Understanding New Zealand's Constitution

Engaging with the constitution (social studies level 5)

Aspects of planning 

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When planning consider: 

• the big ideas that underpin The New Zealand Curriculum, as well as the social sciences learning area 
• the relevance of the topic and contexts for your students 
• the learning strengths and needs of your students and what the students bring with them to the learning. 

These aspects of planning are integral and reciprocal. They naturally overlap, so learning tasks and activities incorporate all three aspects. 

Students’ strengths and needs 

What skills and knowledge do the students (and their whānau/ family, hapū, and iwi) bring to the learning? 

What support will the students need to fully express their social sciences understandings? 

Context 

Suggested key conceptual understandings: 

• Students will understand that the rules about how we live together, and what we value, are reflected in formal and informal ways. 
• Students will understand their role in the development and implementation of these rules and values. 

Curriculum 

Social studies – level 5: 

• Understand how systems of government in New Zealand operate and affect people’s lives, and how they compare with another system. 
• Understand how the Treaty of Waitangi is responded to differently by people in different times and places. 
• Understand how people define and seek human rights. 

Students

What they might do:

To continue learning (or establish prior learning), about the constitution, students could create a first definition and second definition table of key words associated with the constitution (for example, constitution, democracy, government, rules and rights). Students could then complete their own definitions. They can either seek a second definition from a peer, or can fill this in during the learning to monitor their progress of understanding.

To help students understand the ways in which people have been, and can be, engaged in conversations about the constitution, students could discuss the methods that they know about (or can find out about from the Constitution Conversation resources) and how these are aimed at different levels, for example, at a personal, school, community, and national level. Students could then consider why it is important to have different methods of engagement.

To further develop an understanding of different methods of engaging people, students could rate, on a scale of 1–10, the effectiveness of the different methods of engaging with the Constitution Conversation. Possible criteria could include:

• supporting conversations about the constitution
• making connections for people
• building relationships
• sharing resource information
• networking
• collaborating.

Note: Possible methods identified could be adverts, Facebook, meetings, Youtube, the Constitution Conversation website, Twitter, and print resources, and any other methods that students identify.

To help make connections with their own learning, students could consider their personal levels of engagement with constitutional conversations. Students could draw a dial (similar to a fire risk dial) showing high, medium, and low engagement and mark on their own levels of engagement before, during, and after their learning about the constitution. Students could then share their dials with their peers and discuss conditions that support engagement.

To help understand their own role in constitutional decisions and rule making, students could undertake a concept debate responding to the question:

• “Is it important for young people to have a say in the development of rules in New Zealand?”

Using a community of inquiry approach, students will seek deeper meaning by openly listening to, considering, and reflecting on, other students’ points of view.

To further deepen students’ understanding of appropriate ways in which young people could be engaged in constitutional conversations, the students (in groups) could design an “Engagement Strategy” that will encourage students to consider one element of the constitution. Students could draw on their prior learning (through the learning supported by the instructional guides) or new learning related to one element of the Constitution Conversations:

• New Zealand’s Constitution
• Treaty of Waitangi
• New Zealand Bill of Rights Act 1990
• Electoral matters
• Māori representation

The Engagement Strategy should show:

• the rationale for young people to engage with the element (Why is it important?)
• an outline of the possible methods that could be used to engage students and why these have been chosen
• a detailed presentation of one of these methods (for example, webpage, video presentation, and so on).

After hearing from all groups, students could consider what elements are important to them and what they could personally do about it, for example, presenting a submission, and/or sharing ideas online.

Teachers

Possible deliberate acts of teaching related to the social inquiry process:

Finding out

Drawing on prior knowledge and experience (possibly from engaging with learning from instructional guides, 1, 2 and 3), ask:

• Why do people believe it is important to engage in conversations about the constitution?

To establish knowledge and understanding of the methods and purposes of engaging people with the Constitution Conversation, ask:

• What methods were used, and could be used, to engage people with the Constitution Conversation?
• What are the purposes of the materials produced for the Constitution Conversation?

To support students to understand how to critically engage with the methods, model the rating of one method, giving reasons for your rating and possibly co-constructing criteria for the rating. For example, what constitutes a 5 out of 10, as opposed to a 9 or 10 out of 10?

Values and perspectives

Ask questions to support students to critically evaluate factors such as bias.

• Is a range of perspectives covered in the material that has been produced?
• Which perspectives are dominant and which ones are more invisible? Why?

Reflecting and evaluating

Ask questions to prompt students to critically evaluate their own and peers’ participation in the Constitution Conversation:

• How effective are the methods that are being used to engage people with the conversation? Why?
• What helps or hinders people’s engagement in conversations about the constitution?

So what?

Prompt students to consider why it is important for people to engage in conversations about the constitution.

Model using a community of enquiry to promote safe and open dialogue between students. This will involve modelling, wondering, thinking, and talking, in a reflective way.

Now what?

Ask questions to support students to make connections with participating and contributing in their schools, community, and New Zealand. For example:

• How can our voices be heard now, and in the future, in our school, community and nationally, in aspects of the constitution?
• If you were asked to get students actively involved in conversations about the constitution how would you do it?

Vocabulary and knowledge

Specific knowledge and understanding required

Key competencies 

The focus of learning can support the development of:

Participating and contributing – through developing an understanding of what it means for the students themselves to contribute to conversations around political issues.

Thinking – by reflecting on how and why people vary in their viewpoints.

Relating to others – by listening actively, recognising different points of view, and sharing ideas.

Using language symbols and text – through the analysis of visual representations of our constitution.

Values

With the focus of this instructional guide being on the engagement with the constitution, use the ideas to help students:

• express their own values
• critically analyse values and actions based upon them
• discuss disagreements that arise from differences in values
• make ethical decisions and act on them.