State Education and Historical Reappraisal: Changes to the Draft Version of the Aotearoa New Zealand’s Histories Curriculum Content

Abstract

English-medium state schools in New Zealand have been directed to begin implementing the new Aotearoa New Zealand’s histories curriculum content from 2023. In response to the draft version of the curriculum document, Bell & Russell (Bell and Russell, New Zealand Journal of Educational Studies 57:21–35, 2022) highlighted the centrality of Māori histories and critical engagement with colonialism within the document and argued implementation could inaugurate “a new phase in narrating the nation” (p. 21). However, changes to the draft version have created more flexibility for teaching and learning to avoid the most challenging and transformative aspects of the curriculum content. This article employs Deleuze and Guattari’s (Deleuze, G., & Guattari, F. (1987). A thousand plateaus: Capitalism and schizophrenia (B. Massumi Trans.). University of Minnesota Press.) concepts of the assemblage and deterritorialization to analyse the changes to the draft and explore the relationships between historical reappraisal and state education. These changes provide a locus to examine the workings of the state education assemblage and gain insights into where efforts can be directed to support transformative history education in Aotearoa.