The Professional Practice of Teaching in New Zealand
6th Edition. Melbourne: Cengage Learning, 2019
📋 Overview
The 6th edition of this foundational NZ ITE text, edited by Mary Hill and Martin Thrupp, represents the most comprehensive version of the text before the 2024 7th edition refresh. Still widely used and referenced, the 6th edition reflects the curriculum and policy landscape of 2019 — pre-COVID, pre-refreshed NZC, but with strong coverage of the key pedagogical debates that define NZ teaching.
The 6th edition has particular value for its historical framing: it contextualises contemporary NZ teaching within a longer trajectory of educational reform, making explicit connections between policy periods, international trends, and classroom practice. Martin Thrupp's chapters on the politics of education and school effectiveness are especially important for developing critical literacy about educational discourse.
When used alongside the 7th edition (Abbiss et al., 2024), this text provides valuable perspective on how the profession has changed — and what has remained stubbornly constant. Read both in dialogue, not as substitutes for each other.
📊 6th Edition vs 7th Edition: Key Differences
📘 6th Edition (Hill & Thrupp, 2019)
- Pre-COVID — assumes traditional classroom settings
- Lighter on digital technologies integration
- Stronger historical/political framing (Thrupp)
- Reflects pre-refreshed NZC (2007 version)
- Less explicit Te Tiriti framing throughout
- Strong coverage of effective teaching research
📗 7th Edition (Abbiss et al., 2024)
- Post-COVID — addresses hybrid/online learning
- Strong digital technologies chapter
- Te Tiriti explicit throughout, not just one chapter
- Reflects refreshed NZC (2022 version)
- Stronger Pasifika and culturally sustaining framing
- New: Aotearoa NZ Histories coverage
🎯 Enduring Key Arguments (Across Both Editions)
- Professional practice requires reflective inquiry, not just compliance. Both editions argue that the Teaching Council standards are a floor, not a ceiling — genuine professional practice involves ongoing inquiry into your own effectiveness.
- Curriculum is political. What is included or excluded from curriculum is a political decision. Teachers need to be critical consumers of curriculum, not just deliverers of it.
- School effectiveness research has limits. Thrupp's chapters critically engage with school effectiveness literature, arguing it often underestimates the structural conditions (poverty, policy) that constrain what schools can achieve.
- Assessment is more than measurement. Assessment shapes what students believe about themselves as learners. The edition covers formative assessment deeply, drawing on Black & Wiliam's research.
💬 Key Quotes from the 6th Edition
"The Teaching Council Standards should be understood as a foundation for professional practice, not its ceiling. The standards describe minimum requirements — effective teachers go far beyond minimum requirements."— Hill & Thrupp (eds.), 2019
"What gets counted in school effectiveness research often reflects whose values and whose outcomes are prioritised. A critical reading of effectiveness research asks: effective for whom, and in whose interests?"— Thrupp, in Hill & Thrupp (eds.), 2019
💭 Discussion Questions
- How has NZ teaching changed between 2019 (6th ed) and 2024 (7th ed)? What historical events and policy shifts account for these changes?
- Thrupp argues school effectiveness research underestimates structural conditions. Do you agree? How does this sit with Hattie's claim that teachers are the most powerful influence on learning?
- Both editions argue curriculum is political. Can you identify one example from your subject area where the NZC makes a political choice — explicit or implicit?
- If you were editing a 8th edition for 2030, what chapters would you add or significantly update? What issues will define NZ teaching in the next five years?
🔗 Connected Resources
Related Readings:
ITE Modules:
Mātauranga Māori Lens
Professional practice in Aotearoa New Zealand is grounded in Treaty obligations and mātauranga Māori. Tikanga provides the ethical framework for how teachers relate to students, whānau, and community. Kaitiakitanga — guardianship of learner potential — is a foundational professional responsibility. Hauora reminds us that professional practice must attend to the whole learner.
Puna Kōrero — Sources
Teaching Council of Aotearoa New Zealand. (2019). Our Code, Our Standards. Wellington: Teaching Council.
Tātaiako: Cultural Competencies for Teachers of Māori Learners. (2011). Wellington: Ministry of Education.
Noddings, N. (2013). Caring: A Relational Approach to Ethics and Moral Education. Berkeley: University of California Press.