Knowledge Equivalence Discourse in New Zealand Secondary School Science

Rata, Elizabeth; Taylor, A.

doi:10.1007/s40841-015-0020-1

Cited by 9 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 15 publications

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“…On the positive side, this has led to more students choosing to take music as a subject and for generally high levels of motivation and engagement. More generally, and on the negative side, students have become known as "credit hunters" (Rata and Taylor 2015), often choosing to participate only in activities that are worth credits, exhibiting the attitude that "any credits will do," or "cherry picking" easy credits (Hipkins, Johnston, and Sheehan 2016). This is, in a sense, a form of "consumer sovereignty"-the localized site-based management of learning that was certainly not present in education before the neoliberal reforms of the 1990s.…”

Section: Consequences Capture and Challengesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Music Education and the Neoliberal Turn in Aotearoa New Zealand

MCPHAIL,

MCNEILL

2021

ACT

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In this paper we explore the adoption of a neoliberal turn in New Zealand's education system and its consequences, focusing particularly on secondary school music education. In the 1980s, New Zealand was one of the first states in the Western world to implement comprehensive neoliberal economic policies. Some 35 years later, education in New Zealand is situated in a highly devolved institutional framework that privileges neoliberal objectives. This article outlines the genesis of this socio-political context and the downstream effects of this environment on the secondary school music curriculum. Our central question is this: What have been the results of the "New Zealand Experiment" in terms of the type of music curriculum students now experience? The deeper problematic of the paper, however, concerns the fragmentation and instrumentalization of knowledge. On balance, we conclude that effects of the neoliberal turn within education in New Zealand may have been more detrimental than beneficial, as these agendas have encouraged a break with past more liberal and humanistic aims for education. However, we also argue that the changes have not been the product of any systematic project but rather the result of a confluence of complex and stratified causal mechanisms at work in the socio-political world.

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Section: Consequences Capture and Challengesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Music Education and the Neoliberal Turn in Aotearoa New Zealand

MCPHAIL,

MCNEILL

2021

ACT

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“…However, access to vertical discourse can be obscured by the invisible pedagogies referred to earlier, which tend to blur the difference between students' everyday knowledge and academic knowledge: that is, between horizontal and vertical discourse (Jones, 2008). Invisible pedagogies can work to the detriment of the very students they are assumed to support most directly by leaving them locked out of the disciplinary knowledge essential for academic success and social and political participation (Bernstein, 2000;Rata & Taylor, 2015). This certainly does not negate the possibility (perhaps, indeed, the requirement) that horizontal discourse represented by students' everyday or "common sense" knowledge might also enter the classroom.…”

Section: Knowledge Differentiationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Conceptualizing a Radical Visible Pedagogy

Barrett

McPhail

2021

Journal of Education

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This paper contributes to the theorization of radical visible pedagogy by building upon Basil Bernstein’s initial conceptualization and previous efforts to develop it. Alongside Bernstein’s “classification” and “framing” we suggest that incorporating the concepts of “semantic gravity” and “semantic density” from Legitimation Code Theory (LCT)—concepts that were not available to those engaged in earlier efforts to theorize radical visible pedagogy—adds an important dimension to this theorization. Outlining the principles of radical visible pedagogy has the potential to inform equitable classroom practice in a manner that eschews the tendency toward dichotomous conceptions of pedagogy as either “traditional” or “progressive.”

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“…These actions could also be seen to approximate the vision of Hipkins et al (2016) for NCEA which calls for schools and teachers to use the flexibility of NCEA to provide "lifeworthy learning for each and every student" (p. 206). Rata and Taylor (2015) put forward a contrasting view with regard to offering different NCEA standards to different students, expressing concerns that restricting students' access to epistemological knowledge is inequitable. They argued that offering differentiated knowledge to students who were considered to have lower ability was based on teachers' value judgements and was likely to perpetuate social and economic inequities.…”

Section: Assessment For Educational Outcomesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Economics and accounting teachers’ beliefs about school-based assessment, the summative and formative tension: A mixed method study

Yates¹

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<p>The National Certificate of Educational Achievement (NCEA) is New Zealand’s main national qualification for senior secondary school students. A key feature of NCEA is that it allows for more than half of students’ final NCEA grades to be assessed by teachers during the school year through school-based assessment, known as internal assessment. This key role of teachers in awarding qualifications is likely to have an impact on their conceptions of assessment, conceptions of assessment that are not necessarily fixed. In turn, conceptions can influence teaching practice and are likely to have an impact on how teachers implement internal assessment. This thesis uses an explanatory sequential, mixed methods design to investigate a group of economics and accounting teachers’ conceptions of assessment, their practices in relation to NCEA internally-assessed standards, and the influences on those practices. G.T.L. Brown’s (2006) Teachers’ Conception of Assessment Abridged (TCoAIIIA) Inventory was used to investigate the participants’ conceptions of assessment, and interviews were conducted to probe their internal assessment practices and reasons for those practices. The quantitative data were analysed using confirmatory factor analysis which showed an inadmissible fit to G.T.L. Brown’s (2006) model. A subsequent exploratory factor analysis revealed partly similar and partly different dimensions in the data, compared with those previously reported in other studies using the TCoAIIIA. Qualitative data were thematically analysed and when the qualitative and quantitative data were considered together, greater similarities with G.T.L. Brown’s model emerged. Participants revealed four overarching conceptions of assessment: assessment is for learning; assessment is for qualifications; assessment is for accountability; and assessment is detrimental. This finding has reinforced the view that teachers’ conceptions of assessment are ecologically rational in that a distinct conception that probably relates to the role participants play in assessing for NCEA emerged. Despite this role, participants also adhered to the conception that a primary function of assessment is to improve students’ learning; furthermore, they did not support the use of assessment results as a measure of school quality. An implication of this finding is a belief that promoting a school-accountability use of assessment results is likely to be counter-productive to students’ learning. The qualitative findings revealed a complex set of beliefs and practices towards implementing the internally-assessed component of NCEA, and that beliefs were only one influence on teachers’ internal assessment practices. Teachers had to balance their beliefs with the systemic realities of NCEA and their school’s policy requirements, and articulated a tension between the improvement and accountability conceptions of assessment. Moderation processes, procedures and policy encouraged teachers into a cycle of safe rather than innovative internal assessment practice, which means that the original vision for NCEA internal assessment is yet to be realised. There are implications of this finding for professional development, leadership of assessment, and initial teacher education. One such implication is a requirement for professional development that would provide teachers with successful, innovative internal assessment practices, rather than the present approach which focusses on the reliability of marking. Schools’ management needs to take a greater role in leading and encouraging pedagogically sound internal assessment, rather than focussing primarily on agreement rates with NZQA moderators. Initial teacher educators could also introduce student teachers to effective internal assessment practices and to encourage such practices. In addition, attempts to change teachers’ assessment practices need to consider existing conceptions of assessment because beliefs have an impact on practices and may need to be challenged. While there is debate about whether beliefs change practice or vice versa, one cannot be changed without considering the other.</p>

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Knowledge Equivalence Discourse in New Zealand Secondary School Science

Cited by 9 publications

References 15 publications

Music Education and the Neoliberal Turn in Aotearoa New Zealand

Music Education and the Neoliberal Turn in Aotearoa New Zealand

Conceptualizing a Radical Visible Pedagogy

Economics and accounting teachers’ beliefs about school-based assessment, the summative and formative tension: A mixed method study

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