Craig Thornhill: History Teachers' Association chair on the Government's new curriculum changes

The Government is looking to broaden the social science curriculum, but it's prompted concern from some educators.

The Education Minister today unveiled proposed changes to content for Years 1-10, on top of the English and Maths refresh announced earlier. 

History Teachers' Association chair Craig Thornhill says there's lots of interesting topics being proposed, but no proper structure.

"They all seem to be quite free-standing and there's no way for students to join the dots between those topics. The other key concern is the sheer amount of content - for example, students in Year 0-8 are only going to have three hours a week to learn this stuff." 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
So teachers resistance to the new school curriculum is in
full swing. The content for years zero to ten was
released overnight. One of the subjects that had quite a
few changes as History. Here's the Education Minister, Erica Stanford,
on that you're now going to learn about the Stone
Age and the Romans and the Greeks and the Egyptians,
and kings and queens and revolutions. It's really exciting. Craig

(00:21):
Thornhill is the chair of the History Teachers Association. High
Craig got to Heather, are you as excited as Erica?

Speaker 2 (00:30):
Well, it's certainly been an exciting day getting to see
this new curriculum. Concerned is probably a better word.

Speaker 1 (00:36):
What are you concerned about?

Speaker 2 (00:40):
Well, it's all very well to say there's all this
new material there, but the key concerns that we have, well,
there's a few. So for starters, there's no conceptual framework
for this curriculum. There's lots of interesting topics and the
Minister has mentioned some of those, but they all seem

(01:01):
to be quite sort of freestanding, and there's no kind
of way for students to join the dots between those topics.
The other key concern is the sheer amount of content.
And for example, students in years zero to eight are
only going to have three hours a week to learn

(01:22):
this stuff, so I think that comes through about eighty
hours to cover everything that's in those curriculum year by year.
That's a lot.

Speaker 1 (01:32):
How many hours do they have at the moment, I'm.

Speaker 2 (01:37):
Not sure about at the moment, but the new curriculum
does state that six hours per week will be shared
between social sciences and science, so really, if you divet up,
it could be three hours a week for a social
studies teacher or a teacher to teach year seven and
eight social sciences. And if you've looked at the curriculum,
you'll see there's quite a lot there.

Speaker 1 (01:58):
Is it the case that because it has suggested that
some local history has been brought out of the curriculum
in order for some international history to be popped in?
Is that right?

Speaker 2 (02:09):
Well, and I've really only had a few hours to
look at this today, that does seem to be the case.

Speaker 1 (02:14):
Are you okay with that?

Speaker 2 (02:17):
Local history really gives a good framework for students to
understand history so they can place it in their local context,
which they can really, you know, easily get to grips with.
So that is a concern that local history has been removed.

Speaker 1 (02:29):
Is the problem here, I mean, is the problem here
the actual content or is it the time frame within
which you guys are having to do it?

Speaker 2 (02:39):
Oh, the timeframe is definitely a concern either your nine
and ten teachers who might be history teachers and jerocoby teachers. Yeah,
you know, they might have a good understanding of some
of this material. Primary school teachers who have done really
well to get up to speed with the artuto in
New Zealand history as curriculum in the last few years.

(02:59):
Now they're going to have to learn all of this
global history and the different geography stuff that hasn't been
included in the past. We are concerned that where's the
resourcing for this going to come. This is the draft
curriculum and it'll be finalized at some point next year.
How long does that give the ministry to produce these resources.
It's a real concern that teachers are going to be

(03:20):
left hanging expected to teach this with no resourcing.

Speaker 1 (03:26):
Craig, thanks very much, appreciate it. Craig Thornhill History Teachers
Association Chair for more from hither Duplessy Allen Drive. Listen
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