Teacher Jerome Cargill with his Year 13 Media Studies students at Macleans College Photo: The Detail/Sharon Brettkelly
Macleans College in Auckland is giving its media studies students the tools to deal with mis and disinformation, but their teacher wants to see those lessons more widespread.
Toxic masculinity is nothing new, but now it is everywhere and young teens are a worrying target.
That warning comes from a specialist media teacher who says our national curriculum is failing students by not having compulsory media literacy, leaving them to grapple with the rising online onslaught of issues like toxic masculinity.
"It is a lottery," said Jerome Cargill, head of media at Macleans College in Auckland.
"It is a pick and mix in terms of what types of media education one might get."
Cargill said the Ministry of Education had taken too long to introduce a media curriculum, despite pressure from specialist teachers and support of some ministry staff.
"What's changed is the ubiquity of it," Cargill said, referring to the toxic masculinity.
"I'm deeply worried about junior classrooms now that they have so much access to this stuff as well, but not so much the maturity to be able to manage that."
He would like to empower young people with the skills and toolkit to counter the onslaught of misinformation and dangers online, but media literacy is an elective subject.
As the Regional Coordinator on the Media Studies Subject Association Executive (NAME), Cargill is working on the second annual Media Literacy Week in May to promote the topic across media studies classrooms and beyond.
But Cargill said that was not nearly enough, and media studies and media literacy had been underserved in schools for years.
"When we had our curriculum written in 2007 media studies was left out of that. We are not in the paper booklet of our national curriculum," he said.
That was partly corrected with a media studies teaching and learning guide a couple of years later, but it is still not in the paper booklet.
"That shows how we're held from that big picture idea of what education is and what our curriculum is centred around."
The Ministry of Education says is it committed to making sure that all young New Zealanders are equipped with the necessary skills to thrive in an increasingly complex world.
"A key aspect of this is fostering critical thinking, particularly in evaluating sources of information, including media content," The Detail was told in a statement attributed to Pauline Cleaver, the acting Hautū (leader), Curriculum Centre.
"We are currently updating the national curriculum to ensure it is knowledge-rich and that there is more clarity about what students need to understand, know and do each year. The updated English learning area for years 0-6 and mathematics and statistics learning area for years 0-8 are now required for schools to use.
"In English years 0-6, curriculum content has been strengthened to include the skills required to understand the difference between fact and opinion, and misinformation and disinformation. Meanwhile, in mathematics and statistics years 0-8, students consider the ethical gathering, interpretation and communication of data.
"Media Studies, as a current NCEA subject, is part of the social sciences learning area and includes assessment of critical media literacy. The updated social sciences learning area draft will be available for public consultation from Term 4 2025."
The Ministry also has a new resource on this for teachers.
But Cargill also said school lessons were not the complete solution ... nor was bringing in tougher laws to protect children the answer.
"That's putting our head in the sand. I think we need to focus more on what we're doing to empower young people and empower them with the knowledge and opportunities to make good choices around the internet."
Check out how to listen to and follow The Detail here.
You can also stay up-to-date by liking us on Facebook or following us on Twitter.
