Abstract:
One of the important tenets of John Dewey's work is a connection between the child and the society in which they existed (Dewey 1915) The term place- based curriculum emerged in the 1980s from the work of Malcolm Skilbeck (1980). It was then used as descriptor of school curriculum which focuses content on the immediate concerns of the learner, and their own experience, in order to make sense of the world. The New Zealand 1990s Curriculum Review was largely underpinned by these ideals, alongside those of teacher-created curriculum and an enhanced teacher professionalism. However the Curriculum Review as it was being implemented also established a series of largely unexamined tenets for curriculum planning which in spite of the published curriculum statements, implied that there was a right answer for curriculum, and its assessment. In other words, curriculum was assessment, whether it was at secondary level through the NCEA or now as national standards for primary schools. In the current climate, the neo-liberal educational policy environment is pushing schools and teachers to measuring appropriate predetermined responses, in which creating curriculum is somehow a given. This is leading to resistances with a stand off between the politicians and teachers, but no real sense of curriculum. A more positive way forward will be for recognising that a 21st century education should reflect a more deeper understanding of place, how the place came to be that way, and where is that place and its people going? This presentation uses the example of a place- based consideration of some curriculum for Thames- Waihi. This arises because 2012 is 100 years after the death of Frederick Evans, the leader of the striking miners on 12 November, 1912. The town surrounds a company town of Newmont Mining Ltd (US) and Fonterra ( NZ) , the example of the past creating the future.