Equity and choice: The paradox of new zealand educational reform

Abstract

Recent educational reforms in New Zealand have been deeply paradoxical in their concurrent pursuit of both equity and choice as social goals. Curriculum reform has been primarily concerned with equity, whereas the restructuring of educational administration has been concerned with increasing choice. The conflicting ethical frameworks have produced a tension between substantive policies justified in terms of social justice and correlative procedural policies derived from an ideological commitment to market-liberalism. This tension is evidenced in three different types of policy: Regulative, distributive and redistributive. Examples of each are examined to show how the conflicting ideological positions are manifested. © 1993 Taylor and Francis Group, LLC.