Compulsory teaching of Aotearoa New Zealand histories has potential to change how this country's young people think and feel about themselves. However, achieving the new curriculum's vision of a more thoughtful and responsible citizenry is unlikely to be straightforward. For Pakeha secondary school students, descendants of European settlers, the…

A pragmatic response to the government announcement that New Zealand histories will be taught in all schools by 2022 are the questions of what should be taught, and how? I argue that iwi and hapu must be at the forefront of conversations. This article looks critically at how Janene, a Pakeha museum educator, taught Year 13 history students about…

In this article I interact with the narratives of five Pakeha (European) secondary school teachers, who choose to teach Aotearoa New Zealand histories including about Te Tiriti o Waitangi at senior level (years 11-13). I highlight characteristics of the active stance adopted by participants towards teaching and learning the difficult histories of…

This article examines the potential of history as a subject to contribute to a "knowledge economy". Global trends in curricula reforms have often emphasised generic competences and development of students' critical thinking to benefit the future economic position of citizens and nations. However, viewing knowledge in these terms presents…

This paper examines how a standards-based form of assessment in operation in New Zealand has impacted upon the knowledge taught to secondary history students. The segmentation of history into assessable components along with assessment mechanisms which encourage the reduction in the number of standards being attempted has impacted upon both the…

This article contributes to discussions surrounding the development of 'analytical tools' sensitive to the fluid nature of collective memory and all its 'varieties, contradictions, and dynamism' (Olick, 2008: 159). It explores the methodological challenges of investigating how young people in New Zealand and the United Kingdom negotiate processes…

This article explores the concept of historical empathy and how it can foster a greater understanding of a significant episode in New Zealand and Australian history, the 1915 Gallipoli Campaign. It also highlights the potential that the concept holds for encouraging students to participate in civic society. It does this by drawing upon the…

A critical pedagogy stance involving reflexivity and critique of Aotearoa New Zealand's history curriculum informed a participatory action research methodology of "problematised history pedagogy" (PHP). Conceptualised as layered and reciprocal, the PHP was nested as a 'case' of action research at the heart of narrative inquiry. The PHP…

This article reports on an exploratory study of over 2,500 secondary school history students in New Zealand who demonstrated gender differences in respect to critical thinking within a disciplinary framework. Initial findings suggest that while boys are not achieving as well as girls in national assessments in history, they (on average) thought…

This paper explores the challenges for teachers in positioning them as independent curriculum makers. History teachers in New Zealand have recently entered uncharted territory with the abandonment of prescribed topics for history and a new-found authority to determine the selection of historical knowledge taught to their senior secondary students.…

This research project examined the contribution internally assessed course work makes to motivating young people to think historically; that is to develop reasoned, evidence-based understandings of the past that equip them to participate in society as critical citizens who can think independently and adjudicate between competing claims of…

This article focuses on the use of vignettes as an emergent dimension of narrative research writing. The author draws on doctoral research that problematised history curriculum and pedagogy with pre-service teachers in the context of secondary teacher education in New Zealand. Pedagogic crossings of history education sites, and negotiation of…

Students of history are expected to be able to interpret visual images as a source of primary evidence for historical inquiry, yet history teachers may not always place sufficient emphasis on pedagogies that consistently and specifically target the skills of visual interpretation. Developing understanding of visual evidence is sometimes left to…

This paper focuses on history in the New Zealand curriculum in light of its seemingly confused curriculum identity despite revision processes of the New Zealand Curriculum (NZC; New Zealand Ministry of Education, 2007). Some thinking about curriculum as a socially constructed political process that teachers can actively engage with sets the scene…

This workshop will model for classroom teachers, one way to plan, teach, resource and assess inquiry-based learning which encompasses the guiding principles of a newly gazetted curriculum. The vision of the New Zealand curriculum is to produce "...young people who will be confident, connected, actively involved lifelong learners" (p. 8).…