Drawing on Discourses: Policy Actors in the Debates over the National Certificate of Educational Achievement 1996-2000

This article summarises a doctoral research project based on a theory of discourses used to throw light on a complex period of New Zealand educational history (1996-2000) when the adoption of policy for the National Certificate in Educational Achievement (NCEA) was undergoing vigorous discussion. Many layers of debate accumulated from the interaction of various sector groups, government agencies and policy actors, often invoking a very vocal media response. The approach taken was to analyse interviews with key policy actors by applying a theory of qualifications and assessment discourses to identify the ideological underpinnings of the debates over the introduction of a standards-based assessment system.