Episode Notes

Dame Elizabeth Rata is a sociologist of education at the University of Auckland and a Dame Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit. She joins Dane Giraud to discuss her 40-part YouTube series, The History of New Zealand Education. The series traces how the country built a world-leading school system in the nineteenth century, and why it later declined.

Rata argues that free, standardised state schooling did more than teach children. It built a nation and produced knowledgeable citizens who could hold Parliament to account. She draws on primary sources such as inspectors' reports and the legislation itself. She covers the 1852 Constitution Act, the expansion of the vote, and the shared work of Māori and European New Zealanders.

She also makes the case that a sound knowledge of history is a defence against being misled. Without shared, verifiable reference points, she argues, language and history can be bent to fit whatever a given moment wants them to mean. The conversation closes on the new knowledge-rich history curriculum, due to be taught from 2027.

Free to Speak is the official podcast of the New Zealand Free Speech Union. Uncensored conversations on free speech, civil liberties, and the people defending them. Hosted by Dane Giraud.

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