���It���s finding the balance between everything���: understanding adolescent perspectives on the Key Competencies in New Zealand secondary schools

• Main Author: Brudevold-Iversen, Tessa
• Other Authors: Peterson, Elizabeth
• Published: ResearchSpace@Auckland 2012
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/2292/19483

its new 2007 curriculum, New Zealand introduced key competencies (KCs) that are intended to ensure students' future participation in both the economy and the community In addition to core subjects such as mathematics, English, and science, the KCs introduce additional metacognitive and socioemotional dimensions that students are expected to attain before they complete their compulsory time in school. They include 1) Managing Self, 2) Relating to Others, 3) Participating and Contributing, 4) Thinking, and 5) Using Language, Symbols, and Texts. One of the goals of the new curriculum is to help students develop into ���confident, connected, actively involved, lifelong learners��� (Ministry of Education, 2007b, 2007c), and it is hoped that the KCs will contribute to this goal. The KCs also have important implications for contributing to students��� long-term wellbeing and resilience. However, the KCs are open to interpretation and schools have conceptualised, implemented, and are teaching them in different ways and to varying degrees. This presents challenges across a number of dimensions. In line with suggestions in the literature for KC development, this thesis aimed to investigate students��� views on the KCs. Students from five schools were interviewed in focus groups and individually to explore whether or not they thought they are valuable to learn, and how they thought they might be taught. Thematic analysis was used to analyse the data from ten focus groups and twelve individual interviews that were conducted with students from five schools in the Auckland region. Results show that participants value the KCs and connect them to success in learning and in their future careers. They interpreted the KCs in a variety of ways, though they often failed to discuss the interconnection between the KCs or identify socioemotional aspects of the KCs. Implications for future research and for learning the KCs in school are discussed.