inevitable that today's generation of students are likely to be hooked in by 'new media', of which the 'Doodle for Google' competition is a fine example, and has recently reached NZ shores.

The idea is simple: represent New Zealand by embellishing the well known google typeface. There are probably heaps of teachers who have done a 'kiwiana' topic and used stamp or postcard design competitions to a similar effect in the past, so the Google approach may well appeal to teachers. Apparently more than 600 schools took part in the competition which was open to Year 1-10 students.

The fact that such a competition is so 'universal' did make WASSA think about the implications of teaching NZ identity through a 'symbols' lens. It is clear that children as young as Years 1-3 have started picking up images that form part of the national identity. By the time students are in Year 9 & 10 they have a wider range of symbols as part of the kiwiana collection, and the artistic talent may be better overall, but conceptually does time spent on kiwiana symbols add much to what has already been learned at lower levels of the curriculum?

Further, what learning about NZ identity that goes beyond symbols should year 9 & 10 (and possibly year 7&8?) students be learning about to develop their understanding of the (highly contested) concept of national identity?

Before we forget, judges have whittled down entrants in 4 age categories and you can vote here.

Bottled Water kicked into touch

Here's a nice little case study for students exploring peoples' participation in society in relation to the use of resources/consumerism: banning bottled water. Sounds like one step further than the 'Do you want a plastic bag to carry that, sir/madam?' which is now the norm in NZ supermarkets.

Something as day-to-day as bottled water is the sort of topic that might help students make connections between their choices and the impact it has on others (on a number of different levels and scales).

Namaste,
Big cultural events coming up in Auckland and Wellington this week with Diwali, festival of lights, showcasing the Indian community's customs and traditions. Asia:NZ are big sponsors of these events, which involve a lot of colour, music (traditional and contemporary) and food.

As an annual visitor in Wellington, the change in venues from the MFC/Town Hall to the TSB arena means a little bit of the aesthetic has been lost, but I am sure this is to do with the increasing popularity of the event. Indeed, the whanau had to queue for about 30mins last year to just get in the arena, so pick your time if you intend on going.

Some of you may also want to check out the Level 1& 2 and Level 3&4 units of work that the good people at Asia:NZ have made available to build Diwali into your teaching.

WASSA Social Studies Competition!

Inspired by the brilliant use of the Face book/Twitter phenomenon some teachers in the UK have used the 'Face book / Twitter ' slides below, as a method of appealing to youngsters to present findings. Creativity is the name of the game here!

In the Social Studies context this could be used for a person from history as well as a natural or cultural environment, which is what the examples below show.

Facebook and Twitter Profiles

View more presentations from Liz Smith.

To see how to set up a Face book template click on the slides below. Furthermore, to get a blank copy, click on the SlideShare tab, sign up and it will be emailed to you :-)
WASSA 'IF THEY HAD A FACEBOOK' COMPETITION
Competition 1: Years 5-8
Competition 2: Years 9-10

Class and individual prizes.

Rules: teacher to contact Wellingtonareassa@gmail who will supply you with the details to upload your students' Facebook/Twitter pages to this blog. Competition closes 1st December 2009. Cellphone credit prizes (possibly book tokens if that is preferred). Judges decision final. No correspondence will be entered in to and all the other fine print that we can't think of right now.

What if they had a Facebook profile?

View more presentations from TonyCassidy.

Education Talks

Whilst waiting for a chocolate eclair (or two) for afternoon tea at SocCon 09 WASSA met Matt Tippen from Core Education. A programme clash meant WASSA was not able to attend his presentation but he did give us the heads up on their Ed Talks videos. With much of the presentations drawing upon NZ educators it feels like there is a bit of glocalisation going on here!


Thought this one on inquiry as disposition was particularly thought provoking for the way we might think about and teach social studies.

NZ population density - worldmapper style

Heads up on the latest worldmapper releases, based around population densities. Click on NZ and see it mapped as never before :-)

National Standards and Social Studies

At the conclusion of SocCon, the Hon. Anne Tolley was at pains to point out the difference between National Standards and National Testing for the forthcoming Literacy and Numeracy national standards

After the previous keynote, in which Syd Golston gave an insight to the 'collateral damage' of the testing regime of the United States' No Child Left Behind reforms, it was hardly surprising that the Minister for Education wanted to distinguish the NZ approach to that of the US and UK.

However, while the means are likely to be different (the spectre of a few days of national testing would be unpalatable for NZ educators and parents), WASSA cannot help thinking whether, for social studies in particular, the ends of a national standards focus will will be similar to that of national testing. In particular, will a focus on numeracy and literacy standards further marginalise the place of social studies in New Zealand Primary schools?

One would hope not, as a broad, rich, balanced curriculum experience is surely a mechanism through which raising standards can be achieved. However, the possibility of literacy/numeracy league tables being produced, through which a very narrow (albeit important) outcome of education is taken as a sign of 'success' may only increase the pressure on schools to push social studies to one side.

The challenge will lie with advocates of social studies to ensure that a focus on 'basics' and offering quality social studies experiences are not mutually exclusive.

UPDATE: EEeeek...check the back to basics approach the Tory party in the UK is promoting. In a nutshell it seems the 3Rs will be achieved by the 4 Ss: Smart (uniformed) schools , soldiers, setting and sackings... :-(

UPDATE 2: It seems as though the spectre of league tables has been vanquished...or did we speak too soon?!

SocCon 09

WASSA has been having a chin wag with other social studies enthusiasts at the biannual social science conference in Chrischurch today. Stuck in the mind is the comment from one key note speaker who questioned policies that are driven by "the price of everything rather than the value of something"...

