IAP2 Framework in the Online Engagement of Let’s Talk about Education

Education reform in New Zealand has been extensively engaged with various stakeholders including young people, parents, teachers, business persons, scientists and civil society organisations. Those stakeholders have been involved in F2F and online engagements. However, in this blog, I will discuss only online engagement of Let’s Talk about Education (New Zealand Government, 2020) based on International Association for Public Participation (IAP2) (IAP2 Australasia, 2015).

Effectiveness of using IAP2

IAP2 has three main components, namely decision, spectrum and core values. In terms of decisions, there are main 7 steps of the decision process from identifying issues to making decisions (Wright, 2019). Let’s Talk about Education gave the stakeholders opportunities to identify the problem, for instance, performance measurement, life-balance between studies, families and other community activities. Although the question from decision-makers/MoE was about what should be done to improve education system (New Zealand Government (2020) which it seems a bit leading question to a yes-answer and it should be…, it was somehow to open for discussions. In addition to identifying issues, the stakeholders were also invited to provide inputs for alternatives for the policy design. Inviting people to provide information can also reflect the IAP2 spectrum in which the case of education reform can be seen in the collaboration.

Collaboration refers to the partnerships between the public and governments to develop possible solutions and it promises to consider public ideas, and to integrate public recommendations into decisions (IAP2 Australasia, 2015). Similarly, the Ministry of Education (MoE) has used different online methods to inform and gather inputs through websites and social media. over 16000 respondents participated in the online survey (New Zealand Government, 2020), and young people’s initiatives have been provided to MoE throughout online competitions. The competitions personally could be perceived as incentive engagements which participants are encouraged to be involved by gifts or compensations. To conclude, those inputs from stakeholders will be used to design the education reform/policy.

Lastly, most of the IAP2 core values seem to be achieved in the case of Let’s Talk about Education. Obviously, I cannot say for sure in which levels this example of online engagement has achieved. However, by comparing this example with IAP2 Australasia (2015), all stakeholders have had rights to involved, have been contributed to decisions and their ideas have been recognised by decision-makers. Furthermore, MoE also took successful of students’ experiences of online engagement to get students involved in Let’s Talk about Education too. It shows that this online example has included many core values of IAP2 even it was a short period of online engagement.

Some challenges:

Because Let’s Talk about Education started from political commitments, it happened in a short period which engagement did not have much time to plan and implement. This hence is difficult for MoE themselves and stakeholders; particularly, the number of young people was not as much as the number of parents participated in the process (Mcloughlin, 2020). Having said that, MoE came up with genuine solutions to engage young people through social media and MoE also use social media to send messages to stakeholders through online advertisements and posts.

According to the New Zealand Government (2020), this reform will be tested and refined as decisions have been made. However, from my perspective, I feel this could be more worthwhile to extend engagement for long-term changes of education reform because schools, teachers and students who in the reform period of 20–30 years could either get positive or negative impacts of the changes. Students are definitely not going back to study the same grade twice if the reformed curriculum will not serve the long-term goals. For example, reform may implement this year to 2023 from aged 11–13; then, those students will pass to further grade. However, policy monitoring and evaluation have found that those students have missed other important skills and knowledge for their future studies and careers. Those students might have to allocate their time to study more to fill the skill and knowledge gaps. Moreover, teachers will need to be able quickly adapt to changes during the reform period, and some materials might not be able to reuse if refined curriculum happens, for example, handbooks and other materials.

Conclusion

Online engagement of Let’s Talk about Education has been reflected in many parts of IAP2 of decisions, spectrum and core values. in spite of the fact that the engagement process happened in a short period, many stakeholders have been involved and their ideas have been taken into account. However, the main concerns are the waste of resources and unintended consequences on some students who will be studying in the process of testing the policy.

References

IAP2 Australasia. (2015). Quality assurance standard for community and stakeholder engagement. Wollongong, NSW, Australia.

Mcloughlin, T. (2020). EGOV503 Zoom Class 8 January 2020 [Online Presentation]. EGOV503 E-engagement. Retrieved from https://blackboard.vuw.ac.nz/

New Zealand Government. (2020). Let’s Talk about Education. Retrieved from https://conversation.education.govt.nz/

Wright, S. (2019). Part 1: What is public engagement according to IAP2? [PowerPoint slide]. EGOV503 E-engagement. Retrieved from https://blackboard.vuw.ac.nz/