Rata’s version of a knowledge-rich curriculum precludes critical thinking. Having your kids learn from a workbook designed by a corporation, not involving your children’s teachers, is a fucking nightmare. I will never teach to a textbook. They’re a tool, not a curriculum #nzpol

A child won’t tell you what they really need if they don’t trust you. And they only trust you if they feel safe with you. And they feel safe with you when they know that you see and accept who they are. And this happens when who they are – their culture, background, interests – is visible and valued

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Dame Liz.

Correction to my previous post, giving Elizabeth Rata a Damehood for services to Education is like giving Andrew Wakefield a Knighthood for services to Vaccines.

Dame Elizabeth Rata now. White supremacy pays dividends under this government.

At what point does information become propaganda? And if you were a listener, would you have wanted to know about the deep connection to the Minister’s office?

Here’s how I sum up the Budget for education. Hundreds of millions are being spent on things that are lifeless: workbooks, kits, strategies, assessment. Nothing on relationships and connection.

At what point does information become propaganda? And if you were a listener, would you have wanted to know about the deep connection to the Minister’s office?

Kids are really being ripped off when the best the Budget can do for them is music kits and workbooks.

Any reporters asked Nicola Willis if she recognises this toaster?

I’ll never tire of this bike ride to work.

Now my time has freed up considerably, I’m going to give myself a short breather then I’ll be cracking my knuckles to see what I can do and where! #nzpol

I'd add: these people are ripping the wiring out of our country. Inertia in the system has prevented a lot of the damage from showing yet but what they're doing won't be popular and it's not structurally sound. We are will have opportunities to push back IF we're ready to take them #nzpol

It's easy, as democratic backsliding accelerates, to feel overwhelmed and hopeless. This is exactly the time when we need to get tight, get organised, get coordinated. That’s how we gain the power to say No, not on our watch. That’s how we can feel hope.

Stanford said she takes the Treaty very seriously. But in the Bill she has just introduced to the House giving her unlimited power to create curriculum, there is not one reference to Te Tiriti in the section that grants her that power. Nothing that directs her to act as a partner. Nothing.

More tricks from Stanford in the House, this time to sneak in a change that makes all members of the Teaching Council ministerial appointees. What is taught, how it's taught, what counts as good teaching, and who is fit to teach — On 6 July, these are all under direct political control.

A lady asked me if I really needed the glasses I was wearing to see. I said, “No, I just wear them so I can take them off and rub my eyes with my palms in exasperation when someone says something really stupid.” I then proceeded to take off my glasses and rub my eyes with my palms in exasperation.

#ToitūTeTiriti "I'll be back after we file [4pm MON] to explain the depths of this disgrace, but in the meantime send some hugs & karakia to our many Māori Counsel who are on the grind for all of us right now, they are your modern day toa & we're all under the pump." @taniawaikatolawyer.bsky.social

So ... The curriculum had to be rewritten because achievement wasn't high enough, but NCEA has be replaced because achievement is too high?

Sunday Watch: Guy Claxton - Bodies of Learning

⭐ NZEI education union says: "Register to support the claim to the Waitangi Tribunal" ⭐ a plea to Māori, non-Māori, ALL people outside New Zealand to help us to protect our Treaty, land, education, our everything #ToitūTeTiriti plz add your name ⬇️ by SUNDAY 17th nite forms.office.com/Pages/Respon...

This new(ish) UI feels very chummy. So chummy that I want to raise my eyebrows each time I open the app.

Despite the Waitangi Tribunal's judgement, the govt is full speed ahead with this because apparently it's too confusing for adults to deal with more than one phrase about Te Tiriti, which is ironic given everything they say they're doing with education.

The only way I can make sense of the way ministers in Cabinet ignore official advice is that they are operating from a position of • I have an idea and it is good, therefore let's get it done. Whereas, good governance requires something more like • I have an idea. Is it good? Let's check.

The first of what hopefully are a few wins coming.

Not to mention munt the system that creates expert knowledge by shifting the goal to making profits. (This is about the public research system and the universities.) #NZPOL

Aotearoa, we’re going through a seismic, systemic shift. Whether it's the courts or the classroom, the goal is the same: bypass the "middlemen" of expertise and local autonomy to create a direct line of Ministerial control.

In June 2024 Erica Stanford endorses Prime Maths in an interview with Newsroom. In August, the Maths Action plan is announced. In September 'Requests for Proposals' are sent to a small group of providers in a closed tender process.

Could it be that an education system founded on the premise that individuals keeping up with excepted levels of achievement is the most important thing, is also an education system that tells students: focus on yourself, don’t let others drag you down.

The saying that knowledge sticks to knowledge isn’t quite right. In my experience, it’s more accurate to say that knowledge sticks to curiosity.

Mind’s in a bit of a fug today. Got all these ephemeral, ghost-like beginnings surfacing that dart away when I try to grab them. They’re insisting on staying formless no matter how hard I try to force them to still. Maybe I’ve overdosed on info and need some settling time.

After a while you run out of words to describe how much of shithole government we currently have.....🖕🏾🖕🏾🖕🏾 #nzpol

oooohhhhh: buried in the appendix to Cleaver’s written responses is a contract for Learning First, signed April 2025. When I OIAed their involvement last November, I was told they provided “insights” and helped with “benchmarking”. hmmmm ... More to come …

How the curriculum advisory group was put together

If you value the work I’ve been doing on the curriculum and you are in a position to support me, there are two ways you can do so in here. My work will never be paywalled.

We asked Pauline Cleaver written questions during the Waitangi Tribunal hearing about how the Curriculum Ministerial Advisory Group was constituted.

If you value the work I’ve been doing on the curriculum and you are in a position to support me, there are two ways you can do so in here. My work will never be paywalled.

The Crown's Tribunal evidence confirms that two key members of the Curriculum Ministerial Advisory Group were not on the Ministry's recommended list and were appointed by the Minister outside the officials' selection process.

Student social action petition to STOP the Homeless Move-On Order in Aotearoa, from students who care and think deeply about the world they are in. Please sign if you’d like to support their petition. I have. c.org/CbbTKStN7T

No it is not. This is how neoliberal ideology is manipulated into our education system & culture. Wrong wrong wrong in every way. Vote them OUT #nzpol

We asked Pauline Cleaver written questions about the MAG during the Waitangi Tribunal hearing. One series of questions was about the appointment of the Chair.

The Waitangi Tribunal’s Education and Training Amendment Act and Te Mātaiaho Urgent Inquiry has revealed shocking details about the education reform led by Erica Stanford. In this post, I have gathered all video links and links to briefs of evidence from the witnesses who presented in one place.

Before landscapes die, they first vanish in the imagination. I wrote this about wetlands and schooling. Reading it now, As we come to the end of the Waitangi Tribunal inquiry, I think it was also about what happens when certain ways of knowing stop being included.

Did the conditions good policy development exist in the curriculum reform since 2024? Our focus for this week: the curriculum MAG.

School Briefs - ERO's long term future, More from the Tribunal, Labour enters the debate.

Essential reading here from Guy Claxton, which raises significant questions about the very basis of our new knowledge-rich curriculum based on "the science of learning". When there is no "the", where does that leave our kids, our teachers? This is part 1 of 4. Part 2 tomorrow.

Pluto thinks he’s helping.