What will the new subject look like?

I wrote the following as a “next steps” takeaway for the Step Up to the World | Tū māia ki te ao: Civics, Politics and Philosophy forum held in August at the National Library of New Zealand to launch and profile the new subject. It gives an overview of the subject and the role Philosophy Teachers Aotearoa New Zealand | Ngā Kaiako Mātauranga Whakaaro can play in its development and implementation.

Civics, Politics and Philosophy (CPP) is planned as a new Year 12 and 13 subject from 2028. It will bring together civic participation, political systems, public institutions, ethical decision-making, reasoning, and philosophical inquiry. For schools, it will create a useful place for learning that is often spread across different parts of the curriculum: how public life works, how decisions are made, how people disagree, and how people can thoughtfully take part.

Civic and political life is not just about knowing the names of institutions or the steps in a law-making process. It also involves judgement, evidence, values, disagreement and responsibility. CPP will give students time to work with those ideas in a more sustained way.

Why now?

Students are growing up in a world shaped by artificial intelligence, misinformation, geopolitical instability, climate pressure, and debates about democracy and social cohesion. They see many of these issues every day, but they are not always given the time or the language to make sense of them.

A subject like CPP can help with that. It will give students tools. They will learn to slow things down, ask what is really being claimed, check the evidence, notice assumptions, and think about the values sitting underneath public arguments. That will be useful in and beyond school.

The focus

In CPP, students will work with ideas that sit behind public life: power, authority, rights, responsibilities, law, justice, democracy, Te Tiriti o Waitangi, sovereignty, civic participation, political systems, ethical decision making, and the ways people justify what they believe.

The learning will not just be about knowing these ideas. Students will learn to use them. They will examine claims, identify assumptions, weigh reasons, consider evidence, recognise different perspectives, and work through the consequences of different positions. They will learn that public questions often involve competing values, and that good judgement takes more than a quick opinion.

CPP will also give students practice in moving between the concrete and the abstract. A real issue may lead into a bigger question about fairness, legitimacy, and rights or responsibilities. A political idea may be tested against what happens in communities, institutions and everyday life. Students will learn to ask what is being claimed, what is being valued, who is affected, and what reasons can be given.

The subject will help students become more careful and confident thinkers. They will learn to explain their views clearly, listen to other views properly, and improve their thinking when the reasons point that way. The focus will be on building the habits of thought needed for civic, political, and ethical life: curiosity, clarity, fairness, courage, and responsibility.

What students can take from it

Students will be able to leave the subject with a stronger sense of how public life works and how they can take part in it. They will build an understanding of ideas such as rights, law, authority, legitimacy, sovereignty, justice, democracy, protest, responsibility, and the common good. They will also become more confident readers, writers, speakers, and listeners.

CPP will also support active citizenship. Students will learn that citizenship is not just about voting every few years. It is also about understanding issues, listening to others, weighing evidence, taking responsibility, and knowing how people can participate in their communities and institutions. The subject will help students see themselves as people who can think carefully about public life and contribute to it. In short, it will have value for anyone who needs to vote, work with others, judge information, act responsibly, and make decisions in a complicated world.

Philosophy Teachers Aotearoa New Zealand | Ngā Kaiako Mātauranga Whakaaro

Philosophy Teachers Aotearoa New Zealand | Ngā Kaiako Mātauranga Whakaaro (PTANZ) is the professional association for teachers of philosophy in Aotearoa New Zealand. Formed in late 2025, it grew out of the previous New Zealand Association of Philosophy Teachers, as well as many years of work by teachers who have built philosophy in schools, developed courses, shared resources, advocated for the subject, and shown what philosophical inquiry can do for students.

PTANZ is pleased to hold a Ministry of Education Networks of Expertise (NEX) contract to support the implementation of CPP. PTANZ will provide teacher training and resources to help schools understand the refreshed curriculum, make sense of assessment changes, and plan strong courses for the new subject.

Support will include professional learning, written guidance, classroom resources, examples of learning activities, seminar approaches, and opportunities for teachers to connect with one another. Some of this support will be face to face, and some will be online. Some resources will be ready to use, while others will help teachers adapt ideas for their own students and school contexts.

How we can help

PTANZ can help schools move from interest to implementation. We can support departments and school leaders to think through where CPP might sit, what kinds of teachers may be involved, and how a course could be built in a way that is manageable, coherent, and meaningful for students.

We can also help teachers grow into the subject over time. CPP will bring together different kinds of knowledge and practice, so teachers will not all enter from the same starting point. Some will feel confident with civics and politics, others with ethics, philosophy, discussion-based learning, or critical thinking. PTANZ’s role will be to help connect those strengths, fill gaps, and provide practical support as teachers prepare to teach the subject.

The future

CPP will be a valuable addition to secondary education in Aotearoa New Zealand. It speaks to the world students are stepping into, and to the capacities schools are already trying to develop.

As the subject takes shape, schools, teachers, students and whānau will naturally want to know what it will look like in practice, how it will support learning, and how it will help young people beyond school. Those are the right questions. The subject, along with the training and resources that support it, will need to be clear, practical and worthwhile. It will need to support teachers well, and give students a subject that helps them understand public life, think carefully, and take part with confidence.

This forum is one step in that work. It has brought together teachers, students, school leaders, academics, policy makers, parents, whānau, and industry and community voices. The next step is to turn that shared interest into strong classroom practice, useful support for teachers, and a subject that genuinely matters for students.