Help sought for teachers dealing with extreme far-right views in the classroom
Wednesday, 24 June 2026
A secondary teachers’ union is hiring an expert to develop guidelines for dealing with the rise in far-right extremism in the classroom.
The successful applicant will be paid $10,000 to write “specific advice and guidelines for the membership on dealing with extremism in the classroom”.
The Post Primary Teachers’ Association (PPTA) hire is in response to concerns from members who want help addressing the increasing prevalence of extremist views.
Ideas teachers were hearing in classrooms included those from the ‘manosphere’, ‘trad-wife’ culture, homophobia, transphobia, antisemitism and anti-Māori racism.
The union said the views threatened student wellbeing and teachers should not be left to deal with them alone.
“The education sector needs [the] tools, training, and resources necessary to equip both educators and students to navigate digital culture as safely and as critically as possible,” the advertisement says.
President Chris Abercrombie said the union formally requested guidance on managing extremist views and misinformation from the Ministry of Education.
Ministry qualifications and pathways general manager Rob Mill responded to the request in November. He said the ministry was “taking time to review the recommendations of the report carefully”, but did not commit to developing guidance for teachers.
He pointed to existing resources, including Netsafe’s Headspace Invaders programme on misinformation, identity-based harm and online extremism.
Abercrombie said the union hired an expert to ensure teachers had the necessary tools.
He insisted it was not about limiting students’ free expression.
“It’s definitely not about kids can’t have right-wing political views. Of course they can, this is about keeping people safe and making sure our students can be critical of the information they receive.”
A South Island high school teacher, who spoke on condition of anonymity, hoped the guidance would include training in de-escalation techniques.
While she had received this training, many teachers had not, she said.
“They have not got the faintest clue of what to do.”
The teacher said she had decades of experience and did not “flinch easily”, but was shocked by the way boys at the school spoke about women and girls.
“This idea that you should be able to ‘control your woman’ - it’s starting in boys who are 14 to 15 years old.
“I find that I’m getting scared of some of the things that I’m seeing in my school, and that’s a difficult thing for me to admit.”
On one occasion, she said a boy in her class was verbally abusing girls.
“He would yell and scream and he would call them a b…., call them a c…., like really filthy language and to the point where the aggression would frighten me.”
She said the school would remove the girls until he had calmed down. This happened three times. The teacher shared her concerns with senior staff member that he could become physically violent.
“Eventually … there was a major incident. The boy did actually physically assault a girl in a classroom.”
The boy was withdrawn from the school, but the teacher felt the issue was “buried under a carpet”.
Ministry of Education general manager, business operations, curriculum centre Antony Harvey said there was a stronger and more deliberate focus on addressing misinformation and harmful or extremist content in the refreshed curriculum, including English, social sciences and health and physical education.
“They are designed to support young people not just to recognise misinformation and extremist content, but to understand its impacts and make informed, responsible decisions.”