The Conditions of Education Reform under New Public Management: Five Political Currents Influencing the ‘Tomorrow’s Schools’ Reform in New Zealand

Abstract

  The ‘Tomorrow’s Schools’ reform in New Zealand since the late 1980’s has been known as a typical realisation of a new public management (NPM) model. How and why was the reform carried out in a manner that was extremely thorough and loyal to the NPM model, and what philosophical and political currents shaped the reform?

  This paper articulates five political currents that set the stage for the reform: democratic formulation by the Left, new institutional economics, managerialism, the New Right, and Tino Rangatiratanga. The paper also explores the political situation surrounding the Kura Kaupapa Māori that became state schools under the ‘Tomorrow’s Schools’ reform. It investigates how the Kura Kauappa Māori gained the status of state schools despite impediments.

  The political position evident in the Educational Development Conference of 1974 and ‘The Curriculum Review’ of 1984 have been termed liberal progressive, participatory democracy, or democratic populism. The Review was published under the Fourth Labour Government based on extensive public consultations. Its anti-racist, anti-sexist message emphasising the partnership of students, teachers, families, and the community was widely accepted by the Left camp and educationalists.

  ‘Government Management’, released in 1987 by the Treasury, reflected the new institutional economics that incorporated public choice, transaction cost, and agency theory. Although it valued the community involvement promoted by ‘The Review’, it argued for the partnership through the market order claiming that it would otherwise only promote the interests of the middle class or those of the institutions. The Picot Report, the blueprint for the reform, was the product of a compromise, as has been interpreted, between the Left and new institutional economics, both of which validated the partnership. However, the coming into power of the National Party in 1990 changed the balance.

  Managerialism, based on the belief that improved management resolves economic and social malaise, manifested itself in ‘Today’s Schools’ under the National government in 1990, led by the initiative of the Treasury and the State Services Commission. The report argued for clearer definitions that the Board of Trustees would take on the role of governance and the principal of management. The report, emphasising the managerial model rather than a cooperative decision-making one, marked the introduction of the NPM model constituted of new institutional economics and managerialism.

  The New Right thinking was apparent in ‘New Zealand Schools’, a report by Sexton, an educational advisor for the Thatcher government, who was entrusted by the Business Roundtable to write the report. The report sharpened the contentions of institutional economics and managerialism, contained arguments common to those by Friedman and Hayek, and confronted the leftist idea of democratic control by the citizens. Moreover, although ‘Government Management’ and ‘Today’s Schools’ both appreciated the Treaty of Waitangi and apprehended the state’s role in reviving the cultural heritage of the Māori, Sexton dismissed its importance.

  Equity interests in ‘Government Management’ and ‘Today’s Schools’ indicate the influence of Tino Rangatiratanga or the Māori self-determination movement at the time of the reform. Gaining impetus in the 1970s, total Māori immersion preschools, Kōhanga Reo, were created and soon attended by almost half the Māori preschool children in New Zealand.

  This was followed by the opening of Kura Kaupapa Māori, the total immersion schools, and the attainment of legal recognition under the Tomorrow’s Schools reform as state schools. Although the movement, as the movement leader reflects, took advantage of the change to gain the status of state schools, it can be considered that for the contender of institutional (View PDF for the rest of the abstract.)