"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?!