Revisiting New Zealand's radical educational reforms: continuities and disjunctures

Abstract

This paper endorses Dick Selleck and Geoffrey Sherington's view that public policy-making is characterised by both fluidity and contestability. In April 1988, the report of a Taskforce headed by Brian Picot recommended major reforms in New Zealand's public education system. Even today, however, there is controversy regarding the major influences on the Taskforce. Utilising untapped primary source material to revisit the deliberations of the Taskforce, this paper epitomises the strongly evidence-based approaches that have long characterised the scholarship of Dick and of Geoff.

Keywords:

• education reform
• policy-making
• Picot Taskforce
• Tomorrow's Schools
• contestability
• bureaucracy

Notes on contributor

Professor Emeritus Roger Openshaw holds a Personal Chair in History of Education in the Institute of Education, Massey University. He had six years' teaching experience in New Zealand primary and intermediate schools prior to becoming a university researcher and teacher. His current research interests include education policy, the history and politics of literacy, social studies and citizenship education, curriculum history, the politics of ethnicity, and the changing nature of educational theory and practice. He has written/co-written/edited/co-edited many national and international books and articles and remains active in various research projects.