Education Policy SIG seminar Monday 8 June
The Education Policy SIG has just held a successful seminar, titled “Taking stock: Perspectives on the government’s education reviews and where to from here?”
After much toing and froing occasioned by the various Covid-19 Alert Levels, the seminar was finally able to be held on June 8, with twenty people having the opportunity to meet in person, carefully separated by 1m, in what is probably going to be the first and last face-to-face SIG or caucus meeting of the year. Another 38 people joined by Zoom for all or part of the day.
The morning had presentations about the review of Tomorrow’s Schools, with Martin Thrupp giving an outsider’s perspective, Cathy Wylie sharing the perspective of a member of the review taskforce, and Judie Alison and Rob Willetts providing a case study of why the government’s failure to profoundly interrupt the high levels of school-based decision-making impacts negatively on the conditions of teachers’ work in some schools and across the system.
In the afternoon there were two presentations on curriculum and assessment. Elizabeth Rata talked about Educational Knowledge Theory and how different kinds of knowledge tend to be conflated and confused in our system. Bronwyn Wood asked whether the review of NCEA was heading in the right direction or not.
The day finished with an NZEI session titled “Change: Being done ‘to’ or ‘with’ or ‘for’” which covered the union’s experiences of change over recent decades. This was presented by President/Te Manukura Liam Rutherford and Campaign Lead Jane Porter.
All who contributed to the final session reflecting on the day agreed that it had been a coherent and very enjoyable programme, and a huge treat for those who were able to be there in person.
To watch the full replay of the Education Policy SIG Seminar please click here.
2020/2021 Convenor
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Judie Alison
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Dr Judie Alison has recently retired from her full-time work as a Policy Adviser and Advocate for NZPPTA, the secondary teachers' union and is now working as a freelance researcher. Judie worked for 30 years as a secondary teacher until joining the union's staff in 2002, working across a wide range of professional issues. Her PhD, awarded in 2007, was supervised by Professors John Codd and John O'Neill. The dissertation was titled 'Mind the Gap! Policy change in practice. School qualifications reform in New Zealand, 1980 - 2002'. Her major policy interests are curriculum and assessment, teacher learning (both pre-service and in-service), teacher registration and professionalism, and student guidance and pastoral care.