Historical Perspectives on Teacher Preparation in Aotearoa New Zealand

Tensions and Continuities

Tanya Fitzgerald, Sally Knipe

• Publisher: Emerald Publishing Limited
• Year: 2019
• ISBN:
  9781787546417
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: History of Education

This book offers an exposition of the history of teacher preparation in Aotearoa New Zealand, from the outset through current and future trends. Beginning with an overview of the historical context of New Zealand schooling, and the development of local forms of schools, established in the early 19th century, this book highlights the importance new settlers placed on education. Featured also is the significance of the Native School system in the story of teacher preparation in New Zealand, the complexities initially experienced in staffing Native Schools, and the way in which these schools served to reinforce the colonial agenda. Throughout, this work uncovers the major role of teacher training colleges in the development and preparation of teachers for a range of schools. The authors examine the initial struggle to survive, the expansion and growth, and finally amalgamation or closure of these institutions. The tussle for responsibility and control of these colleges as long-standing contributors to the preparation of teachers is also addressed. Regulatory changes, policy debates and critical analysis of future trends in relation to the preparation of teachers and the themes that shift and change and rupture at particular historical moments are not unique and are explored throughout.

Chapter 1

Creating an Educational Heritage

Teacher preparation and training in Aotearoa New Zealand is shaped by historical, cultural, political and professional trends. As in many countries, there has been an almost constant review and reform of the teaching profession, teacher preparation programs as well as schools and schooling. Historical attention has focused on charting these shifts and changes against a backdrop of the expanding public school system, particularly in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.¹ Previous accounts about those who taught reveal their social origins, work conditions, methods of instruction, preoccupation with discipline and morality, anxieties and concerns about attendance, inspection and examination success.² Less attention has been paid to ways in which teachers were prepared for the task of teaching and the historical, cultural, social and political factors that influenced the structure and provision of teacher preparation and training.

This book is part of the series Emerald Studies in Teacher Preparation in National and Global Contexts. We trace the inseparable history of teaching, teachers, and teacher preparation and training. More specifically, our focus is Aotearoa New Zealand and the historical evolution from a focus on teaching as a practical craft focused on classroom management and the mastery of knowledge to be taught to a learned profession. Our attention is turned away from documenting the precise knowledge, skills and qualities teachers ought to possess and the detailed standards and regulations prescribed. Rather, we interweave a broad understanding of the social, historical and political context of compulsory public schooling to highlight long-standing debates and interlinked issues between technical and professional approaches to teacher preparation and training.³ In doing so, we emphasize changes in nomenclature as teacher preparation, teacher training and ultimately teacher education moved from the pupil-teacher system to training colleges and then to colleges of education within universities respectively.

Across the chapters, we document the shifts, changes, tensions and ruptures in this long history and map the provenance of contemporary anxieties about teacher preparation and the teaching profession. To this end, we weave narratives of teachers’ lives and work across a number of chapters to illustrate the oftentimes personal impact of what was, and is involved in learning to be a teacher. We do not offer cohesive or linear resolutions to enduring policy concerns but rather seek to revisit and critique the continuities and contradictions that have marked the history of teachers and teaching in Aotearoa New Zealand. We consciously present an historical snapshot of teacher preparation that is, by its very nature, selective and partial.⁴ Our primary intention is to document the ongoing and unresolved educational debates that are underpinned by competing public agendas to shape and define ‘one best system’ for teacher preparation and training. It is hoped that bringing together historical and contemporary perspectives stimulates a more nuanced understanding of key influences, provocations and priorities in the development of teacher preparation policies and programs.

In this opening chapter we offer a broad overview of the educational history of Aotearoa New Zealand. We suggest that thinking historically about education offers important insights into its social, political, cultural, intellectual and ideological origins. This history has been marked by conflicts, compromises and consensus which have primarily served the interests of dominant groups. Consequently, schools and schooling have been experienced differently across race, ethnicity, gender, religious and class lines. In the second part of this chapter we outline our methodological framework and detail ways in which we have endeavored to interweave the past and present in order to present a narrative that highlights the ebbs and flows in the history of teacher preparation and training. From the outset we recognize that a detailed and comprehensive account of New Zealand’s educational history is not possible and we therefore encourage readers to refer to footnotes and references for an audit trail of the extensive literatures available.

Early Years

Prior to the arrival of Pākehā (Europeans), Māori had a sophisticated system of learning that drew on a traditional knowledge base, and wisdom and skills were handed down and shared. Traditional knowledge was adapted to meet the changing geographical, ecological and social environment. All knowledge was tapu (sacred), and individuals shared their knowledge and skills to benefit their iwi (tribe) and whanau (family). Learning was both informal and formal and recorded and passed on through karakia (prayer), waiata (songs) and whakapapa (genealogy). An individual could be considered both a teacher and a learner. The concept of ako denoted both teacher and learner.⁵ Knowledge and skills such as weaving, fishing, cultivating and carving were passed on between teacher and learner. Specialist knowledge that was higher status was taught within a whare wānanga (house of learning) by experts (tohunga) and elders (kaumata) to selected learners. Oral and genealogical traditions shaped the gathering, transmission and dissemination of knowledge.⁶

The first formal Pākehā schools established in the colony of New Zealand in the early nineteenth century were based on educational practices in England and/or Scotland. Consistent with British missionary practices in Africa and the East, missionary schooling was focused on two key agendas: civilizing and christianizing Māori people.⁷ Schooling became a site through which missionary and religious groups could reproduce and legitimate selected forms of knowledge that were compatible with an assimilationist agenda. Ultimately the goal was to ensure Māori learned appropriate values, skills and ways of living.⁸

