DOCUMENT RESUME ED 353 174 SO 022 229 AUTHOR Gordon, Liz TITLE Educational Reform in New Zealand: Contesting the Role of the Teacher. PUB DATE 92 NOTE 26p.; Paper presented at the International Sociology of Education Conference (England, United Kingdom, January, 1992). PUB TYPE Information Analyses (070) Speeches/Conference Papers (150) EDRS PRICE MF01/PCO2 Plus Postage. DESCRIPTORS Comparative Education; *Educational Administration; *Educational Change; Educational History; *Educational Sociology; Educational Theories; Elementary Secondary Education; Foreign Countries; Political Science; *Politics of Education; Social History; Teacher Associations; *Teacher Role; Unions IDENTIFIERS *New Zealand ABSTRACT Presenting recent educational reforms in New Zealand and the impact they have had on teachers, this paper gives a brief overview of the historical position of teachers in an education system that categorized them in a particular way as "professionals." Beginning in 1987, changes within New Zealand government have caused a repositioning of teachers. The changes within the state have de-skilled and disempowered teachers and made the education system much less democratic. Out of the struggles of the past few years, there have emerged new democratic alliances that teachers have formed with forces outside of the state, alliances that are potentially very powerful. Forty-eight references are included. (DB) *********************************************************************** * * Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made * * from the original document. *********************************************************************** Educational Reform in New Zealand: Contesting the role of the teacher Liz Gordon University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand U.S. DEPARTMENT OP EDUCATION Office of Educatanal Remerch and improvement EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION CENTER (ER:C1 This document has been reproduced as 'wed from the person or organization originating it O Minor changes have been made to improve reproduction quality Points of view or opinions stated in this docu- ment do not necessarily represent official OERI position or policy "PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE THIS MATERIAL HAS BEEN GRANTED BY \A TO THE EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC)." BEST COPV 14VALTLE Educational Reform in New Zealand: Contesting the role of the teacher* Liz Gordon, University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand of teachers within the recent and This paper analyses aspects of the repositioning 'repositioning', I mean changes in continuing reform of education in New Zealand. By of teachers during the reform the institutional, ideological and industrial relations focus in this paper is specifically on teachers in primary process, and their effects. My policy effects have been faced by pre- and secondary state schools, although similar the outcomes of educational school and tertiary teachers. Despite similarities between Davies, 1990), as well as the effects of reform in Britain and New Zealand (Evans and being different in the two these on teachers, three features seem to stand out as countries. In both countries, educational The first of these is relationships within the central state. 1990; Lawn and Ozga, 1986; reform has had centralising tendencies (Ball, 1988, intention of bringing about Codd, Gordon and Harker 1990), despite a stated remained in their previous decentralisation. In Britain, however, central state agencies Education was abolished and form, whereas in New Zealand the Department of 1990; Martin, 1991), and replaced by a smaller Ministry (Ramsay, 1991; Codd, Central to changes in New Zealand, regional education bodies were also abolished. educational agencies and others, in particular the too, has been the struggle between control of educational policy State Services Commission and the Treasury, over Lauder, Middleton, Boston and (Boston, 1988; Boston, Haig and Lauder, 1988; has encompassed what Grace Wylie, 1988; Gordon, forthcoming b). This struggle and has highlighted the (1990) called 'ideological manoeuvre' in the policy process, institutional specificities of state agencies. been in teacher organisations. In The second difference between the two countries has evoking different responses to the England, there are a wide range of teacher unions, effects of this are evident in the reform process. The disorganising and weakening 1991). In New Zealand, there are literature (for example, Ball, 1988; Mac an Ghaill, the University of * This paper could not have been written without financial assistance from Association and data supplied by David Canterbury, access to the files of the Post-Primary Teacher's University of Waikato, which is used in Mitchell of the 'Monitoring Today's Schools' project at the My thanks to all these people and organisations. raw form in part three of this paper. teachers in state schools, one representing primary two central union organisations for writing, these unions have teachers and one in the secondary sector. At the time of the reforms have agreed in principle to amalgamate, and certainly their responses to number of issues. been very similar, and co-ordinated action has taken place over a teachers and civil society, and in The third area of difference is the relationship between of the reform process has particular school boards. In New Zealand, a notable feature against elements of the reform been the tendency for Boards to side with teachers describes the 1980s as a decade in which teachers and process. In Britain, Ball (1990) economic failures in Britain. schools have been scapegoated as the causes of social and have occurred to a lesser Such trends are largely absent in New