Yep – We Can Do That: Technological Response to Curriculum ‘Needs’ Arising

Oct 15, 2026

New Zealand released a new national curriculum, the New Zealand Curriculum (NZC), with major implications for rebuilding compulsory and senior secondary schooling. The paper introduces the “givens” within the NZC—Principles, Values and Attitudes, and Key Competencies—along with the learning areas concept. It then reviews technology in New Zealand and describes the revised technology learning area, showing how technology education can meet curriculum “needs” through innovative approaches that strengthen students’ technological literacy and citizenship.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages16

Reading Time40 min

AccessFree to download

Introduction

The ‘Givens’

The Paper’s Structure and Purpose

The ‘Givens’

Directions for Learning and Guidance

Technology Education in the NZC

Technology’s Key Constructs and Approaches

Conclusion

Accountability, Professional Responsibility, and Open Issues

Yep – We Can Do That: Technological response to the curriculum ‘needs’ arising… Vicki Compton, The University of Auckland, New Zealand Abstract New Zealand has recently released a new national curriculum presented as the New Zealand Curriculum (NZC) (Ministry of Education, 2007) . This document has significant implications for the future redevelopment of both the compulsory school curriculum and the noncompulsory senior secondary school curriculum. After a general introduction, this paper is divided into three main sections. In the first section, I explain the ‘givens’presented in the NZC, these being the overarching Principles, Values and Attitudes, and the Key Competencies. I also outline the concept of ‘Learning Areas’ – as opposed to subjects. In the second section, I provide a brief overview of technology in New Zealand and present the key constructs of the revised technology learning area in the NZC. In the third section, I discuss and illustrate ways in which technology education can work to address the ‘givens’ in innovative ways that support the development of student technological literacy and general citizenship. I conclude the paper with an acknowledgement of potential issues, and express my opinion that while technology is well placed to respond to‘needs’ arising, we should also be thinking about how much of this responsibility we should take on. Introduction New Zealand has recently released a new national curriculum – the New Zealand Curriculum 1 (NZC)(Ministry of Education, 2007) and its parallel document Te Marautanga o Aoteroa2 (Ministry of Education, 2008) . The underpinning curriculum reform and development leading to the release of the NZC continued a shift away from traditional views of national curricula as prescriptive documentation of content and/or skills to be ‘delivered’. The preceding national curriculum document – the New Zealand Curriculum Framework (NZCF) (Ministry of Education, 1993) had already begun to embrace this shift. However the development of separate learning area documents in support of the NZCF was undertaken in a somewhat ad hoc fashion. This led to a significant amount of national curriculum inconsistency in structure, terminology and underpinning theories of learning and pedagogy. In response to this, a national curriculum stocktake was undertaken in 2001-2002 via a National School Sampling Survey (NSSS) . This was followed by the New Zealand Curriculum Marautanga3 Project (NZCMP) which drew from the stocktake findings and understandings gained from the relatively recent implementation of the National Certificate of Educational Achievement (NCEA) into New Zealand senior secondary schools. The NZCMP ran over a four year period and sought to add languages as a new area, and bring together this and the original seven learning area curriculum documents (of which technology was one) and the NZCF into a single comprehensive and internally consistent document to be viewed as an overarching framework (Ministry of Education, 2002) . This document – the NZC was released on 6 October 2007. The NZC (Ministry of Education, 2007) can be thought of as something similar to a ‘code of practice’, within which teachers work as professionals, to develop programmes in keeping, but not prescribed by, this document. To work as professionals, teachers are expected to have sound general educational understandings and, particularly in the case of primary teachers, an increasingly deeper understanding of all the learning areas and the similarities and differences between them. It is also expected that an essential component of school and classroom curriculum design would be the incorporation of the needs and interests of individual students, and an understanding of school and wider community’s, social, cultural and political perspectives. All of this reflects a significantly increased level of responsibility for teachers and, with that, possibilities for increased ‘accountability’ practice

FAQs

What are the “givens” in the New Zealand Curriculum (NZC) discussed in the paper?

The “givens” include the overarching Principles, Values and Attitudes, and the Key Competencies that schools are expected to address through their curriculum design.

How does the paper distinguish learning areas from traditional subjects?

It outlines the concept of “Learning Areas” as opposed to subjects, positioning them as a framework for curriculum organization and teaching planning.

What role does technology education play in responding to curriculum “needs” arising?

The paper explains and illustrates ways technology education can address the NZC “givens” innovatively, supporting development of students’ technological literacy and general citizenship.

Oct 15, 2026

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