The Switchmen of History: the Development of a Unitary Qualifications Framework

Abstract

In the early 1990s New Zealand took a bolder and more comprehensive approach towards qualifications reform than any other country appears to have taken by attempting to develop and implement a unitary qualifications framework, one which embraces all national qualifications within a single framework. This thesis investigates why and how the New Zealand Qualifications Authority (NZQA) adopted the 'big idea' of a unitary qualifications framework, unlike other countries with dual or multi-track qualifications frameworks. To account for the purposes served by the big idea, several factors are analysed: the relationship between education and the economy, particularly the perceived need for education systems to develop work-related knowledge and skills; reforms of curriculum, assessment and qualifications in England, Scotland, Australia and the United States, which influenced New Zealand policy makers; and the ideological and epistemological underpinnings for qualifications reform, including the neoliberal agenda's focus on enhancing a market-based approach to education and the state's increased control of knowledge, assessment, and quality of educational institutions. A schema is developed for analysing qualifications' reforms which focuses on issues of relevance (or content), certifying competence, choices for students, quality of providers, classification mechanisms and equity, or increased participation in gaining qualifications. These aspects provide a framework for analysing the state's increased control of post compulsory education and training, including New Zealand's National Qualifications Framework (NQF). I argue that the NQF was strongly influenced by overseas policies from the mid-1980s. The mechanism of policy importation is used to account for how one country's policies are adopted by another. A seven-stage model of policy importation is developed, with the phases of accumulation, incubation, assimilation, translation, contextualisation, refraction and resolution then applied to the development of the NQF. A historical account of the public sector reforms in New Zealand, and ideas concerning structures for qualifications reform and the content of a qualifications framework, is provided to show the origins of NZQA as a new state agency, and a conflict model of policy development is used to explain how NZQA's big idea addressed its political (or survival) and educational agendas. This account is supported by information from interviews, archival material and analysis of important policy documents. The schema and the policy importation model are then used to describe and explain NZQA's development of the NQF from 1990 until 1997. The design of the NQF is examined, and NZQA's strategies for ensuring acceptance of its big idea are analysed. An account of the attempted implementation of the big idea follows, which emphasises its impact upon secondary schools, and outlines criticisms made of the NQF. How NZQA tried to maintain its competitive advantage against other policy making bodies, such as the Ministry of Education, is also explored, leading up to the publication of a Green Paper on the future of the NQF, which reflected the Government's and others' concerns that the big idea was flawed. Finally, comment is provided on why the big idea and policy importation appear to have been insufficient to ensure the successful implementation of the original unitary NQF.