Summarised by Centrist
The Post Primary Teachers’ Association is seeking expert guidance for teachers after reports of students expressing far-right and extremist views in classrooms.
RNZ reports the union wants guidelines for dealing with harmful ideologies, including homophobia, anti-Semitism, racism, misogyny and “trad wife” views.
PPTA president Chris Abercrombie, a history and social studies teacher, said teachers were seeing more neo-Nazi symbols, neo-Nazi language, Holocaust denial, anti-Semitism and misogyny.
“I’ve had students … deny the Holocaust in class when we’re talking about it,” Abercrombie said.
He said students had also written essays on similar themes and talked about views such as “not everyone deserves human rights”.
Abercrombie said the trend was not present in every school or every student, but was becoming more common.
He also raised misogynistic behaviour as a concern, saying the union’s women’s committee had referred to young boys taking upskirt photos of students and teachers.
Abercrombie linked the wider trend to online culture and algorithms, saying students were picking up extremist material online.
“The algorithm’s a powerful thing and it pushes these young people in certain directions,” he said.
The Ministry of Education said it was considering the PPTA’s report and recognised teacher concerns about harmful online content in classrooms.