The initial years of Pākehā settlement were marked by competing interests. On the one hand, missionary groups such as the Church Missionary Society (CMS), Wesleyan Missionary Society (WMS) and Catholic Church established local schools as a mechanism for bringing about the assimilation of Māori. This was not a new concept for the British colonial government as earlier colonizing agendas in Africa, India, Canada and Australia had provided ample prior experience of establishing hierarchies of difference based on race.⁹ On the other hand, as Jones and Jenkins have shown, while Māori initially welcomed missionary schools for the opportunities they presented, ultimately Māori educational, economic and social aspirations remained largely unmet.¹⁰

Early missionary schools taught a basic curriculum that centered on skills linked with reading the Bible, reciting and writing passages of Scripture and psalms, and learning skills linked with domestic work (for Māori girls), agricultural labor (for Māori boys), supervising servants and running a household (missionary girls) and missionary work (missionary sons).¹¹ The majority of teaching was undertaken by missionary wives from both the CMS and WMS, assisted by their daughters.¹² Catholic missionaries arrived in New Zealand from 1838 onward and by 1841 had also established schools in the northern part of the country. In 1843 a Catholic school was opened in Auckland, although attendance was not restricted to children from Catholic families. Between 1842 and 1850 the church opened a number of schools in the colony as settler numbers increased.¹³

In 1847, the then Governor, George Grey, issued An Ordinance for Promoting the Education of Youth in the Colony of New Zealand. It was designed primarily to enable the government to support the educational work of the various religious denominations. More specifically, the focus was the civilization of Māori and the removal of young Māori children from their families. Grey’s educational policy was directed toward the “amalgamation” of Māori and Pākehā, thereby creating “one society”.¹⁴ Public funds were set aside to establish and maintain schools that adhered to the teaching of the English language and provided religious instruction and industrial training. Inspectors were appointed to visit schools and report to the Legislative Council on attendance, teachers’ salaries, annual costs, classroom discipline and management, and the curriculum provided.¹⁵ The ordinance reflected Grey’s views that knowledge of the English language would introduce Māori children to a superior culture, that industrial training would offer the skills considered indispensable in a European society, and that religious instruction was a core component in rescuing and uplifting the Māori race.

The original bill was unpopular due to its perceived narrow focus, and it was subsequently extended to all children. In essence, the ordinance provided state aid to denominational schools. Financial aid was available to church schools that taught religious doctrine and were open to regular inspection. Instruction was in the English language, and superintendents were appointed to oversee schools as well as employ and dismiss teachers. Although settlers were seeking some form of education for their children, government funding for schools was a contentious issue. As a compromise, pupils who did not attend religious instruction were deemed to be day scholars and parents were not compelled to send their children to schools that conflicted with their own faith.¹⁶

Between 1840 and 1852,¹⁷ New Zealand, as a Crown Colony, was politically controlled by Great Britain. In 1852, a Constitution Act heralded the beginning of self-government. The country was divided into six provinces (Auckland, New Plymouth, Wellington, Nelson, Canterbury and Otago), each with its own council with responsibility for local administration. This included schools, publicly funded and controlled by the provincial council through education boards and local committees. Each province appointed an inspector of schools who had oversight of pupil progress, teachers’ work and was responsible for building the public school system across the province. Inspection reports were dominated by concerns surrounding attendance levels, pupil behavior, teachers’ capabilities, school buildings and the low level of pupil knowledge.¹⁸ Somewhat inevitably the range of educational policies and practices reflected not only the geographical division of the provinces but also differences in educational beliefs and resources. In effect, each province attempted to create its own system and was wary of external interference or influence.

Spirited provincial discussions and debates continued over issues such as religious instruction in schools, funding, school fees and attendance.¹⁹ In Canterbury, for example, schools were predominantly established and run by the Church of England (Anglican Church), whereas in the province of Otago, to the south, mainly by the Presbyterian Church. Possibly reflecting its Scottish heritage, Otago opened a high school and by 1869 had a university in the province. In 1869 a Girls’ Provincial School opened in the southern city of Dunedin (Otago province) and offered an advanced curriculum for girls. This expansion of schooling brought increased demand for teachers, especially women teachers for the newly established girls’ schools. In the later decades of the nineteenth century, many women teachers did not possess the relevant formal teaching qualifications but had acquired the necessary personal and social attributes deemed appropriate for a teacher.

In their comprehensive history of New Zealand education, Cumming and Cumming note that “many of Otago’s teachers had already received their professional preparation in British training institutions and many, too, had attended a university”.²⁰ The majority of these teachers were males who brought the familiar model of the English and Scottish systems to the province. By way of contrast, in the province of Auckland, school attendance rates were low, until 1869 schools were almost entirely under the auspices of the churches, and qualified male teachers were difficult to find.

Despite recognition of the importance of education and the curriculum offered, less attention was directed to the training of teachers. The majority of the focus was on the administration of schools, financial costs and school buildings. The province of Canterbury, however, sought to appoint certificated teachers with professional training. Henry Tancred, first Chancellor of the University of New...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Chapter 1 Creating an Educational Heritage
• Chapter 2 Early Beginnings
• Chapter 3 Control and Regulation
• Chapter 4 Official Knowledge
• Chapter 5 Changing Environments
• Chapter 6 Evolution and Transition
• Chapter 7 Tomorrow’s Schools and Tomorrow’s Teachers
• References
• Index