Executive Summary

Overview of the project

Until the 1990s, New Zealand teachers completed their initial teacher education in one of a small number of specialist colleges of education. The deregulation of teacher education, the introduction of a competitive market, and changes in funding policies in the 1990s saw significant growth in the number of new providers and qualifications. By 2005, there were 27 providers offering 85 different qualifications.

Since 1996, there has been a series of reviews of initial teacher education, such as the Education and Science Parliamentary Select Committee inquiry, which indicated disquiet about the quality of initial teacher education in New Zealand. But there has been no clear evidence for the concerns, and, in particular, no national review of initial teacher education that takes into account the diversity of qualifications being offered.

National and international research shows the significant impact teachers have on the quality of teaching and learning and the correlation between initial teacher education and quality of teaching and learner achievement.¹

Government policies focusing on teaching quality and anecdotal evidence about quality and variability of initial teacher education have reinforced the need for systematic research to inform future policy and practice.

To meet this need, the Ministry of Education and the New Zealand Teachers Council, in 2004 and 2005, commissioned a research programme comprising four studies. With the exception of the first study, which focused on primary and secondary, the studies are of early childhood, primary and secondary initial teacher education. Together, the studies provide a comprehensive overview of the characteristics of initial teacher education in New Zealand.

For more background information on research on initial teacher education in New Zealand, refer to Cameron and Baker, pp. 13–24.

The four studies

The four studies commissioned by the Ministry of Education and the Teachers Council are:

1. Quality of Initial Teacher Education: Analysis of New Zealand Teachers Council Documentation
   This small study of a sample of archived initial teacher education programme approval documents and monitoring reports held by the New Zealand Teachers Council was conducted by Marie Cameron in February 2004.
2. Research on Initial Teacher Education in New Zealand: 1993–2004. Literature Review and Annotated Bibliography
   This literature review and annotated bibliography was completed by Marie Cameron and Robyn Baker, of the New Zealand Council for Educational Research.
3. Initial Teacher Education Policy and Practice.
   This is a systematic description of initial teacher education in the early childhood, primary and secondary sectors in New Zealand. The lead researcher was Professor Ruth Kane, College of Education, Massey University.
4. Perspectives of People outside Tertiary Institutions Involved in Initial Teacher Education: Working Paper
   This paper explores what those involved in teacher education, excluding providers, understand as quality initial teacher education. The lead researcher was Dr Janinka Greenwood of the Christchurch College of Education.

Summary of the four studies

This report provides an overview of the four studies in the research programme, and the key themes they identify. It is hoped it will provide a useful summary for all those individuals and groups with an interest in initial teacher education in New Zealand .

How the research was done

Each study in the research programme had a different focus and used different, but complementary, methods. These are outlined below.

Key findings from across the studies

The key findings from across the four studies are summarised under the following headings:

• the structure and organisation of initial teacher education
• student teachers, including selection criteria and exit or graduating standards, and newly qualified teachers
• initial teacher education programmes: content and curriculum, the practicum, and teacher educators
• quality assurance policy and processes.

Structure and organisation of initial teacher education

The studies show the provision of initial teacher education in New Zealand is complex and diverse.

The number of providers has increased significantly from the six colleges of education who were the sole providers of teacher education until the 1990s to 27 providers in 2005 – nine private training establishments, seven polytechnics, six universities, three wānanga and two colleges of education.

New Zealand also provides a variety of sites and modes of study, including multi-site delivery through main and satellite campuses; face-to-face, distance-based and web-based learning; flexible, part-time courses; and, early childhood education, also offers centre-based programmes. The distance, web-based and flexible delivery models make the qualifications available to rural communities and students who are unable to attend a course at a main centre. Web-based courses are increasingly used to supplement campus-based courses.

Kane found universities and colleges of education dominated primary and secondary provision, accounting for more than 90 per cent of primary and 96 per cent of secondary student teacher enrolments in 2005. Private training establishments and institutes of technology/polytechnics offered mostly early childhood qualifications, and together these two groups accounted for more than 50 per cent of the student intake for qualifications in this sector in 2005². Wānanga offer only early childhood and primary qualifications, and accounted for less than three per cent of the student intake in 2005 (see Table 1).

The teacher education programmes offered by wānanga were mostly Māori-centred and Māori medium qualifications, although most immersion and bilingual teachers were prepared within the university sector.

There was a large number of qualifications, with a total of 85 different qualifications offered through 131 programmes.³

Just under half of providers of initial teacher education offered only one qualification, and this was typically an early childhood qualification.

In all, 20 providers offered early childhood education qualifications, 17 offered primary qualifications and 10 offered secondary qualifications.

In the early childhood sector, the main qualifications were three-year undergraduate diploma and degree qualifications. The predominant qualification in the primary sector was the three-year undergraduate degree, while the main qualification in the secondary sector was a one-year graduate diploma.

However, there were also one-year graduate diplomas for early childhood and primary teaching and a small number of three or four-year degree combined qualifications that prepared for teaching across the early childhood and early primary years, or across the primary and secondary years. There were also specialist two-year qualifications, and four-year double degree qualifications (for example, a bachelor of arts or science with teaching).

Footnotes

1. See, for example, Cochran-Smith, M. & Zeichner, K. (Eds.). (2005). Studying Teacher Education: The Report of the AERA Panel on Research and Teacher Education. AERA Washington D.C. New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
2. Kane identified Te Tari Puna Ora o Aotearoa/New Zealand Childcare Association as a PTE. It is in fact an OTEP (Other Tertiary Education Provider)
3. Kane defined a programme as a different pathway to a particular qualification; for example. studying for a qualification from a site other than the main campus, or through distance, web-based or field-based learning. She examined only base qualifications, not separate programmes.