This paper will provide critical analyses of the contexts of learning, teaching and education in New Zealand from a variety of historical, philosophical, political and sociological perspectives. The paper will provide knowledge and understanding of political debates pertaining to education and the policies resulting from these, the historical events and political philosophies that shape the institutions New Zealanders work within and cultural and economic changes that impact the education of individuals and families in New Zealand. It will provide an examination of the nature and role of education as a major humanities and social sciences discipline. Bi-cultural, historical, philosophical and sociological perspectives will be applied critically to a broad spectrum of educational issues, activities, and organisations.

This paper will be a key paper for supporting academic literacy. To understand the New Zealand context students need to engage in a range of academic reading modes, critique policy and be able to interpret graphs, statistics and use different forms of information as evidence to support academic writing. There will be numerous opportunities to select readings and documents where these skills can be scaffolded in context. The paper will foster an awareness of how theory helps us to make sense of our world, of how and what happens and why. Theory enables us to become aware of and understand the often hidden assumptions underpinning practice, and is also necessary for the process of critical thinking.

This paper will be taught within the MMP program. It includes a block course lecture, and a number of moodle based activities including online task sheets, panopto, moodle based quizzes and surveys, and links to readings and videos.

Moodle work is broken up into modules, most of which will take a fortnight, that will include a short introductory panopto, a task sheet, readings, and a group discussion.

All assessments should be handed in using the doc.x format, 1.5 spacing and in 12 point font using Arial, New times roman or Calibri font.

You can get an office package including Word, and Excel for free from the library website if you require however this format can also be provided using google docs.

you have a question relating to the paper overall, please contact your lecturer, Maggie Lyall. Contact details can be found at the beginning of this outline.

This paper, as a 15-point paper, has an expected workload of 10 hours weekly or 150 hours across the semester. This will include time spent completing your module task sheet, writing assignments, readings and engaging in an online discussion for each module.