"What better way to start the year?" said Dr John Langley, Dean of the Faculty of Education, at a particularly warm and inclusive event held to launch a book of great significance to teacher education in New Zealand.
Entitled Ngā Kaupapa Here: Connections and Contradictions in Education, this book was published by CENG AGE Learning and edited by four of the faculty staff: Dr Vicki Carpenter, Dr Joce Jesson, Associate Professor Peter Roberts and Dr Maxine Stephenson (all from the School of Critical Studies in Education).
"This book," said John Langley, "contributes to the process of nationhood, our understanding of each other, who we are, what we are and what we stand for."
Head of School, Dr Airini, in introducing the speakers for the evening, spoke of the considerable effort required to bring together such a huge team. She gave tribute not only to the editors but also to the contributors, many of whom were drawn from within the Faculty of Education.
Chapters were also contributed by academics from Bristol, Monash, and Massey Universities, and Eastern Institute of Technology.
Guest speaker was Emeritus Professor Ivan Snook, former Dean of Education at Massey University. He discussed chapter content, and signalled the importance of the book, and the teacher education courses the book is intended to inform.
Ngā Kaupapa Here encourages students and practising teachers to analyse and critique the political and professional contexts that impact on their work and on students’ learning. Its comprehensive text provides students with a contemporary and historical view of the relationship between educators, teachers and the state. It addresses questions of class, culture, ethnicity and gender. Contributors examine local and global influences on education in New Zealand, and show that social and economic trends affect the nature and direction of educational change. They also focus on the history of education, deeper philosophical and sociological questions, and theory-informed teacher practice.
Unique to this publication is the chapter written in Te Reo. This chapter explores the economic and political dimensions of education in indigenous cultures.
* Picture: Left to right are Vicki Carpenter, Peter Roberts, Joce Jesson and Maxine Stephenson, the four editors of the publication. In the background to the left is a framed photo of contributor Emeritus Professor John Codd, of Massey University, who died on Christmas Day, 2007, before the book was published.