Stop press (that's what a blog is about, right?)... rumblings afoot in the Social Studies association....the proposed aim is to have a web platform from the Aotearoa New Zealand Federation of Social Studies Associations (ANZFSSA) while still promoting regional clusters and the like. This means from 2011 schools are likely to be paying a subscription to the national body, in return for some good 'stuff' in return.

Obviously WASSA is very interested in your opinion on what 'stuff' a national subject association should offer to schools. Post your TOP 3 wishlist (perhaps ask your colleagues what their subject associations offer them) below, and WASSA will feed it back to ANZFSSA.

Perspectives/worldviews in Social Studies

Perhaps one of the trickiest aspects of teaching about society, is that all societal issues are framed by the perspective/worldview that people have. For example, any of us teaching about the value of conservation to primary aged learners are likely to be coming from an 'Environmental' worldview. However, such a worldview has so many different threads shaped by different assumptions, that the approach that we take to teaching 'environmental matters' requires conscious deliberation if children are not to receive a narrow representation of environmentalism over a five or six year period.

With this in mind I couldn't help be reminded of how difference of opinion about societal issues is framed by worldviews this morning, after talking to a colleague who was irate because:

1. He had been cut up by a fellow motorist
2. He had read a Ministry of Education advertisement for the 'Aspire' scholarships, in which a few million dollars is being spent on 'low income' children to attend private schools.

Because I cannot print what he said about his fellow motorist, I shall paraphrase what he said about the MoE scholarship scheme: "How can they justify spending the public purse on private schools in this way?" Well, my social studies antennae started waving and I started thinking how such a an issue might have real currency for children in our classrooms studying an "Access to Resources" theme. Particularly because different arguments about such an initiative are likely to be framed by some very strong worldviews.

The following blog offers a 'socialist/Marxist' worldview to frame the initial argument (courtesy of John Minto) while the backlash in the comments are largely typical of a 'market-driven' worldview.

Perspectives are one of the ways of 'raising the intellectual bar' in New Zealand social studies education that may lead to quality 'big picture' thinking as youngsters try to make sense of the world in which they live.

It may be a start simply to identify what worldviews/perspectives are well represented in children's learning about society and which could be further emphasised. These may include bicultural perspectives, multicultural perspectives, gender perspectives, cultural perspectives, social justice perspectives, environmental perspectives, current perspectives, and future perspectives.

Wellington Quake Risk Halved

The Dom Post reports some early findings from the collaborative long term 'It's our Fault' Quake study in the Wellington Region today. Apparently, the new scientific evidence points to the quake risk along the Wellington Fault being halved, with the recurrence interval now thought to be closer to 900 years.
Of course, the concept of recurrence intervals requires unpacking: some 'Black Hat' critical thinking may help achieve this. Certainly no time for complacency.
The article might be worth a look for any of you who have explored how people respond to challenge and crises in your social studies teaching and learning . The challenge of organising society to manage the (decreasing?) potential of the 'Big One' is clearly something that all schools have an obligation to do - so bringing in some focused social studies learning at the same time might be worthwhile. Although the article predominantly offers earth science information this is a prerequisite before examining how specific organisations are set up to respond to and manage disasters. A good place to consider how organisations participate in response to such challenges would be with the recently updated Civil Defence resource: 'What's the Plan Stan?'

UPDATE: Some of you might have heard the story of the Wellington school girl who used her knowledge of Tsunami's, after having used the 'What's the Plan, Stan?' resource, to dramatic effect in Samoa recently. Big ups to Ms Madge and Abby for their work!

What do you start with?

A class of 30 eager faces turn to you as they await this thing called 'social studies'.

What do you start with?

How do you hook them in to the notion that learning about society might be beneficial?

Do you give it 5 minutes, 1 hour or 1 week?

This might be an odd time to be asking this question - but it is something that may be worth thinking about during the spring holiday, as Term 4 is often a time in which the seeds for planning 2010 units of work will be sown.

There are a number of sources -page 30 of the New Zealand Curriculum (MoE, 2007) is an obvious starter. So too might the 3 'key aspects of learning' from the Social Studies Exemplars .

How might we use these to install an immediate sense of relevance or purpose to studying about society?

Share your experiences and ideas with other teachers of social studies in the comment box below. Better still send WASSA a copy of your 'This is Social Studies' slides and we'll do our best to upload them :-)

As one window closes another opens?

Trawling through the TKI pages, WASSA noted that the Social Studies Online materials are being removed at the end of this month. This is both sad and good news. WASSA is sure that many teachers have scoured these pages in order to plan their own social studies units of work. Having something to start with is always a great springboard before modifying and adapting units of work to suit local needs. So get in there quick if you want copies of resources that you think might be valuable.

Presumably this decision is a signpost that the long promised revamped pages for the social science community (reflecting recent curriculum change) are soon to arrive. This should be good news as it is very important that fresh ideas become available, particularly for a subject in which contemporary issues are such a significant feature.

A review of New Zealand social issues in the last couple of years might lead to the development of units based around questions such as:

What can we learn about the law making process from the 'Anti-Smacking Bill'?

Is the hosting of the rugby wold cup likely to be susainable?

How has climate change sparked Kiwi innovation?

How has the recession impacted on economic decision-making?

What does the Cadbury's palm oil saga teach us about producers' and consumers rights and responsibilities?

Welcome back to WASSA!

This is your link to the Wellington Region's social studies network.

WASSA appreciates that meeting face to face and having a good yarn about / exploration of the succeses and challenges of our social studies teaching is hard to beat. However, WASSA also recognises that the busy life of teachers does not necessarily make that a common event. So hopefully you can have a browse through these pages and find something of value.

And for every thing you find add to the discussion or recommended a favourite website of your own?

Enjoy!