Zealand, or at least the educational reforms in Britain have their extent. This is perhaps largely because the William Tyndale affair genesis as far back as the Callaghan speech of 1976 and suddenly and with little prior (Dale, 1989), whereas in New Zealand they arrived very warning or preparation. for the ability to organise All of these differences have had major implications anti-democratic reforms (both in democratically against what are seen to be inherently The of implementation). their nature - see Snook, 1991; and in the processes in New Zealand, and their technocratic and instrumentalist basis of state reforms managerialist agenda that application to the schooling system have produced a narrow consultation and oppositional action by teachers not only excludes, but also prohibits, Commission, 1990). (Codd, 1991; for an example see State Services been based on the extension of In both countries, the recent reforms in education have displace the structures, practices elements of monetarist theory into the state, aiming to In absolute terms, the and ideologies underpinning the previous Keynesian settlement. destruction of the welfare implementation of a pure monetarism would involve the total in either Britain or New Zealand. Indeed, as Chris state. This has not been attempted in reducing the overall size Rudd (1991) notes, neither country has had much success despite years of restructuring, re-ordering of priorities or scope of the welfare state, managerial ethos and the and, in New Zealand at least, the imposition of a new politicisation of the public service. position of teachers in the The paper begins with a brief overview of the historical 'professionals', and the education system, which framed them in a particular way as product of the Keynesian era, and thus is extent to which this professionalism was a changing role of the state in the under threat at present. The middle section analyses the 2 repositioning of teachers. education system from 1987 onwards, and the consequent Keynesian settlement has deskilled This section concludes that the breakdown of the effects on democracy in the education and disempowered teachers, with consequent of the struggles of the past few system. The final section looks at the emergence, out which undermine the intent of the educational years, of new democratic alliances for the development of a new reforms and offer a basis, albeit an insecure one, democratic settlement in education. professionals The Keynesian settlement: teachers as the state schooling system in The two teacher unions grew up organically alongside Educational institute (NZEI) was New Zealand. The first union, the New Zealand universal and compulsory established shortly after the 1877 Act which formed a provide a professional education system in New Zealand. The Institute's aim was to the primary level, and in organisation for the swelling ranks of teachers, mostly at in pay rates for teachers particular, initially, to ensure that wide regional disparities Wilson, 1992). From the outset, it aimed at promoting were removed (Gordon and and discussion, rather than by the policy change within education through negotiation 1971 p. 31). use of militant tactics (Ingle, the NZEI developed with the This stance was reinforced by the close relationship with successive governments. In Department of Education, with teachers colleges and NZEI was, until the late 1980s, allowed an integral return for its moderate position, the in New Zealand state role in policy development and policy implementation processes this role was confined largely education (Roth, 1987), although in the post-war period, to primary schooling. Teacher's Association (PPTA), was The second teacher union, the Post Primary school leaving age which saw the formed in 1952 as a result of the post-war rise in the Throughout its short history, the extension of secondary education to all children. NZEI. Partly as a result of this, the PPTA has taken a more militant stance than the agencies that NZEI PPTA never had the close relationship with government of professional issues, experienced, and yet was able to act effectively on a range 1981) and, more recently, teacher notably the curriculum and assessment (Webster, appraisal. much of this century has been that The dominant ethos in New Zealand throughout could not be reconciled with unionism, which was equated with industrial action, 3 professionalism. In particular, there was a belief that unionism had no place in the Firstly, unionism was education sector. There were a number of reasons for this. perceived as mainly a male activity, whilst the teaching force was predominantly female. Second, unionism belonged to the working classes, in particular to the freezing workers, watersiders and other large industrial groups associated with New Zealand's primary economic role of the time: the processing and export of farm products to Britain and Europe. Thirdly, to be involved in union activity was to be unpatriotic and Teachers were irresponsible; two qualities which sat ill with the teacher's role. expected to have what was perceived as a moral superiority which put them above union activities. Finally: For many years...education was deemed 'non-political', in part based on a so- called 'liberal' consensus across political parties and interest groups that schooling was separate from the influence of partisan politics. The role of teacher was clearly that of servant to the community, and they were supposed to Thus, teacher uphold the broad, liberal aims of the system as a whole. opposition and political involvement were barely tolerated, and teacher militancy was virtually unheard of (Gordon and Wilson, in press). Although largely debarred from industrial action, however, the teacher unions were able to negotiate