Social education in the primary schools of New Zealand

Abstract

This thesis presents an analysis of the New Zealand state primary schools as social institutions. It aims to describe the determinants, the nature, the implications and the importance of the social education which they have provided since their inception since 1877. The term 'social education' is used to cover three aspects of the entrance of children into the culture of their particular society. These are: the acquisition of the skills basic to its way of life, the learning and acceptance of its social codes, and the development of those personality traits it most favours. While no two children of the same community will develop identically, the common elements in their upbringing will give them, and their fellows, a basic personality structure differing from that found in other societies See Kardiner and Associates 'The Psychological Frontiers of Society' (Columbia University Press, New York 1945) for an analysis of the reciprocal relations between culture and personality.