Past and present technocratic solutions to teaching literacy: implications for New Zealand primary teachers and literacy programmes

Abstract

The late 1990s have seen a resurgence of the arguments for a skills-focused literacy instruction programme. This article explores the New Zealand-based public and professional debates surrounding the promotion of a technocratic approach to literacy instruction during the 1940s and 1950s, and the reoccurrence of the reading debate in late 1990s. In the early stages of both literacy crises, the professional competency of education officials and primary teachers was attacked by business interests and their political allies. The aftermath of the earlier crisis highlights the failure of this mechanistic and ‘culture neutral’ view of literacy instruction to cater for Maori children. The outcomes of the earlier debate signals a need avoid a similar conclusion to the current debate by adopting a broader approach to literacy instruction in the new millennium if language and literacy instruction programmes are to cater for complex cultural contexts, and the changing technological environments