A Vision for Science Education in Aotearoa New Zealand: Discussions from a National Summit

Aotearoa New Zealand is in the midst of a curriculum update, with much attention focused on what the new draft science curriculum will look like after a 2023 draft resulted in much public discussion and was abandoned. To stimulate and support national conversation about key considerations of an inclusive, future-facing science curriculum, the Science Learning Hub Pokapū Akoranga Pūtaiao and Royal Society Te Apārangi hosted a one-day summit in July 2024. This paper reports on key themes emerging from roundtable conversations of participants in relation to the purpose of science education, important outcomes for science education, school science and curriculum design, and challenges and opportunities moving forward. The findings are salient in the current context of change.