The history of secondary school science education in New Zealand
This thesis is an account of the history of secondary school science education in New Zealand. Three interdependent empirical studies were used to examine the hypothesis that the value given to modern science1 within education policy has changed from the late nineteenth century to the present. In the first study historical data was collected from the archives of Auckland Girls’ Grammar School, Baradene College of the Sacred Heart, and from national, local, and online archival services. The second study also used data from archives and from public and independent educational organisations such as recent curriculum documents and policy reports. Interviews with a former Auckland Girls’ Grammar principal and a former student and teacher from Baradene comprise the third study. The analysis of the empirically obtained data revealed the existence of a tension between opposing positions about how the world should be understood. This tension, which I theorise using the two conceptual categories of scientific approach and culturalism, has been shaped by different social and political forces and has taken on different forms throughout the period under investigation. The data shows that in response to intellectual forces during the late nineteenth century, the tension started to shift towards the influence of science. In contrast, during the late twentieth century, in response to ideological forces the tension had moved towards the influence of culture in New Zealand’s science curriculum with a commensurate decline in the value awarded to modern science.
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