Education in democracy
New Zealand's Public Culture: An Essay
Posted 31st May 2026
Research Area Description
The connection between the type of knowledge taught in education systems like New Zealand’s and the viability of liberal-democracy in the 21st century is a major area of my research. It has long been assumed that educated people will be committed to liberal-democratic principles such as individual freedom, voluntary civil society political and legal equality, secularism, tolerance, and justice, as well as to the institutions which safeguard these principles. However, the strengthening of anti-liberal ideologies in communitarian movements such as socialism and tribalism pose a serious threat to liberal-democracy.
What then does retribalisation mean for New Zealand's future? What can our education do to ensure that liberal-democracy remains strong in this country? My research examines the type of knowledge taught at school and how it is taught. I show how the type of knowledge in school subjects and the type of thinking it develops in each individual's mind produces young people who have the ability and the desire to be democratic citizens. They are independent individuals who can think critically. They willingly take up their responsibilities to civil society in order to build the society which protects their personal liberty. Supporting articles are available on the History of New Zealand Education Research Area page.
The Anatomy of Power Symposium, University of Auckland, 2005.
Professor Chris Shore, Associate Professor Chris Tremewan, Professor Jonathan Friedman, Dr Elizabeth Rata, Mr Gavin Ellis, Professor Alain Babadzan
Publications:
Rata, E. The Politics of Knowledge in Education. Published in The Educationalist, January 2020 (Originally delivered as a Public Lecture, May 2014, Bhopal, India.)
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Rata, E. (2017) Connecting Knowledge to Democracy In Knowledge, curriculum and equity: Social realist perspectives. In Barrett, B., Hoadley, U. & J. Morgan, (Eds.), Routledge. (pp. 19-32); London: Routledge.
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Rata, E. (2018), ‘A Durkheimian Approach to Knowledge and Democracy’ In. Guile, D.,Lambert D. & M. Reiss (Eds.), Sociology, Curriculum Studies and Professional Knowledge: New Perspectives on the work of Michael Young (pp. 73-83). London & New York: Routledge. Chapter 5.
Rata, E. (2014). Knowledge and democracy: The strife of the dialectic. In Barrett, B. & Rata, E. (Eds.), Knowledge and the future of the curriculum: International studies in social realism. (pp. 79-91). Basingstoke UK: Palgrave MacMillan.
Rata, E. (2012) The Politics of Knowledge in Education. London: Routledge.
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Rata, E. (2019, April 23). Abandoning reason endangers our survival. Newsroom.
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