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Social Sciences
Find out more from the NZ Ministry of Education, expanding and updating this November 2005 "essence statement" to ensure that future focused themes, including social cohesion and citizenship, are apparent throughout the curriculum.

An essence statement encapsulates the fundamental ideas of each learning area. These will be one-page documents that clearly articulate important learning outcomes for students.
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The Social Sciences are about how people participate in society and how society operates.

The Social Sciences have significance for people in their every-day participation as citizens and members of communities. Through the Social Sciences students engage critically with societal issues. They gain knowledge, skills and experience to understand, contribute to and participate in the communities in which they live and work. Through a focus on Aotearoa New Zealand contexts, the people, cultures, places, the economic world and histories students are able to identify their own place and that of others in relation to Maori and Pakeha heritages, and in relation to Aotearoa New Zealand’s multicultural society.

Students learn through social inquiry to develop understandings of people’s roles and identities as citizens, of Aotearoa New Zealand society, and societies in a range of contexts over time and place. Students ask questions, gather information, examine issues about society in context and in relation to values, perspectives, current issues and social decision-making. They develop knowledge about how societies work and how they can participate and take social action as critical, active, informed and responsible citizens of Aotearoa New Zealand and the world.

Four conceptual strands provide the framework of social studies levels 1-5 and contribute to a range of social science disciplines in the senior secondary school.

Identity, Culture and Organisation: Students develop knowledge about society and communities, how they function and the diverse cultures and identities of people within those communities and the impact of these on the participation of groups and individuals.

Place and Environment: Students develop knowledge about how people perceive, represent, interpret and interact with places and environments to understand the relationships between people and environment.

Continuity and Change: Students develop knowledge about past events, experiences and actions, and their changing interpretation over time to understand about the past, present and possible futures.

Economic World: Students develop knowledge about people’s participation in economic activities and about production, distribution and consumption to understand their place in the economic world.

At levels 6-8 schools provide opportunities for students to specialise in a range of social science disciplines, in particular senior social studies, economics, geography and history. Achievement objectives for learning programmes in these four disciplines are included on the frame.

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Updated 4 March 2006