Emerging school-level education policy under National 2008-9

Martin Thrupp

doi:10.26686/nzaroe.v0i19.1556

Authors

Martin Thrupp University of Waikato

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.26686/nzaroe.v0i19.1556

Keywords:

Educational Policy and Administration

Abstract

This article discusses school level education policy developments over 2009, during National’s first year in office. National was elected amidst a growing sense of recession and quickly made cuts to a range of programmes, claiming these were necessary to rein in government spending. However there was a hollow ring to these claims given the nature of what was cut and given new spending on private schools. A stronger privatisation agenda was signalled in other areas as well and in its first year National also introduced National Standards, a nationwide form of assessment for primary and intermediate school children. This article discusses these developments and their contestation by some in the sector. It concludes that if the contested ideology of neoliberalism comes to further dominate New Zealand education policy in the next few years, research could have an important role to play in providing some light amidst the heat of reform. However, New Zealand’s capacity to undertake research into the impact of education policy is becoming quite limited. This is making it increasingly important to tap into academic analyses of neo-liberal policies in other national settings where research and scholarship is often better funded and more able to be searching than its New Zealand counterpart.

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Author Biography

Martin Thrupp, University of Waikato

Martin Thrupp is Professor of Education at the University of Waikato. He has also held senior positions at King’s College London and at the Institute of Education, University of London. His research interests involve the nature and impact of school-level education policy and the impact of diverse school contexts on school processes. He has published widely in these areas, focussing especially on schooling in New Zealand and England

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