This paper reflects on the history of adult and community education (ACE) in Aotearoa New Zealand with special reference to older people's learning. The paper adopts a critical framework and draws on both primary and secondary sources. Key economic, political, social, demographic and cultural forces are discussed along with the huge growth in…

What assumptions about children and childhood are held by government officials and organisation representatives who are influential in policy formation in early childhood education (ECE) in New Zealand? How are assumptions manifested in policy? This article draws on a study carried out from 2001 to 2003, a time of radical ECE policy change in New…

The discourses and practices of neoliberalism, including government policies for education and training, public debates regarding standards and changed funding regimes, have been at work on and in schools in capitalist societies since at least the 1980s. Yet we have been hard pressed to say what neoliberalism is, where it comes from and how it…

Describes changes in social roles, formal organizations, and social stratification arising from immigration in New Zealand during the 1980s. Examination reveals defects in the institutional structure of immigration. Immigration policy, immigrant policy, and ethnic relations policy are related to the less desirable effects of immigration in New…

Questions the extent to which New Zealand children have benefited from New Right economic policies and argues that the invisibility of children, the role of public concern about children, and the social construction of childhood are factors which have facilitated implementation of these changes. Examines how personal and political spheres…

This paper outlines a quiet revolution in early childhood care and education in New Zealand. In 1986, child care services were transferred from the Department of Social Welfare to the Department of Education. A working group then reviewed provisions and made recommendations. In January, 1989, an implementation unit was established in the…

These free papers presented at an International Committee on Family Research (CFR) seminar include (1) Frances E. Baum's "There's No Room in the Nuclear Family: Sharing As an Alternative Housing Option"; (2) Paula W. Dail's "Parental Role Perceptions among Young, Dual Parent Families in America: Family Policy Implications for the…