The policy implications of 'thinking problematically': problematising the parent-school partnership in Aotearoa New Zealand's Tomorrow's Schools education reform policy : a thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Education at Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand

Abstract

Prior to the 1987 general election, New Zealand’s fourth Labour Government announced its intention to review the administration of the state schooling system. The government explained that the proposed education reforms would result in more parental and community involvement, highlighting that school boards of trustees, with elected parent representatives, would facilitate the development of a deeper partnership between parents and schools. The 1989 Tomorrow’s Schools reforms consequently instituted changes to the way the New Zealand schooling system was organised and governed.

Over the last 30 years, Tomorrow’s Schools has generated substantial commentary and analysis. The purpose of this thesis is not to ass ess whether the Tomorrow’s Schools policy was an appropriate or effective solution. Rather, the study adopts Bacchi’s (2009) Foucauldian-influenced post-structuralist ‘What is the Problem Represented to be?’ (WPR) method to examine how ‘problems’ are thought about and represented in policy documents. In particular, the WPR approach questions the established understanding that policy is reactive; that is, a ‘problem’ exists, and policy is implemented to ‘fix’ the ‘problem’.

The study has two overarching objectives. First, to provide a worked example of Bacchi’s (2009) WPR model in the field of education, focusing primarily on the solutions advanced in the government-appointed Picot Taskforce’s 1988 ancillary report (Administering for excellence) and the government’s 1988 policy response document (Tomorrow’s Schools). The second objective is to comprehensively assess the WPR framework and its ability to recognise, challenge, and disrupt normative discourses, particularly in relation to the parent-school connection.

Bacchi’s (2009) methodological framework specifically steps back from what appears common sense and asks how it has come to be. Accordingly, the goal is to subject the government texts to multiple forms of problem-questioning in order to identify the assumptions, origins, silences, and effects of the policy; thereby enabling other ways of conceptualising the ‘problem’. As a result, attention is directed to a framework that explicates the purpose, power, and politics involved in policy.

As the first study to use Bacchi’s (2009) WPR model to examine New Zealand’s Tomorrow’s Schools education reform policy, this thesis makes an original contribution to knowledge by opening up governing practices to scrutiny through the interrogation of problematisations. In this way, the study pays attention to the normalised and taken-for-granted truth claims that shaped and were shaped by the Tomorrow’s Schools policy. At the same time, the thesis adds to a growing body of international literature highlighting the analysis of problematisations in education policy research.