Social action – Teaching & Learning Research Initiative

Contributing to change? Responding to future-focused issues through education outside the classroom

Introduction How can educational experiences in public spaces such as museums, libraries, and eco-sanctuaries support learners to address pressing social, cultural, and ecological issues? Working with four primary teachers and two secondary teachers, their ākonga (Years 3–10), and educators from 10 providers of learning experiences outside the classroom in the Wellington region, this project investigated how the cross-curricular themes of “future-focused issues” (Ministry of Education, 2007, p. 9) and active citizenship are conceptualised and enacted through education outside the classroom. It explored how ākonga relationships with people and places beyond the school environment can stimulate their engagement with wider societal concerns. The challenges ahead for our young people and Aotearoa as

Creating active citizens: Interpreting, implementing and assessing ‘personal social action’ in NCEA social studies

Introduction Since 2013, one internally-assessed Social Studies achievement standard at each of the three levels of the National Certificate of Educational Achievement (NCEA) has required students to actively participate in a social action. Whilst these new personal social action[1] standards hold the potential to support transformative citizenship education, previous research suggests that taking social action can be viewed as ‘risky’ and time consuming. As a result, teachers stick to ‘safer’ and efficient versions of active citizenship (Taylor, 2008; Wood, Taylor, & Atkins, 2013). Our 2-year project sought to examine how these personal social action achievement standards were understood and enacted by both teachers and students and how more critical and transformative