ABSTRACT
Teachers' conceptions of what constitutes critical knowledge in history education have been transformed over recent years in response to discourses and practices which give pre-eminence to disciplinary skills and broad concepts. In New Zealand, teachers' views on history education and the purposes of knowledge have shifted incrementally over the past 15 years of standards-based assessment, with the most significant changes occurring in response to an open curriculum implemented from 2011. Teachers have recognised that they have narrowed their selections to micro bites of history with an awareness that the shifts in their practices have implications for learning. In a knowledge critical paradigm, the study of historical personalities, sequences of events and political, social and economic circumstances would be sufficiently interrelated to enable students to make sense of an historical period or idea. In New Zealand, the institution within the Official Recontextualising Field which is primarily involved in interpreting assessment standards and influencing teacher practices is the New Zealand Qualifications Authority.
