Browsing by Author "Wernicki, Wieslaw"

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    Teaching New Zealand histories : a policy watershed or a watershed policy? : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Social Anthropology, Massey University, Manawatū, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2022) Wernicki, Wieslaw
    This is a study of the Sixth Labour Government's policy mandating the teaching of New Zealand histories in all schools and kura by 2022, for all levels of the compulsory curriculum (school years 1-10). This research explores the origins of the policy and asks the question why a policy approach was taken, rather than other approaches available to the Government, or the Ministry of Education, to achieve the policy outcomes. Looking at this through the theoretical frameworks of policy anthropology and applying the non-linear thinking of an assemblage methodology, I explore my own perceptions of this policy. I track the way this policy evolved through the documentation, the public consultation on the curriculum changes, and eventual release of the new curriculum and supporting resources. I argue that various human and non-human actors and influences, which I term components, were arranged in such ways that they created an environment, or zeitgeist, which manifested the policy. In taking this approach I sought to avoid accepting explanations that linear chains of causality led to the policy’s development. Instead, I sought to perceive the components in the environment as actors in a drama choreographed not by discreet forces, but by their own movements causing their interactions, proximities, and intensities to shape the environment from which the policy emerged. This research does not focus on humans and non-human actors but more on the interactions of forces which were generated as they negotiated the paths and shaped the environment in which they themselves exist.