📚 Clive McGee

Who Is He?

Professor Clive McGee spent much of his career at the University of Waikato, where he was a leading figure in curriculum studies and teacher education. He is best known as a co-editor of The Professional Practice of Teaching (now in its 7th edition with Jane Abbiss and Martin Thrupp), which has been the foundational text for Initial Teacher Education (ITE) in Aotearoa since the early 1990s.

His scholarly work focused on curriculum construction, teacher professional identity, and the relationship between policy and practice in New Zealand education — particularly in the context of the major reforms of the 1980s and 90s that transformed schooling through Tomorrow's Schools.

Key Contributions

• The Professional Practice of Teaching (co-editor) — Now in its 7th edition, this text defines the intellectual landscape of ITE in Aotearoa. It brings together the full range of professional knowledge teachers need — from learning theory to curriculum design to ethics and policy literacy.
• Curriculum Construction Theory — Research into how curriculum is designed, contested, and implemented in New Zealand schools — particularly how the NZC's principles and values translate (or fail to translate) into classroom practice.
• Teacher Professional Identity — Theoretical and empirical work on how teachers develop a sense of professional self, and how institutional, cultural, and policy contexts shape that identity over time.
• Critique of Education Reform — Scholarship that interrogated the effects of Tomorrow's Schools-era reforms on teacher professionalism, school autonomy, and educational equity.

Professional Practice of Teaching — Key Themes

Teacher as Professional

McGee's framework positions teachers not as technicians implementing policy but as professional decision-makers who operate from a grounded knowledge base and an ethical framework. Teacher professionalism involves ongoing learning, critical reflection, and active engagement with the knowledge base of the field.

Curriculum as Construction

Curriculum is not a given — it is always constructed, always reflecting values, priorities, and power relations. Teachers who understand this are better equipped to make thoughtful decisions about what to teach, how, and why — rather than treating documents as instructions to be delivered.

The NZC in Context

The New Zealand Curriculum provides a framework of values, principles, and key competencies — but implementation is a professional task. McGee's scholarship helps teachers understand the NZC as an enabling document rather than a prescriptive syllabus.

Classroom Implications

• Understand the NZC as a framework you inhabit, not a script you follow. Your professional judgment about how to realise its values in your context is part of your job.
• Develop your professional identity actively — through reading, reflection, mentorship, and engagement with the broader profession. Teaching is a knowledge profession; treat it as one.
• Engage with curriculum critically: whose knowledge is in it? What assumptions does it make? What does it leave out? These are not subversive questions — they are professional ones.
• Read The Professional Practice of Teaching cover to cover, not just the chapters assigned. It is one of the most comprehensive introductions to the field available in an NZ context.

Academic References

• Abbiss, J., Wendt Samu, T., & Thrupp, M. (Eds.) (2024). The Professional Practice of Teaching in Aotearoa New Zealand (7th ed.). Cengage. (Successor to McGee's editions.)  ·  Google Scholar ↗
• McGee, C. (1997). Teachers and Curriculum Decision-Making. Dunmore Press.  ·  Google Scholar ↗
• McGee, C., & Fraser, D. (Eds.) (2012). The Professional Practice of Teaching (4th ed.). Cengage.  ·  Google Scholar ↗
• Ministry of Education. (2007). The New Zealand Curriculum. Learning Media. The framework McGee's curriculum scholarship addresses.  ·  Google Scholar ↗

Mātauranga Māori Lens

McGee's work on curriculum quality and teaching effectiveness connects to the kaupapa Māori principle of ako — the idea that learning is reciprocal and relational rather than transmission-based. His emphasis on coherent curriculum design mirrors the way mātauranga Māori organises knowledge through whakapapa: not as isolated facts but as purposeful, interconnected relationships that build meaning over time.

McGee's NZ-specific research is significant because it was conducted in classrooms that include Māori and Pasifika students, where tikanga-informed approaches to curriculum design are not optional enrichments but essential conditions for learning. His quality teaching model — with its emphasis on substantive conversation, connectedness to students' lives, and supportive classroom environment — resonates with the Māori concept of manaakitanga as a pedagogical stance: the teacher's care for the learner's mana is the foundation of effective teaching.