Podcast: How New Zealand built its education system on classical liberal values
Dr Michael Johnston
29 September, 2026
In this episode, Michael talks with Dame Elizabeth Rata about her documentary lecture series on the history of education in New Zealand.
They discuss the 19th-century origins of free, compulsory and secular schooling, why Māori leaders pushed for village schools taught in English and Rata's argument that sociocultural knowledge has displaced subject knowledge in New Zealand classrooms.