Big Ideas are derived from the Learning Area essence statement and capture the essence of a subject, ensuring coherence rather than fragmentation of learning. At the subject level, they inform the Significant Learning – learning that is critical for students to know, understand, and do in relation to a subject by the end of each Curriculum Level. This covers knowledge, skills, competencies, and attitudes and also includes level-appropriate contexts students should encounter in senior secondary education.

The Significant Learning is collated into a Learning Matrix and progresses across Curriculum Levels 6-8. Teachers can use the Learning Matrix as a tool to construct learning programmes that cover all the 'not to be missed' learning in a subject. There is no prescribed order to the Learning Matrix within each level. A programme of learning might begin with a context that is relevant to the local area of the school or an idea that students are particularly interested in. This topic or context has to relate to at least one Big Idea and may also link to other Big Ideas. The Learning Matrix is designed so that educators have the freedom to create courses that are both flexible and coherent.

Geographic practices, shown across the top of the Learning Matrix in the Geography kete, make up the how of geography and are woven throughout the Significant Learning and knowledge Big Ideas. The how tells us what the knowledge looks like in the discipline of geography. Geography practices are critical to explaining how people value, view, use, and interact with natural and cultural environments.

The four Big Ideas of geography are derived from the Social Sciences and Science Learning Areas. These are the knowledge Big Ideas, and are situated down the left side of the Learning Matrix.

Geographic Practices

Students of geography use a range of practices to learn about places and environments. Weaving geographic practices into teaching and learning at different scales, times, and places is a significant part of the discipline. Students of geography inquire into environments through research.

Students of geography visit and explore environments to understand how the landscape has been formed. They also map these environments to show current patterns and to predict futures. Students of geography use qualitative and quantitative data to understand how our world works, alongside conceptual models and theories.

Students of geography explore environments by utilising and integrating different knowledge systems. For example, geographic practices may include examining how mātauranga Māori understands the formation of environments, or how decisions might be made for the future (kaitiakitanga). Geographic practice is also shaped by western scientific approaches to knowledge, in which empirical evidence is interpreted to make sense of places and environments. These different knowledge systems can also help geographers to develop empathy and understanding for people across different cultures.

These geographic practices are integrated as students develop their understanding of the Big Ideas.

Environments shape people and people shape environments

People are inextricable from the natural environment. Our relationship with the environment is dynamic and two-way: the environment shapes us as we shape the environment. Since the beginning of the Anthropocene (current epoch), peoples’ influence on environments has caused significant environmental changes.

Different environments present opportunities for and constraints on people, and it is a geographer’s role to know, understand, and map the key natural and cultural characteristics of different environments. We can understand differences in how people use and interact with the natural world. We understand the effects and consequences of these interactions. Our relationship with place and space has meaning for us and influences how we interact with environments.

Geographers investigate natural and cultural connections between place and space. People and resources flow between places and connections are established. Students of geography investigate these connections between place and space at local, regional, national, and global scales.

As students of geography in Aotearoa New Zealand, we use mātauranga Māori and western knowledge systems to address contemporary environmental challenges.

Environments are shaped by natural processes

Aotearoa New Zealand lies on plate boundaries, has a maritime climate, and most of its inhabitants live within 40 km of the coast. Aotearoa New Zealand has a diverse range of natural processes forming a range of natural environments. Understanding how these environments are formed is critical for geographic thinking because it connects the past with the present and is part of Aotearoa New Zealand’s national identity.

Natural environments have evolved spatially and temporally. Geographers research and investigate how the processes within and between the spheres of the Earth systems shape and affect the natural and cultural environment. Geographers study places across all scales: we study local, regional, national, and global environments. Comparing and contrasting local environments with environments overseas can inform our decisions and responses to a changing world.

In Aotearoa New Zealand the relationship between ngā tangata and te whenua is shaped by the concept of kaitiakitanga

Kaitiakitanga ensures control and care, sustainable use and management, and protection of our natural and cultural resources, including te ao Māori. By looking to mātauranga Māori and pre-colonial geographic practices, we can consider our possible, probable, and preferred futures from an enriched vantage point. 

Kaitiakitanga is a uniquely te ao Māori concept, value, and practice. Aotearoa New Zealand’s understanding of and approach to sustainability has been significantly influenced by kaitiakitanga. This is evident through existing government policy, legislation, socio-cultural values, and land use practices across Aotearoa.

All things in life are kin and are woven into the universe. Therefore, the decisions of all people impact the environment. A holistic and multi-generational worldview can help us as geographers to explore sustainable practices and protect our natural and cultural resources.

Kaitiakitanga embraces the relationship between people and the environment and reminds students of geography of our role as guardians of the natural world. We use kaitiakitanga to recognise that the consequences of decisions produce spatial patterns at a range of scales. As students of geography, we must consider why we protect the environment, and how this is realised. The practices we draw from kaitiakitanga, in an Aotearoa New Zealand context, can also be applied to global contexts.

Perspectives and power influence environments

Geography analyses and considers the consequences of differences in perspective and power and how these may influence the natural and cultural environment. Students of geography recognise that diverse perspectives influence decision making. They articulate biases and perspectives with an awareness that those of other people may be different.

Power can influence and shape change. Students of geography can create social change by exploring how differences in perspective and power influence processes, places, and people. Geographers make decisions on how communities and groups should intervene for a better future, through frameworks, models, and social and environmental policy. These decisions are made at a range of scales across many locations. As students of geography, we investigate how language and discourse manipulate and marginalise people to produce patterns of inequality.

We recognise that the relationship between people and the land has been impacted by the actions and inactions stemming from Te Tiriti o Waitangi.