Last week, the Sun Gum Saan — New Gold Mountain Trust announced that Chinese New Zealand lesson plans for primary school pupils in Year 1-6, are now available.
Lessons for children in years 7-10 are still in development, to round off the new Aotearoa Histories curriculum’s intended coverage.
Joint chairman of Sun Gum Saan — New Gold Mountain Ltd and Lan Yuan Dunedin Chinese Garden Trust Malcolm Wong is excited the first set of lessons has been completed and is now available.
"It has taken a lot of time and effort to put the lessons together, and it’s great to see them up and ready to go on our website," Mr Wong said.
"Already, we have had positive comments from the Dunedin City of Literature, local Ministry of Education, and the Ministry of Ethnic Communities, as well as receiving inquiries from schools."
The project to create the Chinese New Zealand lessons plans was announced at Chinese New Year celebrations in Lawrence in late January, 2023, and was met with "overwhelming support".
The work of developing the lessons, which has been done under a social enterprise model, was led by local historian James Beattie and experienced teacher Megan Bremner, of Outram Area School.
Trials of the lesson plans were undertaken over the past year at two schools — Columba College in Dunedin and Lawrence Area School — to garner feedback from urban and rural perspectives.
"When the Aotearoa Histories curriculum was announced we realised that this was a significant adjustment for teachers," Mr Wong said.
The new curriculum presented an opportunity to incorporate local migrant history. To do this, the Sun Gum Saan — New Gold Mountain Trust took the approach of assisting teachers at a practical level by preparing lesson plans with resources so teachers would not need to do this work themselves.
Mr Wong said Chinese people, culture and community were an important part of Otago and Southland history.
The directors of Sun Gum San Limited are all members of the Chinese community and some are descendants of poll taxpayers.
"It is also central from our community point of view that we are involved in the telling and sharing of our community history — it is an important story to tell," he said.
The lesson plans also link into other themes, such as environmental issues, and place Chinese stories in the context of national and global historical events.
"Our experts have set out the lessons in the way teachers need to cover the curriculum, so we think they will be very helpful for teachers who already have a lot on their plates."
Mr Wong said the Chinese history lessons would give the younger generation valuable information about the development of Aotearoa New Zealand as a nation, and would also help give Chinese children a sense of their own identity.
- Schools are invited to visit the website www.newgoldmountain.nz to view and sign up for the lesson plans and resources. Members of the public are also welcome to look.
