Twenty-First Century Learning and the Case for More Knowledge About Knowledge

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to contribute to the debate about the phenomenon known in Aotearoa New Zealand as twenty-first Century Learning. In recent additions to the local literature Hirschman and Wood (2018) have noted a lack of critical engagement with this narrative which is fast becoming normalised in New Zealand, and Lourie (2020) has shown how and why twenty-first century skills and competencies have been increasingly emphasised over traditional forms of knowledge. In responding to this literature I identify a number of problems with the narrative but my key purpose is to engage with what I regard as the deeper and more fundamental problem—a lack of ‘knowledge about knowledge’. I use Young and Muller’s (2010) 3 Futures scenarios to create a context from which to critique this knowledge gap and its contagion effects in the use of ‘big ideas’ in the current review of the National Certificate of Education Achievement. I argue that epistemically structured knowledge is our main resource for deep learning and that equitable access to this form of knowledge is a social justice issue. A more epistemologically informed approach to the changes currently being promoted in New Zealand education is required to mitigate the effects of epistemologically weak curriculum making encouraged by the twenty-first learning narrative.