Ākonga bring their own identities, cultures, lived experiences, and knowledge to Social Studies. They are enabled via Social Studies inquiry, to apply their own lens and those of others to social issues, and to explore the causes and consequences of change.

Social Studies considers identities and cultures in the broadest terms, encouraging wide exploration and promoting diversity and inclusion. Culture and identity are closely connected. Social Studies offers ākonga opportunities to examine the relationship between them, and how they are shaped by perspectives and worldviews, beliefs and values, wairuatanga, and religion.

Cultures and identities can change. Ākonga explore what change means for people and how it shapes society. Cultural interactions (anything from conversations to colonisation) and other factors, such as social, economic, political, religious, technological, and environmental factors, can cause change. However, people can also act as kaitiaki to protect and maintain their own and others’ culture and identities. This can lead to cultural continuity instead of change.

Social Studies asks, what happens next? What does change or continuity mean for people, and how does it shape society? This opens the dialogue between kaiako and ākonga, creating a conversation about real life that ākonga experience, and enabling kaiako to perceive the world as their ākonga might.

Ākonga can investigate and discuss complex ideas and concepts. This might include how cultural expression and status in a community or society can reflect aspects of power, privilege, and cultural dominance, and the impacts on minority groups.

Societies are developed through a range of diverse systems that have multiple impacts on the lives of people. Ākonga learn about social organisation in the past and present and consider implications and challenges for the future. They develop understanding of place in these societal systems, informed by their own lived experiences.

This Big Idea can encompass a breadth of systems. Ākonga can examine political, economic, and justice systems. This Big Idea also gives opportunities to explore and compare social, cultural, traditional, and spiritual forms of decision-making systems.

Decision-making is at the heart of this Big Idea. Ākonga will consider contested beliefs, values, perspectives, and world-views that underpin people’s dispositions, actions, and decision making. Ākonga will learn how decision-making frameworks determine the roles and responsibilities, rights and obligations people have. Ākonga will examine the importance of nurturing vā in decision-making. In turn, they develop understanding of how these frameworks evolve and are shaped by values and beliefs, ideology, norms, and customs.

Ākonga will develop understanding of the contested and controversial nature of concepts such as ‘rights’ and ‘justice’ in systems, and their relationship with past decisions and actions. They can explore how power, privilege, and control in decision-making are central to the impacts on people and their experiences. This Big Idea involves a critical examination of the challenges faced by people such as marginal groups, and barriers to participation.

Ākonga will consider possible future change in social structures, through understanding, questioning, and critiquing the status quo. They will understand how they may be able to participate to influence decision-making, or bring about change that benefits the wellbeing of the collective, such as through social action, political engagement, or policy processes.

Global flows of ideas, people, and objects interact with and influence present societies and possible futures. In Social Studies, ākonga explore how we live in an interconnected world where global flows interact and impact people.

Ākonga can explore key global social, cultural, economic, political, and environmental flows that influence places and societies. Some examples of global flows are: migration, global indigenous movements, trade, industrialisation, and technological innovation.

Ākonga can learn about different impacts and responses, including in relation to people’s identities, cultural practices, and beliefs. For example, ākonga will learn about the growing diversity of societies and communities due to increased flows of people, and different responses to growing multiculturalism.

Global flows can influence conversations about different worldviews on globalisation and what it means to be a global citizen. Ākonga can explore what citizens of a nation can do to address global issues, such as international conflicts, climate change, and global pandemics. They will also consider how Māori and Pacific voices are heard, seen, and acted upon in response to global flows.

Ākonga will develop skills and understanding in critiquing problem-solving and decision-making at the global level. This could include examining power, sovereignty, cultural dominance, and the ongoing impacts of colonisation. Ākonga will also consider possible futures in specific contexts and envision how they could come about.