Marking 100 years of education in New Zealand

Editor Jude Barback holds up a copy of the very first issue of the Education Gazette, published in 1921.

I had just started working on content for the Education Gazette’s centenary when two big boxes landed on my desk. They were filled with old copies of the Gazette, dating right back to the very first edition published in 1921.

As I began leafing carefully through 100 years of delicate, yellowing editions, I quickly became absorbed by the content. Articles on students’ posture, assessing handwriting, teaching temperance and on the intelligence quotients needed for specific vocations.

Articles ahead of their time, on wellbeing, play-based pedagogies and integrated curriculum. Articles that could only be described as patronising, sexist, racist and discriminating. And articles that simply weren’t there – topics conspicuously absent from the educational dialogue of the day.

Trawling through the past is a fascinating and daunting prospect. Some aspects of our history are inspiring, while others are more difficult to confront.

Yet the insights, shortcomings, gaps, and the progress all contribute to where we have landed today – and where we’re heading.

As such, ka mua, ka muri, meaning to walk backwards into the future, is a fitting whakataukī to mark the Gazette’s centenary. Over the course of this year, across four special centenary editions, we’ll publish a range of content, shared through this lens of looking back to look forward.

Our dual covers for this first issue also subscribe to this idea, and we hope you enjoy bringing them to life with the helping hand of technology.

Thank you to the people and communities across Aotearoa who have told us their stories; it is a privilege to share these with our readers.