From the Principal

The road to the unknown

Elliot Eisner is a well-known artist, teacher and educational theorist. He is famously known in New Zealand for announcing at a conference that “the road to hell is sticking to the curriculum.” Elliot has, over time through research and theory, explored options for curriculum suggesting that it goes well beyond what happens in classrooms. He outlines that there is an explicit curriculum, an implicit and also a null curriculum – that which is not taught. As this year’s impending pandemic approached, Elliot’s words came to the fore as we prepared for what was about to come.

You wonder if Elliot could have foreseen some of the future where we are indeed constructing curriculum in many different ways, examining what needs to be taught, and what isn’t taught and should be. Curriculum is and should be embedded with important basic elements, but there is a growing need for it to be responsive and creative to address an ever-changing world and prepare us all to solve some of humanity’s biggest challenges. Not wanting to exaggerate the importance of these issues, without resolution they may indeed throw the survival of the human race into question. To ignore these issues such as pandemics, environmental degradation, and social injustice, we may well have a curriculum that isn’t able to prepare our young women adequately for their future, thus proving Elliot’s theory.

Over time, the School has traditionally delivered important aspects of life that help young people. Our religious studies programme has grown to embrace the need for spiritual development along with a knowledge and understanding of some of the world’s largest religions. However, other aspects of curriculum have not been taught and should have been – especially in relation to Ma -tauranga Ma -ori and our commitment to understanding a Ma -ori world view. We believe that this is a unique point of difference for every young woman, to grasp the commitment our country has to Te Tiriti o Waitangi, and to ensure that decision making in the future is cognisant of this important cultural knowledge. In implementing this programme through our Junior High School over the next two years, we believe that it is a first in New Zealand and adds a significant body of cultural knowledge, making it part of the explicit curriculum for our girls.

It is great that New Zealand history is now finally being taught through the national curriculum but sad that it has taken this long for it to become compulsory. Being responsive through curriculum is a benefit we can enjoy in the independent sector and Dio has covered New Zealand history for the last 116 years – after all, women had an important voice. It is also why we implemented our Ethics and Leadership programmes. These past changes have moved ethical thinking and girls’ views of leadership from an implicit part of our curriculum to explicit parts. The Leadership programme particularly emphasises future-focused thinking: the ability to systematically identify aspects of a complex issue that can be examined from a range of viewpoints to fully understand the problem. It is then scoped into the future, to explore different scenarios or solutions and the impact of these, therefore assisting young women to trust their preparedness for leadership and the unknown.

Addressing these issues at Dio has been part of our ongoing growth and a commitment that has helped us manage the pandemic this year. There are multiple ways of delivering curriculum, and out of COVID-19 the extent of what we have learned demonstrates that real-world contexts provide extensive opportunities for learning – for adults and students together. The power of community was very evident, creating closer connections between widespread Dio people in all parts of the world, as well as bringing many parents into the learning environment that their daughters shared with us. While schools have often been posited with the entire responsibility for every new aspect of education, this involved the whole community in a heart-warming collaboration – something we should continue to value and nurture. Through you and the unpredictable ways of the world, we must continue through multiple lenses to see what is important, to have the courage to drop what is not, and to have in our hands the ability and confidence to change the future.

Ut Serviamus!

“Out of COVID-19 the extent of what we have learned demonstrates that real-world contexts provide extensive opportunities for learning – this involved the whole community in a heart-warming collaboration – something we should continue to value and nurture.”