Professor Dame Elizabeth Rata, of Auckland, DNZM for services to education
Professor Dame Elizabeth Rata is a sociologist of education, specialising in research on ethnic politics and curriculum knowledge in New Zealand, with an academic career spanning five decades. Dame Elizabeth was a member of the 2024 Ministerial Curriculum Advisory Group and contributed to the New Zealand English Curriculum, for years 7-13. She is the developer of the Curriculum Design Coherence Model which is used in curriculum studies internationally. She was a foundational member of Kura Kaupapa Māori in the 1980s, and an English teacher in her early career. In 2024 she was appointed to the Charter School/Kura Hourua Establishment (later Authorisation) Board. She has been recognised widely by international institutions, which included being awarded a Senior Fulbright Scholarship to Georgetown University in 2003 and becoming a member of the European Union Marie Curie International Research Staff Exchange Programme in 2013. She has authored numerous academic publications, including ‘A Political Economy of Neotribal Capitalism’ (2000), ‘The Politics of Knowledge in Education’ (2012), and co-authored ‘Academic Achievement in Bilingual and Immersion Education’ (2022). Dame Elizabeth edited the ‘Research Handbook on Curriculum and Education’ (2024), and co-authored ‘Developing Curriculum for Deep Thinking: The Knowledge Turn’ (2025).