TheFlippedScientist

I have been following from afar the #ulearn17 conference in New Zealand last week. In particular, the keynote address of  Dr. Ann Milne of Colouring in the white spaces: Cultural identity and community in white stream schools . This is in part because I am fascinated by how we see educational technology and 'future-focused learning' sitting in relation to equity in schools and communities. The articles of Benjamin Doxtdator  and Karen Spencer have challenged the assumptions of which a majority of schools see how to prepare our learners for an uncertain future.  They argue that the present obsession with 21st-century learning skills is a continuation of the hegemonic vision produced for and by the dominant capitalist neo-liberal paradigm to help maintain the social and economic status quo. This view suggests that the education system deliberately fails to take into consideration the values and beliefs of any other interpretation of the world. Young people who ent...

So the NZ elections are over and we await the formation of the next Government. Many people ask me here in China as to why I am not teaching in NZ, it is after all in their eyes NZ is a clean and green paradise and yes I do miss the ability to get lost hiking in rain forests of the North Island or trekking the Heaphy trail. However, although I do miss these things, I also have to consider the reality of where my profession sits back home. Despite the rhetoric from politicians, teaching in New Zealand is now a low-status profession due mostly to their policies. The helps explain why fewer and fewer of our graduates want a career in teaching. The also goes some way to explaining the now chronic shortage of qualified teachers in Auckland with me as a teacher in the early part of his career symptomatic of the problem. I left because my pay and career prospects were not sufficient to afford to continue to live there. This is depressing as I love Auckland, from its multiculturali...