Low-Beer’s survey of teachers in 15 Wellington Junior schools asked whether students at the end Form 4, that is at the end of the compulsory Social Studies course, had an overall view of New Zealand human history. The framework of Social Studies in the 1980s, like today, was sociological, based on general conceptions of human nature and interaction. In 1986, Ann Low-Beer, a visiting British historian, reported that the majority of Social Studies teachers had no training in history, and historical material like primary resources hardly existed. History as such plays a minor part in this. With little changes in formulation its aims have been to prepare children for life in New Zealand society, to introduce them to democratic institutions and make them eligible citizens. The main objective of Social Studies since its introduction in 1947 has not been to teach history. The underlying assumption here is that ‘any school curriculum, regardless of its composition, is invariably a political instrument.’ Openshaw and Archer have shown that even Social Studies, which have been regarded as unbiased and value-free, are as indoctrinated as history syllabi of the early 20th century. It looks for patterns within the curriculum content that indicate certain ideological directions at the time the curricula were written, and for changes in these patterns over time. It concentrates on the one hand on content that refers to race relations in the country, to see what information was included or excluded to draw a certain picture of race relations on the other hand it looks at how New Zealand interprets its links to other countries, to find out where it places itself culturally and politically in the world. This essay analyses the content of the New Zealand Social Studies and History syllabi of the past 55 years. Secondary Sources (in alphabetical order) Introduction Relations in the South Pacific and Asia and Studies of Imperialism The monocultural nature of the 1961/1981 syllabus The 1981 reassessment of the 1961 syllabus
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