Aotearoa NZ Histories Curriculum Teacher Workshop
Wednesday August 30th, 1:30-4:30
Waipahihi Botanical Reserve
When the new Aotearoa New Zealand Histories Curriculum came out, we initially thought that it would not link with what we do. After all, we teach about biodiversity and Aotearoa’s native flora and fauna. Those are Science topics, right? However, the more that we looked at the new curriculum and the accompanying resources, the more we realised that everything we do links with it. The reasons that we are planting native trees, restoring wetlands, monitoring species, and doing predator control now, are all because of decisions made in the past. So much of the kōrero that we have with our students is about what our ancestors did in the past and the reasons why they made those decisions, the impact that the decisions have had, and how we can help improve things now. We decided that by hosting a workshop about this for local teachers, we would upskill ourselves and at same time be able to show teachers how the work that we do can fit into the Social Sciences curriculum, along with other curriculum areas.
The workshop was a great chance to talk about how the biodiversity in Aotearoa has been affected by the actions and decisions of those in the past. It is good to be able to look back on what happened in the past and reflect on why people made the decisions that they made. Although some decisions were made because of necessity or lack of understanding, others were very deliberate. It is interesting to think about the different perspectives of people in the past and the way that they viewed the taiao. These different views continue today. When decisions are made we are still having to decide whether we put plants, animals, and the environment first, when things such as economics, fashion, and convenience are driving factors in people's decision making. People's attitudes and values still affect decision making around native biodiversity, but hopefully we can learn from the past.
We understand that this is just one very tiny context in a large complex curriculum, but it is one way to get conversations started about the way that different groups in the past have made decisions based on their own attitudes and values at the time. Looking at contexts such as new settlers impact on land, introducing species (and the reasons for doing so), land use, values placed on certain species over others, traditional uses of plants etc, are all relevant to what we teach about.
As we work in all local schools, we felt that it was important for us to understand the new curriculum and to think about how our mahi could be used to support it. Running this workshop has helped us to do that. Thank you to all of the teachers who came along and joined in with the kōrero and learned alongside us.
The exciting thing is that by learning about the past, students are able to make a difference and be part of changing the future. By planting native trees and taking part in weeding and predator control work, they are making Aotearoa a better place for future generations.
Supporting resources can be found here
On our website we have many other resources that support learning about the topics mentioned at our workshop, such as wetlands, introduced predators, traditional uses of plants, rongoa, our unique native species etc. Please just ask if you would like us to share our slideshow with you. We highly recommend watching the two videos below.
These two videos also have some relevant parts for those looking into the impact on the environment of early European settlers.