Building Interests: A 1940s Story of Curriculum Innovation and Contemporary Connections

Abstract

The growth of interest in historical research into the everyday work of teachers provides opportunities to explore its complex and contextual nature. This paper draws upon recently acquired images from a photograph album compiled by Miss Audrey Newton, a New Zealand kindergarten teacher in the 1940s. These photographs, together with fragments of personal and institutional materials, provide an example of curriculum innovation and show the centrality of teachers’
agency in pedagogical change. This work is examined first through contemporary lenses of the 1930s and 1940s which recognised progressivist ideals, and then re-analysed through contemporary lenses of the early 21st century which recognise the social, cultural and historical contexts of learning.