Historical thinking, ‘difficult histories,’ and māori perspectives of the past

This chapter is a case study of the New Zealand history curriculum that is framed by the procedural (second-order) concepts of historical thinking but does not mandate substantive content knowledge and, in particular, does not prioritize difficult features of the colonial past including indigenous Māori perspectives on the colonization process. In an increasingly diverse society that is working to address historical grievances (and reconcile the relationship between Māori and non-indigenous New Zealanders), this has implications for the extent to which history in New Zealand can operate as a transformative school subject that equips young people to be historically literate as well as critically informed about the connection between the past and the present.