Local Innovation or Government Initiative? Curriculum Specialisation in New Zealand’s Education Quasi–Market

Citation

Priestley M, Higham J & Sharp P (2000) Local Innovation or Government Initiative? Curriculum Specialisation in New Zealand’s Education Quasi–Market. New Zealand Journal of Educational Studies, 35 (1), pp. 61-78. http://www.nzare.org.nz/publications.html

Abstract
Specialist schools and schools offering specialisation in a particular curriculum area are an increasingly common feature of education systems around the world today. In many countries, such specialisation is largely driven by government policy. In England, for instance, successive governments have, as a matter of policy, offered substantial funding to schools that have been prepared to specialise in the areas of Technology, Foreign Languages, the Arts and Sport. In New Zealand, no such impetus has existed, and yet both diversification and specialisation have occurred in some schools. The authors draw upon research carried out in several New Zealand schools in suggesting reasons why such developments have occurred.

Keywords
curriculum specialisation; curriculum diversity; curriculum policy

Journal
New Zealand Journal of Educational Studies: Volume 35, Issue 1

People

Professor Mark Priestley

Professor, Education