John O'Neill

Getting below the Surface of the Principal Recruitment ‘Crisis’ in New Zealand Primary Schools

Since 1989 in New Zealand, the work of the primary school principal has been transformed in official policy texts from that of leading professional to chief executive officer. Surveys document the changing nature of the role and the workload and other pressures that have resulted, particularly for principals with teaching responsibilities in smaller schools. There is a generally accepted crisis of preparation, recruitment, development and retention. Below the surface, however, are deeper-seated, structural difficulties: women comprise the majority of teachers, yet are a minority of principals and their career advancement is largely limited to small schools and those in poorer socioeconomic areas. This article reviews the situation and examines the reasons why dominant images of the primary school principalship may be both partial and counterproductive.

Rationality and rationalisation in teacher education policy discourse in New Zealand

Background: A newly elected centre-right coalition government in New Zealand was forced to deal with the cumulative fiscal consequences of two unforeseen challenges: a global financial crisis in September 2008 and two major seismic events in the countrys second largest city in 2009 and 2010. This paper examines the way in which policies for initial and continuing teacher education were reshaped thereafter and the justifications provided by government for these changes. Purpose: The paper examines the plausibility of the governments contemporary ‘crisis’ discourse and aims to show how ‘rational’ education policy changes also carry broader ideological and political agendas for teacher education. Thus, current changes to teacher education policy are located in the historical context of trends over the last two decades. Sources of Evidence: The paper uses official statements by government and officials to show how they justified the policy changes as the only possible responses to an external economic crisis. Secondary sources of statistical economic data and policy texts are used to demonstrate that equally plausible alternative responses were overlooked, rejected or ignored. Main argument: The paper construes teacher education policy as both text and discourse. It is argued that the media statements of politicians and officials are intended to secure popular approval for public education austerity measures, while at the same time masking an underlying political and ideological project and ignoring the informed policy rebuttals of some educationists. Conclusions: The steps taken in New Zealand to respond to a short- to medium-term national fiscal crisis have major long-term consequences for teacher education. Most apparent is the continued failure to acknowledge the major incremental reductions in public subsidies for initial teacher education that have occurred year on year since the early 1990s and, instead, to reiterate the new public management ideology of further public service efficiencies.

Voice and the Ethics of Children's Agency in Educational Research

In both educational research and educational reform work, “student voice” methodologies assume that children are competent social agents. For historical and cultural reasons, institutional research ethics procedures commonly assume that children are not. This chapter discusses the ethics of children’s agency in educational research, drawing on watershed discourses in the biomedical and social science research literatures. Three recent historico-ethical discourses are summarised: the child as not yet a person, the child as person and the child as agent. It is argued that in the first of these, the child’s voice is often inferred, in the second, it is respected and acknowledged, but only in the third does “student voice” educational research hold the possibility of becoming genuinely child-centric. The chapter discusses the need for empathetic consideration of research ethics from the position of the child and concludes with practical suggestions for increasing children’s agency and voice in educational research.