This thesis examines the demise of the centrality of cultural-heritage ideals in literacy instruction and its replacement with a technocratic view of literacy instruction which empasised the mechanics of reading. The shift in these ideals, which have underpinned literacy instruction in the New Zealand primary school curriculum, is traced from the establishment of a �high-culture� British imperially-based notion of culture in the late 1920s to its replacement with a technocratic approach to literacy instruction in the revisions to primary school curriculum policy in the mid-1950s. This rise of a technocratic approach to literacy instruction resulted from what Frank Fischer has called a �quiet revolution�, where complex interactions between educational administrators, teacher unions, politicians, influential teachers, teacher educators, and politics in the administrative hierarchies and policies which governed the New Zealand primary school.
This study provides an alternative vision of the history of the development of the New Zealand primary school curriculum. Previous New Zealand curriculum historians have portrayed the development of the primary school curriculum as a progressive evolution from the �old� methods of the early decades of mass education to the �modern� methods of the 1940s and 1950s. In contrast to the traditional view of the development of the New Zealand curriculum, this historical account of the development of literacy instruction in New Zealand focuses upon the political, cultural, and ideological processes that underpinned curriculum policy and practice during the period under investigation.
By the mid-1950s, the overt ideals of English cultural imperialism had been exchanged for �scientific efficiency�. In this, �value-free� methods continued to embody dominant cultural beliefs under the supposedly neutral approaches of a technocratic approach to literacy. It is argued that the dominance of the cultural-heritage model of literacy instruction, with its elitist version of English language and culture, promoted a British-based �high-culture� tradition in the literacy curriculum. When the supposedly �value-neutral� methodologies were applied to literacy instruction in the early 1950s, these values survived as this technocratic approach to reading disengaged literacy instruction from the wider cultural, political, and social context.
In recent years, the debates over reading techniques have once again surfaced in the public and academic press. These debates need to acknowledge this historical context and work towards a more balanced vision of literacy instruction, where literacy is not merely defined as the reading of the word. Current debates over reading techniques, curriculum policy, and literacy instruction practices need to view literacy as a complex process which is linked to a wider political and cultural world.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ADTP/266307 |
| Date | January 1997 |
| Creators | Soler, Janet M, n/a |
| Publisher | University of Otago. Faculty of Education |
| Source Sets | Australiasian Digital Theses Program |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Rights | http://policy01.otago.ac.nz/policies/FMPro?-db=policies.fm&-format=viewpolicy.html&-lay=viewpolicy&-sortfield=Title&Type=Academic&-recid=33025&-find), Copyright Janet M Soler |
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