Martin Thrupp: A Valued Partner to PPTA

It was fundamental to Martin Thrupp’s politics that he would work with teacher unions and assist them in their struggles against government policies that were anti-teacher and educationally unsound. I made contact with Martin even before he had arrived back in New Zealand to ask him to do a piece of work for PPTA and NZEI on standards for teaching. The Teachers Council had commissioned a paper from Australian researchers which advised them to prepare standards that we could see would be excessively detailed and compliance oriented. We wanted to argue for a different approach and needed support for this. He produced a paper in April 2006, soon after his arrival at Waikato University. It recognised the complexities of teaching, and the value of higher-trust approaches. From that time on, we found him an invaluable colleague. He showed that he valued the professional and industrial work of the union and was always keen to collaborate. The teacher unions need there to continue to be academics like Martin who will work with them and help provide the intellectual basis for their policy positions.