Background and aims
In 2018 the Ministry of Education implemented a visioning exercise to jumpstart a series of conversations aimed at building the world’s best education system. The Ministry of Education hosted a variety of events to ensure diverse representation of views were captured. Events included public workshops, seminars, and a comprehensive online survey designed to elicit responses from anyone with an interest in education.
The consultation placed emphasis on capturing the voices of those not always heard, such as Māori, Pacific people, children and young people, and people with disabilities and learning support needs. Over 16,000 responses were solicited from the online survey alone
Feedback from the kōrero is being used to design a vision that will guide the future of education in New Zealand for the next 30 years.
Our role
Global Research worked collaboratively with the Ministry of Education on this project. We provided advice on best practice methods for the first stage of analysis – coding of written survey responses. Our role included training MoE staff to ensure their coding teams were well versed in the latest qualitative analysis software, and we guided coding teams through management of the large volumes of data. Once the feedback had been thematically coded by MoE, Global Research analysed and presented written reports to Ministry specifications.
Design and method
The Ministry of Education asked the following questions of respondents through an online survey:
If you were the boss of education in New Zealand, what would you do first?
What does a successful student of the future look like to you?
What will they need to know and be able to do?
What things need to be in place to make sure every learner is successful?
Ministry of Education coding teams sorted and synthesised all comments into like topics and themes leaving Global Research analysts the task of mining the qualitative data for informative insights, key emergent themes and meaningful content. To achieve this, a set of exploratory questions was devised which drilled down to the issues at the core of peoples’ responses.
The working relationship between MoE and Global Research was unique in that the Ministry designed and conducted the consultation and undertook thematic coding, and Global Research advised on the process and undertook analysis and reporting. This required a high degree of communication and the ability to change direction and adopt a new approach at a moment’s notice. Global Research was able to work effectively with MoE staff to deliver the results they needed.
Result
A team of Global Research analysts prepared a series of reports targeting various segments of the community of interest to the Ministry. This resulted in a youth voice report, a Māori voice report and a Pacific voice report, within which were detailed analyses of the opinions of various sub-groups, including parents, those with learning support needs, and teachers/principals.
Strong and consistent themes emerged regarding what people think a successful ‘student of the future’ will look like, and, what it is they will need in order to succeed. Results will go on to inform the overall vision for the future of New Zealand education.
Outcome
A series of comprehensive and summary reports were prepared by Global Research for the Ministry of Education. These formed the basis of the final reports released by the Ministry, all of which can be found at Education Conversation: Kōrero Mātauranga - What you told us.
The Ministry of Education continue to examine the feedback from the community engagement consultation to better understand what various sections of the population value and aspire to for New Zealand education.