through their close involvement with the central agencies of the state, in particular the Department of Education. They were viewed, and viewed themselves, Keynesian democratic state that as professionals, and this gave them power within the they would never have had as merely unionised workers. They were involved in every issues, from aspect of the education system, from policy development to curriculum schools. management to implementation, and from the central state out to individual This kind of professionalism brought with it some distinctly democratic elements; both for the teachers themselves in terms of an expansion of their role beyond teaching, and also in providing links between the central state and learners, which ensured that, to a certain extent, curricula and other educational policies would respond to the demands of civil society. In the 1970s and early 1980s, for example, the schooling system began in curricula and to respond to calls by women and Maori groups for new initiatives both in assessment processes. However, in the context of the broader Keynesian accommodation, this kind of professionalism had its limits. On the one hand, teachers were very constrained in their ability to organise to improve their conditions of work. On the other hand, major ,s, gender and ethnicity remained within the inequalities in outcomes according to 4 schooling system, and there was little motivation within the teaching profession to investigate and solve the structures that perpetuated these inequalities (Cold, Harker and Nash, 1985). place in The first documented national action by a teacher union in New Zealand took Certificate 1962, when the PPTA called on secondary teachers to refuse to mark School rise for doing so. After a long and very papers if they did not receive a substantial pay task. public debate, an independent commission granted large pay increases for this towards salary From 1970 onwards, the PPTA began to take a militant approach negotiations, with the result that secondary teacher salaries, which had been equal to 1981, frustrated by this those of the primary teachers, moved significantly ahead. In calling a continuing trend, the NZEI broke its 99 year record of no industrial action, by The outcome of this was that a continuing series of afternoon stopwork meetings. the primary relativity between the primary and secondary sectors was assured, although teachers continued to get much lower salaries. down. This process By 1980 the view of education as non-political had begun to break Education, Mr. Wellington, who held a peculiar was aided by the then Minister of framework. He mixture of moral right ideas, although still within a broadly Keynesian who constantly offered open support to groups like the Concerned Parents Association, 'breaking down attacked teachers over issues such as sex education and their role in boys' traditional family life'. Ignoring teachers, the Minister developed his own old that was in network to review the crucial core curriculum, and came out with a proposal the kind of initiative the 'back to basics' mold; one that was totally out of line with flag-raising ceremonies, being developed in schools. In 1984 he proposed that daily in schools. which had been abandoned about 40 years previously, be re-instituted although little Teachers responded angrily to these, and other, policy developments, Government at industrial action was taken at this time. They campaigned against the Government was swept to the 1984 general election, and in July that year a Labour instead of signalling a return to the Keynesian power in a landslide victory. However, repositioning of the role of settlement of the past, the next six years were to bring a total the state, the education system and teachers. The reform of education completely restructured the Between 1984 and 1987, the new Labour Government from the primary industries sector, which economy, shifting the balance of power away and guaranteed had previously been assisted with tax concessions, tariffs, subsidies 5 Bromley, prices. The new hegemonic power bloc (Jessop, 1990; Jessop, Bonnett and mainly 1990) within capital was broadly the finance sector, and more specifically large, multinational, corporations whose wealth was derived from property and finance For these groups, a free market offered the speculation and corporate raiding. of August opportunity of unlimited accumulation of wealth. By the general election sight of multi-storey 1987 the naticn was apparently mesmerised by the awesome and the Barclays share market index, rising at enormous rates. The buildings, Government was re-elected with an increased majority. the economic In Labour's second term of office (1987-1990), the focus switched from agencies and changes to the system system to the state, including the reshaping of state Picot, was of social welfare, health and education. A supermarket magnate, Brian of primary and asked to head a Taskforce to examine the administrative structures complete secondary schooling. The resulting Report (Picot, 1988) recommended a restructuring of the education sector, including: the abolition of the Department of Education and its replacement with a smaller Ministry, which would have responsibility only for policy; the abolition of regional education boards; which the devolution of all operational responsibilities to individual schools, would be governed by newly constituted Boards of Trustees, primarily parents of children at the school who would be elected by parents; the devolution of two categories of funding, operational and salaries, to individual schools, which would be spent in meeting the objectives of the school; objectives of the development of a school charter, which would link the individual schools to national objectives; and Review