This article examines a particular incident in the Waikato wars, 1863-4 and its relevance to the newly mandated New Zealand History curriculum. The new curriculum will for the first time make the teaching of local history compulsory in years 1-10. I examine the wide variety of submissions about the content of this curriculum. As the Royal…

As the commemorations of the 100th anniversary of World War 1 draw to a close, it is timely to reflect on what we have learnt about that time in our history. This study used the "New Zealand School Journal" as a data source to investigate what school children were learning about the war at the time. In this article, we discuss the overt…

Since its inception in 1907 New Zealand's "School Journal" has provided primary schools with free good quality material to be used for a variety of purposes in the classroom. At the same time, in reflecting curriculum reforms and changing perceptions of literacy learning, it has reproduced often conflicting ideologies. This article…

The book is entitled History Wars in the Classroom: Global Perspectives and examines how ten separate countries have experienced debates and disputes over the contested nature of the subject, for example the "Black Armband" and "Whitewash" factions in Australia who adopt opposingly celebratory or denigratory views of Australian…

I examine selected history textbooks marketed in the USA, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. My focus is on representations of indigenous peoples and their place "in" the text. In design, these textbooks tend to balance inclusively the best of a nation's history with the "text" of progress. But when compared in a global…