Rata Has Te Whāriki In Her Sights
On 19 October, 2024, Elizabeth Rata and Erica Stanford talked. And on 20 October, 2024, Rata emailed Stanford with "the speech notes" from “yesterday” for her to read before they next met. In those notes, Rata rails against the "Learning Approach" and decolonisation, the "political agenda to transform New Zealand".
One of the effects of the Learning Approach (which she says also goes by the names of "learnification, constructivism, OECDvi inspired 21st century learning, technological competencies"), Rata says, is for learning activities "to affirm children's racial identity using 'culturally responsive pedagogies'". She provides a list of six results, such as: "Race identity emphasised" and a "Focus on emotions (therapeutic education)". Overall, Rata states, the "unholy alliance of the learning approach and decolonisation" have led to the decline of our "once first-class education system". Students now "spend years in superficial project- based learning, in acquiring skills without understanding, in neurotically exploring their subjective feelings to achieve 'wellbeing’, in mindless hours on computers, and in cultivating a racialised identity apparently essential for achieving – as the lie has it".
And so, Rata declares to Stanford, she was "privileged to be the Lead Writer for the years 7-13 knowledge rich English curriculum (and yes – Shakespeare and Grammar are there). It will be, I hope, along with still-to- be-written Science and History curricula, the circuit breaker in replacing the Learning Approach and ending decolonisation's success."
Rata makes a number of further recommendations, including: "Replace the Te Whariki curriculum's constructivist approach with a teacher-directed one so that young children are taught the oral and symbolic (alphabetical and numerical) foundations needed for primary school."
It is an idea she had brought up in an email to David Seymour on 24 June, 2024:
"Although ECE are already private, they need the option to be autonomous from the Ministry and to be able to reject that very flawed Te Whariki curriculum - imposed on all centres since the 1990s. I'm sure that you've thought of the idea and suggest that it's one worth developing. I mentioned it to Lesley Max and she is very keen so the idea may grow through her networks and enter the media."
Seymour agrees: "The issue is the curriculum requirements, which Erica is responsible for. I expect her reviewing it will make some progress there."
On 16 January, 2025, Rata emails Stanford a letter, signed by Emeritus Professor Brian Boyd, Dr Brian Jones, Dr David Lillis, Emeritus Professor John Raine, Professor Peter Schwerdtfeger, and herself, titled Early Childhood Curriculum Resource - Kōwhiti Whakapae. In it, they urge Erica to "take action". Why? The resource is not an educational one, they say. Instead it is a
"political document which promotes identity politics through its focus on Te Tiriti o Waitangi and te ao Māori cultural beliefs and practices. It does not focus on the knowledge and skills needed by young children as a foundation for future schooling. That foundation requires specific teaching to ensure young children's oral language development, especially in the specialised English and mathematics vocabulary and concepts that provide the basis for school subjects. Apart from Māori and Pacific language ECE centres, this language is English."
Given Rata's firmly embedded in Stanford's inside group, and Seymour is a fan, we must take this seriously.