and the abolition of the Inspectorate and its replacement with a smaller Audit Agency. reform process. These changes to the administrative structures marked the start of the introduction of a This is in contrast to the reforms in Britain, which began with the curriculum since national curriculum; there had been, in New Zealand, a formal national 6 1944 in the secondary schools. Ball (1990) notes anyway that it was the administrative reforms of the ERA, rather than the curriculum, that instituted the most important changes, in market terms, to the education system in England. Indeed, despite the different starting points, the processes of reform have been more alike than different in the two countries. changes. The first Two sets of concerns provided the impetus for these administrative emphasising personal rights (Bowles set broadly stem from the Keynesian settlement, orientation (Gordon, and Gintis, 1987). Elsewhere, I have called this the 'community' and forthcoming b). These concerns embraced the issues of community empowerment participation, in particular for those groups, particularly Maori, who were decision disadvantaged in the schooling system. The community view aimed to bring central making closer to individual schools, and was against the power of the discourse of bureaucracy to determine everything that went on in schools. The and the subsequent community empowerment is diffused throughout the Picot Report policy of Tomorrow's Schools. of empowerment, So, however, is the discourse of the market. Alongside discussion overly bureaucratic is the language of choice; a choice that is being inhibited by an will', engendered by the central state, pressure group politics and a 'paralysis of In a fascinating study, Wilson (1991) extracted six inefficiencies of the system. Picot committee, paragraphs from the Picot Report and asked members of the thought each representing bureaucrats, educationalists and industrialists, what they depending on the stance of the respondent. meant. Different interpretations were given, incorporation of both Keynesian The Picot Report, then, was a masterly example of the happy unison, however. The and neo-liberal discourses. These did not sit together in the two positions, discourse of Picot represented fundamental contradictions between in the implementation but did not resolve them. That resolution was to be played out struggle within the state, and between process, and it therefore set up further sites of The nature of the Picot Report and state, teachers and the new Boards of Trustees. that has continued subsequent policy documents explains the extent of the contestation following three years. to occur over educational policy in the by the policy document The new structure suggested by Picot, and later confirmed in line with neo-liberal Tomorrow's Schools (Lange, 1988), was, however, clearly positioning of teachers. It was to have profound implications for the ideals. policy from Characteristics of the new system included the separation of mechanisms of funding implementation, a switch from demand-led to supply-side 7 (Offe, 1985), a reduction in the size of the central state (as well as new roles for the central state), and the devolution of responsibility for education to individual schools. Boston (1991) argues that reforms within the state sector as a whole in New Zealand have been guided by four 'theories': public choice theory, agency theory, transaction 2). A central feature cost analysis and the "new public management" (Boston, 1991 p. environment of these 'theories', taken together, is that they provide a quasi-privatized they within the state, even where no privatization can or will occur. In other words, the share the free market ideals of monetarism but do not rely on the destruction of theories welfare state for their implementation. Further, the implementation of these of within the state forges a reshaped political terrain that makes the eventual destruction the public sector more likely (Jessop et al, 1990). approach. A The amalgamation of these management theories leads to a distinctive self-interested as central feature relates to the view of human behaviour as essentially their individuals and in groups: "government officials are believed to maximise 1991 p. departmental budgets, while politicians seek to maximise their votes" (Boston, 'principal' and 3). Hence, these theories stress the need for firm contracts between 'agent', the separation of policy from operations (so that those making policy will not mechanisms have a vested interest in the outcomes of their deliberations) and a series of which will ensure that the state does not grow unduly due to bureaucratic capture. The central state, but one relatively removed new system of education would have a strong itself from the daily issues and contestations of the education system. The system the school would be kept in place through a powerful system of contracts; centrally, /employee relationship charter, the new system of educational review, and an employer between boards of trustees, the principal and the teachers. aimed to There is little doubt that the neo-liberal interpretation of the Picot Report be disempower teachers at all levels of the system. Teachers, in particular, were to of education. removed from their previously close relationship with the state agencies of the school, The Department and the Inspectorate were both abolished. At the level reshaped the role the Picot Report talked of a collaborative management model, but also with justification, of principal into that of industrial manager. Teachers were also (and funds to considering subsequent events) concerned that the devolution of their salary and individual schools would lead to the breakdown of the national system of salaries conditions. 8