Kei hea tatau e ahu ana?: Which way in Education?

1 October 1989 marked the beginning of a new era in state schooling in New Zealand. We would argue that the reforms are based on the necessity to create new ideological bases on which to legitimate and facilitate a series of fundamental shifts in educational philosophy and in the provision of education. Our first task is to provide a quick background to the current reforms. While a variety of factors underpinning present reforms in education can be isolated and explored we intend to only comment briefly on three influences not always readily acknowledged by those promoting the reforms: the conservative backlash of liberal education policies of the 1960s and early 1970s; the rise and persistance of unemployment; and the effectiveness of critiques on liberal schooling.