Better education requires better teaching

Better education requires better teaching

September 10, 2026 · 40 min

About this episode

Michael discusses education reform with Kevin Donnelly, focusing on the need for better teacher training alongside curriculum changes.

In this episode, Michael talks to Kevin Donnelly, an Australian educator and author who co-chaired the review of Australia's national curriculum. They discuss why schools across the Anglosphere turned away from knowledge-rich teaching in the 1970s and 1980s. Donnelly argues that the knowledge-rich curricula now being developed in New Zealand and Australia will change little unless teacher training is also reformed, with the university faculties that train teachers being the source of many of the bad ideas that continue to shape classroom practice.

People in this episode

Host: Michael

Guest: Kevin Donnelly

Topics covered

Keywords

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Australia, New Zealand

More episodes of The New Zealand Initiative

Explore listener stats, chart rankings, contacts and more on the The New Zealand Initiative podcast page.